"Water?"

The lack of an answer from the purple eyes staring unblinkingly at a horizon visible only to them was enough for Sund to conclude that water was indeed a good idea sans any answer from the Monster Mage the eyes were stuck inside. Like locking a lock he inserted the mug's handle securely into the sleeved hand which fractal-patterned lines were breathing rhythmically along with its wielder. Silent, contemplative breaths that served to help with coming to terms with the aftermath of the metaphorical sky that came crashing down over the Monster Mage who's brow was tense and lowered over her forest-green eyes turned a darker shade.

"Yeah first time is a bit of an event," Sund agreed towards the distant stare and hunched posture of his Monster Mage colleague who'd seen war in its most regal of nature. "The Monster Royals have luckily stepped down the frequency of which they embark on their little sparring matches." He brushed off some charred pieces of leaves from Cter's shoulder which fluttered into black soot that sprinkled the balcony floor. It mixed with the shattered pieces of Sund's barricade magic, creating a balcony seasoned well with salt and pepper. "However it seems that they've begun compensating for that by applying more fervor each time they actually do go sparring, or however you want to describe it. Kry would have the right words for that."

Sund glanced away from Cter's distant gaze to the small myriad of Royal Guards conducted by Kry to help straighten the trees and bushes which had succumbed to the intensity of the Royal Couple's magic. Kry took it upon himself to heal the cracked roots and fill in with new soil to have the bent trees stand their full proud length once again. There was a slightly green tint to Kry's fingers even after his healing magic had dissipated. Perhaps it was some of King Asgore that began to assert within him more when he did some gardening?

Perhaps.

However though…

"It is a bit funny how the Royal Garden has served as this epitome of monster agriculture, filled with magic oozing from each leaf, petal, and needle, yet it's all because of the reigning Royal Couples duking it out here." Sund chuckled as his arms crossed over his chest and he leaned back on the metal bench he shared with a near-yet-distant Cter. "It's like proficiency in gardening is more a consequence of the position and title rather than proficiency in gardening sprouting from the position and title. Like King Asgore, and the branches of fathers up his family tree, all have taken up the spade and watering can. They've all replaced their crown with that of a straw hat on occasions and spent hours of sunlight tending to the Royal Garden like it was their own chosen wife."

"Because it is their wife and queen in the Royal Garden," another voice ended grandly, beginning muffled as it opened the balcony door with stasis magic. "The sparring seeds the Monster Royal's magic into the Royal Garden, giving it life and greenery only found here. The king then tends to the flowers and trees like he tends to his queen, because it is his queen in the leaves that dance in the brisk breeze. Her magic absorbed and made good in the tree just like water from its roots."

Sund watched with an amused smile as Kurant finished her grand speech and bowed towards her half-attentive audience sitting on the balcony bench. He gave her applause the best he could. "You've gotten good with that," he congratulated with a chuckle and a nod as Kurant made her way to the balcony's railing to lean some weight away from her knee and to also observe the gardening below with a watchful glance. It was obvious to Sund though that Kurant did so just to angle her hair into the wind. "Managed more emotion with it than Kry ever did. How many times have you given the tour now? Must be closing in on his number even with him having a few couple of years on you as a Monster Mage."

Kurant's fingers extended confidently up to seven while she counted the times in her mind, but the eight finger raised and fell without settling on either states. "If I count the one I did for Sir Gerson to show that I could, then it's eight. Official ones it's seven. Last time was with the new Royal Mage at the court of Hjearta, or at least when he gets back there from Xoff. The human mage that froze the cellar."

"Terri...Fyed, I think?"

"No, he didn't ruin any of the wine."

"What?"

"What?"

Kurant and Sund blinked at the other waiting for an explanation, but none had any.

Instead, Kurant nodded towards Cter who's fingers acted more like hooks holding up her water-filled mug rather than actually gripping it. "She in her trance?" The nod turned into an inquisitive tilt of her head as she saw that Cter's eyes were open. "Or not? Is she in her trance with her eyes open? That's...creepy."

