"I hope you don't mind me insisting that we do your checkup here in the Royal Garden this year."

Bit late to ask that of Cter seeing that she was sitting pretty and surrounded by the gentle blossoming of the apple trees imported from Hjearta. The smell of warming sap and a concoction of blossoms dancing together in the Royal Garden had a calming effect on the Monster Mage. Sitting pretty among such wondrous and pretty had the outside world happening far away from her for the calm moment, giving her some comforting respite among the days that had turned more and more alert the last few years.

A last few years which had brought with it suspicion and hesitation between the monsters and humans, a first since...forever, for all intents and purposes. The cooperation which had brought such prosperity was still there as all had come to rely upon it, but it had become more of a working relationship rather than a friendly one.

Beginning with the Monster Hunter guild gradually losing human members due to an increase in hunting accidents which had been blamed on a growing killing intent among the Monster Hunters. It had always been where the Cooperative Connection was both its strongest and weakest so it was both suspected to be where the first schisms would appear in proper due to the Noitaidarr Trial's revelations, and also where that suspicion brought both fruit and bitter.

Bitter in the sense that the suspicion was correct.

And fruit in the sense that the suspicion was correct.

The monsters had time to put things in motion in order to lessen the would-be impact from the image of the Monster Hunter guild beginning to crack open for the humans. The mere act of Jarasevo Castle swooping in with prepared explanations for each hunting accident between a human and a monster did not make all the allegations vanish, for just the mere act of having an explanation planned out meant that Jarasevo Castle at least partially knew that the case was possible.

But it bought time.

It calmed at worst and relieved at best. The worst was what the monsters wanted, and the best was what they needed. Because of that, there had been fewer proddings from both Fenkeep Castle and Noitaidarr Castle to gauge either the other country's reaction, or Monster Country's reaction.

The monsters had always and forever been walking on a line between the politics of both human countries, but that line had become so thin it was already difficult enough to begin with trying to navigate where to put down the next step, let alone make something more complicated than focusing on the next step.

It had been tiring.

"Not at all, Frioke."

So no, Cter did absolutely not mind sitting in the Royal Garden during the height of spring feeling her nose thicken with all sorts of blooming smells and swaying colors forming in the one place in the entire world she could breathe in and out properly. Her eyes were closed, savoring the colors she had seen, trying to place them with each smell that she could still smell with her nose stuffed to the brink with pollen.

She managed to place a few of them before deciding to let the warm wind flush her cheeks instead.

"The pears have such beautiful flowers," said Priestess Frioke after putting down a tray onto the table Cter was sat next to. "It reminds me of when I first rode to Fenkeep Castle to evaluate Prince Soulay's magical aura." Cter vaguely remembered that too, but not vividly. It had to be something Frioke put more weight on in her soul after she shared her memories.

Understandably, considering where the world was moving. "I've always preferred pears over apples," the Monster Priestess sighed pleasantly. "I've never in my life had a pear that was sour when I wanted it to be sweet. Sour, green apples have their place and I enjoy them when I want them to be sour. Being surprised with the sour taste though is when I feel the wrinkles I should have in my age form on my face."

Cter wasn't gonna comment on that.

"They always look as if they were supposed to be longer though," she was gonna comment about though. With her left hand she formed a conjured image of a pear in front of her, letting it hover with a gentle spin. "It is as if they were gonna be longer but then got stuck on the bottom. Apples have a bit more of a coherent shape to them which make them easier to use in cooking, I've heard."

"Either that or someone squeezed the pear on the top," mulled Priestess Frioke through a titter behind the back of her hand. She went quiet afterwards for a few seconds, focusing. Quiet enough for Cter to open her eye closest to the Monster Priestess to see why she became so quiet all of a sudden. In the corner of her eye she saw her conjured image of a spinning pear, realizing what had the Monster Priestess so quiet.

"Should I take off my sleeve now or in a bit?" the Monster Mage asked while plucking at her sleeve's fingers, emptying them.

"You can take it off now," said Priestess Frioke before returning to her silence in studying Cter's aura. "You haven't felt that your magic have been strange lately?"

