A shift in the green streaking outside the carriage window was caught in the corner of the half-asleep eye reading through again the formalities expected of Cter once she reached Fenkeep castle and was to be introduced to its court. The details about the length of her kneel as to not wrinkle the Delta Rune on her robe rattled like nails in a metal box flung aside as Cter turned her head to the shifted green. "Needles," she whispered to the darker-green garb the forest outside had shifted into. She'd reached the northern parts of Hjearta if the majority of trees she saw had needles instead of leaves.

The risk was still that there could have been more leaf trees deeper in the forest, but Cter couldn't see them because of all the needle trees in the way.

That she'd managed that much north Cter had already suspected with the monster-to-human ratio getting lower and lower, as her carriage would've been traveling the wrong way hadn't it been so. It was the difference between the last two villages though that really sold it though.

The second-to-last village where Cter stopped still had some monster seen without the need to look for them, who also perked up their various ears and tails feeling another monster aura passing them by. Such a strong one too, which confused them at first, only to become obvious once Cter stepped off in her Monster Mage robe.

In that village she was asked to assess some of the kids for magical potential. That it was a monster grandmother gingerly and respectfully asking her to please give her grandchildren a chance to help better the future like Cter had done warmed her heart and soul. Only one of the five kids the turtle grandma demounted from her large shell showed potential to be recommended to Soul's School, which Cter noted in her journal to give to the academy later. When she had opened it to check for which pages she'd reserved for more human mage potentials the blazing ink which she'd set alight so that there wouldn't be a chance in hell or heaven that she'd forget it reminded her to ask the turtle grandmother about something very important.

"Any local recipes this village is proud of, by the way?"

Nettle soup, the turtle monster had described to Cter. Nettle soup served with a click of mustard. For as much as the monster assured Cter that the stinging would be cooked away, Cter couldn't help but notice the lack of teeth in the monster's mouth as she smiled like only a grandmother could. Nevertheless, she still wrote it down. Idyll was the one to sort them out later. Probably with Cter tasting each new recipe though.

Oh what sacrifices the Fourth Monster Mage did for the monsters.

"Anything you could do to cheer the others up, Monster Mage?" asked the grandmother after Cter had pocketed her journal, indicating over to the five kids playing underneath a tree.

With leaves.

Cter should really have tried to add a bit more to her magical ice cubes since she always seemed to be giving some away with each village she visited. Be it magically potential kids to play around with and understand their magical potential or just as novelty gifts to spruce up the village and townsfolk in general for a spell by a spell. It would always lead to humans asking monsters about the magic in the ice cubes which helped with strengthening relations.

It was her mission into Hjearta, after all.

She had struggled a bit with figuring out exactly what it meant to be strengthening relations as she crossed into Hjearta's golden fields of wheat and Golden Flowers, but her magical ice cubes seemed best in terms of ease and effectiveness. Sure, she could dazzle with fire, stasis, ice, and all that like she was a traveling circus, and it was quite delightful to hear the awes from the humans seeing the complex magic and the awes of the monster auras feeling its power and refinement.

However, doing so was only really a temporary deal. Again, it was like a circus, only in the moment. She realized it after one or two villagers. When Cter turned her head out the carriage window to look back there wasn't really a crowd lingering after her besides those she'd helped personally with magical matters waving her farewell. It was only a spectacle she left behind. To be spoken during the following dinner and then perhaps played with the following days by the children. Maybe they'd ask some of the monsters to recreate as best as they could, but with the small town that didn't have many monsters in it, that did not came to be at all.

What her magical ice cubes did though was giving the villagers something that was interesting in more ways than just a single spectacle made by a passing Monster Mage. It was a spectacle they could play with and wonder about. Something that encouraged discussion between both children and adults to together marvel at and discuss how it works was one thing. What really made Cter realize that she'd come across something brilliant was when she turned her head out the window after the third village to see that the crowd that had greeted her had grown!

Not only that, but there were humans and monster talking excitingly with each other! Twisting and turning the magical ice cubes and trading ideas between each other. Coalescing around the poor glassblower monster whom Cter had forwarded a commission from Jarasevo castle about some statuettes. Apparently the sand in the area was from an old mountain side which had collapsed underneath the weight of a glacier which had reached too high up for the mountain to handle. Come spring the glacier would melt into the rock, eventually cracking it. Gave the glass more glimmer, according to the glassblower.

It was a hefty part of magic too, Cter could easily notice. She wasn't one to tear down the curtains to bring the light of truth upon the glassblower though, even though his glass statuettes looked their best bathed in light.

