Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Main Lecture Hall.

With its wooden walls hiding the thick brickwork underneath it. Brickwork that peeked through curious as to the renewed commotion in the long-vacant hall which once housed a sea of students listening with various levels of eagerness to the lizard professor talking about the Cooperative Connection and how one day the humans present will be able to make the world better with their magic.

“Learning human as monster and monster as human together to be able to express it together as human and monster. To further the future one must be able to express this cooperation firstly from within and then outwards with others. We’re together until the end. ‘And including’ comes from you,” the lizard professor used to say.

But his voice was no longer within the wooden walls.

“You will be under constant guard, Cter. That’s just a fact from now on. You are a prisoner of war now.”

Cter did not ask the walls for advice when she struggled with her final exam the last time she was in the Main Lecture Hall. It would have been cheating had she done that.

“I am so very sorry about this, and I beg of you to please understand that I am. I will be here as much as I can, I promise. I’ll make sure that you’re kept with as best intentions as possible. I’ll remind them that they invited you personally. You weren’t a part of what happened. You were...”

What would the walls say if she asked them for advice? Would they praise her for how far she had pushed the concept of human magic beyond what anyone had ever done?

“You weren’t part of this. You aren’t a part of this. I wish I could do more, I truly do, but I...”

Or would they condemn her for how far she had pushed the concept of human magic beyond what anyone had ever done?

“I’m the Royal Mage for Hjearta, and Hjearta is now at war with Monster Country. None of us are happy with this. We’ve been close this half year we’ve been here at Soul’s School. We’ve been through winter together. That if anything makes one as family here in Hjearta. Trust me when I say that none of us humans hold anything against you monsters, Cter. You and your Royal Guards won’t be kept imprisoned even though we are under orders to keep you as prisoners. You’ll be kept safe. That I promise you.”

She did not ask the walls though.

“Please, believe me.”

For that would have been cheating.

“I’ve protected you once here already, haven’t I?”

The Fourth Monster Mage blinked out of her stunned stupor at the Royal Mage hunkered down a head above her with a conflict of emotions tugging at his expression everywhere. “Protected me?” she uttered weakly, blinking more to try and think about what he meant. He had helped her during her time at Soul’s School, true, but protecting her? What did he mean by that?

Terri touched at the desk behind him where he stood and Cter sat, at the first row of the empty audience. “There was a page missing when I went to deposit my answers to Professor Leraull at the final exam we had here.”

His slow caress over the desk’s edge left behind a rimmed frost that melted into a few drops snaking down the front panel of the desk. “A page that I could not find on the floor anywhere. In the stressful moment I sorta...shrugged it off. My mind was so tired that I thought that I had already handed it in or that I didn’t even write it in the first place.” The Royal Mage looked up the stairs leading up between the rows of seats. “It was only the day after once I had gotten some sleep that I realized that someone must have picked it up.”

Cter’s hair whipped behind her as she snapped her head towards the Royal Mage looking up into the lecture seats with melancholy nostalgia in his aura. Her sudden movement had a bowstring taut from the top of the lecture hall, but she did not realize what the sound meant. Her heart had jumped up into her throat so fast that it had her almost coughing it out. “Y-You… I-It was yours?”

The page that she cheated with…

“Professor Leraull called me to his office to ask why some of my answers looked very similar to yours. However I could hear in his voice that he actually meant the opposite. I mentioned that I had lost a page of my answers, but that just because I lost a page didn’t mean that you picked it up. He made the mistake of telling me that I had passed the exam before he asked me. Or it was deliberate that he did, I don’t know. In any case he said that he would take that into consideration and thanked me for helping to explain the situation. He didn’t tell me how it would affect you, but since you became a Monster Mage I’m guessing it didn’t affect you much.”

The Royal Mage’s conflicted expression collapsed and he was forced to hold it together with his hands pinching between his eyebrows. “I say while I’m keeping you a prisoner here...”

Cter looked to her left arm, hearing another faint echo of a string being taut. “Weren’t you protecting me?” she asked lowly. She didn’t mean much about it, she just wanted to know exactly what Terri was doing.

“Protecting, yeah,” the Royal Mage corrected with a long sigh out his nose. “Forgive me, it’s all a mess for me at the moment.”

It was all a mess for all at the moment.

Again.

“Singe my soul,” Terri added to the end of his sigh like a signature at the end of a written letter. It was heavy enough to have his shoulders sink down.

“As soon as I become numb to the thought that the war will be far away from me it dashes back to me and comes closer than it already was. Now you and I are enemies, Cter. Now I have to keep an eye on you with fear and hostility rather than cooperation. I’m a jailer now. I’m not a Royal Mage, I’m a damn jailer. A jailer keeping confined the most powerful mage in the world so that she doesn’t return to Monster Country. So that she doesn’t return to the...to the enemy, now of which she is.”

Cter let a glance travel up to the Fenkeep Castle guards stood at the ready with bows notched and swords within quick grip. They wouldn’t be enough to stop her, but should she escape she would have made it worse for all other monsters.

Queen Toriel, King Asgore, Kry, Kurant, Sir Gerson, Priestess Frioke, Idyll, the Spider Butcher, Romrom, and all else. Their advantage was that this sudden and immediate shift in the war must have left many just as confused as Terri was. The war against the Princess of the Lineage was quick to set off, but it wasn’t instant in a flash, like this shift in allegiances was.

“How is it for the soldiers having stood on either side of the war suddenly finding themselves on the same side?”

A question for the Royal Mage to ponder upon as the Monster Mage had much else to think about instead. Her thoughts were about the response from the monsters and how she would act accordingly. She was certain that she would be cut off from any correspondence from them since she was a prisoner of war. Any news about the war she would have to take with a grain of salt. Even if it was from Terri’s mouth it wouldn’t still be the whole truth about the matter. Had Cter been in his shoes she wouldn’t have told him everything.

She never had.

The letter that Terri let her read that ordered him to place her under strict arrest he only let her read because he wasn’t sure how she would react. He needed her calm, and that meant giving her all the information he had. With him knowing that she would stay calm to not aggravate worse for the monsters that assurance wasn’t necessary no longer. He did not need to share with her any more information about the war, so why would he?

“Why am I scared? Why am I scared about this change? Why am I scared about humans being at war with monsters? I shouldn’t be scared!”

Like how Cter came to seeing the Royal Mage’s side of things about his fellow countrymen being sent to war it was the Royal Mage’s turn to see Cter’s side of things when it came to the prospect of a human-monster war. It wouldn’t be a war. It wouldn’t have the veneer of honor in it. It would just be–

“It’s going to be a slaughter. A crushing avalanche. A genocide.”

Sir Gerson would pull out all the stops to prevent that from happening though. He, if anyone, was to be the one to put some honor onto the map. Cter wasn’t sure what he would do exactly though since he never told exactly what his thoughts were exactly. She knew that he would know what to do though. He would bring a fight where none should exist.

“How could this be? How could this be...again? Another Fusion. Another Fusion in the middle of a battle. How?”

Cter had her guesses.

Unfortunately.

“Kallorean...”

There was only the hurriedly written account from the letter which also ordered Cter and her Royal Guards to be arrested to go by, but the sparse details reminded Cter strongly of what happened at Clinic Hill. The air of human death hanging thickly, becoming too much for one human that was close to a monster. The desperate decision from a nearby monster to save the human no matter the cost. To save what was the human to the monster.

And absorbing the human’s soul in the process.

“I can’t imagine the fear. I can’t imagine the desperation. How many saw it? How many witnessed its creation? God… It ended a war. It made peace between the Xoff king and the Princess of the Lineage. How? How could it be so terrifying that it ended a war? It scares me just thinking about it. How did the king even manage to write to me? It must’ve been...I don’t know.”

Not only did it end a war, but it beget another. A creature so vile and impossible to understand that it made all that witnessed it one in their collective fear. From soldiers to monarchs it swept a fear so different from anything else they had ever seen or could have possibly imagined. They had heard of the fusion, but could never in their life have imagined the horror and existential nightmare it would wash over them like a tidal wave.

Anger began to stir within the Monster Mage. Anger that this was proof that they did not listen to her at the Noitaidarr Trial. Proof that they did not take her words about the Fusion with any consideration. Proof that they weren’t scared enough of the Fusion. Had they been they wouldn’t have made peace over its second appearance. It wouldn’t have shocked them so hard that they would resort to peace to stand together against the monsters.

Humans.

Damn them all!

“What will become of the monsters living in this country? What will become of the monsters living in Xoff? Of those in Monster Country?” Terri blinked wildly at Cter for answers, any answer! “W-Why am I this afraid? W-Why am I this uncertain?”

Cter broke off the eye contact without much effort. She was too tired to make any effort at the moment. “I don’t know,” she shrugged with a small shake of her head. “I want to say that it’s because you’re seeing things from my point of view, but how could you? You’re a human.” She really just wanted Terri to leave so that she could think about things.

At that moment, if any moment, she needed to float in the world below the lake’s surface to help her think. Maybe she should just have used her magic to escape and flee back to Monster Country? Use her crystal magic to create sharp spikes around the human guards then subdue the Royal Mage of Ice’s magic by overwriting his Cooperative Connection with a temporary one that he would not know how to use?

If he was so struck by fear due to the Second Fusion without having seen it and only read about it among two paragraphs of barely legible handwriting then perhaps that fear would be useful? If the monsters played into that fear then the humans would not dare come close to them. Maybe it would take a thousand monsters for one human to fall, but perhaps one was all that was needed?

The Second Fusion’s existence confirmed Cter’s theory that the human soul was universal for all humans. It wasn’t a Monster Mage that became the Second Fusion. It was a soldier that became the Second Fusion, and not a mage at that either. Cter knew that. She knew the soldier that Kallorean absorbed the soul from. It was one of his squad mates.

One that Cter helped connect closer with the monster in his squad.

So she was to blame for the Second Fusion too? She was to blame for having changed someone else’s magic to create another abomination? She was the one to carry the burden once more due to her undoing of the Cooperative Connection?

No.

How could it have been her fault this time? She wasn’t there! What she did to the humans in Kallorean’s squad she did years ago! All she did was help them understand monsters better. All she did was help Kallorean be closer to his human squad mates. If the Second Fusion was to happen due to her involvement it would have happened there at Fenkeep Castle.

That her magic would linger for years upon years when she deliberately made it temporary was absurd! It wasn’t until after the ride back from Fenkeep Castle that Cter made her first permanent magic in the shape of a crystal brooch, and yet still it was permanent in the sense that a house was permanent. There was upkeep needed to keep its luster. Sure, it would still stay there, but would it be livable? There was more magic needed to keep it presentable. There was tar needed to be smeared on the outside so that the wood would still hold against water.

It wasn’t her fault.

The Second Fusion wasn’t her fault!

The fault laid with the humans. The fault laid with the humans that forced the Noitaidarr Trial! The humans that revealed the truth of the Cooperative Connection. With the Second Fusion it should have become clear why the Cooperative Connection stayed a secret.

Why monsters had to be in charge of magic in the world! If they weren’t then the humans would go too far. The human soul shouldn’t have been something all humans had, for that meant that magic was taken out of the hands and souls of the monsters. More knowledge, more people aware of the human soul, more people searching for what it meant.

And that was what truly formed the Second Fusion!

The culmination of the previous years wasn’t the war between humans, it was the Second Fusion. All the years of magic being out of the hands of the monsters and into the hands of the humans led up to all the knowledge that shouldn’t be known coming together in one moment to form another fusion. It wasn’t a tragic tale like the first one was. It was an entirely preventable tale which would not have happened had the humans not tried to understand what they shouldn’t have!

And they were upset at the monsters about it…

Damn them all!

“Am I...”

Cter kept her head turned away, hiding the Royal Mage’s face behind her unkempt monster side. What was he talking about now?

“Am I afraid because...”

Just spit it out, please.

“Because I fear that you’ll take my soul?”

Because she…

Cter brushed aside her unkempt hair to meet a piercing pair of icy-blue eyes staring without any breath at all to displace them. The icy blues shook like aspen leaves yet still kept themselves hard against Cter’s forest-green eyes. Once more there were strings being taut from atop the lecture hall, but their tensing were limp compared to the air between the two mages.

“Will you?” asked Terri low and precise. The fog around him turned transparent, but not due to him dissipating it. The cold in aura grew, intensifying enough to have goose bumps run up the length of Cter’s right arm. She was inside the Royal Mage of Ice’s fog, inside his aura. Her breath out her nostrils was thick like whipped cream. “Will you take my soul, monster?”

The cold bit at Cter’s cheeks, flushing them with an uncomfortable tingle. Out of the bottom of her eyes she could see the icy flood rushing through the Royal Mage’s magical lines. Viscous, like shattered ice turned to slush in the rivers of early spring, the Royal Mage’s sleeve began to disappear within the thick slurry flowing as water but behaving like ice. Sharp spikes of cold jutted out like angled spears with deep cracks running up and around them, each spike roaring as the cold intensified further.

So they were at war after all, despite his insistence on the contrary.

“Would I?” Cter replied with lips stinging from the cold. Her exhale hung in the air between them like a cloud. She made a show of her inert sleeve, fillings its inert lines with a similarly viscous slurry of her crystal magic. A mesmerizing flow of its colorful and refractive nature spilled out from the lines to cover her sleeve the same that Terri’s arm had been covered with his ice magic.

“Would I take your soul, human?” Crystal spikes arose from Cter’s left arm, slowly and controlled whereas Terri’s icy spikes had been rapid and violent. She showed that her magic was more under her control, even bending a few of the spikes like hooks. “Why would I?” she added as her arms solidified with a long, screeching chime. “Why would I take your soul?”

Drops of condensation formed on the crystal tips, dropping off and running down the slick crystal magic. As they fell off the edge of her hanging arm the drops turned into ice immediately, shattering as they crashed down onto the stone floor covered in a sheet of black ice.

Was this Terri protecting Cter? Was this how he would keep her safe like he had promised? One sliver of fear finding root within him and him completely forgetting about his promise? Did the same happen at the battle where the second fusion was formed?

Did the humans turn on the monsters the same? An instant spin on their heels fast enough to make them dizzy and intently afraid of that dizziness, blaming it fully on the monsters? No trust left towards the monsters from the humans?

So by the rules of the truth of the Cooperative Connection that they so much enjoyed finding then Cter as the monster would respond to this prompt by the human. She would respond in kind and in regards to the memory that Terri had initiated.

“You wanted to know the true color to your soul, human?” Besides a cowardly yellow? “Then allow me to–”

“Youngsters! Behave!”

An uncomfortable gush of steam clouded between Cter and Terri as their collective flinch at the loud shout had both their magics dissipating from their tensed sleeves. Their startled breaths hung together between them, obscuring the strange figure that stood at the lower entrance of the Main Lecture Hall frequented by Professor Leraull.
A strange, imploding melody rung out from both the ice and crystal spikes breaking apart and raining down onto the floor along with the small drizzle from both of the mages’ arms. A puddle formed underneath them, reflecting from underneath their stunned faces squinting through the thick fog at the startling voice that had called them out.

“I will be able to make it from here now. Thank you very much for your assistance on the way, and don’t worry too much about the broken wheel. It seems that the message got through quick enough to where it should have.”

That voice…

“In all my many years I have only really visited this institute once,” that voice said with a wandering angle to its echo. Through the thinning fog Cter could see a wide shadow swinging around exactly the same. “It has changed less than I expected since the last time I visited some...I think close to a hundred years ago? To think that with human magic having changed so much this last century that this place would still stand the same. It is comforting, don’t you think? That despite everything, this is still the same?”

It can’t be…

“Especially with the turn of the heel that has us three here.”

How?

“Us three, the most powerful mages of our countries.”

Why?

“I do beg of your forgiveness for this, but at my age you struggle to find opportunities to do something you have never done before. Having lived as long as I have, novelty is worth its weight in gold.”

The wide silhouette was raised up. Not high, but raised up from its hunched position.

“There was another page to your instructions, Royal Mage of Ice.”

The green of a wide brim shone through the thinning fog.

“But do not worry, I am here to deliver it to you.”

As did the glow of a conjured cane.

“And myself.”

Rasliela.

Chapter Text

The old, well-used chair behind the desk stood in front of the wide arrange of chalkboards squeaked in surprise as an old, calm hand was placed on the top of its backrest. It had gone unused ever since Soul’s School was reluctantly vacated of students. The institute had managed to hold onto its students for longer than any would have guessed, but eventually the curiosity of the truth of the Cooperative Connection became too much for the student body and the faculty to hold together, and so both had to be dismissed.

With no more exams to sit through and guard against cheating, Professor Leraull didn’t have a use for the chair no longer. It had become a symbol of time passing away from him, and thus he could no longer sit in it. His lectures he always held on his feet due to the importance he held to them.

“Oh how quaint, a hole for a tail.”

None of which the Princess of the Lineage seemed to be aware of at all as she seated herself with focused help from her magical cane. Her hat swept over the old desk like an umbrella as she jumped the chair inwards.

“Now,” she said with a chirp in her voice that faded for a brief moment as she touched at her lumbar. She hummed with slight displeasure before grabbing a stacked book from the desk and placing it on its side behind her. It didn’t seem to have solved the problem perfectly, but at least it seemed a bit better? Not that Cter could read Rasliela’s aura anyway.

Although...it felt differently that she couldn’t?

“Now,” Rasliela repeated while leaning her conjured cane against the desk. “Would you mind drying up this puddle here that you two have created?” Her wide brim nodded towards the water that had begun to spread out wider from between the two mages. There were wet foot and cane prints leading around the corner of the desk. “Someone might slip and hurt themselves.”

The old mage put great weight onto her last words, planting them firmly in the air like two great signs for the Fourth Monster Mage and the Royal Mage of Ice to see. “And speaking of that,” Rasliela slipped underneath her heavy words. She folded her hands underneath her nose. “Pray tell what I walked in on.”

Cter and Terri traded glances devoid of anger and fear and filled with surprise and confusion instead. Like the magic on their sleeves, the hostility that had blossomed wildly between the two had dissipated, yet there was still the memory of it. The two mages didn’t know what to say, for what could they say? Ask the other for forgiveness?

But they were at war!

Cter was a prisoner and Terri her jailer. They were on opposite shores with a stormy sea thrashing against them both. How much of it was due to them and how much of it was due to the war they did not know. All they were certain of was that the storm existed between them, and that the only real way they could move was further apart.

For in the center of the storm was the Second Fusion.

From which Rasliela had sailed in from.

“Princess,” was all Terri managed to say before Rasliela raised a hand that reached just outside the brim of her hat.

“Not Princess,” the old mage corrected with a quiet disappointment beneath her words. Her raised hand crumbled to a fist which she had to hide away. “The Princess of the Lineage is dead.” She did not let those words hang in the air for long before clearing her throat somewhere within the wide brim of her hat. “I am here as the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr to assist the Royal Mage of Ice in making sure that the Fourth Monster Mage is contained here at Soul’s School.”

Rasliela produced a letter from within her hat’s shadow which she floated over to a perplexed Terri with stasis magic pinching at one of the papery corners. “As I hinted to earlier, my carriage lost a wheel a day’s or so travel from here. As the order to detain the Monster Mage was deemed of utmost priority I made the decision to send a rider ahead with the news, and to hurry along as much as his horse could manage. Too hurriedly, it seems, as he lost this page when he took off from the broken-down carriage.”

There was some quiet whispers from the top of the lecture hall that followed Rasliela’s explanation.

“I am here now though,” said the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr with a small bow to her large hat. “Here to assist you in keeping the Fourth Monster Mage out of the war.”

Keep Cter out of the war? But wouldn’t that… “But isn’t that keeping you out of the war too?”

Rasliela lifted her eyebrows at the Monster Mage’s suggestion. “That would certainly be a way to make sure that the Princess of the Lineage won’t be in the way even though she surrendered for the betterment of Xoff after the Second Fusion’s appearance.” She spoke of it properly, yet not with the fear and tremor in her voice that Cter would have expected from someone who had witnessed another abomination of human and monster.

Again though she was trying to read the emotions of Rasliela… “Even though the Princess of the Lineage surrendered unconditionally, as the best course for Xoff was to band together with Hjearta immediately in response to the Second Fusion. The Princess of the Lineage would have eventually been able to make Hjearta come over to her cause, but that would have been on a scale of years, and that she did not have all of a sudden.

That Xoff did not have, all of a sudden. The Second Fusion needs to be responded to now, and not after years of political bickering, it seems. The Princess of the Lineage saw that. She understood that.” The Royal Mage of Noitaidarr shifted in her seat. “Fear truly is the most primal of instincts in humans.”

Cter looked over to Terri reading intently from the page Rasliela handed him, then back at Rasliela.

“Never have I seen it grip so many people at the same time. Never have I seen something so...wrong emerge from what I believed was right. Never have I...felt so wrong, and that was from a comfortably safe distance away from the battle.” Two weak elbows angled inwards planted down onto the desk carefully. “Those that were close...”

There was a quiver in her voice.

“I can’t begin to imagine what they felt. Whether or not they had a soul or not, it was too overwhelming. Too...wrong for anyone to avert their eyes from it. Too wrong for anyone to try and make sense of it, but impossible to ignore. No one could look away because it was something that shouldn’t. Something that shouldn’t be. Something that shouldn’t be possible. Something that...shouldn’t.”

Even though her voice was out of her control, Rasliela’s emotions still were hidden away from Cter. She still hid them even though she spilled her heart about what she had seen.

“There was no battle no more when it spawned. There was no conflict. No politics. No...individuality. In the most human of emotions we all lost our humanity. We all lost who made us who we were. We all couldn’t look away. We all couldn’t believe it existed, even if we knew about the First Fusion. We knew about it, but...”

But they had never felt it.

“Ebott’s Shadow,” exhaled Rasliela deep within the shadow of her hat which she was hiding within, cowering, like a child during their first lightning storm. “There are no words to describe it correctly. There are no words to describe how its aura sickened my soul. There are no words to describe what it means to the world.”

But the First Fusion wasn’t as important because Rasliela did not witness it? For the First Fusion there were plenty of words to describe it though? Plenty of words to argue and speak about in ways to further her own interest and goals? Plenty of words to use it as leverage to begin her long plans to seize control over the throne of her country? Plenty of words to disrupt the balance of magic between humans and monsters?

The Second Fusion was her doing. The Second Fusion was the fruits of her labor.

Bitter beyond anything she had ever tasted. Even defeat was inconsequential to her. She surrendered without any conditions because of the Second Fusion which she planted the seed for. She made it! She was responsible for it!

And she dared come to Cter for sympathy?!

“Is this how you felt, Monster Mage? Is this how the world was to you after the First Fusion?”

More than could ever fit within that big hat of hers.

“A world seen in a new light which you’ve come to realize you’ve bathed in for years uncountable?”

That…

“A world where you realize that you’ve known for so long that such a thing could happen?”

That wasn’t was Cter expected. That wasn’t what she expected at all. Where did the relief come from? Where did the calm come from?

Where did Rasliela’s emotions come from?

“Because it almost happened to you?”

The Royal Mage of Noitaidarr extended her right arm with her hand hidden within the green arm of her robe. The mouth of the green sleeve hung down with the shape of her knuckles poking through like small mounds on a grassy field. At that point Terri’s brow arched, and his distinct eyes lifted up from the parchment he had been reading intently from. That same focus stayed in his ice-blue eyes hardened onto Rasliela’s right arm. His lips tugged in a flinch, “You...” and his eyes narrowed. “Yours feel the same as Cter’s.”

Hers feel the same as Cter’s? Hers what?

Hers…

Cter’s eyes exploded open and her frightened inhale had her coughing from the way her inhale sliced down her throat. Amid her coughing, Rasliela slowly pulled back the fabric over her right arm, revealing distinct and sharp lines in her otherwise-loose and wrinkly skin. She motioned over the lines with her left hand respectfully, ignoring Cter’s coughing. “May I present to you King Kheydan,” the old mage introduced with a gentle serenity and pride to her voice. “My grandfather.”

By all accounts, Terri and Cter’s reaction should have been switched. It should have been her that was calm, collected, and curious towards Rasliela’s exposed arm. She was the one that had something similar on her arm. She was the one that had experience with it. She had figured that such was the case with Idyll in the Royal Garden. It should have been him that coughed while startled, shocked at the revelation of a powerful set of magical lines carved upon a naked arm.

Yet the opposite was what took place inside the Main Lecture Hall.

“A Boss Monster sleeve inscribed upon skin,” said Terri thoughtfully to himself with a lean down of his chin into his hand. “From your grandfather.” Many thoughts accompanied his words, many of which tugged and pushed at his voice enough to not allow it to rest at a particular cadence. “You’ve been hiding it,” he said to himself. “You’ve been hiding it from yourself,” he said to the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr.

One of the respectful fingers motioning over the magical lines touched at them gingerly, causing Rasliela to breathe in through her teeth. “I’ve never looked,” she began after getting used to the stinging touch.

“Ever since he gave me his last memories and will I have never looked underneath my sleeve. I’ve always kept it on. I’ve always worn it, regardless of situation. Eventually I must have forgotten why I didn’t take it off, only that I hadn’t. On the few moments I did take it off temporarily when my grandfather asked me to, I never looked at it either. It was his decision to have me take it off, and not mine. I have never done so. I have never chosen to, and for how long that has been I have forgotten. When I forgot though I’ve also forgotten with time. Was it as soon as he gave me his memories? Did I wear it when he gave them to me? Did he mean to do it, or not?”

The entirety of the old mage’s left hand clasped gently over the magical lines glowing with a gentle white, weathering the burn-like stinging with another inhale through her teeth.

“Or did I ask him to?”

Cter didn’t clasp with her hand. She had no choice in the matter. It was given to her, and she made it hers. She had to remember that. She had to!

But...if it already happened once with Rasliela, what did that mean? And what did she mean by it almost happening to Cter? Why did Cter feel so panicked about it?

“As the Second Fusion came to be I recognized its aura. I recognized it from my own arm.” The clasp tightened around the thin arm by the thin hand. “And I recognized something else from it. I recognized Cter’s aura. Proof that she wasn’t lying about her magic, as if I ever had any doubts about her lying about that. I never lied to her, so she would never have lied to me.”

Rasliela looked to the Monster Mage hiding her left arm inside the security of her robe. The look wasn’t judging or teasing, but sympathetic. A first for Cter to see from Rasliela. It looked...strange. “More than that, I finally understand something else from when my grandfather gave me all that he was. What almost happened to you almost happened to me too, Cter.”

What did she mean? “What almost happened to me?” Cter...she...did she already know? Did she already know what Rasliela was going to say? But what though? What was the Royal Mage going to say?

“I don’t remember much from what happened after my grandfather gave me his magic, but what I do remember is that there was a time afterwards where neither human nor monster dared approach where my family and I had lived in exile. Even my parents did not dare stay near the place for months. They never told me why, as they could not explain why. Neither could the villagers from the nearby villages.”

There was a distance in the Royal Mage’s voice.

“That it was like miasma was the closest explanation they could tell. It just felt so...wrong to them that they dared not approach it nor speak of it. Just as strangely, that sense of wrong disappeared after a while, again like miasma.” Empathy arose in the Royal Mage’s eyes as she blinked slowly towards the Monster Mage. “You recognize this, don’t you?”

She did?

“From one faithful night in Jarasevo with the Monster Chef friend of yours, Cter?”

She…

She did!

“Idyll,” dripped from Cter’s stunned tongue as she looked down to her left arm. The memories flooded back to her about what happened. About how she felt her soul so strongly connected with Idyll’s. How she felt herself being taken over with Idyll’s memories. How she… “No, no my soul was the one taking away from hers.” Right? “I-It w-was...”

Idyll’s face, half of Romrom’s.

“No.”

Her magic, half of Romrom’s.

“No!”

Taken from Romrom’s influence inside Cter’s sleeve. Romrom’s memories, Romrom’s soul given to Cter.

“No no no!”

Idyll’s soul absorbed them.

“No no no no!”

Idyll’s soul fused with Romrom’s memories.

“No..I...”

Instead of with Cter’s.

“I refuse to...”

Not even a complimentary second passed by before Rasliela exhaled calmly. Her eyes met Terri’s, looking past the shaking Monster Mage. “There has been a fusion walking around Jarasevo Castle all this time.”

Don’t.

“A fusion of monster and monster.”

Don’t!

“A monster’s soul can absorb both a human’s soul and a fellow monster’s,” said Rasliela factually. “Although it seems to need a human conduit to do so.”

Stop!

“The Cooperative Connection,” continued Terri with a contemplative curl of his sleeved fingers underneath his chin. His magical fog began to fall down towards the Royal Mage, avoiding Cter as well. “That would make every mage a potential source of such a fusion.” There was suspicion in his voice. “Another truth to the Cooperative Connection?” he let hang in the air to observe how he felt about it. “It would explain why her ice magic was so different. She is a Fusion, that Monster Chef. A Fusion who–”

“QUIET!”

Startled bowstrings were taut once more as Cter’s voice shook the walls. Her left arm glowed with a bitter purple to it. Despite the intense glow though, there were no crystals forming. There was no magic solidifying on her sleeve. All she could do was to try and make sense of things. Try and understand what her own thoughts were on the matter.

The inner conflict spilled out on her face and her left arm, twisting into a troubled expression and a turbulent aura respectively. Her emotions couldn’t solidify into something cohesive, so her magic could not either. It left the Monster Mage standing on weak knees impotently grimacing and flexing her arm to try and produce...something. Anything!

Anger, grief, fear, anything! She needed something discrete to hold onto. Something solid she could plant her foot down on to take a step, and not the pile of loose emotions she kept slipping on like slick gravel.

“Quiet,” she repeated weakly, shaking her head just as weakly. Her loose hair slipped down to cover her face, yet she still turned away to not have the other mages see. They could feel her aura just as, if not more, precisely though. “Please just be quiet about her.” The plead preceded a hefty, raw sob that shook the entirety of the Monster Mage’s defeated frame. “She’s not a part of this. Please don’t make her a part of this. I beg you. Please, humans. Please don’t bring Idyll into this.”

Cter didn’t want to think. She didn’t want to consider that Idyll wasn’t Idyll. That she had been changed from that night more than she promised Cter that she had been. She didn’t want to think that it was Romrom’s influence that had Idyll lying to Cter to protect her. She didn’t want to think that Idyll knew of Cter’s promise to her grandmother. That her love towards Donial was that of Romrom’s. That Cter had replaced her friend with her grandmother. That she had made Idyll less of herself.

That Cter had...killed...Idyll…

When she laid quiet and still on the bed in Jarasevo Castle with Queen Toriel watching over her sleeping body, was Idyll already dead? Was it Romrom that Cter brought back? Did Idyll hear Romrom’s voice inside of her? Did she have an older monster advising her? The same as…

With eyes distorted by the tears filling them up, Cter looked towards Rasliela with a slow, deliberate turn of her head. The Monster Mage collected her loose hair behind her ear, pushing her combined braid further out on her shoulder. “You,” said Cter distantly and breathy. “You want her to be the same as you.” Her sleeved index finger extended towards the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr, crystals forming on it in fractal-like patterns. “You’re worried about your grandfather’s influence over you.”

Rasliela’s reaction was muted, hidden, yet it still was a reaction. A reaction that she herself noticed as it perpetuated between her grasping fingers around her arm as a diffuse, white blush. Her eyes relaxed, narrowing with her sigh. “Seeing the Second Fusion, and more importantly, feeling it, has put a lot of...turmoil on my soul.”

A cold shiver ran through the Royal Mage’s body, tensing her frail frame uncomfortably. She reached for her conjured cane, holding its handle tightly for comfort. “I said that the Princess of the Lineage surrendered, and I meant that in more ways than just giving myself up to the...king of Xoff.” There was bitterness on her grimace saying that. “My grandfather, he...” Bitterness in more ways than one. “He told me things. He told me things when I felt the Second Fusion. He spoke as if he...wasn’t he. As if he was influenced. As if his words were changed. Changed by the Second Fusion.”

Cter had never seen Rasliela so afraid. Never seen her so...old. Even though her face was hidden within the darkness of her hat Cter could still see the frightened wringing and shivering. Was this what the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr was without the Princess of the Lineage?

Was this who Rasliela was without her grandfather?

“And if his words weren’t, than what he said was...” There was disgust in the words, and Rasliela had to calm herself down with some long breaths to not lose herself. “Either scenario begets worse than the other. Either scenario I’d prefer over the other, yet I fear to be more true over the other at the same time. Should my grandfather’s voice and words have been taken over by the Second Fusion, then has it been taken over before too? Have others spoken to me through him, disguised as him?”

Cter could feel the old mage’s eyes glance briefly past her.

“And if the other possibility is true, that it was him that spoke those words to me, then I...” An audible gulp snuck out the deep shadow of the wide brim. “Then I fear him too.”

A thick quiet built among the three mages which hung for a slow couple of minutes. Much had been said, and to digest everything would take time.

But would they have that time?

Would they have that time with a war between humans and monsters beginning far, far away? Was it already too late? Those questions were seeded deep within Cter, and she feared how they would take root.

“It is why I am here,” said Rasliela after the long minutes, breaking the silence carefully. “It is why I want to be here. I want to understand.”

Cter sat herself down. There was no reason for her to be standing no more.

“I want to understand what the Fusion truly is.”

She would need the energy for later, she reckoned.

“And for that we need to understand what the human soul truly is.”

Reckoned beyond confidence.

“And what the monster soul wants from it.”

Chapter Text

War.

War against Cter’s people.

Far, far away from her.

Or perhaps just around the corner from Soul’s School.

Not that she’d know.

The weeks immediately following the declaration of the shifting war as well as Rasliela’s arrival was strangely similar to how things had been when the war was just between the two human countries. To Cter it was strangely similar, that is. She wasn’t a part of either wars, she felt. Even if she was a supposed prisoner of war held away from her people she was still waking up in the same comfortable guest house that she had been using ever since she was inaugurated as a magical scarecrow.

She still spent her days walking freely around the campus reading and researching without any chains restraining her. There were more human guards around and she was given a set time to take a swim alone in the lake, but was that really indicative of her being imprisoned? Not to her. Not when she was more imprisoned back at Jarasevo Castle the day after that faithful night.

It was...strange.

She hadn’t heard any news about the war since when Rasliela had arrived. She wasn’t allowed any news since she was the enemy. The two Royal Mages would confer alone after asking her to please excuse them. She didn’t mind. If anything it gave her more quiet for her research and some time alone to try out her new theories so that she could keep her failures to herself. The war was good to her in that regard. It had even gotten to a point where she would quip at Terri or Rasliela asking the other to discuss the newest developments.

“Peace yet?” she would quirk with a raised eyebrow then casually shrug when they shook their heads. “Maybe next time then.” Afterwards she would go back to her research as if nothing had happened. Hell, she even asked her own captors if they wouldn’t mind bringing back some tea once they were done discussing.

And they wouldn’t mind. Not at all. Lemon? Milk? Both? No Golden Flower tea since there weren’t any trade with Monster Country no more due to the war, but there were some mint tea from the campus garden Terri could pick on the way back.

“Please, and thank you.”

And then Rasliela and Terri would head off to whatever room it was that they conferred their human secrecy in, leaving Cter alone with a guard outside the library, not inside it. All alone, the most powerful mage in the world, and an enemy of humanity.

All. Alone.

Yet she did not try and escape. She did not try and flee back to Monster Country to help in the fight.

Because again, what was the war to her? What was it for her? What was it? To her, there was no war. To her, there was nothing to escape from, or to. She kept things peaceful by being calm. She kept things calm by being peaceful. That was what Sir Gerson would have wanted. Using the Monster Mages against the humans would be inviting more danger towards the monsters as the humans would have to respond in kind. If the humans did not want to use mages against other human mages then they would not use them against monsters. With magic it would have been more fair.

And fair be not what war be about. Fair enough that it wasn’t fair too, for there were no consolations prizes for war.

“It’s rather interesting, isn’t it?”

Cter looked through the steam from her cup of warm mint tea at the old Royal Mage standing at a reading podium with a wide map draping down the sides. She could see the ocean that bordered Xoff dangling like a wet towel. Would be fitting too had it dripped some drops of ocean water from the weathered corners and edge, telling how old and used it was. The shoreline slipped up and down from the Royal Mage moving the map to look at different parts of it, drawing with magic on it with a conjured feather and ink well that glowed in the shadow of her hat.

The Monster Mage finished the last few paragraphs of her book about recipes of old that she were scouring through to find some, if any, relation to the Soul Rainbow. “Many things are quite interesting nowadays, Royal Mage,” she replied before taking another sip of tea with the finished page about cinnamon buns half-turned to the next recipe about a cardamon variety. It had been a long while since she last had either of them. “You’ll have to be a bit more specific.” Could she ask for a few despite being a prisoner of war?

Maybe if she did it while pretending to be under some emotional stress?

Rasliela dipped her conjured feather into the magical ink well with a few unfazed taps. “You’ll have to come here then for me to be more specific.” From where she was drawing in relation to the Xoff shoreline Cter figured that she was doing something with Monster Country. War plans? In plain view of the Monster Mage prisoner not allowed to know anything about the war?

The Boss Monster carvings on Rasliela’s arm looked calm so perhaps it was Terri’s magic she was using? She must have told him a thing or two about obscuring his magic if that was the case since Cter couldn’t make out the details of what she was drawing from across half the library the two were in.

“Fine,” the Monster Mage sighed, making a quick magical bookmark to find where she left off as she closed the recipe book. She brought with her tea, covering the saucer in stasis magic to float over her left shoulder with a gentle hum. With leisurely steps she sauntered over to Rasliela who rearranged the map for Cter’s arrival. A drop of tea spilled out of the cup and onto the saucer as Cter stopped with a quick click of her heels onto the stone floor. “I’m here,” she made known to Rasliela who already knew.

After setting aside the magical feather and ink, Rasliela smoothed out the map over the reading podium, focusing it on Monster Country sandwiched between the two human countries. The ink which the map was drawn with was old and dry and had faded around the borders of the countries.

How...interesting.

“Isn’t it interesting how we can be here, miles upon miles away from the war yet still dictate it to the most minute of details?” began the Royal Mage with a wrinkly finger circling at the faded border between Xoff and Monster Country. “I can point wherever within this and give orders to move to...” Her eyes closed and her finger moved sporadically for a few seconds.

“Here. I can point here and give orders to move a platoon of the human army here to take a strategic position.” Underneath her finger, peeking just out over her raspy fingernail, was the name of a border town Cter had passed by on her journeys into Xoff. A sleepy one mostly there to provide a rest stop for the trading caravans. Unassuming at best. “And when they do, monsters are sure to die.”

Cter’s eyes shot from the map into the deep shadow of the wide-brimmed hat.

“No human will die,” was continued from within the deep shadow. “That’s just a fact. Whether or not any monster will die will be up to them. With the Second Fusion looming behind the soldiers the monsters ought to listen precisely lest they reignite that lingering fear.” Rasliela spoke factually. “There won’t be a single human death in this war, and you know that too, Monster Mage.”

She also spoke without any emotion.

“I do?” Cter replied with difficulty keeping hers in check. If all Rasliela wanted to do was provoke Cter then she would have to try harder. She’d done it plenty times before so Cter managed to catch herself wanting to throw her stasis-held tea into the Royal Mage’s face and promptly put a stop to it. Sure, throwing the hot tea into Rasliela’s face would have stopped her, and it would have been quite cathartic for Cter, but she was gonna be the bigger mage though.

Just had to think about the recipes she had just read. Just had to keep the mind occupied with the golden-brown crust of freshly baked cinnamon buns smelling both sweet and tingly from the cinnamon spice. “And didn’t you just reveal to me a part of your plans in the war? Are you aiding and abetting the enemy of humanity, Royal Mage?” Cter swiveled her head over to the wide doors of the library. “Maybe I should report this to the guard on duty?”

“And aid and abet humanity by revealing that one of their highest commander is a traitor?” Rasliela replied without pause, amused. A flash of teeth followed her amused scoff. “Are you wanting to return your humanity? Cast away what makes you monster and be human again?” Her wide hat shook with the continuous amusement. “Perhaps the spirit of monsterkind is as easily broken as their souls.”

Right then.

If Rasliela was only going to antagonize then Cter had a book about snails she would rather be reading. “If that’s all then?” the Monster Mage shrugged dramatically, touching the bottom of the saucer with her shoulder. “Can I go back to my reading now?”

A rigidity in the green brim had the wide hat slicing through the air as Rasliela turned to Cter with a gravity to her motion. Her finger on the map circled wider, encompassing the entirety of Monster Country with a dry rasp.

“I can point to any village in Monster Country on this map and it will become the worst any of the inhabitants could ever imagine. I can point to any village in Monster Country on this map and it’ll be a day of grief that will be remembered for as long as the village stands, if it even will stand afterwards.” The wrinkly finger moved to point at Rasliela’s face hidden inside the hat. “But to me though?” she posed before shrugging gently. “To me it’ll be a Monday.”

Cter’s eyes narrowed.

“To me it’ll just be like any other Monday. To me it’ll just be like any other decision I make.” Rasliela motioned over to the half-empty cup she had on a small table next to her. “Do I want mint tea or herbal tea?” Then she motioned back at the map, tapping at the different named dots within Monster Country’s faded borders. “Do I want to send troops to attack this village or this one?”

With her thumb on the last village she tapped at she tried to stretch her pinky finger to reach the smaller-named Soulay’s Academy for Humanities and Magical Studies for the Betterment of Monsterkind and Humanity. “I can’t reach here,” came an obvious comment as the stretched-out width of her fingers barely reached over the border between Hjearta and Monster Country. “I can’t reach to where my word would travel as law from where my word would originate.”

If Rasliela wanted Cter to break her fingers so that she could reach, all she had to do was to ask. Didn’t even have to be a polite ask.

“Yet still I can make decisions that would affect the lives of so many. Yet still I can make decisions further than anyone would ever have imagined.” The old mage opened up her hand in disbelief. “Isn’t it unbelievable?” She looked to Cter again, coming to face to a bitter and resentful expression. “Exactly,” Rasliela agreed, nodding her entire hat with gusto. “It is not unbelievable!”

She lifted up her finger to waggle in rhythm. “It. Is. Not.” Before Cter could understand what is was that just happened, Rasliela made another sweeping motion over the width of the map. “It is the Cooperative Connection reaching another stage.”

Cter couldn’t blink for she had to see it to even begin to believe it. “I’m sorry?” she replied with undeserving fairness to the Royal Mage. “The Cooperative Connection?” Was Rasliela’s age finally catching up to her?

Was it her grandfather in her arm that kept her lucid and focused despite living longer than anyone else Cter had met? A mage who’s life was extended not only by the prospect of being a mage, but also a mage with a Boss Monster’s Cooperative Connection to her, the same as Kurant and Kry? An even closer connection to boot.

It had been a month or so already since she and the news about the change in the war arrived at Soul’s School. It had been a month or so since she told about her reining in her grandfather’s influence in her arm. Was it reaching a point where she was suffering withdrawal from him? Him and his magic? Was she starting to forget that she used to have subtlety to her actions?

Was this the true Rasliela?

“The Cooperative Connection,” said Rasliela with a voice as if explaining it to someone who had never heard it before, albeit with a hint of condescending superiority added. “In its conception and execution it is about humans being able to project themselves beyond what they could naturally. It is the power of a human being able to reach out further than should be possible, but not on her own.” The Royal Mage pointed towards a letter next to her half-drunk cup of herbal tea.

“For if that was the case then simply writing a letter about which monster village should be prioritized next would be considered a Cooperative Connection. A human using a carriage to travel further in a day than they would have managed if running isn’t a Cooperative Connection. What is needed is a monster element. What is needed is a contrast to the humanity. A contrast between death, as the lie told. A contrast between how the human and monster soul functions, as the truth told. A contrast between how the human and monster soul dies, as the Fusion told.”

Cter looked deeply into where Rasliela’s eyes were inside the shadow of her hat. She looked for anything, but found nothing. No titter, no tiny smile, no anything. Rasliela was completely serious in what she said. She meant everything from the bottom of her soul.

And to that, Cter shook her head.

“For having witnessed the Second Fusion first-hand and felt its horror you sure seem to be taking all of this with a child-like curiosity.” The Monster Mage nodded with disgust at the widely spread map.

“You seem to care only about the pain of the monsters instead of considering any pain the human soldiers would face with your orders. They’re just pawns to you even though they were closer to the Second Fusion than you were? The Hero of Xoff had his soul cursed due to the First Fusion, and that he was only exposed to indirectly. Where there were just one human who’s soul had been cursed directly by the First Fusion, there are now thousands of humans with their souls cursed by the Second Fusion.”

Cter folded her arms, causing her hovering saucer to follow down and hover just above her left, folded elbow. “Sarbor was barely able to keep himself together about his cursed soul, and now you have two armies full of humans in the exact same situation?” Perhaps even more since Cter managed to somewhat protect Sarbor from the First Fusion. “You’ve no thoughts spared for the armies? For the soldiers that followed you because you convinced them you had Xoff’s best in mind?”

Rasliela stood firm against the avalanche of hefty words poured over her like an indiscriminate bucket. “I am not speaking as the Princess of the Lineage, Monster Mage,” she said as if reminding. “She is not relevant for Xoff now that the threat of the Fusion once again hangs over humanity, I say again.” With a slow reach over to her half-drunk cup the Royal Mage hummed quietly. “While I’ve been here it feels like I’m starting to forget her too.” Her right arm tensed slightly.

“The princess’ relevancy might be back in the future, but until then all I say is as Rasliela, the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr. While I have subdued the Cooperative Connection in my arm, I have strengthened the Cooperative Connection that my position affords me. The Cooperative Connection this war and this map affords me. Even though I’m kept at an arm’s length across this map, my advice is still considered in high regard. The Xoff king might not trust me, or any else of those that had their lot in with the Princess of the Lineage, but how is he to completely remake his inner circle when he has to fight a war both inside and outside his reclaimed borders?”

The quiet sip that the Royal Mage took was still audible despite its gentle nature, as was the calm clink of the cup being placed back on its saucer on the small table next to the reading podium.

“After this war the Xoff king will only have good people around him, be it the same ones that betrayed him, or not.” Rasliela touched at the Noitaidarr drawing on the map gingerly. “The good always win in the end, for it is the victors that decide what is good.”

That so? “So you want monsters to be bad?” Was it that what the Royal Mage was implying? “You want the monsters to be the blame for this war?” How much of this disdain against monsters was she hiding? How much of it was kept at bay by her grandfather?

Playing the monsters for evil for political gain was one thing, but this was different. The Princess of the Lineage had a goal for the monsters to be the evil half. The monsters being evil for her was a means to another end, a walking stick to help her reach a goal. For the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr though it seemed like monsters being evil was the goal. “How would your grandfather say about this, Rasliela?”

The Royal Mage turned her head with a sharp angle to the tilt of her hat.

“Ask him,” urged Cter further with a lowered brow and a nod towards Rasliela’s right arm. “Ask him if you should continue this or if you’ve gone too far.” She waited, but there was no motion from the Royal Mage. “Or do you not dare because you know what he will say?” She waited some more, her patience running lower. “Because you know that he will decry what you’re doing. Decry that you’re allowing this war to happen. Decry that–”

Cter’s sweeping motion of her arm knocked her floating cup over, spilling its minty tea with a loud splash against the stone floor. Had she been quicker to react and not busy being angry she might have caught the tea in the air with stasis magic, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. With angry mumbling she froze the spilled tea solid to make it easier to clean up, being careful not to leave any slips behind as she lifted up the frozen tea pieces with stasis magic too late to make any real difference.

Maybe it would be wise if Cter took that as a sign to leave things be and return to her research? What good could have come from her continuing to talk with Rasliela, really? The two were at war with each other, after all. No need to further fan the fires of war. They were burning over the horizon, so why bring them here? Cter should have just walked away when she first thought about doing so, dammit.

“I’ll leave you to your map,” the Monster Mage growled under her breath with the splattered pieces of ice tea detaching from the stone floor and depositing back into her cup like cold pebbles clinking like hail. “Draw on it however you damn well please. Don’t bother asking me for more tea, I’ll get it on my own if I want some more.” And because Cter was feeling very petty. “And not from the Xoff kettle you used when we first met.” What that really added was debatable, but again debating was what had her upset in the first place, so no thank you.

Between her heavy and dramatic steps Cter heard the Royal Mage mutter to herself. The words were surprisingly...worrisome. “The kettle...” flowed quietly out the wide reach of the green brim. “The...kettle?” Cter looked over her shoulder to see Rasliela begin to clutch at her left arm, but stopping just before touching it. “The kettle was...”

The Monster Mage shook her head at the theatrics. She had already humored Rasliela too much when she walked over to look at the map, and made it worse with each second she spent there. Cter returned to her recipe book with an annoying anger in her throat and soul.

And even worse.

“Gonna be parched for the rest of the day...”

Without any tea to drink.

Now where was she…

‘Cooking Vessels and their Usages’

Chapter Text

“Singe my soul.”

Damn!

“Why did I do that?”

Damn it stung!

“Why? Why? Why?”

Inhale…

“Why?”

Exhale…

The Monster Mage sank down against the wooden wall her back had slammed into. Her left arm shook in pain, poorly quelled by her right hand holding securely at her left wrist hard enough to turn her fingers white.

A poor choice of hers, but one that she did not know yet. A poor choice she made on her own, luckily, as the surrounding library could attest to. A very, very poor choice.

On top of the already-poor choice she had already made, that is. Books flapped inefficiently with their wide-opened spines as they came crashing down around her in a page-scattered half circle around the tortured shape of crystal magic that laid shattered and broken on the stone floor.

Shards of weak, fragmented crystal magic laid spread out inside the page-scattered half circle like a poorly made mosaic of shimmering color. At the end of the half circle sat the Monster Mage with heavy breaths through gritted teeth holding hard on her left wrist. Her breaths added to the decaying chaos of the fallen bookcases and stinging refracting from the shattered crystal magic flashing the sunlight managing through the dust thrown up in the air by the fallen-over bookcases.

Cter’s mind wasn’t on the pain in her left arm though, despite how much it asserted itself to be prominent in her mind. There was a certain dullness to it which only became less noticeable the more it pulsated warmly from her wrist. What was more on her mind was what was about to burst through the door at any second with either bows taut, swords drawn, or sleeves radiating.

The latter was inevitable due to how her magic laid shattered on the ground, exploded both physically and magically. Had there been any monster within the campus it would have been like a punch to their soul, so the Royal Mages must have felt it. Same could have been said for the taut bows and drawn swords too as Cter’s ears were ringing with a disorienting volume to them similar to when she first visited Dr. Sallus. Everyone in the large, brick building must have heard what she did.

“Why did I do that?”

It was only due to the library door slamming into the wall she was leaning onto that Cter noticed that it had been flung open. A gust of wind followed it, sweeping across the library floor and turning the pages of the books which had landed upright in the half circle. There was cold to the wind.

“–er!”

Which meant that the magical punch had hit harder than the physical one.

Fog collected towards the half circle, diffusing the shimmer and colorful refracting of the crystal shards. There were no robe-covered legs following the fog into the half circle though, and Cter had to let her head fall onto her right shoulder to be able to see Terri through her recovering sight. As she did she felt viscous liquid shift inside her left ear.

Not comfortable.

“–etch a physicia...” Cter heard partly through the shifting liquid in her left ear from the Royal Mage of Ice. There was hurry to his voice which must have been prominent since Cter could hear it through her partial deafness. “–ter, what happe...” Terri asked her, but got nothing back. The blurry features of his face shifted, but he didn’t move within the half circle. He stood as if frozen.

Cter chuckled lightly at the irony.

It stung a bit doing it.

“I’m fine,” Cter said, hearing only half of it. The half she heard was enough for her to tell that she was lying. Her back felt uncomfortably flat and even the small motion of her rolling her head down onto her right shoulder had her feeling slightly nauseous. She meant to say that she was just gonna sit down for a breather, but perhaps she needed a bit more than just one. The dullness from her left arm made it hard to tell how she actually felt. Her thoughts in her head told her that she should be feeling worse than she was.

With the library in chaos around her and the fact that she felt shards of wood poking at her back with each breath she took something unplanned must have happened. Her breaths too felt like an action she had completely forgotten and had to relearn, sounding like a fish monster in a desert without any water anywhere in sight.

So maybe she shouldn’t have tried to stand up as she only managed to fall back down again onto the stone floor onto her lumbar which again should have hurt more than it did.

So why didn’t it?

And why didn’t Terri get closer to her if his voice was so hurried in reaction to seeing her? Why didn’t he go inside the half circle of books, pages, and crystal shards?

And just as curiously, why were there no crystal shards outside the half circle? Why was there a gap between the edge of the half circle and the fallen bookcases outside it? Why wasn’t any of the Royal Mage’s fog rolling inside the half circle?

“–ur barricade mag...”

Barricade magic?

Was that what Cter had been doing?

Hollow, glass-like thuds were knocked twice onto the air above the half circle by the Royal Mage’s fist, creating water-like ripples that distorted him and the library around him. He must have seen it as well as he reeled back from the knocks with a startled crane of his neck.

“I’ll get it,” said Cter with some effort. “Step back a bit.”

The Royal Mage didn’t move.

“Step back,” Cter repeated a bit harsher, having to swallow afterwards to soothe her throat, but again the Royal Mage did not move. “Terri,” she finally resorted to cough out.

But he didn’t move.

“Terri?” she tried again with the dullness soothing her throat. Her right-hand fingers had begun to tingle as well, getting through the dullness. If that meant that the dullness was moving around in her body somehow then she should try and get the attention of the Royal Mage as best as she could as fast as possible. “Terri!” she shouted.

And cutting her own ears in the process.

Cter heard her own voice echoing intensely like she was shouting into her own ears. Her head reeled back, touching hard at the ruined wooden wall behind her and blurring her vision again. Through the blurry she could barely see Terri knock again on the faint barricade magic, causing another ripple effect deeper than what his previous knocks did.

Yet still it didn’t seem like he had heard Cter. Had he done that he would have said something in response, right? He would’ve tried to talk to her instead of knocking for her attention. Didn’t he hear her? Was that why?

With a shake of her head, Cter regained some of her vision. The nauseous feeling from moving her head a bit too fast would have to wait though. She opened her mouth widely, talking slowly and loudly. “Can. You. Hear. Me?” She heard her own voice echoing close by again, and when Terri pointed to his ear with a denying shake of his head, it began to clear for Cter.

“Don’t move,” she heard the Royal Mage say fully, muffled by the thickness of the barricade magic at the rim of the half circle. “A physician is on his way!”

Cter nodded. It wouldn’t be necessary since she could heal herself, but the dullness inside her made it difficult for her to realize that she could. Magic in general felt a bit...distant, to her. She still had it since the barricade magic was still there, so it must’ve been her hitting her head that had her feeling dizzy.

She could think somewhat clearly about that though, so perhaps she did not hit her head as badly as it would seem? Her neck didn’t feel wet which was a good sign. She hadn’t been thrown into the wall as hard as what the First Fusion did with her into the heart-shaped fountain at Clinic Hill. Still though, she felt on her aching back that the wooden panels had broken behind her. They must have caught her, saving her from the brickwork behind them.

“Thank you,” she said to them.

She would need their help some more to help her stand up. There was one panel on her shoulder which she could lean onto, helping her push herself up to an unsteady lean against the shattered wall.

“No, don’t–” Terri began before realizing that there was nothing he could do about it. He bit down angrily before huffing out a calming exhale. He took a step to the side, lifting up his head to look around Cter. “There is a sharp piece sticking out next to your neck on your left,” he warned with a press of his sleeved finger against the faint barrier. A shimmering wake followed it as he dragged it up a bit. “And one just above your head.”

Cter nodded with appreciation, finding a comfortable-enough angle to lean her weight onto the wall without slipping or stabbing herself on the jagged wood. Terri waited for a few seconds to make sure that Cter had footing and balance before tapping carefully at the barricade magic again. “Can you remove it?”

Could she?

The Monster Mage focused inwards to search for the feeling relevant to the magic. It was a bit dulled like the rest of her, and it took her a while to find her magic within her. Like rereading something she had written a long time ago sloppily and with leaky ink, she had to feel and feel again within her soul to understand what it was she was reading.

She had seen other monsters forget that their magic was still active before, but never really looked further into it which came back to bite her, it seemed. Again similarly to rereading something written a long time ago and sloppily to boot, it felt like the barricade magic wasn’t...hers? That it had been made with a thought process that she did not recognize.

Maybe she hit her head harder than she thought?

Once she probed at the foreign feeling inside her soul though she began to recognize it. It gradually began to feel as her magic again, flourishing on her left arm with noticeable tingling. With a calm exhale to accentuate her magic with a physical action, she had the barricade magic fade away like the breath she exhaled.

And felt blowing back on her face?

The Royal Mage stumbled slightly as he did not see the faint barricade magic disappear. Only when his arms fell forwards did he notice, and was forced to take a sharp step to not fall with them. Books that stood on end and which had leaned against the faint barricade bowed down around his feet, widening the half circle slightly. “I’ll heal you up before the physician gets here,” said Terri with a green shine filling up the fog from his sleeved arm. He kneeled down carefully next to Cter, displaying his arm and intentions for the Monster Mage. “Might have to do some on your head, I’m afraid.”

Cter was stuck in thought while Terri talked. “What?” jumped off her tongue as she was surprised by his hand nearing her. “My head?” As she asked the reflective question, the green-shining arm stopped, curling tentatively along with the Royal Mage’s brow.

“Can you hear me?” Terri asked slowly, tilting his head forward so that his voice would travel further. “Can you...” His eyes widened, and his head craned back.

“Yes,” nodded Cter. “Yes I can hear you.” The Royal Mage did not react though. “I said I can hear you,” Cter repeated with another nod, but no reaction as well.

He still couldn’t hear her?

But Cter took down the barricade magic. He could pass through it. He–

A flick of a finger slapped against Cter’s cheek, causing a flinch that had her reeling to the side with a baffled expression solidifying into disbelief plastered over her face. She looked to Terri, who looked to have been reeling even more than she had. “Why did you do that?” Her hand touched her flicked cheek. “Why did you do that?” she asked again with no animosity at all in her voice.

She was too confused to be angry.

Like…

Why?

Was it because of the war?

“I...uh...” the Royal Mage stammered while looking at his hand as if it had insulted his mother. “I thought… I think…” His eyes squinted, but it didn’t help at all. “There’s no barricade magic?” He blinked off his arm to Cter. “But surely...”

Barricade magic?

No, she just took it down.

“No, I...”

There it was again, that echo.

“I.”

And again.

“Hello?”

And again.

Cter huffed a cough of air.

Which she felt bounce back at her face.

She snapped her left fingers, creating a crystal spike that grew from her palm.

Which flattened itself just above her palm against an invisible roof.

“Huh...”

