"We're stopping."

Cter looked with a blend of both curiosity and growing unease stemming from Sund's rather slow and hidden movements. While exposing as little of his head as possible he glanced through the forward-facing window to assess the situation of the slowing carriage he and Cter have been traveling hurriedly with through Xoff.

"We shouldn't be stopping."

His furrowed brow deepened in thought sat unwell with Cter who began to shift in her seat. "Is anything the matter?" she asked in a hushed whisper that had her eyes widened. The situation was eerily similar to how Sir Gerson had conducted himself with Priestess Frioke as they traveled to confirm Prince Soulay's magic. Maybe it was some of Sir Gerson lingering influence from Sund's sleeve, or perhaps it was just how monsters all acted when it came to their carriage being stopped before it should have. Both situations were quite unlikely, but not impossible. The latter less impossible than the former, actually, what with Sund telling Cter that him using his own magic had made his sleeve's influences rare to the point of nonexistent.

"A Royal Guard?" It had Sund's brow almost closing his eyes into slits like that of Kurant's. Once he climbed down and puffed up his mantle to impose a bit more of his Monster Mage influence he opened the carriage door. "Royal Guard!" he addressed before the door even had time to open from the push of his hand. "We are the Monster Mages Sund and Cter, and we are here to visit Bonny Sallus."

Cter followed along, exiting the carriage behind Sund who's imposing demeanor had relaxed. She too had her posture relaxing.

Becoming sympathetic.

"I'm s-s-so s-sorry!" the white Royal Guard said with a kneel so deep and rapid it burrowed his armored knee into the dirt. Behind him was a locked metal bar laid across the road to prevent any further travels. The monster's apologetic panting bordered on whimpers, and his muzzle was grimaced into a pained bite. "We can't allow any more visitors!" His head shook as he spoke his desperate words, throwing dots of moisture that glistened in the sun behind him. "P-Please! Just leave! Go back to Monster Country and tell them to send mon–"

The border of whimpering was overstepped by the Royal Guard biting down on his tongue, causing him to let go of his unique weapon and falling over forwards with his arms outstretched before him. His tail was bent between his armored legs, quivering a metallic rustle as he tried to move himself lower. "Monster Mages," the Royal Guard pleaded after a sob that reverberated throughout him. "Please leave this place. I can't...I can't watch another one die."

Sund and Cter traded glances, but neither knew how the hell to react to the sobbing monster forcing his muzzle deep into the unkempt dirt of the side road leading to Clinic Hill. From where the Monster Mages stood they could see the large buildings on top of Clinic Hill billowing smoke between the sparse tree crowns.

It was more smoke than the last time Cter was there.

"We are here on behalf of Bonny Sallus," Cter spoke after not knowing what to say for a long while to the Royal Guard wincing at her attempt to explain. "I am to change his magic to something that will aid him in his field of medicine." Once she finished the flattened ears piqued just the slightest, and the heavy sobs calmed for just a second. "Are you the only Royal Guard stationed at Clinic Village?"

"I...I…"

It was no use. The Royal Guard was too far gone to be able to answer and–

"Stand up, soldier!" ordered Sund with a lowered voice to give the Royal Guard no choice. "Brush yourself off and straighten your back when speaking to two Monster Mages." There was no animosity or reprimanding present in Sund's order, only help. The Royal Guard must've seen some horrid things to immediately collapse at the sight of them two. He had completely ignored Cter and Sund's aura and just used his eyes. Only gone with the physical and none of the magical.

How bad were things at Clinic Hill?

"Steady yourself too," Sund said through a side glance at Cter taking a sharp breath against the brick buildings at the top of the yellowing hill. "Things are clearly a bit farther gone than we've anticipated." His whispers were only for Cter's ears, as the Royal Guards armor shaking as he stood up via the aid of his weapon was too loud for him to possibly hear, even with his dog-like ears. "However that only means that our mission is even more important. If it is this bad at Clinic Hill then it must be even worse in the bigger cities."

Cter had never seen Sund's eyes so serious. So burning with grievous realization. His aura too was disturbed with rumblings of things being more than he imagined. She agreed, both with a nod and through her aura. The two were stepping into something much bigger than was expected, but if there were any who could, it would be them.

