"Your aura has calmed down since yesterday, my prince."
How early should Asgore arrive for him to secure what he promised Toriel he would?
"However, it still feels contemplative, burdened. It's a different kind of burden from yesterday."
One hour? Two hours? Three? Five? Is it already too late? How early can he even leave? Would that be enough? He sure hope so. After all, he made a promise.
"There is a hint of something else completely, my prince."
Will she wear that dress again? It suited her so well. The way it followed her form, complimented the color of her eyes, how it-
"Something impure."
Impu-
"Hm?" Asgore tilts his head up from his contemplative state. "Forgive me. I was lost in thought."
The priestess smiles ever so patiently. "It's fading now."
Asgore can't help but detect a hint of disappointment in her words. Whatever it was, it was summoned from him letting his mind run away while in company. He should try and focus more carefully from now on. There's no doubt Toriel is gonna be more prominent in his aura from now on. Not that he has a problem with it, but the ones in the castle might. Subdue for now, keep her under control.
Do it for her.
He will, for her.
"Pride, my prince? Is it because of your newfound magic?" the priestess decides to pry none too subtly. "Would you mind summoning it for me?"
Asgore holds out his hand in preparation, but hesitates the summon. He casts a look over to the priestess, who bows her head ever so slightly. "For us to begin strengthen its bond to your soul, of course."
She wasn't completely able to hide the swelling curiosity in her voice, but Asgore doesn't feel in her aura that it isn't genuine. It could very well be that she is hiding it, just like he is Toriel, but if the priestess is curious and excited to help Asgore improve his magic, then why should he snob that?
His lips tug into a quick smile.
Snob, what a strange word in this context.
But enough of that.
Now to...focus...relax...feel his magic course throughout him. Direct it to his hand. Feel it tense with his very being...and...flex.
The dim light from the open candles dotted around the room is drowned in a glowing red shine that sparks from Asgore's hand. It grows in power as well as length, crackling with magical lightning that shoots up and down the long staff. From the top is formed three sharp spears that meld together with the staff to form his trident. The sensation runs through Asgore's entire body, and he feels his souls swell bigger than he's ever felt it before.
"Pride again, my prince?"
Asgore chuckles. "Yes, this I admit."
The priestess nods, clearly impressed. "You are allowed to indulge, but do know that it is not yet fully developed with your soul, despite its impressive length and girth. For example," the priestess motions her hand along the crackling lightning birthing and dying at various lengths and positions, "these are indicative of your magic not being completely connected with your soul. It is preferable for ranged magic, as connecting yourself to something you don't plan keeping in close proximity with your soul will cause the bond to become strained beyond your limits. Should you decide to make use of your magic from range it is also preferable to not have the bond be strong between you and it since it could confuse you to feel it impact from beyond your natural form. Many a combatant become confused when they feel the impact of their magic occur at lengths beyond what they could ever reach with their hand."
The priestess carefully turns Asgore's trident as she continues to inspect it. "Do you plan on using it defensively, offensively, or both? I will teach you both, of course, I'm just asking to see which one you want to be taught first, should you wish."
"Gerson has advised me to keep my magic balanced," Asgore answers with a thoughtful nod.
The priestess returns the nod. "As you wish, we shall keep it balanced." She taps her finger on the tips of the trident, and immediately retracts them while shaking the pain away. "Acceptable."
Asgore has to fight his smile from growing.
"Now," the priestess begins after hiding her finger behind her back, "having a more deeper bond when using your magic within melee range will result in more effortless movement of it. Your soul knows how you move, and so will your magic also move, without you even commanding it. You will move as one, strike as one, and defend as one."
The priestess returns Asgore's trident to him while giving it one last careful pat. "I hazard a guess that you've seen Sir Gerson and his magic? How he seems to move it without thinking? Strike his hammers in ways that shouldn't be possible?"
Asgore has felt that plenty of time, yes. If Gerson had paint on his hammers, Asgore's back would look like a painting. "I have, yes," he answers while containing the shiver that was summoned from him reminding himself of the abstract art dented in his back.
The priestess nods absentmindedly. "Yes, his movement with his magic is quite impressive."
Her aura…
"His strength with his weapons. The expertise that flows like a raging river with each strike."
There's something there…
"His confident laugh that rings out throughout the castle interior."
Something…
"And the way his shell gets all-"
"Impure?" Asgore asks out loud. It struck him so hard that the word just tripped out of his mouth.
The priestess clears her throat violently, and her aura is rapidly subdued. "I guess this will be it for today." She stands up quickly, almost swiping a candle with her robe. "We will continue more tomorrow, my prince." Her bow is hurried, and her walk towards the door even more so.