Cter shook her head. "No, it hasn't." With a careful tug not to disrupt the barricade magic around her fingers too much she removed her sleeve and laid it spread on the white garden table. The spring breeze was curious about the carvings on her left arm, rolling into them with a temperate tickle. "Not in a way that needs to be said."

"All needs to be said," reminded Frioke carefully with a small tilt of her head and long ears. "Even if it is a small sting in your left arm when doing certain magics then you need to tell me. Even if it is you feeling like the magic is own your own make rather than of your own. If it is rolling back to how a human mage is taught about magic then that is important to know. Now more than ever we need the Monster Mages, and it is my duty to make sure that they are well enough to be needed. It is just between you and me Cter, you can tell me."

"Yes." Cter knew that, but still though... "I don't want to worry you for something I made clumsily on my own, that's all."

An eyebrow raised high and wide. "What did you do, Cter?"

The Fourth Monster Mage had not inhaled so embarrassingly since she was caught by Romrom trying to use stasis magic to lift down the jar of cookies from the highest shelf. She tried to sit up more confidently in the garden chair to retain some respect and decency that was expected of someone of her title. "I used orange strength magic to bend a beam in my study's roof by hanging from it," Cter made an effort to explain with some dignity.

A wasted effort.

"You..." rolled out of Frioke's mouth before it shut in slight bewilderment that tugged down her ears down her cheeks. The focus she had built up to observe and study Cter's aura was carried away from her by a small swirl of spring wind that played with her limp, hanging ears. "You did..." She was incapable of saying it. Her mouth refused to dignify the possibility that Cter had done what she said that she had. "With strength magic?" was all Priestess Frioke could make say. "But why?"

Why what, exactly?

That she used strength magic?

"I wanted it to look like a natural occurrence. It wasn't a supporting beam, just to make that fully clear." Unfortunately there was a bit more left unclear, Cter could see in Frioke's perplexed squint.

"I chose the one that would look the most damaging, but in reality isn't the most damaging one. If I used deep-blue magic to weigh it down it would be obvious that it had been tampered with by magical means. It wouldn't really be a nice crack in the wood, but more a sort of...failure not due to the load it bore. It looks too clean, like when a chisel is struck by a hammer on a block of marble. With wood you need the splinters and the frayed, ripped-apart look to it to make it look real otherwise–"

"Cter."

Dammit, she explained too much.

"Why do you know all of this, Cter?" Priestess Frioke repeated with her eyes having widened with bafflement at how detailed an explanation the Monster Mage was giving. As Cter failed to smile innocently, it dawned for the Monster Priestess. "Oh..." Her eyes closed with disappointment shaking her head. "Oh no, Cter." The disappointment shining on her face was hid behind two hands pressed up against her face, muffling her motherly sigh.

Cter began to explain away her explaining away, the same she did when she was caught purple-handed with the cookie jar halfway down from the top shelf. "Fang Shuey denied my request to extend my study up into the cone of the tower." She shrugged with just her shoulders, holding them up to try and slink into her robe's heightened collar to hide. "So I..."

"Made it dangerous for you to live there?" By this point one of Frioke's ears had flopped down fully, leaving an invisible carving through the sprinkled pollen whirling around her and Cter. "There wasn't anything else you could have done to appeal her decision?"

The Monster Mage stayed inside her heightened collar like that one easily startled fish Royal Guard. "There were and I did." She waved her right hand over to a corner of the Royal Garden. "All those appeals have been vetoed by Fang Shuey though on the grounds that the jester Donial who'd oversee the refurbishing is a friend of mine through Idyll. Due to that Mrs. Shuey worries that the refurbishing will be in my interest primarily and not in the castle's interest primarily."

Frioke thought for a second, lifting up her flopped-down ear slightly. "Like that one incident a year or so ago with the hand monster that was caught trying to steal the new ring handles on the guest room doors to use as...well...rings?"