The fate of Xoff rested inside Cter's sleeve.

She had to give it out.

"T-Thank you, sir," said the shaken Royal Guard with his weight resting on his axe-like weapon featuring a carved hollowing of half a monster soul at its blade. "It's been...tough, sir." It looked like the guard was about to vomit from him being assaulted by his memories as he closed his eyes.

"Soldier!" Sund repeated loudly to bring him back. His hands went behind his back like how Sir Gerson did, and Cter could've sworn that she felt some of the Monster General's aura mingle inside Sund's aura. Was he letting Sir Gerson speak, in a way? Must have been the only way he saw it ending favorably. "Your mind is to remain here with us, understand?" However rough the sights the Royal Guard might have seen, Sund needed to be rougher to keep him from being overwhelmed.

To help with that, Cter leaned in towards her colleague's ear for a whisper. "The guard's name is Ziki. He has a brother. An elder brother back at the castle. Goes by the name of Zeke and sees his younger brother as having surpassed him. He couldn't be any more prouder with his little brother being stationed as such an important place."

Sund nodded subtly to show that he understood. "Anything else I could use?"

"Their weapons are family heirlooms, forming a monster soul where they've been hollowed out. Passed down by their parents and grandparents who too were Royal Guards. Also try and use the word 'plentiest'. It's not a real one, but it means something to the two." Nothing else sprung to Cter's mind for Sund to use. There was something else she wanted to tell him though. "I know that you won't, but please don't overdo it. In terms of age he's probably younger than me. His brother wanted him to know that he'd still be able to drink his little brother under the table and–"

A troubled hand stopped Cter before she said anything more. "Save it for when I'm done, okay? I'm willing to be the villain here for a bit, so you outta be the hero afterwards, okay?" He didn't like it, that much was evidently clear. With the way his fingers curled down the same as his lips it was just as clear that it was something he had to do out of necessity and not something he wanted. "Don't interfere."

It wasn't clear if he said it to Cter or himself.

After a steadying breath, Sund's hands folded behind his steeled back with his chin held high. "Ziki!" he spoke rigidly. "Royal Guard of the Third Xoff Regiment tasked with Royal Presence at Clinic Hill by the will of King Asgore and Queen Toriel, your greeting to us two Monster Mages is poor and humiliating to our titles which grant us superior ranks in both what we do and what we represent! I had to do your introductions for you, Royal Guard! How do you answer?"

The Royal Guard fell to his knee again, burrowing it into the same dent in the dirt that his metal armor had done before in the road. The emotion that forced him down wasn't that of horror and dread though, but of embarrassment and disappointment in himself. Still, the horror and dread was around him like the miasma that gripped Xoff and Clinic Hill, so it wasn't enough. The air between the three was still that of deep, dark worry worthy of the news that Cter had only heard about and read through reports coming in from Xoff. Even as she had traveled with Sund through the country she had never really seen the tight grip the plague had.

But with Ziki she saw, and not only that, she felt. In his aura there was a longing that could only be described as childish. Not in the immature sense, but a wish to return to mother to be comforted and told that nothing he had seen or experienced really happened and that it was all just a bad dream. A horrible dream.

The most horrible dream he'd ever had!

Sund had to clear that away from the monster. He had to not only clear away the miasma gripping the Royal Guard with fear, but also the childish hope that he clung on as a last resort. No dark, but no light as well. There had to be none left but the soldier he was for the two Monster Mages to get a proper answer out of the monster.

Neither Sund nor Cter rejoiced in the fact.

"I can not answer that," Ziki uttered with shame tightening his body and sharp muzzle. Shame was good. It meant that Sund was getting through to the Royal Guard. A good start, considering. "I..." He hadn't gotten through properly though. There was still much left within the Royal Guard that held him back from being the soldier the two Monster Mages needed. "I am sorry, Royal Councilors, but..."

Damn it hurt Cter to watch Ziki struggle so much. Each syllable that passed through his curled lips had his eyes losing color and become more distant. His aura was turbulent as well, shifting shape and texture like a quickly kneaded dough.