Kurant was brave saying that out loud without knowing fully if Cter could hear it.

Or rude.

"I think she's fighting it," answered Sund after leaning forwards and looking into Cter's eyes, finding nothing. Even when he tapped a few of his sleeved knuckles against the wooden mug nothing happened besides the mug shifting a bit on Cter's fingers. "Kry and I put up a perimeter around the Royal Garden when we saw Toriel getting her look, you know."

Kurant did. "Can feel that one from a mile away," she nodded.

"And you didn't?" teased Sund with a raised eyebrow, resulting in an overly dramatic roll of Kurant's eyes.

"Because the edge of Jarasevo where Main Road One leads in is more than a mile away," Kurant defended with a grunting sigh. "Just because you fall asleep the instant you get into a carriage doesn't mean that you shouldn't neglect knowing the capital of the country you've sworn your life and soul to protect, Sund. Have you stolen some of King Asgore's memories of when he didn't understand street signs or what?"

Instead of replying with another of his usual snarky responses, Sund instead cocked his head and pointed his thumb over to Cter's stone-faced expression.

It took a second or two before it dawned for Kurant. Her eyes widened, "Oh…," and her hardened posture softened. "She's fighting against King Asgore's memories?"

"Either that or Queen Toriel's," Sund added after confirming Kurant's guess with a quick nod. "You see, while I'm not sure exactly what happened during Queen Toriel and King Asgore's sparring, I do know that Cter must've had her sleeved hand in it." He pointed towards the blood-vessel-like lines reaching out from the spiraling stem on Cter's sleeve. "If you run your finger over it you can feel that they're protruding. Don't," he remarked just in case. "I only felt it when I helped Cter walk up the stairs to this balcony, and it kinda burned, in a way?"

"Her Delta Rune is glowing pretty intensely too." Kurant almost had to put her hand up to shield her eyes. "I remember her sleeve acting that way when she was asleep with Bonny Sallus' memories. I didn't see exactly how the lines grew since I let her sleep facing towards the back of the carriage seat in case we had to stop for any reason. That it glowed something fierce though during the few glances that I got I remember vividly though."

Various calls and shouts about how to angle and place the different trees and bushes that had fallen over reached up towards the balcony like the foam of waves crashing against a cliff. The shouts filled the silence created by Sund and Kurant pondering over Cter's situation. They weren't really sure how to handle the situation. Kurant even less than Sund since she was even less present than just arriving late to the party.

Sund had felt some strange magic hitting against his barricades that covered the circumference of the Royal Garden as best as he could with Kry shielding the rest with his magic, but if it was either King Asgore or Queen Toriel's magic fueled even further by Cter, or if it was Cter being lent some of King Asgore or Queen Toriel's magic, that he couldn't tell apart cleanly. He just had to wait until Cter regained consciousness and could explain what had happened.

"You said you helped Cter up the stairs?" asked Kurant while looking through one of the windows into the marble hallway. "So she was still conscious and could talk to you? Did you ask her anything?"

"Oh, what didn't I ask her?" Sund shook his head. "I asked her what had happened. I asked her why she looked pale like a ghost." Kurant took a precautionary glance around her for any custodial ones. "I asked her where the Royal Couple was. I asked her what the circle of light in her hand was. I asked her more in the moment, but exactly what escapes me at this moment now." He exhaled a sigh that was carried away with the lukewarm breeze that swept him by. "I'm still coming down a bit from hearing that the Royal Couple is safe. They apparently just left to the kitchen to talk to Barbeqa about reassigning Idyll Fech after cleaning themselves up a bit. Like it was just ordinary exercise for them. Don't think they know that Cter is in this state, and I don't think additionally that they should know that she is in this state."