It was a slight scandal at the castle which would have been facetiously bigger in the usual monster fashion had there not been the decline of the relationship with the humans to worry about. Cter had heard more about the situation from Idyll who'd heard it from Donial asking her to vouch for her that he wasn't a part of the hand monster's scheme. There had been a glint in Idyll's eyes when Cter asked her if she asked for a favor in return.

A glint that Cter did not want to know more about, but which Idyll shared nonetheless.

"What is that in your aura, Cter?"

"Nothing," lied Cter to Priestess Frioke's raised brow shot up quickly enough to lift her flopped-down ear up again fully. "Nothing that pertains to this," she then made a bit clearer while displaying her left arm. There was a slightly sharp pain as she blew away a samara from an imported maple that was about to spin its way into one of her magical carvings.

Frioke was slightly suspicious, but eventually let it slide. "So when appealing to Fang Shuey did not work?" the Monster Priestess then returned to with a claw into a freshly baked pastry from the tea tray on the garden table. "You then hung from the beam?"

"I did humor the thought of making an external excuse too like a lightning strike hitting the tower which would then have damaged the tower enough to give more credence to my idea since there would have been more to be repaired."

The Monster Priestess regretted letting the previous topic slide. "Cter..." she groaned while massaging her eyes. "I know that Mrs. Shuey isn't the most...pleasant...to interact with, but she has the castle's best intentions in mind. That its walls still radiate as brightly as it does is due to her. She maintains the luster the Monster Royals bring to the castle."

There was a grand 'however' building up in Frioke's aura that she could not stop though. As it surfaced, Frioke extended her index finger, stretching her claw's tip high up. "However, I understand exactly where you're coming from."

Before Cter could open her mouth Frioke raised her middle finger together with her index finger to stop the Monster Mage.

"I do not understand where you've taken it though," she made perfectly clear with a long swirl forward of her head. "So please just pray tell why you came to the conclusion that breaking a beam in your study was the best decision you could make." She even put her stabbed pastry back down onto the tea tray so that she could put her palms together. "Please."

With her left hand Cter drew up a faint display in the air of her study's roof using more conjuration magic. Some samaras spun through the teal, hollow magic on their way down from their parent tree that swayed spiky shadows across where the Monster Mage and Monster Priestess sat. "This one," Cter pointed at a roof beam in her magical roofplan.

"It's not load bearing as I said before, but despite that it is the most visible one. When I sit on my window sill with my tea each morning I always have it over my right shoulder poking into the room for balance. It's how I know that it isn't load bearing. It's too close to the outer stone wall to be load bearing."

"And you know that how?"

"From Donial, the jester monster that has helped reinforce the castle these last few years." It became real obvious that it was his real work at the castle rather than the refurbishing of guest rooms deep within the castle. It gave him a good explanation to walk around undisturbed and without suspicion though. It was a secret he kept away from Idyll so that she wouldn't be worried more than she already was about the world. "He asked for my help to keep some things quiet in his aura from Idyll."

"Yes I did send him to you at a whim after he brought that up with me, I remember vaguely," murmured Frioke under her breath. "Was a busy day though when he approached me." She crossed her arms tightly while looking through a few bushes besides her with white and blue berries dotting their dark-green facade. It looked almost as if she wanted to pluck some to eat.

"It was in the beginning of the troubles at the Monster Hunter guild, so unfortunately helping a monster with his love worries was not at the top of my priorities. I knew you hadn't as much on your plate that day so I sent him your way instead. I could have helped him, but I didn't have the time."

Cter wasn't gonna blame Frioke for prioritizing a more-than-friend of a friend to Cter over figuring out a way to make sure that the Monster Hunter guild did not collapse under the accusations of killing intent being harbored within the Monster Hunters.

That Frioke eventually managed to argue that since the truth of the Cooperative Connection has made humans more aware, so to speak, of that negative emotions could be projected onto monster memories there were bound to pop up edge cases where the Cooperative Connection could still explain that Monster Hunters were not fueled by killing intent, but where things had to be explained a bit more carefully so that the mere act of believing something made it manifest.