"Your spoken remorse only reflects your past actions which brought you to this state of embarrassment to our Monster Royals, soldier." The surging sharpness in Sund's eyes forced Ziki's to focus and look at him through a shimmering surface of wet tears. "We do not want your apologies for we have no use of them. What we require from you is not for you to mire yourself in the mistakes you've done, but to remedy them and to act as we require you to." With a heavy furrow Sund had the Royal Guard flinch underneath the weight thrust upon him. He looked down and away, but that wouldn't do. "Or is your brother's pride in you misplaced, Ziki?"

Despite his white fur still remaining on him, Ziki had no colors to his person, nor his aura. His gulp of demoralized air traveled through him slowly, sapping the sliver of strength remaining within him. "No," fell from his tongue quietly onto the ground where it disappeared among the uneven ridges. "I promised..."

Sund looked to Cter to remind her not to interfere.

His sunken expression told her that he was on the verge of interfering himself, and if anything he was looking to Cter for strength to keep going. The sight of the broken monster weeping large drops into the ground where his fallen word landed was pathetic, and Cter wanted nothing more than to comfort him. She couldn't though. Even if it tore at her soul, and even more so at Sund's, it was necessary. They had broken the monster down. All they had to do was build him up the way they needed.

Easier said than…said.

"You have not only failed your promise to King Asgore and Queen Toriel, but also to your elder brother who has done nothing else than sung your praises. Those praises now ring hollow. Your brother sing with sour notes that cut the ears now that you weep like a coward in the face of adversity you swore to take on. You were stationed here because the Monster Royals had faith in you, and because you wanted to make your elder brother proud. Now that you're asked to uphold that pride, to uphold the task you were given in confidence, you would dare spit in the face of those that saw you as their better? Saw you as the right choice, of which you accepted? Of which you agreed that you were?"

With a quick and violent slash in the air that followed with a trail of white barricade magic, Sund threw his sleeved hand towards the blade of the shaking heirloom that the Royal Guard held weakly in his even weaker grip. "You would fail not only your country, but your family as well!" The grip tightened, but it wasn't clear in which way it was. Anger? Hope? Surrender? "Stand up, Ziki, Royal Guard of the Third Xoff Regiment tasked with Royal Presence at Clinic Hill by the will of King Asgore and Queen Toriel, and detail the situation at hand to your superiors!"

Both Sund and Cter's eyes were locked hard on the fingers of the monster who's aura had become a mess of emotions. They could not discern any of the ingredients in his stewing, but his hand served as a taste test to see if they had cooked him correctly. The Monster Mages observed as the fur raised on the furry fingers curling tighter and tighter, the claws jutting into the tensed palm deeper and deeper. "I..." breathed the Royal Guard through a breath that took effort. "I promised..." A growl was hinted at within his voice. He was angry.

"I promised!"

Angry with himself!

It was time for Cter to step in. "Your brother told me that he would want for nothing but to meet you again, Ziki." Her words froze the stewing aura of the Royal Guard. "He asked me to tell you this." Froze it into one solid emotion. "To let you know that he enjoys the cool shade you're casting from atop Mt. Ebott's peak where you stand and which he could never reach." An emotion that had his hand gripping the heirloom's handle even tighter, causing dust to bleed from where his claws were digging into his palm. "He told me that he will still drink you under the table and into the basement so that you can fetch more bottles, and that he is eagerly waiting to prove that whenever you come home."

Finally, the two Monster Mages got through to him.

"Third Monster Mage Sund and Fourth Monster Mage Cter," the monster greeted with a salute after pushing himself up via the clenched handle of his weapon. "Ziki, Royal Guard of the Third Xoff Regiment tasked with Royal Presence at Clinic Hill by the will of King Asgore and Queen Toriel, asks for reinforcements to help fulfill the will of the Monster Royals in keeping the humans at Clinic Village safe." He disengaged his salute to bring his saluted hand to his weapon's handle. With a rapid motion that rivaled Sund's slash in the air, the monster brought his weapon in front of him before angling it to the side and looking over the curved blade. "The situation has gone beyond what I am capable of dealing with, and the assistance of two Monster Mages I believe is necessary to fulfill the trust that has been given to the regiment stationed at Clinic Village. Please consider assisting me in the name of Queen Toriel and King Asgore, sirs!"

