Maria checked on the Lord Presider and the still-unknown knight whom she had rendered unconscious the night before. They had been remanded into the care of members of the Ministry's Medicinal Magic department in attendance, as the king had given no orders about returning them to consciousness. The two of them were being kept in the secure rooms of the castle infirmary, with the Lord Presider under heavy guard should some of his mercenaries manage to escape, or if someone in the remaining La Sablican contingent attempt to free him. She checked the Dark Magic that she had placed upon the two of them, and found it was still in place. She'd been worried that one of them might have been able break out of the forced unconsciousness. Inducing sleep was a powerful ability, but if someone could just wake up from it…
It was strange. To her understanding, Dark Magic-induced sleep caused the soul to be buried in peaceful, happy memories, which had the added benefit of making the person it was used on far less likely to want to wake up. Now that she had used the ability herself however…she had to wonder how in the Chosen Lord's new world Katarina Claes, the girl with so many happy memories it should be leaking out of her ears, actually managed to overcome it. Her squire was unsurprisingly unhelpful when explaining how she had managed to awaken. The implication however was that it was possible for someone to force their way through the Dark Magic keeping them asleep. As such, the Lord Presider and the unidentified knight were manacled to their beds, even as they had hollow needles stuck into their arms to feed them intravenously.
The castle was full of nervous energy as Maria made her way towards the room where the king would be meeting with the other delegations. Knights, lords and ladies walked in full armor—save for the Xiarmen knights, who of course eschewed armor, something Maria approved of—and many had a hand on their weapons ready to draw. Servants moved in pairs or trios, their pace hurried and just short of running. There were still stains of blood and other bodily fluids on the floors and walls, along with gashes, cuts, cracks, and in one hallway were several distinctively-shaped craters filled with bloodstains, bone fragments and flesh that had gotten shoved into the cracks.
She felt gazes following her as she navigated her way through the battle's aftermath, which she ignored as she always did. Maria had somewhere to be, after all. The itinerary of the International Assembly had intended the days after the gala to be a winding down as agreements were finalized and for final casual social encounters. She supposed that to a degree that still held. While a few of the remaining nobles and members of the delegations were eyeing each other warily, as if expecting further betrayal, most were socializing, if not exactly as intended. Groups of armed men had women were talking about the battle over watered wines and what looked like fried vegetables. She supposed it was to be expected, after so much jolly cooperation.
The room where the king was meeting with the delegates was heavily guarded. Representatives from every delegation attending were arrayed outside of the hallway and the rooms on either side. Weapons had been drawn and were being held at rest, and the servants seemed to be avoiding the hallway. Dozens of eyes turned in her direction, and Maria didn't bother making a show of keeping her hands away from her weapons. She had a right to be here. To her surprise however, she received several nods and other gestures of approval. They didn't relax or became any less prepared to do battle. On the contrary, some of them turned to face her full on, and a few deliberately stepped to put their backs against a wall. No one wanted to be backstabbed, after all.
Maria hesitated a moment, then gave them all a single nod, and resumed walking towards the door and the black-armored form of the royal guard standing there. For a moment, she wished her squire was with her. Katarina would have known who the knight was. "Lady Maria Campbell, here at his majesty's order," she declared.
The black knight nodded. "You are expected, Dame Campbell," they said. Their voice was muffled by their helm, obscuring their gender. "You may enter."
Maria nodded as the knight stepped aside and knocked on the door, then opened it when a reply came from within. She stepped inside.
Compared to outside, the room within felt almost deserted. There were only the eight monarchs and representatives of monarchs—and Lady Ivanova, as Etran's Council of Nine was not a monarchy—and seven knights. All of them turned to face her as she stepped within, the door closing behind her. Piercing eyes stabbed into her from multiple directions, and Maria resisted the instinctive urge to roll repeatedly to avoid possible projectiles. Panic rolling never did anyone good. Silently, she moved to stand at the King's side.
"My knight," King Artorias said. "How is Horntuba and his knight?"
Maria noted the deliberate omission of titles. "Unfortunately, he is sleeping comfortably, your majesty. He appears completely undisturbed by ill dreams of any sort."
"How unfortunate. And the same for his knight, I suppose?"
Maria nodded.
"Very well." The king turned back to the other monarchs as Maria made a show of folding her gloved hands behind her back, well away from her weapons. "Now, I believe there were questions regarding my knight?"
"Cut the dung pies, Artorias," Queen Siegmidala said. "Why does your knight have both Light and Dark Magic?"
"I am led to believe she acquired her Light Magic the traditional way," King Artorias said. "As to the latter… if you will, my knight?"
"Of course, your majesty," Maria said, and felt everyone's attention on her become firmer. "I acquired my Dark Magic when I killed the dark spirit possessing the Academy's student council president atop a dark magic ritual array."
There was a brief silence.