Hopefully the extra magic Cter gave him for the statuette commission wasn't too much so that the monsters in the villages began expecting him to make Cter's magical ice cubes, but out of glass. While his skill would've been enough to copy the design had it been glass to begin with, it being ice made it impossible to do so. Sure, he could try and imitate as best as he could, but since the magical ice was in a state of constant melting and refreezing he wouldn't be able to emulate the shifting nature of it.

Or perhaps that was Cter's pride as a Monster Mage talking.

In any case, while it did look a bit like the monster glassblower was drowning in the well-natured and curious questions, especially when his long, scaly tail was the only thing stood over the descending crowd like a reed above restless water, it was a very wholesome air that was carried from the startled yelps with the soft wind that played with Cter's hair. She knew then that the magical ice cubes would be her calling card for her first mission into Hjearta. Just as Sund left his barricade magic on the sign of The Flipping Heart, so would Cter leave her magical ice cubes as something the country of Hjearta would come to cherish.

There was a question that gave her thought though about them. About the longer term. Ice magic couldn't be her signature. It couldn't be what she'd be known for. It muscled in on the new Hjearta Royal Mage's area of expertise. She couldn't be promoting cooperation between the countries if all she did was boast about how her ice magic was better than the Hjearta Royal Mage's who'd dedicated his career to honing it until it was as clear and solid as the deepest core ice making up the glacier fields further up north in the cold country.

Not only for political reasons, but personal as well.

Cter owed Terri Fyed too much from when they studied at Soul's School to rob him of his dream.

Giving the ice cubes away as she traveled to Hjearta castle wouldn't be a problem. She was just spreading gifts around to promote cooperation, both in terms of magic and in terms of science. Magic for the complex nature of the ice cubes, and science in how it bent and refracted the light. Monster and human. Hell, if anything she was paying respect to the ice magic that the new Royal Mage had as his staple.

Once she was to return home though, after having met with the Hjearta Royal Mage specialized in ice magic enough that he took the title even with competition from human mages thrice or four times his age, her using ice magic would be seen as, at best, childishly insulting, and not befitting a Monster Mage. At worst it could've been seen as the monsters declaring that their magic would always be better than humans. A sharp elbow thrown at the unstable balancing act of human magic that none really wanted to touch for fear of it falling over and having to deal with the consequences of it shattering against the ground.

Cter had to change from ice magic eventually. She herself wanted to change it to something else too. To what exactly she couldn't figure out as she sat alone in her carriage reading again and again about the formal ways she was expected to act to the point where she got excited about green needles outside her window.

The sap smelled better too…

She was scheduled to meet with ones that could help her figure something else out though. Romrom, Professor Leraull, even Terri Fyed. Between those three Cter would find enough to throw at the wall for something to stick.

Just something.

"Isn't it a bit funny though, Monster Mage?"

Oh dammit, Cter's mind drifted off to that turtle grandmother again.

"For all the talk about human magic bringing us all together it is sure driving a pretty distinct wedge between who can and can not use it. Ahehehehe~ I am just teasing your soul there, Monster Mage. We all reap the benefits of it, but it is a bit macabre when you think about it. To bring us all together the humans with magical potential need to be taken away from their friends and family to unlock said magical potential. Even now my soul both swells and aches at the same time seeing Miah playing with his siblings and cousins underneath their favorite tree. To them right now, his magical potential is just a quirk of sorts."

Cter understood what the turtle monster meant, but it still sounded bad to her ears.

"Like a different color to his hair, almost. It doesn't matter right now to them, what with your ice cubes that they're playing with. We might not have many monsters in this village compared to those closer to the border, but that's really never stopped the human and monster kids from playing with each other. In fact, it was that Whimsun there that first noticed it first. Deary me it took an afternoon and a half for him to stutter out that he had noticed that Miah had magical potential earlier that overcast-ridden day. I've seen it before though. Eventually Miah will come to realize that he's different from the other humans. Perhaps that's for the better though as then him traveling away from his friends and family won't be as big a journey as would otherwise be?"

Cter suspected that the turtle turned to ask her the question just to replenish some air. It was getting a bit too close to home for Cter as well. Since her carriage hadn't been replenished though she couldn't really just up and leave the Village Elder just like that. That would have been a faux pas and some more.

"I speak only from my own experiences though, Monster Mage. My...own kin is a mage working in Fenkeep, the capital. He visits as often as he can, but often is seldom. Seldom enough that my thoughts begin to drift the way they have about human magic. I look upon you, Monster Mage, and despite what my soul tells me about the pure, radiating magic in your aura that only a monster could produce, my eyes only see the fair skin of a human that's native to Hjearta."

She hadn't been in the sun for a while...