It appeared that she was inside a cocoon of barricade magic.

“Alright...”

The Royal Mage’s furrowed expression loosened. “You’re inside a cocoon of barricade magic.” Since he couldn’t hear Cter he figured it on his own. “I see,” he chuckled with relief. “Although you should probably take it down since I can’t...” His furrowed expression regained itself. “Since I can’t hear you?”

True, he had a point there. Why couldn’t he hear Cter though? The barricade magic allowed for sound to get through since it acted as a wall, but he couldn’t hear her at all. She could hear him though. Could hear him clearly as if there was nothing between them but air. He could touch her though. Could flick at her cheek. Did he do it to make ripples like he did when knocking on the barrier wall earlier?

No wonder he was so stunned when he hit Cter.

So what did that mean then? That Cter had a barricade cocoon around her that only blocked on one side? Blocked more on one side too? Blocked sounds completely. Blocked magic completely. She was still visible through the blocking side though otherwise Terri wouldn’t have reacted to seeing her hurt like she was.

Wouldn’t have seen her at all, even.

Did that make sense? For her magic and voice to be blocked but that Terri could still see her?

Kinda? Sorta?

Cter speaking and making magic was actively from her, whereas she didn’t have to do naught but exist to be visible? It was the first explanation that popped into her mind. Explained too why her breath bounced back against the barrier onto her own face.

It would do for the moment.

“So it is a one-sided barricade magic?” milled Terri with his sleeved hand gripping gently around his mouth and chin. “If I can’t hear you, but you can hear me? If your magic can’t escape it? That must be the explanation.”

Even though Cter knew why Terri repeated exactly what she was thinking it still felt a bit condescending that he did. What would be next? That he would say that she would need to–

“Maybe you need to dismiss it in an inside-out manner of sorts?”

…

“He can’t hear you,” Cter said to herself since she had the luxury to do so without Terri hearing. “He can’t hear you, it’s not his fault.”

The Royal Mage cupped his hand around his ear. “No, I still can’t hear you, Cter.”

A weary sigh was reflected in the Monster Mage’s face.

“He can’t...”

It took another sigh for Cter to begin to focus inwards again. She scoured her soul, leafing through the dullness and itchy tingling within her to find where and how exactly the barricade cocoon around her worked. She tried first to feel at it close to where the barricade wall was, but it wasn’t there. It wasn’t the same as the barricade wall.

“Because it’s keeping me inside?”

Hearing her own words echo loudly so close by had the idea solidifying more and more with her.

“And to hold in everything that my soul is connected with on one end it has to let through everything on the other?”

But why though?

And how did she figure that?

Cter looked around the half circle to try and scour for some clues, something to jog her dented memory. Apart from the barricade magic there was also her crystal magic lying in shards spread out inside the half circle. Why shattered though? Why shattered in a way that suggested that it had shattered with force?

Great force even as both the pieces close to the middle of the half circle and the pieces at the edge where the barricade wall was were in smaller pieces than between the two. That the shards were smaller in the middle were from it being the center of the shattering force, naturally. That the shards at the edge of the half circle also were in smaller pieces meant that they must have hit against the barricade wall and broke again, so to speak.

Was Cter trying to test the barricade cocoon? Was she forcing it to form by threatening her own life?

No, she wasn’t that careless. There were still some paths she hadn’t taken with researching the Soul Rainbow, so why would she have been so desperate as to risk her own life?

Something must have gone wrong then. Something must have happened that Cter did not plan for. Something that led to her losing control of whatever it was she was trying to do.

She looked around again. Maybe she’d find something else with her having given it some more thought? The crystal shards led her on a good path, so if she looked more into its pattern perhaps it would lead further? She had been doing similarly with her leads for researching the Soul Rainbow, so she had learned when she could trust her gut feeling on a lead.

Finer shards of shattered crystal magic in the middle and on the edge of the half circle, yes. What more was there?

Well...there was the fact that it was a half circle to begin with.

“Oh, good, you’re here, Rasliela.”

Why wasn’t it a full circle?

“Did you see the physician on the way here?”

Was it a half circle because it continued out into the corridor behind her? Behind the shattered wall she was leaning her weight onto? Against the sharp, jagged pieces of broken wood forming almost a perfect, dented shape of her body.

“I sent a guard to fetch him, but it’s been a while now.”

And no shards?

“Also, you wouldn’t know anything about barricade magic?”

No crystal shards embedded in the shattered wall?

“You see–”

It’s a sheet!

Cter’s sudden tilt up of her head startled the Royal Mage of Ice. “It’s not a cocoon,” she told to no one but herself. She was stuck between the shattered wall and a sheet of barricade magic! “That’s it!” Her wide smile squeezed a drop of blood down into her right eye, twitching it close. It stung, but she smiled through it. “A sheet of one-sided barrier magic!” Like an invisible spider web keeping her stuck on one end. Cter looked to Terri with her revelation shining on her face, but he did not react the same.

Because he couldn’t hear her.

Still.

“Oh, right...”

So she had figured out what the barricade magic was, so what was the next step? Tracing back why there was a sheet there at all? Since there weren’t any shards in the wall it meant that the sheet was there prior to whatever had her crystal magic shattering.

A brief flash shot through Cter’s memory of her standing at the middle of the half circle with an irregular shape of crystal magic hovering in front of her. Of how she added and added more to it, making it denser and denser, yet not expanding in size.

Was she restraining it with barricade magic? Was that what she was doing?

“Well ain’t I glad that I decided to humor you by leaving you alone to your new findings,” hummed Rasliela as she took in the storm-like aftermath with each of her cane’s step crunching the spread-about crystal shards. “You whispered something about barricade magic before I left.” She poked at the spine of a book with her cane, lifting it up a bit before letting it fall back down. “Containment I also heard you say.”

“Oh?”

Another flash shot through Cter’s mind and soul like a lightning strike.

“Oh...”

She remembered.

“Ah, I can hear you now, Cter!”

Although she wished that she didn’t.

“Where does it hurt?”

Because it included what she remembered just before she forgot. What she remembered just before her experiment with trying to have one-sided barricade magic exploded in her face. It was a memory from when Cter lived with Idyll in Jarasevo, from when Idyll was still learning her cooking. “Shouldn’t you let some steam out before it boils over or explodes in your face?” Cter had suggested to the fledgling Monster Chef as the blue monster had weighed down the lid on the pot cooking potatoes. “It won’t be moister than normal if they all explode out the pot, you know?”

Cter’s mind must have known that what she was doing with her barricade and crystal magic was wrong, for why else would it had dug that old memory up? Seems her soul did not listen to it though, for why else did she find herself in the aftermath of her magic exploding in her face.

Similar to Idyll’s idea to make her potatoes moister, Cter read about it in the recipe book of how using a towel around a roast would keep it moist while still cooling off. It would keep in one property while letting through another. If it worked with food it would work with magic, and since Cter had barricade magic that would be a similar principle.

“I’ll be careful with your head.”

Cter squinted at the green glow caressing comfortably on her shoulder. “Thanks.” She had just a short while to get her own story straight before the healing magic on her head would make her dizzy.

So what she decided after figuring that she could apply a similar restriction to her barricade magic was to test it. If she could have it so that her magic could pass in one way and not the other she would have figured it out. The simplest way to try that, to her, was to surround her crystal magic with barrier magic and continue adding more crystal magic inside of it until either she could not add more or her crystal magic could go through the barricade magic.

The experiment allowed her to either find a way to prevent something from entering through the barricade, or allow something to exit out the barricade magic. Either one would have allowed her to understand how to make barricade magic one-sided.

To heighten her soul’s awareness of barricade magic she also put up a wall of it around her, growing it as she put more and more crystal magic into the ball of barricade magic which was her primary focus. It strained her magic to keep track of it all, but she had to push herself.

And she succeeded. Evidently she did.

Although maybe not as graciously as she would’ve wanted.

Not with her crystal magic puncturing through like an over-inflated bagpipe, and bursting open similarly. It only burst through the inner part of the barricade magic though, bursting through it only halfway. It must have opened up like a folded bed sheet, and since Cter was on the intact side of it she was pushed along with it into the wall, shattering its planks.

Did that mean that she could layer it? Like the sheets of a chest plate? Hard armor on the outside to protect and soft fabric on the inside to be comfortable to wear? She was stuck on the hard part which was why Terri could not hear her. He could get through it though, but he didn’t get stuck. Maybe his entire body had to go through for him to have become stuck too?

Perhaps so…

Perhaps if she–

“Sorry,” the Royal Mage of Ice apologized after healing at the Monster Mage’s head. “The cut wasn’t as deep as I thought.”

Damn it, Cter was becoming dizzy again from the healing magic on her head, and her thread of thought loosened into strands. She’d have to write it down later. It was something she felt she would have use of later.

Perhaps for the war.

The healing magic dulled the dullness Cter had in her left arm though, and she released her hard grip on it. The needle-like tingling faded, but there was still some dullness lingering in her left hand.

But not the same dullness as the healing magic was removing.

“Careful,” uttered Terri with slight surprise as Cter whipped her head down towards her inert sleeve. He took half a step back to allow her to tug loose the fingers, which in turn allowed her to slide the sleeve off her arm.

And her hand.

“Cter...”

Covered half in white.

Chapter Text

It should have been a bigger deal.

“You sure you’re careful with it, Cter?”

It should have been something she found horrifying.

“You’re being a bit...careless with your prodding, aren’t you?”

Yet despite that, she found it more as a positive sign than a negative. It wasn’t the same as when she first discovered it, the White Flesh on her hand. She had gotten used to it. Gotten used to it being a part of her.

“Do you really have to use a knife for this?”

All she had to do was to get used to it a bit more. Comparatively it wasn’t a big deal. Her figuring out that she could have the barricade magic be one-sided was a big deal, for that opened up her magic for her.

Literally.

As well as the opposite.

“It’s–” Cter answered briefly before sucking in air between her teeth. Once she managed to slice off a small piece of her White Flesh she could breathe out the stinging it felt. “It’s fine.” The metal blade scraped with a small screech as the Monster Mage dragged it against the lip of the small glass container she had fetched from the alchemical department. Same as said department, the piece of White Flesh landed with a flop on the bottom of the glass container seemingly unaware that it had been cut off from its larger structure. “It’ll heal without scarring.”

Which only seemed to make the Royal Mage of Ice more uncomfortable about the process. His aura sank as he looked with retreating eyes at the piece of White Flesh spreading out like cold honey. “Same as the Second Fusion did,” he said quietly with a grit to his teeth. “From the letter they wrote.”

The Royal Mage of Noitaidarr sat next to him didn’t show a similarly adverse reaction to the Monster Mage cutting off a part of her hand without much effort or hesitation. If anything she was more interested in that Cter asked her to be present judging by the way she carelessly drank her tea while Cter was cutting off a part of her Fusion-covered hand.

The overturned bookcase she was sat on seemed comfortable enough for her old body since what she had been asked to attend piqued her interest more than any cushion-less seat could ever bring down for her. “How long will it be moving after you cutting it off, Cter?”

“If it is the same as the rest of my hand then for ten minutes or so,” came a direct, factual answer while the Monster Mage first heated up the blade of the improvised-scalpel the physician had brought with him. Once it began to glow red she cooled it off with ice magic. “I’m not going to keep it around though after those ten minutes if it continues to move. If it stops moving then I know that it is the same as my fingers.”

Next to the glass container the Monster Mage summoned an hourglass filled with a fine powder of crystal. She flipped it between her index and long finger with a scissor-like motion to start the ten minutes the cut-off piece hopefully had left to live.

The piece looked to be separate when she first laid eyes on it, akin to how oil and water separated in a glass. While it could have been because it grew due to barricade magic and that it inherited some of the properties from that, there was still a chance that it was something else. There had been a Second Fusion since last time the White Flesh on Cter’s left hand had taken over more, and since there was a tendency for the Fusions to affect souls around it, Cter wanted to be on the safe side.

She might have been far enough from it that the stretched width of Rasliela’s hand could not reach to Soul’s School from where the Second Fusion was born.

But what she said about the Cooperative Connection applied to her as well. Her soul was affected by the Second Fusion, and if a human could transmit disease to another, could their soul do so as well?

Cter’s experiment had two functions to it. If her cut-off piece of White Flesh stopped moving after ten minutes then she knew that the extended influence of the white on her left hand was only that, an extension. A growth of it was then due to her straining her soul with magic, the same as before. To boot she would also know that her soul would not be affected second-hand from what the Second Fusion did to Rasliela’s soul.

Enough for her to stop using magic altogether. Enough for her to cut off her grandfather, and isolate his presence.

Something that Cter understandably did not want to be infected by. Not only that, but earlier when Cter and Rasliela talked, or whatever it really was, about the map that at the moment laid like a discarded towel wrapped around the knocked-over podium, Rasliela had said something that Cter hadn’t caught in the heat of the moment.

Something that only clicked when Cter had understood that she had managed to manifest the one-sided barricade magic.

And which might also have explained what the Soul Rainbow was.

“If you want I could send for Sarbor to come here,” suggested Rasliela seemingly out of nowhere. “From what I understand he has been trying to treat your left hand for both you and himself.” She pointed with her cup at the cut-off piece of White Flesh moving strangely within the glass container. “I’m sure he would appreciate another look at it now that he has more than just the Hero of Xoff and his squad to treat.”

A tired, confronting look was flung by the Monster Mage’s eyes. “If I agree to that will you call for the war to end?” she asked while folding the White Flesh on her hand over the wound. It stretched like dough, melding together similarly as she massaged it shut with her right thumb. Like with the knife on the lip of the glass container Cter wiped her right thumb against her left wrist where it was engulfed in an orange flame.

“I am not the Princess of the Lineage,” Rasliela reminded patiently before drinking some tea to let her reminding settle properly with the forgetful Monster Mage. “It is not within my powers to dictate the larger course of this war of ours. I have been granted dominion over some of the lesser courses, true,” she added with a small nod over to the knocked-over podium and the large map laid clumsily upon it. “But if there are any particular monster villages you want me to keep in mind when choosing them?”

Keep in mind to use as leverage against Cter? “No, I’ve none,” the Monster Mage whipped bitterly from her tongue. “In fact, perhaps it is for the better should the human armies be afflicted by the Second Fusion. Perhaps with a soul of their own they can recognize that the monsters hold no harm against the humans. That they only fight only in defense against a conflict born out of naught but pride and self-proclaimed importance.”

The Royal Mage of Noitaidarr sighed deeply out the shadow of her wide brim. “Do I have to repeat myself about the Princess of the Lineage?” she asked like a disappointed teacher. “Perhaps you should have cut off a smaller piece of your hand if the pain has you this cranky?”

“Enough,” came a direct and sturdy order from the Royal Mage of Ice. His arm slashed widely between the two bickering mages, leaving behind it a thick trail of fog that interrupted the narrowed eye contact. “Cter, if you don’t want us here just tell us to leave,” Terri said to the Monster Mage equally as direct. “Making the air tenser between us isn’t going to do you any good and you know that.”

He motioned around the library. “You are already going to have to be confined to your house for a while because of this. I’ve told you before to warn either Rasliela or me should you try something like this with your magic. If we allow this and word gets out about us keeping you on a long leash then fears might arise that we aren’t to be trusted to keep you as a prisoner of war. Should that happen you can be damn sure that you’ll be confined into something worse than a two-storied house with a lake view.”

Cter averted her eyes as she failed to stop her guilty expression from taking root.

“Don’t make me doubt that I can trust you, Cter,” the Royal Mage of Ice punctuated heavily. “You know full well what a bad idea that is.” Since he couldn’t meet Cter’s eyes he instead looked down at the piece of White Flesh writhing slowly in its glass container, reaching slowly up the glass container’s walls. “I don’t want to have to doubt you, for if I do that then I might as well travel to the front lines of this war.” He tapped at the glass wall, causing the piece to fall over and fold onto itself like how Cter had done on her left hand. “There I won’t have to doubt.”

While the Royal Mage was being a tad hyperbolic in his melodrama, a part of Cter still felt remorse for Terri. How big a part that was she did not want to admit to herself. He spoke truthfully about her knowing full well that it was a bad idea to make him doubt. The reason she was allowed to essentially walk around freely was because he had convinced the human guards that she could be trusted fully to behave. It was the same reason that the other Royal Guards enjoyed similarly free living at Soul’s School. However Cter sliced or angled it, the fact remained that it wasn’t ideal to tempt fate.

Even Rasliela had argued in Cter’s favor about being allowed to freely pursue her research. Although with her Cter didn’t trust that there wasn’t some other motive for that. Rasliela said as much when she arrived at Soul’s School that she was there to find a solution to the human-monster war. What that entailed to her wasn’t going to be the same as what entailed to Cter, that much was blatantly clear.

“They would never allow you to travel to the front lines,” Rasliela made blatantly clear as well with an angle of her wide-brimmed hat at the knocked-over podium. “Magic is not something that is held at high regard at the moment.” The wide brim shook. “If anything you should make sure that you’re kept here at any cost, Royal Mage.”

A flicker in her voice was caught by the Royal Mage she was addressing, who’s head tilted towards one of the windows showing a clouded exterior with a hum of thunder in the far distance. “Manny?” he pried. “Still worried about him?”

Cter felt Rasliela glance at her before sighing out a conflicted exhale. “I’m his grandmother,” she said to hide any more details about her reasons. “Of course I’m worried about my grandchild. He’s at the war, and I am not.”

Cter shouldn’t have.

She really, really shouldn’t have.

Terri had just told her that she shouldn’t make him doubt her.

“Because he’s not as important?”

Yet still she said it. Still Cter said it with a thick layer of faux innocence to prompt a reaction. She could lie to herself and excuse it with that she needed Rasliela to express some powerful emotion to be doubly sure that her Fusion-touched soul wasn’t contagious.

But the explanation wasn’t as complex as that, really.

Another, tired sigh flowed out underneath the wide brim. “Monster Mage,” Rasliela said with a raspy voice that had lost any semblance of life in it. “I know you might believe that this is deserving of me. You might even be correct in that.” A weak shrug barely moved the small shoulders.

“However though, if there is anything I might ask of you, then please aim your anger and disdain at me, and not anyone else.” She reached up to grab at her hat, but stopped halfway. “Manny is the reason I am still standing here today,” Rasliela said weakly with a lean of her elbows onto her knees. “He is the reason any human still stands today, and any monster, for that manner.”

Because he was the one that killed the Second Fusion? Because he was the one that remembered what Sarbor had told about how he killed the First Fusion? “You want sympathy for what you saw and felt during your encounter with the Second Fusion?” With only that one question Cter had Rasliela’s head falling onto her balled-together fists. “Or should I call you onto a trial for it instead?” She fell right into Cter’s trap. “Cast doubt onto this unbelievable sight that you’ve witnessed and which have changed your magic in a way you dread to imagine the ramifications of?”

“I get it!” the old mage shouted with her raspy voice causing her to cough with uncomfortable harks. She was helped by Terri who’s patience was visibly running dry. “I get it,” Rasliela repeated after regaining some of her voice. “It’s hypocritical of me to expect you to give me any peace of mind about what I’ve seen.” She wiped her mouth with her hand. “But what else can you expect me to do? What else can I do in this state of mine?”

From the dark of her hat’s wide shadow her Boss-Monster-carved arm was displayed with confronting intent. It was inert, lacking any magical luster to it. The magical lines were thick scars on her thin arm hanging with loose skin. “I am afraid of my grandfather who I have kept near my soul for over a human’s lifetime! I am afraid of what the Second Fusion means! I am afraid!” Her breath couldn’t keep up with her desperate shouts. “I am only human!”

What exactly she meant by being only human could have meant quite a few things. Did she mean that she was only human because she was suppressing her grandfather’s Cooperative Connection and thus wasn’t much of a mage no longer? Did she mean that she was only human because, well, she was only human? Not a monster like Cter was?

Either case contradicted itself though, so what she actually meant Cter could not figure easily.

Did she even want to figure it?

“You’re only human.”

Not really.

Not to Cter.

“You’re only human,” the Monster Mage said with an irritated shrug that bounced her combined braid off her shoulders.

“You’ve never known what it is like to know that you are powerless against something. You have never known what it is like to not have the upper hand by birthright. Even as a helpless newborn you were capable of defeating an overwhelming majority of monsters, and that you have lived your entire life believing and trusting to be fair.”

The white of the Monster Mage’s arm showed signs of unrest.

“It has been fair because it was easy to balance the equation of power. It was never balanced in the middle, with equal weights on either side, but to you it was balanced. Now that the balance has shifted, and only in your eyes I should add, then this equation of power you have completely thrown out the damn window. You don’t want to re-balance the equation, you want to remove the monsters from it completely.”

Terri shot a narrowed look at the Monster Mage who stood firm about what she had said in the shadowed face of the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr laying her right arm along the length of her sitting thigh clutching hard at her knee. She was gathering up her response, but had to let her attempt at pleading at Cter’s empathy fade away first.

Cter knew exactly the response Rasliela was going to choose. She knew exactly from what position she had spoken from. She knew that being a Monster Mage did not mean that she was lowering herself to the level of a monster, but instead gaining what it meant to be monster on top of being a human. She was the most powerful mage talking about being weaker than a human.

And yet still she knew that she was true about what she said.

“And you say this while high up in your mage tower overlooking from a great height over all the monster living in Jarasevo? That fact is not clear to you?” Rasliela waited for an answer that wouldn’t come. “You don’t see from where you are speaking of this imbalance while you yourself disrupt said balance?”

“I make it more equal,” said Cter teetering on it being a threat.

“So you’re the same as the Fusions?” Rasliela replied immediately with an accompanying scoff. “Shifting the balance on the seesaw with a stomp on one end.” She flicked a nail at the glass container, startling the weak piece of White Flesh. “You’re partly one already.”

The flick of the nail left a greasy mark on the inside of the glass container where the cut-off piece had tried to reach up only to be knocked off the slick wall again. It stayed folded for a long couple of seconds, not forming into itself again as it had before. Cter glanced at the magical hourglass she had conjured up. There were just a few minutes left before the ten minutes were up.

She still had some time.

“So are you,” Cter told with a loose point at Rasliela’s chest. “You’re partly a fusion as well. If not from your own grandfather then from the Second Fusion’s influence. Tainted by it and–”

“Cter.”

The Monster Mage met the ice-blue eyes staring hard at her with her own disappointing ones. Her forest-green eyes became partly hidden by her disappointed eyelids sinking halfway down. “Now it’s too much?” Cter asked the Royal Mage of Ice. “Now it’s too much with what I’ve said?”

Terri knocked a knuckle against the glass container. “It’s dead now,” he remarked while pretending that he hadn’t heard what Cter had asked. “It hasn’t been moving since it fell off the wall.” With his knocked knuckle he angled up the side of the glass container to prompt any new reaction, but the piece only slid without anything happening as it collided with the container’s wall.

So it died before the ten minutes were up? True, she did conjure up the hourglass after she had sliced the piece off her hand, so the ten minutes for the piece wasn’t the same as the ten minutes for the hourglass. There was more time left in the hourglass than had passed between the slice and the hourglass magic though.

A good sign which Cter wasn’t going to think much more about since it meant that it took time for new White Flesh to grow as prominent as the White Flesh that was already there. If that was the case then perhaps she could find a way to nullify it growing more prominent? Perhaps even prevent it from taking over more of her hand? And maybe even take back her hand?

Her thoughts sloshed in her head as she shook it dry from her swimming thoughts. “Good to see,” she said with a strong, orange glow casting sharp shadows on her face from her white-fleshed hand. The fire magic shone through the White Flesh, again almost like honey.

Honey-like fog held captive within a thin layer of two-sided barricade magic, letting through only the dancing light from the fire magic intent on leaving nothing within the glass container. Like a half-chopped onion dropped into a pot of stew, Cter let her fire magic fall from her white-fleshed hand into the glass container, engulfing its inside with a turbulent and roaring blaze which had the container shaking as if someone had slammed their fist into the table it stood on.

Cter looked through the upper half of the back of her hand covered in the White Flesh. With the roaring blaze shining through it she could see no indication that her hand had been sliced. There was no scarring, no wound, no crust. Only a uniform and orange-tinted white moving the same as a lake’s surface without any wind.

“You may go now,” allowed Cter to Rasliela while the magical blaze simmered down. “Your fusion-touched soul isn’t contagious. Take that however you want.” If the old mage had that to think on then she wouldn’t say something as Cter then turned to Terri. “For how long will I have to be confined to the house?”

The Royal Mage of Ice exhaled long out his nose. His hand came up to comb at his hair, crunching the ice-frosted tips with a handful of snow falling off his hand as he whipped it clean. “I don’t know,” he stated with an equally unknowing shrug. “It depends on how long it takes for me to not doubt you again.”

Cter looked to the glass container with a hot shimmer oozing out of it like a smoke-less chimney. “And that will be a while, won’t it?”

“That it will.”

Answered Rasliela.

“That. It. Will.”

Chapter Text

It took three and a half months for the human-monster war to reach Soul’s School.

One and a half month for the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr to travel from the site of the Second Fusion’s creation to the nigh-abandoned institution.

And two months for the tension between the Royal Mages and the Monster Mage to snap and break the flimsy trust that kept the war at bay.

“You still doubt me?”

Another three months or so had passed since then. The spacious rooms of the two-storied house Cter was confined to had become smaller and smaller with each day that had passed. After one week she moved the comfortable chair she had read leisurely in to a more effective spot in the study.

It had stood in the cozy place next to the fireplace she had let burn as humanely as possible for enough time to have made colored dents in the floorboards. Understandably so, as during the winter months the Monster Mage had very much enjoyed listening to the cracks and sparks from the fireplace calm her mind and soul down from the day’s research.

After a week spent having to do her research in the two-storied house though she had begun to feel that she needed to have that comfort when she was working to. To help her focus and to make it so that she didn’t just declare it all useless and give up on it all. The one-sided barricade magic helped since it was something new and something substantial she could work with. The range of her work needed more space than the small study meant mostly to prepare the occasional guest lecture provided for her though.

After two weeks spent having to do her research in the two-storied house the Monster Mage came to realize that she was trading the comfort of being able to completely move her mind and soul away from her research at the end of her confined days with having those confined days feeling just a bit less worse than how they’d otherwise feel.

Unfortunately it was not a trade she could undo as she had come to associate the cozy chair with doing research. It had become something she associated with doing work rather than relax in. Work that each day felt more and more like it was because of reasons of war and not reasons of furthering the knowledge of the human soul. Each new clue she found about the Soul Rainbow brought with it a small cloud of miasma hanging over the clue.

How could she use this to help the monsters win the war?

“I still doubt you, I’m afraid.”

How could she use the clue to defeat the humans?

She did not enjoy those clouds, yet as much as she tried to swat them away they kept coming back. Each time she tried to read the clue in a way that wouldn’t at all be relevant to the war the miasma still clouded her mind and had her think of how she would be able to utilize a clue akin that perhaps the Soul Rainbow was worshiped on Sundays to bring utter defeat upon the humans!

An all-out attack when they are most vulnerable on Sundays due to a long-forgotten religion!

Or something like that…

While she knew that the ideas were stupid they were also loud. They were there, and always there. A constant niggle. A constant thought and hum that she could not shake no matter how much she summoned a bubble of one-sided barricade magic around the miasma to try and prevent it from reaching her mind and soul.

She had hung onto those straws she had been reaching for so hard to find out more about the Soul Rainbow that even the faintest thought of how the next clue could bring victory to the war meant something to her. She had made mounds out of pebbles so many times during her relatively short time at Soul’s School researching the Soul Rainbow that it had become habit for her.

“More or less than yesterday?”

Funnily enough though, the best solution she found was to do more work. Do more research so that the miasma was drowned out. Read more old texts. Contemplate how to make the next pebble into another mound so that the miasma cloud was hidden behind it. Do more magic to busy her soul.

It took the Monster Mage a few weeks to become adept with the one-sided barricade magic with it being all that she could focus on. Similarly to how ice magic and fire magic were not the opposite of each other, but two different types of magic who just happened to be opposite in the temperature sense, two-sided barricade magic and one-sided barricade magic were two types of magic which happened to do the same.

Sund’s discovery of two-sided barricade magic was connected to how he discovered his own magic. With him having both Priestess Frioke’s and Sir Gerson’s influences within his sleeve he could see two sides of a situation. He could be in two minds about how he summoned his magic and also how he projected it. Prompted by Priestess Frioke, but projected by Sir Gerson, for an example. This gave him more insight into what it meant to be a Monster Mage. What it meant to be a monster with a human’s soul and visage.

And more importantly, how to separate the two.

Sund’s two-sided barricade magic was that of separation by having a distinct difference between two concepts. One side in one hand and another in another, separated from each other. That became his own magic. One there and another here.

That became his barricade magic.

Yet despite all that separation he became something that could not be separated into either human or monster. He became something that was distinguishably indistinguishable from either monster or human. He became part of the First Fusion.

Which was how Cter inherited his barricade magic.

Not via his influence, even though Cter told everyone else that in hopes that she would start believing it herself. She did have some quote-unquote help with it though as the First Fusion could not let her bleed out from the carves it had inflicted on her left arm. Maybe her soul got used to it, maybe it didn’t, but how she came about the two-sided barricade magic for her to use were through fear. Fear about the First Fusion taking her over and about the White Flesh on her hand taking over more and more of it.

Her crystal magic did not work to separate as the First Fusion was already aware of that as it carved itself upon her left arm. She needed something new to her, and that was the barricade magic. She found it at the same destination that Sund did, but her road was different. It had been paved slightly by him though, probably with some flowers on the edges too. She would call hers differently. Sund’s was barricade magic, and hers would be barrier magic. It was different enough to be called differently. It was different enough that she could finally stop sullying Sund’s legacy.

God…

“The same as yesterday.”

Cter did not wish him back though, for what was the world that he would return to? A world where the world was separated between humans and monsters not because of an understanding in how the human soul differed from the monster soul, but instead due to how the human spirit differed from the monster spirit.

The monsters had always known the fear of being powerless against something and lived with it and flourished despite it. The humans had never really known that fear, and once it came knocking as hard as the Fusions did, it all became ablaze. Too much in too short a period of time. It was understandable that the humans reacted the way they did.

But that didn’t mean that Cter agreed with it.

“Same as the day before yesterday as well?”

Cter’s one-sided barrier magic was similarly found in relation to the concept of a human soul fusing with a monster soul.

Hers and Idyll’s.

They didn’t become a fusion together though, but it did let Cter find a way to make a different type of barrier magic. She had managed to make Sund’s two-sided barricade magic one-sided, but that meant her breaking the two-sided barricade magic in a rather explosive and unsafe way. It was a proof of concept that unfortunately had her confined to the two-storied house afterwards, but it was proof enough that it was possible.

To begin with she had first to understand what the two-sided barricade magic was, and what made hers different from Sund’s, if it was different to begin with, which it eventually became. A few days of quiet and respectful remembering about Sund and his barricade magic had Cter figuring out what separated hers and his barrier magic in her mind and soul.

Whether is was true or not did not matter. As long as she had an idea how to separate the two then she could work with it. It paid respect to her view of Sund’s barricade magic too by managing to put her barrier magic in one hand and his in another, making them distinctly different from the other.

And while thinking back on it, that faithful night sprung to Cter’s mind. Thinking about the concept of the fusion with Idyll in the back of her mind it was inevitable, really.

But not that it would hint at her barrier magic being possible to do one-sided.

For Idyll’s soul was trying to absorb Cter’s soul, wasn’t it? It tried to take in what was human into what was monster, but not giving anything back. It was unlike the Cooperative Connection. There wasn’t any communication, no dialogue between the souls. Cter might have experienced Idyll’s memories, but she did so as her soul was being siphoned away from her. It wasn’t Cter’s soul being given the memories of Idyll’s soul. The process was one-way.

Instead of two hands holding separate in each, the two hands were connected together by arms and shoulders. There could be a transfer between the two. One could go to the other one, for they were connected. Both could go in one hand or they could go in the other. This might have been something minuscule from the outset, but it wasn’t in how Cter sought it. If she saw it different, if she thought of it different, then she could manifest it different.

By channeling that inequality and exposing and focusing on the imbalance the Monster Mage managed to put a twist on the magical balance she needed to summon her magic. She needed it to be both human and monster to manifest it. It still had to adhere to the concept of the Cooperative Connection. However though, like Rasliela had scorned her about, she could put all the weight on one end of the seesaw. Make the barrier magic considerably human or considerably monster. Human being weighted much more inside, such as the human soul. A monster’s soul is their exterior, what they show to the outside world.

When it finally clicked for her she found it as easy to summon her newly found one-sided barrier magic as it was for her to summon Sund’s two-sided barricade magic. While they were different in concept and underlying thought and purpose, their executions were the same. It was similar to how Idyll adapted quickly to Terri giving her advice about her ice magic.

“You know that full well without asking already.”

With the one-sided barrier magic Cter was allowed to use her magic more freely than what the Royal Mages had told her she had to confine herself to. Not allowed from them though.

For they did not know.

Or at least, they didn’t know enough to have grounds to doubt her more about it. Cter’s one-sided magic kept her magic and aura within it without any spillage outside of it. She could have done the same type of magic that had her accidentally creating one-sided barrier magic by force and none outside the barrier magic would have been the wiser had they not been looking. All of her magic was kept inside like the roaring boil within a lidded pot.

Which was a problem.

A problem with a simple solution, but a problem nonetheless. If all of her aura disappeared then that would raise suspicion, and did so the first time she summoned her newly formulated, one-sided barrier magic around her to test it out. It looked the same as the two-sided barricade magic, albeit with a slight warp while looking through it. A bit like how when looking at your arm dipped into a lake your arm looked to have shifted when underwater.

Such wasn’t the case with the two-sided barricade, and Cter hypothesized that it was due to the change in the thickness of the barrier, so to speak. The two-sided barricade was like a window pane, equally thick throughout. The one-sided barrier in contrast was like a piece of armor when monster-weighted, soft on the inside and hard on the outside, and vice versa if it was human-weighted.

When she stuck her arm through the one-sided magic her arm visually shifted very similar to how it was when dipped underwater, but at an even sharper angle to the shift. It looked to be broken with how much it was visually bent. As she dragged her arm back she could also confirm that all of her had to go through the one-sided barrier magic for her to be on locked out on the other side.

All of her physical body, to be more precise, as she could not return through it by holding on to a long stretch of crystal magic sticking through the barrier magic. She performed quite a few similar tests to see if she could cheat that rule in some way. If her magic was supposed to be an extension of her soul then why did the one-sided barrier magic not count her magic as an extension of her soul.

Her clothes did seem to continue through with her as if they were a part of her body which was grounds for thought as well. Perhaps it was similar with how healing magic only worked so far as the soul saw the body? All of what the soul thought of was the body had to pass through for it to be blocked outside?

All that experimenting with her new magic got the attention of the two Royal Mages who felt her aura come about and then disappear like someone reigniting and blowing out a candle repeatedly. While they did not fully believe her explanation of it being because of her attempts at sealing away her own soul to help her find the Soul Rainbow, they did not believe it less enough to say that she was lying about it.

“Shouldn’t you be asking me the same?”

Because for the most part the Royal Mages seemed content with leaving Cter alone in the two-storied house. Weeks could pass without them visiting and checking to make sure that she wasn’t doing something she shouldn’t, enough time that Cter once or twice almost began to believe that they had just forgotten her. She never took those beliefs to soul though as again escaping would make things worse for the monsters. She did not know where the Royal Guards that had been with her at Soul’s School were. She did not know where the war was taking place.

Hell, she did not know anything about the war, really.

And if there was anything that worked from the Royal Mages’ tactics to keep Cter as a prisoner, then them keeping her in the dark about the war they were very effective in doing.

To her it felt the same as the human-human war. There was a similar apathy towards it from the Fourth Monster Mage. Something that she knew was important and impactful on paper, but something that had never jumped out of said paper and affected her personally.

All what led up to the war she knew about intimately. She was there with each step from the First Fusion to the Princess of the Lineage declaring her intentions at the Council of Three Countries. With the human-human war though she heard the Xoff King talk about how he was to go to war.

And then he went to war.

And Cter went the other way.

How was she supposed to feel anything personal about a war that wasn’t about her and which she had been deliberately sent away from? That it then shifted its tide violently to become a human-monster war was something that was told to her and not her experiencing it. There were no heartstrings to pluck because she wasn’t connected to it at all. Her fellow monsters were killed each day while she sat in her comfortable chair researching.

Each time she went to make a sandwich for lunch there were monsters becoming dust on the battlefield. Humans invaded monster villages and occupied with a constant vigilance and fear that at any moment there could be formed another fusion which the humans wouldn’t be able to prepare for, all the while

Cter spent another day being a prisoner in a comfortable, two-storied home. At night both sides worried what the other would do. What the next day would bring and the horrors they would face. Cter often thought about both the humans and the monsters as she prepared for bed. What they felt and how they would feel come morn.

Yet she slept unburdened and serenely all into morning.

“If I should have then I would have already.”

Because it wasn’t her war.

None of it were, not with her where she was.

Even if the Royal Mages would have updated her on the goings-on of the war. Even if they had read out loud the names of each monsters that had been killed in the war it wouldn’t have been any different to Cter. She could not get emotional over something she had no emotion towards to begin with. Had there been any news about those she knew of then that would have been different, but otherwise it would just have been numbers, really. Names next to numbers.

Not much different than the old recipe books she had scoured for clues about the Soul Rainbow.

Cter cared more about sugar measurements than she did about monsters dying in a pointless war fueled by the dry tinder of fear.

And she did not find that strange.

Even though she knew that she should have.

If it was because she had given up or because there wasn’t anything left but apathy and tiredness against the goings-on in the world which she had been pelted with for years upon years, Cter did not want to find out. It was what it was.

And it was war.

Apparently.

“Good thing you didn’t then.”

Maybe she became so adapt so quickly with her one-sided barrier magic because it helped her shut everything out? Inside her barrier there wasn’t a war in the distance, for it was blocked. There weren’t any Fusions, for they were blocked outside the barrier as well. There weren’t any humans. There weren’t any monsters.

It was just her, in her own, quiet place made from her own magic. It was the same as her sinking into the world below the lake’s surface, but she could be there longer. She could be there for as long as she wanted, all alone and with no one to disturb her. Just her and her soul, with no one else to interrupt them.

“How do you mean?”

Except for when they did.

“Exactly as I say.”

For when Cter was taken away from the two-storied house and placed in a carriage guarded by humans wearing long, sleeve-less robes with widened shoulders to hide their arms and their intentions. For when she was given a wide-brimmed, pointy hat similar to Rasliela’s to hide who she was, the tired cloak to hide her Monster Mage clothes reminded her more of an old rug than anything else.

“It was not our choice for this. You know that to be true, Cter.”

There were no other carriage meant for the Royal Guards that had traveled to Soul’s School with Cter. There was only the one meant for her and the Royal Mages which was meant for transport. The other four in the convoy were guards and soldiers.

“Yet still you doubt me.”

She knew where she was to be taken, yet did not know where that was.

“Yet still you doubt us as well.”

She knew why she was taken there, yet did not know the reason for it.

“I’m half-human, after all.”

She was going to war.

“That you are...”

But still wouldn’t be a part of it.

Chapter Text

An abrupt stop had the brim of Cter’s pointy hat sliding down over her eyes. Her crystal brooch underneath ripped through the fabric, leaving a hanging flap that exposed what it was supposed to hide. Before the Monster Mage could realize that her lumbar was hurting from the sudden lurch there were hurried footsteps outside the carriage closing in on the door. It opened with a hasty tug, and a fair-skinned soldier entered with his head nodding at the Royal Mage of Ice to follow.

“Seems that we’ve arrived.”

As Terri stood up with a long steps towards the carriage door Cter glanced out the window as best as she could from underneath her hat. Its brown rim blended in with the myriad of trees outside. Only trees with nothing to indicate that it was a spot one should stop at.

“Where are we?” the Monster Mage asked with a grimace at the end as her lumbar managed to make itself known to her. She stretched it out, feeling her hat press against the top of the carriage. From the time they’d spent traveling Cter reckoned that they were somewhere deep in Monster Country. Where though exactly she did not know as the curtains had been closed throughout the entire journey.

Once or twice she could guess somewhat based on the smell of Golden Flowers, but the time between those guesses weren’t how she remembered from her many earlier trips. Either that meant that the convoy had to take different routes due to fear of being attacked by the monsters, or they did not want Cter to know where they were going. Both were a possibility as well.

Especially since she was meant to be a bargaining chip.

There was really no other reason for her to have been taken away from Soul’s School and for the humans to have made such a secret operation of it all. How secret a four-piece security convoy really was wasn’t for her to judge though, but the air of it all was that they did not want Cter to know where she was taken or that others would know that it was her being transported.

It wasn’t as tense as the air inside the carriage though.

Days passed before a single word was said between the three mages. Days passed before someone broke the tension and asked if there was anything they could do to make the travel more comfortable for the Monster Mage. A rather tone-deaf question to ask days into the forced journey. “You could start by creating a Third Fusion so that these humans have similar fear to their fellow soldiers lest they actually have a modicum of humanity against the monsters.”

The question wasn’t as tone-deaf as the answer was though.

After that, the carriage remained silent for the remainder of the journey barring the efforts of the large wheels hurrying over varying types of roads. From dirt to bricked to dirt again the days turned to weeks to then reach over a month on the constant move. Even during the stale nights the convoy kept moving, stopping only to switch horses and restock provisions. After a month on nothing but rations and water Cter had begun to forget what taste actually was. Something long forgotten and spoken only by those that had enough will and strength to believe.

Maybe she could have added some magic to her rations to at least give it some texture, and which she almost did before she could feel the carriage slow down as she let her magic begin to form. Same did the hats of the two Royal Mages lift up as the Monster Mage’s aura collected. She had been forbidden to use any of her magic.

For her own sake.

Similarly to how she had been confined to the two-storied house.

For her own sake, and her sake was the monsters’ sake too. If she was meant as a bargaining chip like she believed that she was then stepping out of the non-magical line that she had been told to stand on would have made whatever bargain she was supposed to be chipped in for worse for the monsters. It would not have made her less worth for the monsters, but less worth for the humans.

Not less worth in what they would want to have the monster equate in the trade, but less worth in their willingness to give the monsters fair terms. Negotiation meant dialogue, and dialogue meant that the monsters could be equal to the humans. If Cter acted out of order then there would not be any negotiation.

So she still had to play to their trust. Still had to play their game until she had a chance to show them that the monsters still needed to be respected.

Not feared.

Respected.

For as much catharsis it would have brought Cter to make a full display of her magical prowess that would have made her entrance at Fenkeep Castle look like a Soul School’s first-year’s feeble attempt at magic, it would have only been that. It would have only been catharsis and nothing substantial. What she needed was substance. What she needed was to make herself trustworthy and worth more to be negotiated for. She would have to compromise herself for the chance of compromise.

“Cter?”

The Monster Mage blinked out of her thoughts to find Terri stood between her and the soldier that had opened up the door. Between his wide hat and shoulder she could see the edge of a spear flashing in the dancing splotches from the thick crowns of leaves above. Sun cats danced around her, slashing through her vision. She checked her pocket.

But found none there.

“It will be a bit of a walk,” the Royal Mage of Ice explained as Cter heeded the flashes from the displayed spear and followed outside the carriage. Flanked on each side were humans dressed in the same intent-hiding garbs as the one that had opened the carriage door. Once Cter was completely surrounded by the guards Terri continued. “And it’ll be a walk only you and I walk.” He threw an authoritative glance at one spear beginning to angle down towards the Monster Mage, straightening its blade up again. “You’ll be good on the way, won’t you, Monster Mage?”

Cter didn’t answer at first, instead she tried to make any form of eye contact with any of the humans around her. She wanted to see if they had fear in their eyes. She wanted to see if that fear was because she was the Fourth Monster Mage or if it was because she was a monster only. It would have given her a clue as to what she was being bargained for.

If the soldiers knew then the fear would have been more about her rather than what she was. If they knew then whatever negotiation that was to unfold with her as bargain wouldn’t have been as important as she initially thought. If it was safe to tell what the negotiation was about then it wasn’t important.

“Answer, Monster Mage,” said a raspier voice from behind. “There is a monster village nearby. It is out of our way, but if you can afford to stall for time, then so can we.”

Cter turned around to–

“Keep that head looking forward, Monster Mage,” Rasliela interrupted with her raspy voice harsh to show that she meant what she had said. “Answer the Royal Mage of Ice, and not me. Keep your left arm at your side as well. There is no magic necessary for you at the moment.”

That so, Royal Mage?

The wide-brimmed hat angled up with a jolt that broke loose the folded arms that the old mage had tightened over her chest. She met the Monster Mage’s fully turned eyes staring confidently at her along with the rest of her fully turned body. “There is no magic necessary for me at the moment?” the Monster Mage repeated like poison from her tongue while lifting up her left arm with its naked carvings for all to see.

A soft, gentle glow bathed around her arm held up with rebellious pride for the old mage to bask in. Faintly, it illuminated within the shadow of the wide-brimmed hat, showing wrinkles not from age, but of expression. “No magic necessary for me to summon forth?” The Monster Mage’s words were slow and articulate, with each word being a challenge towards the old mage.

A challenge that the old mage accepted.

“Guard,” she addressed to the one stood closest to Cter with a direct point of her finger. “Please lower the Monster Mage’s arm.” Her attention drifted back to the defiant Monster Mage. “Seems like our doubts have been made manifest.”

Cter was thankful for Terri slipping up and giving Cter free rein to do whatever she wanted. He had told her that it was just going to be him and her that would walk towards wherever the negotiations would take place in an effort to make sure she stayed calm. She wouldn’t have to worry about the guards or Rasliela, was his intent.

But not in the way he meant for it to be.

Terri was understanding. He had done all that he could to make sure that Cter was treated more as a priority rather than a prisoner. He had been fair when the world was unfair. Had it not been for him then Cter and Rasliela would have had things escalate at Soul’s School. He was the one to make sure that Cter had it comfortable. He did not see Cter as an enemy, but as a friend on the other side of the deep, vile line in the sand that had been slashed between them.

And that Cter could use.

“What the!” was coughed as a startled yelp from the pointed-at guard recoiling his spear against an invisible force around the Monster Mage. The bounce from him trying to put down his spear in front of the Monster Mage rung out like a struck wine glass. Rippling distortions flowed out from the impact, fading in its wavy pattern as it ran down the length of the Monster Mage’s body. The challenging eyebrow raised in defiance behind the one-sided barrier magic keeping the Monster Mage safe held strong against the growing whispers surrounding her.

“I only answer to monsterkind, Royal Mage,” said Cter, reveling in Rasliela’s increasingly shocked posture. Her voice traveled clearly out the one-sided barrier, with no muffling effect to it whatsoever. Cter could see that Rasliela noticed. She could see the uncertainty on her face despite it being shrouded in shadow.

“I only answer to those I have sworn to protect. Do not try and hold sway from where you stand, Rasliela. You speak of humans being so much more powerful than monsters, yet you capitulated immediately as the war that you yourself thrust upon this world began, whereas the monsters are still fighting the war that has been thrust upon them through humanity’s failure to cope with their fear.”

With her robe sweeping behind her, Cter turned with her left arm leaving a glowing, horizontal trail behind it. Using a small coating of stasis magic she kept her plain robe from settling as she stood facing the many soldiers surrounding her with spears held insecurely towards her. Finally, the Monster Mage kept her neck slightly bent down so that her eyes and face were hidden, only coming into view as she raised her left hand spread out in front of her face.

“I am Cter!” she declared loudly, shattering her barrier magic with a powerful gust of wind that had her loose fabric waving like a stoic flag. “The Fourth Monster Mage of Jarasevo!” The windy blast knocked away the unsure-held spears from the soldiers’ hands, raining down like twigs and bouncing on the ground with a sound akin to a novice percussionist.

Amid the loud drizzle of spears was a sound that had Cter’s soul feel warm and comfy. She didn’t even have to look behind her to see as it was loud enough for her to not be mistaken in the slightest. “Stay inside, Princess,” Cter advised condescendingly to the shut carriage door behind her. “You’re too old for this.”

She managed one catharsis-filled step before a thought struck her hard. “And you!” she said to the human soldiers reeling from the magical gust that had knocked them all unbalanced. “Should one of you follow the Noitaidarr Royal Mage’s threat about the nearby monster village then best believe that I will rain upon you fury that will strike you in ways you may never be able to imagine!”

With a wide-swept arc of her arm Cter launched a handful of pebble-like fireballs around her which landed on a dropped spear each, engulfing the wooden poles in blood-red blazes. “Go home to your families!” An army of shadows walked with Cter as she passed through the startled soldiers. “And forget about this pointless war.”

The many small fires flickered in the Royal Mage of Ice’s eyes as Cter neared him standing with a rigid posture at the side of the dirt road at the beginning of a small path barely wide enough for one to walk on. Shrubbery and bushes reached over the path, hiding it from all but those who knew that it was there already.

Terri looked over Cter with a sigh as she stopped in front of him which perpetuated through his shoulders, sinking down his arms. His head shook disappointingly, and he turned in towards the path as if completely ignoring Cter presence at all. “Couldn’t leave well alone, could you?” he asked in front of him, forcing Cter to walk into the question to hear it.

“She threatened the monsters I’ve sworn to protect,” answered Cter in front of Terri so that he would have to walk into it as well. “Leaving well enough alone would mean leaving the village to her whims, of which I trust none of.”

“Trust,” repeated the Fenkeep Royal Mage disappointingly. “You’re not the one to speak about trust right now, Cter.” It was difficult for him to keep his anger subdued. “You’re not the one who should speak at all right now.”

He was most likely correct in that.

“I’ve been quiet for too long, Terri.”

It wasn’t a good excuse, that she knew, but Cter had been sitting still and quiet for over a month straight. She could feel her legs remembering how to walk properly with each step she took. In truth she should have made a magical cane like Rasliela’s to check for roots in front of her, but Cter had hope in her heart and soul that she had seen the last of that old mage for the rest of her life.

Whichever one’s ends first.

“None have spoken up for the monsters for too long,” the Monster Mage continued after brushing a leaf-covered twig away from her face. “It has been all too quiet on that front, the one that matters. The only real front that has been in this war.” That there was the prospect of negotiation meant that Sir Gerson’s tactic of never giving the humans the opportunity of a traditional war had worked to great effect.

From the very start when he was helping build up the human country’s armies he had made sure that they focused on their armies being well-equipped to fight against the other human army on big battlefields with the two stood on either side in the morning and then retreating for the evening. None of that Sir Gerson had let the humans have though which meant that negotiations were necessary.

And that monsterkind had a chance to steer the war for the first time since it started.

“You’re as much a stranger to this war as I am, Cter.” The Monster Mage stopped as she walked into that tired sentence, as did the Royal Mage as the sounds of perturbed shrubbery stopped as well. “You don’t know anything of it, so whatever it is you think you know you should keep a reminder on that it is just a guess from someone who hasn’t seen or experienced anything about the war.”

A small snowfall descended from his frozen hair as it scraped against a branch hanging over him while he turned his head over his shoulder. The bright-blue of his eyes were friendly, but only barely. There was a lot going on behind them, and Cter got the feeling that he said what he said more to help him rather than help her. “Just some advice, is all.”

Another small snowfall danced down from his orange hair, landing and melting onto some leaves at his shoulders’ height. His steps began anew, but Cter stood for a few seconds, thinking. When she reached the end of what she could think she decided to ask. “And how good is that advice if you just said that you’re as much a stranger to this war as I am?” A low-hanging cone fell off after Cter lifted her arm through its branch towards the Royal Mage’s back. “Even more so since you haven’t seen or felt a Fusion. How would you know?”

A sigh had a bent branch whipping loose from the Royal Mage’s sinking shoulders. With his hand massaging his forehead Terri turned fully towards Cter, gesturing for her to sit down before remembering where the two were. The Monster Mage caught herself moving her left arm behind her to conjure up a magical chair, but decided against it at the last moment.

“Because as it stands I am the only royally appointed mage who’s soul has not been touched by a Fusion. I am the only one with a clear view of things. I am the only one that hasn’t had that horror directly influence me and my soul. Mine is a perspective that is necessary for this war to end.”

So Kry, Kurant, Lerljung, Manny, and Rasliela were all present when the Second Fusion was formed was what Terri was saying. Or to be more precise, it was what Cter heard Terri say. That was what Cter got out of him sighing dramatically with an implication that he knew more having not seen anything. That he was lecturing Cter about not knowing while not knowing himself.

“There are things in the world one should not know, and the fear of seeing and feeling a Fusion is one, if not the prime example of such.” Terri blinked for eye contact before immediately blinking it away. “It changes a person even if they don’t realize it themselves. They may be able to live with it, but they can’t tell that they have changed because of it. It only takes a few days of a nasty cold for one to forget how it was to be able to smell things and taste food. It changes the person, if only temporary for the remainder of that cold. With a Fusion-touched soul though...”

The Royal Mage’s words hung in the dense forest for a short while before he managed enough strength to look the Monster Mage in the eyes.

“With a Fusion-touched soul the cold never leaves. The cold never weakens, and instead it is the soul that changes so that it feels less to the human. We know that the soul can adapt, we’ve seen it happen with each new generation of human mages being more powerful than the one before. We’ve seen it with some human mages having their eye color gradually change as they accumulate years of being a part of their own Cooperative Connection. We have so many examples of it changing for the better, so that unfortunately means that it can change for the worse as well. It is the now more popular version of that Xoff legend about how the stars were formed in the night sky.”

Terri looked at an angle into the thick forest. “The Fourth Monster Mage I met at Fenkeep Castle wasn’t the same Fourth Monster Mage I saw at Noitaidarr Castle. It isn’t the same Fourth Monster Mage I am speaking to now. It isn’t–”

“We’re going to be late to the negotiations if we keep standing around talking, won’t we?” came a cold, direct interruption which was accompanied with an emotionless nod for the Royal Mage to resume leading ahead. “Go.”

The Royal Mage stood firm. “I will have the blame be put on me if that happens.” His attempt to persuade failed as immediately after hearing it Cter summoned a blade of crystal onto her left arm. With it she cut a path around the Royal Mage through the thick bushes. Even with her crystal-sharp magic it still required some effort from her as she trimmed the stems the same she had seen it be done in the Royal Garden at Jarasevo Castle. “It is for you that I say this, Cter.”

Sure.

Sure it was.

With a downwards flick the Monster Mage threw off her crystal blade from her arm down into the dark soil, sticking it deep enough to stand on its own. “It’s not far left, is there?” The blade dissipated with a quiet shimmer, letting free the few leaves that were stuck on to become fallen down. “Otherwise you would have dropped me off closer, wouldn’t you?”

A few seconds and steps passed before Cter heard the Royal Mage resume his walking. It wasn’t quick to catch up with her, instead he kept a respectable distance from her.

A distance he did not have to keep for long as Cter was correct in her guess. The path turned upwards with the surrounding forest becoming thinner and thinner as if the trees were stepping away to let the two mages through. Eventually the trees became sparse enough that Cter could see that she had walked up a hill.

She knew that she had been by the stinging in her legs, but the view confirmed it. A view that spanned wide and far with a pair of familiar mountains peeking their peaks just above the far horizon. They were close to the Xoff border, but exactly where along it Cter couldn’t make out from the view she was afforded to see.

Three hooded figures sat at a camp site, with two being human sized. The third figure was bigger, much bigger. At the bigger figure’s side sat one of the human-sized one who was the first to notice Cter and Terri exiting into the hilly glade. The Royal Mage took lead again, and the Monster Mage followed. As they neared the camp site, the lone human figure spoke from across the bigger figure and its human companion. “Looks like we can begin then.” He took off his hood to reveal that his royal presence. It was the Xoff king, sat alone on a tree log at a simple campfire.

“That we can,” replied the larger figure while taking off his hood to reveal his golden beard and snow-white fur. “My friend.”

The other human kept his hood on, but Cter still knew who he was. She recognized the glint in his aura. A glint that of the cut of a piece of broken glass. A glint that had changed him and his soul. Someone who had been the closest to a Fusion when it formed.

The first one he was close to.

“Singe my soul.”

But the second one he was the closest to.

“It’s Manny.”

Chapter Text

“I am glad that you are in good health, Cter.”

A few seconds passed by between the Monster King’s question and the answer from his Monster Mage. In the quiet meanwhile, the sparks from the ignited campfire shifted from magical to natural, snapping with loud cracks which sent small embers trailing through the tense air where they suffocated into nothing. Only when one stroked at Cter’s chin did one matter in the grand scheme of things, illuminating her deeply inquisitive expression that she had hidden within her given hat to hide who she was from the world.

She had not taken it off when she seated herself next to the Xoff king as both the Royal Mage of Ice and the Monster King had motioned for her to do. She found it useful to hide that she was looking at Manny rather than the Monster King which she should by all accounts have been looking at instead. He was her king who she hadn’t seen in many months, bordering a full year. He was bringing her home to Monster Country. He was there to negotiate her release. He was there for her.

Yet still he wasn’t who Cter paid attention to as the negotiations began. She could hear that they were pleasant which surely was due to the Monster King and the Xoff king being good friends, but the details slipped her by.

The war, prisoners of said war, lives lost, land lost, villages destroyed, and more just swept past Cter with less attention to them than the small ember that had briefly stroked at her chin. It didn’t take long before the veneer of two military leaders negotiating about the war faded away between the two monarchs. While the words became warmer, the air between them was still cold, even as the campfire gained more life from the winds rolling down the hilly glade.

“To believe that you and I would be sitting like this again, Asgore. I remember when you first invited me for tea when I was but a young prince of Xoff. My first official business as a representative of my people.”

What had Cter’s attention was the young mage sat next to King Asgore.

“It’s different from how when we used to sit like this though, I’m afraid. I am not sure if we can ever do it again the same as before. We aren’t the same kings, you and I. We’ve...changed.”

Yes, he had. The young mage had changed. His aura was different. Very much so. There was still the change in it from when he had managed to harness the true Cooperative Connection. He still wore Dr. Sallus’ influence on his sleeve, but from the feel of it he hadn’t...used it in a while?

It wasn’t locked away like how Rasliela had done with her grandfather. Dr. Sallus’ magic was still noticeably present within the young mage’s sleeve, yet...preserved? Stasis magic, in a sense, but not in more senses, used on the Monster Doctor’s presence within Manny’s sleeve, perhaps?

“We are kings, you and I. We need to do what is best for our people. This duty is above friendship, even if it is the deepest friendship any two could ever have. I would lay down my life for you, Asgore. and I wouldn’t hesitate to do so. However though, my life is needed for my regained people. I may choose to lay it down for you, but that would leave them without someone to help them cope with this raging fear they’ve all felt. This raging fear that I’ve felt too. I would lay down my life for my friend, but I can’t for someone who has my soul quaking with fear when I am near him. You feel it too, don’t you, Asgore? You feel my soul.”

