"Another question, if I may, Kry?"

"Only if you walk next to me, Cter," the Xoff-born mage replied with a courteous tilt of his head. He lifted his elbow gently inside his robe to indicate for Cter to step up next to him. "If anything you should be walking in front of me if it is status you're keeping behind me for." His long steps shortened to match a comfortable pace for Cter. Once she caught up Kry angled down a warm smile towards her. It was familiar to the first one he gave her when they first met at Krygino's tavern, albeit not as...patronizing? It was only when Cter saw the smile without that tone that she understood that he was being patronizing before.

"Would you say the same to Sund? About him walking in front of you?"

Kry's stoic and stone-solid expression bent briefly into a fluid and quivering tug of his lips. "Sund?" he forced out on the cusp of laughing. Like summoned from an infinite darkness, Kry's sleeved hand emerged from the depths of his mantle to help quell his vibrating snicker. "Unlike you that needs to be pushed forwards with encouragement, Sund needs to be yanked back lest his own magic gets to his own head. I won't say that it is the reason you shouldn't take after him with your own magic, but I'm also not gonna say that it isn't." His wink was louder than his words. "He's yet to put up one of his barricades when I'm reaching out for his collar so I guess there's still some small part inside of him that understands that he should keep his pride a bit less on his sleeve." Kry waved his. "In all ways imaginable and unimaginable."

Cter looked at her own.

"Yours leaning heavily towards unimaginable," Kry continued while alternating between looking at the spiraling pattern on Cter's sleeve and what was ahead of the two lest they walk into something or someone. "We're all quite excited to see what you can do once you get your magic understood and under way. If there's anything you wonder or want to experiment with, you just have to mention it. I know we've said it plenty before, but you've never really taken us up on that."

There were some reasons for that…

"Since it's unimaginable it's difficult to figure something out."

And that was one of them.

"Fair enough," replied Kry with a nod. "We're working to try and figure things out too. While our possibilities for our horizons has widened quite significantly, it's not widened this much before. We're all in a bit of a stupor with your new magic, Cter. In a good way!" he quickly added, yet with his posture still straight as a board.

There was also the other of reasons.

"I also don't want to do something that's too drastic. Don't want to overreach and put others in danger."

Cter could feel Kry's eyes turn somber as they fell onto her sleeve again. "Understandable," he agreed with gentle emotion. "From what I understand you've already experienced that twice now. Once by yourself, and once via Bonny's memories. We won't push you, Cter."

"Thank you."

"Of course."

The two Monster Mages passed a few marble-covered corners in silence before Kry remembered. "Oh, right. What was your question, Cter?"

Her question? What ques– "Oh!" she realized as her memory was jogged by Kry mentioning it. "What would've happened with Idyll had she been lying about cooking privately for me?"

Kry held his eyes against Cter for a moment or two to make absolutely sure there wasn't anything she was hiding. "That would be up to Sir Gerson's discretion."

As if anything he did was discrete in any sense of the word.

"She's been acclimating very nicely to her changed magic though, so I think it would've just been a stern talking to though." Kry leaned down closer towards Cter. "Just don't mention it to her, please? I know she's your friend and all, but we can't really have her throwing around your authority on whims suiting her needs and wants whenever. I understand if it's a bit difficult to stomach, but your rank is towering over hers. What I say may be contain a bit of treason in it, but one could argue that Queen Toriel was elevated to the purple just because she had such sway over King Asgore when he was the Monster Prince. It's not correct at all, but it's an example of sorts."

Cter understood.

Kinda.

But kinda was enough.

She thought.

"I getcha."

Maybe.

"Frioke's been impressed with how well things have progressed, so that's enough of a quote unquote reason for her to have job security despite her abrasive nature made even worse by the Royal Chef Barbeqa. Again, I'd appreciate if you didn't tell her about it, Cter. Don't think of it as keeping a secret, think more about it as not giving her a stick for her to go hurt herself or others with."

Kry quite immediately recognized his mistake in mentioning that. He saw in Cter's eyes what she was about to reply to him with, and his shoulders tensed as he looked straight forwards with his expression turning to dark granite. "Like how Kurant too doesn't have the stick of how Bonny acted after the glow of her soul?" Cter's words were hard, yet Kry's eyes remained evasive, peering through his glasses as if they weren't there. The hallway the two Monster Mages walked through was devoid of any Royal Guards, giving Cter the perfect opportunity to push the question. "How much of it does she know, Kry?"

"Not here," he answered without emotion and motion. "And it is not like with Idyll Fech, Cter. Kurant can't know. It'll sever the last thread she has left with her magic. Her magic stagnated that day." Kry's step elongated, causing Cter to fall behind him a few lengths. "It exists in a bubble I dare not even look at for fear of it shattering. The same is felt by Bonny, despite what he did."