"Had my child been able to visit more often than seldom perhaps I wouldn't be this desperate and egotistic in wishing that you were a human too. A normal human, for lack of a better term. A human that wouldn't travel away as a child to leave his turtle mother alone in her house. His work is important. What he is, is important. What he left behind is important too, but not as quantifiable to the world at large. At large really describes it perfectly, doesn't it? Nothing's ever at small these days. Day to day, sure. Not when it comes to what the future holds though. I mean, you are considered a monster, despite being born a human. You bleed red blood, but you are a monster. What's next after that? Nothing small, that's for certain."

With the gift from the turtle Village Elder blurry behind Cter's sleeve, she ran her naked fingers over the spiraling magical lines beginning to pulsate with greater intensity. Gently she stroked the lines to calm them down, but it only felt as if her fingers were needles. Cter knew full well that she was trying to fool herself. She knew full well that the lines were a reaction to her emotions and not the reverse!

She knew!

But it wasn't what she felt!

"Dammit!"

As the Monster Mage's closed, sleeved fist slammed against the wall of the carriage, a rapid wave of purple magic overtook it greedily. The carriage bounced over to the other lane of the paved road it was traveling through before the stasis magic faded to allow the quiet driver to steer it back to the proper lane.

Why did that turtle monster have to dig all of that up?! Cter was so close with holding it in! So close to have it explode in the arms of her human family. Instead she had to deal with it alone in a dry-aired carriage just as she was about to arrive at her village!

"Dammit!" Cter cursed again for no one to hear but her.

Her fingers overlapped and her forehead fell onto her clasped hands.

Not a normal human.

Set aside just because she had magical potential.

Leaving to not visit again…

It was as if that Village Elder was reading Cter like an open book.

And it was so different with her as a Monster Mage than it was when she was in Soul's School. There all of the humans around her had the same story behind them. They all were far away from home. They were all set aside together. They were all not...normal.

At Soul's School they became normal though. The more they learned magic the more normal they became. For them magic became normal. That also meant that they couldn't go back to their old lives any longer. Because there, magic wasn't normal. Even if their home village or town was full of monsters it wasn't full of human mages. They wouldn't have gone to Soul's School had that been the case. Or had a private education like Kry did. Of course none really had plans to stay in their home village after they'd become a human mage. They'd visit, of course, but not stay there.

Because they weren't normal back home.

They were normal somewhere else. Somewhere they had to go to.

Wandering mages for some.

Castle work for others.

Or becoming the Fourth Monster Mage for a select one.

What had Cter so in turmoil though wasn't that. She too felt that she didn't want to stay in her home village after getting the sweet taste of magic and being among others that alongside her became normal. What had Cter in turmoil was exactly that. She didn't want to cry and lament alone in empathy to those she had traveled away from. That wasn't right! She wanted to have that experience with her family!

But that damn Village Elder had to pour her own woes onto Cter. Had to project her aura and emotions so intensely that Cter had trouble breathing through how thick it was. She was a Monster Mage, so why not just dump the entire barrel of pent-up emotions over her? With her expertise over her soul that wouldn't faze her at all, right? Slam the barrel down on her after it's been poured out too for good measure!

Cter's fingers unraveled and her sighing head sank into her palms.

"Dammit."

Why couldn't Cter's mind go to the Village Elder of the last village she visited instead? The human that more or less stood hidden and didn't want anything to do with the visiting Monster Mage. In the village where there was only one family of monsters, if one could even call them that. Helping out with planting crops in spring and then harvest during autumn, but mostly living on their own at the edge of the village. Nothing bad with that though. They were a family of ice drakes so they preferred to be up in the cold mountains instead.

It took Cter half an hour to get that out of the human Village Elder, on top of the two hours it took for her to find him and ask for an audience. Wary, that Village Elder was. Quite so too. How could Cter be a monster is she was born human?

Cter simply countered with a brief explanation of Barbeqa, and how she was striving to be as human as possible, to the point where she changed her flames to look like that of human anatomy. Would the Village Elder call Barbeqa a monster?

Yes, yes he would.

It wasn't really as simple as Cter thought it would be…

The human Village Elder made it quite clear that he wasn't looking for a philosophical debate. That wasn't his lot in life. He was just indifferent to magic. He appreciated the ice drakes coming down to help with the crops, but because of their magics up in the mountains there had been some shifts in the local river from the melt down the mountain. Or the lack of, if he was to be direct. That was the reason the ice drakes helped with the crops. Their existence changed the humans' ways, so they then had to help the humans to compensate for that.

And since the village didn't have a lot of trade due to their proximity to much-larger trade towns on Pulsaoder, but in the opposite direction of the large trade routes, the more the Village Elder could keep things steady for his people, the better. He wasn't capable of handling the many variables that came with magic. He wouldn't dismiss any monsters that would want to settle down, but he wasn't gonna make efforts to bring more in.