Was there stasis all over his soul? Was that what was going on? Was Manny keeping his soul static and not able to express itself? That would explain why Dr. Sallus’ presence within his sleeve felt so different to the Monster Mage. If there wasn’t any change in the young mage’s soul then his magic would not activate, be it from the lie or the truth of the Cooperative Connection.

Even if he had managed to create his own magic his soul would have to move and change for it to make the own-made magic. Even more so since he would have to act both the monster and human part of the equation. His soul wasn’t moving though, yet it was still active. Manny was creating magic, but how?

“I feel a part of friend of mine that I have not felt before. I feel his fears spread out all around him. A fear that I can not agree with. A fear which presence I feel to be unjust. A fear which is pointed towards me and my people the same as a merchant’s sword is pointed towards a commoner because the burlap of their clothes resembles the burlap used to steal from a merchant.”

The king breathed deeply.

“It is a fear which might be true for the merchant with the sword, but only becomes true because the merchant has never had anything stolen from him before. He does not know how to wield the sword he assured himself he never needed to wield, and thus does not realize that he has already thrust it through the burlap he believed to prove responsibility and into the commoner’s chest. Dust is being spilled, old friend. Dust of my people I am sworn to protect. Their magic...”

It originated from within his chest the same as with all magic, but how it manifested was all throughout him, like a heartbeat that thumped everywhere on him. Only thumped too, without any silence between it. There was only the loud from a heartbeat with none of the pause to prepare for the next one. A constant inhale with no exhale, or was it vice versa? One could only hear the difference between the two as they went along. The rise of the inhale and the sink of the exhale weren’t present as there was nothing that changed. A constant tension, without any release.

“That you feel my soul is what keeps me from allowing myself to hear what you are saying, Asgore. I know I should trust you in this, as I’ve always done. With what I saw though… With that I felt on that day… I can barely speak of it without my entire being wanting to crumble away. What my entire being is has changed as well. There is a stranger within me that calls itself by my name. It speaks in my own voice and thinks as I do.”

There was a shiver to the human king’s hand that he stared at.

“This stranger though feels just like me. This stranger is me. A mirage within me that I can not blink away. A reflection of something that I should not have. Something that I am, but should not be. A second guess that always agrees with me, yet has me hesitating because it is always there. How can I know that I am myself if I don’t know what myself is? If this stranger within me is me, and he’s supposed to be the culmination of my entire being, then does that mean that I am a stranger to myself?”

It was strange, to say the least. At the same time it was fascinating to Cter. She had always been the one to twist the concept of human magic in ways not seen before. To be sat next to someone who mystified her with his human magic had her interest spiked. That it certainly was due to the Second Fusion did not mean much to her in the moment.

She knew that her sentiment would change about that once she found out fully why Manny’s magic was how it was, but that was for later. If that meant in a few minutes, a few days, weeks, months, or years she could not say for certain, although if she was allowed to brag a bit she was confident that she would have it figured out before the kings’ conversation was over. Whatever it was that they were talking about.

“You are a stranger to yourself because you know that this war is not a fair one. You feel like you are being second guessed because that is what you truly believe. Even if it agrees with you in the end it is because it is being forced to be as such. You fear your soul not because of the Second Fusion, but because you don’t understand who it is that you truly are. You don’t want this war, yet you continue it not because the Second Fusion scares you, but that you yourself scare you.”

How tired, the voice was.

“The fusions have brought out the worst of both of the races which it needs to consume, but you don’t see it as such. You see it as something us monsters have harbored in secret towards you humans. The fear of being afraid is what you fear, because you have not been afraid. Monsters have. For years uncountable we have known the fear that a single human child can bring down the entire monster race should something take it over and allow it to do so. We can explain that fear to you humans, but you won’t listen.”

Manny did not seem to be afraid of it, his magic. That told Cter quite a lot from just the outset of it. Suppose that this new magic of his was birthed in one way or another from the Second Fusion. It was a certain assumption that Cter could make from where she sat. Both just opposite of a campfire from Manny and also having had her own magic change drastically after an encounter with a Fusion. She knew what it meant to be the closest mage to a Fusion. She knew how it felt to have her soul ravaged by the tragic amalgamate both confused and dangerous. To Cter it became a reason to fear her own magic. A mountain to climb to come to grips with accepting that she had been scarred and to accept that.

“How are we to listen to those that tell us that a Fusion is nothing to fear? How are we to listen to those that tell us that a being who slashed through a platoon of soldiers with a single swipe is to be understood as if it is a being that can be reasoned with? A being that roared beastly but with a human’s voice? A creature that was too white to look away from and who’s magic cursed two armies, giving souls to those who hadn’t and an overpowering presence to those who had. You saw it, Asgore.”

The point from the human king was half scared.

“You felt it too, even at the distance you and your Monster Mages stood. Two armies, dedicated to defend their sides as only humans could be, falling over like wheat in a breeze. None were stood. None were silent. All of their collective voices did naught against the Second Fusion’s. Had it not been for it pausing to reach for those that it had killed we would not be sitting here. It would have continued until none were left alive. Asgore, you and I, the us that aren’t the same as the two kings that stood against the Princess of the Lineage, are still alive. The ones who we were are dead though, killed by the Second Fusion.”

It was not the same as what the Royal Mage of Ice had said though to Cter. It was...it was different. She wasn’t changed, instead she had learned. It wasn’t her becoming someone different. Cter was still her old self. She still enjoyed the quiet of the world below the lake’s surface, but she had learned to make that for herself with her one-sided barrier magic.

She had learned, not changed. She had become wiser to the world, and that it was a world that only became worse the more she became wise about it was not her own fault. She knew things that should not have been known, but she had used that knowledge to make something better. She had found a new type of barrier magic inside an old recipe book, dammit! Was that not proof enough that she had learned instead of having changed?

“We are not dead, old friend. We are still alive, in and despite of the Second Fusion. Its power is no more, only what we allow it to hold. It is dead, and we are alive. It killed monsters as well as humans when it was formed, and it took a monster and a human working together to kill it, same as what ended the First Fusion. What is being done today is not due to it. It is due to humanity. The dust that is spilled today, tomorrow, and the day after that is not due to the Second Fusion. It is what humanity blames their fear on. It is what they continue each day to punish my people for.”

King Asgore spoke as softly as he could.

“Children, families, old or young, all bear the sin of being a possible Fusion in the eyes of humanity. In the eyes of those that too have the potential to become a Fusion. My people are suffering the worst of fates because your people do not want to listen. You speak of the truth of the Cooperative Connection, holding it up as a beacon that monsters should not be trusted. You believe the truth to be that we have lied to you, but no. The truth of the Cooperative Connection has been that the two races have to work together to make a peaceful and prosperous world. The lie of the Cooperative Connection is the two races coming together to make the world a worse place for all. The lie of it are the fusions.”

So what was it that Manny had learned from the Second Fusion? What was it that he had learned to make and do with his magic? Could Cter put herself in the young mage’s shoes and soul and deduce from that what his magic was? To begin, from the First Fusion he had learned to utilize the truth of the Cooperative Connection. He was able to make magic by using Dr. Sallus’ memories in his sleeve not as something to ask for power from, but something to demand power from.

He had learned that there was no need for the emotion to be happy and constructive with the monster soul inside his sleeve. From that he could essentially make any magic he wanted without having to rely on the strengths of the monster’s magic. To him the monster memories within his sleeve were just a conduit for his soul to become external, for him to project his soul outwards as magic. He did not have to rely on his connection and thoughts about monsters being that of a cooperative nature.

Did that mean that he could have found strength from the Second Fusion? Could he have seen the terror and dread that befell him and the humans around him and found something to use from that? Did his mind about monsters become that of the complete opposite of cooperative? Did he...forget in that moment?

“Then those lies have done more in their two brief appearances than the truth has for the hundreds of years it has existed. A fire provides warmth, but it also burns. We thought that death was understood by the truth of the Cooperative Connection, but the Fusions have made it clear that we were foolish to think that. The Cooperative Connection made death not an absolute. It solidified a belief in that we could harness death and make something alive from it, fallen down and human magic. Like the Xoff legend of old about the human who took to the sky with his monster friend’s wings and became the stars as he fell down we made something wondrous with the Cooperative Connection.”

The conversation started to take a toll from both the human king’s breath and spirit.

“However, the legend also tells that the village was engulfed in flames as the human fell down covered in the feathers of his monster friend. It represents the Fusion. It is the other way death is not an absolute no more. A human’s presence can still linger after they die. They can become tinder for something that becomes alive through death from a human and a monster. The death of a human is no longer a final rest, but a threat that more death will follow after them. A miasma that lingers after their death which can kill more than any plague has ever done. A miasma that can infect monsters as well. That it was Dr. Sallus who was the first to fall to this miasma only makes it poetical in addition.”

But if he forgot then why was he in monster captivity? How did he end up on the wrong side twice? Firstly he must have gotten to the Second Fusion which was formed on the Xoff king’s side, and then he ended up with the monsters as a prisoner of war? It didn’t make sense for him to have been captured. How could he have been? Cter couldn’t think of any way that he could have been captured even with the Second Fusion stunning every human that saw and felt it. The monsters would have been even more stunned in its presence.

Stranger still was that he must have been allowed to do this strange magic of his while captured too. Kry and Kurant were not capable of barricade, nor barrier magic, but they still could have taken his sleeve from him, a luxury that the Royal Mages did not have with Cter. Really, with all of the caveats rummaging inside Cter’s head she could really only figure one possible explanation. However though, it was one she struggled to still accept. Manny...gave himself up to the monster side.

“You speak of the Fusion as monsters becoming more human. Of us becoming infected with miasma and infecting others around us. As if it is humanity that becomes at fault. That when humanity imitates monsterkind then that is for the better, but when monsterkind imitates humanity is where friction arises. Is it born out of this feeling of loss that has overwhelmed you? Of your belief that you were untouchable as a human? Of your belief that the human soul was something only to be sought after and never found now that we know what it is?”

King Asgore struggled to keep his words warm towards his friend of so many years.

“Are you afraid of yourself because you’ve learned more about who you truly are? Is it because monsterkind understands their souls that you find hostility against them? If we are comfortable with the strangers within us that fear our faces and speak with our voices, then can we really be trusted because we do not shun it? That magic has been tainted for you humans, and since we are made from magic that means that we are tainted as well?”

Still, it must be true. If Manny’s own soul and magic were tainted by the Second Fusion then he would not be able to find any help among those around him. Sarbor had tried but failed to cure the curse from the First Fusion within his own soul and the souls of the Hero of Xoff and his subordinates. The only one he knew of that had managed to understand the First Fusion and utilize it was...Cter. A monster. No human could possibly have been able to help him. All which could have possible helped him were affected and afflicted as well by the Second Fusion. Rasliela, Sarbor, his adoptive father.

All were touched at their souls by the Second Fusion as well, leaving his only hope with the monsters. In exchange for his surrender to the monsters did he ask for Priestess Frioke to help him come to terms with his changed magic? Was it with her help that his magic was what it was?

“I am scared, Asgore.”

How long had he been with the monsters then? As long as Cter had been at Soul’s School?

“I am scared too, my friend.”

A year then. A year to come to terms with what the Second Fusion had done to him.

“I do not know what fate awaits the monsters after this war. I do not know to what lengths us humans will have to go to rid ourselves of this fear of ours.”

A year of being a prisoner in the eyes of the war, but a year of effort to try and make it disappear.

“Neither do I, my friend. Even less than you do I know about what you humans will do to my people. Like with you I have a duty towards them. I need to protect them, but how do I protect them against what they always have known they can’t be protected towards?”

It seemed like Manny was more alike Cter than she previously thought.

“I do not know, Asgore. All that I can say for certain is that I am glad to see you again. Even if it is negotiating with us on complete opposite sides. A silver lining in all though, for at least we base it on a fair trade. A Monster Mage for a Monster Mage.”

More, more so than she thought.

Chapter Text

The voices of the kings filled the glade thicker than the forest around it. Same as the wind rolling down the hillside their words rolled down the gentle slope like boulders that collided with the sitting backs of the two Monster Mages sitting side by side with a pot of warm stew hovering on top of a small magical fire between them. The wind and the words of the kings had their robes reaching forward towards Mt. Ebott and Mt. Ymmet’s peeking peaks above the far horizon. Each of the argued words tapped at the Monster Mages’ backs like fingers wanting for them to turn around and be a part of the negotiations.

But they refused.

The distant sun casting its warm, late-afternoon glow was enough to remind Cter that the negotiations had gone on for almost the entire day. Enough to remind her that she wasn’t a part of the negotiations, but only a means for them to happen.

The Monster Mage that sat next to her had also come to that realization, and as King Asgore brought forth the large pot of stew to offer as a meal a few hours prior, the younger of the two Monster Mages had asked if it was possible for them two to eat without the kings. “We won’t escape, for that would only make worse.” He did not want to be near the kings though, that much was clear. He had something he wanted to talk with Cter about alone if possible.

She had something she wanted to talk with him about as well. However though, it was not something she wanted to start talking about on an empty stomach. Eating would do good for the two. Eating together would do better. The tense air that had built between the two warring kings might have been of a civil nature, but there were still tensions between the two. Cter could feel both King Asgore and the Xoff king’s souls as they went back and forth about how to put an end to the war between them.

They were sitting enough of a distance away from the campfire that their kingly voices bothered equally as much as the wind did. It had the two kings’ souls feeling faint as well. Still though the campfire was ablaze not with fire but with words, and the heat from which still reached the two Monster Mages even if it was only a warm breeze. They both knew that it would burn through the entire night if necessary.

A muffled crunch the Fourth Monster Mage heard through her hat which she still wore. She didn’t know why she hadn’t taken it off, only that she felt it appropriate somehow that she kept wearing it. Maybe she did because she still wanted to hide who she was since she was still in the custody of the humans. If that was so then her crystal brooch poking through the hole it had made in the pointy hat did little to hide her identity. Maybe instead it was because the brim of it covered her neck from the wind and the words tapping at her back to turn around. If so then it did its job very well.

Another muffled crunch brought the Fourth Monster Mage out of her thoughts. She carefully angled her wide brim up to look at the apparent Fifth Monster Mage with an unpeeled egg floating on some stew in the wooden spoon he brought up to eat. Cter could not feel the exact emotion in Manny’s aura as he bit down on it, but she could see on the slight shift in his expression that he was not fully accustomed to the texture. Still though he did not seem to be against it. He wasn’t used to it, but he could if he wanted.

And it seemed like he wanted.

“Took me quite a while to get used to it as well,” said Cter with a slightly nostalgic tone as she scooped up an egg from her bowl. The shell had turned a slight brown due to the stew and as she chewed the initial crunch she could appreciate how the taste had sunk into the shell. The crunch and bumpy texture of the shell complimented the smooth taste of the stew, bringing it together like a cracker with some cheese on top.

All that was needed additionally was some wine to heighten it, but Cter knew that she wasn’t in a position to ask for some aged Royal Purple as a prisoner of war. She hadn’t managed to push that far enough when she was at Soul’s School, so doing so as the two kings were negotiating was completely out of the question.

Cter had learned that she didn’t know as much as she thought she did, but at least she knew that for a complete certain.

“Eventually one day I found myself thinking that I had always enjoyed eggs like this,” said Cter after washing down the egg with some broth. “And later on I found myself wincing at the sight of humans peeling the egg.” There was no reaction from the Fifth Monster Mage. “That’s not to say that the shell is never not used. Pancakes and the likes shouldn’t really have pieces of broken shell within them. Besides, Barbeqa enjoys the taste of the shells so whenever she gets the chance to just use the inside of the shells she descends upon that recipe as ferociously as she likes to believe that we do when we eat the finished meal.”

The stew wasn’t made by her though, Cter could tell. It had been a long while since she last had some of Barbeqa’s cooking, but still she could tell by how it was subtle in its seasoning. Neither was it Idyll’s cooking, for the exact same reason. It had to be some field cook’s work that King Asgore had brought with him. Perhaps from that sheep cook Ramsejl? His brother Mooses as well?

Cter had seen them in the Royal Kitchen a handful of times, but not enough to get a feel for their cooking. She knew that they were field cooks though, and quite effective too since they were brothers working together. Sir Gerson said that food would be the one comfort should war between humans and monsters break out, and by the taste of the subdued stew it seemed like he was correct in that. The taste was melancholy in a warm and pleasant way, meant to be eaten around a campfire with those close to you.

Explained why King Asgore brought it with him then.

“Is there a way to eat it without it risking slashing at your tongue and gum?” was asked from within the Fifth Monster Mage’s purple hood. Manny tilted his head quietly over to Cter, but not enough to show his face clearly for her. To be fair, Cter was hiding hers as well, most likely for the same reasons.

Unfortunately Cter did not have another egg to demonstrate in her bowl so she had to scoop around with the ladle in the pot between them to find one. “The ways that I’ve done it is to either take bites out of it with the side of your mouth so that you crunch the pieces small immediately, or that you first have some soup or broth in your mouth then bite with your front teeth so that the bitten pieces lay themselves flat as they float on the soup or broth.”

One egg she found at stuck under some sunk vegetables and fished it up and out into her bowl. “Should go without saying that you’ll do best in beginning at the tip of the egg.”

Then why did she say it then?

“I see,” said the Fifth Monster Mage without much conviction in his voice. Almost enough to make it sound like he regretted asking, albeit not because of the answer he got. He still held his gentle tilt towards Cter, as if still wanting to talk with her, yet he couldn’t say much else. “Thank you.”

Cter knew that feeling all too well. “You want to talk about your magic, don’t you?”

Manny didn’t look away.

“You want to talk about it, but you don’t want to say anything about it.” The Fourth Monster Mage held out her left arm with its loose sleeve exposing the end of her magical carvings with their soft, white glow. “You want to talk, but you don’t want to explain.”

The Fifth Monster Mage looked away, turning his head towards a patch of the surrounding forest identical to any other patch around. Had he been looking over Cter’s shoulder in that vague direction he could have had the excuse that he was looking towards where the Royal Mage of Ice had turned back into the forest after some token arguing that he should stay as protection and or as a third, independent party. From how he formulated his token arguing it was clear that he did it just so that he could be ordered to leave to cover for himself against the other Royal Mage left sitting in the carriage.

“You’ll see your grandmother soon, Manny. You’ll be back with her again, I promise.” Cter managed to set aside enough of her disdain for the old mage to have her words be genuine for the young mage next to her. “I can tell that she has missed you. Unfortunately I haven’t been a good-enough substitution for her.” Her chuckle didn’t infect Manny, nor did it affect him too. “Not entirely her fault for that matter though.” The undertones that carried with the sentence were enough to become overly apparent. “Agreeing to disagreeing is the most we can agree on nowadays, I’m afraid.”

Amid the pause that folded itself over the two Monster Mages the voices of the kings up the hill managed to roll between them speaking of losses to trust. Like a snap of cold the words echoed inside Cter’s spine, and she had to warm herself with more stew to weather it.

“How did it feel for you when the First Fusion died?”

The warm stew turned into a fine mist that hung for a brief moment in the air before they were coughed away by the Fourth Monster Mage who had almost drowned herself due to the Fifth Monster Mage’s sudden, direct question. Between her uneven inhales the voices of the kings halted. The sound of metal cookery being handled followed soon thereafter, and as Cter regained her breathing she looked up the hill to find that the two kings had moved further up the hill underneath a lone aspen tree which they had settled at to continue their negotiations.

Their voices were fainter, but the weight of their words still tumbled down the hill like rocks. There was no moss settling in their conversation anytime soon.

“The First Fusion,” began Cter before forcing out a final cough to make sure she had it under control. “The First Fusion was killed by Sarbor, not me.” That Manny should have known already. “I was...I was surrendered under it when it died, willingly. For days I was apparently unconscious in the Hero of Xoff’s camp, and I do not remember anything from it. I–”

She...didn’t remember anything from it.

“I ask,” said the Fifth Monster Mage with his head still turned away. A small gust up the hill flicked at his hood, but Cter’s brow had sunk too much over her eyes for her to notice. “I ask because Sarbor could not explain how it felt in his soul. He could only explain how it felt physically to kill the First Fusion. It was...different from how I felt it. The way the Second Fusion died was...different from how the First Fusion died. The way I killed it was...different from how Sarbor did it.”

Cter did not remember anything after the First Fusion had imposed itself on her soul.

“It died not by its head being cut off, but from its connection to its soul being severed. I…” Difficult breaths fluttered the voice of the Fifth Monster Mage. “I remember how you had told that you did to give Sarbor a chance to slay it, and I...” The flutters became sharper and uneven. “I tried to give myself to it, but it did not want me. I could see that it made a choice. I saw it in its hollow eyes that it made a choice. I saw that it had thought and clarity within it in that moment. It did not want me, but why I could not understand.”

She did not remember when she had gotten her spiral lines on her sleeve.

“I still don’t understand! I still don’t understand why it was that the Second Fusion made that choice. I don’t understand how it made that choice. Were they still alive within it? Were they still...they? And not it? Could they think? Could it think? Could it feel? Plan? Make and inflict judgment on me?” Waves of deep, raspy inhales carried along with the Fifth Monster Mage’s lamentations. “It still haunts me when I try to sleep. I still don’t know if they were it or if it was they! I killed it, but did I kill the human and the monster that they were too?”

And she did not remember that faithful night. She only remembered what Idyll did from that night.

“It was why I came to you monsters. It was why I surrendered myself to your side, and to become one of you. All I received from the humans around me were praise and congratulations. All I received were them thanking me for stopping what hurt them. They could not explain what happened to me. All they could tell was what I had done. That I had killed the fusion. That I had killed it by making it fully monster as it began to absorb the dust and magic from the corpses it had created with its one, wide sweep. That I had looked into its eyes to determine when its soul had become fully monster, and then forced a Cooperative Connection on it, stealing that part of its soul away. My magic...it...”

His magic?

Cter looked up from her thinking. “Your magic?” Manny had stumbled into having to explain it. The stumble was painful though, and his voice had trailed off weakly. Cter had heard enough though through her thinking that she had a clue as to what it was. “You have sacrificed your magic, haven’t you?” Sacrificed it by taking all of what made the Second Fusion monster and contained it away from its human half. An inversion of how the First Fusion was killed.

How he described the Second Fusion looking and feeling like it gained sentience was similar to how Cter had experienced it with the First Fusion. Two times the world had been lucky enough that there had been a powerful mage nearby to have killed the Fusions before they could become accustomed to their fused souls.

There wouldn’t be a third time though, that Cter promised. Be it from the war or from it emerging where a Monster Mage wasn’t present, there wouldn’t be a third, lucky time for the world. It couldn’t. I just could not!

“You’ve made all of yourself the Cooperative Connection, haven’t you?”

Slowly and with fingers curling and uncurling, the Fifth Monster Mage reached for his hanging hood, grabbing at it only after managing to breathe in enough courage to take it off his head. The wind behind him fought against it, sending a huffed gust to try and push it back up again. He only managed to put his eyes into view.

“Singe my soul...”

But it was all that was needed.

“Manny...”

The face of the early adult had eyes sunken the same as they were when Cter had met him at Clinic Hill with Sund. Hollow and deep, speaking more than words could ever of what he had gone through. At the same time there was a glow to his eyes. A busy commotion that looked to drip like thick tears down his strong cheeks flush an even stronger red than what he had the last time Cter saw him.

Within the windows to his soul there was a white glow that Cter knew all too well. A white that overtook the color he was born with, leaving only his pupils as contrast in the snow-white fields. He could see through them, taking in every minute detail of Cter’s changing expression. The small pupils danced around so fast Cter thought that they would leave a trail through the white.

“It’s the same,” exhaled the Fourth Monster Mage in disbelief on her own left hand. “But yours...” she tried to continue, but failed. Her white-fleshed fingers collected into a strained fist hard enough that they began to deform within the protective shell of barrier magic. “Yours is inside of you.”

“No,” said the Fifth Monster Mage with the overwhelming white of his eyes closing shut. His gloved hand again closed over the lip of his hood, pulling it back slowly. “Not all of it.”

A startled flinch had the half-eaten stew flung out its bowl. Landing on its edge, the bowl rolled down the hill for a few lengths before the thickness of the grass toppled it over. It left the Fourth Monster Mage alone to make sense of the surge of emotions within her that became too much for her to hold in. Fear, sorrow, understanding, helplessness, mentorship, solidarity. All bubbled within her like an unwatched cauldron. All tugged her in different directions. Away from the young mage. Towards the young mage. She could not… She couldn’t…

“Damn it...”

But she had to!

“No!” blurted Cter in the middle of one of her startled inhales at Manny pulling his hood back up over his head. She had to pay back that interruption with interest, but when she regained her breathing, she reached out with her left hand. “Don’t.” She met the pair of pupils as if they were her own eyes. “Let me see it.”

It was easier to see a second time, but still it had Cter’s aura flush with emotions. “All over?” she asked through them indicating down the Fifth Monster Mage’s purple robe.

He nodded weakly.

“I see.”

And how could she not?

Magical lines ran over the young mage’s face like scar tissue, faded yet visible. A complex pattern that was more than the curved lines Cter had managed when she had used Dr. Sallus’ memories, indiscernible to make out both where it was flowing and how it had been weaved. It did not seem to pay any mind to the young mage’s facial features, instead going through the bridge of his nose and down across his blinking eyelid through his brow. Into his hair it went from his forehead, climbing up strands to survey where to go next.

Like the Royal Mage of Ice’s hair there was akin to magical dandruff that fell off as the wind navigated through the disheveled fringe, but instead of flakes of icy magic there were flakes of white that instead detached from the strands involved in the complex pattern. Finally the pattern ran down his throat, expanding and contracting with each hard swallow the young mage swallowed as he felt each point Cter inspected him intensely at. The pattern disappeared down the purple collar with a slight glow to show that it still indeed continued.

“Like veins,” commented Cter’s tongue without her asking it to. She caught it with a disciplinary bite, but soon released it as she heard that it had spoken wrong. “No, not veins.” Her head shook calmly. “They’re not veins.” She met Manny’s eyes again. “They’re chains.”

His closed amid his calmer nod. “I’m keeping it inside of me.” As he opened them again he found their reflection in the stew of the bowl he held. The reflection of the broth gave his eyes back some color, but not nearly enough as what he had lost. “And at the same time I am keeping it outside of me as well.”

“Outside your soul.” And of course if he could not use his soul he could not use any magic either. The Second Fusion within him was both fighting to break out of him and into him, which also explained why his aura was in a constantly excited state.

Had there been a sliver of its human part within the monster half Manny made a forced, stolen Cooperative Connection with, then it would have been able to use the Cooperative Connection with Dr. Sallus’ memories. Same as how the First Fusion used Cter’s carved-on Cooperative Connection to use barricade magic around her magical carvings so that she would not bleed to death. If the Second Fusion had gotten a hold of a mage sleeve that it did not have to keep from dying then who knows what type of magic it could have used!

Again, the world had been lucky twice already.

“I don’t remember anything from when it happened,” said Manny with a gingerly touch at his flush cheek. “The events that transpired I have only heard about. The events they told me didn’t help me understand. They could not help me.” His pupils looked down in shame. “So I...came to you. I came to you, and surrendered myself to the monsters.”

He then pinched at his purple collar, lifting it up slightly. “Enough to become one.” The pinch became a hard garb, squeezing tightly. “I don’t remember.” Viscous tears, diluted with the White Flesh, darkened the grabbed collar with small, oily streaks of white throughout. “But I want to forget.”

He didn’t remember…

“If only I could forget.”

“Yes,” nodded the Fourth Monster Mage with a glance at her left arm.

“If only you could forget.”

Chapter Text

“’Choo!”

An engraved handkerchief was offered by a large, white-furred hand to the Fourth Monster Mage. “Here you go, Cter.” Along with a heartfelt apology. “Please forgive that the negotiations took longer than expected. We should have brought with us some logistics as well.”

Cter would have told her thanks had her sinuses not felt like they were filled to the point that they felt sore to the touch. Instead she bowed her head as deeply as she could after taking the handkerchief and making a mess of it underneath the hiding shadow of her wide-brimmed hat.

It took a few loud, uncouth, and snotty blows into the expensive cloth before she could breath through her nose again. The smell of morning dew still hung thick in the dense forest her king was leading her through. The undergrowth was just as dense as it was on the other side of the glade which she had entered from where she had arrived as a prisoner.

“It is good to have you back, Cter.”

Although with what it meant for her to be free she would have chosen to stay as a prisoner had she been given the choice. That she had to sleep outside under the stars with the cold, moist night air filling her lungs with each increasingly stuffed breath she would have done a hundred times over if it meant that the two kings would have managed to come to another form of consensus between them.

What Cter feel asleep to and what she woke up to were two completely different conversations which she could tell by the color of the magical fire she had ignited for warmth for Manny and her. What she had heard whilst asleep must have been enough to either enrage or confuse her soul, for the magical fire that she fell asleep too was calm and gentle, whereas the magical fire she woke up to was crackling and flickering.

“It is good to be back, my King.”

What she saw and heard of the two kings sitting underneath the lonesome aspen tree on the hilly glade was the opposite of good. As night rolled in they were still continuing to debate harsh words, but with respectful voices. The magical fire of King Asgore’s to illuminate between them had their argumentative gestures casting long, theatrical shadows as their conversations ebbed and flowed from one king’s side to another.

There was desperation between them, and that was both easily heard and seen. Cter wasn’t even sure if she got any sleep or not. She could just as well have been listening throughout the night to the kings being furious at the situation they had found themselves in, but never at the other.

“Allow me to apologize in advance for the journey home, and at the same time ask you to please enjoy each minute of it.”

Even though the two kings were negotiating for their different sides in a war that was born out of something that could never be discussed with, both with the Second Fusion and the ravaging fear and turmoil of human emotions that followed it, they still spoke like friends. Perhaps even the strongest and most important part of a friendship.

The part which all promise that they would do, but with only a few living up to that promise. The promise of being hard towards a friend because they were making a mistake, even if it was a willing one.

“Anything that brings me home will be a journey I will enjoy, my King.”

In all honesty, that the negotiations were not heard by more was a tragedy. The warmth between them still held strong against the blizzard-like cold of what they had to say to the other. Threats, ultimatums, names of those that had died, and duty for their respective people were all summoned against the other one. The king of the other side of the war.

The enemy.

The enemy that threatened the people the king’s duty swore to protect. Yet still they trusted the other king enough to sleep underneath the same tree once they did. Yet still the conversation began anew as the sun rose after only an hour’s or so rest for the wicked kings.

“I am glad to hear that, my Monster Mage.”

There was a mellow nostalgia that rose along with the sun for the two kings. There was laughter, and equal part crying. As kings they knew that it would be the last time they would be able to talk like friends, but as friends it was the same as all other times they had talked as kings. There would be a long, long time before they could be as friends once more, but the bond they had was so strong that they knew that they would still be friends after it all. Despite all of what had and would happen, they would still be friends.

“I am glad to hear that you are glad, King Asgore.”

No soldier would have believed what Cter then saw. No Royal Mage would have believed what Cter then saw. Nor a Monster Mage or a Royal Councilor. After a full day and a full night’s negotiations to find an end to the war that should not have been, the two kings embraced each other. They clung at the other’s back to pull closer and to not let go.

They laughed, to begin with, but which immediately crumbled into joint sobs that carried their sorrows down the glade and towards the morning sun rising curiously to surround the two kings and illuminate that the grass and leaves around them were felling tears just as thick as what rolled down their skin and fur-covered cheeks respectively.

“You have been away for quite some time even for you, I can tell. You have forgotten completely that you can speak with me the same as with your fellow Monster Mages.”

That Cter was given a dry handkerchief by one of the kings after the fact only had the beauty of the situation sink in with her after she had ruined it beyond even the capabilities of Fang Shuey to clean it. King Asgore hadn’t dried himself of his tears that he fell for his friendship with the Xoff king.

He had let them be with him, let them ruin his groomed fur for the friend he would not come to meet again as a friend. He said to remember inside their hearts the joint laughter the two had shared, and kept the tears of their joint sorrow outside on him.

“That has never been the case, my King.”

Nothing else had to be said after the two kings had let their embrace fade away. When they decided in unison to return to their duties as kings. When the Xoff king turned to walk into the forest where Cter and Terri had exited from, Manny had stood up without any prompting. He had given Cter a long look from within his pulled-up hood, but no words before he walked away from her and joined the Xoff king to disappear into the dense forest.

Cter had followed with her eyes through the forest until her attention was taken by her Monster King reaching for the used bowls and empty pot of stew the two Monster Mages had eaten from. His smile at her was warm, and his hug after he had sorted the dishes into a large sack was even warmer. Cter had missed the touch of his fur. She had missed the gentle, comforting nature of his aura.

“Then I am glad that you still remember as much.”

It still comforted while Cter walked behind her king and the large sack of heavy dishes that he carried over his shoulder. That he had strength left in his shoulders to carry himself was unbelievable to Cter, and that he had enough to also carry with him the cumbersome sack filled with heavy cast iron pots that seemed to do all they could to escape from their hemp-woven prison was just so...inspiring to see.

“So am I, my King.”

Despite that though… Despite proof that King Asgore was strong enough to carry this burden and to be enough of a Monster King necessary to see this tragic war through, Cter had still offered to carry the hemp sack for her king with either stasis magic or gravity magic. Either would have been fine for her. Of course the Monster King politely declined the offer. Of course he told her that she had gone through enough already and that she should regain her strength now that she was back home with the monsters again. He needed her for what was to come. He needed his Fourth Monster Mage.

“Sir Gerson will be waiting for us at the end of this forest with our transport home. He wasn’t the keenest in letting me travel to the glade alone, but he was not going to argue against my choice once I made it. Not when the war has progressed like it has.”

And while Cter understood that it was King Asgore being his usual, generous self. While she knew that it was him taking the weight from those around him so that they can be strong enough to help, there was a dark thought at the back of her head because of it. In the half-asleep state that she had been in during the night she had heard as the negotiations came to an end.

That the tired from the two kings hadn’t been because they needed sleep, but that they were reaching the end of what their friendship could hold together. Whether it meant that the two kings were prioritizing their own friendship over a resolution to the war or if it meant that the two were using the limit of their friendship as a limit to when their negotiations would degenerate into bad faith, Cter did not know. It did not matter either as to exactly why it was the case, only that it was the case.

“I wouldn’t know, Asgore.”

For what the Monster King agreed upon in the end wasn’t a resolution to the war that played to the monsters’ favor. He did not find a resolution to the war that left monsterkind with something positive. True, he was negotiating from a place without any real advantages to his side.

He had with him the Fifth Monster Mage he was willing to part with for the trade of the Fourth Monster Mage, but it had become clear to Cter that Manny had been given his Monster Mage title as a way to give the veneer of the negotiations being fair. Perhaps it was Manny’s idea to become the Fifth Monster Mage for that reason?

Perhaps he was asked to become the Fifth Monster Mage and he could read between the lines as to why he was offered to become one? In any case though he had probably already shed that title by the time he stepped foot onto the forest path leading back to the human convoy where his grandmother was. Manny wanted to be a Royal Mage, not a Monster Mage, after all.

“And in a way I would like to keep it that way, if possible. In this critical time we will be needing as many views as possible to navigate monsterkind out of this...predicament. Toriel and I need all our Royal Councilors for what is up ahead this long, steep hill we need to lead our people through. We have failed them this far, and I need your help to prevent that monsterkind loses more than peace.”

Even considering how everything was stacked against the Monster King though, what he agreed upon was not something Cter could agree upon too. Be it because she hadn’t seen anything of the war or be it because she harbored anger and resentment against her captors, but to her, King Asgore did not do enough for his people. He did not do enough for monsterkind when he had the chance to leverage his friendship with the Xoff king. He could have done more. He should have done more. He was weak.

“I will do whatever it is you need me to do, my King. I will protect monsterkind with all of my heart and soul. Forever, and always.”

And did the Xoff king play into that weakness? Did he use his friendship with King Asgore’s to get the outcome he wanted? Was it all planned to begin with for this meeting to be the turning point where the war could finally be decisively decided?

Cter did not know any details of it, but if the monsters had managed to hold out for almost a full year against the combined might of the two human armies driven by primal fear flanking Monster Country to then force negotiations then surely that must have been at least some type of leverage that King Asgore could have wielded?

He could have played into that frustration and hung what the humans wanted like a carrot on a string, yanking it just out of reach unless he got some promises from the human king. Promises that were followed up with guarantees. As the two kings hugged though, there were no guarantees at all for monsterkind.

There was no handshake to make it official and to bind the absent promises. There were witnesses to the event with Cter and Manny who both went along with either party, sure, but there wasn’t even anything written down!

“It is not far now. Just a bit more to walk. Let me know if I am not providing you enough clearance to easily traverse this path, okay? Manny was quiet throughout when we arrived yesterday, and when we emerged out into the glade I found his purple robe covered with leaves and bits of twigs. I had to pat him clean before the humans could see him lest they came to think that we had been treating him poorly.”

There weren’t any set dates mentioned, let alone agreed upon. There weren’t any locations discussed. There weren’t any numbers discussed. There wasn’t anything substantial agreed upon at all. There was only the vague acceptance that something would happen sometime, and the two seemed fine with it. Like how…

“I’d rather talk about my time at Soul’s School when we all are gathered together if I could. I wouldn’t like to repeat it, if I could ask for that, my King?”

Like how friends were. Kingly friends making vague plans for their people because they trusted each other as friends. Trusted that the other would keep his word exactly how it was said. A friendship so deep that it had King Asgore being passive about the aftermath of the truth of the Cooperative Connection since he trusted his friend that deeply.

It should have been beautiful to Cter that there was a friendship that seemed to go even deeper than that which she had with Idyll, but when the first real display of that deep friendship was when the future of a major war between humans and monsters was to be decided to bring it to a conclusive and clean end, it was difficult for her to see the single, beautiful rose amid the thorny bushes covered in monster dust.

Not sparsely like the ones in the Royal Garden where pricked sprinkles of monster dust were common, but completely showered in monster dust like a hefty layer of powdered sugar on one of Barbeqa’s royal desserts.

“Of course, Cter. I did not mean for it to sound like I was prying for you to talk about Soul’s School, but I can see how you would feel that it was. Forgive me, I did not manage a lot of sleep. Not an excuse, but an explanation, I hope.”

Damn it, what was Cter thinking? Why was she harboring such thoughts against her own king? If she was upset with him for not ending the war with words when she hadn’t been a part of it, then how would it then be for him then? Him who’s every choice meant death, and all he could do was choose which one would die and which one would live.

Same as how Rasliela could point on a map and monsters would die, so could King Asgore point on a map and hopefully monsters would have been saved. He could not point on the entire map though. He could not make a choice that would save everyone. He could only make a choice that would save the most.

“I’m… Forgive me, King Asgore. I’m...I’m tired. Maybe I shouldn’t talk more until we’re back home at Jarasevo.”

Like how Terri had let Cter walk into his questions the day before, so did Asgore let the Monster Mage walk into his aura to show that he was sincere with his apology. Amid the tender apology there was a sense of a distant lack of hope. It might have just slipped out of the Monster King without him thinking about it, but as Cter walked into his aura, it was as if she had ran flat into a wall.

She recoiled back as the Monster King’s burdens had filled her soul, making it as heavy as a boulder within her. Each point on the map that meant that those that he hadn’t pointed to would suffer. Each weighted decision that was done in the name of the many, but to the cost of the few. And Cter had just…

She’d just…

“Cter?” came a concerned question while the large sack scrambled from its heavy content jostling with deep, metallic rings.

She’d just thought of him as betraying the monsters! She had just thought of him as weak for not putting a definitive end to the war! She had just been angry at him! She had just–

“Cter,” came with a large, steadying hand that pushed down securely on the Fourth Monster Mage’s quivering shoulder. Mere two finger on the snow-white hand were enough to hold the shoulder calm with the rest wrapping around the frail upper arm with gentle kindness.

Weak sobs reverberated through the Monster Mage’s body as if her bones had been struck by a hammer. Tears descended from the wide shadow hung over the Monster Mage’s face onto the snow-white hand, dotting it darkly. “I don’t want to think like this,” rolled unsteadily with a faint, strained exhale out the shadow of the wide-brimmed hat. “I don’t want to have these thoughts. I don’t want to think like I do. It’s changed. It’s changed so much! I just want–”

The weak and faint words quieted to a muffled mumble as the Monster King pulled his Fourth Monster Mage closer to him, caressing her head against the warm and comforting fur on his chest. A soft thumb swept under the weeping, forest-green eyes, drying the cheeks that had begun to flush. “You’re home, Cter,” reminded King Asgore with a weighty calm to his voice that slowly settled over Cter like a blanket. “You’re home with us again.”

She felt the grip of her hat lifting from her head. The hat which she had been given to hide the fact that she was a monster. The hat which she had been given to display that she was human. It had been so tight on her head for so long. It had echoed her thoughts within it and had not let them steam away. Not let them flow from her mind and dissipate into the air and be gone with the wind.

The small hole her crystal brooch had made had not been enough to vent away it all. “Thank you.” The Monster King was lifting it off her head. “I’ve missed you...” He was taking away what had imprisoned her as a human, and was bringing her back as a monster. “I’m so–” He was pulling her brooch with it. “Ow ow ow ow ow ow! Wait!” Tugging at her hair like a ravenous fork yanking into a bowl of spaghetti. “Stop! Stop!”

“Oh golly!” flustered the Monster King with his large hands fumbling with trying to gracefully angle the hat so that the crystal brooch could untangle itself from the small hole it had poked loose. “If I...no, wait, I should–” Needless to say though, the needleless Monster King only made it worse with his flustered attempts and large fingers.

Leaving the Monster Mage struggling between saving her hair and going against the will of her Monster King.

And laughing freely throughout it all.

“No, not like that! The other way!”

So earnest in his clumsiness.

“No- Ow! Ow ow ow! Other way!”

Yet so stubborn to get it done.

“Behind...and through...and...no!”

So much like a monster.

“Yes, no, wait, no!”

She was home again.

Chapter Text

There were more carriages than Cter expected when she stepped out of the dense forest onto a lonely road which had been almost torn to pieces by the aforementioned many carriages. Strangely, some of the tracks from the carriages further back looked fresher than the ones in front. Cter hadn’t noticed had she not sunk down with her foot into the soft mud and gotten her boot stuck. The woodwork she had to lean the flat of her palm against not to fall over completely was rough and old.

How King Asgore managed to be so light on his feet was a sight to behold. His snow-white feet had naught but a single spot of mud on them as he managed to the front of the carriage without any difficulties whatsoever.

He had been attentive to Cter being near him through the forest, but as the two managed out of the last row of leafy trees, he had elongated his steps and walked ahead of her deliberately. That she got herself stuck in the mud after being left behind was not something Cter was gonna think about. After her king had lifted off the wide hat from her head she felt that she was able to not think about it. Her head felt lighter.

Bar one of two stuck pieces of leaves.

As the Monster Mage managed to get her boot unstuck from the mud she was met with a friendly voice calling for her from the front-most carriage. “Cter!” The Monster Mage turned to the voice, almost replanting her unstuck boot stuck again.

At first she thought that it was Idyll that was freezing the ground for Cter to more easily walk on, but as the long, bunny-like ears folded up after having bent down to get through the carriage door, Cter could see who it was.

“Frioke!” she called back, waving happily and tapping her feet with exploratory taps on the magically frozen ground to see if it was slippery. Luckily though, it wasn’t, and the Monster Mage walked up to the front-most carriage into the wide arms of the Monster Priestess. Her whiskers and rough skin tickled at Cter’s cheeks, and the long ears seemed to hug around the Monster Mage’s head as well. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Not as good at is it seeing you again, Cter,” the Monster Priestess whispered wistfully with her arms and ears tightening around the long-gone Monster Mage. “We haven’t known anything about you for so long. Haven’t heard anything about you for months. Had I known that this would have happened I wouldn’t have suggested to send you to Soul’s School. I should have thought ahead that perhaps–”

Frioke caught herself with a deep exhale that had her entire being sinking in Cter’s arms. Even the long ears slid down, partly covering the Monster Mage’s eyes.

“You’re here now,” said Frioke to herself, mostly. “You’re here now again with us. We’re all back together again. All Monster Mages are back again with monsterkind.”

“All of them?” asked Cter’s mouth before her head could think. Perhaps it was for the better that she asked it straight though as otherwise ti would have festered in her aura and Frioke would have noticed it on her own. Both the long ears and the Monster Priestess’ aura sighed again while through her nose was inhaled a deep breathe which took in the forest dew greedily. Frioke leaned back from the hug at her arms’ lengths still holding onto Cter’s shoulders. Her eyes were closed, and she nodded as she managed to gather her words.

“I guess it’s better to talk about that sooner rather than later, isn’t it?” There was some disappointment in her aura that it had to be this quick about it, but she understood why. Her nose bounced at the warmly bitter smell off coffee being brewed from the carriage she had just left. “My King,” she began with her neck turning slightly.

It only managed so far before there came an order from the addressed Monster King. His voice had the front-most carriage seem to vibrate further down into the mud with the deepness of it. “I am fully capable of making coffee too as well as tea, Monster Priestess. Tea is not a drink of war, as I’ve told before. Now please continue, you and the Monster Mage.” The telltale orange glow of fire magic softly lit the opened carriage door. “The coffee will be done shortly.”

With a begrudged grumble, the Monster Priestess conjured up three magical chairs next to the coffee-smelling carriage. “As you wish, King Asgore.” She motioned with her hand at one of the chairs for Cter and sat herself in the one next to the Monster Mage. The lower angle had Cter seeing that the rough texture of the carriage she had leaned on just before wasn’t due to it being rough and old. On the contrary, the wood was new and smooth, and painted just recently, most likely just before the departure.

The rough texture she had felt was a fair share of battle-wearing on the carriage, with arrow and swords marks running just above the wheelhouse. Cter ran her hand carefully over some, stroking the battle scars with a growing worry to her expression and aura.

Some were deeper than others, with the more shallow marks being focused closer to where the seats were in the carriage. The cuts and holes exposed that the carriage had been repainted from its usual purple color, giving the splinters a fade to them similar to how some of the surrounding leaves had begun to express as well. Cter broke off a piece and kept it in her hand.

It weighed like lead.

“They were not focused attacks,” said Frioke factually with her own hand stroking the scarred outside of the carriage. Her ears flattened behind her as she touched at a splinter, and she had to dig it out with a claw of hers. A light sprinkle of dust began to bleed, but Frioke was quick to heal the small gash with her magic.

It was enough for Cter to notice though, and the Monster Mage’s brow sank down. “They were just opportunistic ones against a surprise target. King Asgore...” Frioke angled her head back at the carriage door with one of her long ears turned towards it. The blue of hers contrasted with the breathing orange from the Monster King’s fire magic.

When the Monster Priestess turned back to Cter, her voice was lowered. “King Asgore said that we would only meet light resistance, if any, and that the humans would not pursue us if we just kept going through the ambushes. He had been promised that from the Xoff king, and while I want to attribute that to having been correct, I...”

She looked at the damage on the carriage’s outer again, her eyes moving through the sword cuts, spear stabs, and arrow holes in a pattern from deepest to most shallow. Her hand touched at one of the arrow holes in the middle of the carriage.

“I was stood here with my magic to protect the king, but I could not do it well since I could not have it be visible to the humans. At best I was only able to apply some stasis magic on the spear and arrowheads.” The blue hand then moved further back closer to the more deeper cuts on the carriage, back where Cter had plucked her piece from. A few, weak taps followed, and the sinking sense within the Monster Priestess aura dove even further. “Here King Asgore sat.”

At where a few of the cuts looked to have reached the upholstery

Flakes of paint fell off as Frioke’s hand slid down the carriage wall with a defeated sigh. “I trust him with all of my soul, but when I heard the loud human voices through the wall which then was quickly pelted at with arrows then with swords and spears I...” She inhaled to strengthen herself.

“I felt that trust waiver. I thought that he had been easily fooled. That he had been so naive as to trust one of the human kings that he was at war with. At the human king which had been the first to doubt monsterkind after the Noitaidarr Trial and the truth of the Cooperative Connection came to light. Perhaps though...”

The blue hands tightened into reprimanding fists, but neither they nor the clenched-together teeth that barred angry fangs could stop the words the Monster Priestess wanted to say. “Perhaps though I didn’t protect enough because I trusted him despite my worries.”

There were a lot of emotions within the Monster Priestess’ soul. Cter guessed that it was because she wanted to say something else, but couldn’t. Whether it was because she thought that King Asgore would hear or that she didn’t want to hear herself say it, her aura was too much in turmoil for Cter to tell exactly.

It was enough for the Monster Priestess to lift one of her balled-together fist and throw it against the carriage scars, but not enough for her to hit it. Her hand shook with the building anger in her that she couldn’t let loose against the carriage, and she ended up throwing her fist against her leg instead, cursing under her breath as it hit.

“Singe my soul...”

Cter felt some slight guilt over having asked so quickly and interrupted Frioke’s embrace. From what the Monster Priestess told it sounded like she needed the hug to be much, much longer.

The gentle smell of coffee which had permeated throughout the conversation grew stronger first through the deeper slashes and then through the opened door. Out from it stepped King Asgore with the pot in one hand, a small bushel of biscuits in the other, and four cups hanging by their porcelain ears off his horns, two on each.

“Queen Toriel does not approve of you making yourself a fool like that, King,” reminded the Monster Priestess over her shoulder after a mere second of a glance at the imposing figure with clanking porcelain cups ringing from his horns like hoarse bells. She tried, but failed, to hide her bemused smirk at the image of the Monster King not only folding himself out the small carriage door, but also doing so while dancing with his head to keep his horns from scratching at the door frame while at the same time keeping his carried cups from slipping off.

“It’s fine,” he said when Cter raised a white-fleshed finger with a quiet, purple glow to it. She had only managed to lift up the cups slightly before the Monster King had noticed and nodded slowly with his remark. “I’ve done this more time than Toriel could ever imagine.”

Frioke’s bemused smirk became a nasal scoff, and she shook her head and ears with faux disappointment. “That does not make me any less uneasy.” With easy hands though she caught the cups as the large Monster King angled his head and horns down, sliding the carried porcelain off with rasping sounds. “Not a lot that does that nowadays though.” The Monster Priestess’ eyes moved on their own towards the fresh, wooden wounds, and she was forced to yank them back to the cups in her hands which she were clutching at.

The third conjured chair flashed like how water escapes around heavy footsteps at a wet beach as King Asgore sat down. Before his weight had settled he began pouring coffee for the Monster Priestess. “Well I hope that some warm coffee and honey biscuits are two of the few things that does then.” His pinky claw through one of the cup’s ear stole one for Cter who he poured some for as well. “It’s good to warm oneself before one has to talk about the cold facts of reality.”

Whether or not King Asgore said that to relieve tension or to confirm the tension Cter could not tell. Dwelling on it would have just plucked at the already-tense air, and whatever note that would have come from that would not have been a pleasant one. So instead Cter decided to heed the Monster King’s suggestion and enjoy her coffee.

She had not had some in quite a while, and she could taste that immediately as it was harshly bitter on her tongue. It had been good for her when she was a scholar at Soul’s School and not its supposed dean, and it did wake her up just as well drinking it whilst sitting on a conjured chair next to a wall painted with deep slashes of human aggression as it did when Cter was cramped in her student room trying to figure out what her soul meant to her.

At least she had some honey biscuits to balance the taste.

A few minutes of silence passed by before the tension in the air had relaxed enough that Frioke could raise up her ears enough to talk. She blinked some at her half-drunk coffee, exhaling ripples into it. “Manny was the one that killed the Second Fusion. When everyone else, human and monster alike, stood stunned and incapable, he managed to save us all. His mind was clear enough that he was able to kill it in a way that was different than how the First Fusion was killed.”

The Monster Priestess searched for something to put down her honey biscuit on, and Cter conjured up a table for her to place it down. Her free hand then came up to her chest where she let her hand rest heavily. “It felt so very strange to me, the Second Fusion, again, differently from what you described about the First Fusion.”

She had to place down her cup onto the magical table as well.

“The First Fusion tried to pull more monsters to it. Ziki and the monster that drove the Hero of Xoff’s caravan were drawn to it. They felt hope from it and wanted to be closer to it, almost as an impulse of sorts. The Second Fusion though…” Frioke’s brow folded deeply.

“The Second Fusion in a way tried to...force me to watch? Not run away, not come closer to it, but stay and watch it. Stay and witness what it had become and what it...wasn’t no longer.” Her eyes blinked underneath her folded brow that hung like awnings. “Does that mean that the fusions were sentient? Does it mean that they felt that they had a purpose to them? That they had personalities? That they were–”

“Manny,” Cter interrupted as a favor to Frioke before she tumbled down her thinking too much. “We should focus on Manny, please.” She looked to King Asgore for some assistance.

“I agree,” he said with a nod and a large, warm hand on the Monster Priestess’ back, caressing it carefully. “I know it is difficult, Frioke, but Cter should know about Manny and what we decided with him. We are past the battle now, so let us continue when he came to us, okay?”

The long ears loosened with the Monster Priestess’ deep exhale. “Yes,” she agreed. “Yes, I can continue with that.” She just needed a brief of quiet to breathe some. “Manny surrendered to us a week or so after the Second Fusion appearance. The...logistics and paperwork, for lack of a better term, to change the war from a strictly human war to one with aggression towards us had just been made by the humans, and if anything Manny brought with him the news about the change in the war.”

Priestess Frioke could not muster a chuckle.

“He did not surrender himself to us Royal Councilors directly, but instead to a village not far from here towards the Xoff border. He was put on a transport back to Jarasevo quicker than quick.” A curious look the Monster Priestess shot over Cter’s shoulder. “But as you might guess, transport across the roads is only leisurely at the best of times, and having to take smaller roads to dodge the humans meant that it took even longer for him to reach Jarasevo Castle than it usually takes.”

“We’ve come to a solution about that though,” King Asgore added in just above the rim of his cup. His look was sent over Cter’s shoulder as well, and the Monster Mage turned to look at the carriages further back in the parked caravan. Was it magical, perhaps?

“Once he arrived I felt like things were repeating themselves,” continued Frioke with a strained furrow. “Guards surrounded the carriage, but not too close. They didn’t want to near it, and I could feel why in my soul and aura. When he exited the carriage, he could barely walk. All of him was tensed, both body and soul, to try and contain what he had sacrificed his soul to imprison. He had come to us for help. He had come to...me for help.”

There was a mixture of pride and anxious within the Monster Priestess’ aura, like oil and water dancing together, but always separate.

“In a way I did the same that you said that Dr. Sallus had told you. I would dedicate myself to help him, and only him. Not just for him, but for all of us. He could barely hold the Second Fusion within him, and if I had not been able to get through to him that it was me there with him, that he had managed to find me, then him traveling to Jarasevo Castle would have been regarded as an attack by the humans instead.”

A cold shiver reverberated through the Monster Priestess’ body and soul, shaking her whiskers, nose, and ears as it shot up her back.

“Weeks blurred together as I worked with Manny to help him contain his chosen burden. There were times when he was just the young human that he was, afraid and in pain, but in other days he was a mage who’s strength was the same as that of you Monster Mages. It was not enough for him to only suppress the Second Fusion’s presence within him. He wanted to banish it. He wanted it gone.”

The sky-blue arm had claws dug into it by its sibling’s hand.

“The days that followed him straining his soul to the point where it risked rupturing his containment of the Second Fusion were days of misery and dread for him though. It took time, but eventually he came to realize that he had done things perfectly. He had sealed the monster portion of the Second Fusion with a forced Cooperative Connection with and on his soul. He had done something unthinkable and beyond what the Cooperative Connection was meant to do. He had pushed human magic forward by a great leap, but it had cost him his soul. The bind is as strong as that which binds a mountain to the ground it stands upon. Nothing can move it, not even itself.”

Concerned blinks had the Monster Priestess hesitant to say what she wanted.

“Even though he was with me for months, to him it has only been a few weeks. Each time he strained his soul to the point of almost shattering it, he fainted from exhaustion. When he woke up he had forgotten most of what had happened. He had forgotten that he had strained his soul, and what he had done to keep the Second Fusion under control better.”

The claws dug deeper.

“And the courage he had built up against his burden was as if it had never happened, and I found him crying in fear exactly the same as how he had done during the first nights after arriving at the castle. It would repeat for months. He would be afraid about what had happened, and I would explain it to him, which either made him more afraid or steeled him further. Eventually his resolve got the better of him though, and I would find him fainted from doing exactly the same as I had told him made him faint the last time.”

A deep sigh followed a weak shake of the blue head, finally releasing the sky-blue arm of its clawed clasp.

“I would never learn anything to help him as he never remembered it. All I could do was plead with him more desperately to either write things down or talk with me before making the decision. Still though...”

Frioke’s eyes turned distant towards a horizon of her own making.

Seeing that, the Monster King continued in her stead. “The decision to make him a Monster Mage came when the Xoff king managed to get through a letter to me about wanting to negotiate for an end to the war. We had managed enough of a resistance to warrant some respect as an enemy, but he still needed a good excuse for it to happen. Since you were in their care and Manny were in ours, I could propose a trade of Monster Mages if we made Manny the fifth one. That way there would be the veil of an equal trade, and that was all the Xoff king needed for it to happen.”

Asgore turned his head towards the forest which he had traveled through twice. “Whether or not he wants to stay the Fifth Monster Mage after the unceremonious ceremony I wouldn’t know, but I do hope that he sees it as us wanting the best for him. Eventually Frioke managed to get through to him that he had to live with the Second Fusion within him, but if I were to guess I’d say that those will be the first words he forgets the next time he tries it again.”

The Monster King stood up with a push against his knee. “With that said now I should probably introduce you to your transport home to Jarasevo Castle, Cter.” With a fill of the fourth cup with coffee, the large king wandered to the back of the caravan. He knocked a rhythm on the door, then stepped back a long, long step.

“Finally!” shrieked a muffled voice from inside, and before another beat could pass, the door was kicked open by a large paw. Out the carriage exploded two wide wings spanning longer than the carriage they had been confined within. “Finally I may serve this war once more!” One of the massive wings was raised high and mightily. “But first!”

The other swiped the cup from the Monster King.

“Coffee!”

Chapter Text

“Again, allow me to apologize for my brusque introduction.”

The loosely hanging chin flapped like a poorly fastened flag in the headwind, catching it like a sail. There was a noticeable slowing effect which had the wind slashing gentler on the Monster Mage’s cheeks. If it was due to the large, flappy pouch under the long beak acting enough like a sail or if it was due to the Griffon Commander slowing down so that the Monster Mage on his back could hear him speak, Cter did not know.

