"E...Excuse me?"
Not now.
"Monster Mage?"
Too busy trying to calm down, please try again later.
"Cter?"
Or never, if that was not too much to ask.
The gentle displacement of gravel from the stepping stones being tread on still continued even though both Cter's posture and her aura was as inviting as a torrent of vitriol and acid cascading out of a door after having been knocked on. She had been sitting with her head in her hands to try and let all of what Rasliela had dumped on her wash away, but it sure ain't was water on a goose.
More like tar onto one of the Monster Royals with how much it stuck to her, borrowing deep within her mind and soul stuck in a perpetuate debate with how to proceed. How much trust did she have that the monsters could afford the one voice at the Noitaidarr court speaking well for them even if that voice was willingly letting the discourse between humans and monsters grow stronger to fuel an insurrection against the Xoff king who King Asgore still considered a friend even through the tumultuous years where said friend had been forced to put his country as a priority over the relationship he had cultivated with the monsters which in turn had lead to such drastic–
"Uh...wah?" was a strange sound that Cter expelled due to her head gliding out of her hands from the weight of her thoughts finally becoming too much for her. Her neck stung from it saving her head from crashing through the glass table, and with a disoriented snort she blinked around in the blurry world outside of the palms of her hands. "Who?"
Through her hair matted to her face she spotted a human silhouette standing timidly a few lengths from her. Brushing her chestnut-brown hair aside from her eyes she was snapped out of her daze by the sight of Manny standing less steadily than his outfit had him look.
No wonder, really, with how Cter looked as if she had just woken up from a nightmare, not to mention her aura which she still had expanded around her like an ominous cloud of loathing and misery. It took a few focused inhales for her to retreat it into her, but even then she still felt that it still was strained due to Rasliela.
Cter had been holding her aura like a breath throughout her entire conversation with the old mage as to not let the Royal Mage have too much an advantage.
Although how much that really did was a sour apple Cter was reluctant to bite into.
Again.
"Oh, Manny," the Monster Mage finally managed to say without too much residual vitriol and acid on her tongue. It was still stuck in her throat though, which she had to cough away into her balled hand. "Manny Shuuja," she corrected before bowing her head towards the adopted child of the Hero of Xoff.
The young mage bowed back, "Monster Mage Cter," but what he was supposed to do afterwards he did not have the slightest clue of. His hands moved to say something, but he did not know what. His aura began to shimmer with a worry that Cter knew all too well. A worry that was all too human.
He was in over his head.
As to what exactly he was too deep in over his head with Cter could not tell at a glance at his aura though.
But she had a hunch that he was about to tell her.
"Come, please sit."
Like they all seemed to do.
As the young mage sat himself where the old mage had before him, Cter felt her warm smile she had thawed up for Manny falter for a second as her body and soul remembered too vividly the strong potion of emotions that had whirled within her during her talk…
No, not talk.
During her farce with the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr Castle.
Manny tried to discern what it was that had the Monster Mage's smile drain for a second from her expression and aura, but Cter interrupted him before he began to tell himself that he was in the wrong.
"Do forgive," she asked with a soft motion of her sleeved hand, "I am a bit tired at the moment. Today has been quite early and hectic for me. I'm sure something similar you experienced when we arrived at Noitaidarr all those years ago. We monsters wanted to give you humans an equally grandiose welcome like what you gave us. I have not had my afternoon tea, so I do apologize for looking the way I am right now."
Cter could feel that her smile added to her words with how weak and awkward it felt.
Silver lining.
"Oh I am...um...honored to have been greeted so...fantsti–" The young mage bit down. "To have been greeted with such magnificence that only you monsters could put on and...eh..."
Oh bless his soul, he was doing his best.
So much so that it managed to get through the dense sludge around Cter's soul caked-on by Rasliela. The chuckle the Monster Mage exhaled out of her nose felt relieving, and she followed it up with a hummed breath out her mouth that she let flow for a few long seconds. "First time you are visiting the court of another country?" she asked friendly and encouraging.
