Despite sitting down halfway through his recollection of the night at Clinic Hill, Sarbor still looked weak in his knees. He hadn't relieved any actual weight from them as he immediately leaned his elbows and weight over them with his hands balled together hard underneath his lips and mustache.

"On the way back to Monster Country I had to tend to both the injury on my shoulder as well as an unconscious Cter. It was a solemn ride, longer than anyone I ever had."

It took a while for the court room's consensus to realize that he was finished. Even the Speaker had been touched by the dark dots sprinkled in front of the provided chair the stoic doctor had let fall without interrupting him. A few tears still clung to the fringe of his mustache, only falling off as he lifted his head up with a clumsily exhale.

As the realization that Sarbor had finished his testimony set in with the crowded balconies, whispers began to titter and tatter between subtly turned necks. About the creature that had emerged. About the Monster Mage's involvement. About the doctor burning the camp. About his escape with the Monster Mage from the Field General.

Each whisper begat a louder and louder presence.

But none were as loud as the last.

"The human soul?!"

The Speaker could do naught but blink, powerless against the building commotion that he looked to not be aware of as his mind was elsewhere. The commotion that rang so loud around Sarbor shook him. It had his balled hands tightening until they were as white as bone, yet he did not stand up. He did not attempt to escape it. He sat there and weathered it.

For it was what he needed to do, for all that lost their lives that night.

Cter let her eyes wander over the balconies, observing the many expressions that had thrown away any pretensions of hushed and subtlety at that point. There wasn't any panic, for none really understood what it meant. They knew that the human soul was important and that not a lot was known of it, but they did not know how important it was. They did not understand the ramifications of the discovery, and more importantly, the ramifications of the way it was discovered, and the immediate discovery following it.

Not even Cter understood the full effects of the human soul and the fusion, to be fair. What she did know about it though…

Too much.

Curiously, Cter turned over to Rasliela to gauge the Royal Mage's reaction. Terri and Huvett and Huvtvao's reactions she already felt through their auras from behind her in the audience, the same as she felt that third aura which she hadn't felt before. The third one was different from the volatile concoction of confusion and anxiety as Terri and Huvett and Huvtvao's heads spun with trying to get to grips about what Sarbor had told. The third aura must have been the other mage from Hjearta, Cter guessed.

Rasliela's aura though, Cter could still not tell anything about, even if the Royal Mage had just heard that about the human soul. Her aura was still invisible and hidden deeper than Cter could reach. Beneath the wide-brimmed hat there was still that deep shadow which prevented reading the wrinkled, tanned face. However though, with the slight tilt forwards of the green hat, Cter could tell that something was brewing with Rasliela.

If anything because both the Field General's face and aura had begun to scrunch up with impatience. In anger too as Sarbor had testified more to the court than he had told the Field General back when he was just an officer. With gritted teeth and large arms folded, the Field General inhaled loudly through his nose, flexing both his stature and presence.

"How long is the prosecution going to let this shock go for?" he took to comment with a deep, filling tone aimed to wake up as many as he could up in the balconies and wooden podium. "Not only is the prosecution willingly letting the court be in disorder, they are also putting strain on their witness!" He wasn't wrong, and that he was fully aware of. He was gonna let his objection be heard out the court room doors and windows if needed. "Speaker, please regain control of the court!"

The Speaker missed his grip on the heavy gavel a few, startled times before he managed to let it ring out into the large, mosaic-decorated room. "Quiet!" he demanded. "Only the witness and the prosecution are allowed to speak at this moment!" No direct reprimand towards the Field General though, who unfolded his arms and leaned in underneath Rasliela's hat to whisper something. As he did, his aura became faint and difficult to read for Cter. The Royal Mage was blocking it, most likely out of reflex. Like a thick fog that was impossible to see through or hear from within.

"The old king still protecting his people," said Kry with an ounce of respect in his hushed voice. He had been the least surprised when Cter had told her colleagues about Rasliela's true nature after her tea with the Royal Mage.

"It really is an uncomfortable feeling being blocked like this," added Kurant. "I've never felt anything similar before. Like barricade magic, but for the soul."

That...that Cter should have thought of herself. It was a perfect metaphor. Perhaps if she thought of it that way she could find an angle to it. For later though, as Sir Gerson's loud inhale took the presence left by the Field General.

"Do forgive for the commotion Dr. Fech's testimony brought forth," the turtle monster asked with a bow towards the wooden podium as he went to offer his witness help in standing up. "I did not wish to impose on the proceedings of a foreign court."

The Speaker's brow dropped like stones in water.

"I do not wish to impose on the proceedings of a foreign court again," Sir Gerson added to the suspicious nods of the Speaker. With that settled, he offered his green hand for Sarbor to take, which the doctor did with a heavy shoulder. Sir Gerson wasn't fazed by the weight though, and only smiled a thankful smile before helping the human doctor back to his original seat behind the prosecutions' table.

