"You're not a student..."
Before the door had even become slightly ajar Cter was greeted by the intelligent tone of Professor Leraull's voice through the sliver she'd made between the door and its frame.
"Well, at least not anymore."
Cter stepped in with a determined step, presenting herself in the open door for the dark-orange-tinted monster sitting behind his wooden desk stacked with magically locked scrolls and various books. Between the piles the wide smile of the professor who had taught Cter magic peeked through with a chuckle following quickly afterwards.
"How nice to see you again, Cter," commented Leraull wholeheartedly as he made his way around his desk. His hunch forward was still the same as when Cter first saw him and his felt jacket enter to silence the excited whispers joining the brick walls of the lecture hall. "I trust your journey has been comfortable here?" His tail relaxed on the floor as he bowed forwards, respectfully keeping his distance as to not slash at the Monster Mage with his vertical plates running down his head and body all the way out to the tip of his relaxed tail.
"My travels have been as comfortable as it could have been," Cter said while bowing back. "Thank you for your consideration." Her hands stayed behind her back, which was a good thing. She'd not forgotten the first time she instinctively offered her hand for her professor to take in his.
With an amused eyebrow raised he reminded her that she should save her handshakes for those that can. No ill will, of course. Professor Leraull was plenty used to people wanting to shake his hand. He took is as a positive measurement that his lectures were so immersive that people forgot that he didn't have any hands to shake their awestruck ones. Conjured hands just felt...wrong, so he didn't bother with any of those. Just a thankful nod was good with him. If insisted upon he could accept a bow too, but not more. He wanted his students to show their gratefulness by going out in the world and making it a better place!
"Another of my students have become a Monster Mage," the professor sighed, making tighter his red bow around his neck. "Two now. I'm not one to indulge myself in pride, so do forgive me if I come off as such. I'm merely pleased from the bottom of my soul that you've come so far, Cter." He motioned friendly with his tail for Cter to take a seat at the corner of his office where two soft chairs and a small table between were located. "You wouldn't mind me indulging in some informality though? You have places to be after your visit here, more important places, so I understand if you'd rather move things along for yourself."
If Cter could spare a few minutes for Braille she could spare some for her old professor. She shook her head, "I can sit and talk for a bit, Professor," and followed the hunched steps to the green-dressed chairs. "Anything on your mind? Besides the exams, that is."
"I can imagine the delight you have not having to worry about them," came a quip and a chuckle as Leraull seated himself with his tail poking through an opening at the chair's lumbar.
"Oh you've no idea," Cter huffed with a shaky breath as she sat herself. "I want to laugh loud and maniacally not having to think about the horrors the new students are going through behind those closed doors." A shiver reverberated throughout Cter's restrained aura. "Like not having to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders."
"Traded that for a more heavier weight, haven't you?" Leraull retorted with two nods towards both of Cter's shoulders clad in her Monster Mage mantle. "Different type of weight though, if I may assume?"
He was right about that. More than he could ever know. More than he could ever be allowed to know. "Indeed." Cter adjusted her mantle in response. "A different type of weight. Wouldn't be able to carry it without you though."
"I only taught you how to create your own foundation. Everything else has been your doing by your own volition and determination." Professor Leraull's tail bounced on the floor once before he got it under control. "Makes my soul flutter seeing how far my students have taken my teachings. Long and far, be it Hjearta, Xoff, or Monster Country. Traveling mages, advisers, Village Elders, even so far as the three Royal Courts. Not only to the top of magic, like you and Sund before you, but also for more...em...human positions." The good professor nodded for Cter to help herself to a biscuit as he cleared his throat. "One you might meet if you're to visit Fenkeep Castle. Two, in fact. Perhaps even more?"
Professor Leraull stood up with thoughts rattling in his head and becoming mumbles under his breath. "Did I… Maybe in the pile if I'm lucky… Where in the archives if not?" He gestured for Cter to keep sitting and enjoy her taken biscuit as he mumbled his way back to his desk. The papers and scrolls shifted around as if in a small storm by his magic as he peered through his glasses with his head tilted back. "Terri, Sund, Jonte, Oevar," he read to himself as the papers danced into his peering view glowing with purple at their edges. "Oh well," he concluded with a sigh with his magic settling the letters back into a neat pile. "Maybe it was a bit longer ago I got the letter."
The slight cinnamon taste in Cter's mouth from the biscuit was replaced with a stronger, bitter taste of alarm.
Letters?