Almost ashamedly, the young mage nodded. "Yes, it is." His cheeks seemed to blossom more from his answer. "I...have been looking forward to coming here."
Looking forward to? "How do you mean?" Cter asked almost immediately afterwards. She was still on the defensive even if she had managed to relax a bit. Surely Manny knew what the council was supposed to be about? Surely he knew the importance it held? Sure, fair enough if he was looking forward to things becoming better between the humans and the monsters, but saying it out loud how he did had it sounding strange to Cter's ears.
Could have been that Rasliela's words still haunted them though.
Very, very likely, even.
Manny flinched at the quick response from Cter, looking down at his hands which he shrugged with. "I mean..." he began, but could not continue. "I..." An insecure chuckle had him scratching one of his rosy cheeks, making it redder.
Cter scolded herself internally for being so harsh towards the kid. "I'm sorry," she apologized with a shake to her head. "I didn't mean for it to come across like it did." With a light spritz of ice magic in her face to try and freshen up, Cter tried again with a bit more gentle to her voice. "How do you mean that you have been looking forward to this? Have you wanted to visit Jarasevo Castle before?"
Sheepishly, the young mage nodded. "I have," he said with some hesitation, as if it was a secret he wanted to keep hidden somewhat. "It was...it was a promise we made to each other, us in Clinic Village." A secret he kept hidden for a good reason which bubbled up to his face and aura which began to crumble into strength-less, quaky breaths.
"We...we all wanted to come here together for Priestess Frioke to..." The young mage bit down hard, steeling himself and his aura. He wanted to tell. He wanted to tell with all his heart and soul! He had to! He made a promise! "For Priestess Frioke to choose the next Royal Mage from us!"
The way his aura expanded with his last word forced Cter to expand hers over his so that the Royal Guards in the tower behind her wouldn't come swooping down. There was anguish and tragedy in the young mage's aura which ignited the lines on his right arm with a bitter glow that had his sleeve shining brightly. "It was gonna be all of us," he coughed out painfully, knocking away tears from his eyes and cheeks with each sharp sob he dragged in. "It was gonna be..."
Through the anguished tears shimmering in the young mage's eyes, Cter saw a slight glint. A hint of strength which Manny had within him, but was unreachable without help. Help he would have had from the other children from Clinic Village. "It was gonna be one of you?" Cter finished for Manny. "But now it's only you?"
The young mage nodded weakly.
"Where did the other children go?" Cter followed up carefully. "All that survived from Clinic Village, didn't they? Onyia and the others?" That she still remembered the name of that small child who came to get her in the wheat field… The way they struggled to move the bucket with their magic… It had Cter smile, even if she knew that her memories would lead to Sund and… "How are they?" she managed before her memories took her elsewhere. "I didn't see any at Noitaidarr Castle when I was there."
"I'm the only one there," answered Manny surprisingly directly through his calming sobs. His still-watery eyes moved down to his sleeve. "I'm the only one that uses magic."
Only one?
It shouldn't have been as big a surprise to Cter as it was. The kids at Clinic Village had magical potentials greater than usual due to its location between Mt. Ebott and Mt. Ymmet, so them all giving up on it was a damn shame. They could have all become great mages, even perhaps Royal Mages, or possibly Monster Mages. No wonder they all made the promise to go together.
Considering what they had to go through though it was no wonder that they chose to leave that behind. Magic to them must have been connected too deeply with the Fusion.
They were all kids, after all.
"I scared them away."
Cter ears perked at the young mage's low, shameful voice. "You did what?" she asked with a heavy lean away from accusing. "No, surely not, Manny." What even did he do to scare them away if that was the case? "You can't mean that?"
The young mage's eyes narrowed, and his rosy cheeks turned to the side. "When you were...asleep in the encampment below Clinic Hill, Dr. Fech came up to me and asked me to help him escape with you. I was to light a magical fire as a distraction while he escaped with you." His sleeved arm retreated inwards, covered by his left one out of view.