"The human soul has been found," the turtle monster then declared with a serious tone as he stepped back into the middle of the court room. "An enigma of the relationship between humans and monsters that have stumped mages and scholars for generations has been brought to light. However, that light was not of tired flickers of a candle in a study where would be what we all hoped for."

His head sank down, "No," yet his voice was none the quieter for it. The echo from the mosaic was pure and loud. "The discovery of the human soul is steeped in tragedy of the highest order. Tragedy not only of the horrible fate of the Third Monster Mage, but tragedy of an entire country. The plague is to blame for the events at Clinic Hill, for it was because of the plague that begat more tragedy. Tragedy in each county, city, village, and household. The fate of all the humans that succumbed to the plague, and those who still are laid sick, is what forced Sund's human soul to reveal itself. The hope it wanted to bring was not enough for it to shine within its vessel, so it thought to shine outside it. Sund wanted for nothing but to save the humans of Xoff, but as tragedy begets tragedy, so did his death beget more death."

Sir Gerson shook his head defiantly and raised it high.

"None more, I say! We, in this very room, will decide whether or not there will be more death tied to Clinic Hill and the discovery of the human soul. The Cooperative Connection made us conquer death together once, and we can do it once more!"

Then he bowed.

"The floor is yours to do as the law informs, Speaker."

And marched back through the densest silence he had ever created. As he sat down at the prosecutions' table with the three Monster Mages he said naught more, for what more could he have said? All he did was wait for the silence to pass, no matter how long it would take. He had quieted the shock that the human soul was real. He had made an entire room of humans think while they were drowning in emotion. He had done his duty as the Leader of the Royal Guard.

He had protected the monsters.

More was to come though, that Sir Gerson knew. That the Monster Mages knew too. For a savored moment though, they could all believe that they had won. They could all believe that they had succeeded.

It would all be okay.

But then, a gavel was struck. "The defendant may bring forth his first witness," was stated neutrally by the Speaker, and a chair squeaked hard from the other table. Cter opened her solemnly closed eyes to see the Field General walk up to the middle of the court room with his arms hidden inside the loose fabric of his poncho. He bowed to the Speaker, with his right arm at a right angle on his chest and his left arm at a right angle on his back.

"The defendant calls to the floor the oldest survivor of Clinic Village," spoke the Field General to the court and audience as he gently motioned towards a young human sitting behind the defendants' table. "Would you please take to the court, Manny from Clinic Village?"

Wait!

Manny?

But...was that his aura that Cter felt then? That one different one? Wasn't that that other mage's from Hjearta? But...that aura was so...adult! So grown up and so...bitter. Bitter and lacking in color. Cter assumed that it was gray due to the other Hjearta mage's age. If it was Manny's that was so gray and dilapidated, then…

Heavy footsteps touched hard onto the mosaic floor next to Cter, who turned with dread rustling her hair and robe. The human that passed her by was nothing like the child she had walked up Clinic Hill with during her first visit there. It was not the human who had been so awestruck by her magic. Manny's eyes had changed. Sunken in with a tired brow hanging over with a deeper shadow than even Rasliela's hat produced. A shadow not to hide, but to show. To show how much had been stolen from Manny, and to stay away because of that.

It had just been a few years for Cter since her first visit, yet it had been over a decade for Manny.

And all of it in the last few months...

"I'm so..." slipped out of her mouth as she exhaled a pained breath. The deep dark that ran down Manny's face like tar-like tears was just as dejected as the heavy aura that trailed behind him like thick strokes of a colorless brush. It hurt Cter just looking at the child who had to grow up too much too quickly. The rosy cheeks which she had felt slightly envious about had faded away.

He barely acknowledged her. Barely glanced at her or met her eyes. Her aura he did not meet, he just simply walked past it like it was nothing. Was it anger or tired that made him do that? Cter could check. She could read why in the child's aura, yet she didn't. She...didn't want to, for if she did, then it would replace what Manny was to her. The child she had met at her first visit to Clinic Hill who had looked up to her with his rosy cheeks and glimmering eyes would be replaced with what the human who'd passed her by like an ominous gust of grief and tension.

She only came to realize what she had when it was about to disappear from her.

"I'm so sorry."

The grown child's steps paused for a second with a wave of heartache rushing through him and his aura. His combed head turned slightly, but nothing more.

"I am so, so very sorry."

Once Manny reached the symbol in the middle of the mosaic floor he lifted his head, probably for the first time in months. His shoulders were pushed back unnaturally as he did, and they only extended back even stranger once he breathed in to address the Court Speaker. "I am the defendants' first witness, Speaker." His voice was deeper than it should have been. So tired and so unwilling.