To be perfectly honest it was very much a political move from what Cter could gather, which was not much. It had to explain, but it did so too much. Not unlike how Cter did earlier. It had to explain just enough so that there weren't any loose ends to tug at nor too much so that the explanation could have been used to give ideas to other questions.

It was Frioke's job for a reason.

Same reasons as to why it wasn't Cter's job.

"It was clear that he hadn't really thought through what he wanted to ask of me." Cter exhaled out of her nose. "He knew what he wanted the result to be, but how I was gonna go about achieving it he hadn't put into mind. Ultimately what I did for him was really...nothing."

"Because of your arm?" Frioke pried. "When you said that you learned from him my first thinking was that you interacted with his memories the same you did with me." She inspected Cter's arm closer with a slight squint. "But you didn't do it? You're still unsure about your arm?"

Cter nodded. "I'm comfortable having it on me, but not imposing it on others." She waved to Kry passing by one of the large windows on the second floor to show how comfortable she was with it. She preferred to have her sleeve on as it didn't have her feeling three or four intensities of tickling from her different carvings on her left arm, and she wasn't that keen on showing it casually.

However though, she was comfortable using it for magic and to show it when needed, like for Frioke checking up on her aura. "Don't want to use it the way the fusion imposed it on me."

Frioke nodded too with sympathy. "Understandable. Your White Flesh hasn't increased this year either so you've been good in keeping your magic at a reasonable effort. Doubly so since you've had to put in some more effort this past year compared to the earlier one. I'm glad that you have managed that, Cter. Brings a calming warmth to my soul."

The praise was genuine, as was the calmness she mentioned. "We have to take the good with more weight these days. It is important for us to keep hope even though there are rumbling clouds on the horizon." Frioke stared at one of her own making, inhaling deeply through her nose.

"We'll keep strong though. The monsters have weathered worse. We managed to make centuries of prosperity and cooperation with the humans out of the threat of us losing the one thing we have above humans." Her sip on her tea was slow. "We'll remind them." She nodded. "We'll remind them that they want that prosperity and cooperation. They need it. They need us so that they don't only have each other."

A small frown formed just before Frioke turned her head over to Cter.

"Humans need others around them. They don't have what we have. They don't have the innate ability to be on the same page with another one subconsciously. They need others around them so that they can confirm with others that they aren't just a soul in a vessel. Humans need others around them so that they can be sure that the world is something real and that it is something worth exploring."

The saucer in the Monster Priestess' hand clinked gently as she put her Delta-Rune-patterned cup onto it.

"That is why they took to magic so quickly and hungrily. They may not have known it, but they sure did feel it. A human with a soul trained well enough to sense other's auras, be it either a monster's or another human's, is relieved of their constant inner worry that they are alone in the world. It is a fear that drives them through all they do. Make friends, make enemies, make tea, make believe, make anything. In a way it would be as if a monster had the power of a human's soul."

A deep shadow descended over the Monster Priestess' eyes.

"And that was exactly what the fusion at Clinic Hill was. It was a monster with the power of a human's soul going out of control. The mirror image of humanity's pursuit to not be alone in the world twisted into something so horrific that the humans' inner fear came bubbling up like a spouting Vulkin too excited for its own good. The fusion did not scare the humans because it threatened them. No, it scared them because it stirred that fear deep within every single one of them. A fear that they had all managed to keep quiet for centuries with the help of us monsters. In the fusion their fear told them that they had to be alone in the world lest they become the same as the fusion."

A shadow that faded with a small shake of the Monster Priestess' head.

"That is why they will come to understand that they need us monsters. Once their deafening fear has calmed they will realize that they have been pushing away what they wanted the most. They'll realize that they need us monsters to not be afraid of being alone no more. We need to hold out until they realize, not just for our sake, but for theirs as well."

Priestess Frioke lifted up her cup for Cter with a returning smile lifting her cheeks and ears. "So thank you for only making me worry about your tower roof collapsing over you while you sleep, Cter." The praise was genuine, but Cter was at odds as to how she felt about that. "Just don't tell me for how long you've had that beam broken over your resting head."

A loud slurp echoed out the Delta-Rune-patterned cup.

"For then it will turn into worry again."