She was too busy trying to keep herself steady enough not to fall off and or panic which would then lead to her falling off and plummet through the clouds which were below here which she had only really seen when there had been fog during early spring and late autumn when looking out her window at Jarasevo Castle but when seeing the fog she was also able to see the ground too and know that it was there which was slightly different from not being able to see any ground at all and while she knew that they had to be above the clouds not to be spotted and so that the Griffon Commander can save his strength and speed for when night time comes and he can fly lower and much faster it still did not really change the fact that Cter still could not see the ground even though it had been quite a while since she had looked although she was not really in the mood to look again because she was still feeling the effects of the first time she looked which had her clinging hard enough against the Griffon Commander’s gray and spotty fur hard enough to tear off chunks of it clean of which she would have done had–

“Monster Mage?”

“I’m fine!”

That was a lie.

The wide, slow, and deliberate flaps of the large wings eased into a glide, further decreasing the airspeed of the laden griffon. “And allow me to also again apologize for causing you such discomfort.” There was an understanding sympathy on the griffon’s old, weathered visage. There was a similar look in his wide eyes that spoke of experience, and vast sums of it to boot.

Wisdom that was drawn from that plethora of experience was painted too on the Griffon Commander’s look, albeit with fewer wrinkles than on Sir Gerson face. There were scours through the plumage of his face, and in the headwind his feathers seemed to comb over them. The change as his expression shifted from apologetic to sympathetic was enough for Cter to notice though.

Despite her growing inner and external panic.

Again the scours and the overlapping feathers changed as the Griffon Commander smiled with his eyes. “Does it feel better if I talk to you some?” he asked with soft eyes meeting the Monster Mage’s nervous ones. “Do not feel poor for feeling this way, I should say too. It is not the first time I have had a passenger, nor one that has found the concept of flight understandably foreign.” A quick, fidgety wing flap followed a slight glance to the side. “It might not be my most preferred role, but I have seen enough of this war to be able to swallow my pride on that.”

Cter could not help her eyes moving down and staring at the large, flappy, orange pouch hanging underneath the Griffon Commander’s beak. “Yeah,” she agreed with a timid nod while her building panic was briefly shunted aside by her embarrassment from being prompted to stare so easily.

As she stared, she noticed a golden ring pierced through just underneath the Griffon Commander’s lower beak lip through his flappy pouch. There was a small chain attached to it going into…

His mouth?

Sudden gags coiled and sprung the soft neck, and just as sudden as the wise, experienced, wind-tufted visage had descended instantly into possessed neck spasms, it had returned without any real acknowledgment that it had actually happened. Emerging from below the wide wings came a large paw which rummaged a claw into the pouch, revealing a monocle held in a soft pinch between two of the paws toes.

“It is easier to keep it inside my pouch than it is in my dress pocket,” the Griffon Commander explained with the golden chain connecting the ring on his lip to his saliva-moistened monocle waving around as he spoke. “I have lost more of these than I am willing to concede due to the long chain down into my shirt snapping off during flight.” Feeling that the explanation was enough, the Griffon Commander swallowed back his monocle and tucked back his paw underneath his large body.

The feeling was not mutual with the Monster Mage, who looked down at the coat that covered the upper half of the Griffon Commander above his large wings. It was similar to what Sir Gerson had on him when the situation called that form was more important than function. The deep-purple color of its rich, expensive fabric was highlighted with accents of gold, and stood out more against the Griffon Commander’s gray, spotted fur than it did Sir Gerson’s green, leathery skin. It was more tightly worn compared to Sir Gerson by the Griffon Commander, and did not flap in the wind like his hanging chin did.

Cter had not noticed the large chin when the Griffon Commander had joined her, King Asgore, and Priestess Frioke, for coffee. Him stretching his wings out as much as he could after having them cramped together within the carriage for almost a month on end had Cter busy enough trying to move her head out of the way so that she wouldn’t be clipped by the large, feathery swipes the Griffon Commander let fly just above the ground.

There were a few close calls when she froze briefly while listening to the plan that King Asgore had for Cter’s travel back to Jarasevo Castle.

“We will be taking a risk flying back to Jarasevo Castle, both by keeping Aajja and his subordinates out of use for Sir Gerson, and also by possibly revealing to the humans that we have his griffons in the first place. His subordinates are kept hidden a day’s flight away from here, and once they see Aajja they will come to bring Frioke and I back as well. We could with good confidence get Aajja’s carriage here with us, but we would have had to make it further without drivers had we brought with us his subordinates as well.”

That the monster carriages did not have drivers wasn’t something Cter had really noticed until King Asgore brought it up. It had all gone so quickly that she had not paid it any mind.

“Manny was the one that suggested that he would sit in front and act as a caravan leader,” was explained further to Cter by Frioke. “That way if we were discovered he could use his position to convince the humans that he had escaped and was traveling to Soul’s School reunite with the Royal Mages. If the humans would pry further he would just threaten them with the Second Fusion within him. How he would do that I don’t know exactly, and luckily it didn’t come to that.”

A flash of worry ripped through the Monster Priestess’ soul.

“We managed through the final week’s travel with King Asgore, Aajja, and me magically driving one carriage each. The drivers should have rejoined Sir Gerson by now as we dropped them off nearby an ambush spot at one of the humans’ supply lines.”

As for why it wasn’t King Asgore that went first with Aajja, the Monster King was rather quick to answer. “At this moment it is more important for you to make it home first. You are the priority monster right now.”

Cter had never seen both plumage and fur puff up as irritable as Aajja’s had. He had shaken his hanging chin like jowls, and then blamed it on the coffee. It was not convincing. Not when his long, fluffy tail had curled equally as irritably as well. All that was missing was his monocle popping out and landing in his cup to complete the image, but somehow he managed to stay composed in that sense. There were plenty of other senses though which he failed to stay composed in though.

Many of which Cter shared when she climbed up onto Aajja’s back and seated herself onto the saddle. The Griffon Commander’s mix of gravity and stasis magic was assuring and curious in how he applied it onto her to keep her in the saddle securely, but as soon as he sprung off the roof of his carriage it felt as if Cter’s innards were about to shoot out her back.

The moment of respite as Aajja’s launch faded was enough for Cter to notice that she was above the trees, only for the Griffon Commander to take his first, wide, and powerful wing flap and send him and his passenger even higher up.

Cter had her eyes closed and her body tucked against the Griffon Commander until she felt the aerial climb mellow out. That she only saw clouds below her might have been for the better though, as if she had seen ground then she would have…

Then...she…

...She…

“Monster Mage?”

Blood flowed back to Cter’s head, and she blinked away the fainting dark that was about to take her over. “Yes, yes.” Singe her soul, she shouldn’t be thinking about that! She shouldn’t be thinking about–

Her combined braid slapped her in the face as she shook her head hard. “No, no.” She shouldn’t be thinking about it, dammit!

“It will be better in a bit,” calmed Aajja before angling his wings slightly to turn away from some towering clouds in the distance. “Would you like me to tell you about some cloud facts?” He took Cter’s clenched silences as a yes.

“The higher the clouds reach up the more they tell of a change in the weather. If you see flat clouds that means that the air is calm, but if they grow upwards then that means that the air is unstable. Us flying monsters have known this for a very long time, and even now I can feel it in my wings’ feathers that there might be clear sky later during the day.” The Griffon Commander’s head looked down, but Cter kept hers perfectly still where his eyes had been. “Might even be for the better that way, I think.”

That she could hear him even when he had his head turned down and away from Cter did not help with the foreign feeling that germinated within her. They were traveling quite fast above the clouds which she could feel as the wind slashed at her exposed cheeks.

If she was facing directly forwards the wind gripped hard at her hair too. With her combined braid whipping behind her head it was as a scaled-down version of the long, fluffy tail which stretched behind the Griffon Commander like the longest windsock Cter had ever seen.

By all rights she should not have been able to hear the Griffon Commander’s thinking hums as he surveyed the gray sea far below which Cter would not join him in. Yet still she did hear him mumbling to himself. “Maybe cirrus will be the best? Can dodge behind one should it be needed while still being aware of their motions.” It was a quirk of his combined stasis and gravity magic, Cter guessed.

Not blocking out the wind, as she would have done with her one-sided barrier magic, but more controlling it and slowing it down around him. His magical blend wasn’t perfect, that Cter could feel on her cheeks and in her hair when she angled her head in a particular way, but it was still a blend of magic. The Monster Mage let her aura explore the Griffon Commander’s magic he had applied to her. It felt secure in its application on her even if he was only able to cover Cter partly with his combined magic.

And presumably he did not have a close encounter with a human soul and took in another monster soul into his in order to achieve it. Sure, he had to sacrifice control and finesse over it, but it was still proof that it could be done, even if it was a very niche and specific application of it. No wonder he was a commander in the Royal Guard.

“That is high praise coming from you, Monster Mage,” took Cter out of her aura’s curious exploration of the Griffon Commander’s magic. She opened her eyes to find a thankful smile aimed at her. “Thank you for taking such interest in my magic.”

Oh yeah, Cter was one, if not the, most powerful mage in the world. “It is quite beautiful.” After the last year, perhaps even last years plural, there hadn’t been a lot that had reminded her that others were looking up to her and her magical prowess. “That you are using two types of magic at once is impressive, Aajja.” Actually...when she said that…

“If I were to tell the truth it isn’t two types of magic at once.”

No, no it wasn’t. Not when Cter gave it some thought and feel. There was an ebb and flow to it. “You’re alternating?” she asked. “Like...pushing up on one side of a seesaw then walking over to the other side to push that side down to keep balance?”

A small chuckle had the golden chain briefly bouncing out the hanging chin like a noodle strand which Aajja slurped back down again. “I do not know what a see-saw is, but I can hear in your voice and feel in your aura that you’re confident in that being correct.” He paused for a wing flap to catch an updraft. “I am indeed alternating between dark-blue and purple magic, I think the nomenclature for you mages is gravity, or weight magic, and stasis magic, no?”

The foreign feeling within Cter was as if washed away like she was standing on solid, familiar ground. “Yes. Lifting with your aura and keeping suspended in your aura respectively.” A subtle difference, but a difference nonetheless which resulted in different types of magic acting the same, similar to the two types of barrier magic Cter had at her disposal. “You’re alternating between the two types of application to achieve something in-between?”

“Close,” said the Griffon Commander with an impressed nod. “I am catching the dark-blue magic with the purple magic as it begins to fade, and vice versa. Similar to catching the apex of your wing flap and using it to glide until the next one, in a way.”

Cter did not know what that meant, but she heard in the Griffon Commander’s voice and felt it in his aura that it was correct. “I see,” she punctuated with an inquisitive knuckle under her nose.

“You see, saw?”

“What?”

“What?”

...

Anyway… “How did you figure this magic, pray tell?” Cter leaned further down to hear better as the Griffon Commander’s excitement in telling her about his magic had loosened up his concentration a bit. “It can’t have been long ago otherwise us Monster Mages would have heard about it.”

The following beat of the large wings were weak, half-committed. Aajja eyes grayed as his head tilted down and the reflection of the sea of clouds dampened the luster which had shone as he was explaining to the Monster Mage.

Cter looked down as well, but her heart and soul was not filled with the foreign feeling. She saw the clouds the same as if they were reflecting on the surface of a lake with quiet bobs up and down. Same as a lake there was a world below that she was aware about. However, she did not know about the world that was below the clouds.

Not anymore.

“I discovered it due to the war,” said the Griffon Commander quietly. His bravado about it from when his wide wings exploded out the carriage was nowhere with him. That wasn’t completely true though as there was some pride and recognition of worth beneath the somber layer that was diffuse and thick in his aura. Cloudy, to be more appropriate.

“My subordinates and I were given the task to disrupt the sleep schedules of the humans so that they would not be as alert during the days. This will allow the hit-and-run tactics to disrupt the human supply lines and communications with greater efficiency and less risk since sleep-deprived enemies are the same as...well...sleepless enemies.” Aajja lapped at the ring on his lower beak with his upper one, spinning it slowly and restlessly, aptly enough. “And the simplest way to achieve that was to drop large rocks at their encampments from high up.”

Cter could feel wind drying at her eyes as they widened from hearing what the Griffon Commander had said. “Oh...” fell off her tongue, but nothing more.

It was enough for Aajja to nod his head at though. “Indeed.” He seemed a bit ashamed in telling what he had figured. How simple and brutish it was. Once he had weathered that downpour, the clouds in his aura began to part away.

“Days with thick, low overcast like today are the best for carrying out our raids, although we almost exclusively do it at night. We have done it during the day on a few occasions before, a few times to keep the humans guessing and looking up when they should be looking to their sides, and a few times to cover escapes for failed strikes at their supply lines. Destroying wheels and scaring away horses carries a much lower chance of any human deaths than having to resort to dropping rocks on moving targets. Stationary ones give us time to be confident in our aim to scare and frighten and not kill.”

Not kill…

“Human arrogance is a useful thought to exploit. If they believe that they are only being humiliated by us monsters rather than being directly threatened then their anger will be directed inwards towards themselves rather than towards us,” Cter remembered Sir Gerson explaining in his office with a confident smile on his wrinkly lips. “Our highest chance of surviving a war with the humans is if no human die. Their pride and arrogance has them favoring big, boisterous armies that are clunky to maneuver. We might be much, much weaker, but enough droplets on a stone will make it weathered.”

With the Second Fusion being the reason for the war it was needed for heavy rain instead, it seemed.

“My subordinates scout ahead by the cover of the lower edge of the cloud layers. Once they have spotted a target, be it an encampment for the night or a more permanent base they fly up to make a hole in the clouds which I then drop the payload through. They know my air velocity when laden, and they can feel how fast the clouds are moving as well. It took a few weeks of practice, mostly due to bad luck with the weather, but we have an effective aim of twice my wing span by now which we have managed to lower down from four times.”

The pride and recognition of worth shone through within the Griffon Commander’s voice and words, and the beat of his wings became stronger. “The payload I keep in my pouch with my combined magic which my subordinates also keep an eye out for me to easily refill after we have delivered a strike. Clear nights makes for quicker target acquisitions, but we use that advantage to flank wider so that we aren’t detected.”

A deep inhale seemed to loosen the Griffon Commander’s body.

“Our success has allowed Sir Gerson to push advantages and force back the humans at certain villages where ammunition for our nightly raids are plenty. We can chart their movements easier since we know that they are afraid. Sir Gerson has offered my subordinates and I medals for our efforts, but we have declined the medals each time we have been offered them.”

Noble of them putting duty before recognition, showing that it is not for glory that the monsters were fighting the war, but for justice. To right was had been wronged, and to make sure that all humans were still alive to feel the embarrassment from starting a war from fear. It were to make fully sure that no such thing happened again, for humility sits deeper than wounds. A wound you can be angry at someone else for inflicting, but humility you can only be angry at yourself for inflicting. It was–

“So Sir Gerson has granted us colored ribbons instead which we can sew on our uniforms without any worries that they might fall off during out flight!”

…

Right then…

Chapter Text

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Cter had…

“I see it each day and it is just as beautiful as my first memory of it.”

She had never seen anything so colorful.

“It is good to know that despite everything, everyone will be treated to the same spectacle no matter where or who they are. No matter if you are human or if you are monster.”

Never seen anything so vast.

“The sun will set the same for you as it does everyone else.”

A flaming orange that no fire, magically conjured or ignited from tinder, could ever live up to. A warmth in its light that those lesser fires could only imitate, but never begin to be the same. With breath paused and eyes glistening, the Monster Mage sat up on her saddle, enthralled by the view that greeted her with a landscape she was familiar with, but that she had never seen cast in such light.

It was under her. It was above her. It was all around her. Like water when bathing, but closer to her, despite being from so far, far away. Further than she had ever seen before.

Further than she had ever imagined before.

“It’s a view I would like to show a human one day. A view that I want to share with humans the same as us monsters have seen it. Perhaps it’ll bring us closer in a way we were meant to be, I wonder?”

Even Cter’s own magic never covered her so intimately as the fiery orange did from the setting sun gently lowering itself below a horizon so far away Cter could barely believe that such distances could be. She had traveled them before, but never seen it all at once. Looking out the windows at the landscape hurrying past the carriage windows on her many journeys were always hurried. Were always streaking by like amateur strokes on a canvas because she always had somewhere to be.

That she had appreciated it before was strange and confusing to her as she let her gaze softly descend over the landscape that moved so slowly before her. Slowly enough that she could take things in despite having somewhere to be. She was traveling faster than she ever had before, but she saw more of the world than she ever had before. Amateur strokes replaced by a master’s brush and caress.

The power of a monster against the power of a human.

“Each sunset before my nightly missions I always think the same. I always imagine a human upon my back taking in the sights they never thought were possible. I always imagine it despite the mere suggestions of someone riding on top of me being a partway insult towards who and what I am. I always imagine it despite that friends of mine have become dust at the hands of humans. And I always imagine it even though that after the sun has set I will move to make sure the humans do not get any sleep or peace for their actions towards those lost friends of mine.”

A wishful breath was taken.

“Still though, each time I see this blazing copper focus into a shining salmon color, I wish for nothing else than to share this view with a human. I wish for nothing else than to see them realize that there exists a beauty they have never reached before. That the way they see this world of ours is just one view of it, and what they can imagine as beautiful I will show that there lies beauty beyond the farthest reach of their imagination.”

A wistful exhale joined together with the passing wind.

“A view of the world that makes them doubt their own eyes. A view of the world that makes them think, and rethink at the same time. The war does not exist here and now. What only exists here are those that have seen this with their own eyes, and those that have not. And both are exactly the same before it. And both are exactly the same towards it.”

So warm, the view was, that its shadows looked inviting. Shadows that did not tell of darkness, but of the overwhelming light there was. Long, reaching lines that told of greedy trees, hills, buildings, and mountains, eating up all they can of the warm sunlight before night would come.

And who could blame them?

Cter certainly couldn’t. Not when she had her aura widen outside her to catch more of it. To sense the light, to touch it, to be aware of it more! She wanted it all!

To the point where she almost had to close her eyes to take it all in.

“I should have suggested to take with me the Fifth Monster Mage on my back to the negotiations. I should have showed him this. Did I think of him as a monster because he was the Fifth Monster Mage even though I knew fully that he was only called that to give the veneer of legitimacy about the negotiations? Maybe if we would have set off in the late of day rather than in the early then I would have been reminded of what I wanted by this?”

The warmth from the sun comforted less than Cter wanted it too.

“If I had brought him to see this, then perhaps the war would have been over by now? This war is because humans do not understand us monsters, but after seeing this, then they would understand us more. They would be reminded that with us they can experience more of the world than they can on their own. They need us, and that they have forgotten. I want to remind them of that. I want to remind them that they need us, Griffon Commander.”

Had Cter done so though she would have missed seeing a dark, irregularly shaped patch move across the ground in the far distance. A small and bumpy cloud snuck itself across the orange glow, bringing with it a moving slice of shadow which pointed down at the ground like an inverse magnifying glass, focusing away light from where it looked down onto. Without any real intent from the cloud its shadow dragged after it on the ground far below, completely oblivious that it covered the beautiful sunset to those below it.

“And the only way I have been able to do that is to scare them. I have only been able to change their minds by dropping large rocks on top of them. Their reason for this sits far too deep for them. It has their feet stuck to the ground as they are rooted in their beliefs. To bring them out of what they’ve dug their feet into by trying to lift them up is futile. We can only get them out of this rut if they themselves want to. Dropping large rocks on top of them to get them to move is a first step, but how many more steps they will move has been less than I would have wanted. We are able to predict their movements better and hit them with more precision and less risk, and we have managed to force negotiations due in no small part to that, but is it too greedy of me to want more?”

Were they angry, those that the cloud briefly hid the sunset from? Were they upset that they were singled out by no real reason or thought? Only by the mere oblivious and intent-less motions of a singular cloud that drifted by due to whims neither of its own or by any other’s? Was it unfair for them if there was no real measure of fairness to begin with?

If there was not any intent, thought, or any other means or hint of decision made, what did it mean to be fair? What did it mean to be unfair, consequently? Did it mean that there was a decision made far, far ago at an age forgotten by any and all that affected things in ways unknowable at the far, far ago age, but which manifested itself as a knowable shadow ages after, both literal and metaphorical?

“Is it too greedy of me to want this war to end by means which I am able to affect? If I can reason that a human would change their mind about this war should they see this view, then shouldn’t I want for that to happen? Shouldn’t I want to share and argue for that if I feel in the depth of my soul that I am correct? That those that I have shared this idea with already also agree with me, even if just as wistfully as I do? Some of that wistfully still lingers in their dust.”

Was it their dust that glittered in the sunlight?

“Their shared wish with me was strong enough to bring with them as they left me alone to make this wish come true. If the wish is enough to die for, then shouldn’t I give it the recognition it deserves? Shouldn’t I make it become true with all of my will and soul? This war I want to end on my back, no matter how much it weighs.”

Or should it–

No, wait!

What was–

He was–

No!

“Oh golly!”

A strong gust of wind pushed into the Monster Mage’s face, reeling her back as if punched. She caught the back of her head with her hand before her neck became too bent, but as she pushed against to counter the wind, the Griffon Commander slowed down hurriedly, throwing her down into his soft fur. The Monster Mage felt her loose hair coil on top of her in a messy pile, and as she lifted herself up, the sunset filtered through the long, wind-separated strands.

It looked...different.

“My most humblest of apologies, Monster Mage!” called Aajja with shock in his voice. It took until Cter collected away her hair from her face for her to see the anxious stupor in the Griffon Commander’s eyes. “I...” He toyed with the ring around his lower lip with abash humming. “I was rambling.” His tone told that it wasn’t the first time he had done it. “And for a moment I forgot that you were...well...that you were here.” An embarrassed flap of his wings did little to help his startle with either wing being out of sync with the other.

“You see,” he began while his head wandered off, “flying is mostly an alone experience. It gives time to think. Coupled that with the loneliness and...” His shrug extended his shoulder blades out his back like knees under a blanket. “Well, I’m not used to have a passenger, is all. Not used to have someone hearing what I am saying.”

“Yeah,” agreed Cter despite having not done much to converse. “It happens.” With careful plucks she managed to evacuate her mouth of some of her wind-blasted hair. “And no skin off my back, commander.” Even though her neck was hurting some. “Although I guess from this that you need a good part of your concentration to keep your combined magic around me?”

Aajja’s bendy neck moved his head below his body in a deep bow. “I am truly sorry for this, Monster Mage.” Enough below that Cter could not see his no more. “Your comfort should be my top priority just below keeping you safe and making haste for Jarasevo.” It looked a bit strange as his head ascended up again as if hung up by a string. “Should we proceed or do you need a minute?”

If Cter got to choose then she would have liked to stay and watch the sunset some more. The cloud that had wandered across it without any care or thought to it had managed a fair distance as the Monster Mage looked at it again. “A minute would be nice.”

She could not follow it too much as it had her neck taut and hurting. “I wasn’t ready when your magic faded.” Her naked hand massaged her neck. Healing it would have her feeling dizzy from the magic akin to sticking her head over a pot of boiling, experimental stew that Idyll was being too brave about with the spices and ingredients. “So I think a minute would be good.”

“I understand,” nodded the Griffon Commander, keeping his head at the bottom of his nod to survey below. “We should be safe for a few minutes flying at low speed, but I would like to be on the move soon.” With a point of his beak he directed Cter to a road opposite of the setting sun. “I can see some movement east of here. They are moving away from us, but up ahead there is a turn in the road facing north. Right now we are at an angle which they may spot us should they turn.”

Spot them? At that far a distance and that high up? “You sure?” asked Cter more as a reaction rather than an inquiry. It was the same to the Griffon Commander’s ears though.

“They won’t spot us instantly, but at a glance it might catch the eye of one of the soldiers. We are between them and the sun right now since it has not set deep enough.” Aajja looked up. “If I envelop you with my tail to keep you warmer we might be able to ascend higher up. However the air is thinner up there which I am not fully comfortable with bringing you to.” The lip ring was once again fidgeted with while Aajja was thinking. “If we are unlucky they might see a shadow moving with them when we ascend too.”

He sure was keen on keeping himself hidden from the humans. Understandable after all that he had explained about his mission for the war, but still, Cter was impressed by the details the Griffon Commander was considering, even if small.

“And if we are lucky they might not notice anything at all.”

And there it was.

“Aajja?” The Monster Mage addressed to the commander with a gentle voice. He hadn’t noticed, but his magic did not fade due to him losing his concentration. “May I ask you something in earnest and personal?” If anything it had become stronger just before it disappeared. It had clamped harder around Cter, tightened around her like a clenching fist.

“When you drop the rocks into the human encampments?” Like he was gripping at a human. “Do you wish that you could aim differently?” Trying to kill it. “And have them land on the humans instead?” Trying to kill the half of Cter that was human. His anger had flushed into his concentration. “Do you see me as human?” Had Cter not broken it by pushing out her barrier magic harder than what the Griffon Commander’s combined magic was pushing in then…

“I...”

Then there would have been killing intent from a monster.

“I am...” the Griffon Commander tried, but failed. His fidgeting on the ring on his lip bent it far enough that it risked breaking. “I am incapable of answering that, Monster Mage. Again I...I am not used to have someone with me when I...think.” There was shame and disgust at himself in his aura. “Again, when I am alone I let these thoughts and feelings run wild. It...helps. It helps me get my emotions out of the way for when I need to have them not interfere with my mission.”

The quick application of Cter’s barrier magic around her gave a calm, warm sheen to her. It was different from her crystal magic, which bent and changed the light through it. With the one-sided barrier magic the sunset was reflected instead, painting the Griffon Commander’s fur into a deeper orange. If any of the humans were to look he would have blended in against the setting sun without any dark spots to see.

Only felt within his aura.

“I will not drop you off,” said the Griffon Commander with his head turned away from his passenger. His neck tensed to say something else, but as he realized that he had already admitted that he thought of Cter as human, he instead shook his head. “You, I...” His words were visibly stuck in his throat which bent and tried to knot itself to prevent anymore being said.

“You look like those that took my friends from me. The humans that had me flying into clouds of dust that stung like nails against my feathers and fur. They...” Aajja’s soul flared with disgust and condemnation. “I want them to walk into my artillery. I want them to be covered in the blood of their friends. I want to use fire magic not only to immolate caravan wheels and supplies. I want to have their horses trample them as we fear them around their camps. I want them to die. I want humanity to die.”

The dark spots in the Griffon Commander’s aura washed through his soul, crashing against its walls to leak outside. Aajja had said that he did not intent to drop Cter off his back, but with how his soul was rumbling with anger and rage she made sure to take a hard grip on the knob of her saddle. It was only then that she realized that her saddle had most likely been taken from one of the horses the humans were using.

“I am sorry for your loss, Aajja.” Cter let her aura envelop his so that he would feel that she was being genuine in her sympathy. Beyond not wanting to be thrown off his back. She was truly sorry for him.

She knew how it felt to have the warm dust of a monster she knew crash against her face.

Cter’s words and calming aura calmed the violent crashes inside the Griffon Commander’s soul. “I know that you’ve left your humanity behind to become a Monster Mage.” After a short while Cter felt comfortable to let go of the saddle knob. “And whatever anger I have is directed towards it, far away from what and who you are. That I promise on my wings and soul. You have done so much good for monsterkind, and I knew what you were before I met you. Maybe...” Aajja turned his head towards Cter. His eyes were watering. “Maybe I think of you as human because I want my wish to be fulfilled?”

“Maybe so,” nodded Cter, but not in agreement. “However, do you feel that is has been fulfilled with me on your back?” She made sure to shine her aura and magic. Once Aajja had to squint at the stronger barrier magic reflecting more sunlight into his eyes Cter understood that she was shining a bit too much. “Are you disappointed in that you don’t feel that it is fulfilled the way you wanted it to be?”

The Griffon Commander searched in his soul. “Perhaps,” he concluded, yet Cter could feel that she had hit the nail on the head. “I have seen you be in awe of it, but it hasn’t been the way I expected it to be.” His plumage ruffled. “The awe was the means to which the human in my wish would rethink, but you...”

“But I did not rethink because I am a monster,” finished Cter for Aajja. For him to be feeling such doubt towards Cter being a monster. For him to prioritize her physical appearance above Cter’s soul and aura. How much had he seen to only believes his eyes? How much had he felt to not want to trust his soul no more? “I am a monster just as much as you are.”

The Monster Mage surrounded the Griffon Commander with her one-sided barrier magic the same as he had surrounded her with his combined magic. The reflected warmth of the setting sun within the careful shell of barrier magic shone through the dark in Aajja’s soul.

And filled it with awe.

“I’v-ve n-never...” stuttered out of the beak which pouch hung limply open. “N-Never s-seen it t-this...” The long wings shook with its feathers wide and spread, barely enough to keep him and his monster passenger afloat in the air. The watering eyes flooded over and drops of sun-blazed tears collected in a small puddle underneath the Griffon Commander.

Cter would invert the direction of the one-sided barrier magic once they took off again, but for the moment she let it only keep in the light of the sun by giving it more of a crystalline structure to it. She did so by alternating between crystal and barrier magic, catching the peak of one in the troth of the other.

Like a certain someone else had explained it to her.

“The humans won’t see us up here now,” said Cter motherly. “Take in more of what you want the humans to be in awe of, Aajja. Take in what they took away from your friends. That’s why you truly want to show the humans your sunsets, isn’t it?”

He nodded.

“And now you know that there is an even more beautiful sunset out there.”

He nodded.

“I am a monster, Aajja.”

He nodded.

“And I will make the humans pay for what they have done.”

Chapter Text

“Oh jeez.”

Why was the ground moving?

“Oh golly.”

Why was it swaying with each step Cter took?

“Oh jeez.”

Why was the gravel in the Jarasevo courtyard like polished ice?

“Oh golly.”

Why were everyone laughing?

“Oh jeez.”

Couldn’t they see that she saw–

“I got you,” chuckled the Griffon Commander with one of his large paws outstretched for Cter to fall into. His catch was firmly soft on her stomach, holding her like a limp sack of potatoes. His three other legs stood sturdy and secure on the gravel-laid courtyard like it was just another day.

For Cter though, as soon as she had climbed off the Griffon Commander’s back to get back down onto solid ground, solid was the last it felt for her. Her first step after her week-or-so-long flight was like the first step she had ever taken, stumbling on wobbly legs and knees, and ending up held on her stomach by a large, gray paw. “It is a bit different compared to stepping off a carriage, I’m guessing?”

There wasn’t a lot of confidence Cter could muster in her nod. “Yeah, it is.” So instead of trying to make a fool out of herself by trying to play it off, it was better for her if she accepted the fact. Better to know what she could not do and work from there than to stumble trying to pretend that she did know.

Literally too in her case.

With an arm around the base of Aajja’s bendy neck, Cter hauled herself up on her wobbly legs. Despite her taking strain on the Griffon Commander her legs still found it beyond comprehension that she would use them to stand up on. “You might have to carry me for another minute or so, Aajja,” the Monster Mage apologized on the behalf on her legs with a sheepish smile. It was met with an amused, but understanding look by the Griffon Commander who nodded his bendy neck back at Cter.

“What is another minute to a week?” followed the nod along with a warm smile.

“Welcome home, Cte–”

A smile that shifted abruptly into violent heaves and guttural harks for a brief few seconds. It stopped the two Monster Mages that had approached with poorly hidden chuckles to their faces. Stopped both their approach and their chuckling in favor of craned-back necks and wide-eyed stares that followed along the coughed-out monocle as it and the strings of saliva stuck on it arced through the air and into the Griffon Commander’s paw. Without a word he dried it off on a handkerchief and placed it in his left eye before bowing his head to the two Monster Mages.

The third one that hung an arm over his neck met the baffled looks of her long-seen colleagues with a shrug. “I’m home,” she said with a snicker and a brush-away of her hair. “Sorry I took so long.” She felt a sharp knife gaze through the recently spat-out monocle. “Although it would have been much longer had Aajja here not helped me.” The knife dulled into a throat clear that found the addendum acceptable. “It is good to see you again, Kry, Kurant.”

Kurant managed to bend her attention away from the monocle which chain went down to the beak of the Griffon Commander. “Welcome home, Cter,” she managed without any sudden heaving interrupting her. “It is very good to see you again as well.” She walked up for a wide hug, and the sight of which prompted Kry to snap out of his stupor as well.

“Yes,” he concurred while taking a long step to catch up with Kurant. He moved his hand to adjust his golden glasses, but halted just before touching them with a slightly disgusted look that washed over his darkly tanned face. Once at Kurant’s pace he gave the Griffon Commander a reassuring nod, and reached his arm underneath the one Cter had over the Griffon Commander’s neck. “Do you require any water or something to eat, commander?”

The hanging pouch flopped from side to side with the respectful shake of Aajja’s head. “I know where to find some food and rest, Monster Mage. I will be heading out after I have gathered some of each. King Asgore and Priestess Frioke should only be few days journey away from here, so I will meet them halfway for the last leg of the journey.” With a ruffle that raised both his plumage and fur, the Griffon Commander quelled a deep yawn. “Forgive me for having to run away so hurriedly, Monster Mages.”

“No need to ask for forgiveness,” urged Cter after finding a comfortable hang of her arm over Kry’s neck. It was a bit more strain on her shoulder reaching up rather than down, but since she had decided already not to use either dark-blue or purple magic to help her legs, she would have to endure it until her legs decided to function properly again.

No animosity towards Aajja, but Cter was a bit tired too of being covered in his combined magic for almost two weeks straight. The brief respites when he slept while gliding on air currents had his magic fading in intensity, but it was still on and around Cter.

If anything it felt more on her when Aajja’s magic was weakened while he slept as she had to be aware of any movement she did that might either wake him up from his magic moving too much, or her being blasted in the face with hard wind only for Aajja to also wake up.

Her one-sided barrier magic Aajja didn’t want her to use as it would have made light of the moment they had when she first showed it to him. He would use it to make sure the first human he showed his sunsets for became more in awe. He would do like that monster in the Xoff legend could not.

“Then I thank you for what you’ve given me, Cter.” Aajja knelt down along with a deep bow of his head. “I thank you from the bottom of my soul.” A helping wing-beat had him up on his paws again, and after two shallower bows towards Kry and Kurant, the Griffon Commander took flight over the castle wall towards the Royal Kitchen. Following him as he crested over the white walls of Jarasevo Castle had Cter realize that she hadn’t looked up in a week’s time. Seeing clouds above her rather than below felt comfortable to the Monster Mage.

“Shouldn’t you be the one thanking him?” quirked Kurant along with a brow while sliding her shoulder underneath Cter’s free arm. “He was the one that flew across the entire country with you on his back, after all.”

In the span of a judging blink Cter met Kurant’s teasingly smiling eyes. “And what do you mean by that exactly?” Cter asked in a very impertinent tone. Her voice softened when she caught a glimpse of Kurant’s knee brace. “Should you really–”

“Yes,” came a quick and to-the-point interruption that had no of the teasing hint to it. “It’s fine,” Kurant added afterwards with a deliberate attempt to not sound fazed. She looked up into the clouding overcast, “We should get inside before there’s rain,” and took the first step in helping Cter get her walking back. There was an annoyance in both her tightened brow and steps.

Cter looked to Kry for an explanation, but all she got was a silent word. “Later,” he mouthed before motioning forward with a furrow of his brow.

Golly.

It took halfway to the castle gates before Cter felt her legs waking up. She could walk the last half on her own, but she could feel her colleagues hands at the ready to catch her. Their auras were hovering above her too like observing clouds just in case. She didn’t mind them. It felt good to feel them again after such a long time away. She was happy that they were in good health too.

In fact, the war did not seem to be anywhere to be found at all from what Cter had seen. There weren’t even more guards than usual stationed at the castle gate. Inside there was the same hallway with its usual business of monsters traversing through on their way higher up in the castle if their attire was colorful and on the ground floor if their outfits were less colorful. Cter had discarded her drab human robe with King Asgore, so she and her two colleagues’ attires were deep purple as they should be, which meant that they were heading upstairs.

Upstairs through a door and up a spiraling staircase and a few doors down the upstairs hallway until they came to a door opened slightly ajar for them.

“Ah, you’ve arrived, Cter.”

The Leader of the Royal Guard stood with his hands folded behind his large shell looking out his office window. He must have meant that Cter had arrived at his office and not at the castle, for how could he have missed Aajja landing with his massive wingspan from where he was standing looking out his office window?

And on top of that…

“You’re here at the castle, Sir Gerson?”

A disappointed look reflected in the window pane as Sir Gerson met the reflection of Cter. “I am,” he said with no joy to his nod. A deep inhale through his nose followed. “I am here at the castle and not out in the field commanding the Royal Guards directly.” He breathed out the rest of his inhale which fogged the window pane where his eyes reflected in. Cter could tell from the tension in Sir Gerson’s aura though that his eyes hadn’t changed one bit. “For the Monster King has told me that the end to the war is very soon.”

There was doubt in the turtle monster’s words.

“But in any case, it is good to see you again, Cter.” The doubt drained as the old, green head turned over the large shell. A tired smile shone, genuine and caring. “I am sure you have an arsenal of questions, for we have for you.” One of the folded hands on the large shell opened up to motion towards the half-circle table. “You may ask yours first.”

Cter’s chair was cold as she sat down. “I haven’t really thought of any specific ones to ask, to be honest.” She could feel that none had sat in it for quite a while. That lingering feeling had her head turn towards Sund’s vacant chair which she blinked at tentatively.

“Can’t say that it was comfortable going back to the days where it was just me and Kry,” commented Kurant with a pained scoff. Her gaze averted with her shoulders hunched heavily. “It has been quiet here this last year despite all that has been said and planned and decided. This office has been the busiest it has ever been, but it has also been the most quietest it has ever been.”

She tried to roll her shoulders back to straighten them, however that only made it clearer that they were hanging low. “It hasn’t been easy. Not with the war, and even less with you being out of reach and kept as a prisoner by the humans.”

It wasn’t just her too. “Have you heard anything about the Royal Guards that accompanied me to Soul’s School?” asked Cter to Sir Gerson.

It was Kry that answered though. “We were hoping that you would be able to answer that, I’m afraid.” He touched the bridge of his glasses with his index finger, pushing them up slightly.

“We have not heard anything about them from the spies we sent to follow the carriages that brought you to the negotiations. Their report got to us yesterday, and it was the first we had heard of your well being ever since your last letter from Soul’s School.” With the same index finger he pointed to a weather-touched scroll Sir Gerson’s desk. “Apparently the human guards were quite shook after your...demonstration. How the Noitaidarr Royal Mage felt our spies could not find out. Only so close they could get without raising suspicion.”

Cter sure didn’t notice their presence. She was busy with showing off her magic though, so she wasn’t really focused on searching for spies at the time. “I see,” Cter nodded. “And what effect that will have is yet to be seen.” A wash of warm embarrassment spread throughout her aura. “And to be honest, I do regret doing what I did. My mind was just so...so weary. So tired and so...”

No, there really weren’t any other words to describe it. “So tired.” There was still tired within her soul as she knew that there was more to come. Most likely more than she ever had experienced before. Sitting at the half-circle table though back home in the castle where she belonged, there was respite.

There were her friends and colleagues. Those that she cared about. Those that she could depend on. Those that were monsters. “I will see this war through though.” Those that weren’t human. “I will see it through to the end, and beyond that if necessary.”

“Always and forever?” the Leader of the Royal Guard asked in return, letting his eyes wander between the three Monster Mages together again for monsterkind.

“Always, and forever,” they repeated in unison, nodding reassuringly at each other. They were together again to protect monsterkind.

“Good,” said Sir Gerson while moving a game piece on his board with a quick tug. “It pleases me to hear that the humans at least were inefficient in breaking your spirit.” The game board was much busier than the last time Cter saw it. The map on top of it had been written on as well. The different roads were filled in with red and black between groups of game pieces spread out on top of the Monster Country villages.

Those without game pieces on them were either crossed out or ringed in. Cter didn’t understand the exact meaning of what had been drawn on the map, but she understood the gist of it. “So whatever it is that King Asgore has come to terms with when it comes to his supposed solution to the war with the Xoff king, we will have our full strength to tackle whatever happens. Kry and Kurant have already managed miracles, so with another Monster Mage at our disposal we will be able to make this solution to the war our own.”

Technically they had the same amount of Monster Mages, but Cter understood the gist of it.

It had been a long while since Cter had seen Sir Gerson smile as widely as he did when he placed down the game piece that represented her. Even before she traveled to Soul’s School it had been a long while. Cter could really only remember vividly the last time being when Sir Gerson had finally explained about his magnifying glass that he used to help him focus on things.

And speaking of which, if Cter looked closer on the game piece that represented her she could faintly see a small spot of green paint on its head.

Like her crystal brooch.

Neat.

“Anything else you have to ask?” prompted Kry friendly. “Just one question can’t be all that you have, surely?”

True indeed. “How is it between you and Barbeqa, Kurant?”

The Second Monster Mage’s face became as pink as that of the Monster Chef’s flames should the question had been posed to her instead. “W-W-What?” stammered out of the flush, stunned lips while Kurant tried to hide her blush behind her hair. “W-Why d-do you ask me that?” Anxious laughter flopped out her mouth, and the sound of which had her flush skin turning even more red. “It’s...it’s fine. H-How–”

Kry managed only to turn away halfway before Cter’s thumb thrown over her shoulder reached at him, pointing all the blame past her towards him instead. “Kry wrote about it in the letters to Soul’s School.” Before Kurant’s aura could be filled with enough rage to fry an egg without any ignited magic to it, Cter continued.

“To make sure that I still felt that I wasn’t being left behind on the goings on in the castle,” she explained before leaning closer to Kurant to add an important note. “Like how you did as well.” So Kurant shouldn’t be too upset about it, even less so when she had written about Kry too. Nothing as...long-lasting, but still. He had gone and changed his hair color via magic. Not to make it darker, but to add more gray streaks in it, funnily enough.

Cter could see why, they fit him. It gave him a more wise presence and stoic appearance. He looked more like how the First Monster Mage should look like, and that Cter approved of.

“While I could not reread the letters when I was held a prisoner, I thought about them all the time. More often than not it only reminded me of my situation, but the few times it had me imagining how it was with you and Barbeqa, it gave me hope that I needed.” Cter smiled at Kurant warmly.

“I know that you two have had an understanding between each other, and that was enough between you. However,” she glanced down at the cast-iron ring that had replaced the golden one on Kurant’s naked left hand, “that love can bloom even greater even during the drought of war is something that I needed to know to not make things worse for monsterkind. I am so very happy for you two, Kurant.”

Cter opened her arms for her friend.

Who embraced them heavily.

“I wanted to tell you myself,” said Kurant with happy sobs on Cter’s shoulder. Between them was heard the sound of Kry’s chair legs jumping further and further away to get out of the range of the glare in Kurant’s aura towards him. It glared for only a few moments though before it softened to embrace warmly around Cter instead. “To hear that it helped you through your imprisonment though is more important to me though. Had it not then I might not have been able to hug you again like this.”

“I’ve missed you too, Kurant,” replied Cter with her aura washing over Kurant’s to let her recognize it again. “And it fills my soul with joy to know about you and Barbeqa.” There was relief in Kurant’s aura, like steam lifting away a great weight from her.

From it Cter could tell both how much Barbeqa meant to her, and how much Cter meant to her. The two meant almost equally as much, but differently. There were two types of love that Kurant radiated from her aura, and that one of which was about Cter felt so comforting that the Fourth Monster Mage had no chance to hold back her tears.

She was so happy to be back.

So happy to be back with her colleagues again.

“You too, Kry,” she sniveled between sobs. “Please.”

With Kry adding his arms and aura around Cter as well she felt faint throughout her entire being. She had been able to relieve tension with King Asgore and Priestess Frioke once Cter and the Monster King were out of the thick forest, but with her friends she could finally get rid of the last tension in her shoulders and soul.

She could relax.

If she could have melted into a bucket she would have done so.

“Once this war is over we will make it official,” said Kurant. “Once this war is over we will ask Queen Toriel and King Asgore to be witnesses for us. We met because of them, so it is only fair that they get the honors. I want you two there as well. Promise me that you’ll be there for me and Barbeqa.”

“We will get through this war,” assured Kry with a sincere depth to his voice. We will get through it along with monsterkind. We will see this through.”

“Together.”

Through Kry and Kurant’s arms, Cter saw Sir Gerson stand up from his desk quietly and waltz to the office window with an ease to his steps and a casual grip on his hands behind his shell. In the reflection of the window he met Cter’s eyes, and nodded with a pleased smile at her. Despite the gray overcast outside there was luster in his eyes. There was hope and cherish in them, in his soul. He had his Monster Mages back.

He had all he needed.

To put an end to the war.

Chapter Text

Perhaps it would have been for the better had Cter kept the drab robe that he humans gave her to hide her Monster Mage attire. It would have protected her from being exposed. Shielded her from being recognized when she least expected it. If she would have kept it, then the pain of being recognized would not have caught up to her.

She could have made it conform to her terms and been recognized when she wanted to rather than have it be out of her control. Would she accept it though? Would it be better for her to accept the condition given to her by the humans under the pretense of keeping her a prisoner?

“Oh no, it’s all over your leg.”

Or could she muster through the dried feeling from the dropped soup?

“It’ll be fine. I’ll have Fang Shuey wash it later.”

The concerned look from the blue monster flickered up to meet the comforting nod of her Monster Mage friend. “You sure?” was asked more out of the feather-covered side than the scaly one. A cluster of feathers rose as an inquisitive brow quirked. “Still though, sorry that I spilled it all over you.”

It wasn’t Idyll’s fault that Cter rounded the corner the exact same second Idyll did from the other side carrying a tray of soup. Nor was it her fault that Cter said that she had a spare robe to change into despite not really having one. Her green, Xoff-made robe was all that she managed to bring with her from Soul’s School. The rest of her wardrobe was there as spoils of war, and with how long Cter was confined into that two-storied house they sure were spoils by the time she was taken to the negotiations.

And what Cter had left behind Fang Shuey had moved to better storage.

And Kurant’s robes were too small.

And Kry’s robes were too large.

“It’s not your fault, Idyll.”

Really, it wasn’t.

However, while Cter could explain away why she had to still be wearing her soup-soaked robes, there was one thing she could not explain about the whole interaction. “If you don’t mind, Idyll, but why were you carrying a tray of soup earlier today?”

The Monster Chef stopped her stirring of the stew stood on a portable stove between her and Cter. “I’m sorry?” she stalled for time to let her mind come back from focusing on her magical flame underneath the pot she was stirring in.

Her bright hair bouncing up from her jerk-up of her neck had the sunset glimmer through the golden strands, illuminating the feather-covered side of her face with a soft bloom. Cter had missed seeing the sunset play around in Idyll’s hair. It felt nice seeing it again. “Why I was carrying the soup?”

“Yes,” Cter nodded. “Why weren’t you using a cart like usual?” She adjusted the soles of her shoes onto the slanted slates of the roof to be able to lean her folded arms onto her knees where she rested her sideways-leaning head. “You usually use the cart so that this don’t happen, don’t you?”

The Monster Mage motioned with her hand over her soup-stained leg as if she was about to freeze the stain with magic and then pull it off. It had soaked too much into the fabric though which would have made the effort borderline futile. Had she done it earlier, like immediately after the spill happened, then it would have been no problem.

The time it took for Cter and Idyll to break away from their hug immediately after the spill happened was long enough for the soup to almost become a permanent part of Cter’s robe though. The hug they shared after not having seen each other for over a year did not care for any soup, spilled on legs or unspilled in the few bowls that had managed to land upright. Their hug was more important. Their friendship was more important.

God, Cter had forgotten how much she had missed sitting alone with Idyll on the castle rooftop for a sunset meal.

Singe her soul, it had been so long ago…

“It would have been a longer walk to get a cart than to reach Queen Toriel’s gathering, so the risk of spilling would have been greater.” Idyll’s eyes flipped to the dried stain that colored the deep-purple fabric a sickly gray. “Would have.”

“The...The queen?” stammered Cter while Idyll tasted the boiling stew for seasoning. “Was the soup for Queen Toriel?” Did that mean that spilling it meant that Idyll and Cter were a threat against the Monster Royals? Was there proof of insubordination against the Monster Queen on Cter’s leg, worn for all to see?

“Yes,” answered Idyll with a calm and relaxed tone to her voice that only harshened lightly as she tested the taste of her stew. “Maybe a bit more onion?” From her small sack of vegetables she rummaged forth one which she peeled and sliced with her claws. “Oh, and the soup was from the tavern down in Jarasevo where she and I used to work in.”

The large chunks of onion were folded into the stew with a few languid stirs of the wooden ladle. “She had an old friend for visit so she sent word to me if I wouldn’t mind bringing some of soup with me on the way up to the castle.”

An old friend of the Queen’s? Interesting. Cter had never really thought of Queen Toriel having friends. Neither with King Asgore for that matter, but with how Cter saw him talk with the Xoff king it shouldn’t really be a surprise to her anymore. There was a love between them that Cter recognized as the same between Idyll and her.

Friends that had been through thick and thicker and come out stronger on the other side together. It had Cter curious as to who this friend of Queen Toriel could be. It wasn’t the Hjearta Queen or King, that was for sure. Perhaps it was one from when before she was the Monster Queen? If she asked for Idyll to bring with her the soup from Jarasevo then that was the most probable case.

Speaking of that though.

“Why were you in Jarasevo?” Cter asked in a slightly, accidentally accusing manner with a dubious furrow to her brow. “You don’t usually head down there from what I remember.”

The wooden ladle was tapped a few rhythmic taps on the cast iron rim as the Monster Chef brushed her feather-side hair behind an imaginary ear to see better over the sunset-glazed town that had yet to be touched by the war. “It’s hard for me not to since I am living there now.” She turned a toothy smile to Cter. “Again.”

With her thumb Idyll swiped the backside of the ladle and gave her onion-infused stew a lick. After a few seconds of it ruminating on her tongue, she gave it an approving nod. She placed the ladle back into the stew with a dipping toss and reached for Cter to hand over her bowl. “I live down there now with Donial not far from where you and I lived. A bit better too as we have our own house.”

Her handing it back proved a bit more difficult as Cter’s surprise was too much for her to hold the weight of her stew-filled bowl. Since there had already been one embarrassed spillage already, Idyll kept Cter’s bowl for when the surprise had smoothed out for the Monster Mage. “Evan has a little garden for me to try my hand at some gardening that King Asgore has been more than happy to teach me about.”

Cter’s nod was absent. “I see.” As were her words. Had her friend not shoved the rest of the bleeding onion under her nose to drag her back onto the roof from the clouds above where her mind was, she would have risked falling off. “I mean...uh...” Cter blinked forth a few tears due to the strong scent of the onion which she dried off quickly. “I just...I didn’t think you’d want to get away from the castle.” Cter was happy for her friend, but she was also a bit confused. “Aren’t you needed here?”

A somber pout had Idyll’s thumb fidgeting at the rim of Cter’s bowl. “Well...” She saw what she was doing and handed it over before she accidentally dipped her fidgeting finger into it.

“It might look that the castle is as busy as it is, but really the castle has been more empty than I’ve ever seen it be before. There are fewer monsters here, but those that are here have more to do than usual. Really, you and I bumping into each other is just one of many times something like that has happened here these last months. It’s hectic, but the mouths that needs to eat are fewer. Even counting in those of the recalled monsters with multiple mouths there are still less than half here at the moment. Barbeqa can handle it herself now that she has learned how to better control the Woshuas.”

Idyll threw an eye at the edge of Jarasevo hidden behind the many differently shaped rooftops. “I am handling cooking for the monsters that have been displaced due to the war.” She scoffed a light chuckle. “But right now I’m cooking for a monster who has come home again from the war, I suppose.” And filled her own bowl with stew. “A good opposite.”

Cter saw her friend raise her bowl like a glass to cheer with, but it didn’t feel right to her. “Guess so,” she instead said with her gaze wandering the outskirts of Jarasevo to find both where Idyll’s house was and where the monster refugees were.

She hadn’t seen anything obvious from the back of Aajja, but although she was quite familiar with seeing Jarasevo from above in her mage tower, she wasn’t used to seeing Jarasevo from far, far above. Besides, her eyes were more focused on how Jarasevo Castle glistened from far above, and how green the Royal Garden was with its white, surrounding walls, upon one of which she was sitting on once more while enjoying a meal with her best friend.

“A bit more to the left,” corrected Idyll with her mouthful of stew shunted to one cheek as Cter’s eyes wandered over Jarasevo. “Start from where you and I lived and then go down the main road from there, so to speak. Not towards the fountain and Time’s Square, but the other way for when we went to buy mushrooms from that one slime monster, you know?”

Did she? “From the one that changed his shape into me because he had never seen an adult human before and wanted to know how it felt to have a pair of human...”

Cter had all but forgotten that.

How unfortunate that she had to remember it again.

“And who made them even larger than mine since she thought mine too small? Then exposed them without a single pause for thought because she was disappointed that I was hiding mine from sight? Just...flopping them out in the open for the entire damn shop to see saying that they’re so perky and blushy and asking me why the hell I would want to hide them away from anyone for any reason?”

Idyll’s shake of her head didn’t manage to hide her bemused smile. “No, not the Moldsmall one who wanted to feel how it was to have ears,” she said with a few drops of stew spurting out from her bloated cheek. “The Moldsmall one was for the berries. I’m talking about the slime monster that showed the mushrooms we wanted with its shifting appendage.” Idyll poked into her bowl with her spoon, searching. “She had a color like this,” she demonstrated via a piece of carrot. “Set us up with some butter-flung chanterelles on toast after we had shopped there for a while.”

That...might have helped. Cter felt that she should have recognized it, but didn’t. She knew that it was true, but couldn’t place the truth in her mind. “And after that?” she instead asked while pretending to remember while looking in the vague direction Idyll had guided her gaze towards.

Cter’s friend was keen though, and raised an eyebrow at the Monster Mage. “You can just say if you don’t remember.” With playful dances of her fingers Idyll reached for Cter’s left arm. “Should I just give you it instead or–”

“Don’t.”

“Okay.”

As quickly as Idyll began the playful teasing Cter shut it down. She knew what Idyll was trying to do, but she was not in the mood for it. Not with knowing that it was possible for her left arm to become much, much more. With Manny having sacrificed all of his magical potential to hold the Second Fusion captured within him there was a possibility for the White Flesh to begin growing on him as it had done with Cter. With the Second Fusion’s presence being throughout his entire magical being it wouldn’t be contained to just his arm like on Cter. Or if it even was contained on Cter’s arm…

In any case though, it wasn’t something Cter wanted to make jest about.

For she had some theories that had been brewing while flying with Aajja. None of which she wanted to talk with Idyll about.

However there was something good she could get out of it. “Did you ever meet Manny when he was here, by the way?” The topic of Idyll’s house was better saved for when the conversation swung around more positive. “Or were you busy with things outside the castle while he was here?”

Idyll’s cheek which she had shunted her mouthful of stew into looked a bit looser after she had swallowed her bite. “With the way you begin mentioning with his name has me thinking that he’s no longer the Fifth Monster Mage, yes? He really wasn’t one to begin with, from what I could gather. More a reason to get you back than anything else.” She didn’t need Cter to directly answer it to know that she was right.

“Only a few times did I even see him, and even fewer of those times I was meant to see him.” Idyll held a spoonful of stew in front of her mouth for a thoughtful second before her small sigh out her nose blew away the rising steam. “He smiled each time he saw me. A very childish smile, like I was someone he didn’t expect to see that day. Fair enough, really.” She let the handle of the spoon hang out her mouth while she suckled on the rest. “I’m struggling to remember if I smiled back at him though.” Something small ignited in her aura. Even if not meant to, Cter still felt that she had to mention that she noticed it.

“I won’t search your memories for if you did, Idyll,” the Monster Mage said out loud to make it known to both.

“Sorry,” the Monster Chef apologized with a brief grit to her teeth which angled the wooden handle downwards. “I didn’t… It just...” Her defeated sigh had the wooden spoon falling out her mouth, catching itself in the last second on her uneven rows of teeth. “I’m sorry,” Idyll repeated in lieu of her other words failing her.

“Just want to make sure,” explained Cter with her right hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I know you just want me to feel more comfortable with it, but not her, and not now. I promise you I’ve been feeling better with it, but just...not now.”

Idyll’s rough skin was soothing for Cter as the Monster Chef caressed the back of the Monster Mage’s hand with her feathery cheek. Her bright hair veiled around it. “I understand, Cter. It’s been too long since you headed away to help with the human war only for it to turn into a war towards us. Then you were taken prisoner which I only found out a month or so after it happened since I was busy with our new home and my new duties and...”

A tired, weary raspberry had Idyll’s cheeks and lips flopping loosely. “Each time I think that surely there can’t be more that can be put on your shoulders it just gets worse and worse. Nowadays though,” said Idyll while tilting her neck up again so that she could see what she was looking for. “Nowadays I feel some of that weight on my own shoulders.”

Cter kept her hand on her friend’s shoulder. Through it she could feel the weight Idyll was talking about. It was similar to what Cter felt on her own shoulders. The weight of holding up the hope for monsterkind.

“I’ve managed to be much more creative with my cooking,” flashed a silver lining on Idyll’s scoffing lips. “When faced with cooking for volume rather than taste there are certain caveats you have to keep in mind. I could make the soup more robust and smooth by mixing in some more milk into it, but it is better to use that milk for a base for the next meal instead. Two meals are better than one, and even more so when you’re not in a position to feed yourself.”

She tapped her spoon on the rim of her bowl impatiently, but not enough to have the stew splash around. “However, I’ve found that taste is almost as important as the food being filling, especially in the conditions I’m cooking for.”

Idyll had done more for monsterkind in the war than Cter had. Far, far more. Cter had only been a reason for negotiation. She herself hadn’t done anything. Idyll though. Cter could see, hear, and feel how much she had done. Her aura had the shimmer of someone who had put their all into their duty. All of her soul into helping the refugees from the war. Cter was proud over her friend.

So very, very proud.

“Taste brings with it the warmth of the soul. Taste brings with it familiarity and comfort. A filled stomach soothes the worry. Eating to live quells the worry of the meal you’ve already eaten being your last. Living to eat though? Wanting to eat because you look forward to the taste and the enjoyment of it? That soothes the worry even more. I feed the refugees, those displaced by the humans. The dust of those that did not make it will forever be with them. At times you can see dust in the air after a new batch of refugees arrive. You can see that there is death on them. They have nothing to live for except to survive, and that brings no hope at all. Eating well gives them something to live for. Suggesting that I add turmeric next time because that was how their mother made it has them remembering when this war wasn’t. It has them remembering their mother as alive rather than dusted by humans.”

The wooden spoon sank into the stew as Idyll wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. A few tears managed through, and Cter watched as one rolled down past feather after feather until it finally reached the bottom-most one on her chin where it broke off. It landed into the bowl of stew with an inaudible plop.