"But-" Asgore tries to protest.
"Tomorrow!" the priestess replies a bit louder than she wanted to. She slips through the door like a cross-breeze, and the door closes as if one slipped through it.
The room turns dark as the candles are snuffed out.
/
"Toriel!" her boss greets as she enters the door. "These barrels?" he asks with a thumb thrown over his shoulder.
Toriel reaches into her dress pocket and flashes the note Asgore gave her yesterday. She flips it onto the counter where her boss is standing. He picks it up, and flattens it out by rolling his shoulder on it, before opening it.
His jaw hits the ground with an audible thud. "This...this..."
"This is from the Royal Family!"
Toriel almost bites a hole in her lip as she curls them up. Her entire body tenses up.
Jyuona is here…
"...offering the right to place orders for Royal Purple as is the privilege of a Royal Supplier!" she finishes reading out loud. Toriel can hear Jyuona blink in bafflement even with her back turned against her best friend. "What? How? When? Toriel?"
"Yesterday," she answer while just barely tilting her head so it's just visible over her shoulder. "I found it outside the door yesterday."
Toriel's boss swivels on his chair that he was forced to sit down on. The floor planks sing their pained screams as he does. "When did you find it? I was the last one out yesterday, but I didn't find any."
"I..." Toriel clears her throat. "I came back a bit later when I realized I had forgotten something. My..." Toriel's eyes dart around what's in front of her, "knife."
…
Why?
"Your knife?" Toriel's boss wonders out loud. "When did you-"
"A while back," Toriel interrupts with a plastered smile. "Brought it here a while ago, actually. Took it home to sharpen it a bit."
Toriel looks to Jyuona, who just shrugs. He does the same. "Alright then." He returns to reading the note again. "So you found the two barrels, as well as this note last night?"
"Yeah."
Toriel's boss drags his smile into a quick and impressed frown. "Fair enough, should bring in some more guests if we advertise having Royal Purple back. I'll put in a weekly order from now on."
Toriel's boss saunters off into the office with a jolly whistle that turns muffled as he closes the door behind him. Toriel concludes that the coast is clear, and squats down to do a quick inventory of what kinds of wine she has currently for the evening to come.
Let's see…
Some of that windmill wine left, a couple of bottles with houses on, one with a sheep, a couple with-
"You got the note from the Prince, Tori?"
Jyuona's drink is almost spilled as Toriel flinches from the question, hitting her head on the underside of the counter with a thud so loud it turns the heads of the few patrons in the tavern at this hour. She drags a sharp inhale through her clenched teeth to cope with the pain from the impact. As her hand massages her head, she carefully pokes her chin over the bar counter. Her clenched teeth coupled with her pained frown has Jyuona jumping back with her bar stool to be out of Toriel's reach.
"I just..." Jyuona begins to defend, but seeing Toriel's seething look, she decides that her mouth will be safer inside her half empty tankard.
Toriel returns back down to continue her inventory. Where was she? Oh, right. Sheep, houses, windmill, some with vineyards, a castle, and a-
"But really, was it the Prince?"
Emerging like a raging avalanche, but one that flows upward, and with eyes peering so sharp it could cut through the thickest of bank vaults, Toriel again meets her friend's eyes. "Jyuona," Toriel states hard. "Didn't we talk about this yesterday?"
She nods. "We did, but yesterday your aura wasn't at all like this. I recognize it. It's the same you had when you landed this job. Lingering excitement. Royal Purple is good, but it didn't warrant this from your aura back when you first tasted it, so it wouldn't do that now despite how long you've been denied it."
"Maybe I've changed," Toriel challenges with a raised eyebrow.
"That I can agree on," Jyuona agrees on while sipping some of her mead, "but it's not about the wine."
"You're thinking it's about the Prince?" Toriel challenges again, but this time she has to consciously raise her eyebrow even higher since, well, Jyuona's right.
But there are things even more far fetched than Toriel wanting to see Asgore again, and that's admitting that Jyuona's right. It does strike her a bit though, not feeling comfortable sharing with her best friend. If she's forced to hide it this much, then how much does Asgore have to hide it?
/
"Where are you going, Asgore?"
"I'm the Prince. I go wherever in my own castle!"
/
He's the Prince though, shouldn't be too hard for him.
/
"Where are you-"
"Still the Prince!"
/
He did manage to smuggle out two barrels of Royal Purple, so how hard can it really be?
/
"Good news, Asgore!"
"Prin- Oh, what?"
"We've managed to seal the hole."
"You've..."
"Why are you carrying around those barrels, if I may?"
/
Perhaps Toriel should bring some of her own for the two of them to share. That bottle he brought disappeared rather quick, and if they plan to spend more time together, then perhaps they will need some more.