Cter could see the glow of Kry's magic shine through the fabric of his mantle. It painted the base of his shadow a powerful blue.

"Despite, and despise."

On skates of intricately weaved ice Cter slid on the marble floor next to the red carpet Kry was taking his long steps on. It took her a few pushes with her magical skates casting colorful shimmers with her steps, but eventually she managed to place herself next to Kry again. "She will find out one way or another."

Kry met the challenging gaze skating next to him with his own. "Not from us. It'll be from something outside our control." A quick glance was all it took down towards Cter's sleeve. "You know first hand why. I can see it in your eyes, in the windows to your soul, that you know that I'm right about this. You care about Kurant, and so do I. Her soul has made itself manifest though, Cter. We laid witness to it, and she did not. It caused her to lose consciousness, as if it separated itself from her. That is the first, and only time, I've witnessed that. Her soul rejected what we did to try and help it. Hers do not want magic, that was clearer than crystal glass. It wants her to be human, but we need her to be monster too. The world needs her to be monster too."

With a displayed clench of his sleeved hand, Kry created an angled stop our of blue magic in front of Cter's feet. It collided with her magical ice, and threw her off them onto the red carpet again. After a few stumbles, Cter found her footing, and when she stood up again Kry planted a large hand onto her shoulder. "Kurant needs to be monster too," he stated with everything he could muster. "That's why I'm keeping quiet about it." He gave her shoulder a squeeze which was as calming as it was filled with sorrow. "That's why you need to keep quiet about it too. Understand that there are no other above us to make the harder decisions, Cter. We are at the very top, and because of that we are the ones that make the decisions that we'd rather have made further up the ladder. Kurant can not know about her soul, for if she does then her soul will know as well, and shut away the magic she has left."

For as much as Cter wanted to say something against that, she couldn't. It wasn't even Bonny's memories trying to protect themselves. No, it was all Cter. Kurant was so excited when Cter became impressed with her lifting up the entire carriage with her stasis magic. To have stagnated for so many years and to have a mage so much younger than her be impressed with her magic must've been bliss to Kurant. Cter wasn't gonna take that away from her, even if it meant adding another secret to the pile.

In a way she understood even before she asked Kry.

She had to ask though. She had to make sure that she was justified in what she felt.

And for that she thanked Kry.

"Your aura is still confident, Cter," the tall Monster Mage noticed as he returned his hands behind his back. "You're progressing into your role. The Xoff trip did more to you than just giving you new magic. It'll be interesting to see you once you return from Hjearta next." He motioned with his head for the two to continue their walk.

"When am I traveling there?"

The quick, returning question had Kry a bit surprised. "You don't want some time to stretch your legs after the travel to Xoff?" He quirked his brow with a tang of amusement. "Although I guess you're eager to see your human family again."

"I am," Cter nodded, but paused midway, leaving her head tilted down towards the intricate pattern of the magically weaved hallway carpet. "If you don't mind me asking, Kry?"

"About my human family?" he correctly guessed before inhaling deeply through his nose. "You've talked with Kurant about hers, I assume?" So confident was Kry in his assumption that he didn't even wait for Cter to answer. The lack of any change in her aura was enough of an answer for him. "If I told you my family predicted the existence of Monster Mages before I became the first one, would you believe me?"

"I don't see why you would lie about that?" replied Cter along with a loose shrug that bounced her robe and mantle to a heavy land back on her shoulders. "Did you come from a prestigious family in Xoff?"

"I did," Kry answered while motioning which way Cter and he needed to take in the next fork. It wasn't really necessary as Cter already knew that they needed to take the next right to get to the more secluded staircase rather than the main one. Was Kry about to say something he didn't want to reach ears other than Cter's? Family secrets? Monster Mage secrets?

"I hope you've not ruined another of your water basins with your hair gunk, Kry!" came a shriek from the left side of the fork. Cter recognized the voice. It was Fang Shuey, the custodial ghost. "Do your experiments on more easily cleaned vessels or vessels that are easier to justify disposing!"

Cter's eyes were naturally drawn to the top of Kry's head, onto the dark, shiny, and slicked-back hairstyle of the much-taller Monster Mage. "You don't use magic?" she asked with disbelief. "Not stasis?"

"A mixture of different saps loosened with alcohol," was the answer while Kry ran his naked hand over his solidified strands. "Doing it with magic makes my scalp dry and gives me dandruff. Doesn't smell as good as the mixture either. My hair concoction, if you will."

Cter didn't really, no.