“You’ve done good, Idyll,” the Monster Mage said with all the love she had within her soul. “You’ve done so very good for these monsters. More than I ever have.” She put up her hand sternly, interrupting Idyll’s imminent protest. The tears from her eyes trailed behind her as her head whipped around, and as it came to a dead stop from seeing Cter’s sternly raised hand, her hair caught up with her too much.

It swept across her face like a shoal, hanging over her muzzle in separated strands. “You’re there for the monsters, Idyll. You’re there with them directly. I… What I am protecting is monsterkind. All of us. The concept, the idea, the zeitgeist of monsterkind. For that, the monsters look up to me as an ideal. As someone who’s there in spirit for them. I am a presence for them, but you are presence next to them. You put food in their hands. That I can’t do. That is not what I am supposed to do.”

But what is it she was supposed to do then?

Wait for whatever it was that King Asgore and the king of Xoff had come to unified terms about?

“It’s strange,” chuckled Idyll with an anxious bounce to her muzzle that dislodged her separated hair. “Hearing you be so humble with who you are and what you’ve done shouldn’t surprise me since I’ve heard you say that a thousand times already, yet it does.” She shook her head slowly. “You’ve been away for too long, Cter,” was said trough a crying chuckle. “Please don’t be away for that long again. I know you always come back, but...”

A chuckle that broke down immediately.

“I’ve already...” Idyll had to say it though. “I’ve already seen Sarbor for the last time.” The bowl of stew she held weakly finally fell out of her hands. “He’s already had his last meal from me. I’ll never...” It crashed against the rooftop slates, rolling down with hollow clonks and spilling its contents in a long, viscous line behind it. “I’ll never cook for him again!”

And she didn’t want for it to be the same with Cter. She had weathered Cter traveling away for the supposed greater good, but finally Cter didn’t come back when she was supposed to. She was kept away by the war, the same as Sarbor was.

“Idyll...” Cter moved the pot of stew with the crackling magical fired underneath it to the side with stasis magic so that she could reach over to her friend for a hug that she so very much needed. “I won’t go away like that again,” she promised into the sobbing monster’s aura and soul. “And you will cook for him again.”

Shadows passed over the rooftop.

“The war will be over.”

Three of them.

“I promise.”

Landing carefully in the Royal Garden.

“The war will be over soon.”

Chapter Text

Seeing the Griffon Commander stood tall with his head high for his ribbons to be clearly visible on his chest brought an air of importance that breezed Cter by as she opened the glass door leading into the Royal Garden. She caught his eyes for a moment which he nodded to as acknowledgment of seeing her and appreciating that he was seeing her. A small, befuddled furrow made a brief appearance on his feathery forehead as his eyes sank down onto Cter’s soup-stained leg for a moment.

She shrugged at it, and that seemed to be enough of an explanation for Aajja who instead directed Cter’s attention over to one of his subordinates, and more precisely at the two Monster Royals embracing each other in a wide, loving hug. Their smiling muzzles danced around each other, and Cter came into hearing distance as Queen Toriel finished her welcome to her king. “It is good to have you back, King Asgore.”

“It is good to be back, Tori,” he replied with a bow of his head. “Thank you for meeting me here.”

Seems like her friend that Idyll had brought the soup for had left already which was a bit of a shame. Cter would have at least wanted to see who it was. If not to greet and talk with then at least apologize for ruining the soup that was meant for her and Queen Toriel.

“Of course, Gorey,” said the Monster Queen in return with a love-felt peck on his bearded cheek. “You will be needing me for what you’re about to say to your Royal Councilors, don’t you?” She stood herself next to her king ready to share the weight with him from what he was to tell his closest advisors. “Whatever it is you have decided is best I will stand by you with.”

It was no wonder that she too noticed the trouble inside the Monster King’s aura. Noticed it in more detail too than what Cter could too, and Kry and Kurant as well, most likely. Otherwise they would not have been standing as anxiously abiding as they did at the edge of the clearing in the Royal Garden where Aajja and his two subordinates had landed in. Cter joined in with her two colleagues, folding over a large leaf over her soup-stained legs before anyone noticed it.

“And now we’re all here,” commented Sir Gerson from close to a bush with the same green color to it as he was. Had he been closer Cter would not have noticed him, and probably would have jumped out of her skin too hearing and seeing a nearby bush talk in a low, authoritative tone.

“I was told that King Asgore would arrive later,” defended Cter while being conscious of her eyes not looking up at the roof where she and Idyll had eaten at. It had taken a bit longer with Idyll returning the cast-iron pot back to the castle kitchen where she had borrowed it from earlier as the Woshuas had been very insisting on cleaning Cter’s robe leg too. She should have just dismissed the offer immediately instead of thinking it over, for in the end it only had her being late to the gathering and her robe leg still stained with the earlier soup. “I had some business that needed concluding.”

Sir Gerson’s eyebrow rose up as he passed by a rose bush. “Business more important than greeting the Monster King back from his travels into hostile territory bringing with him a proposal for the end of this war?” It sank down with one of his neutral hums while his hand slipped into his chest pocket. Seeing that, Aajja reached into his pouch to retrieve his monocle which he placed on his eye preemptively. Why he didn’t need to inversely gag to bring up the monocle before Sir Gerson, Cter was at a loss for. Perhaps he already had coughed it up pre-preemptively? “Your new orders.”

Cter’s initial reaction was a bit mixed seeing Sir Gerson give Aajja new orders before King Asgore could share with him what he and the Xoff king had come to terms with. Although thinking about it, why wouldn’t he? Regardless of what news King Asgore had brought with him it would not be anything immediate enough that whatever new orders Sir Gerson had wouldn’t be relevant.

A war wasn’t something that could be changed in a day even if the decision for that change was made in a day. However the war was progressing before King Asgore’s arrival it would still continue to progress that way unless–

“We are to fight the humans in one decisive battle.”

Un...le...ss…

The eyes of the Leader of the Royal Guard exploded open, folding his forehead into something that resembled liquid which drooped back down over his eyes. What hair he had left drowned in the deep, sudden wrinkles like the sail of a capsizing boat disappearing behind high, green waves. His breathing stopped, and the folded orders that he were handing over to the Griffon Commander didn’t move in the slightest as a curious breeze passed through the Royal Garden.

It stopped at Sir Gerson, sneaking away as if caught red-handed eavesdropping on something it shouldn’t have. Despite him not breathing, Sir Gerson sucked away all the air around him as he turned his neck slowly towards the Monster King. Even the sections on his shell seemed to tighten up, and more so his lips once he faced King Asgore with a gaze that was impossible to tell what it meant. His aura equally so, with it rumbling with emotions compact enough to be stronger than steel.

“Pardon?”

The question was impossible to be deaf towards.

“We are to fight in one last, decisive battle with the humans,” repeated King Asgore after a strengthening look at his queen who still stood at his side without having flinched or reacted in the slightest. She was there for him, and her calming aura and presence was most likely the reason Sir Gerson wasn’t reacting in any more...animated manner.

He would never lay or even raise a finger against the Monster Royals, but he sure would share with them his opinion as their military advisor. From how he still wasn’t breathing as a means to keep himself composed and his more representative opinion in his throat, his respect for the Monster Royals seemed to still be winning in his soul.

But only barely.

“By giving the humans a way for them to feel like they have won on their terms they will harbor less intent to further kill any more monsters after the fact,” the Monster King continued while one of his long, heavy ears slowly slid off his shoulder due to his slight turn of his large head to find strength with his queen.

“Monster casualties have been on the rise lately with no real slowing down which we were hoping for. The fear brought upon the humans due to the Second Fusion has not faded like we predicted. I felt that in my friend’s soul.” His other ear was saved from falling down his other, sinking shoulders by a soft, white hand grabbing it gingerly and dragging it up some more. “I felt my friend’s soul to begin with which I in my life thought I would, and as I did, I wish that I hadn’t.”

It sounded awfully close to Sarbor’s worries about how Idyll would react. So close that Cter found herself wishing that she would have pushed for Sarbor to have revealed his soul to his monster sister. If she had then perhaps she would have been able to talk with King Asgore about it so that he wouldn’t have…

No, stop!

If Sir Gerson could still believe in the Monster Royals then Cter could as well! She had to! What she felt and thought about when she heard King Asgore and the king of Xoff discuss through the night and into the foggy morning on that hill was heard when her mind was that of the prisoner at Soul’s School! She was a Monster Mage again, back at Jarasevo Castle where she belonged. It was different!

She had to listen to what the Monster King had to say! He saved her! He brought her back to Jarasevo! Had it not been for him risking his life to travel through the parts of Monster Country that were in the humans’ control then she would still be stuck in the two-storied house with the two Royal Mages!

So why did she have to convince herself to trust in him?

“The fear which he spoke of I could feel as if it was a monster’s. The words he spoke he could never have lied with how naked he displayed his emotions for me, and the fact that he could only made his words even truer to me.” King Asgore placed his hand over his queen’s resting on his shoulder.

“He had never spoken about it to anyone else. He couldn’t. He was the king of Xoff. He needed, and still needs, to show that he still has the strength to lead. Any weakness, be it even a distant hint, is multiple for him after what happened with the Princess of the Lineage. This I could feel too. This I could feel was the curse of the Fusion within him. A closeness that he was given fully formed and which presence was at times a stronger representation of who he was than he could ever make.”

With a gentle hand the Monster King touched at his ornate chestplate.

“There was a stranger within him that spoke with his words and felt the same as he did, and stronger. There still is that stranger within him, and all humans who were affected by the Second Fusion, be it their first encounter with it,” King Asgore looked at Cter, “or second.”

Sarbor?

Or...Manny? The Hero of Xoff? Surely he didn’t mean Cter.

No, it had to be Sarbor.

“There have been efforts made to come to terms with the curse, the king of Xoff assured me. They had been close once with the help of Priestess Frioke, but they only managed to suppress, not cure. Sarbor Fech has been leading the efforts, even going so far as to return to Clinic Hill to find a cure for the Fusion's Curse.”

“We got news yesterday from our scouts that he is preparing to take the road past Mt. Ebott when heading to Clinic Hill from where the Second Fusion appeared,” added Sir Gerson while King Asgore took a breath while he still wasn’t taking any. “They have spotted a small contingency of human soldiers moving ahead west rather than south from the Second Fusion’s birthplace with sparse provisions and only lightly armored as to be able to travel quick and easy. They’re riding ahead to prepare for a larger expedition to follow, so I am confident that it is the intended route for the doctor.”

To Mt. Ebott?

Cter could feel that her reaction was shared with her colleagues. Why Mt. Ebott of all places? True, the leading theory back then about where human magic would be found first at was at Mt. Ebott and Mt. Ymmet with their long history of religious importance for the Xoff people. Perhaps Cter would have found something substantial about the Soul Rainbow had she been able to visit, but still though.

Returning to Clinic Hill she would not want to do in either her lifetime or whatever came afterwards, and she did not have any prior history with it besides the First Fusion. For Sarbor to return there, for him to willingly go back there for the sake of monsterkind? Going there to find a cure for the Fusion's Curse would have benefitted monsterkind far, far more than it would have humankind, for curing the Fusion's Curse would bring about the end of the war.

But then why was it necessary to have one last decisive battle to decide the end of the war? Wouldn’t the Xoff king have told King Asgore to hold out just a little bit longer and to have hope and trust in that Sarbor would find a cure and the end of the war would come that way instead? Even if the mountain passage between Xoff and Hjearta had been built in the midst of a war it would still have been a detour to pass by Mt. Ebott on the way to Clinic Hill.

It didn’t make sense.

Something was amiss.

Again, Cter’s first thought was to question the Monster King’s faith in the human king. It wouldn’t be a big lie to tell which would easily slip past as true. It wouldn’t be a lie at all, but instead only an omission of information. The Xoff king was capable of that, surely. King Asgore was being–

She had to bite her tongue to dismiss the thought and instead have trust in the Monster King. She had to! With the coppery stench of blood filling her nose from her mouth, she managed do think past her distrust of the Xoff king.

So if she went on with the assumption that the Xoff king was telling the truth about Sarbor heading only to Clinic Hill, what did that mean?

It meant that Sarbor had gotten new information after the fact. That he had received something new that was important enough that he had to change his plans. Information that was not from the Xoff king.

So from whom then?

“My duty as Monster King is to look after monsterkind. It is my duty to make sure that my people are safe, alive, and prosperous.” King Asgore spoke as if chastising himself. “A final, decisive battle is a choice that will result in the death of many monsters. It is a choice that goes against everything we have prepared for. It goes against the only way we can wage a war against the humans, but we could only prepare for so much.”

Sir Gerson’s brow sunk some more.

“As we only have one way of fighting the humans there is only a matter of time before they learn how to counter the only choice we have at our disposal. We have gained enough of an advantage to predict what the humans will do, and from that we have slowed down their progress. It has only slowed down though. We have never been able to stop them fully at any point. We can outmaneuver and be keen on their tactics, but while droplets on a rock might one day wear it down, we aren’t an ocean. Neither are we a lake. A bucket at most, a glass realistically.”

King Asgore met the Griffon Commander’s eyes with his. There was pride and reverence in the Monster King’s aura. “Valiantly is not enough to describe what each and every one of you have done in service to monsterkind. Because of you there have been far, far less death than this war would have otherwise produced. I thank you from the bottom of my soul for saving the lives of my people, and from the same bottom I regret to ask you to please help me save more.”

How he said it froze Cter to her very soul. The desperation in the king’s voice knew no bounds. The plead he had no right to ask of anyone else, even as king. He…

He…

He couldn’t.

He couldn’t ask it of them.

Even with his queen’s aura and hand on him he wasn’t strong enough to ask what should never be asked.

“Gorey.”

So she would.

“Tori...”

In his stead, she would.

The Monster Queen stepped forth before the Griffon Commander with her hands softly clasped and her eyes calm and collected. With a soft, gentle bow of her head, she did not need to say anything. Her somber posture was all that was needed to convey what she was asking of the Griffon Commander, and of all the Royal Guard.

“For monsterkind,” she punctuated like a prayer. “Forever.”

“And always,” finished Aajja with his long neck far down in respect and trust of the Monster Queen. The feathers on his large wings were flat, completely calm. There was no raise in the fur on his body, nor any in his aura. He was content with what was asked of him. He accepted it.

“Asgore...”

But his superior did not.

Sir Gerson looked past Queen Toriel towards the Monster King stood with a drained pair of shoulders that were barely enough to hold him upright. “Is this how you want to be remembered?” As Queen Toriel stepped between the two, Sir Gerson looked through her. “As the Monster King who let monsterkind lose against the humans?”

Wild, crackling magic whirled together inside his hand, with his curled fingers painting shadowy slashes over his wrinkled visage grinning hard. “You’d ask out loud for your Royal Guard to lay their souls bare for you? For them to give their dust as tithe for the humans? To stand against them as equals despite your Royal Guard fully knowing that they ain’t? They know that even a single human child can be the end of all of them, yet you ask them to stand before thousands of soldiers armed with not only the weapons, but also the intent to spill the hope of the monsters thickly across the battlefield?”

Finally, Sir Gerson took a breath. His inhale was challenging, and as his aura filled with air, a magical hammer formed through the teal, crackling magic that had concentrated in his hand. The hammer’s dense head sank into the soil of the Royal Garden, and deeper so as the turtle monster placed a foot and his weight onto it. “What kind of Monster King would ask of that from his Royal Guard?”

The magical hammer shone with whipping cracks of teal as the Leader of the Royal Guard’s hand gripped hard around the handle, wringing the grip tighter as if extracting the last drop of patience. “What Monster King would ask his Royal Guard to walk into certain death against the humans?”

The last drop was wrung out with a fierce growl.

“Answer me!”

And with a quick lunge past the Monster Queen, Sir Gerson swung his hammer over his head, arcing with it dark soil and a single flower that his half-buried hammer dug up in his wild lunge towards the Monster King.

“Answer me, Monster King!”

A loud, roaring thunder exploded within the Royal Garden, shaking loose ripe fruit from the many trees and bushes that thudded against the ground in rhythm to the rattle of the glass panels that surrounded the Royal Garden.

Those unripe fruits did not stay on their branches though, as a low, deep growl rumbled throughout the entire castle. “Sir Gerson.” The king’s words were solid as mountain rock, and as their presence flowed out like the heat from an opened forge, the strained balance between the two collided weapons of the Monster King and his most trusted advisor began to break.

King Asgore’s knelt defense against Sir Gerson’s attack only permitted him to form half of his red trident which had blocked the full force of the turtle monster’s hammer swing.

He had put his all into the swing, including the weight of his shell, and as the face of his magical hammer collided with the hastily formed prongs of the Monster King’s trident, the magical smolder and embers that had exploded from the impact had illuminated the Monster King’s rugged muzzle and expression that bared determined teeth underneath focused, narrowed eyes. His trident’s prongs had formed similar shadowy slashes on his face which had been on the turtle monster’s face just earlier.

But darker.

“I will not ask them to go into battle with the humans for me.”

For the Monster King’s worries were even deeper than those of the Leader of the Royal Guard.

“I will not ask them to lose for monsterkind.”

Worries that had him pushing back the Leader of the Royal Guard’s hammer with his extending trident. Worries that had his shoulder steeling and becoming strong once more.

“They will not walk into battle for me.”

Worries that he had to face.

“They will walk into battle with me.”

Worries that he had to overcome.

“I will be their vanguard. The horns of my trident will be the first to face the humans, as will the horns on my head.”

Drops of sweat bounced off the turtle monster’s cheeks as a growing smile surprised him the most. “Is that so, King Asgore?”

With a quick, precise, and regal swipe of his trident, Sir Gerson was disarmed of his hammer which slid to a stop in the dark, rich soil of the Royal Garden, digging a square hole as it halted. “That is so, Sir Gerson.” King Asgore’s trident dissipated with a faint, red glow, and his arm folded back into his wide mantle. “We will meet in your office first thing tomorrow after I’ve gotten some sleep.” The Monster King knelt down with a careful scoop of his hand towards the flower which Sir Gerson’s hammer swing had dug up violently. “I will see you then.”

The Leader of the Royal Guard folded his hands behind his back. “Until then, my king.” He bid farewell with a bow of his head before walking first onto the stone path and then back to the three Monster Mages stood frozen and stunned.

As he passed by his magical hammer its features diffused into a teal haze, leaving just the square hole it had dug out. Once at the Monster Mages, he cocked his head subtly over his shell. “It’s good that there is still a king underneath all of that soft, white fur of his,” said Sir Gerson with a bemused snicker as he observed how King Asgore gently replanted the flower into the square hole with love and care. He gave the griffon monsters nearby a nod, and the three took off into the late afternoon sky.

Cter only managed to look at them for a few seconds before the turtle monster passed her and her colleagues by. He motioned for them to follow him, and they did without a word between them.

“I gotta remind him in times like these who he really is.”

Chapter Text

“I appreciate you walking with me to the refugee camp, Cter. It’ll do them good to have a Monster Mage visit them and remind them that thy are not forgotten.”

The road down the hill Jarasevo Castle stood on was quite busy despite there being a war going on. Merchants and pedestrians peddling with each other. Children walking around alone towards the frozen treats stand. Royal Guards walking leisurely with goods headed up towards Jarasevo Castle.

Same as it had been the last time Cter had traveled down to and through Jarasevo in peace times. The same surprised waves towards her had the same friendly smiles accompanying them and the same well-wishes which Cter tried her best to return to their happy sender.

As she waved back though, she saw that it was only on the face of it though that everything was the same. Even if she made an effort not to notice things and instead enjoy the walk with her best friend in the autumn chill, it was still obvious that the goods that were being peddled weren’t exotic ones from any of the human countries. The frozen treats were only sold in apple flavor as it was the only fruit readily available locally.

No humans were there either buying or selling anything from the shops that were opened, nor any humans were there in the crowd that Idyll lead her friend through. The goods that the Royal Guard carried up weren’t that of peacetime deliveries either. Rations, metals for armors and weapons, and boxes of documents. The Royal Guards’ pace might have been leisurely, but their goods sure weren’t.

Besides one of them though.

The one escorting Idyll and Cter.

Wearing normal squire armor that was not meant for them.

Since why would a Monster Queen be seen wearing a set of run-of-the-steel-mill armor, let alone walk into Jarasevo on her own wearing it?

“It is a perfectly valid line of thought, my Queen,” had Cter commented as she saw Queen Toriel step out of the small guard post after a few minutes of metal clanging like she was throwing a large assortment of metal skillet into an overstuffed sink. The guard post shook and tilted violently enough that Cter had to dampen its almost metronome-like oscillations with stasis magic.

“However...” With white fur sticking out the seams between the armor pieces it was easy to tell that whoever it was that was wearing the armor wasn’t its intended wielder. “When it comes to keeping your identity secret...” And whoever it was was quite easy to see from the pair of Boss Monster horns sticking out the carved-through holes in the too-tight helmet. “I would have one or two hesitations to guarantee that you won’t be recognized whilst in that attire, my Queen.”

It was a lie.

Cter had more than just one or two hesitations that Queen Toriel wouldn’t be immediately recognized by her people the moment someone laid their eyes on her spilling her fur out the Royal Guard armor like Barbeqa’s fire out the holes in her chef’s outfit. Despite Queen Toriel arguing that those hesitations the Monster Mage carried weren’t any to worry about, Cter still had them with her. She might have realized that she had to trust the Monster Royals more, but not for this context.

The opposite, in fact.

“It was only when I asked Idyll if she recognized who it was in the armor that she recognized that it was in fact me,” was the core of the Monster Queen argument, ringing hollow like her armor wasn’t. “I will not be stopping and conversing with my people, naturally.” She raised a finger as she heard her own words and how wrong they sounded. “In any case, the people will be busy enough seeing and greeting you to notice a mere Royal Guard escorting you and the chef who feeds those displaced by the war.”

Cter saw clearly the wrinkled confusion on Idyll’s forehead as she had neared the guard post where Queen Toriel had asked Cter to ask Idyll to meet. She had her doubts that it was only when Queen Toriel’s voice shone up with childish excitement that Idyll recognized that it was her queen that was the Royal Guard wearing strangely fitting armor.

Doubts on top of her hesitations.

“Still sour about your Dreemurr demurring, hm?”

Cter retreated her glance over her shoulder at not-at-all Queen Toriel gathering not-at-all curious and head-scratching looks at her from her not-at-all subjects. “I refuse to believe that you came up with that on the spot, Idyll.”

The blue monster scoffed an amused huff out her nose. “Don’t let my looks fool you, Monster Mage,” said Idyll while combing her raven feathers straight with her claws. “I am keener than I loo– Ow!”

There wasn’t any situation in the world that would have had Cter warn her smugly talking friend about the light post she walked into with a rumbling clonk. Not hard enough to be hurt by it, but hard enough to feel that it was retribution of sorts. Still though, the clonk was loud, and attracted a fair amount of eyes towards her, with the most focused eyes being that of the Monster Queen’s through the visor of her full helm.

Cter’s pleased snicker was cut short by Queen Toriel’s aura expanding behind her. A soft, green glow grew in the metal glove, reaching out towards the Monster Chef inhaling sharply through her gaps in her uneven teeth. “A little clumsy never hurt anyone,” distracted the Monster Mage by stepping in between Queen Toriel’s outstretched hand and Idyll with the heel of her hand on her forehead.

“A bit of smug though, on the other hand.” She put weight on the last word with an accompanying glance through the helm visor in an attempt to make the Monster Queen realize that she was making herself visible through her aura. Her body might be somewhat hidden, but if she were to heal Idyll then everyone would know that it was her.

And by golly did Cter not want to deal with whatever that might have entailed.

The people of Jarasevo wanted answer as to when the war would end. They wanted to know when the refugees would be able to return home. They wanted to know when there would be peace. All understandable wants, but should the Monster Queen appear visible among them, there would be no end to their questions and worries.

The worry of one was something that could be handled, but a whole crowd sharing their worries out loud would risk turning to riot. Same if Queen Toriel would just turn heel and run away from all of the questions rather than trying to answer them all. It would have the populous thinking that the Monster Royals were doing nothing.

That it was risky for Queen Toriel to be out walking about with her people everyone in the castle understood apart from her, it seemed. That Cter was the one chosen to escort her would have been just the luck of the draw had there been a draw to begin with. Kurant’s knee brace, after years of not being serviced by Dr. Sallus, was finally beginning to show its age. It required more and more magic to keep together, and a Monster Mage walking around in Jarasevo with a knee brace glowing purple with stasis magic would not have been the most subtle choice.

And Kry was...Kry.

His imposing stature and presence made it impossible for him to be subtle in any shape or form, so he was out of the question as well.

Really, Cter was the only choice as she was a package deal, with a Monster Chef who worked and lived at the refugee camp at the outskirts of Jarasevo included when choosing her. A bargain not even a queen could turn down.

“Yes, I am fine, thank you so very much for your concern, Monster Mage,” grumbled Idyll low and rumbling to exhale the last of the pained air inside her. She inhaled some fresh air with a sharp inhale. “Right.” Then she exhaled slowly. “Don’t think I’ll warn you when you are about to hit your head on any hanging signs.”

Cter gave her friend a reassuring pat on her back. “Oh I am way too thick-skulled for that to be a threat.” The two friends shared a snorted chuckle, and then were on their way again.

After a few seconds the crowd returned to caring about their own which the Monster Queen saw as a chance for some small talk. “You two have come a long way since that night from years past,” she said warmly just loud enough for the two friends to hear. “It brings comfort to my soul to see such a wonderful friendship.”

The two friends turned their heads in unison, with Idyll’s muzzle almost bumping the tip of Cter’s nose. “Yes,” Idyll said first while also looking ahead of her for any sudden light posts. “It’s been...a while since that night, my–” As if shut by magic, Idyll’s mouth closed shut before her tongue could slip. “My...uh...”

“My guard,” said Cter with a valiant attempt to make it sound legit. It felt quite strange on her tongue to say it that way though, like milk that was about to go bad. “It has been many years under your generous wings, my...guard.”

It just sounded so dang silly saying it.

Queen Toriel seemed amused by it though as far as her titter from behind her visor was concerned. With her glove touching her mouth as well she carried herself once more completely opposite as how a Royal Guard was to be. However though, since a vast majority of Royal Guards at Jarasevo Castle took the rules as how to present themselves as Royal Guards as mere vague suggestions rather than formal rules, her titter strangely enough lessened the general air of suspicion against her.

“If anything you two girls remind me of myself,” said Queen Toriel after her titter had faded.

“You both began as commoners here in Jarasevo and through work and effort you two found your way into employment at the castle. That faithful night only really sped things up for you. I am sure that you would have been at Jarasevo Castle as a Monster Mage and Monster Chef respectively by the same year shouldn’t that night have happened. Effort shines through no matter the veil around it. King Asgore would say that even seeds become flowers and trees, and it is the gardener’s duty to cultivate properly.”

Even though Queen Toriel did not change her voice to be closer to King Asgore’s it still sounded exactly like something from his mouth.

“I wou...I mean, Queen Toriel would say that it is not where the monster came from, but it is the path that they walk that is important.” The Monster Queen’s heavy armor rattled as she stopped with a motion towards a snail trying its best to climb up the low wall.

“I was inspired by watching snails in the Royal Garden, going places far off to them with an ever-burning trust in that one day they will reach where they want to be. They are slow, but they know that it is still progress that they are making, even if it takes a long time. Where they come from does not matter to them, for it is just behind them all the time, and that is where they keep it.”

Cter was not completely convinced by Queen Toriel’s analogy, in particular with how the past still lingered with snails even after they had passed it by. A trail of slime followed it, clearly marking where it had gone for other to see. Cter could see the exact route the snail had taken, how it had to round the cobble sticking out the low wall, and that it had mounted up the wall from a climbing vine that was struggling to keep its green luster.

“And what about the trail behind the snail?” asked Idyll with a curious hint to her question. “Isn’t it the snail’s past that everyone else can see?” As she asked the Monster Queen, a small wind ruffled the raven feathers on her face.

“Then that is up to the beholder what to make of the past,” came a quick answer with a neutral nod from the Monster Queen.

“It is not the snail’s fault that said beholder focuses on its past rather than where it is going in its future. Someone else being bothered by it is a choice outside of the snail’s powers to control. It can choose to stand still and have its trail and past be the same as its future and thus have it hidden from others. It does not choose that though, and instead moves forward towards a new leaf or a new tree, and leaving its past behind it. That is what is important, I feel. The will to let that which belongs in the past be left in the past.”

There was wisdom in the queen’s words.

“Also did you know that some snails have hairy shells?”

Wisdom that suddenly rang quite strange to Cter’s ears. To boot she had begun feeling looks tickling on her back and neck what with a Monster Mage, her friend, and a Royal Guard in full armor were taking interest in a random piece of the low wall at the edge of the street. “Right,” she said after some quick coughs to clear her throat secondly and rally the attention of her travel company firstly. “Should we continue? We still have a bit to go, and we wanted to be at the outskirts by lunch, didn’t we?”

Her sentiment managed through with Idyll and Queen Toriel, but before they continued their walk, the Monster Chef placed both her hands around the queen’s glove. “Thank you,” she said with a grateful nod. “I will keep it in mind, I promise.”

“I am glad to hear that, child,” replied Queen Toriel while she placed her other glove over Idyll’s hand in hers. A nostalgic sincerity filled in the Monster Queen’s soul. “I have told you this before, when I sat next to you the day after that faithful night of yours. You might not be able to remember it, but I am sure that your soul hasn’t.” She gently stroked the feathers on Idyll’s face. “You’ve lived with thoughts only for the future ever since, haven’t you?”

Idyll nodded thankfully once more before turning to Cter to continue the walk. The Monster Mage’s brow was furrowed though, and it took a few snaps from Idyll’s hand for Cter to wake up from her thoughts. “Shall we?” Idyll wondered with her eyes nodding down the hill.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Cter agreed while not fully back in the real world. She waved her hand loosely. “Let’s go.” It was obvious that she did not want to fully return back into the real world though, but Idyll only rolled her eyes at it.

“Too many snail facts, Monster Mage?”

“Mhm.” Idyll didn’t remember. “Sure.” But her soul did? “Plenty.” She couldn’t remember. “Many too.” Yet her soul could? “I’ve seen a few in the Royal Garden.” And if that was possible. “Some even without any shells to them.”

Was the opposite true as well?

“Those are called slugs, those without a shell. Strangely though there are slugs that have shells, but you are able to tell the difference quite easily.”

How would it be for a soul to forget but the mind remembering? Would it be a memory without any emotion to it? Something that is vivid yet devoid of any color? A memory like that of a drab document written purely factually without any life to it at all and where the eyes turn heavy and dry after only a single word read? Would it even be a memory then if there wasn’t any emotion to it? Could it be a memory if all it did was to present a previous happening sans feeling nor impression? It sure wouldn’t be any memory that Cter ever felt, be it a negative or positive one.

“Another fun snail fact is that snails eat together from the same leaf if they can like a family around a dinner table.”

So did that mean that the soul was necessary for a memory to be formed? It would explain why the two Fusions acted in such a distraught and unresponsive manner since their souls would have been producing two sources of memories and emotions, same as its aura. Cter had first-hand experience with that, so she already knew it. Putting a basis for it though, a way for her to explain it in a more descriptive manner, could help her link it to the Soul Rainbow, she felt. An assumption she could test.

That memories could be locked away within the soul.

“Something about your arm?” came a hushed whisper into Cter’s ear from Idyll. The Monster Mage blinked out of her thinking, finally managing so as she had to come to a satisfying end for it. She closed her fingers that had her looking into her hand with her deep contemplation. “Are you trying to form a magical snail for...”

Cter gave her friend a mystified furrow. “...No,” she answered similarly hushed with a weak shake to her perplexed head. “Why...why would I do that?” As she glanced over her shoulder to Queen Toriel observing the low wall for more snails with a pleasant hum through her visor grate, she saw what Idyll meant.

Still no on the magical snail though.

“Was just thinking, is all,” assured Cter as she put away her left arm into the confines of her robe. “Good thinking, before you ask.” It wasn’t a lie, technically. “Also, you walked up all of this with the tray of soup and only dropped it once you got inside the castle?” Cter swept across the busy street with her eyes. “Surely not. That does not make a lick of sense.”

Then it was Idyll’s turn to shake her head. “I used a carriage up to the castle. Hitched a ride with some of the Royal Guards bringing up some heavy goods.” She pointed to a couple of them on the other side of the street cataloging some fresh produce from a merchant. “It wasn’t them, but you get the idea.”

That she did.

The latter half of the descent down Castle Hill which Jarasevo Castle stood proud at the top of was quiet between the three monsters. While the crowd thickened more the closer they came to the city, the less attention was paid to the three monsters from the castle up the hill.

Cter was familiar with the flow of the city and that each monster had their own destination and was complaining internally about having to share the street with so many others. She had been one of them before when she was a self employed mage working odd magic jobs in the city, complaining and muttering under her breath about the morning rush that she had to squeeze through quite literally at times.

That flow was different as Cter, Idyll, and Queen Toriel joined into it. It seemed more...unified? Not in the sense that they were all moving in the same direction, but that they were fine with everyone moving in their own way and direction. Almost as if the war had brought them all together to realize that the morning commute was something to feel blessed about? Something that they shouldn’t have to be worried about in comparison to the war that raged far away, but still too close for comfort?

A morbid thought had a chill running through Cter’s spine. She shook it away, but it still lingered with her. How close would the monsters be when the war came to Jarasevo? Would all monster fit within just the Monster Capital? Would they all be confined to the Monster Capital by the humans if possible?

Disgusting thought…

Enough so that Cter startled a flinch as she felt a large glove placed on her shoulder. “Oh, golly,” Queen Toriel apologized. “I was just wanting to ask if you would not mind taking a slight detour?”

“N-Not a-at all.” Cter swallowed away her startle. “Where and why, if I may?” She gestured for the Monster Queen to step aside since she had stopped in the middle of the road. It formed some cracks in her facade she used to tease the Monster King about the time when he did not know anything about how to act outside the castle walls, as apparently the Monster Queen had forgotten how to act outside the walls as well.

Did that mean that her soul had made her forg–

No, no, no.

Wrong place and time!

“I would like to pass by Time’s Square if I could, please,” asked Queen Toriel with a slight bow to her head.

“Time's Square?” quipped Idyll. “That’s the other way from where we are going.”

“I am aware of that, Monster Chef. However, I would still like to.” The queen’s eyes blinked more somber. “And in another life perhaps you would have liked to as well, Idyll.”

What was she talking abou–

Oh, right!

...Oh...right.

Sund.

Sund and his little garden he tended to at Time's Square. It had been a while since Cter visited it as well. Perhaps it was a good time to do so while she had the chance.

“Yes,” she said. “We can do so, if that is your wish.”

“Thank you. Please, lead the way.”

Cter could see and hear Idyll’s whisper before her muzzle had closed in next to Cter’s ear. “Why Time's Square?”

“Sund,” Cter answered without anything else to it.

A few, long seconds passed for Idyll before her eyes widened and her lower jaw began to hang. “Oh...” dripped off her tongue. “He was...”

In love with her.

“He was,” repeated Cter.

She only realized years later.

“Yeah, he was.”

Chapter Text

It wasn’t often that a detour turned into a shortcut. Usually vice versa was the case.

“No need to thank me, Idyll Fech. If anything I wasn’t going to let you say no to it. That might sound a bit...dark, but you really are that important to us. I had a chance to get you back here quicker, and that I did. I am not going to think about what I would have done had you not accepted the ride, because there really was no reason for you not to.”

Idyll halted her hand halfway through her hair sprinkled with straws of hay with a few befuddled blinks. The explanation from the monster who had offered her and her entourage a ride through Jarasevo wasn’t the most...elegant, as to not have him try and explain himself further. “Then thank you on the behalf of your family and the other displaced monsters,” Idyll tried again to thank with an articulate bow to the bird monster in the driver seat of the hay-carrying wagon.

“I’ll be able to start with lunch a bit earlier than planned then. Might try something that will require some more preparation then.” A few straws flew out her bright hair as she turned to her two travel companions busy with sweeping themselves clean after the generously offered journey from Time's Square to the refugee camp at the edge of Jarasevo. “Will I be able to rely on you?”

Cter shared a look with Queen Toriel through her helmet visor. It was up to her to choose as for Cter it was only a question of who she would be spending the next couple of hours with. A clear nod from the Monster Queen had Cter turning back to Idyll. “We’ll be there. Just let us know when, Idyll.”

In response, the Monster Chef pointed over to where they had come from deep in Jarasevo. “You can hear the clock from Time's Square all the way out here, so find me the next time it tolls. I’ll be at the center of the camp, so just head close there and follow the smell until you find me, sounds good?”

“That it does, Monster Chef,” informed Queen Toriel with a bow with the full weight of her torso. “We shall see you then.”

After exchanging waves, the Monster Chef departed from her small entourage and headed into the small lake of tents and quickly built facilities where happy quips and shouts followed her like the wake of a boat paddling through water. She looked at home which Cter felt was strange at first.

The surrounding housing were meek at best, only there for people to survive, and not really to live. That Idyll looked to be at home felt insulting at first, but with how Cter could hear exactly where her friend was walking through the camp by the happy hollering and the occasional display of magic, she came to feel more comfortable with the thought.

Each voice that called after Idyll was a monster that she had helped forget about the war with her cooking. Each voice was from a monster that still had hope after being driven away from their home by the humans. Each voice was a monster that had been saved by Idyll.

More than Cter had heard for her.

“You’ve done so much more than me,” the Monster Mage whispered to her friend. Even at the distance Idyll had managed through the sporadically placed accommodations made out of patchwork fabric and irregularly shaped she would still have shouted back with her full voice that it was Cter that had done more than her. So Cter had to whisper it so that Idyll wouldn’t hear.

“You’ve done so much for monsterkind too, Monster Mage.”

Queen Toriel heard it though, apparently.

“I know,” said Cter with an absent nod. “I know.” That there was a weight in her soul not even she could hide, even less so with her unconvincing cough to try and detract from her sunken aura.

Queen Toriel gestured for Cter to walk with her, and the two went along the outskirts of the refugee camp, keeping some distance to be able to talk in peace. They waved goodbye to the bird monster who had driven them there. “I miss him too, Cter,” Queen Toriel began as the hay-weighed wagon carefully navigated between the shoddy tents distributing out bundles with the help of magical gusts of air. “That it has been years since his passing yet his little garden at Time's Square is still tended to by Kry only goes to show how much Sund’s passing still resonates with us.”

Cter once offered to make the flowers into crystal during one Crystal Day, but Kry did reject that politely, yet firmly. It was something he did to help him remember and to steel himself. To stay strong throughout everything that was happening. And if it wasn’t him then it would be Kurant, and having her walk down and up Castle Hill with her knee brace that no one could help her with no more would only come to remind Kry even stronger about his guilt over what he had done with it.

“I didn’t think it would resonate as much as it did with me, is all.” Cter shrugged loosely. “Seeing and hearing you pray for him had me...out of it, for a few moments.” She could still feel that her sinuses were somewhat stuffy still, although that could have very well have been from sitting in the back of a wagon full of hay.

Using barrier magic to protect her from breathing it in would have been too far a step into aristocracy for her. “Thank you for doing that. One day I might be able to too.” The Monster Mage clenched her left hand, but managed to breathe out before the tension could reach her shoulder and beyond.

The Monster Queen exchanged nods with a few Royal Guards helping to build up a storage room. It looked to be the structure in the camp that was the most solidly built which meant that it was to be used for supplying the army as well. Not immediately, but sooner than was comfortable for anyone that knew about it.

“Do it when there is peace, Cter,” came a calm, wise suggestion from the not-at-all Monster Queen.

“Do it when there is peace and it will be a good tent pole in your life to look back on. It will help you look past all the bad that has happened as well if you end it by allowing Sund to give you inner peace at the end. His duty as a Monster Mage was to seek out new ways of magic owing to him discovering his own magic to use. You have carried that in his steed ever since he became a part of the First Fusion which marked the beginning of the friction between us and the humans. Once there is peace again, give his duty back to him so that you can walk your own path. Once there is peace, his legacy will no longer be that of the First Fusion, so you can safely hand it back to him without worry, Cter.”

Cter looked over her shoulder, the shoddy tents, and through the many houses past the refugee camp towards Time's Square where she had made a poor attempt to hide her tears and sobbing that was deep enough to tug at her soul less than a bell toll earlier. It had been such an overwhelming wash of heartache the moment she saw Queen Toriel slowly ease herself down on her knees with her hands softly planted on her armored lap.

Her prayer was for the deceased whose dust had not been settled properly. For those whose dust still sought peace while carried by the zephyr, and to one day land on the cheeks of those they loved in their life. Each gust they rode. Each breeze they followed. One day they will feel the warmth of their friends and family once more. One day the wind will finally carry them home.

And when Idyll touched her cheek so gingerly as a calm wind swept by was just…

It was too much for Cter.

Hell, it was almost too much for her just thinking back on it. She didn’t want to pray to Sund like that. She did not want to give him any more worry. He did not deserve what he had, even less any more. Cter would only pray to him once she was ready.

And Queen Toriel’s suggestions sounded exactly like what Cter needed to hear.

“That sounds like a pleasant idea, my Queen,” the Monster Mage thanked from deep within her soul. It was something she needed to hear. Something she needed to have to look forward to. Like with her helping monsterkind, the end of the war was very nebulous and conceptual. With Queen Toriel’s suggestions, Cter could put a face on it. There was something personal and direct. It was like how Idyll was helping monsterkind. It was there. It was close. It was what Cter wasn’t. It was what Cter needed, “I think that I wi–”

“My Queen?”

My…

...

Oh, singe her soul!

A hard and disappointed slap briefly stole attention from the two monster children whose eyes were widened at the large, armor-clad monster. Cter squeezed at her forehead she had slapped her hand against as if trying to squeeze out the stupid from her head. It was too ingrained in her though, and not a single drop she managed to exhume from her forehead.

“Are you...” began one of the monster kids with her green-gradient tentacles wringing together embarrassingly. Her suction cups wrapped together, and she had to pull them apart hard enough to accidentally slap against her friend. It was a wetter sound than Cter hitting herself on the forehead. “Are you the...M-Monster Q-Queen?”

The question was too earnest to be wrong. Had it been an adult that had overheard Cter’s slip of the tongue then Cter would have been able to explain away. With the earnest look and even more earnest tremble in the childrens’ auras there wasn’t an answer in the world that would convince them otherwise. They had already decided what they wanted to hear and believe, and neither a crowbar or a generous application of deep-blue magic would be able to budge them from their spot.

Before Cter could begrudgingly take a first bite out of the sour apple she had harvested, there was a calm rattle of metal above her tiredly sighing head. She looked up to see Queen Toriel’s face behind her helmet’s visor. She was smiling. It was an apologetic smile. “Do forgive, Monster Mage.” At the same time it was a thankful smile. “But it was the only way you would accept to escorting me here.” The queen reached for her helmet with the flats of her gloves at either side. “It’ll be fine, I promise.”

A defeated, yet amused, scoff followed out Cter’s next sigh. “You were just waiting for either me or Idyll to slip up, weren’t you?” Cter should really have seen it coming. She should have assumed that it was the case with how much Queen Toriel was arguing at the castle gates.

“I did not mean for it to be when you were so emotionally exposed though, so I ask for your forgiveness for that as well.” Queen Toriel waited with removing her helmet until Cter gave her nod and forgiveness.

And while she should have been keeping in mind that there was a chance that Queen Toriel could have been swarmed by monsters who were looking to the Monster Royals to blame for the war, seeing how Idyll was greeted with smiles and joy from those that needed hope the most, perhaps it would be for the better if they too saw that none other than Queen Toriel had come to visit as well.

Not only come to visit, but come to help cook them food as well. If anything it was the monsters in Jarasevo that were the most likely to cling to Queen Toriel for answers. Their life hadn’t changed personally, so the surge of hope from seeing one of the Monster Royals come to visit wouldn’t be enough to overcome the chance to ask about the inconveniences that the war had brought upon them.

It wouldn’t be eyes shining like crystals like the monster children’s were. More had arrived too with curious looks and loud whispers and gasps between them. A few of them looked as if they weren’t used to smiling in anticipation, and that just…

It hurt something fierce with Cter.

“You can take the helmet off,” she said with an approving nod. “I forgive you.”

With a sound akin to a cannonball tumbling down a blacksmith’s entire arsenal, the armor pieces fell off the Monster Royal as the visored helmet was removed. The long, heavy ears flopped majestically from side to side as Queen Toriel shook herself loose from the armor she had hid herself within.

The falling pieces revealed a deeply purple dress adorned with golden accents that flowed like rivers up and down the length of the Boss Monster. On her torso was embroidered the Delta Rune with magical thread that pulsated softly in the same blazing-white color as her Boss Monster soul.

It brought tears to Cter’s eyes, and she kneeled down with her head looking down.

Swearing under her breath at the pain on her leg from one of the armor pieces landing on her toes and shin.

“It’s the Monster Queen!” shouted one of the monster children with a pointing hoof at the softly smiling Boss Monster placing her tiara between her horns. “It’s Queen Toriel!” The surrounding children followed suit, pointing and hollering excitingly, giving Cter a chance to huff out her pain before healing it away. “I knew it was her!”

“Yes,” concurred Cter with some pain still stuck in her throat. She swallowed it away while quickly drying her eyes. “Queen Toriel has come to visit you, dear children, and...” And anything more Cter didn’t really have a good idea about how to continue, so instead she only exited herself stage right with a bow.

Far enough to give the other monsters who had heard what the children’s hollering enough room to come close to the Monster Queen, but close enough that the monsters wouldn’t get too close to her. The rest was up to the queen to continue.

And by golly, she did.

“What would you like for lunch, little ones?”

But not in a way that Cter fully expected.

“I will be helping out Idyll Fech today with both lunch and dinner, so is there anything special that you would like to have?” She bent over at her waist, her ears hanging like banners on either side of her softly smiling muzzle. “It would be my utmost honour and pleasure to cook for you today if you’d let me, little ones?”

Understandably, the children were a bit taken aback by the Monster Queen asking them for permission. A few of them began to look around for their parents, and those that found eye contact looked at their peers with worry and confusion. Said parents then relayed those anxious looks at Cter, who nodded reassuringly back. She did not know exactly what Queen Toriel was doing, but since it was brining forth shining smiles on all of the gathered children then who was Cter to stop it?

“I would...I would like...”

One of the children, a ghost monster with a pair of broken glasses floating out of rhythm with his eyes, hovered forth slightly towards the hunkered-down Monster Queen.

“C-Could I h-have s-some blueberry p-pie?”

Many of the blueberries eaten during that time of the year were imported from Hjearta’s many, many forests, so to Cter’s knowledge that wasn’t possible.

Unless…

“I will have some delivered here from the castle, you have my word as a Monster Royal.” Queen Toriel nodded over to another child with a slightly tilted hat that was a few too sizes larger than his fox-like head. One of his friends, a snowdrake, urged him to answer with a slight push on his back.

“Snow is your chance, Ikilu.”

A pair of visibly anxious paws wrung together. “I...” The fox child blinked away with his long ears folding over his eyes and his tail coming up to hide his face. “I want...”

“Don’t be shy,” the Monster Queen assured with a friendly, supportive titter. She sure enjoyed seeing the many shapes and colors of the monster children gathered around her. “Take your time though if you’re not ready, little one.” Her soft hand ruffled at the fox child’s head without a single care for the dirt that crusted the slightly red fur. “There is plenty of time.”

“Potato soup!”

Confused whispers of varying volumes emerged around the fox kid after his blurted answer. His slightly red fur looked to become fully red from how much he began to blush. “But we had potato soup two days ago.” “Can’t he ask for anything else?” “He’s asking Queen Toriel about potato soup?! Really?” “Do you think they grow purple potatoes in the Royal Garden?” And those were the ones that Cter could make out as all of the children began to whisper at the exact same time, seemingly.

The whispers didn’t last for long as the snowdrake friend spun around with a steeled expression on his face. His wings fluttered in protest towards the many whispers. “Cool it with the whispers! He’s my friend, and you’re all mean to him! He likes potato soup! It is hice favorite dish!”

Cter would have saved the ice pun for ‘dice’ instead, but ‘hice’ was acceptable. The snowdrake was a good friend for standing up for the fox child who began to try and slink away back into the crowd. Before he managed to though, Queen Toriel gave him a nod. “I’ll make sure it is the most potato-tasting soup you’ve ever had, child.”

“Not mashed potatoes though,” said the fox child quietly into the ground. He kicked a pebble with his hands finding refuge in the pockets of his too-large suspenders. Must have been hand-me-downs. None of the adults that stood around watching the scene progress looked to be the ones to have handed them down to him though. “I don’t like mashed potatoes.” Why that was the case Cter did not want to dwell on.

“Whole-cooked potato soup then,” said the Monster Queen with another nod that bounced her head further to the next child. By that one they had begun to try and sneak in front of each other to try and be the next one to be asked by the Monster Queen. The one that won out was a slime monster who managed to squeeze through a jester holding onto a large, wide ear from another monster. “Gelatin pudding!”

That request unfortunately passed a line for Cter, and with her hand over her mouth in a very suspicious manner she leaned down to the top of the queen’s ear. Queen Toriel lifted it up for her Monster Mage, signaling that she had the queen’s attention. “I’ll head off to find a Royal Guard to arrange for the deliveries,” said Cter with a slight struggle to keep up her air of importance. Her eyes slid down to the ground. “And to fetch the armor you’re not using anymore.”

With a slightly shocked gasp, Queen Toriel quickly gathered all the pieces she had just let litter all around her. “Yes, please. If you would I would be ever so grateful.”

The crowd were awed as Cter collected the armor pieces and arranged them together next to her with her stasis magic. She had it bow with her, and walked off with it clanking next to her to find some Royal Guards to relay the Monster Queen’s wishes to. It didn’t take long for her to find two transporting a wagon with building material on the way to the storage barn. Less time did it take for the Royal Guards to find her, as when she spotted them they were already saluting her. “At ease,” she told them with a friendly wave. “If I may, after you’ve delivered this wagon, would you please seek out Queen Toriel and–”

“Queen Toriel?”

Cter expected the question.

“What is she doing here?”

But not the voice that asked it.

“I refurbish her entire castle and she decides to spend time here instead?”

A green jacket emerged from among the pile of building material on the wagon. Spiraling, conch-like horns and a stitched smile turned towards Cter, forming as if inverting out of the shadow of the jacket’s high collars.

“Although I should probably ask why Idyll didn’t invite you down to our new house that we’ve built together instead, shouldn’t I?”

...True.

A very good question indeed.

Chapter Text

“I was wondering why you needed the Royal Guards allotted to me rather than the one stood next to you.” The jester monster knocked with his knuckles on the hollow chestplate laid in an ordered pile among its sibling pieces to signal to the Royal Guards at the front of the wagon to get going. “Your magic truly is something, Monster Mage.”

With a strange bend to his leg, Donial took a step back from the cloud of dust that the heavied-down wagon wheels kicked up as it traveled along the dry, dusty road. His hand waved away the dust from his face with a few coughs. “Idyll was worried sick about you when you were gone.”

She had figured that, yeah. “It’s not as if I was away on purpose.” Cter only needed one sweep of her hand to make sure she didn’t inhale too much of the sandy cloud. “You don’t have much say when you’re a prisoner of war.”

Donial’s horns seemed to curl tighter in response, same as the soft fabric on his face. Almost like a set of clothes that had been washed too hard. “I...” His sewn mouth closed up like the final tug of the last stitch. “I don’t know what else I expected from that, to be honest.” A clumsy, embarrassed smile managed to bend the tightened smile and fabric, yet the horns still sank down further into the head. “God, I haven’t done small talk in forever.”

It sure was obvious that such was the case. “Been busy?” Cter offered to look past that and instead motioned for him to take the lead for a walk together. “If I were to guess that your hand has been involved busily with this refugee camp, would I be close?” She glanced over her shoulder. “You’re working on the storage barn, at the very least.”

The inhale prior to Donial’s sigh had his horns growing back out his head again. “Oh these hands have been plenty busy indeed.” He kept his hands inside his long jacket, however there were some faint wisps of shadowy streaks that poured out his pockets like small chimneys. “Day and night constantly this last year. It feels like I have done more work this year than I have done throughout my entire life previously.”

The exhale of his sigh seemed relieving, and the stitching on his eyes and mouth loosened up in a more relaxed manner. “It’ll be worth it though, in the end.” His cross-stitched eyes gazed above the myriad of tents and shoddily made facilities towards where Cter had last heard monsters hollering after Idyll. “It will all be worth it in the end.” A bothered furrow folded the fabric on his forehead as his eyes retreated back over the many burlap-patched tents. “Even if it is difficult at the moment, and has been ever since those damn humans spun on their heels towards us.”

“You should still be proud over what you have done though,” comforted Cter even though she knew full well that she was being hypocritical in saying it to someone else. “You and Idyll.”

Donial huffed a chuckle. “So she told you, didn’t she?”

A few things, yes, but none that would have warranted an amused chuckle. “Told me what, exactly?” Was it about the house they had built? Was it about her cooking? About Donial’s work? A combination of it all?

Donial searched through the windows to Cter’s soul, but did not find what he was looking for. He chuckled again, friendly. “Guess she didn’t.” The shoulders of his jacket shrugged loosely. “Then I won’t either. Sorry for leading you on like this, Monster Mage, but I am sure that Idyll will want to tell you when she feels that the time is right. Just don’t...”

Worry soured the expression of the soft fabric. “Just don’t hint at it with her, please. Let her tell you when she wants to. For her sake.” The plead in his voice was deep with him having just gambled and lost on being coy with Cter. “She will want to tell you when she is ready, you first out of anyone else.”

Cter had to shake her head. “You’re not really doing a good job of helping me displace it in my mind, you know?” The quiver in his aura was genuine though, so it was not as if he was trying to pull Cter along by the nose. Said quivering was enough to have the threads at the edges of his mouth come loose slightly which only reinforced his realization that he had almost ruined something very important for Idyll. “But I’ll do my best to not bring it up to her, whatever it is. If you say that she will be overjoyed once she is ready to tell me then I will trust you on that.”

The jester monster bowed so deeply and so quickly that the wings of his half-buttoned jacket almost took flight. “Thank you, Cter. Thank you for being patient with me.” He said it as if no one else had been that for him for a long while.

“No one else has been patient with you for quite some time?” Cter’s curiosity had her say while incapable of preventing her eyes from looking over to where Queen Toriel was still taking requests and with the armor-loaded wagon approaching her behind a diffuse cloud of dust.

The jester monster scratched at his cheek. “It would be closer to say that the world has not been patient with me.” After that, he swept his hand over the fields of tents that looked to be overripe. “I can only do so much with the material and time that has been allotted to me by the world. Should the Monster Royals be in charge then each tent would be outfitted with a furnace and soft beds along with a small garden from which would grow flowers and vegetables planted by King Asgore himself.”

His hand shifted to point towards the poorly constructed facilities. “The wood used is from broken wagons, both human-salvaged ones and those that we have lost in the war as well. I only could give the displaced monsters rudimentary instructions, as if I helped too much then it would have them all restless.”

What? “What do you mean?” Wasn’t it better to build the facilities and the rest to be better for the refugees? Wasn’t it better to try and provide for them as best as possible? Why keep them in such a poor state?

The long jacket swept across with Donial’s turn fully towards the refugee camp. Cter’s robe did not sweep as much, as her turn was calmer. “You see the tents on the third row next to the water pump with a painted sign above? The one with the painted droplet pointing down?” The jester monster waited with patience for the Monster Mage to finish squinting.

“I did not notice that it was painted,” said Cter after deciding that putting her hand across her forehead was a better way of fighting the sun than squinting was. “Painted quite well, to boot. Strange.” And then there were the tents that Donial wanted her to find which she did after some more surveying. “You mean the tents with the...” No, couldn’t be. “With the sewn-on patches looking like Delta Runes?”

With a quick nod, the jester monster agreed. “After the first major wave of displaced monsters there was a lot of scrambling to try and provide accommodations for them, both lodging and sustainment.” He threw a thumb over his shoulder up towards the castle.

“Idyll and I were asked to lead the Royal Guard effort in our respective fields as representatives from Jarasevo Castle. Not high enough to be directly blamed for failing to protect the villages from the humans, but with our work being important enough that the refugees will look up to Jarasevo Castle with thanks rather than bitter resentment.”

The wording sounded familiar to Cter. “Sir Gerson’s words?” she hazarded.

“And the First and Second Monster Mage’s too.”

She could see that as well. Or hear, in this case.

Donial retracted his thumb back into his green jacket by letting it fall freely into hiding again. “Idyll, bless her soul, saw it as duty to accept what the Monster Royals were asking of her, leaving it up to me to remind that I was still under independence from the Castle, and for that I wanted fair compensation for what they were asking of me.”

His cross-stitched eyes swung towards the far corner of Jarasevo in the distance. “During the evenings as the refugees settled in for Idyll’s dinners I was, and still am, working on a house for her and me here in Jarasevo. We have lived in it for almost a month now, and soon I feel that it might become a home.” A longing, warm smile softened his cheeks. “A worthy home, as well.”

Cter would have wanted to let Donial lose himself in the longing warmth that began spreading through his aura, however there was still the matter of him explaining what he was about to in the beginning. “And these homes that are here?” She could have been a bit nicer in her question though.

Strangely though, Donial nodded proudly at it. “Indeed, Cter.” He looked her in the eyes with an accomplished conviction. “You’re quick to be keen.”

Yeah...sure.

“We provide the materials for the refugees so that they may make a home here. A way for them to not just survive, but to be able to live as well.” The jester monster indicated towards a group of monsters that were busy enough not to notice that Queen Toriel was standing a few wagon lengths away from them. With a combination of magic they were sewing together a patchwork of different rugged fabrics.

“The refugee camp is self-sustained outside of food and other necessities, and even those two they aren’t fully dependable on us for. They might not have a garden at each tent, but we have managed to find a spot for a communal garden not too far from here. It was the refugees that suggested it and built it after we provided them with the tools and material to help set it up. No seeds from King Asgore’s personal collection though since the soil is not rich enough to grow anything substantial, but it keeps them busy, and that is the most important aspect of it all.”

Self-sustained apart from being sustained by outside means did not sound correct to Cter’s ears, unfortunately. From how Donial explained it and the proud flutter in his aura she got the gist of it though. “Can’t have too many idle hands lest they become restless and begin to stew?” Cter knew that first hand as she was doing just that when she was kept a prisoner of war at Soul’s School.

Idle hands make for rebellious acts, and having an entire outskirt of Jarasevo being in a stage of unrest wouldn’t reflect well on monsterkind’s war effort. Playing for time was all monsterkind could do, and keeping those that were lost to that time safe was important beyond measure. “Stew not in Idyll’s sense, that is.”