Because the exact nature of Cter's state was still an unknown. Her aura was like a cloud in a bottle. While Sund could see and feel that it was there, he couldn't actually interact with it in any way. He couldn't predict if there would be rain or thunder, or if it would just part to reveal a sun behind it. What he did know though was that he should absolutely not shake the bottle. That would reveal nothing, at best. Anything worse he did not want to risk.

"I'm having a hard time believing that King Asgore and Queen Toriel would just up and leave Cter like this, or even in the state you described that she was in before you helped her up here." Kurant's crossed arms tightened along with her tensed expression. "If anything they would've come hurrying to us and Priestess Frioke to inform that Cter was like this."

Sund should've been a bit more exact, he realized. "I didn't notice either, at first." He pointed down to the garden table that the Royal Guards took care not to disturb as they walked around it to fix the surrounding greenery. Not even the crumbs from the various breads and buns sprinkled on the flower-patterned tablecloth had moved since he helped Cter walk away from it. "Cter sat at the table drinking in the sunlight with her eyes closed, it looked when I approached her. I was curious as to exactly what magic had smashed against my barricade magic. I was half-impressed, half-jealous when I asked her about it. When I invited myself to sit down with her and pour myself some tea I felt a lack of her aura that had me pause just as when I was about to pour myself a cup. She must've sensed my reaction, as she peeked an eye open." Sund pulled down on his eyelid to demonstrate to Kurant. "Purple."

Her head snapped towards the lower floor where the kitchen was located. "Like the Monster Royals?" her shocked gasp asked. "B-But..." Kurant turned her head back towards Cter. "H-Her eyes are..." She leaned down, having to swat her falling hair away from her eyes with stasis magic. "They're her normal forest green now...kinda?"

They were?

Well, that was a good sign then if the purple was beginning to fade away.

"Hence why I think that she's fighting the Royal Couple's influence," Sund explained while he rubbed away the discomfort from dragging down his eyelid. "Maybe she's putting her foot down, or perhaps the Boss Monster memories was too much for her. Considering that King Asgore and Queen Toriel's auras explode with their love for the other during their sparring, which is why I usually put up barricade magic to keep the newspapers from writing about the possibility of a new heir, I'd wager that perhaps Cter was given memories of a more...intimate nature. Whether or not they meant for it though I don't really want to guess at."

"More intimate than the most personal of memories that's status quo for the Cooperative Connection?" Kurant asked with an almost accusatory tone. Sund gave her a few seconds to think about it. Par of the course with thinking about a situation as a Monster Mage was to assume the deeper meaning and then work up towards the surface meaning. "Oh..." Kurant eventually came around to. "Right, I gotcha now."

"Although judging from Cter's expression that theory kind falls apart, doesn't it?" Sund gesticulated over his own face instead of Cter's. He was already talking about her like she wasn't sitting right next to him. A bit of respect, at the very least, if only just the least. "I know I wouldn't be looking like I'd just witnessed the murder of my family if I'd been given the memories of Queen Toriel and King Asgore fuc–"

"Don't project whatever it is going on in your mind and soul onto others," Kurant interrupted with her sleeved palm pushed forward as far as her shoulder would allow. "Singe my soul, Sund," she sighed with a disappointed shake to her head. "Just talk with Idyll about your feelings for her already." She huffed with slight disgust over the metal railing.

"And you with yours for Barbeqa," Sund whispered into his hand for only him to hear. He then cleared his throat to give a plausible reason for his hand to be over his mouth. "Can't," came a reply after the clearing cough with a bit too much carefree. "Gotta talk with Cter about it first."

Kurant's eyebrow snapped high. "Why?"

"Because Idyll is the best friend of one of my colleagues who's been closer to Idyll than I will ever be even if Idyll does return my feelings." Sund made a show of his wide shrug. "Just felt that it might be a good idea to make sure it's fine with Cter beforehand. I don't want to put it on the poor girl as soon as she wakes up from her state either. Not gonna grab her shoulders and ask her if I can ask Idyll out before she's even blinked once."