The flying monster approached Manny with the heavy book which he placed his hand on. "Please state your full name and the Court Oath, please," said the Speaker while wetting his quill with a quick lick.

"Manny," the grown child answered.

The Court Speaker waited for a few seconds then lifted his quill up from the parchment he had pushed it on. "Just Manny?" he asked with a slightly annoyed, yet still-curious tone to his voice.

"I do not have a family name any longer," stated Manny without any hesitation or quivering in his words. He was used to explaining, it seemed. Not in a good way though. "I left it behind as my parents left me behind. It was theirs as it represented what they had managed to escape from. I did not manage to escape like they did. I had to be rescued, taken away. I want to remember them like the strong humans they were. The parents who escaped from a life that would surely have killed them, and not the parents who failed to escape the sickness that claimed them."

It was disturbing hearing such a young child talk so informatively about something that would surely reduce anyone else to tears having to relive it. It was not that Manny was strong, it was that he was numb. It had hurt him so much and for so long that it was something ordinary to him. A constant thorn in his heart and soul that it was how he thought life was.

The whispers reemerging from the balconies let Cter know that she was not the only one that caught onto the fact. They were different from the previous whispers though. More sympathetic and sharing in the tragedy compared to being shocked and awed. Whilst they were busy with their whispering though they failed to notice the tensed clench from Manny. He did not want any of their sympathy. He did not need any of their sympathy. What he wanted was…

Was…

"He doesn't even know himself," said Kurant with a slow shake to her head. Her sleeved hand came up to cover her mouth and she rolled her rings against her skin. "He doesn't know what he wants. Oh, child."

Kurant sounded exactly like Toriel saying that.

"And he hopes that he'll find that out here," finished Kry while folding his arms over his chest. He folded them hard, clutching them as tense as Manny's shoulders were. "Poor child."

Likewise did Kry speak the same as Asgore.

Would it have been any different had the Monster Royals been present, Cter wondered for a second before dismissing the thought. She did not afford to think about what-ifs about the trial while it was still in progress, dammit!

In progress when the Court Speaker quieted the down the room with a few taps of his gavel, that is. "I understand your hesitations, however the court records can not be just the spoken name for identification. A title or a family name is needed, preferably both."

Manny's shoulders stiffened again, yet not out of dilapidation. There was strength flowing into them, broadening them. He shook his head vciously. "I have none!" he refrained, and took a hard step forward to continue refraining. A step was all he managed though as another voice spoke up for him from just next to him outside of the floor symbol.

"Then use mine!" offered the Field General. "Use mine, Manny."

A shocked breath, coughed and drowned on at the same time, echoed out into the court room. The grown child, who had been so rigid and drained, began to shake as his breath reverberated throughout him. His head gently turned to look at the Field General's with eyes swimming in water. The tears that fell clinked hard against the mosaic symbol underneath the grown child, and he grasped his hand over his eyes to try and hold them back. The way his aura flared with hope though told that he should have let them drop even harder.

"Will that be acceptable to you?" asked the Court Speaker to the weeping child. "Do you want it to be noted down in law and justice that you share the family name of the Field General of Noitaidarr?"

Nods hard enough to detach Manny's head from his shoulders tossed the tears like a Whimsun in a hurricane, spreading them all around the mosaic floor like dots after a passing cloud of rain. For Manny though, it was a long-awaited ray of sunshine breaking up the clouds above him. "Yes!" he shouted with his voice breaking. "Please, Speaker!"

The overjoyed plead was immediately followed by roaring applause from the balcony and from behind the two tables. Even Sir Gerson applauded, but only out of obligation. He might have been happy about Manny, even though he did not know much about the grown child, but to him it was blatantly obvious that it was all planned by the Field General. He was gonna throw his weight around as the hero that his country thought of him as.

"He could have made the offer to Manny whenever, but why waste this good a chance to sway the favor?" Sir Gerson mused while the applause quieted down. He had a smile on his green lips, and a cheeky one to boot. "Seems like even I would have promoted him this far too." There was respect in the cheeky smile too.

Cter had never seen Sir Gerson so...excited, for lack of a better word. He was reveling in the other side threatening the relationship between humans and monsters only to receive applause. Standing applause stopping just short of chanting praise. That there even were applause to begin with was surely skirting biases already, but since Manny hadn't yet to begin testifying it was only applauding the good deed not relevant to the case? Or something similar?

Either way, the Court Speaker wrote throughout the applause which only died down once he motioned for Manny to state the Court Oath.

Which he did.

"I swear on my name and my life that I will tell naught but the truth as is my duty as a witness. Should I not, I acknowledge that I will be banished from this land that I call home, never to be allowed to returned. It is with this fear in my heart that I will answer truthfully."