"I did, and almost burned myself with the size of the flames I ignited. Some of the children saw me do it, and even as I explained to them why I had to do it, they all stared at me with fear." His tug at his magical sleeve tightened. "One of the younger kids got burned by the flames jumping to their tent."
Cter asked the only name she knew, "Onyia?" and as she did, she could feel the young mage chiding himself throughout his aura. "Oh god," Cter whispered. "Because of me?"
"No," Manny said with a shake to his head. "I was the one who ignited it. Dr. Fech only suggested it. I could have said no. I could have refuted. I could have ignited it smaller! I could have kept it under control instead of staring at it and being...being proud that I managed it! I could have–"
"Stop," said Cter with a reach-over with her sleeved hand onto Manny's. The turmoil within his aura was strong when she made the direct connection, with a densely hot wave rushing through her respective aura. Cter could take it though.
She could take the young mage's turmoil-full aura and...just...ease...it...down. "Stop," the Monster Mage repeated softer to the young mage who's eyes drifted close. She noticed that she recognized what was in his sleeve, but at the moment she could not place exactly where she recognized it from.
"You were just a child, Manny." He was still one sitting across from Cter. "Dr. Fech had to rely on you, a child, to do things only an adult should. When he told me what he had to do there was remorse and regret in his voice as he recalled how few options he had. He chastised himself for being excited about the idea he shared with you. He could see the smoke from far away rising from Clinic Hill when he brought me home here, but he was unable to tell apart which came from at its top or from its foot."
"He told me too when he willingly put himself into my father's judgment for what he did to the camp and that he betrayed his country by stealing you away back to Monster Country. He did not regret that he had to, but said that he regretted what he had to." Manny's other hand came to rest on top Cter's for a moment before he retreated it with slight embarrassment.
"Again though, I made the choice to help you too. You were there for us, Cter. You helped Ziki. He was on the verge of losing hope before you came. He hadn't slept for weeks, keeping us alive and protecting the humans that sought to arrive at the hell my home had become." The hand fell back hard as a harsh cough punched out of the young mage's throat. "Ziki..."
Cter nodded with her utmost sympathy. "Ziki..." The Royal Guard that protected until his last breath turned to dust over her. "A braver Royal Guard there might never be."
Through a sharp inhale blubbered with snot, Manny turned his head over to where the Royal Guard barracks were located. He had to breathe clearer his throat for a few seconds before he managed to say what he wanted to. "I met his brother," the young mage said with a swallow.
"I met Ziki's brother earlier. He was...he was wielding Ziki's weapon as well as his own in his hands. For a moment when I turned the hallway corner and saw the crescent shape I felt faint as he looked so similar to Ziki. I had not thought about him for so long, and I knew that I wanted to say something to his brother if I got the chance, but..." Manny shook his head. "But I couldn't…"
"Hurt too much?" pried Cter gently.
"I'd forgotten to think about Ziki for so long I realized that I had been looking forward to this trip partly because I..." A pause to breathe out another rush of lament. "Because I wanted to see him again. I had forgotten that he was dead. I had..."
Cter hated herself for what she had to do. "Remember that, young mage." She hated herself to the depths of her soul! She regretted what she did! "Remember that monsters have helped you, given you hope when you hadn't any."
But she did not regret that she did.
It was clear on Manny's grimaced expression that it sat unwell with him that Cter had to be an adult. He did not know how to express that through words though. In his aura it was plain to see for Cter though. She saw all the resentment that bubbled up because of what she said. It was ugly, but necessary, for she also felt that Manny agreed with her. She felt that, while in the moment he was disgusted that she would bring it up so...bluntly, Manny agreed that he should remember.
And for that, Cter could forgive herself.
But only in time.
"We waited for him in the camp… Waited for him to come back to us. We thought he was busy helping, but none of the adults would answer us. They did not know about him, and that we thought was meant to be. He was a foreign military having operated when the county was in the state it was. If he was even allowed there no one could have known. Maybe that was why they could not tell us, we thought."
Cter exhaled. "Yeah..." A cloud passed by as she did, graying the white from the castle walls. "That could have been the case."