Kurant was forced to capitulate. "Fair enough." She returned to her lean onto the railing with her head leaned down and her eyes closed. "...As if I should be the one to give relationship advice," came a scoff a little while later.

"Still confused over Barbeqa?" Sund was being genuine with his concern, even if his previous whisper had been a bit childish in nature. While he didn't hide the fact that he was a bit jealous that Barbeqa came to Kurant for advice about her fiery muscles, he never teased Kurant about it.

Other things, sure.

But not that, specifically.

He knew that it was difficult for Kurant to even choose whether or not she should confirm that there were feelings to begin with. Barbeqa came to Kurant because Barbeqa saw Kurant as the most human of all the Monster Mages, and that cut at Kurant. Even if Babreqa meant it in the most positive and inspiring way possible, it was still praising something that Kurant wanted to distance herself from. That it was obvious to everyone was even worse.

"Even Bonny Sallus said it was obvious."

Sund grimaced with empathy. "Ooooh..." He breathed in through clenched teeth. "A prescription for love."

"More or less," Kurant nodded. "Said that it would help my knee."

"Just like that?" Sund couldn't believe it. "Directly?" So Bonny did really write out a prescription for love!

"Well...kinda."

Oh.

"The implication was there. Only so much he could be subtle about it while using all his strength to tighten the brace." Kurant leaned more weight away from her knee as she spoke. She was almost standing on just her healthy leg when she was finished. "And if it's obvious for the doctor I see more seldom than snow at Clinic Hill during winter..."

Yeah, Sund was well aware of that. He was pretty sure that Cter was too. Perhaps even while she was in her distant state fighting against the influence of the Royal Couple. The protruding lines on her arm had yet to lose any of their intensity or girth, which was a bit worrisome. She hadn't become worse though, which was a good sign, and her eyes were turning back to their normal color. Just needed time, Sund supposed. "Do you want me to humor you a bit about it?"

The question was a bit too sudden an open for Kurant to answer properly. "Sorry?" she returned with a squint to her face. "Humor me about what? And what type of humoring, exactly?"

"About you and Barbeqa." Sund shrugged innocently. "I know it's upsetting to you and I want to help. We should be here for Cter when she wakes up, but until then all we can do is wait. You can ask me what you want to ask Barbeqa and see how you feel about it?"

Kurant blinked.

"Just a suggestion," Sund defended with another shrug. "I'll admit that it's partly so that I can figure out more how I'll ask Idyll, but I still want to help you, Kurant. If it'll help your knee then you should at least try."

Kurant's neck retreated onto her collar as she thought alone. "Suppose I do go along with you humoring me," she said reluctantly through a clenched grimace. "How should we...well..." Her hands tried to explain where her words would sound strange, but they failed. "How can I pretend that it's Barbeqa I'm talking to?"

"I can set myself on fire," Sund suggested.

Even he had to pause for a bit to take in what he just said.

"To be more exact," he added with a flair to his voice and a finger raised. "I can use my barricade magic to cover me and then have a layer of fire magic on top of that."

Kurant was skeptic of that. "You can?"

"I've never done it before," if that was what Kurant was implying. "I don't see why not though. If my barricades can sustain magic from outside sources crashing into it then it shouldn't be a problem if I added my own fire magic on top of it." The logic wasn't a stretch for Sund, but perhaps Kurant was just looking for an out before it was too late to back out. "It won't be exactly like Barbeqa, perhaps not even close at all, but it'll be as close as I can. I promise."

There was a deep creak echoing throughout the Royal Garden. Either it was one of the Royal Guards pulling hard on one of the more older and sturdier trees, or it was Kurant's face scrunching up unsure as can be. "I..." she uttered while scratching her head deeply. "I can't really say yes to that." With pleading eyes she looked into Sund's. "How would I ever be able to say yes to that? You're asking me for permission to set yourself on fire, Sund. That's very, very weird."