"That statement was completely unhelpful and lacking as an explanation," King Miquella said blandly.
"Perhaps some context, my knight?" King Artorias said, although he looked amused as he said it.
"Very well, your majesty. During my first year at the Academy of Magic, the Student Council President was one Lord Sirius Dieke, son of the late and unlamented Marchioness Dieke—"
"Ah…!" everyone else in the room exclaimed in comprehension.
Maria carefully relayed the story of her first year, since she had to be careful with the details that related to Rafael. While the king of course knew about him, the official story had always been Sirius Dieke had died suddenly after disclosing his forced participation in the Marchioness Dieke's experiments with Dark Magic, and that Rafael Walt was an unrelated person save for having the same father. Thankfully, that part wasn't too difficult, as those revelations came later, and were mostly unrelated to the matter of her Dark Magic.
Mostly.
"So, you found where Dieke had hidden himself by following Lady Claes the younger…" Prince Cezar said skeptically, "…who knew where he was because she had a dream about it?"
"… I will admit, I am unsure how that worked as well. However, she did manage to lead us to where he had sequestered himself, despite having been unconscious for several days." Maria frowned. "In hindsight, it should have been more obvious that we should search the premises of the storage shed on the grounds that had been built by the Dieke family, though we only learned of the providence of the building after the fact, during the investigation afterwards."
"And you all believed her?"
"I actually did not at the time. I was convinced to follow along because when two princes, the children of the Prime Minister, and the children of a duke tells a commoner to accompany them, the commoner does not really have much choice. However, Lady Claes information was accurate and we did, in fact, find Lord Dieke where she said we would."
"I wish to clarify," Lady Zandra Ri said, "the Diekes established a storage shed on the grounds of the Academy, correct?"
"Yes," Maria confirmed.
"Which was only a cover for a secret underground ritual chamber for experimenting with Dark Magic, hence why the ritual array was there for you to accidentally utilize?"
"Yes."
"Why did they conduct their Dark Magic experiments on the grounds of the Academy, almost literally a stone's throw from your Ministry, instead of the privacy of their own estates?-!"
"… I make no claim to understanding the thinking of a Marchioness," Maria said, because she had wondered the same thing herself, and had come to no satisfactory conclusion.
"So, when you realized you possessed Dark Magic, you just… decided to surrender yourself to the authorities?" Queen Mylene said.
"Yes. After all, even though I possessed dark Magic, I had done nothing illegal, and so had nothing to fear. Dark spirits are not considered true undead capable of rational thought, and as such there is no penalty for killing them."
Everyone looked at King Artorias, who shrugged. "She was investigated quite thoroughly after she surrendered herself, and we have found no evidence to disprove either her trustworthiness or her claims of not having killed anyone but the dark spirit upon the Dark Magic ritual array."
"Which she killed inside her mind. In a dream. After it tried to transfer itself and possess her instead," King Miquella said.
Even King Artorias turned towards Maria, who shrugged. "I'm afraid I lack the resources to recreate the event in a controlled setting to prove it is in fact possible," Maria said. "And while I understand the fantastical nature of my claims, it is in fact what happened, and I will not recant it for a simpler, more reasonable explanation that would be untrue. I will not perjure myself."
Everyone stared at her.
"As I hope my knight has made clear, she is a unique instance," King Artorias said. "Sorcier is not, nor will it ever, condone the deliberate creation of Dark Magic Wielders or the uncontrolled use of Dark Magic."
"You'll simply use the ones already there?" Queen Xiulan said wryly.
Artorias shrugged. "Don't we all?"
"She's dangerous," Lady Ri said.
That got a snort from some of the monarchs in the room. "All of our knights are dangerous," Queen Siegmidala said. "That's rather the point of being a knight. While I agree that Sorcier having a knight known to be able to wield Dark Magic is unsettling, it's far better than not knowing they have one. Knowing what she looks like is even better. Although really, the one at most risk here from Dark Magic is…"
Everyone turned their gaze toward King Artorias.
"I have utmost trust in Dame Campbell," he declared. Maria didn't stand straighter, because she was already standing straight. "More importantly, while Light Magic wielders are rare, Sorcier has enough that there is always one stationed nearby after any time my knight has entered the castle and been in the presence of myself or my sons." Maria nodded approvingly at the measure. "I am well aware of the danger. But as you have all seen, my knight is worth the risk. And at the moment, she is also the closest we have to a practical expert on the uses and limitations of Dark Magic."
There was a pause as everyone considered this.
"It seems hypocritical, letting you have a Dark Magic wielder while we are about to declare war on La Sable for the same," Prince Cezar noted idly.
"Not at all, Prince Cezar," Artorias said. "It's not about Dark Magic. It's because Horntuba decided to attack us all at a peaceful gathering. Dark Magic has nothing to do with it beyond being one of his tools in doing so."