Chapter 22

Jonas rushed to Asriel's office door, winged arms filled with scrolls, papers, paintings, and a thick book. Dodging several staff and a few children, he paused for a moment to compose himself before knocking.

"Come in," Asriel called.

Jonas opened the door. Asriel sat behind his desk, reading from a very large file, a cup of tea long cold at his elbow. Gabriel sat in the chair across from the desk, hands in his lap, waiting.

"I must start with an apology, Your Highness. Her Serene Majesty asked me to research this, but before I tell her what I found, I have to tell you first."

Asriel closed the file and put it aside. "I doubt Frisk will be mad about that. Did you find something on the Farrath?"

"A lot." Jonas shut the door and came in, gently laying the contents of his arms on the coffee table in front of the office window.

Asriel came from behind his desk to sit at the couch while Gabriel lifted his chair and turned it toward the coffee table.

Jonas lifted the book. "We'll start with this. It's a history of the fae penned by Abergine Rosids, the first Kaparian royal historian. She served the first Dreemurr king. According to this, the fae were once tribal groups. At the discovery of humans, the fae united and chose a king and queen from whom a royal line would descend.

"The royal line works like this: the queen will choose a king from the common folk, usually a hero or male of great measure. This male will be called the High King and father her children. She is then to give birth to a daughter to be the next queen and multiple sons to who are to be bound to a tribal area and unable to leave it.

"The Farrath is the first born son of the first king and queen of the fae who rankled at being bound to an area, never to become king. He vowed that if he could not become king, he would take the children of the fae and build his own kingdom. He committed some unnamed act of evil to unbind himself from his land and began to kidnap fae children.

"The fae rose up against him but whatever he did to unbind himself from his land prevented him from being put to death. Instead the Farrath was bound so that he could never do harm to another fae. And so long as he never harms another fae, the fae as a whole cannot act against him."

"I smell a loophole," Asriel stated flatly.

"A half fae child is free game because of the human part of their soul, right?" Gabriel asked.

Jonas nodded. "Yes. The Farrath will kidnap a half fae child to syphon power from their souls. He has been doing this for thousands of years."

"Making him a force to be reckoned with. Then why all the hiding?" Gabriel asked.

Asriel sighed. "He's waiting for a half fae of noble blood to give him the final power boost, enough to overthrow the fae court without retribution on their part."

Jonas lifted one of the scrolls. "This is a prophecy written by an unnamed fae seer: A Piercer born to the House of Asterenath shall rise and defeat the First Son or become his Throne."

"Piercer. Like Tauronen the Piercer." Asriel took the scroll and frowned at it. "The epithet that described his ability to pierce the veil between human and fae."

"Does Frisk have that power?" Gabriel asked.

"Oh most assuredly!" Jonas exclaimed. "When the prophecy mentioned a Piercer, I dug around for information on them. Did you notice that Her Majesty has no accent? That, no matter where she goes or whom she talks to, she appears to fit right in? From what I understand, that is the sign that a particular child is a Piercer."

Jonas rolled out another scroll. "A half fae of noble origin is rare on its own. Fear of the Farrath is enough to keep them from even interacting with humans, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. But even among those children, a Piercer is rare. Her Majesty would only be the fourth in several thousand years."

Asriel paused for a moment before setting the book down and sitting back, hands in his lap. "Why do you keep calling Frisk 'Her Majesty?'"

Jonas gave him an exasperated sigh. "You know damn well why."

"He's got you there, Azzy," Gabriel chuckled softly.

Asriel cracked a smile. "Did my grandfather say anything else?"

Jonas shook his head. "No. But he did give her Ebott's ring."

Asriel sat up, smile wide and eyes brightly lit. "That is very good to know."

Gabriel's phone rang. "It's Undyne." He answered and put it on speaker. "Yes?"

"Hey Gabe. I need another hand. Someone to keep an eye on the Shadles."

"The imposter got away?" he asked.

"Yeah. Contingency teleport on knock out. I don't want him walking around with Grace or Patrick's face."

"And Davis?"

"In custody. I'll give you the rundown in 60 and submit a report tonight."

"Can you hear me, Dyne?" Asriel asked.

"Yes, Highness."

"Keep Miss Bridges at the guest house until the imposter is taken care of."

"You got it, Azzy." Undyne hung up and turned to Natalie. "You're staying in the guest house for the time being," Undyne said.

Natalie stepped away from Chara. "But my ex is-"

Undyne cut her off, "This is about the imposter. He knows Chara's seeing you and I don't want to give him the opportunity to use you to get to Frisk."

