The wide-brimmed hat took up the entirety of the glass table Rasliela motioned for Cter and her to sit at. Its cone was awkwardly placed between the two, with Cter considering jumping her chair a bit to the side so that she could see her table-mate properly. Only considered though, as moving another table close with stasis magic and then sliding the hat onto that one instead next was easier. It gave Cter a better look at the patterns in the metal of the table. Much more...angular than Hjearta and Monster Country designs? Due to Mt. Ebott and Mt. Ymmet, perhaps? Hjearta had its mountain ranges too, true, but none really had the mysticism and reverence that Mt. Ebott had.

Neither Fenkeep or Jarasevo carved their rooftop line so that a distant mountain could always be seen from wherever in the city.

"Adopted, I should add."

A lukewarm puff of air followed the cone-shaped hat falling down a hand's length onto the second glass table as Cter was unceremoniously snapped out of her thinking. "Hm?" she blinked as the purple haze of her magic faded from her sleeve and Rasliela's green hat. "Say again?"

"My mother," the Royal Mage repeated while pouring some tea from a silver kettle that was taller and slimmer than those used in Monster Country. The bendy pipe looked like a swan's neck. Rasliela didn't seem aware that Cter had moved her hat away at first. "The illegitimate heir to the Xoff throne." After handing Cter a similarly silver cup filled with a lighter tea than Cter was used to, Rasliela paused for a short moment to assess where her hat had gone.

Didn't take her long to find it and to shrug with a nod, almost spilling the tea. "Not possible for my grandmother and grandfather to sire a child of their own due to them being a human and a monster, respectively." Cter waited patiently for Rasliela to pour tea for herself. "And since they already ripped the honey-fastened gauze off completely with a vicious yank when it came to royal traditions by ascending to the throne as a human and monster pair they figured why not add to the drastic change they were already underway with drastically changing."

Despite the rather-long explanation that gave Cter plenty of time to be the one to drink her tea first, she kept her cup on the table for when after Rasliela took her first sip. The Royal Mage held a raised eyebrow at the Monster Mage, who didn't acknowledge it.

"Mhm?" muttered the Royal Mage, bemused, before continuing. "Anyways, my grandparents were set to contact Jarasevo Castle and Priestess Frioke for help as to concoct a plausible explanation to how a monster and a human could sire a child. A human child, unfortunately." Rasliela paused for a second with her tea cup's lip touching hers as she let the last word ruminate within her. She found it bitter, to no surprise. "In the sense that a monster child would most likely have been easier to explain."

Cter…she…

Well she didn't agree with the prospect to begin with, really.

So she...disagreed less with that a monster child would have been easier to explain?

"Tea too sour, Monster Mage?"

"Not that," said Cter with a shake of her sour expression as she placed down her tea cup on a conjured coaster. Rasliela didn't conjure one for herself, but that passed Cter by. "Please do not hear this as anything against your mother or your grandparents, nor you for that matter, but that sounds like an idea that would have done more harm than good."

The sound of Rasliela crossing one leg over the other was the most emotion she had shown. "Pray explain, Monster Mage." The sound of her following sip of tea even more so.

After a deep inhale, Cter lifted her eyes from her cup of dark tea across the glass table and up the green robe to the narrowed deep-purple slits. "The reason we're sitting here, to begin with." She waited a moment for a change in Rasliela's expression, but none came. Cter had to explain a bit more, it seemed. "If it was paraded that a human and a monster could sire children, and human children to boot, then it would be the same reason as why the upcoming trial has been summoned."

"The same?" Rasliela challenged.

"The same," Cter held but with her eyes moving over to some of the large flowers in the garden Rasliela had led Cter to, "but not as...drastic. Same reasoning, but not as...drastic." Her sleeved finger tapped on the tea cup. "Although, perhaps it would have been better in the long run if there was a similar trial but with lesser stakes to it." She blinked back to the narrowed slits peeked through with deep-purple. "For all of us." Afterwards she gave Rasliela some quiet time to decide how she wanted to feel about what Cter had implied.

Enough time for Cter to think for a bit herself too.