Were she supposed to write letters to Professor Leraull? Was it implied that she had to? Was she ungrateful for not doing so? She'd been...busy. How could she have penned a letter of gratitude regarding her magic if she was constantly improving so rapidly as she did?
Yeah…
Yeah that was an excuse. Perhaps not good, but an excuse nonetheless. Cter prayed that she didn't need to use it though. It might've been the straw that changed her from humble to snotty about her magic.
"In any case," Professor Leraull continued after seating himself again. "At least two of my previous students will you meet in Fenkeep Castle, if you've not already visited there?"
Cter hadn't, so she shook her head.
"Right, so two will you meet. The first one will probably be Huvett and Hutvao, and then Terri Fyed to follow up. He should be back home now after his travels to Jarasevo Castle for the Monster Priestess' blessing." A slight, reddish hue took hold of Professor Leraull's cheeks. "How is Priestess Frioke these days? Good health?"
Oh yeah, the two had some history, didn't they? "She's fine and well. I'll tell her that you asked when I return."
"Please do," asked the professor immediately. "Ahem… Because Bonny Sallus has been quite adamant about not playing anymore chess with me. I figured I'd ask Priestess Frioke next time. Sir Gerson always denies on the basis of national security so I've stopped bothering with him." To change the subject before his cheeks blossomed too much, Professor Leraull nodded down at the cinnamon biscuits. "How are they? Not too stale?"
They were fine. Not like any of the cookies Idyll did on occasions, but they were tasty enough. "Seems fine to me," Cter answered. "If you're looking for me to motivate that answers I'm gonna laugh loud and manically."
The reply tickled Leraull. "Oh well, too bad that I didn't think to add that question then." His head bent down at the plate, and with a precision bite he grabbed the edge of one of the biscuits. "Luckily we've managed to keep the budget flexible enough for the faculty to never run out of these again." Professor Leraull spoke with the biscuit bitten-down on one side of his mouth while he spoke out of the other side, just like how he did with the chalk that he wrote with on the blackboard. The crack from his bite was exactly the same as when he ate the remaining piece after the end of the lecture. Cter half-expected the biscuit to have some chalk in it due to the sound, but she was pleasantly surprised that they were free of chalk.
"So back to your Fenkeep visit, Cter. Huvett and Huvtvao serve at the Royal Court of Hjearta as an analogy to you as a Monster Mage."
Oh? Really?
"Yes," Leraull answered to Cter's eyebrows shooting up in surprise and curiosity. "A balance, if you will. Huvett and Huvtvao have received the finest education when it comes to humanities and humanity, and taken it to his soul more than anyone else I've seen. With as much passion as you have for being a Monster Mage and being a monster in your heart and soul so does Huvett and Huvtao dedicate a soul and a heart to being as human as possible. A left to your right, so to speak."
Interesting. Cter had hazarded a guess that such was the case, but without any real proof to her guess. That there was a parallel to her and her colleagues placed in the Royal Courts of Hjearta and Xoff. Worries about spying and the likes must've been quite the hurdle to get over to establish Monster Mages on the monster side, despite them being the ones to propose the idea. A balance to have monsters dedicating all they can to be human, and more importantly, a show of goodwill from the human countries.
Cter was curious though about something. "Have they changed their form to be more human?" she posed with their hand over their mouth as to not spit any crumbs. It gave Professor Leraull a clear view of her sleeve and its spiraling lines which he leaned closer towards without thinking while looking over the rim of his glasses.
"Hm?" Muttering quietly under his breath, he lifted his head upright again. "Huvett and Huvtvao? Changed form? How do you mean?"
"Well the Royal Chef at Jarasevo Castle is a fire monster who's fire is shaped very similar to human anatomy. From an anatomical chart, if her story is to be believed." Cter flexed her left wrist, summoning bright-orange branches from her spiral line that converged into the center of her opened palm. In it a fiery monster soul grew to a sizable, flickering shape. "Don't think she's gone so far as to want to be a human though." The flaming soul spun around upside down as Cter spoke, with its point facing down at the end of her sentence. With more focus give to it, Cter tightened the flames, bending them down into muscular fibers that she saw on the charts at Clinic Hill. The orange glow emitted became smoother, letting her eyes adjust easily instead of straining against the magical flicker.
Professor Leraull was quite pleased with the display in front of him. "Don't be surprised if Huvett or Hutvao click their tongues against your title as a Monster Mage, Cter." He leaned back as Cter's head cocked to the side.