"Like I said," Sund defended with a wide motion of his hand. "It won't hurt me. It's my own magic on top of my own magic. It's gonna be fine. I promise. Again."

Maybe it was best if Sund just showed Kurant instead of just telling. He dragged up his robe's left arm sleeve to expose his forearm. Like putting on a glove, Sund covered his naked arm with a layer of barricade magic, white and pulsating gently. With his sleeved knuckles he tapped on the white magic with a hollow and almost glass-like clonk. "I. Promise," Sund was forced to reiterate as he saw Kurant begin to shift in the corner of his eye. "Not even Sir Gerson's hammer could shatter this."

Kurant's shift retracted itself. "Really?" she posed with a reactionary tilt of her head. "Does he know?"

Sund pushed his sleeved thumb against the top of middle finger, "Nope," and snapped a wave of flames cascading over his magical glove like water being poured on top of it. His arm blazed with orange flames similar to that of Barbeqa's, but more magical in the way they stretched and licked upwards. Less influenced by the wind compared to Barbeqa's.

"See? It's fine," Sund showed with a wave of his burning arm, leaving long streaks of orange following his aerial sweeps. "Doesn't hurt in the slightest."

"...If you say so." Even though Kurant agreed verbally she wasn't completely convinced. The similar fire to Barbeqa made her a bit queasy seeing Sund wield it. Nevertheless though..."Just do it quick."

"Right," acknowledged Sund while extending his barricade magic up his arm and shoulder. He'd never really encased himself in his barricade magic fully before, and it felt a bit cool to the touch, again like glass. It didn't halt any of his mobility, even if he felt the coarse friction from the glass-like texture rubbing against itself as he moved. He continued to paint on his body with his hand as the brush until he was completely covered in it up to his chin. It was as if he was covered in snow put on him by panes of glass. "Alright," he spoke while making sure his neck was comfortable. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to talk while in my barrier magic, but I'll be sure to make sure I can breathe. Let me try and shape the flames on my body here a bit."

Sund began with his left arm, coaxing the flames so that they were roughly shaped like Barbeqa's. They lacked the nuance of the illusion of muscle shapes casting shadows on the flames, but if he took a step forwards into the sunlight that would break less of the immersion. Up to his biceps, then his shoulder, over his chest.

"A bit more abreast," commented Kurant to help.

Abreast?

"Not two?"

"What?"

"What?"

…

Continuing in silence, Sund elongated the fire down his torso and legs, and then finally over his sleeved arm. As the fire covered his magical lines he felt heat surge through him. Not enough to burn though, more like how his body would feel after some exercise.

The wind cooled at the tip of his flames as it swept by.

It made Sund aware of something.

He was naked. His fires were naked. "Oh..." slipped out of him. "I should've done the barricade magic inside of my clothes."

"You weren't gonna bring them out?" Kurant asked to then sigh with her hand over her eyes. "Dammit, Sund." It wasn't enough to cover the blush on her cheeks though.

Sund sighed too. He was disappointed in himself. He should've thought of it before he acted with his magic. Because of that he had to restart the process and make the long silence even more awkward and–

A mantle was handed over to him, which prompted a more sharper "Oh," from the self-immolated Monster Mage. "Thanks." He took it and wrapped it around his body like a large towel. "Sorry, Kurant, but at least now...we...can."

W-Why…

Why was Kurant still wearing her mantle? It was her mantle that Sund was wearing, wasn't it? Who's else could it have been? Was it–

The forest-green eyes staring unblinkingly at him answered his conundrum. Eyes that were too confused to even display an iota of emotion.

"I see," Sund said with a deep nod which had the flames reaching up from the top of Cter's wrapped-around mantle tickling his nose. A long slurp from the mug now gripped by Cter's fingers filled the silence as Sund inhaled deeply.

"Guess I have to explain this, don't I?"