"Was something Bonny Sallus helped me with during our time studying at the court at Noitaidarr Castle in Xoff. He studied at the infirmary under the castle's doctor while I took an apprenticeship under the court mage there. We had a Cooperative Connection of our own there that birthed a strong friendship which we still keep strong even today." Kry tapped on the rim of his glasses with a sleeved finger that had his lines glow gently with each tap. "In exchange for him figuring out what type of glasses I needed, I helped him with lending some magic when he needed it. Not lending like you're familiar of, Cter. More lending in the sense that he waved his hands while I was nearby and I projected it as close as possible to whatever he needed the magic to be."

"Which was why you needed the proper glasses," Cter could conclude which earned her a smile and an affirmative nod from Kry. "Did your family get you into that apprenticeship?"

"While they did pull some strings, my apprenticeship at Noitaidarr Castle was more a reverberation of that string-pull. What they managed for me was a private education in magic. Destined me for greatness as soon as they caught whiff that I had magical potential. It was the only way for me to properly express any emotion, so it was no wonder I took it to heart and soul. Addicting, you could call it." Even with how Kry put every fiber of his being into speaking casually, there was still a flair to his voice that he couldn't suppress. His face turned slightly disappointed hearing himself. "I...understand if I'm coming off as a bit...aristocratic? I really don't know how to explain it other than just the truth, and the truth is that my parents did spend an exurbanite amount of money to give me the education worthy of becoming the First Monster Mage."

It was quite the sight for Cter seeing the stoic Monster Mage Kry borderline squirm with embarrassment at his earlier life. "If anything you're giving me more reason to believe you with how you're reacting."

The slight solace did help Kry regain some of his posture. "I suppose." His shoulders were still looser than normal though. "Thing is, the more I've been a Monster Mage the more I've come to understand how much of a carpet I had compared to Kurant, Sund, even you, Cter. Perhaps that was what was needed for the First Monster Mage to form, but with the struggle Kurant has had, both from her knee and her upbringing, and with how you've grown from my first evaluation the day you arrived in Jarasevo, old-fashioned is the only real descriptor I feel applies to me."

There was a wisdom behind the way Kry's eyes softened. The same with how his aura took on an almost autumn hint to its presence. Not decay, but a recognition of the passing of time. Not to be lamented, but understood, and that understanding passing on to those whom are still in their spring. Fallen down explaining to the bulbing flowers underneath the tree while still on the branches. "Not in a bad way, of course. With my years I've both gained and fashioned more respect than my parents' money could ever buy. They gave me a foundation, but it was still up to me to build upon it. They wanted a prodigy that would carry the family name to new heights, but it was their hubris that caused me to lose it. I wouldn't say that I abandoned it, but I would say that I left it behind with them once it was clear what I was to become." A deep, proud inhale stole most of the air in the castle. "A Monster Mage."

The deserved pride radiated from Kry with such ferocity that it almost had the Delta Rune etched on his mantle stand up like the one on his sleeve.

"What I needed to do went above any family bond. It was not a bond I severed without it cracking my heart, but it was a bond that my parents did all they could to still have it remain a bond. Not me though." Kry shook his head with his lips curled inwards. "Not me at all. Only the name. Only their name they wanted to keep related to them. Had they'd been allowed their way it wouldn't be the first of his kind, the Monster Mage Kry. It would have been the Monster Mag–"

His teeth pressed down on his lips to silence them.

"It's been years since I last had these thoughts..."

An unsettling rumble surged through Kry's aura, darkening it for Cter. "Forgive me," she said with haste almost as a choked cough. "I only..." What was it she really wanted? Why did she ask about Kry's family, exactly? "Forgive me," she repeated.

Because she didn't know.

"No," Kry rebutted with a focused expression to help disperse the deep shadow that hatched onto his face. "No, don't ask for forgiveness, Cter. I needed to be reminded." His hands clenched in front of him. "If I get complacent I may just as well slip into the same path my parents did. They wanted the best mage that had ever walked their land and beyond as their legacy. As what others would congratulate them about. Even if I've now lived a life as a Monster Mage for far, far longer than I lived underneath their expectations and grooming, that impression will be with me until I die. When that happens though I want my fallen down to not be like theirs. To not be that of bitter anger that they were robbed of what they saw as an investment to expand their clique and prestige. I've already fallen down that path once already."

Kurant's knee…

"And I need to be reminded to not succumb to the temptation that befell my parents. I may be a monster in all ways but my flesh and blood, and that flesh and blood is the same as my parents'. It is the only mark of theirs I can not shed."

There was a cold chill going up Cter's spine from the way her sleeve reacted to what Kry said. There was a familiarity dripping like drops of honey down Cter's spiraling lines from Bonny's memories. "Was that one of the reasons behind the surgery?" The drops became heavier. "About the human soul?"