"That much?" she said in reflex. "They're that much trying to be human?" That sounded a bit… "Isn't that a bit extreme?" There was dedication, but then there was also going a bit too much overboard with it. "They the same with all mages? Me being a Monster Mage kinda exacerbating it?" She let the inverted soul hover between her and Professor Leraull. "I've almost taken a liking to eating eggs with shells on so I guess I'm not that far away from that point but on my side."
There wasn't a chuckle from the professor, which surprised Cter, until she saw him staring at the fiery soul with great interest from both his eyes and aura. She pushed it over for him to examine more closely. "I was never really good with fire magic during my time here."
"Affinities exist with monsters," Leraull replied instantly and pedagogically, ending his sentence with that flair to his voice that he always did to students who doubted themselves. "This is quite remarkable what you've conjured, Cter." His glasses shimmered with the restrained orange from the fiber-like flames. "How it burns without even a trace of any characteristics of wood fire, neither to my physical senses or my magical ones. This is a pure monster-made flame, something even I have trouble conjuring nowadays."
He was selling himself short by saying that. The reason why wasn't any lack of experience or talent with his magic, but rather the complete opposite. Years upon years of trying to better himself with teaching humans about magic and to force himself to create magic like human mages did. Of course he'd become used to the human side of doing magic rather than the monster side after a while. Before he could teach he had to walk the path himself, even if it was the other way than what he was meant to do. Retracing was easier than tracing.
"And the way you've bent it and changed its texture, Cter. Normally that involves some loss in its luster, but this seems to be growing even more without added effort on your part. Your Cooperative Connection must be quite strong and deep for that to be possible. It even...it even contracts. Like a muscle?"
Mostly for show, but yes. "I'm sure you've noticed my sleeve," Cter said to the professor without lifting her hand up to her face. It was a bit too late for that. "It's a bit more powerful than the ones you allowed us to use." There was really no other way Cter could say it without it sounding too much like she was bragging. She trusted Professor Leraull to take it the right way.
A chuckle that had the sturdy glasses bouncing on the professor's wide nose was enough proof that Cter's trust wasn't misplaced. "That I've no doubt about. Those sleeves, while poured in with magic as best as the faculty can, will still just be a pale imitation of what the students will be capable of having once they graduate. While I'd love from the bottom of my soul for us to be able to provide much, much more, the fact still remains that human auras without proper control can level the school before anyone can do something about it." The orange reflection in Leraull's glasses took on a shadowy hint as he tilted his gaze towards Cter. "I can tell that you've had to repeat that first connection with your soul afterwards, and even deeper than would ever be taught here."
Wasn't really an astute observation since Cter literally wore it on her sleeve, but there was concern and sincerity in Leraull's voice. He, if anyone, knew what was necessary for a human to wield magic. While he wasn't aware of the true nature of the Cooperative Connection he still taught it with unmatched dedication. It was for the better that he didn't know about it. Having to know and not be able to teach it would've eaten away at his soul. Not knowing meant that he could give it his all. Knowing would mean that he wouldn't be able to.
It still felt sour to Cter giving Professor Leraull the illusion of her becoming such a powerful mage just through the Cooperative Connection in its official form.
"You don't become a Monster Mage without some soul searching though. That Sund wrote in his first letter stamped with the sigil of a Delta Rune. Had you asked me during his schooling if he'd be the first human to develop his own magic I'd doubted you, but still not ruled it out completely."
"Would there be any student which you'd rule out completely?" Cter challenged with a raised eyebrow. "Because I don't think there would ever be one. You're not that type of teacher."
Professor Leraull conceded on that point with a friendly shrug. "You've got me there, Cter." He returned his attention to the spiraling line on his old student's sleeve. "You're the first one with a more coherent pattern to your lines, aren't you?" He didn't even wait for Cter to nod and confirm what he already knew. "That it spirals tickles my curiosity. Why is that?"
"That's what I've been trying to find out myself." Cter's answer wasn't really the most fulfilling one, but it was the only true one she had. "With the help of the other Monster Mages and Priestess Frioke, of course. No way that I would be able to figure this one out on my own."
Cter should've guessed that her saying that would pique Professor Laurell's non-existent ears. His head turned like if on a swivel to look Cter in the eyes through the thick glasses nestled neatly into the folds summoned on his wide nose. "And how is that?" he asked as the folds spread to his forehead. "You've overcome all the obstacles you've had before you, so what's to say the next one is the one that's too much for you? You weren't granted the title of Monster Mage because there would be walls before you that you couldn't get over. You became a Monster Mage because you will know how to get past that wall. If not over, then around. If not around, then below. If not around..." Leraull carefully lifted up Cter's left arm with the orange lines glowing silently, "then spun around."