"Aaaaaand this is as much a proof as any!"
Toriel's snapped out of her thoughts. "Hm?"
"You disappearing into thought like that!"
"What do you mean?"
Jyuona scoffs as she raises her tankard to her mouth. "Exactly."
Toriel shakes her head and returns to her inventory for the third time. Maybe this time Jyuona would let her actually finish.
"You're not going back to that guy that lied to you, right?"
Of course she isn't. Jyuona's voice sounds different now though. Concerned, like how she was yesterday. Toriel sighs, and carefully stands up again.
"No, I'm not." Technically Toriel isn't lying. Last time she went out with Are, not Asgore. "He's gone."
"So what is it that's lingering inside your aura?" Jyuona pries again, now with her usual endearing curiosity. "Gotta be something."
"You won't believe me if I tell you that it is the Royal Purple, and that I can place orders for it again?" Toriel tries. She's not sure if it'll work, but it's her best explanation she can come up with right now. Not the real explanation, but the one that sounds the least like a lie. "It's gonna make us even more prestigious than the sign extension. Royal Supplier and Royal Purple on tap? That's gonna bring in floods of patrons."
Jyuona holds her eyes on Toriel's while the rest of her face underneath is covered by her tankard. After a long drink she finally nods. "I believe you, Toriel." She quells a burp that almost has her cheeks exploding from the pressure. "You're my friend, why wouldn't I?"
Right…
"You are too," Toriel sends back along with a warm smile. "You're a complete and utter character," she adds while tilting her head, "but you're still my friend."
Jyuona leans arrogantly over the bar with her arms folded underneath her torso. She raises a confident eyebrow. "And what does that say of your own character that you're friends with me."
Toriel whips her towel an inch away from Jyuona's face, but it barely summons a blink from Jyuona. She leans her head forward, still with her eyebrow high. "You need glasses, Toriel."
"Would you look at the time!" Toriel exclaims while turning around to the clock behind her that isn't there. "It's time for you to go be annoying somewhere else, Jyuona. You mustn't dawdle! What if you're late to your appointment of being a splinter underneath someone's nail?"
"I get the distinct impression that I'm not wanted here," Jyuona replies with snark so prevalent it could be bottled and sold for ages to come.
"I understand that," Toriel agrees, "but that's because that's what I'm saying."
"Is that so?"
"Yes." Toriel waves her towel in Jyuona's face. "That is so."
Jyuona swats it away, and finally breaks her facade. "You keep giving your customers this sorta treatment, Toriel." She dismounts her bar stool. "I'll see you later!"
Toriel waves her friend goodbye, and as she turns t continue her other duties, she spots a new face looking perplexed at Toriel.
"She's a good friend of mine," Toriel explains.
The patron nods. "...Right."
Now, for Toriel's actual purpose of her inventorying. What to bring with her tonight?
/
"'Scuse me, pal?"
Asgore peeks an eye open, seeing a blue monster hunched over with his hands in his pocket and a tooth picker poking out the side of his mouth. His dragon-like posture is quite remarkable, but his size isn't really the biggest Asgore's seen in his life.
"You gonna be here for a while?"
Asgore nods quietly before closing his eye again. He exhales the distraction, and coils his legs tighter to regain his focus.
The snap of a finger next to his ear has him flinch, and again he opens one eye.
"It might've sounded like a question, pal, but it really wasn't," the blue monster explains while nodding his head condescendingly. He throws a claw over his shoulder. "Beat it! I promised my date I would show her this view. It's one you should really share with someone special in your life. You've been sitting here alone, time to let someone else enjoy it. The fact that you've had your eyes closed is your own fault."
"I'm waiting for someone too," Asgore informs as calmly as he can. He closes his eye again, and-
"Listen here!" the blue monster pushes the two of his palms against Asgore's shoulder. He hesitates for a moment as him pushing against Asgore proves as much effect as if he would push against the castle walls. "I've been waiting a long while for this date, planned for weeks, and I'm not gonna let a cross legged bench warmer like you keep that from happening. I've already passed numerous Royal Guards to make this happen, pal, so don't think you can just sit this one out. You've already done that plenty already."
Numerous Royal Guards?
Asgore chuckles to himself. The sound, however, doesn't come with a label stating who it was meant for, and the increasing sharpness of the blue monster's breathing makes it loud and clear that he believes the chuckle was intended for him.
He scoffs as he drags two hands across both of his noses. "So that's how it is?" the blue monster says as he pushes himself upright from Asgore's shoulder. "A comedian? Well, why don't I bring with me a crowd for you to do some standup then? We'll see how will be laughing when you won't even be able to stand to do your routine. You'd best be good at improv."