Like the fact that she had follow the Royal Mage at Noitaidarr Castle to the Royal Garden for some tea without notifying her colleagues. The fact that she followed after having dismissing the idea to begin with too. It was a bad idea, no doubt about it, and Cter was aware that it was a bad idea. Still she followed out of nothing but her curiosity. She did not know that the exiled King Kheydan had a secret adopted daughter and granddaughter. She did not know that he was a Boss Monster.

How many did know?

"Understand that I am talking about the greater effect and repercussions of the discovery that a human and monster could sire children, Rasliela. Again, it's nothing to do with your family. Human magic has been about learning and understanding what and where humans and monster are similar. If the world was told that it was possible to sire children, human children, then that would mean a leap across the chasm between the two races longer and more grandiose than humans being capable of magic with Prince Soulay."

Cter motioned behind her. "And such a drastic lurch is why we are here." Motioned with her sleeved hand to further drive home the point. "We are here because we were not ready for such a violent lurch in our understanding of the relationship between humans and monsters. This trial has been called upon because of tragedy that has struck in the worst time it could have. It has been allowed to fester into the beginning of fear, and this is the last chance us monsters have to explain and to sooth the fear before it manifests properly."

The wrinkled blinks were few but heavy, and Rasliela's head tilted to the side under the weight of them. She drank her tea while staring intently at her green hat.

But with what intent Cter could still not figure.

"When you put it that way," the Royal Mage murmured under her breath into the half-empty of her cup. "Although I do not feel the most comfortable comparing my mother and my grandparents to that which occurred at Clinic Hill." It took a few seconds before she reminded herself that Cter could not tell if she was joking or not. "I guess the sentiment of the aftermath is the same though." The tea cup clacked softly against the glass table. "Don't expect me to throw my hat in with you even though I can see where your heels are dug in, Monster Mage. I understand it, or at least as much as I can understand, which was why I approached you to begin with."

Next to the cup Rasliela tapped with a nail. "However, as you said yourself, there is the issue of the...drastic nature of the events which preludes the trial tomorrow. Like how you disagree with my grandparents' choice I disagree that the implication of the fusion is not something that we can just see as something unfortunate that happened out of tragic circumstances. The cat won't go back into the bag once out."

Guess it was even between Cter and Rasliela…

Cter spoke about the Royal Mage's family as an outsider to the events and then Rasliela spoke about the fusion as an outsider to the event.

Fair as fair.

Didn't help the lighter tea to taste any sweeter though.

It wasn't bitter tasting or similar, but it wasn't sweet either. It was...acceptable. It had come to an understanding, not gone better nor worse. Moving along on the same path without going left or right. Putting it that way had it feeling like a waste of time.

So Cter didn't.

"Your sleeve, if I may?"

She had something else in mind she wanted to angle the conversation towards.

"It's a special one," Rasliela replied while angling it up for Cter to get another good look at. "A very special one, in fact. I'm sure you can tell that it is, Monster Mage. Yours is even more special than mine is, from what I have heard." She glanced down at the spiraling lines glowing faintly with the same cyan color of the conjured coaster. "From what I have seen too."

"It is more than just special, Royal Mage." Cter pointed at the lines of Rasliela's sleeve with a bounce to her finger. "It is a Boss Monster sleeve, isn't it not?"

Rasliela nodded. "Very special."

"A Boss Monster sleeve on a Royal Mage," repeated the Monster Mage. "With neither Queen Toriel or King Asgore present in it." She could not tell that neither presence were present in the sleeve, but she knew. There was more to the story of it that Rasliela wanted Cter to uncover. "For it is your grandfather, you claim. King Kheydan of Xoff. "

Another nod. "You are correct, Monster Mage."

"Here is what has me doubting though, unfortunately." After another short round of taps on the tea cup, Cter asked directly. "There are no known Boss Monsters left besides King Asgore and Queen Toriel, so why do you claim that your grandfather was one?" Was it another of Rasliela's tricks to get Cter off balance, or was there something else with it?

The Royal Mage dragged a slightly wrinkly smile while she caressed her own tea cup. "His Boss Monster status was kept a secret as to not arouse any suspicion about his connection to the Monster Royals. For the fact of the matter is that he was the last cousin twice removed from Queen Toriel. As I'm sure you're familiar with her family with the Delta Rune crest stepped down during the founding of Jarasevo to give the monsters a chance to have a whole clean slate after the borders to Monster Country had been successfully negotiated and drawn."