Sund's relieved exhale had him lose balance for a moment as his hand touched at his head. "Good to hear it, soldier," he replied after collecting himself by some steadying breaths. "At ease, Ziki. You did well."

The dog guard mirrored the hefty exhale breathed by the Monster Mage. "Thank you, sir," Ziki said without a stumble after a long minute of collecting himself. "It is a sight for sore souls to receive assistance here even if your mission wasn't specifically to do so. Your presence alone will go a long way to bringing hope that has been lacking for what feels like months now."

"The plague?" said Cter as a question while knowing full well what the answer was. "Reports from Xoff that reached Jarasevo before we set off on our journey spoke of it being worse than the last time it hit, but they never spoke of things being this bad."

The Royal Guard's eyes risked disappearing again, but he managed to shake it away. His aura was steeled, and so was he. "We haven't had time," he began to explain while motioning up to the thick smokestacks at Clinic Hill. "Haven't had time to properly detail the scale of the plague since I've been busy with trying to organize among this chaos the best I could. Communication between the other stationed Royal Guards here in Xoff has been nigh impossible as the Xoff military has split up the country in an attempt to halt the spread of infection."

"The Xoff military has...what?" Sund looked very befuddled from hearing that. "What do you mean?"

Cter recalled what Barbeqa had told her about the military and turned to Sund to relay. "The Xoff military hierarchy is quite flat at the top, with generals in charge of a certain area of the country. They are all loyal to the Xoff crown, but they are quite independent. From that I'm guessing that each general is trying to make sure that his own region is cleared of the plague before he goes on to help others, and that means closing up."

"You speak correctly, Monster Mage," said Ziki while being slightly impressed, however he did his best to hide it so that it wouldn't come across as insulting. "And since we are foreign actors existing in a country that is seriously hampered more than we are immune to the plague and can offer assistance that way, our communication isn't a priority through the County Generals' borders." He made a disappointing shake of his head. "Locally, in and around the villages humans are trusting of monsters, but the closer we get to political the less trusting it becomes. Hence I've shifted priorities to help organize wherever the human chain of command fails. Reactionary rather than preemptive." His head lowered with a pained grimace taking him over. "The latter maybe would be enough to actually save humans, but then again I am only one monster that have taken on too much that I can carry. Even if I could get a report back to Jarasevo through a flying monster or similar I'm not sure if I would even be able to put it in proper wording just how grim the plague has made this country."

With a calming motion of her sleeved hand, Cter let her aura rest heavily on Ziki's to keep him secure like a weighted blanket. "You've done good, soldier," she let him know with a serious nod. "You've kept strong during these times, and I'm sure that Clinic Village has managed far better than how it would have had you not been stationed here. The other villages that you've managed to keep contact with too, I'm certain of."

"Been a while since I've had any praise onto me, so forgive if I don't feel joy from it, Monster Mage." Ziki made an apologetic bow. "With you two Monster Mages here though to give Bonny Sallus a bigger chance to find a cure for the plague I hope that this will be but a horrible memory and nothing more." From his armor, Ziki produced a key ring featuring some heavy ones that he used to unlock the barricade preventing the Monster Mage convoy from continuing. The metal bar squealed heavily, as if it hadn't been moved in months. "I'll lock this behind you."

Before he could though, Sund interrupted with a flash of his sleeved palm. "This barricade needs you to be stationed here, no?" he asked while sweeping his flashed palm over the rudimentary and sloppily built road block featuring sharpened fence poles jutted at an angle on the sides of the rusty metal bar held in place between two heavy rocks on one end and locked around a tree on the other end. Ziki was interrupted in the middle of turning the thick metal bar on its pivot between the two heavy rocks, screeching loudly as he did. "Aren't you better off inside Clinic Village to help?"

"I am," said Ziki while his white fur was stained with rust from clenching around the metal bar he was pushing. "However, preventing humans seeking refuge with Bonny Sallus is something I need to prioritize. During the days I stay here while at night I help out in the village so that the human kids can get some sleep that they desperately need."