That sounds like a threat, but before Asgore can rebuke, the blue monster walks off with his hands shoved deep into his pockets.
Asgore shrugs, and returns to his meditation.
He needs to focus, consolidate all of his experience. Collect it in his soul, and let it surge through him.
He needs to come up with a pickup line that's good enough for Toriel!
/
Hm…
There are quite a few monsters making their way to where Asgore said he would meet Toriel. They seem a bit miffed as well. Moving in one singular group, snapping their fingers rhythmically.
Strange…
Did he bring a group of bards with him?
But didn't he want to keep this somewhat of a secret? Wouldn't monsters serenading bring attention?
Very strange indeed.
And look! There's even a crowd!
"Alright, pal!"
He has friends? Outside the castle?
"Why don't you share with us all that joke you were so fond of?"
Toriel's brow just keeps furrowing. What is Asgore up to?
"Hey! I'm talking to you!"
There's lightning in the air. Smells like trouble. The snapping seems to have stopped as well, can't be a good sign.
If only she could see over this large monster standing in the front row! Toriel looks around.
Perhaps...
/
That sure is a large monster standing in the front of the crowd.
"Hey!" the blue monster repeats again, louder. "Last chance to beat it!" He puts his arms on Asgore's shoulders. "I'm serious."
Asgore casually saunters his eyes to that of the ones seething at him like the wildest of fires. He should probably deal with this before Toriel gets here.
"I was here first," Asgore answers calmly. "This is public property and not owned by any individual. It is not yours, nor is it mine. However, me being present here before you means that I was here first. I would've offered to share with you, but your manor speaks volume to you not considering the option should I give it to you. Take your hands off of me, please."
"How about I add more?"
"That's the opposite of what I asked for."
A loud whistle cuts Asgore's ears, and he winces from the sound. When he recovers, he spots a handful more monsters closing in on him.
Seems that negotiations have been cut short.
Asgore lifts his arms out from underneath his robe.
He extends it to his side.
And flexes his wrist.
/
Toriel scrambles up the last couple of roof slates. She finally has a good view of what's happening and-
Oh no…
/
Asgore keeps his head low as he tenses his arm. A red staff grows from his hand, and he brings the end down on the ground for support as he stands up. He extends his back, towering over the blue monster, who scrambles back in fear.
"You..." Asgore begins before a rapid movement at the edge of his vision catches his eye. He subtly looks over with one eye while keeping the other on the blue monster.
It's Toriel!
/
What the hell is he doing!
/
Why is she waving? Where is she waving? Away?
/
Yes!
Come here!
Alley!
Now!
/
"You…" Asgore says again as he looks back at the blue monster. Toriel's climbing back down, so he has to do something quickly now. "You can have the place." He takes a bow, unsummoning his magic in the process. "Excuse me."
The crowd is left stunned, allowing Asgore to slink through it quickly and duck into the alley Toriel was pointing to without anyone following with naught but a perplexed look.
/
"What are you doing?" Toriel shouts through a whisper. "Why the crowd?"
"I...I held the place for us, and then this monster-"
Toriel hushes Asgore, and drags him further into the alley as the crowd starts dispersing behind him.
"It's not even the right place!" she shouts again through a more harsher whisper.
/
It's...not?
"It's not?"
/
"It's a couple more streets up." Toriel can barely finish her sentence. "It's...it's-"
Now it's Asgore turn to hush her, and catch her, as Toriel bends over forward in a fit of laughter.
He. Is. So. Hopeless!
Oh my god!
"You don't even know how to read street signs!"
/
Asgore can feel his blushing radiating warmer than the Sun.
/
Toriel manages to control herself, but just barely. She stands up on her own, drying her eyes. "Wow!" she says through a chuckle. "Can't blame you for not making interesting dates though, my Prin-" Toriel's cheeks almost explode as a new fit of laughter surges through her.
Asgore again has to catch her.
"The Prince doesn't even know his own capital!"
/
At least she's laughing…? Can't be a bad sign...right?
"So...um…" Asgore says with a mountain of fluster. "Should we go to the right place, perhaps?"
/
Absolutely hopeless.
Again Toriel swipes her eyes with her hand. "Yeah, sure." A last chuckle surprises her. "After you."
/
Now's the chance! The meditation! All that time spent! Do it!
Asgore opens up his palm for Toriel. "Would you hold this for me?" he asks with a warm smile.
Toriel's laughter stops dead in its track. Her furrowed brow glances down to Asgore's hand, and then up to meet his eyes. She scoffs. "Come on now, Prince. I'll show the way."
Asgore sighs…
So close.
/
Why is he so good at those?