Donial scratched where his nose would have been. “They deserve to feel like they can still contribute. To still be able to work and make a living even though they have been driven from their villages by the humans. A few have even managed employment within Jarasevo. A seamstress, a cobbler, an entertainer, to name a few. A cicada monster that specializes in throat singing, to name something more interesting.”

Cter wouldn’t know anything about that. “How exotic,” she commented flatly while watching the busy monsters in the distance setting up the sewn-together patchwork fabric over the supporting structure held up by conjuration magic.

“Eh, it’s just Humbug,” added Donial with a light shrug and pinched cleaning of his curly horn. “He’s as far away from exotic as can be when you get to talk to him. His singing though I’ll give you as exotic. It brings a nice end to the day of hard work once he gets to his singing on occasions here after Idyll has served dinner. A way to keep up hope that I did not expect, but am appreciative of nonetheless.”

He motioned with his open hand in a slow arc over the refugee camp. “Because that is what it all is for. It is all for hope. Without it there can’t be no monsterkind. Without hope there is no form to the magic within our souls. Nothing to hold our dust together and nothing to ignite the warmth in our auras.”

A cordial silence grew between the jester monster and the Monster Mage with the two observing the goings on in the refugee camp quietly. It was only when the patchworked tent could stand on its own that the busy monsters could breathe out and notice that Queen Toriel was near them.

The surprise had the three of them almost undoing what they had struggled so much with setting up, as a pair of large wings opened wide in surprise, and swept at the loosely balanced tent before the lines had been staked into the ground. With the help of the spider friend among the three they were all able to rescue the tent from falling over, and quickly staked the support lines in with magical stakes into the ground before hurrying off to catch a quick glimpse of the visiting Monster Royal.

Further into the camp, closer to Idyll, Cter saw a few monsters carrying buckets of water on heads, shoulders, and with magic. They were heading in the direction where Cter had last heard that Idyll was heading towards. Drops were spilled as they were stopped in their walking and asked for some of the water, but whether or not they gave any Cter could not see from the distance she stood.

A few more minutes of quiet observing passed by before Cter felt that she had something to continue the conversation with. “We were given a ride here by a monster with a wagon full of hay, Idyll, Queen Toriel, and I.” She looked to where he had continued off to, but did not find either him or his wagon. “Might have been another one that has found a job in Jarasevo?”

“Possibly,” nodded Donial. “Although I haven’t heard of that until you said it. Idyll is usually the one that hears about it first and then relays to me.” He tugged tighter the stitching in one of his eyes with a few rigid pinches. “She faces them on a much more regular basis than I do owing to our different duties here.”

That so? “More sleeping on the back of wagons for you?” Cter made sure that her tease came across as friendly with a small laughter.

“I don’t think that there are any way I can formulate myself so that you wouldn’t still have any doubts about it.” Donial’s eyes shone a smile at Cter. “I’m making up it to her with our house that is soon a home, I promise.”

She sure deserved one. Two, even. Three would have been too odd though. “I’ve no doubt that you are, Donial. Just by looking I can see your effort on display even if it isn’t as magnificent or decadent as what you were commissioned to do up at the castle. You’ve given them a life after theirs were taken away.”

The jester monster’s mouth shunted to the side in an ashamed pucker with the curls of his horns tightening. “There’s more than one can see though, I’m afraid.” His cross-stitched eyes narrowed underneath a heavy, sinking forehead. “More than just the happy smiles and cooperative effort to build anew with nothing but memories of how it was.”

He looked to want to grab a hold of his thick string making up his mouth and drag it shut so that he wouldn’t speak another word ever again, but his hands refused to. He had to tell the Monster Mage. “You see those children that Queen Toriel is walking in the middle of, holding as many hands as she can with her fingers?”

Cter saw. It was hard to miss with the Monster Royal’s head and horns sticking up high over the top of the differently shaped tents talking to the children jumping and playing around her among a thick cloud of kicked-up sand that followed her every step.

“You will only need one guess as to why there aren’t any adults following along.”

The Monster Mage could feel each minute muscle in her face as her happy expression faded from her. A sense of foreboding dread filled her and her aura with a dark realization that colored the cloud of dust around the children’s feet in the more magical sense of the word. Her head tilted down heavily, and her shoulders barely rose with her defeated exhale. “Guess I do.”

“We take care of them,” Donial was quick to add. “As best as we can for them. However, days filled with work leaves little time for play, so they keep busy on their own. The families that managed to flee in their full capacity try and do more to be with the lonesome kids, but since they are already struggling to provide for their own family it isn’t enough to substitute the loss. Many of these kids I have not seen happy at all. Some try to help with the adult work, and again while it keeps them busy, we can only give them condescending work at best.”

He inhaled to try and rid himself of the bitterness in his aura and mouth. “It is either making sure that another family can live here or giving the children work that will halt everything when they eventually break down in tears and tragedy.” It didn’t help. “It’s not a pretty sight.” Not in the slightest. “But that is what we must do to make sure that more can survive. It is what we must do to make sure that those that arrive without hope can find at least some. It has to be rationed out, and that, if anything, is what I have come to associate this war with.”

Black, wispy smoke began to accumulate from within the jester monster’s jacket. Like a frothing mug it poured over his high jacket collar and cascaded down in viscous, shadowy rivers.

“We have to choose who it is that gets hope. We have to choose who it is that is important to do work for. We have to make choices that should never be choices. We have to look into a child’s eyes and grab the plank from them which they promised that they could help with but collapsed crying with after half the way. I can not imagine what they might be going through, but I can imagine what will happen if we do not manage our quotas. That I have lived. That I have experienced, and carried the burden of. It is what I know, so that I choose. Helping a child should never be a choice, but it is one I make every single day, and so very seldom in the child’s favor.”

The shadowy cascade down the jester monster’s jacket faded like fog as a relieved calm took him over. He inhaled freely as if he’d been sick and stuffy for an entire week and was taking his first, clear breath. “So thank you, Monster Mage. Thank you for bringing Queen Toriel here so that I will not have to make that choice today. Long have I wished that if I could just have one day free of this daily choice of mine, so that I could...”

He scoffed, shaking his head tiredly. “Seems that I’ve forgotten what I wanted to do. I know what I did want to do before, and that I did. Maybe I’m regretting that slightly, or perhaps I’m just nervous that I won’t be able to after all I’ve done.” Donial’s head shook harder with a disciplinary growl. “No, shut it,” he told himself angrily. “Third time now...”

“You deserve a break to same as Idyll had with me yesterday,” said Cter without giving thought to what Donial was cursing himself about. The midday sun was warm on her face when she tilted it up. It was bright enough that she had to close her eyes. “We all do.”

Even though she couldn’t see, Cter felt that Donial did the same as she did. The sound of his inhale and the relaxed sense in his aura made it obvious that he did. A few moments passed the two by with a mildly chilly breeze excusing itself between them. “We still have the sun and sky above us, so there is still hope with those around, no?” In the distance there was the sound of a metallic bell being rung. Cter recognized the sound from when Idyll liked to wake her up too early on weekends, albeit a bit quieter than she was used to it being. That she did not mind though.

“Or that, I suppose.”

Not in the slightest.

Chapter Text

“So how long until the day comes which we are all waiting for, Cter?”

The storage shed was sturdy. Donial had done good work on it. It had been fully stocked as well.

“I can’t say.”

Inside were supplies enough to provide for an entire army.

“As in you don’t know or you are not allowed to say?”

And outside were enough tents to give the same army places to sleep on the journey.

“Even if I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to.”

Royal Guards were busily walking through between the tents, disassembling the biggest ones.

“So both then. I see.”

The Fourth Monster Mage stood outside her carriage, one out many that stood almost end to end.

“Yes.”

The sun warmed her tilted-up chin the same as it had back then when she last spoke to Donial.

“Then whenever that day comes you’ll make sure the humans will pay for what they have done. For what they have forced us to do.”

And when she last spoke to Idyll.

“Yes.”

An approaching Royal Guard brought her out of her memory. He wielded two axes with hollowed-out shapes on their tips. At first he stopped too far away from the Fourth Monster Mage to be able to talk to her, but after a strengthening inhale which had his black-spotted white fur popping out of his collar like a bouquet of sorts, he managed the last few steps. “Greetings, Monster Mage.”

Behind him a pair of Royal Guards were carrying rolled-up tents from the camp and loading them onto a storage wagon, finishing up a layer of them. A sheet of dark-blue magic was laid on top, holding the many rolls of patchworked fabric down. “You may not remember me as it was years before that we met, but...”

She recognized the two large axes he was carrying with him. Their distinct shape and the hollowed shapes at the edges of their black blades were unmistakable. “You are Ziki’s elder brother,” greeted the Monster Mage back with a bow of her head. “And yes, it has been quite some years.” It was the day after her faithful night with Idyll that she ran into him.

Of course she had seen him in the castle afterwards, but never had she really met him again. It was Queen Toriel and King Asgore who returned his brother’s weapon to him, and not her, even if it had been appropriate for her to have done so. “You are coming with to the battle, I see.” There were only a few Royal Guards who weren’t following along, yet still Cter felt weary as the Royal Guard nodded. His nods were strong though, resolute.

“The humans may not have been responsible for the First Fusion that killed my little brother, but they have done everything else to betray his legacy,” said the elder brother after his ears settled after his hard nod. “He did all he could to provide for the humans at Clinic Village, both before and during the plague. He gave his life for the human children, and that is worth nothing to the humans.”

The grip of the black gloves hardened on the handles of the tall axes, turning the blades into each other. “It is worth nothing to them, and especially not to the one which went on to become the Fifth Monster Mage only to toss away that title like trash.” The hollowed-out shapes came together to form a monster soul in the negative space, shaking with anger as if it was about to break. “I will stand alone against the entirety of the human army to remind them who my little brother was. How he would not lift a finger against them.”

The hollowed-out shapes forming a monster soul hooked into each other, forming magical sparks that formed stasis magic on one of the blades and gravity magic on the other. Cter could tell that the former was Ziki’s from him throwing it at the First Fusion to save her. Feeling his magic again brought to her head the images of his body shattering into dust as he threw himself between her and the First Fusion to save her once more. His dust was warm in the cold night air. It was dry on her clothes soaked from the broken fountain she had been thrown into.

“I will though,” the elder brother growled with his fangs baring underneath his dragged-back lips. “I will raise both my hands against the humans so that they may remember what they have done. When they do not weep over the monsters that helped them then I shall make them weep as I make them remember!” His shoulder rocked asymmetrically with his heavy breathing. “They will beg me to act like I say that my brother would have. They will beg for me to give them mercy.”

The elder brother’s aura was thick with anger and rage that poured from him like a boiling, frothing pot. It had an effect on the other nearby Royal Guards, who all seemed to revel in the elder brother’s anger. They shared in it. They agreed with it. He spoke their words for them, and didn’t hesitate any of them.

They would all have raised their weapons and magic with him had they not been busy with the preparations for what would be the last journey for many of them. Cter had expected the zeitgeist to be more worn down and melancholy among the literal army of Royal Guards assembled over the course of two months in Jarasevo.

“Have they showed any mercy at our villages that they have invaded? Have they showed any mercy towards the monsters they have forced to flee for their lives?” the elder brother continued with his fangs baring more and more. The stasis magic around the axe in his right hand had begun to destabilize, with long whips of lightning hopping from the top and bottom of the curved blades.

The axe in his left hand looked more stable despite his emotions growing stronger in his aura. That he was even able to use both types of magic at the same time was commendable enough, but Cter had her doubts as to that being the case. She had an idea as to what it really was, and with her hand held out she beckoned for the elder brother to hand over Ziki’s axe.

“May I?” she asked gently. “I haven’t seen it since he saved me from the First Fusion up on Clinic Hill.” With less hesitation than she suspected, the elder brother handed over Ziki’s weapon, and as soon as Cter touched it, she realized what the magic came from. Grabbing onto it felt the same as using magic with a Cooperative Connection. Holding it felt like she was holding a sleeve. It was Ziki’s axe. “So that’s why.” In more ways than one. “His dust fell on it.”

Onto his favorite object in the world.

Like a candle snuffed by a cold wind, the rage and anger in the elder brother’s aura vanished with a lingering gasp. The axe in his left hand was buried deep in the hard-packed gravel road below him as his fingers lost their strength. His lips relaxed, and the furious fangs which he had bared disappeared. Even as his mouth opened and closed as it failed to form words they still wouldn’t show. “I...I...”

His sharply angled eyes rounded in thought and confusion, with irregular blinks that hid a revealed a different pair with each one. “I’ve...I’ve thought, but never really...considered...that it would be...” With a tensed and anxious shiver he looked to his brother’s axe which the Monster Mage held respectfully in both her hands with a soft grip on its long handle. “That it was him that...”

“You wouldn’t have known,” said Cter after summoning the same stasis magic just by shrouding the weapon with the pleasant memories she had of Ziki and encouraging it further by sampling some of his elder brother’s magic from the axe half-buried in the road. Together she could imitate as if it was Ziki’s elder brother that was holding the weapon and that it was his aura that called upon the magic, confirming Cter’s suspicions.

There weren’t any visible lines on the weapon, but it was the same principle as the Cooperative Connection. Ziki must have treasured the weapon dearly for his dust to have both lingered so long on it and for it to have reacted so vividly. In another way it was similar to how Idyll had gained Romrom’s ice magic from Cter’s sleeve too, albeit less drastically and confined to just the blade of his axe.

The last place he used his magic on.

Finding it out only made Cter more curious. “Did you and your brother cover the edges of your axe blades with your respective magic before you became Royal Guards?” She nodded down at the elder brother’s axe. “Before he went to Clinic Village?” The weapons were heirlooms, Cter remembered. Perhaps that was a clue as well.

“No, we did not,” answered the elder brother with a weak shake to his canine head. “We...we never managed to.” He looked over the refugee camp in the process of being disassembled for the monster army to bring with it on the journey to where the final battle of the war would take place. “We talked about it. Laughed about it ever since we were but pups.”

Between some of the conscripts from the camp carrying with them more tents was hauled a large, well-worn cauldron. It was the one that Idyll had used to help feed the refugees that had been later moved over to a nearby village to act as replacement for the many conscripts to the Monster Army. “We always pushed it up until the next time we’d meet. That way we always had a reason to meet up again no matter what happened. No matter what...”

The sinking dread in the elder brother’s aura had the purple glow on his younger brother’s axe glowing differently. It became more diffuse, as if was reaching away from the blade. It was a strange sight, but Cter understood what it meant. “Here.” She handed back the younger brother’s axe back to his elder brother who gripped it as close to a hug as he could. “He wants to be with you.”

With a gentle touch, the elder brother placed his forehead on the flat of the black axe’s blade, calming the stasis magic and focusing it back on the edge of the blade. He was quiet among the thuds and rattles of the surrounding commotion bringing with it supplies and weapons like ants to their hill.

One of the Griffon Commander’s subordinates swooped overhead with large sacks in her talons and paws. By the wind that she swept past it was clear that the contents were heaving her down. Even though his ears were tugged with the sweeping wind, the elder brother did not flinch. He kept his silence.

Until his aura was filled with conviction and preparedness. “We have to stop the humans, Ziki.” He spoke like an elder brother telling his younger sibling something very important. “They will reach mom and dad otherwise.” A careful sigh had his aura shivering.

The purple glow on the blade had intensified. “This time I explain it to you, Ziki. I know what you spent your life for, but that has been taken away by the humans. They took it, and they want to take more. They want to take it all. I’m sorry I used you without asking. I’m your older brother.” A sob broke through the blade. “I should have known that you were still there, but I did not want you to be...this. I should have trusted that you wouldn’t leave me. Forgive me, Ziki, but also please help mom and dad. Let me help them for you.”

The elder brother stood still for minutes on end, his aura shaping back and forth between shame and quiet listening. Cter did not feel anything past that though. She knew what the elder brother was going through. He was being the human in the Cooperative Connection, but with his soul not being a human’s, the memories were much stronger and vivid for him.

It was a use of the Cooperative Connection that was not taught, but could be inferred to with some thought. The monsters that did try out a human mage’s sleeve often would experience something similar to what Cter had on many occasions. If anything it was more proof to her theory that a soul could be overwhelmed with magic and cause its vessel to faint.

Same happened with the monsters who tried to wield magic as humans, but she hadn’t thought of it in that context before. With it occupying her mind she stood waiting to see if the elder brother would undergo something similar.

While she did, the quiet diligence of the assembling Monster Army continued around her. The storage barn was emptied of supplies and filled with more and more echoes. The many wagons and carriages had their wheels sinking deeper into the road. For being the first time the Monster Army had ever acted like a human army it went quite smoothly, all things considered.

The majority of the Royal Guards were still out around in Monster Country surveying and acting out the hit-and-run tactics. The last orders that Sir Gerson had sent out half a month prior were to keep up the pressure on the human supplies until the Monster Army was close enough to link up safely. For there to be even the slightest of a chance of a monster victory the monsters would have to keep up whatever advantage they had up until the last moment before the final battle.

As the griffon subordinate’s shadow passed by the opposite way, the elder brother finally lifted his head from his younger brother’s axe. He looked around, his eyes and nose darting side to side as if taking in the overwhelming sights for the first time. “I’m...” He blinked in thought, but found no answer. “Was it today that we would depart?”

His brow bent in a worried angle. “Ziki, do you...” When his darting head stopped at the axe in his grip there was a calm acceptance and realization that flourished in his aura. “Oh, right.” The metal gloves wrung at the long handle. “God...it was so vivid. Like he was...like he was still there.”

Even as Cter probed at the elder brother’s aura she still felt that it was inconclusive whether or not his soul had been overwhelmed. He did act quite confused and disoriented like having just woken up from a vivid dream, and that was common with human mages after first using magic via the Cooperative Connection.

Maybe the closeness of the two canine brothers eased it for the elder one? With human mages the memories were more vivid the closer they were with the monster in their sleeve, but perhaps that was different if was between two close monsters?

With how monster burials usually took place it was good enough of a guess for Cter. “He is still there, remember?” She just needed to be doubly sure. “His dust on the axe?”

The elder brother’s furrow deepened. “Yes,” he nodded. “Yes, I understand that now.” As he looked around again he seemed more comfortable with where he was. “And he will help me make sure that the humans do not reach mom and dad.”

So it was not enough for his soul to become overwhelmed then. More was needed for that to happen, it seemed. More Cter had undergone, it seemed too.

Much, much more.

“Monster Mage?”

Cter shook away the growing cloudiness in her aura. It was more than she thought that it would be, enough to leak out. As she opened her eyes from having cleared her throat she thought herself seeing the purple glow on the elder brother’s axe reach out for her, but it could just as well have been her imagination. “Nothing, Royal Guard,” she dismissed with her authority. “Keep your mind on your brother instead.” It sounded strange saying it to casually. “Make sure that you are fully ready when the time comes, yes?”

The elder brother caressed the flat of his younger brother’s axe with his hand, stroking it carefully. There was lament and sorrow in his eyes, but behind it was hope. He did not fully understand it, for then he would not have the strength to still be standing up on his own legs. Cter had handed him his brother back, at least that was how she saw it. Perhaps she was wrong in it and what she had handed to the elder brother was something else. Perhaps it was she that didn’t understand what it was?

She would have liked that to be the case. To not know and just accept it outright without much more thought to it than necessary. Cter enjoyed learning, but it had been a very long time since she had begun hating knowing. The elder brother seemed happy with not knowing why and what his brother was and just accepting that he was back, and that he had never truly left.

“Same with you, Sund?”

Cter’s left arm did not answer though like how Ziki’s dust had to his elder brother’s aura. There were no memories in Cter’s sleeve that she would want to lose herself in neither. If she even could, she did not know, and she sure did not want to know.

Maybe once there was peace and the fear of the Fusion was but a memory would be the right time for her to record down how it remembered itself, but until then she would only treat her White Flesh as something to use like a tool rather than ask to use like a monster’s memories. She could not give it any time of her day or else its influence would grow within her. Like the sharp teeth of a saw it was a tool when used correctly, but playing with it would be all kinds of dangerous.

And again, there was no Sund to answer her and to comfort her for what was about to take place. That Cter did not lament. Instead she found it comforting that she could leave Sund at Time's Square with his small garden of flowers. She would not have to bring it with her to the war. He could stay in Jarasevo like Idyll would and be safe. Jarasevo would be something Cter could have as an escape from the war. Something to look forward to after the final battle with the humans. A home to return to.

As she let her gaze wander over the many different Royal Guards preparing the logistics of the largest Monster Army ever assembled she could see and feel that she was not the only one that felt that way. There was worry and anxiousness spread like thick fog among all the Royal Guards, snaking between and through them like a bad odor.

What kept them going was that they knew that everyone around them felt the same. That everyone else were just as afraid as them, but kept going regardless. It was something that the monsters had over the humans, and it might just be what was needed for the monsters to get ahead in the final battle.

Their auras coming together as one, with a will that was woven by many and resilient as such. They knew that they were to face enemies that were unfathomably stronger than them, yet they still continued. They knew that they would be flakes of snow thrown against a roaring fire, yet they still kept courage and diligence. Perhaps it was the first diligence the Royal Guards ever truly had?

Each and every single one had come to the refugee camp before. Each and every single one had seen the destruction of hope that the humans had wrought upon their fellow monsters. Their auras felt the terror and fear, but also the sliver of hope left behind. That sliver was for them. That sliver was that the Royal Guards would be victorious in the final battle and take revenge against the humans!

It was a feeling Cter was familiar with.

A feeling that she had made a point of taking in as many times as possible with as many Royal Guards as possible.

“Reach out your arm, Royal Guard.”

And the one that stood in front of her would be the one she would teach what she had learned.

“I will give you something I want you to share not only with your brother, but will all those that will stand around you when the final battle commences.”

That just as with the first Crystal Day, she could feel all the monsters hearts beating as one.

“Share with them your rage, and let them share with you theirs.”

And so would he.

“Keze.”

Like a fountain of hope!

Chapter Text

“So you gave one of the Royal Guards that...feeling of yours, Cter?”

There was an insinuation in the turtle monster’s words, yet his gaze looked elsewhere completely. His question was aimed directly at the Monster Mage sat opposite him in the decorated carriage, but his head and eyes were set on the landscape passing by outside the glass window flanked by rolled-up curtains. Despite his eyes not being in the vicinity of the Monster Mage, she felt its full force against her.

“I did,” Cter answered directly with a distinct nod that had her entire torso nodding along as well. She looked down to her left arm before her gaze wandered to the landscape passing by outside as well. She recognized it. They had just left Jarasevo and were passing by the farmland outside of the city. They were heading towards Xoff. They were heading towards war. “The elder brother to the Royal Guard that was stationed at Clinic Hill when the First Fusion came to be.”

A bump in the road had the body of the Leader of the Royal Guard oscillating from side to side. “Keze, right?” he guessed, but the concern in his voice revealed that he already knew who it was. “Not an extraordinary Royal Guard of any real merit besides his family and its heirlooms. I am curious as to why you gave it to him.”

Not as curious as to turn and face Cter, but curious enough. “I am also curious why you decided to do it to begin with.” That however he was curious enough to turn to face Cter with a sunken expression casting a deep shadow over his eyes. “I would like you to tell me about it, Cter.”

Cter did not answer, for Frioke did it before her. “You have had months to express your worries about it, Sir Gerson,” the Monster Priestess answered from right beside him. His narrowed glance at her ran off her like water on a goose. “That you chose this particular time to ask Cter is not fair to her or to us three who have to listen to you addressing her like she was but a common Royal Guard who ignored guard duty due to some vestigial and juvenile reason.”

Cter looked to the two other Monster Mages sat next to her. They shared a look at each other, all three, before Kry coughed gently into his fist. “While I agree that the benefits of this magic will be applicable in the upcoming battle, I...” He swallowed and pushed his glassed up his nose. “I do not fully agree with it. It has nothing to do with either Cter or her magic, it is only a matter of me not understanding it fully, and it being such a gamble that we do not want to give to more than just one too. Now that Cter has used it she should be able to describe it in better detail, and perhaps even share it with us too?”

Kry looked to Cter with an apologetic look, but she nodded it calm. He was right in that she could describe it better after she had finally gotten a use out of it. If she were to be perfectly honest, it was partly the reason why she gave it to Keze. Doing so gave her the entire journey to the battlefield to perhaps refine and come up some other use for it, perhaps. It was limited outside of the very specific case that the final battle with the humans had set up, but still…

“I would like to hear more about it as well,” added Kurant with an explaining motion to her hand. Another bump in the road had her shifting the weight she had on her knee brace, and a brief, annoyed expression took her over. Her explaining motion was interrupted as she had to use her hand to lift her leg, and a silent second passed as she exhaled out the interruption. “I think that it might be important to help ease things over with the humans past the battle. Not only that, but it does hint at a Soul Rainbow equivalent as well.”

It...did?

“It is an idea I have,” said Kurant to Cter’s folded eyebrows. “And I should probably have said that after your explanation in case it becomes relevant or not.” She gave Cter a quick smile. “But don’t think about that now, okay? You explain you, and I’ll tell you the connection afterwards.” Cter could see in Kurant’s narrow eyes that she was mildly annoyed with herself for suggesting that she had an idea.

However though, it gave Cter more calm about it. If Kurant said to not worry then she wouldn’t worry about it. Cter had also thought about there being a connection between the two, but she hadn’t gotten a lot with it as she had been busy trying to get it to work in the first place. If Kurant had figured something, then good. If she hadn’t, then fine.

Cter adjusted herself on her seat cushion with a small lean forward for comfort. “The principle is the same as when I give the crystal skates on Crystal Day. I managed to do it the first time by recognizing that when monster auras share a common sense towards something their auras come together in that feeling, connecting with each other. It has to be specific and strong, for otherwise we would all be knowing what everyone else was thinking about when the clock at Time's Square strikes noon.”

Cter wasn’t ready for the image of the rush hour in Jarasevo all stopping and looking up in thought at the same time that her head conjured up for her. She swiped her mouth to wipe away her small chuckle. “And it is through that collective sense of sharing a moment with the auras of those around you that allows emotion to be shared with them all at the same time. Keze made a big scene out of his promise to his brother which the other Royal Guards reacted too, so right there is a good basis. If him and his emotions are already in their memories and souls then that makes it easier for them to share in it.”

“This war being the common ground necessary?” asked Sir Gerson while Cter paused for air. “Or is it this final battle with the humans that is specific enough?”

The Fourth Monster Mage nodded.

“The war there are too many differing thoughts and feelings about to reach the necessary level of specificity for the different auras to come together seemingly as one. We all hate it, but some have seen it first-hand while others haven’t. And those that have seen it have seen it differently, same with those that have not seen it. It needs to be even more specific than Crystal Day since there is nothing for the magic to latch onto and heave a head-start on, so to speak.” She gestured between Sir Gerson and Frioke. “Feel how the war is to you. Even with you two working so closely together your auras won’t come together on their own.”

Violent, angry, lamenting, and stressed emotions rose from the two Royal Councilors’ auras like deep and dark thunderclouds. They were similar, with worries about their own work being not enough for monsterkind, but even as they even grimaced in unison as their auras began interacting with each other, their auras did not come together.

They stayed separate with their own experiences being their own rather than being the same as the other’s. So much was so similar though. So much wrought grief and weight in their auras that they risked crashing through the purple carpet on the carriage floor had they been out for much longer. “Thank you,” Cter said to stop it.

She felt shivering in her own soul, and she could feel that her Monster Mage colleagues felt the same. “Thank you,” she repeated so that she could wait for the shiver to thaw. It took a small while, and her face was as pale as Kurant’s once she could continue.

“You two see this war differently based on your roles. You feel betrayed differently due to humanity’s actions, and that sits too deep in your souls to be exactly the same with someone else. The war with the humans is something us monsters have all come together with in spirit, but not in soul. It is too big for anyone to feel exactly the same about it with someone else. It means too much for anyone to have been affected by it exactly the same as someone else. Even two monsters from the same family who has had their home and village burned by the humans wouldn’t have it be the same. The parent would lose the home they built up for their child, and the child would lose the only home they had ever known.”

In her left palm Cter conjured up the image of Keze standing in honor with his two axes in each hand on either side of him. “This is where we can learn from the human army something that will help us.”

With a sweep of her hand the carriage carpet became bustling with quarter-sized human shapes standing in the same honor as Keze in her hand. They were identical enough that she could shuffle them all around and no one would have been able to tell the difference.

To boot they looked to be a part of Sir Gerson’s board game, that which he had packed up just before it was time for him and the other Royal Councilors to head into the larger-sized carriage which they all shared. He had brought with him the map which laid over the board, but the board itself and its pieces he had neatly tucked away into his desk before taking the lead out his office.

“The human army is that of many soldiers who all are the same. They are trained in such a way that they are to be a uniform unit rather than anything else. Not being able to tell the others apart and not being able to tell if the soldier standing next to you is a friend or a stranger has the human soldiers all thinking and acting the same as if they were but one soldier copied and copied.”

Cter made her magical soldiers all switch their weapons with the one next to them. “I only had each of these conjurations reaching to the right with their weapon and grabbing the weapon reached to them from the left. Two simple instructions that worked for almost all of them apart from the ones on the left side which can be easily fixed with another set of simple instructions.”

She dissipated all the left-most conjurations in each row and continued. “This is also what allowed the Second Fusion to give the entirety of the human army souls, cursing them. Since they were all drilled and trained the same with an emphasis to remove the individual and replace with distilled discipline, it would have been the same for the Second Fusion as it is for me during Crystal Days.”

A small, upside-down monster soul materialized within each of the magical conjurations, each one with a distinct color of the rainbow. Kurant looked to Cter to see if she was done, but Cter had more to say. Kurant nodded in understanding.

“The Second Fusion could give all of the human army souls since their fears and emotions were all the same and specific about the Second Fusion. For the humans that were not the foot soldiers in the armies the Second Fusion would have to done it on a case-by-case basis, but those were far, far fewer than the many similar soldiers.”

Another magical conjuration was formed in front of the human army.

“Kallorean did not become fully human the same as Huvett and Huvtvao managed. Had he managed he would have been able to set his emotions aside and not break down over his fallen squad mate in such an intimate way.” Cter’s left fingers caressed and pinched on her palm in an anxious and restless way. “With me having given his squad mates temporary Cooperative Connections with Kallorean’s magic when I visited Fenkeep Castle I’m sure that also contributed to–”

“Cter,” interrupted Frioke before Kry’s hand reached the Monster Mage’s shoulder. He placed it firmly and steadily on Cter’s lowered shoulder, but let Frioke do the talking. “You can not know if that was the case. You might have brought them closer when you were at Fenkeep Castle, but you can not put responsibility on yourself for what they did after that. It was not you that drove Kallorean to do what he did, nor what drove his squad mate’s to become susceptible to be absorbed like Sund’s soul was.”

And what would the other case have been then? That it was inevitable that another fusion would form somewhere some place where there were humans and monsters? Would the other case then be that the humans were right with the war? That they were correct in waging war on monsters because monsters had the power to absorb souls?

“But if you feel responsible for it, however wrong that is, see this as your chance to redeem yourself and correct what you feel that you’ve done wrong, Cter.” Frioke leaned down with her ears folded down behind her head to find the lowered look of the Monster Mage.

Once she did, Cter could see the comforting in the Monster Priestess’ eyes even though her words might have been harsh. She did not say them out of spite, but to help the Monster Mage. It did not matter why Cter felt how she did. What mattered was Frioke helping her get out of feeling how she did.

And she was right.

If Cter felt that she was responsible then she would do her best to undo that feeling. To correct it. To correct...everything.

She gave Kry’s hand a comforting squeeze before continuing.

“It is this undoing of individuality that we have focused on instilling with the Monster Army. Not through discipline, but through shared experience that will be relevant to the final battle. The refugee camp we have used to inform groups of Royal Guards, making sure that there is the first place that they learn and are informed of the final battle with the humans. We have done much to further narrow down and make the final battle be the same for as many of the Royal Guards in the Monster Army as possible. This way those that have failed to fall in line with their fellow soldiers will still come together as one with enough of those around them. You can still heat a kettle by placing it between enough fires.”

Not a perfect analogy, but it was close enough for what Cter wanted to say. Those with her in the carriage were smart. They were Royal Councilors. They would figure it out.

“Each step in assembling the Monster Army has been to make it more like the human one. Not only to surprise the humans, but also to increase the chance of the Final Battle being specific enough for the Monster Army that we can utilize someone like Keze so that their hearts can come together as one, the same as the humans.” Cter let Kry retreat his hand from her shoulder. “For our benefit though, and that will be the upper hand we will have over the humans. We have learned from their plight and will use it against them. Where they fell we will stand tall. Where their souls screamed in agony ours will roar in triumph.”

The conjured soldiers raised their swords in the air before fading away from existence. Left in their disappearing wake were the colors of their magical souls fading, fogging it for Cter if she meant for them to be human or monster when she summoned them. She realized that she had probably been going back and forth with what her conjurations were meant to represent.

Again though, the Royal Councilors sat around her understood the gist of it.

“Make sure to write that down and hand it over to King Asgore to help his speech before the battle,” suggested Sir Gerson with a motion of his hand towards some parchment in a pocket on the carriage wall. “His words will be the ones that the Royal Guards will carry with them against the humans. His words will be their shield, and he will be their spear and trident.”

He ignored Frioke mimicking the same motion with her hand. “It will be glory once we return, but until then it will be anything but glory for any part in the Final Battle. We can try to be clever, but even if we manage to break up a boulder into many pebbles it will instead become a thousand impending dangers instead of just one overwhelming one.”

Sir Gerson’s shell embedded itself deep into the backrest as he leaned his weight and folded his arms with his eyes closed in contemplation. “I have not yet figured the best approach since I have only seen human armies facing each other. It is what I trained them for, if they even remember that by this point. I can not assume that they will be using my own tactics against me, so it will be me coordinating on the fly. Both figuratively and literally if needed.”

Cter wouldn’t get a better segue than that. “Then I believe that Keze might help you with that.” She was going to tell about the next step before Sir Gerson chimed in.

“Conduits,” Sir Gerson said before Cter could to see how the word felt to him. The slight tension in his aura told that it didn’t feel great. “How are you planning with them, exactly? I know that Kry and Kurant will be on defensive duty with their magic, and if it were up to me I would have liked you to take a more active part in the Final Battle, Cter.”

A green hand was raised. “I know why you’re not.” It was lowered back into the fold. “And I know that it is worth having you being passive in exchange for the Human Army not using their mages either. Whatever you did when you were their prisoner at Soul’s School gave them quite the spook that they were willing to add that clause, and that we should take advantage of.”

“I do sometimes wonder what the humans would have added to the clauses should Kry or I have been captured as well.” Kurant looked to her colleagues with a confident smirk. “Perhaps they would have just handed us the win on a silver platter if it was me additionally and for Kry...”

“Golde–”

“Wooden platter, yes,” Kurant interrupted before breaking into a shared chuckle with the First Monster Mage. He had to push up on the rim of his glasses so that they would not slip off his nose. “But yes, sorry, I interrupted you, Cter.” She had no reason to apologize. If anything it was good that she brought in some levity into the carriage. God knows it was needed. “The Conduits?”

Cter nodded. “Yes, the Conduits.” She returned the conjured image of Keze in her palm.

“They are essentially the ones that we will have all the auras come together at. Should we see an increase in morale around Keze then I believe that I should make more of them. For them to focus and direct the emotion of what their fellow Royal Guards went through when we showed them the refugee camps and told them about the Final Battle. Their auras will be the brightest ones among the auras once they all come together, and those that we have chosen are those with the strongest will and intent against the humans. They will be the Conduits for the will of the Monster Army, and lead behind King Asgore.”

Frioke’s ears raised up. “And King Asgore? Will he be–”

“Absolutely. Not.” Sir Gerson shook his head hard. “This I am barely comfortable with using on the Royal Guards so King Asgore is completely out of the question.” He cleared his throat of the harsh malice his words brought up from his soul. “Nothing against you or your magic, Cter,” he said after looking for a way to spit out all the malice, but having to resort to swallowing it instead.

“However, it is not something I would have chosen to employ as I feel that it is too close to what the humans have against us. However however, I know that exploiting the humans’ weaknesses is the only way we will have a chance to succeed in this Final Battle. I trust your judgment, Cter. I trust your magic.”

It was good that Sir Gerson said it. Having heard that Cter could have something to push out her second thoughts about the Conduits. She would not have even begun to consider it had the situation not been as dire as it was. A Final Battle to decide the war, and she had to be a passive part in it for the monsters to have the best chance? She would have been feeling like she hadn’t done anything at all for it had she not figured out the Conduits. It was borderline her being able to influence auras and souls on a large scale, and what would that have led to?

“The Soul Rainbow?”

Cter looked to Kurant leaning forward to be seen from behind Kry. Her braid slid off her shoulder as she waited for an answer. “Are you finished with the Conduits, because I think that I might have a relevant idea.”

Cter nodded.

“Shoot.”

Chapter Text

“But wouldn’t that mean the Soul Rainbow was forgotten then?”

Kry’s question at the end of Kurant’s explanation laid heavy with the weight he put on it. The same weight had his forehead sinking over his eyes, folding behind the golden rim of his glasses with worry.

“But then how could it have been forgotten if it was so integral then?”

Cter would have chimed in with her own thoughts had she not been busy processing her own on the matter. What Kurant had told was peculiar to say the least. That the Soul Rainbow was something that the humans worshiped before because it made them feel closer to each other was something Cter had mused on before, but that it could be connected to what she had been doing with the Monster Army she had been too busy to recognize.

It fit quite well that there would be a human equivalent to the monsters being able to feel each other at such a personal level, but again as Kry asked it meant that the Soul Rainbow would then have been forgotten some way somehow, and while Cter had an idea as to why she shuddered at the implication.

If the Soul Rainbow was where the human souls’ could come together with their individual colors as something cohesive with them all, then that would mean that Cter’s theory about the soul being able to have its vessel forget was not only true, but a fundamental property of both the human and the monster soul, then if all could come together as one…

Could all drift apart as one each as well?

“Again though, it’s just my thoughts on the matter,” added Kurant after refreshing her throat with some water.

“If anything it is piggybacking off what Cter has done. The scrolls that she had the two Fenkeep mages copy for us before the war turned towards us was interesting to read and told a lot about things that I have not read before ever. Granted, I’ve not visited Fenkeep Castle before, but perhaps when all of this is over, I might. If there is more to be found about the Soul Rainbow there then I really must visit.”

Her left leg did not move along with her shifting her weight, and while she acted like she noticed it, the twist on her knee couldn’t have had that be the case.

“Perhaps there are some similar scrolls to be found in the Xoff capital too? If the Soul Rainbow was truly something that all humans knew about in distant times then surely there has to be something somewhere tucked away at Noitaidarr Castle? Even if it was planned and decided that it should have been forgotten there must have been at least one mage or similar that had the foresight of collecting it all for posterity’s sake. There has to be something written down somewhere that explains all of it.”

Kurant’s gaze went through her braid hanging at the side of her face and out into the passing-by landscape outside. “We might be repeating events that took place before. There might have been a similar war that happened earlier and which resulted in everything about the Soul Rainbow being forgotten.”

“But we would have seen evidence of that, no?” added Kry who followed a dilapidated farm with his eyes as it passed by the carriage window. “Surely something other than just some hidden scrolls would have been found then?” He thought a bit more on his own words.

“Although it is true that there are difficulties with record-keeping even with the assistance of magic. Many of the Royal Guards in the Monster Army we do not have a family history on. Hell, I suspect that a good chunk of them are not old enough to enlist, but still have done so.”

He looked to Sir Gerson who’s folded arms turned away slightly from the conversation. The Leader of the Royal Guard knew too, but did not want to address the fact. He couldn’t, for he needed them all if he was to protect monsterkind like his duty had him do.

“And then we have that the plague in Xoff could have been more easily contained if the County Generals had kept more uniform bookkeeping instead of their own, quote unquote, secret methods. The First Fusion could have been kept a secret too if powers that be wanted for it to be secret, I suspect as well.” Kry finished by again pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “So now that I think about it...”

Cter only barely passed the required history classes when she was a student at Soul’s School, so she did not have a lot to add to that particular argument, and ever since her graduation it had all been new magic and new events. She had never had time for any history.

“I would love for my interpretation of the Soul Rainbow to be wrong,” Kurant said with a timid shrug. “If anything it would give me a reason to read the scrolls again in a new light. I’m quite fascinated by it, to be honest. It hints at human magic having been discovered before, but that it was different. If it is the same with how human culture and monster culture spawned human magic as with us then how would it have been before then? Could we learn how the humans and monsters were via the Soul Rainbow? Could we rediscover how human magic was before? Could we–”

The carriage was rocked violently, sending the excited Monster Mage’s shoulder into the wall and interrupting her. Her left leg twisted at the top of her knee brace, and a gritted exhale followed after she managed to realize what had happened.

Kry reached out to help her sit up again, and Kurant accepted the help as much as she could. Carefully she leaned down at her knee, squeezing it with healing magic. The excited expression that had shone on her face was gone, replaced by a hardened brow that was less about the pain from her knee and more about what would follow.

“How is you’re brac–”

“It’s fine,” Kurant interrupted with a huff that she immediately regretted. “It’s fine,” she repeated more softly, moving one green-glowing hand down to a strap on her brace. With stasis magic she tugged it tighter, straightening her knee in a more comfortable angle. “I was just startled by it, is all.”

Cter shared a look with Kry, and decided with him that it was for the better to let it be. With a glance over to Frioke and Sir Gerson sitting on the other side of the carriage they were let in on the decision as well. The silence from that though was more telling than anything they could have asked Kurant though, so for how much good it did nobody really knew.

After Kurant had managed to straighten her leg better she tried to return the excited shine to her expression and soul which she had before, but all that she managed was not enough to convince that she wasn’t perturbed by her startle and twist of her knee.

“We can learn a lot about the Soul Rainbow, and while I think that I have good grounds for my interpretation, I still would want for it to be wrong so that I may examine it again with fresh eyes. It is not something that I feel is set in stone, especially not with us only having a few scrolls of old paper to show for it. This war needs to end so that we can look both ahead and to the past and stop this senseless violence that is the present.”

Carefully she lifted her leg a bit to the side so that the pit of her knee rested against the edge of a cushion. “I’m still able to walk on it, you can stop looking.” Kurant’s eyes softened as her colleagues heads turned away. “A bit less subtly, please.”

Shame hang heavy among the rest.

“Sorry,” Cter was the first one to say. “I know the walls are expensively padded, but you still hit it with some velocity. Your braid whipped in the air to and...” Why she continued to explain while knowing full well it did nothing to help she did not know. “Yeah, sorry.” If the carriage had moved slower Cter would have most likely opened the door and walked over to another carriage to escape her blunder. A similar sentiment she could see in Kry as well, albeit slightly lesser since Cter took the arrow for him by speaking up first.

A few, short shakes of Kurant’s head had her aura mellowing into stale fatigue. “I get enough worry from Barbeqa about it,” she sighed with a snicker at the end which made a slight whistle. “God, her flames almost went out completely when I told her about...” She gestured around her. “This. About the Final Battle and that I was going to take an active part in it.”

Kurant let her gestured hand fall haphazardly onto her lap. “Don’t think they’ve come back to the luster they had before I told her yet. Even less so since there was no chance in this life or the next that I would allow her to come along on this.” Her sunken brow raised so that she could meet Sir Gerson’s eyes even if he had his averted. “Thank you for taking that fireball for me, Gerson. I wouldn’t have been able to tell her myself.”

“She is needed more at Jarasevo Castle than she is on the battlefield,” the turtle monster answered after blinking his eyes over his shoulder then blinking them back to the outside landscape that the long, slow Monster Army convoy was rolling through.

“Her cooking isn’t suited to the purely functional cooking equipment we are bringing with us, nor to the purely functional flavors that will be served. Even the Monster King will be eating the same as his soldiers, same as us. If that does not tell about the direness this Monster Army is formed from...”

He ran one of his green hands down his nose and mouth, stopping at his tuft of beard which he held on to. “Just sitting here knowing that there are carriages in front and behind us further than I can see in either direction is sitting with me more poorly than when King Asgore got fooled into replacing the Royal Garden benches with hammocks so that the visitors could enjoy the garden with more leisure.”

“He did tell you to climb into it carefully though,” came a rather important addition from the Monster Priestess while she had begun busying herself with some magical knitting. Three differently colored balls of yarn she combined together with stasis magic to act as one which she knitted at with her hands. The rhythmic sound of the knitting pins was pleasant and reminded Cter of Romrom. “Had you not thrown yourself into one shell-first you would have–”

“Many things I would have,” Sir Gerson interrupted sourly, releasing his beard with an opposing exhale.

“And one of those would-haves would have been to split up this convoy into many smaller parts so that the humans would not be sure exactly where we would be congregating. We only have a time and a place decided for the actual battle, but what and where we set up camp prior to that would have been better to keep more in the dark for the humans.” He again looked out the window as if he was about to exit out it and climb up onto the roof to survey the too-long convoy in his words and opinion.

“We have Aajja and his expanded squad surveying from high above for any if all potential human attacks of scouts our way,” commented Frioke with a calm demeanor to both her voice and knitting patterns. “And from the latest scout report on our end the humans will be assembling their army from the north east. They would have to send their scouts to hurry straight into ours should that be the case, and ours move much faster than theirs.”

She opened up one of the colorful knits with a finger, widening it to begin anew from it. “We are moving ahead in good pace despite the more cumbersome approach than we are used to taking. Not nearly as fast a pace as we are used to operating on.” Frioke breathed into the opened knit, forming a conjured soap bubble of sorts which she let deflate into the shape of a pocket. “But a good pace nonetheless.”

Sir Gerson spent a few seconds trying to deduce what it was that Frioke was knitting before turning back to the window where his talking breath still stuck on the glass chilled from the autumn weather outside. “If you feel that my rambling is too much I could always move to the King’s carriage instead. Bring to him the suggestions we have for his speech.”

Frioke’s ears turned in waves as she shook her head daintily. “I’d like you here, please,” she said without lifting her eyes off the magical pocket she was knitting around on its surface. “I feel safer about this when you’re here.” Despite her words being blunt she spoke them as if they were but truths passing by in the wind. She meant each one she said, and each one reached the Leader of the Royal Guard clearer than he could see the landscape outside the window.

“For King Asgore’s sake or for my?” the turtle monster asked back as there was some of his breath that had fogged on the window pane, reducing its clarity somewhat.

“For my sake, as I said,” Frioke answered.

Nothing else was needed.

“Right.” Sir Gerson’s silence sank into the cushions and carpet of the luxurious carriage, turning the already dark-purple upholstery even darker. Coupled with the carriage passing through the shadow of some thick overcast, the air became too thick for the quiet to continue. “Kurant? If I may?” He opened up his folded arms and leaned forward with his fingers folded instead just under his eyes. “Queen Toriel?”

Kurant didn’t waste a second trying to pretend. “Has stowed herself onto this convoy disguised as a Royal Guard, yes.” That she told with such lack of emotion, speaking only factually, contrasted strongly with her two Monster Mage colleagues flinching away from her like two Temmies falling over onto each other like wooden skittles. “She should be with King Asgore already now.”

The turtle monster dragged at a corner of his mouth. “This also a reason you asked me to stay?” he directed at Frioke.

“No,” she answered again with a similarly calm shake to her head. “I did not know that. It was only for my sake, as I said.”

Sir Gerson hummed. “Right.” He retreated form his confronting lean back into the shell-shaped indent in the carriage seat’s backrest. “Guess you will all have to live with my restlessness born out of our languid pace until we reach our camp location.” He seemed more at peace from Kurant’s answer, which was strange.

At least to Cter and Kry.

Who both hadn’t blinked for several seconds after hearing what the Second Monster Mage had revealed.

“What?” shrugged Kurant at her two colleagues. “You thought that she would stay at the castle?” The tone of her question had Cter and Kry trading mystified looks between each other. Kurant asked as if it was obvious, but neither Kry or Cter felt that it was. Quite the opposite, in fact. Otherwise they wouldn’t have reacted the way they did and almost flipped the carriage over by their sudden lurches away from her.

“S-She said that she would,” began Cter timidly. “The two made a speech together about it, didn’t they? As we were departing? Queen Toriel was next to King Asgore at the balcony. She gave her half of the speech about how she would make sure that Jarasevo is safe while King Asgore led the Monster Army against the humans in the Final Battle.” She looked to Sir Gerson and Frioke for support, but gained none. “I...uh...”

“If anything I can infer King Asgore’s reaction from your reaction, Kry,” Kurant mused for herself. “I’m sure his reaction was similar to yours.” She knocked on the wooden board behind her with a knuckle. “Back at the castle she approached me with the idea rather straightforward. It wasn’t her asking my approval, but more my opinion on it. My opinion and my suggestions, to be exact.”

A small laugh was puffed out her nose. “And to be more exact she wanted my opinion and suggestion on which of the Royal Guard armors she had...procured which fit her best. It was an...interesting hour or so. To put aside the suspicion of the heavy, rattling sound of her taking off and on different armors I told those curious that it was Barbeqa trying out new kitchen equipment, and they didn’t really have any reason to doubt that such was the case.”

Kry’s baffled scratch at his temple had him accidentally flicking at the arm of his glasses, tilting them off his nose. He flicked them back on proper with an embarrassed cough. “I do not fully see the reason as to why she would do that though,” he brought up neutrally.

“The people back home in Jarasevo need to know that they are safe. They need to know that they are watched over by the Monster Royals in times such as these. Leaving the castle empty of Monster Royals and having both present at the Final Battle will make the people back home feel betrayed, no matter the outcome. Their queen lied to them. The Monster Queen lied to all of them!”

Kurant shook her head. “She did not lie to them.” There was naught but confidence in the shake. “She promised them that Jarasevo would be safe, and that was all she promised. There are enough Royal Guards still present to defend the capital for enough time for word to reach us and for us to send a response.” She motioned between her colleagues and herself. “Us.”

Cter was unsure about the smile that Kurant put on. It had formed very quickly and sharply, dragging her rosy cheeks high up. Her aura as well had gotten a very Barbeqa-like volatility to it, igniting like a fire at the loud snap of a finger. “Us?” Cter repeated even though the rational part of her understood that it was a bad idea.

“Us three Monster Mages swooping in on the backs of the Griffon Commander and his subordinates, that is,” Kurant explained with her hands glowing with excited magic trailing a hazy purple behind her sweeping gestures. “If the humans want to break the treaty between the two kings then they should be ready to suffer us acting without the treaty holding us back. We could hold the capital between just us three if necessary. We have planned for it before, after all.”

Kry craned his neck forward. “As a defensive measure,” he added with a few blinks. “You speak of it as us taking on the entirety of the human army by ourselves.” Those blinks stopped as he inspected Kurant’s retreating smile and the excitement in her aura. He sensed something which he did not fully agree on. “Where exactly did this come from, Kurant?” He looked at the wooden backboard she had knocked on. “If you could infer King Asgore’s reaction from how I acted.” Then back at Kurant. “Then is this how Queen Toriel feels about the Final Battle?”

Kurant didn’t say anything.

But it was answer enough.

“She is hotheaded behind that calm exterior of hers,” said Frioke after having blown another deflated pocket of conjuration magic into her knitting. “

She can, and does, stand against King Asgore when needed. She compliments him in ways he doesn’t realize, and that too means that she is quick to act sometimes out of her soul’s desire. She wasn’t always a Monster Queen, and that she carries with her willingly. Not as a banner though, but as a reminder as to why King Asgore chose her.”

The Monster Priestess let one ear flop down in front of her face so that she could measure its width in relation to one of her knitting sticks. Around one and a quarter at the widest part.

“She is with the Monster King now and not back in Jarasevo because how else would he be able to send his subjects into battle? You saw it yourself when he returned with Cter. He needs her, at the Final Battle more than ever. The Monster King’s needs is the need of monsterkind as well. She will be at the Final Battle for his sake, and for monsterkind as well.”

Cter...hadn’t thought of it that way. Neither had Kry, as he mirrored her slow, understanding nod.

“It was difficult to keep it from Barbeqa,” said Kurant to fill the knitting silence that followed. “She knew that I was lying about something, and couldn’t tell her why. A part of me wishes that she would have done the same, but an even larger part of me wants her to be safe back home in Jarasevo. If the human army ever dares to approach the Monster Capital I will–”

“Then trust in the wisdom of the Monster Royals,” interrupted Sir Gerson. With a furrowed brow he surveyed inside the carriage, stopping for a bit longer at Frioke’s uninterrupted knitting. “It is what we need to do.”

“Forever,” she added.

“And always.”

A rapid darkness drained the confident mood in the larger-sized carriage, and before the inhabitants could react to it, the carriage door was ripped open, and a large, orange pouch dove in.

“Humans!” the Griffon Commander bawked. “Humans have been spotted!”

Eyes turned to Kurant.

“They’re heading towards Jarasevo!”

With hers widening larger than her head.

Chapter Text

“They’ve definitely spotted us by now.”

Cter looked over the quietly gliding feathers of the large, extended wing that was blocking her sight down towards the far-off ground. On the road towards Hjearta, about a few hours march away from Jarasevo, was the unmistakable silhouette of a military convoy. She could see that there were flags, but if they were flying the Hjearta or Xoff colors was impossible to discern from the distance. Which colors that were flown wasn’t important though.

That they were flown to begin with was all that mattered.

“A thousand, I’d estimate,” the Griffon Commander said after some difficult peering through the thin overcast. “Assuming that there are more in the forest that we can’t see yet.” His wing beats changed rhythm, becoming less smooth and lifting him and his Monster Mage passenger up with less finesse.

Cter could not see his face, but she could see how the wind carried around the feathers on his head with more turbulence, same with her hair. His magic was losing focus. “I know the scout reports were true when I heard them, but seeing them this close to Jarasevo...” A wing beat was stopped in the midst of its flap, jerking the Griffon Commander’s body. “Whatever explanation they have I doubt it will explain anything, if not less. To go against the agreement between the two kings will only make things worse. Can’t they understand that?”

Cter was at a loss of reason as well as to why the humans would attack Jarasevo. Same as how they managed to as well. They shouldn’t have been able to move that quickly. There had not been any monster scouts that told of this smaller human force moving with such speed.

Even considering that it took them a few days to reach the convoy of the Monster Army, Aajja and his two highest subordinates could move much, much faster than even the smallest squad of armor-clad humans. Even on horses it would have been slower than what Aajja could manage. He had been flying faster than he had been when he was bringing Cter back to Jarasevo Castle too.

So how could a thousand humans reach the Monster Capital almost at the same time as the three Monster Mages did? Were they really a few hours of marching away from Jarasevo? How long did the Monster Mages have until they would have to protect the walls of the city?

“Focus, Cter,” the Griffon Commander told her with his head turned to face her. The turbulence of her aura must have overcome the turbulence of the wind for him to have noticed it. “The enemy is soon at our gates. We need to prepare the Royal Guards for the attack.” There was experience in his eyes and voice, something that Cter lacked completely.

She had enjoyed touring the walls and the garrisons, but to her it had been primarily to witness the commerce through the busy gates to try and guess which transport brought which type of goods, and if she could guess better by looking at the monster driving the carriage. She had stood on top of those walls looking at the landscape and the forest in the far distance with a further understanding about the ice transports not passing through Jarasevo due to the busyness of business, and not with thoughts about how to defend it should any human attack arrive.

Because never would one come! Never!

Yet there, one was, emerging more and more from the forest a few hours march away from the gates of the Monster Capital. More and more humans stepped into the overcast-dimmed light. Between each spot of thicker overcast which Aajja sailed over the formation of marching humans grew, with more and more flags of impossible-to-see colors.

“A siege...” Cter heard Aajja say under his breath. Before she could ask what he meant she saw her answer. Two trees had been felled from the edge of the forest, with two others being worked on.

“They’re bringing down lumber for a siege! I’ve seen it before when they were planning on taking on some of the bigger monster villages with garrisons of their own. Taking on Jarasevo will require much, much more than they have ever had to do in this war though.” The Griffon Commander threw a hard beat of his wings, dispersing a thin cloud just underneath him. “Are they going to bring down the entire forest if necessary?”

Cter could feel in Aajja’s aura that he wanted for nothing more but to swoop down towards the humans. She couldn’t have him do so. Not only due to her being on his back, with her presence there being the strongest of the few reasons he hadn’t yet done so, but because if he did, Cter would not know what to do. She shouldn’t be on Aajja’s back.

It was something for Kry to lead on, not her. She needed to coordinate with her colleagues. “Land us at the gate garrison, Aajja,” she asked the Griffon Commander with as much authority as she could manage. “We’ll plan things from there!”

A few arrhythmical wing beats passed by before the Griffon Commander nodded. He turned around reluctantly, and began descending down towards the lonely Monster Capital standing without any Monster Royals to protect it. The Monster Mages would have to suffice.

They would have to protect monsterkind in Jarasevo while the Monster Royals did so in the Final Battle!

It must have been a mighty sight for the hurriedly armored Royal Guards that met the three griffons landing together on top of the gate rampart leading into Jarasevo. Three of the widest wingspans in the entire Royal Guard descending majestically to deliver the three Monster Mages from the heavens. Cter dismounted first with Aajja leaning down to help her.

The Griffon Commander then perched himself on top of the wall sitting down like a statue, waiting patiently for new orders. His subordinates followed soon after they had finished delivering their respective Monster Mage. Kurant managed her demount on her own with her left leg covered with dense stasis magic. There was still strain on her expression, but she could manage it.

She had to.

“Our first priority is the safety of the people!” began Kry with one arm gesturing toward the sparsely prepared Royal Guards and his other towards the Monster Mages and the griffons. “The enemy is closing in so time is of the essence.” He pointed specifically towards one of the Royal Guards that hadn’t managed to put on her armor onto her snake-like body. “Head across to the other side of the town and secure the gates over there.”

Then he pointed towards the griffon that had carried him the last two days. “Evacuate the farmers and bring them inside the gates before they close. Carry those that don’t make it over the walls.” His griffon nodded and took off with a mighty jump, with the winds from the strong jump fanning Kry’s robes violently. His steely eyes behind his glasses did not flinch though.

They were in complete focus, same as his soul. Seeing him take command so quickly and so direct gave Cter hope for the Final Battle. If Kry was channeling King Asgore then the monsters would have a chance.

Kurant’s griffon was ordered to muster the castle, and to bring the remaining Royal Guards stationed there to the walls. “Queen Toriel will have gone into hiding already so do not look for her. Let the Royal Guards know that she is safe!” Kry was met with a deep bow before the second griffon leaped into the air, casting the First Monster Mage’s robes into a deep gust once again, yet still he did not blink behind his golden glasses.

