Despite the length of time Maria had possessed Dark Magic, she was willing to admit she was not very practiced with it. Oh, she could use it, but mainly as a blunt instrument, the sort that took a great deal of strength and stamina, but little in the way of skill or dexterity. What other nights referred to as the 'unga-bunga-ogre' approach. She could repress the memories of others, and do it so strongly that they would be unlikely to recall without assistance. It was what she had used on the that woman, so late and unlamented, hiding the fact of her participation in the woman's final downfall.
She was also capable of the inverse of restoring memories to clarity, but Maria had only ever performed that on herself. As it was Dark Magic, she had never really had the opportunity to test it out on someone else. After all, as a responsible knight she needed to ask the king for permission to perform Dark Magic on anyone else—thankfully, no one had ever tried to limit the use of her Dark Familiar for some reason—so it wasn't like she could simply test it on other people.
Maria made a note to inquire if his Majesty would allow to learn Dark Magic from Rafael after she returned—and Sora as well, she supposed. If she returned. While the Dark Spirit possessing him had been the source of his Dark Magic, her betrothed had experience utilizing it, or at least experience being used as a medium to utilize it. She had never inquired as to the particulars of the matter—there had never seemed to be a need, and he had only raised the subject himself in passing—so she was ignorant as to how much he knew and whether he could teach her how to use other aspects of Dark Magic. Perhaps they should remedy that, when they next meet.
As for Sora… while the man by his own admission had magic as weak as Katarina's, he was clearly more experienced in using it. Should Rafael be unable to teach her, he was literally the only teacher that would be available to her, as of the only other Dark Magic wielders living that she knew of, one was a fool and the other was a woman who would die by her hand next time she set her sights upon them.
The knight spent the two days they were navigating the smuggling contemplating these matters as they crossed entered La Sable. The slaver slept in the cage at night, more as a practical measure to keep him from running away than any attempt at ironic justice. Of course, there was still some of that, as the smell of human waste had seeped into the wood under the cage. From her perch atop it, Maria could only perceive a vague whiff, but within the cage itself, it seemed the smell was far stronger.
At the end of two days, they were well inside the enemy nation, and had managed to determine their position with their maps, the distant and distinctly-shaped mountains—Mount Presider was very distinctive, looking like a mass of faces as most Lord Presiders had decided they were of such import their features deserved to be immortalized, resulting in a disturbing sculpture that looked like a mass resulting from one of the Choir's experiments—the river they managed to find, and the word of the slaver who had led them, whose name Maria had never bothered to learn. The river was important as they'd run into some basilisks, and while no one had been petrified and she had been able to treat the ones who had unfortunately been affected by the creatures' gas, the knights who had battled the odious things that had gotten too close to the group were washing the blood off themselves while they were able.
While other knights—mainly those who preferred lightweight armor—scouted ahead to keep an eye out for patrols and bandits—although this being La Sable, that was simply unnecessary repetition—Maria faced the slaver, who was held secured between Dame Matthew and Dama Lalatina. The women and children he'd been carrying stood some distance to the side, being held back by amused Xiarmen and Ethenelli and a rather confused Katarina. "So… you've led us to La Sable. Safely and without having led us to any La Sablicans. I admit to some surprise at that last." She—and nearly everyone else save her squire no doubt—had been expecting the slaver to lead them to La Sablicans or some other hazard that would cause enough confusion to allow them to affect an escape.
"I said I would, didn't I?" the man said. Contrary to what one would expect, the words didn't come out sullen or resentful. Instead, he seemed to be trying to maintain a veneer for cold reliability, as if to proclaim 'I'm useful, and might be even more useful in the future'. As a means of trying to ingratiate himself, it… wasn't bad. Had he been anything other than what he was, Maria might have been approving.
"You did," Maria said, keeping her face neutral. "Are you expecting me to kill you?"