It wasn't really a lot Cter could do other than to respectfully reply that she understood and to thank him for the hospitality he showed Cter, even if she to go look for it. She left the Village Elder's home after informing him that, should he, or his next of kin, want to open up their village more, then Cter would make sure personally that things would go over smoothly.

Not really a promise that was exclusive to that one village, to be honest,, and the human Village Elder was keen on picking that up. Regardless, he thanked her for the offer and wished her luck on her travels.

Even if it was a rather cold and emotionless visit with that human Village Elder Cter still preferred that over having a monster Village Elder dump his or her problems over Cter just because she was a Monster Mage.

Cter leaned her heavy head onto the backrest on the carriage wall, unfolding her hunched body in the process. The lines on her sleeve began to ease, and she exhaled tiredly. She made sure to pour too much of herself into lifting the carriage just for that tired feeling. Draining all of her emotion so that she could...just...sleep...for the...rest of the...way.

"Being a Monster Mage means giving up on a life to call you own, isn't it?"

With an angry groan Cter threw herself upright from her fallen-over almost sleep. The turtle Village Elder's voice echoed in her head, and she clasped at it to try and shake it out.

That was it!

That was the last drop!

If she can't even take a nap without the Village Elder's voice making its way back into her head she was gonna do something about it! Something drastic! Borderline dumb!

That way, there wouldn't be a chance for her sad emotions to be relevant when she met her old family again! If she went in shooting fire and rainbows out of her fingers then everyone would be too stunned to be sad!

The small, quiet niggle in the back of her head suggesting that she might have been more tired than she thought was drowned out by a building laughter that gradually filled the carriage's interior. Thick like porridge, Cter's increasing guffaw echoed even with the padded interior. With steps that approached menacingly towards the unopened briefcase, Cter stepped over the long-since-empty bag of meatballs, and closed in with hands outstretched.

Her laughter paused for a dramatic second as she took in the splendor of the green fabric folded neatly inside the briefcase. After stroking it gently, Cter's mind was filled with images of what she would do to make the most grandiose of entrances at her home village. From inside her purple robe that she dragged off over her head she again began to cackle. As the wind from the opened window swept across her bared skin her cackle shivered for a brief moment.

The bare of her skin was soon covered again with the elegant silk and sewing of her Xoff-made robe. It was like a sock for her entire body, it fit so perfectly. Even so it still didn't hinder any of her motion, nor did it chafe at all.

It was made for her.

Such was clear as the cloudless day was when her carriage stopped and Cter stepped out of the door with her chin held high and her arms outstretched. She held her pose as she waited for the people to collect around her. Whispers referring to her began to spread into an excited murmur.

She bated her breath.

"Is that..."

She bated her sleeve.

"Could it be..."

She bated her magic.

"Cter?"

As soon as she heard her name, Cter's sleeve ignited in a brilliant display of color that she surrounded herself with. The refracting properties of her ice cubes she painted around her, mixed with fading stasis magic to emulate a waterfall of glimmering and rainbows. Despite the villagers eyes having adjusted to the bright, midday sun, they all had to squint at the sheer intensity of her magic. The dazzling sparkling that cast long streaks of color across the weathered road onto the bodies and faces of everyone that had come to greet her!

One in the crowd drank in the colors more than the rest. Their faded luster upon her raven-black feathers didn't stop her from enjoying the magic more than anyone else in the crowd.

She stepped forwards, the crowd around her parting to let her walk without any hindrance towards Cter.

"Cter..."

Wings darker than dark were lifted lightly.

"Chickling..."

Feathers soft as can be touched the silk brought from a land afar.

"Look at you..."

Romrom's eyes locked with Cter's.

"You're..."

And Cter nodded.

"You're so skinny!"

"Yes, Romrom. I a–"

Wait…

Cter's stunned arms were lifted with blatant disgust at how thin they were. "Singe my soul, it looks like you haven't eaten in ages, child!" Grandmotherly huffs almost spat at the green silk. "You come home after all these years because you've not been able to eat at all, Cter?"

"N-n-n-n-n–"

"And you can't even speak properly because you're malnourished too!" The raven-black feathers all over Romrom's body exploded with the monster grandomther's exasperated hem. "Hjearta's beat, what have you done to yourself?"

Cter couldn't answer. It wasn't supposed to be like this! She was supposed to stun the others!

"Come now, child," said Romrom disappointingly before tugging a hold on Cter's sleeved hand. "I gotta get some food into you. Dear oh dear, haven't you eating anything while you were away?"

B-b-b-b-b-b-ut!

The promise!

The Xoff silk!