Aajja he addressed last, standing in front of the well-dressed Griffon Commander with a respect of the monster’s accomplishments, but in need of his compliance. “Bring the monsters outside the gates within them, commander.”

Aajja bent his head in acknowledgment. “Will do, Monster Mage.”

As Cter opened her eyes after the gust from Aajja’s winged leap settled she saw him speeding over to the village between Jarasevo and the forest in the distance. There were monsters starting to collect on the road, with some beginning to walk towards the capital.

“Sound the horns!”

A deep and loud roar filled the Monster Capital, leaving an eerie silence that was quieter than Cter had ever heard before. Looking into the Monster Capital there was an air of sickly gray within it. A fog of uncertainty and fear roamed the emptying streets, coming together in a frightened zeitgeist that was shared by all monsters in the large city. Cter wondered if the humans could feel it too.

If they could sense in their souls the fear that their sudden, hostile presence had invoked then the monsters at the small village would have been able to feel it once they got close enough, assuming they didn’t already feel it all the way from their small village. Aajja had almost reached it, and seeing him and hearing his warning screech, those that hadn’t already began hurrying back to Jarasevo began their journey to safety.

There was work to be done before they would be safe within the gates though.

“Cter, Kurant,” said Kry with a rough gruff to his voice. He raised his sleeved arm in front of him. “We three will be the bulwark for the monsters here in Jarasevo. Us three will have to do home what the entire Monster Army will have to do away. We have an entire city to protect, and an entire people to save.” His eyes blinked at Cter from behind the gold rim. “How much magic can you give us, Cter?”

Give magic? “How do you mean?” The Fourth Monster Mage reacted with a slight flinch, moving her left arm behind her back and inside of her robe. She did it without thought, but the motion looked to be full of it. “Why do you need mine? Can’t you–”

“Barrier magic,” Kurant chimed in with a hand on Cter’s left shoulder but with her eyes facing Kry. “Barrier magic to reinforce the gates and walls, right?” Below the rampart there were Royal Guards gathering at the main gate. “The more you can give us and still be able to use it yourself the better we will be able to protect Jarasevo. Give it to us to use and we’ll be able to shore up the other gates as well and not just this main one.”

Cter understood that, but could she give her colleagues enough of it for their given barrier magic to be of the use that they wanted? She had always given magic to others for fun. It had always been temporary and for just the moment too, and if the humans were chopping down lumber to use as siege engines then what she had to give to her colleagues would have to be for much longer than just a fun moment.

It was a great deal of magic she would have to part ways with and give over to Kry and Kurant not only safely, but deeply as well since it was a complex type of magic that they needed to use immediately at full power.

“Could it help that this is a very specific scenario?” offered Kurant after seeing and feeling Cter’s aura retract inwards in thought. “Same as the Conduits, but instead of the auras coming together as one it is your gifted magic instead? Kry and I use magic differently, but if you were to...”

Her words trailed off as she caught a glimpse of the stoic stance Kry stood in while surveying the landscape outside the city gates. He surveyed the enclosing humans closing in from the far away forest which treeline had begun changing noticeably. His eyes then wandered closer.

It only took a glance at the hurrying monster villages evacuating from the encroaching humans for his eyes to disappear within the reflection of the sun peeking out behind a thinning cloud. The reflection was then briefly shadowed by the wide wingspan of Aajja passing over the nearby monster village. There was anger within Kry’s eyes. “Do to us what the First Fusion did to you, Cter.”

Determined anger. “Impose your magic onto us so that we might be able to protect the monsters in this capital.” He presented his left arm with a forceful tug of his purple sleeve to reveal the full length of the magical lines that he had been gifted from the Monster King.

Cter’s flinch became a full startle, with her turning the left side of her body away from Kry’s tense sleeve glowing with an anxious rhythm to it. Was that the only way? Was it the only way for her to give her colleagues enough magic to become powerful enough to save the Monster Capital? There had to be another way, surely, right?

Kry and Kurant had plenty of memories that Cter could utilize. They had plenty of magical reserves owing to their connection to the Monster Royals. Surely there was another way. Surely there was another way for her to give them what they needed without having to resort to...becoming a fusion herself!

S-She gav-ve Sarbor enough magic to protect himself from the First Fusion by linking it with his memories of Idyll which Cter also shared, so it was just a question of finding the strongest memory between Cter and Kry and Kurant for them two to be able to wield the barrier magic with enough skill to the humans’ attacks, r-right?

She herself was able to block attacks almost absentmindedly when she dismounted from the carriage that took her from Soul’s School to the glade with the two kings, so factoring in that Kry and Kurant were going to be focused when using it surely it would be more powerful, surely?

Surely, surely, surely!

No, Cter was not sure at all! She had on idea! She did not–

“Cter,” said Kurant with a soft, but firm, voice with an accompanying squeeze on Cter’s shoulder. “Do what you feel is the best.” She made a poor job of hiding that she was just as afraid as Cter was about it all. Just as afraid as Kry was as well. His left arm he could not keep steady in the slightest.

There were plenty of memories flush within him, primarily from that of the Noitaidarr Trial where he burned his sleeve to speak as a human and not a monster. He was anticipating the same pain of being disconnected from King Asgore, yet he was willing to make that sacrifice if it meant that he would be able to save more monsters. He knew that monsterkind was the priority, and not him.

Nor Kurant.

Nor Cter.

“I do not know how it will be,” sighed Cter to try and relax herself. With her quivering right hand she began to pull at the fingers on her sleeve, loosening it up enough for her to pull it off her arm. The white glow of her White Flesh swirled like dense, viscous smoke, with only the surrounding barrier magic keeping the shape of her left forearm and hand.

The pressure from her squeezing a fist was even more distant a feeling to her compared to with her sleeve, as without its leathery friction there was only the feeling of her barrier magic interacting with itself. She could have balled her fist into a formless clump for all she really knew. “And I would like to try and give you it normally before we have to resort to something more...” The swirls of Cter’s White Flesh turned into each other. “Drastic.”

Kry shook his head. “You know already that you have to resort to the drastic.” He said it relatively calmly, considering. “It won’t be enough for you to just give us your barrier magic. I know the limitations of you giving or gifting others magic, be they human or monster. More importantly is that you know those limitations as well. This is not a matter of us helping you to use your magic on a wider basis. This needs to be you forcing us to learn, Cter. Same as you did to Doctor Fech when–”

“Kry!”

Kurant’s yell was met with a sideways glance and a slight fold to the dark forehead as her harsh, piercing look dug deep within him to chastise. It was too late though.

“I gave...Sarbor?”

Cter’s aura had already turned into solid ice.

A small cloud followed with Kry’s heaving exhale, and the reflecting shine of his glasses were replaced by a thin shimmer of frost. “Doctor Fech is capable of the magic that you gave him when the First Fusion was formed.” He looked down to not meet the terror in Cter’s forest-green eyes and the pale of her skin that became as white as the fur of the Monster Royals. The cold in her aura spread over to his as well, and while he still believed that it was necessary, he found it also necessary to tell her what he promised not to.

“Kry, we’ve gone over this,” protested Kurant with a desperate wave of her hand. “We can’t tell her. Even if she knows that there is something she can’t know we still can’t tell her. We promised–”

“We promised one who is the enemy right now, Kurant.” Kry pointed over towards the humans in the distance with a whip of his arm, with his robe sleeves settling like tugged-back flags. “One that might be marching towards us right now as we speak!”

“We promised Frioke!” the Second Monster Mage corrected with a purple trail following her arcing slash before her. “She doesn’t need to know, especially not now. You can’t expect her to do what you want her to do if you tell her!”

A meek whisper found its way between the two arguing Monster Mages. “W...What did I give Sarbor?” They both turned to the fourth one who’s soul had dropped like a rucksack of a back after a thousand mile march. “What...did I...” Somewhere within her soul she already knew, with the rest of it that tried its all to desperately keep it away from her. “I...”

“When you shielded Sarbor fro–”

“Kry!”

“That he still can u–”

“Stop!”

“Still to this da–”

“Shut it!”

“Barbeqa will fight the humans.”

Kurant’s confronting expression changed to that of a mix between sudden shock and growing realization. “W-W-What?” Hers was different from Kry’s, who held his neutral expression together by pinching at the arm of his golden glasses.

“She will fight the humans should they break through into the castle,” Kry explained further, taking no joy in it whatsoever.

“Because if they have reached the castle they have managed through us. They have managed through you, and you will not back down, for if they get through you they will get to Barbeqa. We can’t trust the humans to accept surrender for clearly those that are here do not care for concessions made in war. They have gone against the King of Xoff by being here, so why would they accept our surrender?”

Daggers flashed through the lenses as Kry again checked on the progress outside Jarasevo’s main gate. “And even if they did you would not be able to tell Barbeqa to surrender should the humans implore you to do so to spare her life. If you did, then she would not listen. She barely treats those that she serves with respect, so why would she anyone that dares threaten you?”

Kurant...couldn’t say anything. She couldn’t… “No, she would...” She… “Dammit...” The stasis magic around her knee brace faded, and she would have collapsed with all her weight onto it had Kry not managed to catch her with his long arm under her shoulder. “Goddammit,” was pushed through gritted teeth. “Why did you have to bring her in, Kry? That’s unfair!”

“Look.” The First Monster Mage turned the Second Monster Mage to face fully what was happening outside the gates of the Monster Capital. “Monsters, fleeing. Humans, pursuing. This was has been all but fair, from its conception to this moment right now and right here. The only semblance of fair is far away in the Final Battle, and even that is probably tainted by the humans attacking us here as well.” He lifted up Kurant so that she could stand at her full length.

“It is us three against the humans, and for that we need to work as one. We need to be as one. If they fear the power of the Fusion we will make that fear come true for them now that they have come looking for it. We were content with them being afraid of us as a proxy of the Fusion, but if they are here to force our hand then we will bring them the fear that they so much want. We will remind them
by force that the power of a Fusion is different from that of a Fusion.”

Kry looked hard to his colleagues.

“We will show them that it can be harnessed. That it can be used, and that it is the monsters that can do so. We shall remind them that it is us monsters that know magic best. That it is us monsters that can wield it, even if it is the power of a Fusion.”

Kurant did not push back when Kry turned her and himself back to face Cter. She did not stop him from looking into Cter’s eyes with peering intent.

“Cter...”

And she did not stop him from speaking.

“Sarbor knows magic.”

From telling Cter what she shouldn’t know.

“The magic you gave him when the First Fusion came to be.”

Chapter Text

“Whether or not it was from you giving him it or it being a reaction from the First Fusion cursing his soul mixed with the magic you had given him, Dr. Fech does not know for certain. All he knows is that it was from that moment that he was capable of doing magic.”

Kry’s explanation had been brief and to the point. Sarbor had talked with Priestess Frioke during the time he stayed at Jarasevo Castle after the night at Clinic Hill when the First Fusion was created and, in his words, confessed to the fact that he was capable of producing the same magic that Cter had given him.

It was something he wanted to keep a secret from Cter, same as he wanted to keep quiet about him having a soul to Idyll. If Cter had learned about it she would not have been able to help him. If she felt responsible for what had happened to him then there would have been pity from her to him, and not any help. He had respect for her, and knew that it was possible for her to help him. He did not tell her for her sake, but for his.

And the Royal Councilors agreed with that. It wasn’t something that Cter needed to know. Even if it was the First Fusion that actually gave him his magic she would have still blamed herself for it. She knew that he had good reasons, for it was the same with Cter keeping quiet about Sarbor having a soul to his younger sister. She did it to others, so she shouldn’t be surprised if others did it to her.

Still though, it did not mean that she appreciated it.

However that much meant…

“And for what it is worth I would not have done it without good reasons,” continued Kry after his explanation. “Trust that I found no happiness in keeping you in the dark about that.” He nodded sideways out over the landscape. “We are in need of it right now though. We are in need of us two being given barrier magic in such a deep manner that had we been but an ordinary human doctor we would still be able to call upon it as if we were born with it.”

A small cough and protest came from Kurant as she was knelt with her magic surrounding her left knee. “No need to put such fine a point on it,” she said with a small spit. “Give her some time to process it.” The flat of her palm raised against Kry. “I know we don’t have time but you wouldn’t want her to do something as invasive like you’re asking her to do without at least some thought to it.”

A flat palm that was almost immediately curved into a timid fist.

“I know I sure need some of it...” Cter joined Kry in looking over the landscape of hurrying monsters and methodical humans busying the roads that had been heavy with commerce just the day before. “Even though I know I don’t have time for it.”

At any moment the first evacuees from the nearby village would reach the Jarasevo main gate with the few possessions they managed to bring with them by either arms or magic. Those of the Royal Guards that had not been ordered away by Kry had positioned themselves at the large, wide gate, ready to close it as soon as the last evacuee reached within the safety of the walls.

Unfortunately that safety was not guaranteed. The sieges that the humans were preparing to build would easily reach over the gates even with magic to protect. There was only one way for Jarasevo to be protected properly. There was only one way for the Monster Mages to live up to their sworn duty.

“Cter...”

But how could she?

“We have to utilize what made the First Fusion so powerful. It is to protect monsterkind. It will not be like the Fusion, for we are asking you to. We are willingly allowing you to give us your magic, even if you have to force it onto our souls.”

The calm before the growing storm passed between the three Monster Mages, seeping through between the spaces between the raised wall.

“You’re not helping by continuing to talk to her like that, Kry,” said Kurant while testing if her leg felt good enough to stand on. “Look at her.” She didn’t have to gesture for Kry to avert his eyes away from Cter’s hollow and distance appearance where the only sign of life on her pale expression and dilapidated aura was her hair blowing into her face.

Even so it was akin to the branches of a nearby tree slapping against the face of a statue. She was thinking. She was thinking the hardest she had ever been. “Bringing her out of this would necessitate her friend being kidnapped, and I hesitate to say that even in passing after how quick things happened in the carriage that had us rushing here.” Aajja’s informative screech was audible in the distance. “Hell, I barely want to say that Cter should snap out of it lest a giant pair of fingers materialize.”

Kry offered his arm to Kurant to help her stand up on her bad leg which she managed to, slowly. “I think it’s best if I lean on the…” She pointed to the… “The...”

“Parapets, they’re called,” explained Kry as he eased Kurant up against one of them sticking up from the low, defensive wall on top of the rampart. There she made an effort to position herself so that it did not look like she was leaning on it to be lazy. “The spaces between the parapets are called crenels.”

“We will need to fill them out with barrier magic, don’t we?” Kurant asked with a small chuckle. She looked at Cter to see if she had managed to think through what she needed to, but Cter hadn’t. Her aura was still retracted within her, deep in contemplation.

“I know that we just have to wait for her aura to come back outside of her,” commented Kry after directing some of the Royal Guards that were approaching from the barracks to join those down at the main gate. “And I understand and know fully that it is how she processes things, but still...” Another of Aajja’s informative screeches reached the Monster Capital, his later one being more hurried than the one he shouted before.

“I had to pile it on her so that she would come out of it in agreement that it had to be done.” The First Monster Mage looked at his sleeve, turning it side to side, inspecting the magical lines that still glowed with a quicker-than-normal pulse to them. “Before that happens though.” He turned to Kurant with a serious and genuine look. “Do you want a primer on what to expect when you lose your connection to Queen Toriel?”

Another reminder of the growing storm passed between the Monster Mages carried by the encroaching footsteps of the evacuees from the nearby village. The first and faster of the villagers were reaching the outer guard towers in increasing hurry, with a few flying ones leading ahead by a few lengths.

“In case it happens when Cter gives us her barrier magic, that is,” Kry added after another worried crease formed on his already-furrowed forehead.

“It will go over smoother if you know what to expect, is my thinking. We won’t have time for any rest and will have to go straight into using it to fortify the entire city. Failing that, at least fortify the angles which the humans can attack with their siege engines. If we can stall their initial advance then we can settle in for a siege. Since it is autumn the humans must believe that they will be able to take the city swiftly. They won’t be able to do much during winter, so if we can show that we can hold out against their advances then that should be enough to at least force them to open up negotiation with us. We can meet them on our terms then, and perhaps force out something advantageous for us.”

Kurant noticed how Kry easily slipped off what he had initially asked her about. “That is true.” She was not in a hurry to bring him back onto the topic though. “It will be a hellish first strike followed by a shaken army that was most likely promised that this would be an easy path to glory. If we can break their spirits early it will increase our chances to have the Monster Army return to a Monster Capital that was just the same as when they left it.” Her hand dragged on the top of the rampart fortification. “Not even a single scratch on these...um...”

“Parapets.”

“Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

The third screech from Aajja was back to being hurried, ushering the monsters who had lagged behind to keep going. He already had his talons and back full of those that would not be able to flee in time, so there was not much more he could do.

“And you think that Cter’s barrier magic wielded by us will be able to stand against siege attacks?”

“If we combine them together,” corrected Kry. “Cter has never used her magic in full force ever since she fought against the First Fusion, so I am trusting a lot on her end. It has been even longer since I used my magic fully too.” His eyes grew distance. “Much, much longer.”

A quiet nod had Kurant’s eyes growing distant as well. “Same here.” They refocused back on her sleeve which she had resting on the parapet. Its glow was beginning to pulsate quicker the same as Kry’s, and Kurant’s fist balled at the sight, her rings scraping against the stone of the parapet. “I hope we remember how to, be it both due to the time since the last time we did go full out, and if we will still remember after Cter gives us the magic.”

Kry had to blink and shake his head for him to return back from the distant horizon of his own making. “You say...” He adjusted his glasses. “You say that as if you have something more than just fear towards it.” When he was unable to meet Kurant directly in her eyes, he found some guesses. “Something about the Soul Rainbow, you think?” Only one was necessary though.

Kurant waited for Kry to finish directing over some of the joining Royal Guards to the other side of the town to help with the effort there. Until new orders arrived they were to keep reinforcing where the Monster Mages weren’t. The number of Royal Guards still in the city was unknown, so the decision was the only one Kry could make with what he had. Once he had gotten more from Cter that would change though.

“Memories are fundamental to magic,” Kurant then began with after Kry had ordered enough for the time being. “From what I understand, when Cter gives or borrows magic from others she does so by creating temporary Cooperative Connections. She isn’t changing anything about them, only adding to them another layer for them to draw upon for the gifted and or borrowed magic. It’s harmless as it is a temporary thing and only affects the recipient’s soul the same as another Cooperative Connection.”

She inhaled slowly through her nose. “The times she has changed a monster’s magic things have...happened. Idyll Fech, Dr. Sallus, both have undergone a transformation of sorts. Their souls were changed, so the expression of their souls changed as well.”

A quick glance at the Monster Mage in question eased Kurant as Cter’s aura was still deep within her while leaning over a parapet with folded arms and hair swaying behind her. She had begun looking at her hand, with the swirls in her White Flesh shaping differently than before. It was soon time, but not yet.

“Since we need us two to be more than adept with her barrier magic the only way for us to achieve that is for Cter to change our souls. Even if she does the same as the First Fusion and force her barrier magic on us it will still be as if our souls have changed. My worry from that, beyond losing my connection to Queen Toriel, is that it will change me as well.”

A strong hand pushed against the gold-rimmed glasses so that Kurant would not see Kry’s eyes looking down on her knee brace glowing with stasis magic. “It sounds similar to how the Xoff King told about how he felt after the encounter with the Second Fusion.” He sighed tiredly. “If only they would not have decided to go to war over it we could have cooperated together a solution for it.” It turned into a small, angry grunt.

“And that you feel that same fear shows that it is not bound to just the humans.” A grunt that grew strong. “Us monsters can feel it as well.” A grunt that became too much for him. “Us monsters can feel it as well!” the First Monster Mage repeated loudly in a guttural shout over the fleeing monsters towards the humans. “Please just stop this!”

Kurant heard how much it tore at Kry’s throat, and she offered a green-glowing hand as he gripped at it with strained coughs. “I’m fine,” he lied with a wave away. “Just...” He swallowed hard, catching his interrupted breath. “Dammit, I need to calm myself. I need to focus.” There was a flair of embarrassed disappointment in his aura which only reinforced the cold he had gotten from Cter. “We won’t change,” he then said to regain confidence in himself.

“We are doing this in protection of monsterkind, and that this procedure will not change. It will only reinforce that. It will only make us more as Monster Mages. It is not a sacrifice, but a next step in our service towards monsterkind.” With some of his confidence regained he straightened his back tall and proud as it should have been.

“Be afraid of it, Kurant. You are allowed to be afraid of it. However, do not let that fear cloud your mission. Do no let it intimidate you. Let it scare you, but not intimidate you. You are the Second Monster Mage, Kurant. Let Cter give you her magic, but do not let her give you her fear of her title and power. We need to be aware of why we are the Monster Mages. Only we can do this. Only we can use the Fusion for something good.”

A spit that was a long time coming was harked out of Kry’s mouth with an ungraceful clearing of his throat. Whether or not it had blood in it Kurant could not see from her averted view, but it did sure sound like it had as it hit the stone floor of the rampart with a viscous splat. “It’s a good thing you’re the First Monster Mage, Kry,” she said after waiting an additional second to listen if another spit was necessary. “I know I could never be.”

“Can barely be the First Monster Mage myself,” he answered while cleaning his mouth with his right robe sleeve. “So I don’t blame you for not wanting to.” He dragged a pained smile. “I’d rather be it so that you others don’t have to though. I pave the way so that you can walk on it easier than I and do things I could not. Has worked for all three of you.” The smile warmed up as he turned to Cter. “Better and better with your help paving it for the latter two as well, so thank you for that, Kurant.”

While she understood the sentiment, she found it hard to find much joy in it. Her somber visage moved over towards the inner of the Monster Capital which laid in anticipating quiet about the threat which was closing in on it. It had yet to fill with the evacuees from the nearby villages, but would soon. Through the anxious fog Kurant looked towards the still-visible clock tower of Time's Square.

It had rung just before the Monster Mages had arrived, but if it was heralding their return to protect, or warning against the humans that were arriving at the mouth of the forest that they were widening into a painful scream, neither of the two Monster Mages could not tell. “We haven’t done a good job in protecting the road the two after us have walked on, unfortunately.”

She touched her cheek as a gust seemed to pass her closer than normal, but she felt nothing on the flush on her skin. “It should have been us two that should have been the ones that traveled to Clinic Hill. It should have been either you or I that had to live with the First Fusion’s brand on our arm.”

A tentative shrug shook Kry’s shoulders. “Should have been many things we should have done instead of them, true. We two were the ones that brought to life that of the Monster Mages.” He looked at Cter as warmly as he could for a few seconds before he had to avert away from her. “It was only with you that the concept of the Monster Mages came to be. I was only a Royal Mage when you came to the castle, remember?”

A nostalgic smile managed to assert itself among the weighted wrinkles, but it only held for a brief moment before it was swallowed up. “Sund and Cter have been like the children we never had, in a way.” The weighted wrinkles smoothed out in a hurried, half-panicked flail. “T-The k-kids we w-would have in g-general, that is. Not between us two per se.” Kry’s attempt did neither help nor worsen. If anything it only made the tension in the air even more tensed.

Said tension was felt in full force when the evacuees reached close enough for their scared auras and murmur to be felt and heard respectively by both the Monster Mages on the rampart as well as the Royal Guards down at the gate.

No order was necessary for them to leave the gates to help those that were in need of. Monsters that were not meant to move in a hurry had taken the brunt of the abrupt evacuation, and had slowed down the rear of the evacuating group. Those of the monsters that were first ahead in the evacuation passed by the Royal Guards just after the closest guard towers.

“But they’re not safe just yet.”

The First Monster Mage collected himself with a deep inhale of the tension-filled air. It tasted bitter, but he was steeled against it. Before the evacuees could hear he ordered those of the Royal Guards still close to the gate to escort the evacuees to Time's Square and Fountain Square where there was space enough for them to be safe within the walls.

Those that lived near the city walls should also move further inwards as to lessen the risk of casualties. “Houses can be rebuilt, but lives can not. We will not let the souls of the civilians break! We will keep Jarasevo safe! Always!”

“And forever!”

The multitude of Royal Guard voices came together as one despite their different pitches as they cheered together with Kry before splitting up to execute his orders. It was not long until the main street feeding from the main gate became full of worried, anxious, and questioning monsters that were herded in a slow and confused manner.

Before any of them could look up and see the three Monster Mages stood on top of the rampart though, Kurant tapped at Kry’s shoulder after taking a careful step towards him. “We should move somewhere more out of sight soon,” she suggested with a nod towards Cter. “Cter should not give us her magic out here in plain view. There is a chance it will be something akin to when we were first alerted to her and Idyll Fech during that faithful night of theirs.”

“No.”

Kry and Kurant’s head turned in unison to find Cter standing up from her lean over one of the parapets. Her breaths were languid and deep, and she only managed one before a shadow expanded over the parapets next to her. Then it covered five, and finally seven. Two large talons gripped against the middle ones in the shadow, and Aajja’s body landed gracefully with his wide wings folding in with a deep bow. “Later,” she told him with an apologetic voice. “Sorry for calling for you.”

The Griffon Commander nodded understandingly. “Let me know when you are ready then. I will be when you need.” His leap into the air was softer than before, yet it still had Cter’s robes and hair reaching behind her from the gust. Her white-fleshed arm came into uncovered view. The whirls within it were calm.

“It won’t hurt,” she said, turning herself around to her two colleagues. “I promise it won’t hurt.” The forest-green in her eyes had become lighter. “But we will have to do it now rather than later.”

The gust did more than just make it look like her brooch was the only thing holding her hair stuck to her head. “Cter, your arm...” Seeing her colleagues eyes narrow with questions, the Fourth Monster Mage rolled up her robe so that the entirety of her left arm was visible.

“It won’t hurt you.”

Shaking violently in pain.

“For I am taking all of the pain from this.”

Chapter Text

The air felt as if it was about to flee from the city. It held its breath, scared of what it would fuel if it stayed along for the ensuing battle. Cter recognized the aghast air, and the tension within it. It did not smell like it did back at Clinic Hill though.

There wasn’t the same odor of wrong that hung like the smell of smoke, prickling at Cter’s nostrils like stabbing spears. The air that still lingered as she stood atop the main gate smelled of a different kind of wrong instead. A wrong that was building up to something else. Wrong not of one large, but many instead.

“You should be resting, Cter.”

Her combined braid fluttered from the griffon subordinate landing behind her, folding over her shoulder to come to over the golden chain holding together her shoulder ornaments. “Shouldn’t it be me telling that to you instead?” she answered with a quarter turn to her head enough for her to notice the strong, white glow on her colleagues’ right arm. It was all she needed to see. “Aajja is slowing down their siege building, so give yourself some rest.” Cter glanced over to the nearest barracks. “I know Kry sure is.”

Kurant and her griffon took joint bows towards each other before the winged monster took off in a leap towards the heart of Jarasevo. The gust from its mighty ascending did not reach her though to drag and push at her robes. It dispersed just behind her, on the shell of barrier magic she had conjured up. “I’ve gotten used to it.”

Cter’s eyes moved on their own down at Kurant’s knee brace which too had a white glow around it. There was barrier magic inside her knee too, she could sense. “Just because you are used to it does not mean that it is not taking a toll on you.” The hanging eyelids and the reduced flush on Kurant’s cheeks spoke well enough about that once Cter managed to take conscious control back over her eyes again.

“I’m thinking of getting some sleep soon too. Might be the only I can get for a while, I reckon.” Her left shoulder itched, but she did her best to ignore the seam which she had allowed to extend much, much further up.

“Hopefully you didn’t sleep on your left side up until now.” Kurant joined at Cter’s side with a folded lean on top of one of the parapets. “In any case you might have to wear a night mask from now on like how Fang Shuey does. You’ll only have to one wear one pair on the outside though.” Her head shook slowly. “I still think that you should have let us give up more of what we had for this to have worked, by the way.”

It wasn’t that hard to guess with how her aura was filled with swaying emotion. “No need to keep thinking about it since I already made the choice.” Cter’s white-fleshed fingers balled together into a clumsy fist. “Better to give you two the biggest chance of not being hurt by it than to preserve just the one that is me. Simple mathematics.” It opened up, with some of the barrier magic around her index finger sticking together like warm honey. “And what is war, if not a number’s game?”

With a distant, forlorn look, Kurant turned towards the far north west where the Final Battle was taking place as the two Monster Mages were speaking. That Kry was sleeping through it only went to show how much the barrier magic transfer had taken its toll on him. If Kurant was going to argue differently then it was no wonder that she was quiet with thought for seconds on end.

“Horrible,” she answered to Cter’s rhetorical question rather factually. “Horrible and disgusting.” Her right arm had her squinting as she lifted it up from her lean. “Forcing people to make choices they wouldn’t normally have had for reasons that aren’t good, but only not as worse as not making those choices.”

A slight, struggling fog of purple-glowing magic fizzled away within her white-flowing palm, leaving but the colored stripes that found its way between her fingers onto the raised stone. “She seems to still be lingering on somewhat within me, at least.” The white sleeve folded back into Kurant’s lean. “I have felt her slipping until...well, until I stopped feeling her slipping, really.”

Cter kept a respectful quiet since she both felt and knew that it was due to her actions that such was the case for Kurant. That she had used Queen Toriel’s influence and overwritten it as much as possible with hers did not help with the fact. If she were to ask then Donial would most likely have found a passage within the rules set by the Castle that would see what Cter did as a coup against the Monster Royals.

Even if it was not the real Queen Toriel and King Asgore it was still their personally gifted influence that she changed to be that of hers instead. Maybe she shouldhave sent either Aajja or one of his subordinates to fetch Cter the pointy hat she had in her wardrobe in her tower. If she acted similar to Rasliela why not dress as her as well?

“Can’t say that I will be keeping this sleeve after this is over, I’m afraid.” Kurant conjured a box of barrier magic which she began idly spinning on its edge like a rhombus between her long finger and the top of the parapet. With her thumb she kept it spinning without much attention to it. “And really it’s the same reason as to why I don’t want to head for some sleep.” She changed the direction of the spin.

“If I go to sleep then I will be rested enough to realize fully that Queen Toriel is missing from my soul. That there is a void inside of my soul where she has been for more years than I can remember. Her being with me with everything everywhere every time is the same to me as breathing.”

She took a deep one to show.

“They’re both something I take for granted until someone brings it up to me. Now that she is gone I can feel that there is something wrong within me, but again, my soul is too exhausted for me to fully realize that.” Kurant let the weight of her hand fall over the cube, stopping its spin and squeezing it down as if it was made out of slime.

“I am being emotionally held back by my soul being too tired to share with the rest of me how devastated I should feel about this.” The cube broke from the pressure, cracking with a slightly melodic sound to it which had Cter wondering if there was some of her crystal magic that had followed with the barrier magic she gave to her two colleagues. It couldn’t have been a lot if she did as the melodic sound would have been more melodic in its nature. More like glass and less like weak ice.

“Can’t blame you for not wanting to keep it,” said Cter with her full sympathies on offer. She shrugged her left shoulder, causing the swirls inside her White Flesh to lift and sink with a slight delay in time akin to the floaters in her eyes that she was sure that everyone else had as well but which she did not want to ask about. “I would be lying if I said that I wanted to keep what I had even though I’ve gotten used to it enough that I didn’t hesitate to let it chew at my forearm and up to my shoulder for your sake.”

She massaged the seam where she had put a definitive stop to the painful expansion of her White Flesh. With her forearm it looked to be more of a gradient between her arm and the White Flesh. It was difficult enough to make the White Flesh stop expanding, in the first place let alone do it in a calm manner.

The barrier magic she had as a layer above it had the fabric of her robe folding at an awkward pile on her collar, causing the itching. She did not want to roll up the white-flesh-stained fabric all the way as it would have stained her shoulder ornaments. She wanted the White Flesh to stay only on her arm, and not a bit more, and that included her clothes.

Cter would have her clothes specially made to only have a sleeve for her right arm from that day on, that she swore. “I would also recommend for the two of you to discard those sleeves once you get a chance. Hopefully that will be enough for you to take in Queen Toriel and King Asgore’s influences again, otherwise...”

“Otherwise we’ll cross that bridge once we get to it,” said Kurant quicker before Cter could say something else. She pointed casually into the distance beyond the city walls. “And thanks to Aajja’s aim the humans will have to think about that in a more practical and physical sense.”

It was quite a large boulder he and his two subordinates had not only found, but also carried over and dropped onto the bridge which crossed over the river flowing from the lake next to the forest. It would have to be repaired later, but it was more a hurdle for the humans to figure out a way around it. Not above it as the boulder sat awkwardly halfway in the rubble of the bridge which made it more cumbersome an obstacle than if it had gone straight through the bridge.

The humans would have to first budge the boulder, and then start working on fixing the bridge for their attack. “I’ve not heard the Royal Guards cheer as much as when that boulder slammed into the bridge.”

Same with Cter. “I felt the impact all the way from here.” Aajja and his subordinates’ victorious screeches even more so from high above. “The humans must have felt it even more so.” They hadn’t yet managed to bring some over to look at it, and their lumber progress had slowed down too under the threat of the griffon squad circling high above them outside of arrow range.

It had given Kry enough calm of thought that he himself suggested that he would head for some rest seeing how much progress was impeded for the humans. He wasn’t in any physical turmoil from the magic transfer, but while his soul had been obscured by his given memories from King Asgore it was still plain as day that there was great turmoil within him. Whether or not he was actually sleeping inside the empty barracks Cter could not tell.

She was sure the case was similar for the humans. Especially with Cter standing guard in plain sight atop the main gate. While they were not able to attack her they had surely seen her in the green and purple of her Monster Mage robe against the gray and brown rooftops of Jarasevo. If they had expected her or anyone else of the two Monster Mages as opposition did not matter to Cter.

She wasn’t breaking any of the agreements by being there at Jarasevo. Part of the agreements between the two kings was that Cter were to be a passive element in the Final Battle. That she was by protecting Jarasevo against the contingency of the human army that were the ones that were breaking the agreement. It was supposed to be the Final Battle, one between the entirety of the human army and the entirety of what monsterkind could muster up against it.

To put an end to the war.

Be it a satisfactory end or not.

“Could I ask you something, Cter?” The sound of some Royal Guards bringing lumber to the main gate below was a mix between magical strain and heavy wood dragging against cobble. “When you were...” Kurant’s fingers and lips curled in discomfort. “When you were inside my soul...” She lingered on her words, gritting against how they felt to say. “Did you...”

A deep breath was exhaled.

“Did you see the color of my soul when you were changing inside of it?” Flickering blinks filled the silence her question summoned. The air between the two Monster Mages was impossible to tell apart, whether it was because Cter was thinking, or refused to think about it.

Eventually though she lifted her head up against the warmth of the peeking sun that touched at her skin and played in the crystal brooch in her hair. “I’m not sure what I experienced with you two can be called seeing. If there was anything I’m guessing it must have been the same as what color is to those that are blind.

Perhaps if I did it again with focus on discerning some form of color then perhaps I could.” Cter shrugged loosely, dissatisfied with her own answer. “Sorry, but I did not notice anything that I can remember now.” She placed her right hand over her chest. “Perhaps I did and the memory of that is locked away within my soul the same as your fear of what I have done to you.”

Kurant nodded. “I understand.” Her left hand touched at her chest. “I just thought that...” It clenched.

“That if you did notice then it would mean that I would have more to go on when it comes to the Soul Rainbow. That I feel the way I do now should be proof enough that the soul is responsible for memories and thus also magic, but that only raises more questions for me. Questions that I feel should be easily answered if we understood the colors that the human soul is capable of. That we have forgotten the Soul Rainbow must have had to do with something happening to the souls of the humans, and now I am living proof of that.”

Kurant looked as if she was trying to squeeze forth the memories that she knew were locked up inside her exhausted soul. “And there is still more about the soul that we do not know. Its capacity is more than we believe for even though I know and feel that it is exhausted I can still use your barrier magic easily. I can still protect Jarasevo with it!”

The heavy sound of large pillars of wood being propped up against the main gate below only strengthened Kurant’s declaration. She swiped her right arm before her, painting a layer of barrier magic that wobbled slightly like subtly stained glass. With a confident smile she admired it, nodding at its corners and at its smooth nature. The smile of hers faded into a serious expression, but her confidence did not.

“Once I hear how Kry is feeling after his rest though I’ll get some sleep,” she said with a nod to herself to confirm. “I don’t want to sound heartless, but he has already lost his connection to his Monster Royal once before. If I’m lucky he will be able to help me prepare for it as he did before you gave us your barrier magic. He could put it into words tha whicht I could not only hear, but understand and prepare with as well. I would not be surprised if it was partially the reason why I am not in a sobbing pile at the moment.”

Kurant’s age showed a bit in the wrinkles around her eye when her single chuckle pushed up her flush cheeks. “The Royal Guards aren’t as well, so it seems like we managed to keep it just between us three, so to speak.”

It certainly wasn’t a repeat of the faithful night as Cter made sure to raise a field of her barrier magic around her and her two colleagues before she grabbed at their sleeves directly with her White Flesh. Comparatively it was more difficult to let go than it was to make the changes to Kry and Kurant’s souls, and not only due to Cter having to reform her left hand after the fact.

They had cleared the barracks and the nearby neighborhood just in case something would have happened, but luckily the one-way barrier magic kept it all in check, even if it had begun to crack quite violently when their joint auras were at their most intense.

But the magic still held so that no monster felt the wrong that Cter did to her colleagues.

Nor did any of the humans too, for that matter.

“Do you think they still think about the color of their souls?” Cter asked into the pleasantly warm wind. “Terri...I mean the Royal Mage of Ice told me that it was something popular among the humans, even those that weren’t mages, when we were at the Flipping Heart. Popular in the sense that it was something everyone kept a secret between each other. A morbid interest of sorts that friends spoke about with friends when they were sure that there were no one else but them around.”

The smell of distant cooking brought with it a hint of onion and potatoes from within Jarasevo as the wind shifted. “With the Second Fusion’s appearance, I wonder if that morbidity has grown too big. Grown too close to them with them being cursed with souls from the Second Fusion.”

Kurant nodded along, letting Cter speak more.

“From what the Xoff king said about him feeling as if there is someone else within him that he thinks and feels of as a stranger, is the concept of said stranger having a distinct color to it something that the humans try their all not to think about or is it a way for them to cope?” Cter pinched at her folds on her forehead with her right hand. “I shouldn’t be thinking like this though,” she sighed out deeply. “If I do that then I’ll not think of them as the invaders that they are.”

“Not a good time to see eye to eye with them, no,” Kurant agreed. “Or soul to soul, in this case.”

Soul to...soul?

“I should visit Kry soon to see if he has woken up or not,” she added after a short, narrowed stare at the growing human camp at the mouth of the forest in the distance. “He will most likely wake up at the next clang of Time's Square at the latest, and it would be for the better if I were there when he woke up.”

“Should I–” was all that Cter managed before Kurant shook her head respectfully.

“Do not take this the wrong way, Cter.” Kurant inhaled through her nose before turning to face Cter’s eyes. Hers were apologetic behind the layer of tiredness. There was a different sheen to the windows to her soul, and Kurant could feel that with each blink she took. “You have done plenty enough already.” Still though she put her hand on Cter’s left shoulder with a calming weight to it.

“He won’t want to tell about things about his soul that I might need if you are there as well, is what I’m saying. He will also want to let us two sleep some while he stands guard, I’m sure.” The two Monster Mages shared a snicker. “So either prepare yourself for that or prepare yourself to argue with him if you don’t feel tired. If you ask me then you should try and sleep now that you can.” Kurant turned to the humans. “Not only because of them.”

Then she bent her neck down with her left hand on her chest. “But because when I wake up I will either have forgotten this conversation or I will have remembered that I should be devastated because I can no longer feel Queen Toriel’s presence in my soul.” A weary sigh fluttered out. “And both prospects scare me more than the other.”

Cter nodded. “I can’t imagine what both you and Kry are going through. Even though I’ve been closer to your souls than even Queen Toriel or King Asgore have been I still don’t know what you’re going through.” A pained smile was tugged briefly. “And I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know what you two are going through, for I know how it will make me act. It has already made me act something so invasive upon the two of you, so any clue about the consequences of that will just have me...well...like me.” A weary scoff was chuckled. “We’ve done a lot of wrong today.”

“We have, yes,” was appended quickly by the Second Monster Mage. “Not just you, but we have done a lot of wrong today. We’ve learned, and hopefully we can use that in more good than the wrong we have done.”

Cter let the feeling of Kurant’s hand on her shoulder radiate within her before she again nodded to her friend and colleague. “Sleep well, Kurant. I pray that you do.”

“Same here,” she nodded back with another wrinkle forming at the edge of her eyes.

Then her fingers again clutched on her chest.

“And here.”

Chapter Text

The view from the second-largest gate was devoid of any humans in the distance. On the road leading out and in from the Monster Capital there were still many obvious signs of the large Monster Army having previously traveled through on it. The large plot of land that had been used as a refugee camp and then as a congregation spot for the hastily constructed Monster Army was barren and flat with paths around evenly spaced-out plots where had been raised the temporary tents.

Had the light been different from the homogeneous light-gray diffuse that found its way through the thickening clouds then the abandoned plot would have looked like the it was meant for farming with the feet-carved paths being that of irrigation fields.

“I still think that it would have been better had you given us your one-way barrier magic instead.”

Cter abandoned her search for where Idyll had set up her cooking station to help the refugees to answer Kry’s question. “The one-way barrier magic operates on different logic than what you and Kurant know as barricade magic,” she explained to the First Monster Mage busy with raising up a thick shimmer that grew on the outside of the city walls like dense ivy, reaching above and curving inwards like the shape of King Asgore’s shoulder plates placed over the wall.

“Giving you the barricade magic that Sund originally developed by himself allowed me to act more shallower on your souls, and then I forced it into barrier magic. You already had an idea of what barricade was and how it felt when Sund used it, so connecting it to that was the better choice, I felt.” Cter squinted at the white of the solidifying barrier magic. “Feel now too, as well.”

Kry’s folded furrow looked like lines of soot on his forehead in the increasingly harsh light from the barrier magic. “One-way barrier magic would allow us to easier counter the attack rather than have it be blocked from this side as well,” he argued back while massaging his left wrist. “This tells the humans that we are not set to return their aggression back at them but instead that our intent is to hold out against their attack instead.”

He kicked with his toes against the barrier magic like he would the wheel on a carriage. “And while that is what we are planning to do it would be better if they expected the other. That way they might be more cautious in their approach compared to knowing that we won’t return their attack with as much ferocity. The more we can keep the humans in the dark about what they are getting themselves into the better our chances of forcing a long siege.”

Seems like he managed to sleep well. Or at least, not too badly as he could have been. Granted, Cter only met him maybe two hours or so after Kurant left to wake him up, so she was not talking to Kry just after he had woken up and was assuredly in some sweat from sobering up to again not having King Asgore’s presence within him.

Cter could tell that Kry was struggling with what she had changed inside his soul, and that she could showed that his was reacting differently than Kurant’s. His immediate reaction to having Cter giving him his barrier magic was because it had lost King Asgore’s presence once before, she had concluded when alone at the rampart.

It was the only way she could explain that him and Kurant had such vastly different reactions. Translated into the Soul Rainbow it meant that their souls had different colors, perhaps? Did Cter feel that it was different enough when she was in their souls with her magic?

Oh if only she would have paid attention to that it wouldn’t have occupied her head for the entirety of the time she was alone on the ramparts.

“You really should be resting, Cter.”

She nodded while massaging the root of her nose. “I know.” She couldn’t though as there were things she wanted to hear from Kry before the human army decided that it was time to attack. It was also a good idea to be close to Kry with him beginning to surround Jarasevo with barrier magic. With him and Kurant covering the flanks it gave Cter a small-enough area to protect that she had the choice to make the protective barrier facing the humans head on thick enough to be assuredly safe from any siege engine they could create.

In theory, that was.

Not even the strongest Royal Guard wielding the largest hammer in the armory with an influx of strength magic made a dent in her barrier magic when they tested it months before. Her one-way barrier magic was the same deal too, but monsters swinging large hammers was nothing compared to large rocks flung from a large distance. Aajja proved as much when he destroyed the bridge with the help of his subordinates.

There was a lot of trust that Cter put in her magic, the most trust she had ever put in it. Not just when given to Kry and Kurant, but trust in that the magic she herself could use would be powerful enough. The humans feared her magic enough to negotiate her out of the Final Battle, so just seeing her standing alone to face the human attackers on Jarasevo would count for something, no?

It sure would if she saw just one standing against an entire siege to defend the attacked city.

“There’s a loose cobble there so lift your feet a bit higher while you’re thinking so that you don’t trip”

She did so, grazing the loose cobble with the heel of her boot and loosening it fully out its place. Nothing a quick application of dark blue magic could fix and put back, but that it still was struck loose told more than necessary. “There is a lot on my mind,” Cter admitted like when she was a child and got caught with her hand in the cookie jar where Romrom was storing sewing equipment.

“Can’t help but run through the worst-case scenarios in my head each time I see something change in both the city and with the humans in the distance.”

“Just goes to show that you’re taking this with the gravitas that the situation affords,” replied Kry after raising a wave of barrier magic against the outside of the city walls like crashing water and then solidifying it as if freezing it with ice magic. It did not look as smooth and deliberate as his previous section, and it took quite a lot out of him, but in just one quick, wide swoop of magic he had covered as much as what took him a while to focus and construct smoothly.

He had to catch his breath with a heavy lean against the raised wall on the rampart, holding up his glasses with a stopping finger on the bridge of his nose. “It’s good that you do.” He seated himself between two parapets, leaning forward. “Still though, you need rest before the humans attack. I’m asking you in as many ways as possible, Cter.”

“I will, I will,” Cter agreed. “It’s just that...” She conjured up a simple chair behind her for her to sink down into. Her head turned briefly towards the barracks on the other side of the city where Kurant was sleeping. Was hopefully sleeping, to be more exact. “I know that you have put aside your feelings on the matter for the sake of being the replacement Sir Gerson for the Royal Guards and me and Kurant, but seeing you this casual about having your magic fundamentally changed makes me uneasy.”

Cter’s thumbs folded over each other impatiently in her combined fist. “Especially so since I was the one that fundamentally changed it. I know exactly what has changed in your soul. I know exactly how invasive things have changed for you.” A few scratches on Cter’s forehead filled the following silence. “You had an initial reaction that I felt...well...not comfortable with, but I felt was correct, at least. Same with Kurant even though she wasn’t directly feeling it. She knew that it was there and she knew that it should scare her that it was there, but you, you’re...”

Kry followed the flails of Cter’s hand against the sections of barrier magic he had raised along the city walls. Their shimmer was easily visible and their presence had started to be noticed among the Royal Guards that were shoring up the insides of the walls with positioning that would allow for projectile magic to be cast should it be necessary.

The barrier magic they were beginning to awe towards was there so that their shoring up wouldn’t be necessary, but idle worry spread easily like uncontrollable fire, especially among the tinder of frightened monsters waiting for an attack from a rogue contingency of the human army. Giving them something to do was important for morale, and if they stared in awe then that would only increase it. The monsters needed hope, and that was what the Monster Mages would bring.

“You’re correct in me doing everything I can to be the replacement Sir Gerson,” nodded Kry while his eyes still rested on the Royal Guards that were waving in more to come and look. “It is what I have to be.” Some that gathered around were civilian monsters too, walking up with widened eyes that only had them blinking tears.

“Someone that all the Royal Guards know without hesitation that what I say is from the highest military position present. That does not mean that I outrank either you or Kurant, but during warfare there is seldom time for more than voice to be heard when it comes to orders given. I hope that neither you or Kurant are upset with me taking command, but if you two are I too hope that you keep that until after this siege is over.”

Cter was certainly not one to take command so from her there were no objections. Same with Kurant, for she would have said something already about it if she had. “You are the best choice for this so you won’t hear any words arguing the contrary from me,” said Cter while hopping her chair closer to where Kry sat so that she could sink down in it more tiredly without being noticed by the gathering crowd down below. “If anything I’d be arguing in your favor as best as I can should any objections arise.”

“No barrier magic to keep them quiet?” Kry joked with a snicker.

“Best to save that for the humans,” replied Cter with a tilted look up the foam-frozen section of barrier magic Kry had done last. “Do you have to keep much focus on keeping them steady and present, by the way? When I gave you this I was not sure if I should add some of my crystal magic to the mix as it would muddle between it feeling like Sund and it feeling like me. Some of it has slipped through though, I can tell. Probably for the better that it slipped through without me thinking of it.”

The First Monster Mage rubbed his right hand against his white-glowing fingers on his sleeve. “Well it certainly is different,” he told with little emotion. “I can feel that it has replaced King Asgore, but not in a way that has it feeling the same as his presence and magic. It is a bit like I’m writing but it is not the same language that the pen paints on the parchment. I know it is a different language that I have not read before, but it is still legible to me.”

Legible in the sense that his handwriting improved because he no longer had King Asgore with him or legible in the sense that…

Oh golly, Cter really was tired, wasn’t she?

“Now, now, no need to be so dramatic over that analogy,” Kry chastised with a harsh narrow of his eyes that seemed to drain some of the luster from his glasses’ golden rim. Cter released the pinch on her forehead and shook her head. “It wasn’t that tortuous, surely?”

“No, no.” A few continuous shakes followed from the Fourth Monster Mage along with a small sigh. “Just...” She quelled a yawn that tried to sneak in with the sigh. “I’m starting to feel a bit of the tiredness you and Kurant have insisted upon that I harbor.” Not even a splash of icy, magical fog on her face helped. “Quite a lot of it, if I’m going to be honest.”

Since he already knew that fully, Kry craned up his neck to look at the gathered crowd which had reached into a group large enough that he would have to address it sooner rather than later. “The barracks have plenty of beds,” he relayed to Cter while his focus remained on the crowd of monsters. “Some of which are even possible to sleep in, so you should be able to find one without much searching. Maybe try and feel around for which one has the least aura around it?”

Cter nodded to where Kry was looking. “They seem to be gathering up quite the gathering about the barrier magic.” From the tone of their murmuring voices Cter could hear that there was hope among them. It was nice to hear. “Perhaps you can in a way surpass Sir Gerson by talking to them directly? I’m sure he is planning on doing that for the Final Battle, but the Royal Guards stationed here at the city walls haven’t really seen Sir Gerson ever since their initial training, I’m guessing. The commoners even less.”

“Without King Asgore I won’t be much for speeches.” Kry scoffed. “With him I wasn’t much for it either.” He inhaled through his strong nose. “Would you believe me if I told you that me stepping up at the Noitaidarr Trial frightened me more than the prospect of losing King Asgore’s presence in my soul?”

To be honest? “No, I can’t have that make sense for me, sorry.” Cter didn’t feel that in the slightest.

A shrug loosened Kry’s shoulders. “A bit of hyperbole, I admit.” He did not retract it though. “But that I said it should be enough to show how much it frightens me, no?”

That Cter could agree on, yes. “I can see where you’re coming from when you put it like that.” She motioned towards Kry’s sleeve. “Moot point at the moment though since it is the inverse order.”

“Guess so,” the First Monster Mage mused with a stare into his right palm from which bright glow cast shadows from the rim of his glasses. “At least the humans aren’t being coy about who it is that is the attacker and who is the defender this time. The Noitaidarr Trial with them acting the defendants and the war with them pointing to the Cooperative Connection as well as the fusions as reasons that us monsters have been pulling the magical wool over their eyes which they aim to burn away without the slightest thought to making a shirt from shearing the wool.”

Cter nodded along even though her tiredness had her losing herself in the metaphor halfway through. “Agreed,” she said.

“But you’re right in that I should at least let them know that I’ve noticed them noticing the barrier magic.”

It took a long second of Cter mouthing a repeat of Kry’s sentence before she understood what he said. By that point Kry had stood up and brushed himself clean with a few swipes on his purple robe. As he walked up closer to the inner edge of the rampart there were shouts of his name from below. They were joyous and surprised, enough so that Kry straightened his robe as well before clearing his throat with a few small coughs into his fist.

“People of Jarasevo,” he began as almost everyone did, but the added flick of his wrist upwards like he was about to reach for a candle on a shelf above him was of his own making. “I ask of your bravery. I ask of your hope.” His raised hand swept behind him. “It is that which will keep these barriers strong against the humans that have betrayed the agreement we came to terms with. The magic of us Monster Mages depends on your auras. Keeping you strong and safe necessitates that you all believe and have hope in the Royal Guard. Not just us Monster Mages, but the monsters in armor stood next to you.”

Cter didn’t have to see to know how the reaction was with the monsters. The elatedness rose from below the rampart like smoke, shimmering in the harsh light of the barrier magic that lit Kry from behind. That harsh light made the tension of the one hand he had bent behind his back bright and obvious for Cter. He was sinking his nails into his thumb hard and deep, but it seemed to be working for him.

“Jarasevo will never fall while the Royal Guard still stands! Jarasevo will never surrender for as long as a single monster still stands with their magic in hand! Have hope! Have bravery! And give it all for the defense of not only the Monster Capital, but for Monster Country as well!”

Roars from both voice and magic raised high and mighty from the streets that Kry spoke towards. He raised his right arm high, covered in focused swirls of barrier magic. “Forever!”

“And always!”

The joint shout from below had Kry opening his raised hand, letting out from his palm a quickly growing handle which expanded to reach above his height as he slammed its end down into the rampart with a melodic clang. Three prongs grew from the upper end, with two growing out the sides and a third between them.

It was King Asgore’s trident, formed out of barrier magic, glowing as white as a monster soul. “We stand together as one against those that force their will upon us. Monsterkind will endure! Monsterkind will stand tall in victory!”

Another roar, stronger than before, had the hair on Cter’s right arm standing up. It was from the bottom of the soul of every monster there, touched by Kry’s words and brandished aura which he made shine, but which he did not share with the monsters. It was a display, same as the trident he made, of his connection to King Asgore.

However though, that connection was not with him no longer, so he had to make it himself. The trident of barrier magic he held in his hand and stood with a straight back besides was for show. A brilliant and promising show.

It was good.

He did good.

“They will share that with every monster they come across,” said Cter with a smile at Kry’s return to her. “You gave them hope during all of this, Kry.”

The thankful nods were slightly held back by Kry massaging his lumbar. “I probably shouldn’t have bowed as deeply as I did,” came a retrospective regret. “You wouldn’t mind?”

Cter didn’t. To boot she did not bring up the fact that Kry was asking for help for his human body directly after making an inspiring case that the monsters would never lay down their weapons and magic against the humans. It was something Cter had to shake away from her head before she could focus on applying the healing magic Kry was asking for. “Should be good now,” she said after applying a bit more than necessary just in case.

“Same for the commoners as well,” Kry added with a proud look through the gap between his glasses and his smiling cheek. “They needed it.” He nodded. “They need us.” And stopped. “However, you need some sleep before that.” His smile followed his turn to Cter. “You healed my rear rather than my lumbar, so I can tell even more now that you need some.”

Oh God…

Cter ought to find the worst bed in the barracks and drag the oldest blanket she can find over her for that…

“I’ll be fine for the rest of the barrier magic I need to raise, Cter.” The First Monster Mage looked down the slight curve of the rampart of the city walls with a steadying breath through his strong nose. “With this last section I have come to realize that function is more important than form. I have decided it.” He tapped his trident like a gavel. “And so it shall be.”

How much he was joking about it Cter was too tired to tell. “And so it shall be,” she repeated after a difficult quell of another yawn. “Don’t tap for your decision that I have to sleep,” she then halted Kry with his trident beginning to raise again. “I’m going.”

“That you are,” Kry agreed. “I’ll let some of the flying Royal Guards know that you need quick transport.”

“Hopefully not too quick after all the bravery you gave them.”

Kry chuckled. “Well, we can hope for hopefully not.”

That they could, yes.

“Thanks to you.”

Chapter Text

“Need an extra hand, Cter?”

The extending barrier magic that raised high and mighty in a protective bend over the main gate into Jarasevo required the use of both of Cter’s hands. The right arm of her robe had on it the same harsh, white light as the White Flesh on her left arm, helping paint the last section of the protective dome around Jarasevo. The two different textures from Kry and Kurant’s respective sections that flanked either side of Cter’s portion of the magical defenses she had to somehow smooth over until they looked the same on the last section which had to be the thickest to boot.

It was facing the main road head on, looking directly at the human encampment that Aajja’s bombardments had slowed down for a while. Eventually his and his subordinates magical reserves had run out, and were forced to rest up. Cter had done so as well.

“I can’t really fathom that you’re yawning this much right now.”

Albeit not as well as she had hoped.

“So...” she tried to say before another yawn widened her mouth uncouthly, “...rry.” She smacked her dry lips. “I was tossing and turning at each sound that could have been the start of the human attacks.” All it did though was having her taste the sting in the air which had begun to descend from the barrier magic like an invisible fog. It was similar to the air near a recent thunder strike, like burnt air.

The pungent odor had Kurant’s nose furrowing, and she had to smooth it out with a quick pinch and drag on it. Cter hoped that it wasn’t that hand she was offering to cover her yawning mouth with. “Can say that twice.” Her eyes widened. “Not literally, that is,” came a quick correction with an accompanying, raised palm.

“I remember what we talked about,” she tapped at her chest, “and that it was either me forgetting or me waking up to my soul realizing that Queen Toriel presence no longer was with me.” The sparse color on her face drained, leaving only faint flush on her cheeks among a snow-white expression. “It was the...latter.” Her eyes averted as she inhaled a shaky breath. “Very much the latter...”

Cter needed focus on her barrier magic so she did not ask anything to pry further. Like Kurant said before, it was better if Cter didn’t know. It was better if Kurant and Kry kept the details of the aftermath of their changed souls to themselves lest Cter went and put even more weight onto herself. They were upfront about it which Cter appreciated. Better that she knew that she shouldn’t know than didn’t know that she shouldn’t know.

“Cter,” stated Kurant as the growing barrier magic flickered slightly akin to a change in the air around a candle. “Focus.”

She nodded the thought away. “Yes, thank you.”

“No need.” Kurant looked to the right down the rampart, glazing her eyes over the unevenly shaped barrier magic that she had created with...mixed homogeneity to them. “We aren’t used to doing this much magic. Been a while since we three went all out, after all.” A calm sigh passed her lips. “If this is what my upper limit is then I can at least be proud that it was used to protect the Monster Capital.” At the tail of the sigh there was a slight dip.

“I would have liked for it to have curved a bit more inwards though.” She turned over to the left side of the rampart. “Both for my and Kry’s. It should be enough for the range of their siege weaponry, but I can’t help but think that one of the thrown ammunition might bounce off and roll over the edge.” A thoughtful pause occurred with Kurant’s pointing finger deflating. “We have given them plenty of rocks to throw at us with Aajja and his griffons, haven’t we?”