He stated it with a voice like Cter had heard from the child that walked with her up Clinic Hill, only older. Like he had grown up like a normal child. It may have been her eyes taking in too much white mosaic and marble with the full bright of the Xoff sun pouring in through the many opened windows, but it also seemed like some rosy had returned to the child's cheeks.

Yet Cter could not feel happy about it.

How she hated that she couldn't.

"You may proceed with your testimony now, Manny Shajuu."

Hated so much that she couldn't be happy for the relieved smile that he gave.

"Thank you, Court Speaker."

And the proud inhale he took.

"The plague struck Clinic Village a few weeks after it had been discovered by the doctors up on Clinic Hill. At first it was thought that it was due to the miasma leaking down into the valley, but the wind was blowing the other way, and the tests of the equipment came back negative for any defects or wear that would result in such major leakage." Manny paused to breathe in. The pride had faded a bit, understandably. "I was told this when Dr. Sallus called for me to come and aide up on Clinic Hill. By that point my parents had already..."

He did well, the child. Still though, he was a child, and even though he had a new family in the eyes of the law, in his own wet eyes he was still without his parents. There was a deep, lamenting color to his aura which he let flow like a burst dam. The way it sounded, interspersed with struggling, coughing laughs, it was as if it was his first time crying over it. The first time he could actually allow himself to cry over the loss of his parents. All he needed was to be touched warmly by someone to be reminded that it wasn't supposed to be only deathly cold in his life.

A faux-bemused gaze pierced up towards the Court Speaker from Sir Gerson, forcing the human to clear his throat towards Manny. "I understand your situation, Manny Shajuu. However, you have taken the Court Oath and are hindering the proceeding. Can you continue your testimony?" Guess it was fair that the Speaker failed to catch when things became emotional on both sides.

Manny nodded, sending a sprinkle of thick tears down onto the mosaic below. "Yes," his choked voice managed to force out. A hard swallow later he inhaled through the snot that had built up inside his nose. "I can continue. I want to continue."

The Court Speaker motioned with his hand. "Then please."

Since Manny's nose was clogged he had to inhale through his mouth instead. "My...parents had already passed away when Dr. Sallus called me up to aide on Clinic Hill. When I left I was the third oldest child in the village, and the one with the strongest aura. I had done some healing magic before, and one of the monster nurses, Cyanne, gave me a Cooperative Connection once I arrived up there. The sleeve was used up quickly, so we had to redo it many times. One morning Dr. Sallus told me that I no more was needed from me since two of the Monster Mages had arrived, Sund and Cter." Manny looked to Cter. "I'd met one of them before."

She wanted to smile to show Manny that it was going to be okay and that all would be fine. When she dragged at her cheek though she could feel that it wasn't what she had wanted. It felt stiff and insincere, which Manny noticed. If it was in her aura or her face didn't matter.

Manny looked down in response. "I was sent as a messenger to talk with the Monster Mages through the rudimentary fence Dr. Sallus had ordered built around the paths up Clinic Hill, and eventually my help was not needed anymore." His fists balled. "Then...I felt something truly strange the next night. A...call, of sorts. Something was beckoning at my soul to hurry up Clinic Hill. The only reason that I didn't was that the Royal Guard Ziki told me not to. We trusted him. All of us children of Clinic Village trusted him. He had done so much for us, all alone. He was the reason we were still alive!"

Anger and desperation hoisted up Manny's chin to Cter.

"How did he die!"

The pain in his voice…

"You're the only one that knows, Cter!"

God… His eyes...again.

"Tell me!"

He'd kept that deep in his heart as well.

"Please..."

Poor child.

"He was the..."

Poor, poor child.

"He was the only one we had… He was a monster. He wasn't supposed to die. He told us. He told us he would protect us. He protected us, right? That was why he died, right? He didn't go up there to help you create that thing with the human soul to try and–"

"The defendant calls for the court to be adjourned!" interrupted the Field General over Manny's voice. The child did not react. He only kept his eyes on Cter, waiting for an answer. "Our witness needs some time to collect himself, Court Speaker."

"Agreed," said the Court Speaker with a hard tap of his gavel. "The court will adjourn for half an hour, starting now."

A sharp chuckle puffed out Sir Gerson's nostrils among the adjourned murmur and chair squeaking. "That Field General, ey?" he playfully spoke to himself. "His heart sure does bleed at convenient times, doesn't it?"

Cter turned to the defendant's table empty of humans. Both Rasliela and the Field General were around Manny stood with fists balled and face red-puffed. The strong hand of the Field General on the child's shoulder was enough for Manny to collapse in the welcoming arms of his new father. The general descended into a squat for Manny to lean more over him. Cter could not hear what the child was saying, but she knew. Manny's aura spoke loud and clear.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

But she could still not be happy for him.