The man's eyes momentarily widened in fear, but beyond that he managed to maintain a steady visage. "if you were going to, you'd have just taken my head off and be done with it," he said, maintaining an air of nonchalance. "Nothing I can do to stop you, anyway."
Yes, she might very well have been approving.
Maria simply nodded and held out her hand to the man. Hesitantly, the man reciprocated. His grip was firm and solid against hers, the sort that the ignorant would think was the sign of and honest and upstanding man. "Very well. As you have cooperated, I see no reason to be churlish and simply end you. You're free to go, although you will be traveling back the way we came. We cannot have you announcing our presence in La Sable, after all. Sora, give him that empty skin so he may fill it with water. You should be able to make your way back to Sorcier in a day now that you don't have carriages slowing you down."
If the man was surprised, he didn't show it. "Think you can spare some food too?"
She gave him a steady look. "Sora, get the man an apple from the stores."
The man let out a breath but didn't complain, and Maria let go of his hand. When the cheerful Ministry worker came back, it was with two apples. "I got myself one too, but figured you'd need it more, friend," he said, handing the man both. The slaver glanced at Maria, but she simply waved a hand towards the road. Grabbing the two apples, he held them in his hand with the empty waterskin and boldly walked towards the nearby river.
There was a sound of dismay from the freed woman, and the knights at the river glared at him, but after a glance at Maria they left the man unmolested save glaring at him like he was a dung pie they'd stepped on. The man cooly ignored them, filling his waterskin and washing his apples in the water before turning back up the road, a small grimace on his face the only sign of rebellion.
The sounds of dismay from the freed women grew louder and louder, and the first rocks started being thrown. Fortunately for the slaver, while their aim was true and enthusiastic, their arms had not yet fully recovered from their ordeal and so the rocks fell far short. The man's steps hastened ever so slightly, even as Maria gestured to the knights glancing at her again to let him go.
"You're just going to let him go?" Dame Matthew hissed ass he watched the man walk away.
"Yes," Maria said evenly. "For all his crimes, he did not deal falsely with us. We are in La Sable with its forces unaware, and he did not try to alert them to us. I will not reward that by spilling his blood on my blade." She recognized some of the Xiarmen words being thrown at the man's back—and some of those that seemed like they were being directed at her—and while she didn't understand why she was being called an egg, the vehemence of their tone made it clear that it wasn't meant to be complimentary.
"So he escapes justice," Dame Lalatina said disapprovingly.
"I wouldn't say that," Sora said. He'd dropped the friendly, easygoing manner he'd kept in front of the slaver, and was now looking at Maria warily. "Is there any particular reason he seems to be running straight past the basilisk den instead of going by the other side of the road to not draw their attention?"
There was a sound like some had filled their mouth with water, tilted their head back, and started blowing bubble throw their mouth. Then another. Then another.
Maria calmly pulled her leather glove back over her hand, from which wisps of black smoke seemed to rise. "Perhaps he simply forgot."
There was a scream, and then more excited gargling as basilisks started leaping about. The cries from the freed women turned vicious. The man had, after all, been a slaver. And almost as egregiously in Maria's mind, a coward who had run and left his men behind.
Sora sighed, even as he eyed Maria's hands warily, carefully keeping his own smoking hands in view. "What a waste of a pair of apples."
Distantly, Maria felt a miniscule amount of souls filling her as basilisks gurgled triumphantly.
Of course, getting into La Sable was the easy part. Now that they were in enemy territory, they needed to take far more care. At the very least, they couldn't simply wander around while obviously being foreigners, much less armed foreigners. No doubt by now most of La Sable's knights and nobles were aware that there was a state of hostility between them and Sorcier, even if open warfare had not yet begun. Nobles would still be gathering conscripts, knights would be joining their covenants or forming under their lords and ladies, supplies would be gathered…
At least, that's how things were supposed to be going.
"We are from Etran," Maria said blandly as she did her best approximation of an Etrani accent, "heading to a new contract after assisting in defending the borders of La Sable from the Xiarmese."