She refreshed her throat. "The legend of their family crest was no more with the founding of Monster Country, so they stepped down as to have the monsters live without it. All that is just history now though, again due to how monsters see legacies. My grandfather descends from the half of Queen Toriel's forefathers that went the extra step to let the monsters live without the legend, and moved far away from Jarasevo to live a simpler life while leaving the Delta Rune behind them."

A slow, very slow, nod indicated that the Monster Mage was following along with the story, but maybe not fully. She followed enough, but not all of it. Partly because of the Xoffian heat starting to find its way through her robe, and partly because history wasn't her strong suite.

"After seeing how well Queen Toriel had been managing on the throne, and the love he shared with Princess Laimutifah, my grandfather decided that he too should return to sit upon a throne. Not as a Boss Monster though, but as a normal monster. He wanted his queen and him to be their own royals, and not have any connection with Queen Toriel. Had it been known that he was a Boss Monster with familial relations to Queen Toriel it might have too much salt in the wound of the decapitated royal lineage of Xoff."

"A decapitation your grandparents then tried to...put back and mend?" Cter guessed with not a whole lot of confidence. She was correct, but the metaphor was very poor. "Mend by tricking the world that it was possible for monsters and humans to have children together?"

"My grandfather's Boss Monster title would have been revealed had Priestess Frioke deemed it necessary, I'm sure." On the other side, Rasliela did have a lot of confidence in her guess. With good grounds, Cter assumed, for it was all she could. "Maybe that it would only be possible for a human and a Boss Monster to have children? That would have eased the revelation, I suspect. Perhaps even enough that the news would have been met by nothing but jubilation that the Xoff lineage was restored." A melancholy hum slipped through the Royal Mage's lips, and was silenced by the last of her tea. "If only, as they say."

"If only your grandmother hadn't passed away so tragically early." Cter offered her sympathies with a bowed nod. "I am sure she was a wise queen. It was a loss not only for Xoff, but for all of us."

"I did not meet her myself, but my grandfa' talked about her lovingly and vividly. Her disease could have been cured today due to the work of Dr. Sallus."

"What a shame then of the diseases of today that can not be cured due to his passing."

Rasliela raised an eyebrow at the challenging look Cter gave her. "I am more devastated over the death of Dr. Sallus than I am of my own grandmo', Monster Mage. Don't assume otherwise, if you'd please." Her head shook, but the one with the most disappointment was Cter since she didn't manage to prompt more emotion from the Royal Mage. "I said it to further explain why her passing was a tragedy. It was a disease that should not have claimed her life, yet it did. She, a queen, fell to something we consider today to be something that even the most common commoner don't live in fear of succumbing to. Had it been the lobster that claimed her I would not have been so bitter about it, but..."

"I..." The Monster Mage had to get to terms with herself before she could say what she wanted to. "I also know of something similar. Of someone close that succumbed to a disease that is easily curable today." She wasn't lying, but using Idyll's parents still felt a bit wrong to do. If there was anywhere and anytime Cter could be allowed to use the memories of her friends' parents dying, it would be to try and save the monsters. "I do not bring it up to say that my grief is closer than yours, only to let you know that I know the pain."

"I appreciate it, Monster Mage." Rasliela poured herself some more tea. "I really do, to be clear. It might be my job to keep my emotions under lock and key, but that don't mean that I don't appreciate when someone is truthful about theirs to me." She angled the silver kettle of tea towards Cter, who nodded to accept. The swan neck bowed respectfully as it spewed its light tea. "I can see and feel it on you that it is true, that you've lived it yourself."

She wasn't wrong.

"More too, I see and feel that there's more you want to know about this sleeve of mine." The silver kettle was placed back on the rolling serving cart. "There's still suspicion within you."

Of course there was. Cter couldn't fathom what it was that Rasliela was getting out of laying her cards bare for Cter. How was revealing the fact that King Kheydan was a Boss Monster, had a secret adoptive daughter, and that the Royal Mage of Xoff had a Cooperative Connection with him on her sleeve in any way giving herself a better edge in the trial? For Cter to understand she needed to know more. She needed to understand more. She had to get through to Rasliela's soul so that she could understand more.