Cter and Sund traded worried glances. "Kids?" Cter said with her head turning down the dirt path. "What about the human adults?"

The metal bar almost gave way to Ziki's hardened grip. "Either succumbed to the plague or helping out on top of Clinic Hill." It hurt him down to his very soul. "Those sunken cheeks that used to blush so much during the summer days..." A line of brown rust happened upon Ziki's forehead as his head fell down on the metal bar. "Singe my soul..." A brown drop fell off the bottom of the metal bar after a strained sob from Ziki.

"Right," huffed Sund with his sleeve glowing a brilliant white, turning around quickly enough that his mantle took air. "Driver!" he addressed with as sharp a shout as he had done with Ziki just before. "After delivery you are to be stationed here and divert any and all visitors away from the village. Tell them that any more patients and pressure onto Bonny Sallus will hinder work on a cure for the plague. Should things go violent send up a sparkling signal for either me or Cter to come to aid." Sund turned back to Ziki. "How frequent are the human visits?"

"Usually around once a week, sir," answered Ziki after straightening himself again. "It is sporadic though and I haven't been able to make a schedule of things which is why I've been at this gate daily."

"Well from now on you're to be present at Clinic Village constantly with me and Cter, understood, Royal Guard?"

"Understood, sir," saluted Ziki before grabbing a hold of the bar again. "I will go ahead then while you set up things here." He pushed it open fully to let the carriages through before picking up his weapon again that he had resting against the stacked rocks. "Anything you want me to make sure about before you arrive?"

"Gather the children," said Cter before Sund could say anything. "Manny especially." Even if she didn't need him to change Bonny's magic she could still grant Manny more magic to help more. "Tell them that the Monster Mages are here to help and to bring back the hope that has been lost."

With a quick bow to show that he understood the order. "I'll bring them to the water pump in the middle of the village, Wide Street. It is at the end of the street broad enough for your carriages to pass through." Ziki then rushed on all fours with his weapon in his mouth down the dirt road back to Clinic Village.

Cter watched him turn the corner and disappear behind the tree lines before she sighed heavily. "Never though we'd actually get to apply ourselves as leaders in a crisis." Sir Gerson's dire and robust lessons flashed inside her head. She'd been attentive to them, but deep inside she never imagined that she would actually use Sir Gerson's teachings. "It's something we'll have to take up now though, you and I."

"You sound a bit scared about it, Cter," commented Sund with a hand on her shoulder. "You can only focus on preparing for changing Bonny's magic if you want while I handle the logistical." It was comforting to be reminded that she had someone else at her side in it. "In a morbid way it is a bit exciting getting to show our mettle through actions rather than just magic, so to speak. Not just through our fancy titles, but that we are as capable as our reputation brags."

Cter agreed, although she agreed more that it was a morbid feeling above it being exciting. "I can make a crystal barricade to deter so that you can save your barricade magic."

"Permanent?" inquired Sund while letting go of Cter so that she and her glowing sleeve could make the necessary magic. He waved for the driver to move the carriages towards Clinic Village. "Once unloaded stock one up with a week's provisions and bring it back here for you to use during the nights," he spoke to the passing driver who sung back an acknowledging tune that came together with the chime of Cter's crystal magic growing up from the ground where she planted her sleeved palm.

Vicious, threatening spikes of crystal erupted from the dirt road, casting aside clumps of half-wet soil as it rose and crackled with melodic cracking. While sharp, they were dull in their appearance so that there wouldn't be anything beautiful about them. Scary magic to scare away humans. Whatever political backlash that would threaten to cause wouldn't hold a candle to the plague, so it was a gamble that Cter was happy to wager on. As she hopped onto the passing carriage and stood on its step looking back at her magic letting the midday sun's rays drip off it rather than reflecting it back in a splendor like she was used to it doing, she couldn't help but feel a weight taking hold of her soul.

As her loose hair fluttered in front of her from the wind picking up with the carriage's speed, she spoke for only her own ears to hear.

"I'll still bring him back to you, Idyll. No matter what happens."

She was determined to.