"Etran, huh?" the leader of the patrol of knights they had met along the road said. At the very least, he had the biggest greatsword which had the most gilding, as well as all sorts of decorative acid-etching and carvings on the blade. Maria was surprised it hadn't snapped into pieces yet. "You trannies are pretty good fighters, for foreigners. Not that we really need the help when it comes to barbarians like the knife-eyes. They're easy to kill since they're too stupid to wear armor." Parrying was something that could be done, though?
"So we saw when we were there," Maria said, trying to ignore how the man's eyes were lingering on her chest. He wasn't even trying to be subtle about it. "I'm honestly surprised how there would be any still alive, since they are so easy to slay."
The man missed the implication of how it took great incompetence to fail at such an allegedly easy task. "Well, everyone knows the Xiarmese don't fight fair and use tricks to save their worthless hides instead of facing you in an honest battle. You've probably seen it yourself."
The Xiarmen she'd seen had fought relentlessly, facing the La Sablicans head-on. "Yes. I understand what you mean perfectly."
After a few more minutes of resisting the urge to rip the man's heart out through his chest while her chest was ogled, the patrol of knights—and it disgusted her to call them that—rode away, and everyone in the procession sighed in relief.
"I can't believe this is actually working," Dame Lalatina said. After the first patrol had ogled her chest—despite there being nothing to really see besides a thick layer of stone armor that was as unarousing as a literal cliff—she had taken to wearing her helm to obscure her gender, as had many of the other dames. Maria, unfortunately, had neither breastplate nor helm, and thus could not avoid the indignity. The few other women clad in lightweight armor had hidden in the carriages along with the Xiarmen, since there would be no disguising them. "Are they really this stupid?"
"As has been made clear, while they guard the easy passages through their borders jealously, once inside they are rather lax," Maria said.
The idea to simply pass through the kingdom openly by simply declaring themselves to be a mercenary company from a nation La Sable currently had cordial—well, mostly cordial—ties with had seemed insane when it had been proposed. Truthfully, it hadn't been a planned decision. When they had encountered the first patrol—two days after smuggling themselves into the country—Maria had waited for the outnumbered patrol to either run or initiate hostilities. Instead, the patrol had simply passed them by with only a nod. That had been extremely confusing, and Maria had sent riders to follow the patrol in case they had simply been relying on audacity to escape, but the patrol had merely gone on its way.
When they had encountered a second group a day later, the patrol had stopped, but only to ask if they had any water to spare. Sir Achtman of Etran had been in the lead at the time—Maria had, embarrassingly, been busy answering the call of nature—and so the knight leading the patrol had simply assumed they were Etrani mercenaries on their way to a new contract across the country.
And with that a cover suggested itself. For while many of the mercenary companies La Sable employed to do its fighting—who most definitely did not regularly turn to banditry, that would be wrong and very silly—mostly consisted of La Sablicans, there were a few foreign mercenaries serving under their colors as well. As such, apparently large bands of armed men moving back and forth across the country were something of a regular occurrence. After a hurried confidence and finding a sheet of canvas no one would really missed, the heavily armed procession had become the Credit Due mercenary company from Etran, hence the name. Their impromptu banner had been raised on a spare lance and they had marched on.
It seemed like the stupidest idea ever. Surely they would need some sort of identification papers, perhaps proof they were under contract, or even a letter identifying why noble had hired them. But no, all the patrols they encountered never asked them for that, if they stopped to talk to the group at all. Even the occasional other mercenary company they encountered had only thrown insults at them in a shown of bravado, and continued marching on.
And so it was that a slightly disoriented but no less alert and determined group of knights were able to march directly on La Sable's capital, wondering the whole time how they were getting away with this not-even-really-a-deception-no-one-was-bothering-to-ask.
Well, except Katarina, who found the whole trip to be a fun adventure abroad, and was mildly disappointed they couldn't really stop to appreciate the local cuisine. You had to do stuff like that when you were abroad, right?