"Like a rolling boil thinking that the pot lid keeps it quiet..."

Cter surprised herself with a snicker at the Royal Mage's snarky comment. "Well, you'd be the same in my shoes, wouldn't you?" Her sturdy boots that reached high up her calves, touching her knee. Her sturdy boots that trapped heat.

Heat that she'd rather they escaped.

"You wouldn't mind if I?" the Monster Mage asked while lifting her left arm slightly towards the Royal Mage. An opaque, shimmering cloud touched cold splotches of frost along the spiraling line. "I was born in Hjearta, after all."

"You go ahead," said Rasliela with an amused smile. "This tea don't taste well when cold so I'd recommend not chilling it too."

The opaque cloud concentrated around Cter's sleeve turned thinner as it spread over her robe, giving her a cool, gentle breeze that breathed away the sweltering heat from the clear-blue sky. Cter breathed out. "Does the wind blow this comfortable at the ocean?"

"It does," Rasliela nodded. "It is quite a sight to behold where the sky and the ocean come together and you can not separate the two." A none-too-subtle wink was sent across the table. "A powerful image that everyone loses their breath at."

Cter was just gonna pretend that she didn't hear that because of the wind from her magic. Her not being able to tell exactly what Rasliela meant was getting a bit...too much. "Do you use ice magic to cool yourself off from time to time?" she instead hustled forth with a shrug that was too animated to be natural. "Or is that considered rude to the..." What was it called again? "The Royal Regulator?"

"Don't want to upset the Royal Regulator around here lest you enter your office hotter than a sauna and go to sleep in your room colder than ice," was answered quickly.

A bit too quickly.

"Can't you just heat your room then with fire magic?" pried Cter with a playful shrug. "Both King Asgore and Queen Toriel have an affinity for magic, so I'm assuming your grandfather would too, right?" Actually, come to think of it. "You'd have affinity for a lot of magic with both a Boss Monster sleeve and such a deep familial connection." Even if it was with the white lie of the Cooperative Connection she would still have had it easy enough to use magic whenever and for whatever reason.

Yet she...hadn't.

Not any magic at all.

The sound of Cter's teacup touching the conjured coaster had Rasliela tugging a curious grin. It had turned more crystal-like, almost as a confrontation of sorts. "You knew about how I make my entrance usually with how I lift up my sleeve to my face, yet you did not add the magical gust that I do?" Cter's arms folded. "You do not make a conjured coaster for yourself. You do not use stasis magic to grab a hold of the silver kettle and instead stretch for it."

Rasliela did not explain why. She looked too excited to explain.

Too excited to see that the puzzle pieces were falling into place for Cter.

"Your grandfather, the hidden Boss Monster king self-exiled without anyone finding out where he went." Cter pointed. "You have an extremely strong Cooperative Connection with his memories. His magic you should be familiar with to the point that it is second nature to you."

"First," she corrected, confirming that Cter was on the right path.

"His magic and aura he must have hidden day in and day out while on the Xoff throne as well as when he abdicated from it. Hidden his intentions and emotions enough that he was seen as a normal monster." However, while Cter was on the right path, there was still one more thing that had prevented her from guessing it earlier. "Still, even with a Boss Monster's memories, hiding away your aura to the extent which you are capable of is still more than what a Boss Monster sleeve would allow." Cter could still read Kry and Kurant's feelings, and those two were so close to their respective Cooperative Connections that they had begun to be influenced by their respective Monster Royal. "There's something more in there, isn't it?"

The Royal Mage's cup was sat down gently. "My grandfather," Rasliela then said with her sleeve extended.

"Yes, I know."

Rasliela shook her head. "My grandfather," she repeated like an…

An…

An introduction?!

Cter's eyes snapped down to the extended sleeve. "Your..." She blinked. "Your grandfather?"

"Yes."

"Not just his memories?"

"Not just his memories."

"His entire..."

"His entire soul."

His entire soul…

Cter's cup doth ranneth over with thoughts overwhelming her, and she sank down into the garden chair enough that her mantle and robe squeezed out of the swirling metallic patterns on her chair's backrest.

Her teacup was quite empty though, so Rasliela filled it up again preemptively.

"An old king lies in a simple bed inside a simple home on a simple farm..."