"It was hope that we held onto," nodded Manny as his eyes flinched slightly at the stinging white that came back after the cloud's passing. "He had kept it up for us, so it was only fair that we kept it up for him. It was only when I saw my own magical fires grow out of my control that I realized that he was dead. I don't know exactly why, but when the destruction began, I knew that Ziki was dead. Maybe...maybe it was because I didn't heed what he said to me when Dr. Sallus requested my presence up on Clinic Hill?"
About Manny's magic? "What did he ask of you?" Did Ziki know something about it? Something he didn't tell Cter or Sund?
A strengthening inhale stole lungfuls of air from the passing breeze flavored by the blossoms and fruits throughout the Royal Garden. "I could not sleep the night before Dr. Sallus wanted me up on the hill, and Ziki could tell that I couldn't. He could tell everything with us, and he knew that I wasn't sleeping." Manny gave back to the breeze a dim, reserved breath that curled into the greenery behind him.
"He told me that my magic would be saving humans. That it would be what was needed to help Dr. Sallus come up with a cure for the plague. It was for the humans of Xoff that he requested me up on Clinic Hill."
Cter sensed something within Manny's words. The way he looked to his magical sleeve...
"And as I stood there with my conjured flames whipping at the one encampment that could save my country, I realized that I had failed what I promised Ziki." The young mage curled his fingers together. "I used my magic to hurt humans, and did not help them."
Damn it. "Ziki was a monster," Cter felt that she needed to remind. "You continued your magical career due to him, didn't you?"
The curled fingers opened up for a few seconds. "I...did," the young mage said with teeth beginning to grit. "The other kids were scared of my magic, so I had to learn to control it better, but by then they had all found other homes than Noitaidarr Castle. To tell the truth, some of them could very well be practicing magic too for all I really know. All I do know, and what the last I saw of them, was them all looking to my sleeve with fear. All they saw was me using Dr. Sallus' magic to burn the camp."
He still had Dr. Sallus magic in his sleeve? Was that what felt so familiar to Cter? God, it had been years. On top of that was the fact that Cter had changed the Monster Doctor's magic at such a fundamental level that even she associated him with the magic she had changed his into, and not his older magic which Manny still wore and utilized. The unspoiled magic of Dr. Sallus was still present on Manny's sleeve.
"The truth of the Cooperative Connection has helped me," said the young mage after catching Cter staring thoughtfully at his sleeve. He swept his hand slowly in a horizontal arc before him, trailing behind a thin disk of conjuration magic in the shape of a crescent moon that he surrounded with twinkling stars.
"There is more to his magic than if I had just been using it how the Cooperative Connection had taught me to. His magic was weak when he gave it to me, weaker than his already was, yet still I managed to summon a fire that burned bright and strong, something he never could."
The conjured moon began to fill as if nights were preceding ahead. "When you revealed the truth at the trial I realized yet another thing about the magic I had used at the encampment. In the moment I did not understand how much more of Dr. Sallus' magic I had used than should have been possible. That was why I continued wanting to learn magic." The conjured moon turned full, it silvery teal glittering in the young mage's eyes. "I'll become the first Royal Mage utilizing the Cooperative Connection to the fullest."
Another shake had Cter's head looking down with a heavy sigh. "Why did you come to talk with me, Manny?" she asked with her heavy sigh, making it barely audible. "Why are you here?"
The tone of her voice had the young mage flinching, jumping a little in his chair. "I...I met Rasliela as she was heading to the dining hall for some food, and she told me that you were here and that the two of you had a lovely talk together."
His innocence had Cter's stomach churn.
"She remarked that I had been thinking of talking to you if I got the chance about...well...this." He shrugged, almost as innocently as… "I thought that since you two had discussed the rumors about the Princess of the Lineage I thought that–"
The flinch became an outright startle as Cter pushed herself up with a hard slam of her palms down onto the glass table. Had she hit it in the middle it would have broken, but instead it was pivoted up on the other side, almost hitting the young mage's chin. "Excuse me," she said with poison on her tongue.
"I need to be somewhere right now."