Cter wouldn’t have put it that way as the dropped rocks had been used to disrupt the humans’ siege construction, but she could see why Kurant would have been worried about that. Aajja and his griffons added dark blue magic to their dropped boulders so that they would fall faster and embed themselves deeper into the ground.

It would take quite the effort from the humans to lift those up unless they had a mage with them, and a powerful one to boot. Terri wouldn’t have betrayed the treaty and Rasliela wouldn’t have wanted to miss the Final Battle. None of the lookouts had reported that the humans were in the process of unearthing the dropped boulders, so it seemed like the humans had other plans in mind then.

“Will probably be more of an effort for them to get those rocks out of the ground than it would be worth throwing them at us.” Cter fanned her fingers out to widen the barrier magic. It wasn’t necessary, but it gave her something physical to do before moving to the next stage of the formation. First she made the barrier magic to then thicken it up and give it some better structure.

It might not have been crystal magic, but there was still a crystal-like structure in its nature. It was how she imagined it to be. It was how she found the barrier magic to work. Different from how Kurant and Kry, as they saw and thought about the barrier magic differently, yet in the end it did the same. It protected Jarasevo, and that was all that mattered. “But then again attacking the Monster Capital while the Final Battle is underway is more trouble than worth too, so who’s to say, really?”

“True,” agreed Kurant after another pinch on her nose. “They certainly caught us off guard with this maneuver of theirs, and without any reasoning we can think about why they would do so it is difficult to ascertain anything more specific than that they will attack us with siege engines sooner rather than later.” She peered through the shimmer of the Cter’s thickening barrier magic. That she could see through it was a surprise to Cter since she was pouring quite a lot into it without any care for how it would look and only how it would function.

It was to be attacked and most likely damaged greatly by the humans, so why did she bother with the details at a time like that?

“It pains me to give them credit for their efficiency,” Kurant bit her underlip with a small growl, “however it seems that they are progressing quite quickly with their construction.” She huffed a furrow. “They must have realized that they could not build anything larger than them without Aajja seeing that as a target.” A furrow that deepened.

“Maybe...maybe what the griffons attacked was just a diversion? What if what they destroyed were just distractions to pull away Aajja’s attention away from the real siege engines that they were preparing to build?” There was turmoil building in her soul which tensed her shoulders and visage. “Look, they’ve already managed half of a skeleton frame of siege tower! It was just a pile of lumber when I left the barracks!”

Cter wouldn’t have known since she hadn’t been able to look past her barrier magic for a few hours on end. Its harsh light wouldn’t have allowed her to see even if she had tried to.

So why did she feel defensive about not having seen it?

“Sorry, I couldn’t–”

“Fetch Kry!” Kurant shouted over Cter’s meek apology to a Royal Guard messenger who had talked with the ones stationed at the main gate about rotating shifts with those of the other gates. Kurant’s voice had the ears of the hare-like monster standing high and on edge from both the hurry in Kurant’s voice and the hurry in her aura.

“Bring him here as soon as possible!” It was if she was stopping just short of sounding the alarms and putting the Royal Guards on battle stations. It was to be the case soon enough when Kry would arrive, Cter reckoned, so her getting the last, front-facing section of the barrier dome and ready was even more a priority than before.

She inhaled steadily.

“I’m here!”

And swallowed enough air in her startle to cause the arriving Monster Mage to pat her hard on her back with his opened hand.

“Apologies, Cter,” Kry offered while the sounds of mighty wings easing down to the ground flowed from behind him. The harsh light was calmed a bit by the Griffon Commander’s shadow, and even more so from him stretching his wings wide. “I thought you heard me from above.”

“I–” One last cough managed to sneak up on Cter. “I didn’t, sorry.” It wasn’t enough to impede the progress of her barrier magic, but the layers she were focused on looked poor even by functional standards. Still functional, but even less pleasant to the eyes with its structure akin to that of brickwork laid by a ghost monster. It was too see-through when it was meant to obscure.

The apology swiftly faded from importance as a less-startled Kurant took a step in between Kry and Cter with her left leg. “You noticed, didn’t you?” she asked with her right arm pointing through the forming barrier magic and over yonder. “The humans had us figured out with the boulder bombardments.”

An uncomfortable ruffle shot through Aajja’s feathers, rustling them like an aspen tree. His tired aura told of embarrassment, radiating with a defeated shame. “My deepest apologies for this terrible mistake that I have carried on. There is no excuse for not thinking ahead and considering that the humans would have wised up against our tactics. I should have noticed, but I was blinded by pride as I imagined that I was doing a good job with holding the humans back.”

His monocle looked to be about to fall out of his eye at any second as his expression bent and molded through quiet curses under his breath. “Please, put all the blame on me as my subordinates were only following my orders. It is I that did wrong,” Aajja’s head bent down deeply, “and not theirs.”

Kry didn’t waste a second before motioning for the Griffon Commander to raise his head again. “If there is any blame to be had then it should be on us,” he corrected. “We made an assumption and we stuck to it. Now that it has turned out to have been wrongly made we should focus on how to continue on from that.

Blame one can only do when one has the luxury of time which we will not have come soon or sooner.” Kry adjusted his glasses with an impatient fiddle. “How are you and your subordinates feeling? Are you rested enough to take up your duties once more?”

“If that is what is necessary then–”

“That was not what I asked,” Kry interrupted with a rigid shake to his head. “I asked if you and your subordinates were rested enough. The boulder bombardments were to give us Monster Mages enough time to raise barrier magic around Jarasevo, and with that you have succeeded.” He stepped fully between Cter and Aajja before the griffon could see that she was still working on the last section.

“It might be advantageous for us to send you in for another run when the humans have approached as it will slow them down by a greater margin if we let them believe that they can advance easily. They know that they managed to fool us, and they will rely on that to push as an advantage. The shock of us seeing that we have not impeded any of their siege-building progress we should not allow to let linger. Instead we should plan one step ahead of where they are and where they think we are at the moment.”

The smell of burnt air had Kry coughing slightly after inhaling deeply.

“So I ask you again, Aajja,” said Kry with a sympathetic bend to his eyes. “Are you and your subordinates well rested enough to be able to launch a similar attack as what you have already done?”

The Griffon Commander faltered from the weight of the question, which if anything already told of his answer. The feathers around his eyes seemed to solidify, and eventually a weary exhale wafted out of his beak. “We are not,” he answered with great disappointment.

“We are not ready for a similar offensive as we have already done, as both our magical reserves as well as our available ammunition has taken a toll. Those boulders that we have available to us now are those that we judged to be of high effort to extract from the ground. To boot we are still tired from the previous attack due to its intensity and length. Two full days of constant attacks and we almost did not make it back within Jarasevo before collapsing from exhaustion. Our souls and wings are strained, more so than they ever have before.”

“You’ve done more than enough,” said Kurant to the lamenting Griffon Commander. “Like Kry said, you have given us valuable time which we desperately needed. You have not failed, commander.”

With that said though there was still the issue that the humans would have their siege engines at the ready sooner than expected. The barrier magic was ready, but would the rest of the Royal Guards be? Would the civilians be ready too? With the barrier magic raised there was the question of how the Royal Guard would attack back at the humans.

While the barrier magic would protect against the siege engines the monsters had to keep said siege engines at enough of a distance for them to be ineffective. If the humans were to deploy archers nearby the city walls then those would be able to reach over. There would be needed Royal Guards with ice and water magic stationed near the city walls to put out the blazes from arrows lit with fire and oil.

With enough force it would be possible for the humans to also get through the barrier magic around the main gate as the Monster Mages would be busy with keeping the catapult and trebuchet attacks at bay. Large and heavy Royal Guards that knew both dark blue and orange strength magic would have been ideal for that task.

Seems like there would not be any pause for breath for the Monster Mages as they would have to launch straight into organizing the Royal Guards as quickly as possible. Some of the civilians might have to be conscripted into a militia because of that.

There were enough Royal Guards to make a complete presence around the city walls, but without any time to plan and to coordinate quick rotations of vanguards as necessary there would not be any time for any brilliant tactics in order to properly ration out the Royal Guards depending on where the humans focused their attacks.

The humans wanted the monsters to fight as humanly as possible both at the Final Battle and at the Monster Capital, it seemed.

“Our first priority now is to rally the Royal Guard and have them be ready to take up position at a moment’s notice,” said Kry with a turn inwards towards Jarasevo. His robe swayed in the rising breeze up the rampart, enlarging his presence and the imposing shadow he cast down. The Royal Guards that had begun to sense that something was happening among the Monster Mages approached within Kry’s large shadow, standing in honor. They could feel his aura. “Royal Guards!”

And the growing fire within it.

“The humans will soon prepare to besiege our city! Our capital! Our home!” His white-glowing sleeve swept widely from within his robe, tracing behind it a deep arc of foggy barrier magic. “With the barrier magic they will not manage inside, however that does not mean that we can just wait for them to leave. We will not hold out! We will defend the Monster Capital! We will defend with just as much hostility as they have, and then added to it our own!” His voice could have convinced the deaf to hear him.

“Together we will make the humans regret this war of theirs. This war that they have forced upon us, and which they now force upon the very walls of our capital!” He took another step closer to the edge of the rampart to better hide Cter behind him. Magically he added some more wind that grabbed a hold of his robes with harder tugs. “I need you. I need all of you! Monsterkind needs all of you!”

Kurant joined by his side, throwing her glowing sleeve in a similar arc as Kry’s. “Monsterkind needs all of us! It is our duty to protect! It is our duty to welcome back the Monster Army to the exact same Monster Capital as when they left!” The glow from it covered up Kry’s balled fist clenching to help his nerves. “Victory at the Final Battle depends on us here! The Monster Army may be far away, but their souls are still here! Their souls are still here in Jarasevo where they will return victorious to!”

The streets around the main gate filled so fast that Cter could hear the echo from Kurant’s voice change between two of her sentences. From it rose a dense mixture of emotions that contained anything and everything from fear to excitement to anger to relief. The feelings towards the incoming human attack were as varied as the monsters that had gathered. Each of their souls joining with the one next to them as they listened to Kry and Kurant continuing to play off the other’s speech to raise the spirits of the monsters under their wings.

Busy enough they were that they did not notice what Cter did through the last of the shimmering barrier magic that she was finalizing. Through the solidifying flow of trickling barrier magic the shimmer that distorted the view outside faded away into a more clearer picture. She could see the ravaged landscape in the distance which Aajja had littered with boulders. In Hjearta they called those something akin to Giant’s Throws, but there were no giant who had thrown those that she saw.

There was no giant that walked up next to her to confirm what it was that he saw as well.

“That is strange.”

And there was no giant’s feathers that ruffled in slightly perplexed thought.

“Why is there only a small squad riding up towards here?”

Aajja was the one with the better knowledge of military matters so why he was asking the question to Cter, she could not make sense of. “I don’t know,” she answered weakly. “Should we...” She had no good suggestion.

“They can’t be so ignorant as to believe that a mere squad can take on the entirety of Jarasevo with you three Monster Mages defending it too.” The ruffled plumage slowly sank back as Aajja peered harder through his monocle. “If they parleyed for you to not be present at the Final Battle they can’t just send a single squad towards you in full force of your magic.”

It wasn’t full force, but Cter got the point. “Maybe...” Her full force she did not dare to utilize even in the protection of the Monster Capital. “Maybe they’re here to parley some more?” She felt that the barrier magic would be done at any second.

The Griffon Commander clicked his tongue in disgust. Again his plumage raised and his feathers spread, albeit wider than before. So much so that the chain to his monocle looked to get stuck in the spreading feathers. “If so then I am not sure whether or not I should be insulted or not by it. What would they want to discuss? Our surrender? Unconditional surrender of our capital?”

His body lowered in stance, with his large, fluffy tail curling angrily at his side. His claws and talons dug into the mortar between the cobble, scraping a rough, horrible sound. “The nerve...” A scoff and a spit had some of his screeching following in his voice.

“To come to our gates and demand our surrender by just the prospect of them being here? They haven’t even one tower raised and they come here like they have already won?” One of the stones Aajja’s talons were gripping around came loose, trapped hard inside its prison. He squeezed it hard enough that cracks began to form on it. “I should...”

A thought struck him hard enough that the stone slipped out his hand, dropping down next to where he had excavated it. As Aajja put down his empty talons again he unknowingly pushed it back into its excavated hole. He did not notice, instead his eyes were wide from the thought that had struck him. The feathers around his beak began to bend upwards, indicating a smile that soon reached his eyes. “No...not me.”

With a sway of his long neck, Aajja turned to Cter.

“You should.”

Chapter Text

The wind felt differently on Cter’s face as the rapid, controlled descent the griffon that carried her dove down among the other two carrying their own Monster Mage on their winged backs. The feathers too were different on the subordinate that had let Cter mount up on. Her feathers were more...spiky, in a strange way. The slight itch when wearing a new set of clothes for the first time, somewhat. Similarly, the magical protection to shield her from the wind was weaker too.

A large part of the reason she could assume was from the Griffon Captain being tired, however the magic that she did feel was different from Aajja’s. It was softer, yet more tingly. Less refined than Aajja, as if it had been taught and not discovered.

Maybe Kry and Kurant’s barrier magic would have felt the same had they been taught it rather than forced it? It felt too much like it had been magic Cter had forgotten she had conjured when she stood next to theirs.

She had done her best in trying to make it be theirs, but the more she changed the more she had to add her own to the change to make it work. The more she forced their souls to stray from the Monster Royals the more she had to pad that distance with her own magic. The more she changed the more she made them as her.

Hopefully not too much like her as what the three griffons and Monster Mages were diving quickly through the air towards needed someone else than her.

The human squad arranged from a marching square to a protective triangle pointing towards the large cloud of sand and dirt that the three griffons tossed high and thick as they landed hard and intimidating. It was as if they acted as the large boulders they had dropped down onto the humans just a day before, and many, many days before that as well.

Just according to plan.

“It is quite the unorthodox tactic, I gotta say,” was Kry’s take on it after Aajja had explained his idea to him with a rather childish excitement to the ruffle of his feathers. The long stretch to his floppy neck and his locked knees had him standing as if in honor, but with his eyes and aura shining as if he was getting a slice of freshly baked pie from his mother. “But I do have to admit that it is a rather intriguing idea.”

“It’s not something they would expect,” Kurant had then chimed in with a glance of her head over to the human squad in the distance behind the thickened barrier magic of Cter’s making. “And facing them outside the walls at a distance would show them that we do intend to keep them away at all costs. They dare to march upon us, and we will respond in kind.” Her glance then turned to Aajja. “I suspect this is something you’re also suggesting for you and your subordinates sake too, isn’t it, commander?”

While Aajja’s neck bent slightly his eyes did not lose any sparkle and luster. “Tertiary, yes,” he had admitted with a small nod. “I still feel like I have done wrong and allowed the humans to build their siege engines. Instead of lingering on that feeling though I would like to turn that against them, if you would allow me? My subordinates would want that too, I’m sure. Let us carry you to meet the humans face to face, Monster Mages. Allow us once more to assist you in keeping Jarasevo safe!”

The silhouettes of the human squad faded into view from the dissipating cloud of sandy dust, and before the cloud could fully fade, Aajja lifted his wings high up in the air. With all that he could muster he beat his wings forwards, pushing the cloud of sand against the humans.

Like a wave against a beach it broke against the rigid discipline of the humans, but that was not all he had planned for them. Once the aggressive cloud had been tossed Aajja spread his wing span as wide as he could, covering the view of Jarasevo with his feathers. His subordinates joined their wings with his, forming a wall of wings that would not budge for anything.

In front of it stood the Monster Mages, similarly in a triangle like the humans, with Kry as the point and Kry and Kurant on either side behind him. He lifted his glowing sleeve up, conjuring a sphere of barrier magic which flowed viciously within it. Together the griffons and the Monster Mages formed the Delta Rune. Together they had come to meet the humans.

Together they stood against the humans!

Aajja and his subordinates let out a joint screech that seemed to echo all the way beyond the rolling hills in the far distance. A screech that would have deafened the Monster Mages had they not plugged their ears with barrier magic. A screech that was the same that they had intimidated the humans with before dropping the boulders from high up. A screech that finally had the human squad flinch.

And forced their leader to step out from within their protective formation.

His weathered appearance had not gotten any smoother since the last time Cter had seen him. The colorless tabard which he and his squad hid their arms from view within fluttered as he walked up to the front. He made a show of his hidden arms as he then folded them over his chest, but the rest of his squad returned their arms within the fabric that hang loosely from their shoulders to hide their arms and intent. Their hair were all the same hanging down over their eyes to hide the windows to their soul.

Their soul that they had all been cursed with from the Second Fusion.

So perhaps it too was to hide them from it as well?

“I take it you’re here to meet us, Monster Mages?” asked the Hero of Xoff in a confident tone. His hair he had not let grow out to the length that the humans in his squad had. Instead he wore it short, barely long enough to cover up a faded scar across his forehead. “To negotiate from the weaker position?”

The tension in the griffons’ wings changed, but Kurant eased them with a calming hand along with a push of her aura. It wasn’t enough to fully keep them from reacting, but it slowed their anger down enough. She felt the same anger, and that she showed in her aura. She wanted to blast away the humans just as much as the griffons wanted, but they had to be calm and collected. There was a chance that words could prevail, and that they had to take, no matter how small it was.

As Kry eased away his sphere of magic the squint from the Hero of Xoff stopped, and instead his eyes took on a secure and furrowed appearance which he challenged against Kry. The First Monster Mage only adjusted his glasses in response, and took a first step in order to meet the Hero fo Xoff halfway. It didn’t take long before the two were but a few arms lengths between each other. Their presence reached past them though, with the Hero of Xoff’s large, weathered, and strong form rising above Kry.

His wise, collected, and almost kingly aura he let radiate from himself as much as possible as he knew that it would touch at both the soul of the Hero of Xoff’s as well as the humans in his squad. They wouldn’t want to feel it, but they had no choice. Kry was setting the rules, and that the Hero of Xoff noticed.

“That so?” he let drip from his tongue like poison. “You’re not gonna meet me halfway in your way then? That seems unfair as I have come here to meet you halfway in my way.” With a slow unfold the Hero of Xoff motioned behind him with his arm. “I came here to have a talk similar to that of the Council of Three Countries where we could all still use words even though the air between us was tense. This is what I had in mind, but if you’re not going to honor it...”

Kry pondered for a long second before shaking his head slowly and deliberately. “We already chose to meet you more on your side than on our side when King Asgore agreed to the terms of the Final Battle,” he replied with a calm voice that hid his real anger quite well. “So if you are still to argue that we should meet you halfway then please leave for the location of the Final Battle. We Monster Mages would be happy to follow you to it.”

He too motioned behind him with his glowing sleeve pointing at the barrier magic that glowed softly. From the distance they were at it all looked like one continuous piece rather than sections built by three different mages. The harsh light was useful for that, it seemed. Good to know. “Jarasevo will be safe even without our presence.”

The Hero of Xoff peered over the Monster Mages and the combined wings of the griffon monsters for a few, contemplative seconds. “For one day,” he stated factually, returning his arms into a lopsided fold with his left arm angling up with an opened hand. “It will be safe for one day at the most without your presence.” His raised hand collected down three fingers. “Two if Cter is left behind per the agreement of the Final Battle.”

Shuuja was steadfast in his brief assessment, giving no hint on his visage nor in his faint, neigh-detectable aura that he was bluffing and or did not believe fully in what he said. “Your magical defenses are impressive, and that I say without any means to the contrary. However,” he added quickly with a confident close to his eyes, “it is only that of magical defense. They will come down eventually, leaving the capital exposed with only its physical walls to protect. With only those protecting it will as easy for us to ascend above them as it is for you hate me in this very moment.”

He sure was correct with that last part…

“You would leave and Jarasevo would still be in danger?” Kry challenged with his brow raising behind the rim of his glasses. He swept towards the human squad that had escorted the Hero of Xoff. One of the soldiers flinched, but stepped back into line with hard looks from the two humans stood next to him. “When we ask you to leave it means the royal you and not the singular you, I hope you understand? A royal understanding, that is.”

Kry then pointed his opened hand over the human squad towards the rest of their contingency working on the siege buildings at the mouth of the forest that they had widened more into a pained roar than before. “Take your betraying humans and leave the Monster Capital. You have until the end of the day to leave everything you have done here and return to your human countries. If you do so I will assure that you can march unimpeded.”

There was a slight air of disappointment that rolled out of the Hero of Xoff’s mouth as he heaved a hummed sigh which had his strong shoulders easing down for just a moment. “Surrender the Monster Capital to me, Monster Mages,” came a startling statement that was as clear as it was direct. “Surrender the city to me and I will keep it safe.”

A row of confused, zig-zagging looks were traded between the Monster Mages and the three griffons, flicking between each other with increasingly confusing blinks, escalating until Cter felt that her head became faint.

“What?” she uttered with a mixed bend of vile and utter bewilderment tugging at her expression wildly. “What do you...” If his plan was to make the barrier magic surrounding the city disappear due to the souls of the Monster Mages being confused enough to function properly then he certainly took a good first step towards that. “What the hell do you mean by that?” She didn’t mean to be so confrontational with her words, believe it or not. It just felt...necessary to add it to her question. Otherwise it wouldn’t have gotten through how utterly ridiculous the situation was!

Why would the Monster Mages give up the Monster Capital to the humans to make it safe?

“Ex...” Kry had to push up his glasses as the wrinkles on his nose had carried them halfway down. “Explain yourself, Shuuja.” He wanted so much to yell, but managed to keep himself composed.

But only just.

The Hero of Xoff turned on his heels to the north west where far, far away the Final Battle was taking place. “How do you think that the Final Battle is progressing, Monster Mages?” he posed without moving his head from the horizon beyond the horizon he was looking towards. The slight wind played with his short hair, but not as much as it did the fringes of the humans in the squad behind him. There was a shimmer to their eyes. It was faint. Faint enough to not have Cter see it.

But her soul did.

As did her colleagues’ as well.

“Because it is already over.”

The reaction from the three Monster Mages was delayed, but it was as strong as it should have been.

Not from the terrifying news that the Hero of Xoff had shared.

But from them realizing that it didn’t surprise them in the slightest.

“The Final Battle lasted for only a day, and ended after that day of direct combat between you and us. The outcome was already decided, but even with it there was still fierce fighting. The Monster Army held for longer than expected, and have earned my respect.” The Hero of Xoff looked at his hand. “However though, that respect was nowhere to be found in that ravaged field which was painted white with dust the last I saw it. Drops of blood in places like stains on an old table in a commoner’s tavern, but covered over by the fluttering dust.”

His hand closed hard, clenching as if grabbing an invisible hilt. “How much of that dust I am responsible for I do not know.” Cter followed the invisible blade as it slipped out of the Hero of Xoff’s hand. “And neither do any of those that are now marching towards here with the few monsters that survived the battle.” It didn’t feel right for the Hero of Xoff to say it like that. “From that...slaughter.”

His words were carried with the wind, despite their weight. Like chains they wrapped around the Monster Mages, gripping them tight and forcing out the air out of them. His soul, ever so faint and buried deep within him, was as bright as their own in that moment. He did not lie. He spoke the truth, and radiated it as well. Desperately the Monster Mages gasped for the air that had escaped them, with Kurant falling down on her bad leg with a shaky imbalance. Kry’s glowing hand pushed at the rim of his glasses, hiding his face from view. If he was holding back or holding together was impossible to tell.

Cter could only stumble a shaky step to try and regain the balance that escaped her. She braced her wrist for the ground that she almost fell down on, but a large, soft wing caught her in the last second. She felt her weight settle on the thick layers of feathers. They were soft.

But she wanted for nothing but to fall right through them.

“It was a mistake,” continued the weathered hero with a forlorn expression that. “The Final Battle was a mistake. Something happened with us, those that have a soul.” His hand grabbed at his chest, wanting to rip something out. “Something ignited within us as the dust began to spread. With each monster that was cut down the next one fell even easier.” His grab hardened, tensing the fabric he held enough for it to start cracking around his fingers.

“With each monster that became dust by my hand I felt myself become less and less worried about the next. The magic that was cast against me hurt less and less. Their weapons broke against mine. Their armor shattered with increasing ease. It wasn’t a battle. It wasn’t a last confrontation. It was...slaughter. It was more than slaughter.”

The Hero of Xoff let the wind wash through him, but it did naught to wash off him.

“Why wasn’t I disgusted by what I saw? Why wasn’t I disgusted by what I did?” His eyes closed hard in shame with his hand weakening on his chest. “I’ve stopped battles before when the outcome was clearer than glass, yet there I kept going. I kept killing, and I did it more and more with less and less thought to my actions. They became as if their own, cutting and slashing.”

The Hero of Xoff mimicked the motions for a short while before realizing that he did. He recoiled his hand, following the invisible sword that he held as it tumbled down into the ground. He took a step back from it, daring not to touch his chest again. “What has become of me?” His gaze looked over the horizon. “What has become of us?”

One of the humans from the squad approached the Hero of Xoff with worry in his step and outreached hand. He was swatted away, stepping back with a wide, startled step. “Don’t be near me!” the Hero of Xoff warned. “I ordered you to keep your distance!” His breathing heaved his body up and down with each deep inhale and exhale. “You’re still not affected. You’re still not like us!”

A few quiet seconds passed by with nothing but the Hero of Xoff’s strained breathing filling the tense air. Eventually he had to swallow some of the tension as he realized that he had to compose himself. His shoulders were shaky as he tried to straighten his back, failing in it. There was a difference in his eyes as he turned to the Monster Mages.

“You need me to take over Jarasevo.” There was pleading. “If the victorious humans arrive here and face resistance then...” There was a flash within his eyes, and he recoiled with a deep grunt. From the depths of his throat he harked fiercely, spitting out onto the ground a thick, viscous glob that by no means should have been looked at, however what was within it had the full attention of the three Monster Mages.

Black like soot and swirling the same as the White Flesh on Cter’s left arm. It moved for only a few seconds before its swirls faded away, leaving just a darkened hue to the mucus that surrounded it.

“We’ll kill you all,” said the Hero of Xoff without emotion. “We’re cursed, all of us. If you monsters resist when the human army arrives then the same will happen as did at the Final Battle.” With a desperate throw of his arm he motioned behind him. “These humans were not present at the Final Battle. These were sent by Rasliela. They haven’t had their curse take them over. If you allow us to take control of the city for when the human army arrives with the monster prisoners they were lucid enough to keep then there might still be a chance!”

The Monster Mages stood still.

“I only approached you like I did so that it would reignite within me.” The Hero of Xoff gritted his teeth. “You wouldn’t believe my words, but my soul you would. You feel it, don’t you? You feel what it wants. You feel what is has done!”

They did.

But…

“We can’t.”

“You have to!”

Kry looked behind him, over his colleagues and the combined wings of the griffons. He looked at the glowing white of the barrier magic he and his colleagues had raised for the monsters within. “We can’t.” He shook his head. “We will defend monsterkind, and...”

The breadth of a large wing brushed past him, with a similar white glow filtered through the soft feathers.

“Cter?”

She didn’t hear Kry’s voice.

“Cter...”

Nor did she the Hero of Xoff’s who she was holding up her left hand towards. He stepped back, but not enough for her to meet him halfway on his terms. His arm was rugged where she grabbed at it with her left hand. There was dust still on his arm. Dust of those he had slayed as per his own words.

Dust of those she would avenge.

The approaching humans flinched as they collided with the barrier magic she raised around her and the Hero of Xoff.

“You want us to believe you?” she asked. “We won’t believe in your words when you tell us!”

Without an answer.

“So show me instead!”

Chapter Text

A weary sigh clashes with the rolling wind passing between the two entrance flaps held together only by a simple knot between them. The papers and rolled-up scrolls strewn about on the table in front of the Hero of Xoff are not made unrest by the wind inviting itself into the tent, but by the confused and angered shuffling between, underneath, and above the variously scribbled parchments both weathered yellow and freshly beige. Like a deck of cards shuffled one more time to prove that they haven’t been tampered with.

The game that the scrolls and military papers have dealt to the High Officer are not that of simple tavern strategy to win a few coins though, but of a skirmish that will end with more than just a lighter purse should the game not be played well with the parchments dealt.

And dealt they have been.

Not just by the will of the High Officer leaning back in his chair to dodge the slicing beam of vivid sunlight slashing through the oscillating gap of the two weakly linked tent flaps. Many reasons have led to this day of days that the High Officer has both awaited with patience and looked forward to with a blend of both pride and revenge.

To finally meet the monsters on terms that could finally be written down as glorious. To finally have a proper battle instead of opposition-free skirmishes as his army took one monster village after another. His lean back in his chair was not fully confident though.

There was a slight rocking motion which sank the chair’s back legs deeper into the slightly hardened soil of the field that only a busy week ago was like any other field around it. The rocking motion was from the High Officer struggling to decide whether or not the slowdown the monsters had caused by their frequent hit-and-run tactics was something to be ashamed of or something to be expected considering the circumstances.

It had been constant progress for the humans, but it had been slower than should have been due to the monster resistance. There hadn’t been any casualties, only material loss. Horses frightened into forests. Wheels on supply caravans destroyed. Rocks that have seemingly dropped out of the sky to prevent nightly rest. Again though, no casualty among the humans that were present at those many, many attacks.

Which meant that there was still more fear to be found among the monsters which they did not want to provoke by killing any human. The other side of that coin would be that the monsters did not take the humans seriously.

From the soldiers’ testimony the High Officer knew that such wasn’t the case. The way the soldiers described the fear of the monsters were always the same. Always a colorful description of how the flakes of the white dust shimmered like falling sand for those that hailed from Xoff, and like falling snow for those that hailed from Hjearta.

There was no need to burn most of the villages as pillaging minimized the losses from the monster attacks. The few villages that did fight back got to know why they shouldn’t have. They got to know the smell of burnt dust.

And they got to tell the others about it.

“Ashes to ashes.”

That morale seemed to regain much more when the monster villages made resistance compared to when they didn’t reminded the High Officer of the days before he became the Hero of Xoff. He remembered catharsis when the County Generals fell through with their talks and disputes flared up into conflict.

Each poorly healed wound on his body he could have told stories about that would have lasted throughout an entire night around a campfire. It was simpler back then when there was a distinct line between humans and monsters.

Oh how he mourned those times.

Those times when there wasn’t a need of a Hero of Xoff. Those times when there was no such thing as a Fusion.

Let alone two.

But there wouldn’t be a third one. There would not be a third chance for the monsters to subjugate the power of the human soul. Outside the tent, behind the gentle flaps of the loosely knotted tent entrance, his army was preparing their last to bring a swift and decisive end to the war. They had been cautious and conducted the war like it had been one between two human factions. It was how it started, after all.

It was how the Xoff and Hjearta armies were mustered and how they had trained and prepared for it to play out. The Second Fusion changed all that. Changed alliances and changed allegiances. A being so powerful and dangerous that the question of the rightful heir to the Xoff crown was halted in its momentum-filled tracks. Had the High Officer not already experienced something that drastic from when the plague ravaged Xoff to the point where all semblance of military command collapsed into ruin he would not be sitting in the chair that he did, rocking gently as he indulged himself in thought.

It was not treacherous and or traitorous to realize when the flag one carried was burning fiercely, and to drop it in favor of another set of colors. For that was just what they were, only colors. The High Officer had worn many throughout his career.

With the constant flux between the County Generals there was no real reason to be loyal to someone who would just point you in one direction while he fled the other. Surrendering to save lives was not cowardly. Surrendering to not have your home and village burned was looking ahead to what was behind the different colors waving in the same wind that waved yours.

The colors of the monster flags in their villages were always white no matter what in the end.

Be it by paint or by their dust.

On the other side of the field there were flags of purple still swaying. The High Officer did not have to look outside to confirm once again of that sure fact. There was pride among the monsters. Pride that had them fighting even when they knew that there was no chance. They had hope. No matter what, they had hope. The High Officer respected that.

But he did not condone it.

For he would not have been in this chair of his had he put all his faith into hope. Had he hoped that his County General would have stood by his side no matter what he would have been dead. Had he hoped that the plague would blow over then he would have been dead. Hope was what the people of Xoff saw in him just because he knew that it was fickle.

He knew that it led to being mired in one's action instead of seeking new ones. It was hope that gave him agency, but only in its absence. The High Officer did not abandon hope, but instead he had resigned from its grasp over him.

He had seen hope in the purple flags too distant to make out the Delta Rune that he still knew was on them all. He had seen the hope that the Monster Royals instilled in their Monster Army.

And he knew that he would be victorious.

The chair landed back on all four of its feet with a slight creak to it, with the High Officer’s battle garments swaying with the motion. It was a design of his own make. An idea that came to him after he had acclimated to the sting from his hurt pride which sizzled from the monster tactics. He had been taught many things about warfare, but the most important lesson was, as always, the most difficult to remember when it was needed.

Pride means nothing. Victory is only achieved when the enemy is defeated.

The armor of the combined human army was designed to withstand another human army. It was made with physical might in mind. To protect against spears, swords, maces. It was not meant to pursue, but to clash. It was not meant to chase, but to advance. It was sturdy to hold against sturdy.

Exactly the opposite of how the monsters conducted their side of the war. They tempted chase. They hit faster than the human armor could react to. They showed the liability of the complicated structure that the human army relied upon to flaunt its might and size. It had been the instruction of Sir Gerson, and the human armies had been constructed in accordance to pride and might.

With him as the enemy though it should not have been a surprise that he knew how to cripple the system he himself had been a cornerstone in constructing. Still though, the combined human army was caught in complete surprise. Still their pride flared up in anger at the initial halt towards a swift victory over the monsters.

“Manny...” the High Officer said with a calm smile towards the small gap between the tent flaps. Had it not been for him…

“Manny...” the High Officer said again with pain draining his calm smile. Had it not been for them…

When was that child going to be allowed by this world to forget the two Fusions? The High Officer did what he could. He adopted Manny. He gave Manny a home and a future which had been taken from him at Clinic Village. It was something the High Officer was capable of. The Hero of Xoff took it upon himself to care for one of the symbols of the ravaging plague and the First Fusion.

Manny was the only one that still wanted to pursue magic after the fall of Clinic Hill. That the High Officer took upon himself to nurture. Not by himself, but by bringing the child within the walls of the Noitaidarr Castle. He cared for Manny like a father, something the High Officer had never managed to before.

But then…

Then there was nothing he could do about what happened to Manny after the Second Fusion. There wasn’t anything he could do to help. He did not understand what it was the Manny had done or what it meant to the boy, so how was the High Officer supposed to help? He had sworn to not let what happened to him happen to Manny. The Fusion's Curse would not lay a finger upon the boy. His magic would be pure. His soul would be pure as well under the protection of the High Officer.

But Manny stepped out of that protection.

Manny willingly let the Second Fusion into his soul. He willingly approached it in more ways than anyone dared not to. He saved everyone. He defeated the Second Fusion by sacrificing himself. He sacrificed himself in front of his own family. In front of his own father. He gave himself up so that the High Officer could live.

For as much as the High Officer swelled with pride over having a son that was strong enough in both soul and spirit to make such a decision without any hesitation or care for what it would mean for himself, there was also a great shame within the High Officer. A shame that only a parent could feel when the sacrifice was from their child rather than themselves.

It should have been the High Officer that sealed the Second Fusion within his soul. It should have been him that took it upon himself to lock himself out of doing any magic again in his life. It shouldn’t have been Manny! Why did it have to be his son?

And for how much thought the High Officer had spent on the question, his answer was still the same as when he first posed it to himself. It hadn’t changed no matter how much he had tried to argue away from it.

It couldn’t have been someone else than Manny.

For who else could it have been, really?

The Royal Mage of Ice who was frozen in fear even more than his name would suggest when the news of the Second Fusion reached him? He who had not experienced any of the two Fusions at all? He who had not experienced any hardship in his life at all? Or would it have been the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr? She who could barely remember how to cast a spell anymore? Or would it have been Sarbor who would have claimed his second slay of the Fusion out of two as he sat cowering in that tent of his at the infirmary?

The two Monster Mages had plenty of time, but with the effort they put in they seemed happy enough with keeping the Second Fusion alive instead. Keep such an abomination alive to use against the humans after they had subjugated it, most likely. Another secret to their Cooperative Connection that they refused to share with the humans, even more likely.

“Damn them all.”

The collar which held together the front and back cloaks of the battle garments tugged at the High Officer’s neck as the back piece catched itself on the corner of the chair’s backrest. It only took the High Officer rolling his shoulder for the fabric to come loose, but it was still something that happened rather than did not. Would it had happened had he been wearing his old armor? Probably not.

However though, there were other situations where wearing heavy armor would have been obstructive, so it was not as if the new, lighter, and nimbler battle garments were worse on principle.

It was mostly that they weren’t tested yet. The theory was sound for their existence and their craftsmanship was of the highest quality. Even on such a short notice of just a few short months the entire combined human army was fitted with them. Up close one could see that the patterns differed from those garments requisitioned from Hjearta and those requisitioned from Xoff, but at a distance they all looked the same.

For the monsters they all looked the same.

The High Officer squinted at the sunshine that peeked through from behind the clouds above as he exited his tent which he had spent a bit too much time in. The preparations for the Final Battle were underway around him. The orders he had written and talked with the lesser officers about in his tent had spread out to instruct their respective divisions. There was commotion in the human camp. People were busy. Soldiers were preparing.

And the High Officer could see that the same was taking place across the grassy field as well. The large, purple flags were swaying differently. There were more of them than the day before. There were more of the monsters visible compared to the day before. There was magic in the air that colored the air above and around the monster camp as if different sunsets from different time of the year were flaunting how much more gorgeous they were compared to the other seasons.

So, so much color.

But come morn all of it would be white.

“High Officer!”

He afforded the approaching doctor a mere quick glance over his shoulder before returning his eyes across the vast field between him and the monsters. “Dr. Sarbor,” addressed the High Officer as he was joined on his side by the watch-checking human. The distinct click of its brass lid opening the High Officer was well-acquainted to. It was a weathered click which was in need of some lubricant. “Anything I can help you with?”

The watch closed together louder than it was opened with a thin, surrounding, and crystal-like shimmer around it. It lingered throughout the doctor’s weary exhale before dissipating into the quiet wind that smelled like wet grass. “You can start by deciding for once which honorific you want to be addressed as, Shuuja.” Snugly the watch fit into the single breast pocket on the dark felt vest layered over a stained shirt with both its collar and wrists rolled up.

“Abandoning the title as the Hero of Xoff as to show that you’re willing to capitulate fully to the Xoff and Hjearta kings was just a show of good faith on your end. I am grateful that you did so, as I’m sure all those in this army that were with us too.” Sarbor’s bushy mustache twitched. “However now that you’re to lead them again I’m sure they would want to follow the Hero of Xoff into the Final Battle rather than the High Officer of Humanity.”

“Well,” the High Officer began with a steady breath and a look to the side where a group of fletchers were servicing a crate of bows, “that certainly may be true.” He nodded, but the nods were mostly for himself.

“However you should know by now that this army is that of more than just soldiers of Xoff, Dr. Fech. You have treated those of Hjearta in their creed too, no? Surely you’re not to imply that the Hjearta soldiers are better than those from Xoff. That you’ve only treated soldiers from Xoff and not any from Hjearta?” The High Officer shook his head. “Doesn’t matter to me though as it is not because of the soldiers that I struggle with choosing which one to wear.”

“Not Rasliela, I assume?”

A quirked brow raised. It was enough to answer the question, but the Hero of Xoff wanted to say more than just the answer. “If anything she helped bring out the king from our king, did she not?” A small, silent pause threatened to grow further between the two before the High Officer cleared his throat.

“It was her last chance for glory and to make a significant change in the world, so it’s no wonder that she’s become...” The words refused to leave the High Officer’s tongue. “How would you call it?” he instead directed towards Dr. Fech. “In medical terms?”

“Languid towards the state of things?” Sarbor offered back. “Not too languid though as I suspect that her magic on my watch would have stopped functioning by then. Although...” He patted his breast pocket. “What with magic staying without any thought to it...”

The Hero of Xoff hummed. “Well, after this Final Battle we will finally be rid of this curse of ours. Be it by catharsis or be it by the monsters finally surrendering the last of their secrets about the Cooperative Connection. They will be willing to talk once they can no longer evade telling us the full truth.”

“And the risk of bringing forth a Third Fusion?”

The High Officer shook his head before Dr. Fech could finish his sentence. “There will not be an element of human casualty here today. It will not be applicable.” He made sure to keep as factual a tone as possible. “This is a battle with only one outcome. This is a battle that is as close to a formality as possible. We have everything on our side including a numerical advantage and the sun at our back.”

“Which we had at the battle with the Kings of Xoff and Hjearta as well,” reminded Sarbor with his arms folding over his chest and with a distant horizon forming in his eyes. “I do beg your pardon for not giving you my complete trust in this, but...” He closed them in quiet anticipation. “Who do we have to stop a Third Fusion should it happen? You trust in the abilities of your men and of those that stand on this side of the field.” A single, hard nod was cast over the quiet field. “But do you trust them?”

With just a slight tilt to his head the Hero of Xoff glanced at the doctor, bringing him back from the distant horizon he was soon to lose himself in. “Do you?” he posed with a visible heave to his breaths. “Your sister–”

“Your son,” Dr. Fech replied immediately, meeting the Hero of Xoff’s hard gaze with his own equal. “Don’t think this will be all over once this Final Battle is over. If anything it will make things even more complicated. This is not an end, but a new beginning for these troubled times we live in.” The doctor lowered his head, shaking it wearily. “Even more so with Rasliela sending away that division to lay siege to Jarasevo.”

The Hero of Xoff would have had some choice words for her had he been in the position to with that decision of hers. It didn’t really matter though as one platoon less would not make any difference in the battle come morn. Besides, the High Officer agreed in the old Royal Mage’s thinking that it might bring away the remaining two Monster Mages from the Final Battle if they heard that a contingency of the human army were on its way towards Jarasevo.

But that would be for over there though.

The High Officer was here.

At the Final Battle.

Ready to crush the monsters!

Chapter Text

Fear.

With bravery that found the end of what and where it could reach.

The growling beak of a snowy, bird-like monster began to loosen, both from its tensed sneer, and from its form. It broke in twine, like a poorly made sand castle. The feathers around the hollow eyes became coarse, just the same. The crust of the coarseness spread from where the High Officer’s sword had slashed the monster, with the deep wound already spilling the white dust onto the grass below before the monster could even have begun to realize what had happened.

As the monster fell over it shattered as it hit the arm that had killed it, breaking apart into chunks of white that collapsed into a disorderly pile for but a brief moment before it finally turned into dust. The crack of the white soul and the wind-like sound when its magic disappeared into naught but a small mound around the High Officer’s boots was the same as the cracks and wind-like sounds that surrounded him.

All around, the same brief flashes of white happened in the High Officer’s periphery. The air was thick with burnt. Thick with a smell of death that was unfamiliar to the High Officer, but which he instantly recognized as such after the first monster fell to his dust-covered blade. Its inscriptions of the Xoff insignia was filled in by the dust from so many monsters.

Did their magic blend together in there? Could they feel each other? Could they still see what was happening? How the Final Battle was progressing?

Did they still feel fear?

“Today we stand not as countries, but as humans!” the High Officer had rallied as the morning fog had eased to reveal a hazy, magical glow patrolling back and forth the same as he did. “Today we punish the monsters for the countless years of betrayal!” The magical glow was red and held high. “Follow me to become human once more! Follow me to reclaim our souls as our own!”

The cheers of an entire army raising their arms and weapons with the High Officer were as one. Their voices were his own. Their mission just the same. Their want just the same. Their redemption would be just the same. Their vengeance burned with the High Officer.

And they all followed him.

The rumble behind the High Officer as he was the first to descend down the small hill was invigorating. The roars of battle sung past him. He could feel all of their hearts beating as one. Soon he wouldn’t anymore.

Oh how he waited for that day.

That day that would only come by the defeat of the Monster Army. That day that would only come if the High Officer were the first to face the monsters. He would take them all on if he had to, but he didn’t. He had so, so many more humans with him just behind, charging like he did with his arms, eyes, and intention hidden behind his double-sided cloak and deep, hanging fringe.

It was thick enough to not let the approaching monsters see anything in them, however the High Officer could still see perfectly through the heavy sways of hair shaking before his eyes. He could see the approaching army clad in black armor led by a massive, horned figure dressed in gold and purple where all others were black.

The Monster King’s head was lowered, casting his eyes into a deep shadow that not even his conjured trident reached. Its hilt reached above him with a tied-on flag tugging hard in the charging wind, swooping down in an arc which swept over the many dark helmets of those around him. He and the High Officer would be the first to clash.

They would be the first to begin the Final Battle!

A blend of metallic resonance and magical sparking rung out in a deafening burst as the upper swing of the High Officer’s sword clashed against the thrust of the Monster King’s trident. For a split moment as the metal blade held fast between the red fangs of the magical trident the deep shadow over the Monster King’s eyes was illuminated a bloody red. His muzzle was furrowed with crevices deeper than ravines. His teeth bared the same as those of his trident. His eyes were narrowed, burning with hate.

Flashing.

Blinks of orange and blue lit up the returning deep shadow with glints of magic that concentrated around the Monster King’s trident like a thin shawl. First the magical trident streaked of orange, forcing itself through the High Officer’s blade. Then it streaked of blue, and with a thrust from the Monster King, his trident glanced off the High Officer’s shoulder. It hurt.

But it wasn’t meant to kill.

There was hesitation among the flashes of blue and orange in the Monster King’s eyes. There was a falter just before the blow was struck. There was hope that the strike would be enough for the High Officer to realize that he was outclassed. That he was going up against the Monster King. There was hope that he would stop this battle. That he would just go home and let there be peace.

“Stop this,” a deep, calming voice urged as the flag tied to the trident’s hilt hanging behind the Monster King was flung into the air as the two armies around the two military leaders came together in a melee unlike any other. Through the screams of battle and the violent clatter of weapons and armor the Monster King’s voice was still audible. Like he was speaking directly to the High Officer. Like he was speaking directly to his… “You know this is wrong. You know this is not what is best for any of us. For either monster or human!”

Did the High Officer know that?

“Please, I beg of you.”

Did it matter if he knew that?

“Stop this, please.”

Something else mattered more though, no matter what he knew.

“This is meaningless!”

And that was what he felt.

“Human!”

Determined.

“Huma–”

The individual clashes which all had blended together into nothing but loud disorientations stopped silent. Both human and monster alike and unlike turned to the seemingly random monster that stuttered a step to find a balance that was pouring away from them through the gap between their breastplate and their armored legs.

White and coarse dust rained thick for long enough for all to realize what was happening. Before anyone fully realized what had happened, a small echo of a crack emerged from within the armor, followed by a shatter that seemed to go on forever as the armor pieces began to fall over, spreading shimmering dust in the wind before collapsing in a hunk of its various pieces.

Hollow with naught but the pouring, white dust settling around the black metal.

A breeze navigated through the stunned armies, carrying with it the warm dust into the remainder of the fog that hadn’t dissipated yet. It had the air glitter like frost. It touched at all of the humans.

And their souls flourished.

The High Officer felt desire within him. He felt delight at what he had just witnessed. He felt the trident fang sting deeper in his shoulder, but more than that, he felt the fear of the monster that wielded it. He felt that there was nothing the monster could do to him.

And that the monster felt the same way too.

“Gorey!” came a desperate voice from behind in the ranks when the High Officer pulled away from the glancing stab of the Monster King’s trident. The High Officer reached for his sword which he had dropped, and as soon as his hand gripped at the hilt, he slashed at the Monster King. The steel cut only through air though. The image of the Monster King obscured by a thick spray of his own dust roared within the High Officer’s soul, unfulfilled.

The Monster Queen had managed to drag her king away in the nick of time, standing with him just half a step away from the High Officer’s reach. As he closed that gap, a desperate ball of magical fire emerged with haste and violent heat from the Monster Queen’s hands.

It exploded against the broadside of his sword which the High Officer defended himself with into long, licking flames that surrounded his body like grasping fingers. It singed at his skin and hair, and forced him back as his throat burned with his breaths. The smell of burning hair forced him to cut his long, hanging fringe. Strands of foul-smelling hair turned to ash in the wind, carried the same as the dust of the first-slain monster.

The Monster Royals flinched as they saw the High Officer’s eyes. “Gerson!” the Monster Queen called, urging the Monster King back to safety within the surrounding Royal Guards that took their place with quivering shields and weakly held spears.

From between them emerged a familiar sight for the High Officer. The monster who had trained him when he was young. A turtle monster with a conjured hammer slung over his shell and shoulders. The angled wings on either side of the hammer were just the same as when the High Officer first saw the monster talking about how to be a proper soldier one must always follow the orders given.

But it was the High Officer that gave the orders.

It was the High Officer that felt as connected to his army as the monsters did.

It was their fault.

And they would pay for it!

“Archers!” the High Officer called with his sword raised high. “The Monster Royals!” As strings were taut behind him the turtle monster barked orders towards the Royal Guard that had converged around the two Boss Monsters. “Fire!”

A hail of arrows were unleashed against the monsters, forcing them to converge around the Monster Royals to protect them. The tied-on flag at the end of the Monster King’s trident waved back and forth as he sliced blue arcs above him and the Monster Queen, slicing through the incoming hail with long swipes of his magical weapon. The arrows that descended outside his the reach of his desperate swipes were incinerated by the Monster Queen’s fire who’s dress and ears flowed sharply with her quick twists and turns to throw her magical fire where was needed.

None of the deadly volley reached their target, but that wasn’t what they were meant to do. “Charge!” That they turned to harmless splinter and ash without any real damage was nothing. “Force them even closer together!”

The monsters had converged around the Monster Royals, packing them tighter in their hefty armors. Their movement had been even more hindered. “Bring in their flank!” The High Officer had but to pack them tighter and tighter. He had but to restrict their movements more and more. All they could do was defend with magic, but never had monster magic been able to stave off the cut of a human’s sword. Never had they been able to defend against killing intent.

And never had the High Officer felt such a thrill for battle.

While the soldiers around him charged at the clenching monster army, he walked silent and steadily. The wind from the countless humans carving around him had his double-sided cloak reaching forward towards the monster he had forced eye contact with.

Through the barred visor he could see fear. He could see how the monster was trying to back away as much as it could, but it only served to further the High Officer’s plan. His soldiers attacked the monsters around the one the High Officer saw as his. He had not ordered them to, but they all seemed to understand what he wanted.

And he what they wanted.

Flakes of dust touched at the High Officer’s cheek, dotting it a shimmering white. He felt it blush as more and more dust filled the air between him and the one monster forced to feel the comrades around it fall and allow it to back away further and further. Did it even realize why it could back away? Did it even understand that its comrades were falling by the dozens around it? Did it even realize that the spear it held looked flaccid in its weak, unsure stabs in front of it? What did it think? What did it feel?

All useless questions.

“Keze! Help m–”

The desperate voice rang out over the echoing cracks of the souls around it and the loud collapse of the hollow armor pieces as the length of the High Officer’s sword plunged into the protection-less armpit made out of grass-green fur. One last stumble backwards was the last actions of the retreating monster before the High Officer felt that the resistance around the blade of his sword grew thinner and thinner. In less than a second his blade was all that held up the heavy breastplate, and slid down slowly as the High Officer retracted his blade with a slightly dampened metallic grind to it.

The blade was covered in white.

The dust was warm to the touch as the High Officer cleaned his blade with a methodical and indulging wipe that cleaned the blade, except where the insignia of his family crest was engraved. He left that filled with dust. A memory, of sorts. Many memories, in fact, as it was the dust of a monster. To him though it was but a single one. His first kill.

His first step to reclaim his soul as his own.

He could feel it, deep inside him. The curse he was given to by the Second Fusion was changing. It was reacting to the death of the monster he had slain by his own hands. It was becoming less of the stranger within him that felt like himself, and more like that it was himself that felt like himself. The dust that he had collected in his hand he clutched and held close to his chest. There was a flash of the fear from the monster he had slain. The last thoughts that ran through its mind.

The last name it thought.

With a throw of the dust he had in his hand the High Officer threw his head back.“Keze!” he roared into the dust that snowed down on his face, singing him with a different warmth than that of the Monster Queen’s fireball. “Keze!” he shouted a second time, feeling the flakes of dust tingle with hope on his flush cheeks. The hope that had held the monster back. The hope that had gotten it killed. It tickled like the bite of a hot pepper on his skin, collecting in the valleys of his scars and age. His skin had never before been so...sensitive. Never been so flush and so aware of what was touching it.

Was this what the soldiers that had raided the villages that chose to employ hope felt? Was this what they described when they said that they felt that the curse of the Second Fusion was as if gone for them when they felt the dust of the monsters on them? They had described it as but a hint of something. An idea that they felt so strongly about.

An idea that was proven correct.

“Our souls are ours!” sung the High Officer with his weapon raised high and with the remaining dust in the engraving trickling down and sparkling in the sunlight from behind. “The curse is fading!”

He had never imagined that it would be like this! To feel so in control of himself once again! He had forgotten it so! Like coming back to breathe freely again after weeks, if not months, of sickness. This…

This was the cure!

His blade found another monster, cut and slain. Another appeared behind its crumbling form, stabbed and slain. A third appeared on his flank with a magical halberd, but another human found it before it could find the High Officer. With each turn of the High Officer’s head he could see dust spreading. With each slash of his sword he could feel that the dust was glowing on him. He felt the slain monster’s fear radiate warmer and warmer until the beading sweat began to carve deep floods into the thick, white layer.

The humans were gaining ground quickly, cutting down each monster with less and less thought to the swings of their weapons. Magic kept them from approaching even closer to the Monster Royals who were responsible for the majority of the protective magic. However though, the humans were close enough to the Monster Royals that the aerial monsters had to descend and fight closer to the humans. With the quick, immediate charge there hadn’t been any time for any boulders to drop out of the sky and halt the approach of the human army. It was all going the way the High Officer had planned.

Monster dust was thick in the air. Thicker than the fog that had coveted the area at morn. It did not only affect the humans, silencing their curse, but it also did affect the monsters. The High Officer could easily see that. He could easily see how the thickened air had the monsters in turmoil. Many of them never even understood the situation they were in.

The weakness of their souls, not only when it came to raw power, but their interconnectedness as well. All this death of their kin around them must have brought them all into more fright than they themselves could handle. The fear of all their slain brothers and sisters thickening around them in the air, screaming their last in their souls louder and louder and louder.

The ferocity and desperation of the magic they cast showed that, and monsters turned to dust without neither a human’s blade or arrow touching them. A flying, feathery serpent collapsed from above, landing in haypile-sized lumps of dust that forced a few dozen humans back, dazed by the weight that fell on them and coughing from all the dust that filled their lungs.

It was the most damage any monster would ever do at the Final Battle.

Damage that was as if nothing though, still. The humans that staggered back were quickly replaced by those behind them, keeping on the pressure onto the wavering monster lines held together not by strength, but by the rallying cries from their Monster Royals.

Oh how the High Officer–

“Here.”

A bow and three arrows were handed to the High Officer by an archer. The smile underneath his long fringe was knowing, and shared with the High Officer who took two of them, leaving the last for the archer to hold onto, as well as the High Officer’s sword.

The air tasted of burnt from the dust that fluttered within it as the High Officer breathed in while notching one of the arrows and tensing the string. He had to blink away some of the dust which had gathered around his eyes to aim clearly, yet he felt that he could have seen where to shoot even with his eyes closed. He was aiming for two large Boss Monsters among their armored subjects.

How could he miss?

And he didn’t.

Yet he did not hit either. His arrow flew true towards its target, but when it closed in, it passed through a dome of sorts, prompting the Monster Queen to hit it with a fireball with but the barest of looks at it. A mere moment later the Monster King turned his head towards where the arrow had been loosened. As the smolder of the fire magic lingered his muzzle and visage was contorted in rage and fury.

However as the magic sizzled away with the falling ash from the wooden arrow dotting the white ground with black soot, the Monster King’s expression changed. It distorted from the rage and fury into fear. A different kind of fear from what was so immensely present within his subjects though. A fear not for himself.

But for the High Officer who’s eyes he had met underneath the burnt fringe.

It lasted for only a mere second, but there was no mistaken the compassion within the Monster King’s eyes. He saw something within the High Officer that completely removed the two from the Final Battle around them. He saw something that he did not see in the other humans. He saw.

“I am so sorry...”

And he offered all of his compassion.

“High Officer?”

The High Officer staggered, reaching for the archer next to him for balance. He found it at the hilt of his sword that he had given to the archer to hold. He found it as he clasped the hilt hard and secure. He found it as pushed himself back up on his feet.

He found it in the anger that bubbled within him like a raging cauldron.

“How dare he!”

A mere monster giving his sympathies towards a human! A mere monster mouthing that he was sorry when he was the one that could be defeated at any second.

“High Office–”

Wild steps had the dust on the ground spouting up into the air like geysers around the High Officer’s feet as he charged into the depths of the defending monsters, cutting down those that noticed him with ease, and those that did not with more ease. One beaked monster tried to step in front of him.

But it fell as well.

Before its dust even reached the ground the High Officer killed another one. Before its dust reached the ground another one was slain. Magic tore at him, chilling, burning, shocking, but he weathered through them all with blisters and red all over him. There was a trail of blood behind him, but not enough to stop him. He saw the Monster King getting closer and closer.

“King Asgore!”

The High Officer’s shout gave the Monster King enough time, but not the turtle monster that was his vanguard. Before the teal-glowing hammer could swing, the High Officer was past, sword raised high before descending upon the Monster King’s raised trident. The impact burrowed the hilt into the soil, drowning the purple flag in the dust of those its colors flew for.

The High Officer wanted this.

He wanted the Monster King to defend himself so that he could be defeated the most. The Monster Queen tried to help, but the archer that the High Officer ran from pelted her with arrows, forcing her to counter each one with her fire magic.

“What do you see!?” demanded the High Officer. “What do you see in my eyes!?” The hilt of the trident sunk even deeper into the ground. “Tell me!” Why did he show pity towards the High Officer? Why? “What did you see!” Why!

The answer came as the magical trident broke and the High Officer’s sword deflected against the Monster King’s armor. A deep cut discolored the otherwise-clean breastplate. Shining and polished like a king’s armor should be. Shined, polished.

Reflective.

The High Officer flinched at the eyes looking back at him from underneath the burnt fringe. He fell off the Monster King with a startled scream, crawling away until he felt his entire body being forced down into the ground. The magic from the monster with the blue ears sticking out of its purple hood stirred within him, and he felt...something...inside of him trash and ravage. It rose up from his chest, tasting fouler than foul. Viscous black spewed from his mouth, and his vision blurred. A different white from the blurry white of the ground landed in front of him, followed by a blurry cloak and armor.

“I didn’t see you,” came a deep and apologetic voice. “I didn’t see anything of you, human.”

I...It w-was…. It was…

“I only saw your soul.”