Just like during the lectures, Leraull waited to see if his audience understood before continuing. He always had a knack for weeding out any nibbling doubts. Even more impressive was that on top of that he also were able to bring out those doubts as questions for him to answer. Making his students realize that they didn't know fully was one thing, but giving them the courage to ask it was another. In no other class did Cter feel like her asking a question was helping everyone else rather than taking away time.
"With your classes I just had to pass with a good grade. The fault and consequences were only applied to me. Now though..." The orange lines contracted, as did the orange soul. "With all of this potential I've been given, and with me being expected to live to it, it's different. If I fail this test it's not just for me to take it again next year, it'll drag everyone down with me. It's the same responsibility, but the fall underneath is much deeper."
"That it is," Leraull agreed calmly. "The higher the pedestal, the higher the fall. That's not something necessarily bad though, but I can tell that your head is heavy which makes it hard for you to look up properly. Since it were your own words that it is the same responsibility as taking a test here I am going to give you some similar advice to what I give the students with heads hanging deep."
Before he did though he motioned for Cter to help herself to another biscuit, which she did.
"The reason you're looking down is because of your past that you still carry despite it being in the past. Just because you've failed before does not mean in the slightest that you are going to fail in the future. Tackle your next problem like it is a brand new one. Tackle it from as far in the beginning as possible to make yourself a new path where you succeed. Somewhere along the line you've taken for granted something that you shouldn't. Make a new line. Invent the world before you bake the pie. Is it going to be difficult? Yes, but only until you reach to where you thought you couldn't no more. That's when your chin will tilt upwards and look ahead instead of looking back."
That was good advice and all, but how could Cter reinvent the world if what she was stepping into was a brand new one?
"Straight into disregarding my advice, ey?" Professor Leraull chuckled to himself. "Really that's par of the course with the students when I say it. However, it is not the full story. As with all my lessons, it is to awaken something in you. A seed for you to notice. There is something in your aura, Cter. Don't you feel it too?"
Cter did.
And that was why she wanted to talk with Professor Leraull.
She had heard him giving that advice to another student in passing in years past. At the time she didn't need have time to reinvent herself, there were exams to cram for.
"If I remember correctly, you had an affinity for ice magic during your studies, didn't you, Cter?"
"I had, and I've been creating complex ice cubes to show off my magic since I became a Monster Mage."
"Magic from before brought into your life as a Monster Mage?"
Yes.
"And with that you've also brought along your life as a student into your life as a Monster Mage. You can't learn something that has never been taught before with the thinking of a student. Back then you were a human, and now you are a monster. You're on your way, Cter. You just need a bit more time with yourself to fully understand what you as a monster is. That is something you'll have to find somewhere else than with me though. I'm adept at teaching magic to a human's perspective and humanities to a monster's. What you need from me is the former."
Cter understood that. "Just wanted to hear your advice spoken to me." That's all, really. For her soul to take it to heart. "Always one more lecture to hear from you."
"I won't grade you on this," Leraull winked cartoonishly. "I promise." His head bounced as his winked eye expanded in remembrance along with its neighbor. "Oh, and speaking of that." With another bounce to his entire body Professor Leraull stood up and hurried back to his busy desk. "I did have your diploma here somewhere."
Oh...so Cter did pass after all? She hadn't given that scroll any thought for a long while.
"Normally when missing the passing grade for the written test with just a few points the student is allowed one year to show that they can still apply their magic practically enough to compensate for the lack in their theoretical knowledge," was explained from inside the whirlwind of papers and books glowing purple at their fringes. "It has been a bit longer than a year in your case, but considering that you've become a Monster Mage I'm willing to still accept that as adequate compensation." The professor's round head peeked through a circle of spiraling documents. "There is a bottle in the top drawer along with some vessels for us, should you want. If you want ice then you can make them yourself to prove to me further that you've learned much after your failed exam. Just answer me this theoretical question first?"
Cter had pretty much learned the curriculum thrice over during her stay in Jarasevo Castle under Priestess Frioke's wing, but she never did offer such generous celebration. "Shoot," she said with confidence.
"If I don't find your diploma here can I send it later to Jarasevo Castle?"