Natalie's jaw dropped. "We are not seeing each other."

"Could have fooled me," Frisk said.

"Don't be cheeky," Chara admonished.

Frisk rolled her eyes. "Just stating the obvious."

"I'm not warning you again."

"Fine," Frisk sulked.

"*what's the good word?" Sans asked.

Frisk came around Sans to look up at Undyne. "You mentioned the Shadles. Are Grandma Grace and Grandpa Pat going to be okay?"

"Most likely. But I'm not taking any chances." She ruffled Frisk's hair. "Stay close to home for a bit, punk. If you get too lonely, give the Wolves a call to come up."

Frisk nodded.

Undyne sighed and gave Chara a hopeful smile. "You wouldn't happen to know how to teleport trace."

"Nope."

Natalie raised a hand. "It doesn't help us now, but I could, provided my target ate a piece of food I had programmed for it."

"Huh." Undyne pointed at Natalie. "Hold that thought. I might need it."

"Learn that in culinary school?" Chara asked with a smirk.

Muffet crossed her arms over her chest, non-existent nose lifting into the air. "She learned it from me."

Natalie nodded.

"Can you trace the teleport?" Undyne asked.

Muffet dropped the drama. "Like Nat, not unless someone ate a piece of food I had programmed for it."

Frisk frowned. "Programmed? Don't you mean spelled? Or magicked?"

Natalie shook her head. "No. Infusing magic into a physical object is artifice. And artificers don't bespell their materials, they program them. Like coding or smithing, cooking is a process. A procedure. The recipe is the procedural base for the magic programmed into it."

Muffet snuffed and wiped at her bottom most eyes. "You remember all my lessons."

Natalie smirked. "Yes. But I'd forgotten how much of a drama queen you are."

Muffet's hands dropped and her eyes narrowed, but her smile spoiled the rotten look.

Undyne resisted the urge to groan. "I'd forgotten how much of a drama queen you are too." She rubbed her head with one webbed hand. "Muffet, you hold the thought instead. I don't want to take non-guard into danger if I don't have to."

Muffet nodded once. "I'll whip up a few things as soon as I'm in a kitchen."

"Are your wards good?" Undyne asked.

Chara nodded. "Yes."

"All right. Sans, head back to hang with Tori. Muffet, go home and bake up some tracking food. You three stay here."

Chara turned to Frisk as Sans disappeared and Muffet left with Undyne. "Are you finished with your school work for the day?"

Frisk nodded.

"Good. Let the doggos out. I put them in your room so they wouldn't attack the police."

"If they peed on my floor, you're cleaning it up," Frisk huffed.

"Well... Naturally. But they're better trained than that. Scoot."

Chara opened the door for Frisk and she went in with a shrug. He gave Natalie a slight bow and gestured for her to enter.

Natalie sighed and went inside. "Thank you."

"Are you all right? You're allowed not to be."

Natalie toed her sneakers off and kicked them vaguely onto the shoe tray next to the door. "It's weird. Something that's haunted me for a very long time is just suddenly gone."

"Only to be replaced with a new kind of danger?" Chara asked.

"Yeah." She shook herself out. "Anyway. Lunch. The curry can go in the microwave for a minute or two to reheat it."

"All right." Chara stepped out of his boots before heading to the kitchen. He picked up the dish from the bar and popped it in the microwave, off setting the lid to prevent a vacuum situation. "Thank you for making lunch."

"You're welcome." She stood at the edge of the kitchen, fidgeting a little. "Can I have another hug?"

Chara put his arms around Natalie, holding her against his chest.

Frisk peeked at them from the stairs and went back up to her room, poking her laptop awake.

"Everything cool?" Catti asked, her face among the rest of the wolves on the video conference.

"Yes and no. They got the guy after Miss Bridges. But the guy walking around with Chara's face got away."

"Dad," Susie said. "He's your dad."

Frisk gave her a frown.

"Is Miss Bridges still up there or will she go back to her place?" Parker asked. He shared a screen with his sister Addison.

"She's still here for the time being. Why?" Frisk asked.

"Dr. Whitman said we should pick her brain about using North Star's petals," Noelle answered.

"How soon can you guys get here?"

"Not long," Catti said. "Most of us ditched for snow today."

"It'll have to be without Alan and I," Felix said.

"I can't make that kind of walk in this snow," Alan said.

"And even bundled up, I'll be a fish-sicle before I get up the ridge," Felix added.

"Susie? Will you be okay to come up?" Frisk asked.

"Yeah. Town's plowed. Dad can drop me at the bottom of the drive. See you in a bit."