"It would've been far in the future perhaps even today had we'd been successful in the way we wanted to be," said Kry with a distant horizon reflecting in his eyes. "But yes, it was something I considered back then. If we could understand exactly what the human soul was, would it have been possible to create another vessel for it?"

The shock in Cter's voice clogged her throat that it took her a few irregular gasps for her to say her sentence properly.

"To become a monster without flesh and blood?"

How…

How ever would that be possible?

"You are entirely correct in your reaction, Cter," Kry assured almost fatherly. "And I do not expect any of my colleagues to share my desire to become a monster too. This is my own want, the one that's blossomed because of the life I've led. Yours is completely different, Cter. You have your wants that are different to mine, and those I will do everything in my power to help you succeed in. However, in return I want you to help me however you can too." His sleeve touched Cter's. The irregular lines of his old magic to the patterns of Cter's new magic. The gentle glow from Kry's lines seemed to bleed over to Cter's. His aura felt thick to her, like the smell of someone else's home the first time visiting, that tickle in the nose, but felt all over for Cter. Inside her soul, as Kry so gently touched it with his. "There might be a time where I ask of you the impossible, but I will not do that unless I have complete trust in the magic I ask of you to help me perform. I've crossed that bridge once before, and that I regret each and every day."

The respect poured onto Cter like a crashing wave had her stumbling both with her words and balance. "I...t-thanks." It wasn't from his intimidating presence that she felt like her shoulders weighed tons, but from the sheer amount of belief and trust he earned her. Such praise from such-on high, it was nothing Cter had ever felt before.

"You have to steel yourself and come to terms with this first," Kry joked friendly as he wrapped his arm around both of Cter's shoulder and tugged her back straight. "You are important, Cter. Both to the world, and to each and everyone of us Monster Mages, as I'm sure Kurant has told you too. We all see possibilities with your magic that we couldn't reach with our own. Call it a breath of fresh air that you became a Monster Mage, Cter. We three needed it."

Cter's instinct was to slump down again, but Kry tensed his arm in response to that. She straightened herself and looked to the friendly, brown eyes softly awaiting her to take her next step. "Thank you, Kry," Cter said after a hard swallow. "I'll do my best."

It was enough for the time being. "That you'll do," Kry agreed. "That you'll do." He released Cter from his arm's secure grip. "Even though I have trouble showing it I am more happy now than I've been for ages, Cter." With his freed hand he motioned for the two to continue their walk before moving his hand behind his back again. The initial spring in Kry's gait had his mantle lifting up, but he immediately remembered to slow down for Cter. "Keeping a stoic and stern expression consciously for hours on end each and every week for the portrait artists in my youth left the muscles in my cheeks quite weak." As his mantle hit his back, Kry poked at his cheek to show that it was really just bone. Not really atrophy, but rather not-trained. "Smiling were for the merchants peddling their goods to the peasants, I was told. Be it human or monsters. Happiness wasn't content for my parents. Content meant that you did not need to smile, because that meant you weren't planning for all outcomes. Happiness was a surprise, and surprises you cannot make a profit off of."

Kry sighed slowly and deeply through his nose.

"I shouldn't really be exhausting you before your evaluation with King Asgore."

E-E-Evaluation!

With a bounce, Kry's head sank forwards when he felt the shock through Cter's aura. "Do forgive me, please?" He shook his lowered head hanging from his tensed neck. "And also please do not worry about what I said about happiness. That was my parents' thinking. It's something I've worked on moving away from. Something Sund's done his worst to have me move away from. I wouldn't say that he's helped me, because I never really asked. His levity is a bit overwhelming at times, but it is important that he has that quality to him. Widens what us Monster Mages are. I've been taking snippets from his levity though. Not more though. I need the change to be gradual."

A sun-blazed corner later Cter began to hear the faint rustle of leaves through a wall of glass. Through her squint she could see a white silhouette stand up from a table decorated with tea and confectionery.

"Ask to have a minute to savor the tea," advised Kry as he stopped. It was only Cter who was called, after all. "Should give you the time needed to clear your head from what I've said."

Only a minute?

That wouldn't be enough…

Kry watched as Cter entered the Royal Garden through the glass door he held open for her. His ears perked at the joyful greeting from King Asgore that had the panels of the large window shake. With a smile that would make his weak cheeks sore later, he turned with a bow and began his walk back to his office.

"So you're admitting that I'm having an effect on you?"

The smile drained quicker than a blink.

"Interesting times we live in then."

Sund pushed off his lean against a suit of armor twice the size of him.

"Mind if I keep you company on the way back?"

Yes, yes Kry did. Sund could see it on his face.

But as if he cared about that.