The old, well-used chair behind the desk stood in front of the wide arrange of chalkboards squeaked in surprise as an old, calm hand was placed on the top of its backrest. It had gone unused ever since Soul's School was reluctantly vacated of students. The institute had managed to hold onto its students for longer than any would have guessed, but eventually the curiosity of the truth of the Cooperative Connection became too much for the student body and the faculty to hold together, and so both had to be dismissed.
With no more exams to sit through and guard against cheating, Professor Leraull didn't have a use for the chair no longer. It had become a symbol of time passing away from him, and thus he could no longer sit in it. His lectures he always held on his feet due to the importance he held to them.
"Oh how quaint, a hole for a tail."
None of which the Princess of the Lineage seemed to be aware of at all as she seated herself with focused help from her magical cane. Her hat swept over the old desk like an umbrella as she jumped the chair inwards.
"Now," she said with a chirp in her voice that faded for a brief moment as she touched at her lumbar. She hummed with slight displeasure before grabbing a stacked book from the desk and placing it on its side behind her. It didn't seem to have solved the problem perfectly, but at least it seemed a bit better? Not that Cter could read Rasliela's aura anyway.
Although...it felt differently that she couldn't?
"Now," Rasliela repeated while leaning her conjured cane against the desk. "Would you mind drying up this puddle here that you two have created?" Her wide brim nodded towards the water that had begun to spread out wider from between the two mages. There were wet foot and cane prints leading around the corner of the desk. "Someone might slip and hurt themselves."
The old mage put great weight onto her last words, planting them firmly in the air like two great signs for the Fourth Monster Mage and the Royal Mage of Ice to see. "And speaking of that," Rasliela slipped underneath her heavy words. She folded her hands underneath her nose. "Pray tell what I walked in on."
Cter and Terri traded glances devoid of anger and fear and filled with surprise and confusion instead. Like the magic on their sleeves, the hostility that had blossomed wildly between the two had dissipated, yet there was still the memory of it. The two mages didn't know what to say, for what could they say? Ask the other for forgiveness?
But they were at war!
Cter was a prisoner and Terri her jailer. They were on opposite shores with a stormy sea thrashing against them both. How much of it was due to them and how much of it was due to the war they did not know. All they were certain of was that the storm existed between them, and that the only real way they could move was further apart.
For in the center of the storm was the Second Fusion.
From which Rasliela had sailed in from.
"Princess," was all Terri managed to say before Rasliela raised a hand that reached just outside the brim of her hat.
"Not Princess," the old mage corrected with a quiet disappointment beneath her words. Her raised hand crumbled to a fist which she had to hide away. "The Princess of the Lineage is dead." She did not let those words hang in the air for long before clearing her throat somewhere within the wide brim of her hat. "I am here as the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr to assist the Royal Mage of Ice in making sure that the Fourth Monster Mage is contained here at Soul's School."
Rasliela produced a letter from within her hat's shadow which she floated over to a perplexed Terri with stasis magic pinching at one of the papery corners. "As I hinted to earlier, my carriage lost a wheel a day's or so travel from here. As the order to detain the Monster Mage was deemed of utmost priority I made the decision to send a rider ahead with the news, and to hurry along as much as his horse could manage. Too hurriedly, it seems, as he lost this page when he took off from the broken-down carriage."
There was some quiet whispers from the top of the lecture hall that followed Rasliela's explanation.
"I am here now though," said the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr with a small bow to her large hat. "Here to assist you in keeping the Fourth Monster Mage out of the war."
Keep Cter out of the war? But wouldn't that… "But isn't that keeping you out of the war too?"
Rasliela lifted her eyebrows at the Monster Mage's suggestion. "That would certainly be a way to make sure that the Princess of the Lineage won't be in the way even though she surrendered for the betterment of Xoff after the Second Fusion's appearance." She spoke of it properly, yet not with the fear and tremor in her voice that Cter would have expected from someone who had witnessed another abomination of human and monster.
Again though she was trying to read the emotions of Rasliela… "Even though the Princess of the Lineage surrendered unconditionally, as the best course for Xoff was to band together with Hjearta immediately in response to the Second Fusion. The Princess of the Lineage would have eventually been able to make Hjearta come over to her cause, but that would have been on a scale of years, and that she did not have all of a sudden.
That Xoff did not have, all of a sudden. The Second Fusion needs to be responded to now, and not after years of political bickering, it seems. The Princess of the Lineage saw that. She understood that." The Royal Mage of Noitaidarr shifted in her seat. "Fear truly is the most primal of instincts in humans."
Cter looked over to Terri reading intently from the page Rasliela handed him, then back at Rasliela.
"Never have I seen it grip so many people at the same time. Never have I seen something so...wrong emerge from what I believed was right. Never have I...felt so wrong, and that was from a comfortably safe distance away from the battle." Two weak elbows angled inwards planted down onto the desk carefully. "Those that were close..."
There was a quiver in her voice.
"I can't begin to imagine what they felt. Whether or not they had a soul or not, it was too overwhelming. Too...wrong for anyone to avert their eyes from it. Too wrong for anyone to try and make sense of it, but impossible to ignore. No one could look away because it was something that shouldn't. Something that shouldn't be. Something that shouldn't be possible. Something that...shouldn't."
Even though her voice was out of her control, Rasliela's emotions still were hidden away from Cter. She still hid them even though she spilled her heart about what she had seen.
"There was no battle no more when it spawned. There was no conflict. No politics. No...individuality. In the most human of emotions we all lost our humanity. We all lost who made us who we were. We all couldn't look away. We all couldn't believe it existed, even if we knew about the First Fusion. We knew about it, but..."
But they had never felt it.
"Ebott's Shadow," exhaled Rasliela deep within the shadow of her hat which she was hiding within, cowering, like a child during their first lightning storm. "There are no words to describe it correctly. There are no words to describe how its aura sickened my soul. There are no words to describe what it means to the world."
But the First Fusion wasn't as important because Rasliela did not witness it? For the First Fusion there were plenty of words to describe it though? Plenty of words to argue and speak about in ways to further her own interest and goals? Plenty of words to use it as leverage to begin her long plans to seize control over the throne of her country? Plenty of words to disrupt the balance of magic between humans and monsters?
The Second Fusion was her doing. The Second Fusion was the fruits of her labor.
Bitter beyond anything she had ever tasted. Even defeat was inconsequential to her. She surrendered without any conditions because of the Second Fusion which she planted the seed for. She made it! She was responsible for it!
And she dared come to Cter for sympathy?!
"Is this how you felt, Monster Mage? Is this how the world was to you after the First Fusion?"
More than could ever fit within that big hat of hers.
"A world seen in a new light which you've come to realize you've bathed in for years uncountable?"
That…
"A world where you realize that you've known for so long that such a thing could happen?"
That wasn't was Cter expected. That wasn't what she expected at all. Where did the relief come from? Where did the calm come from?
Where did Rasliela's emotions come from?
"Because it almost happened to you?"
The Royal Mage of Noitaidarr extended her right arm with her hand hidden within the green arm of her robe. The mouth of the green sleeve hung down with the shape of her knuckles poking through like small mounds on a grassy field. At that point Terri's brow arched, and his distinct eyes lifted up from the parchment he had been reading intently from. That same focus stayed in his ice-blue eyes hardened onto Rasliela's right arm. His lips tugged in a flinch, "You..." and his eyes narrowed. "Yours feel the same as Cter's."
Hers feel the same as Cter's? Hers what?
Hers…
Cter's eyes exploded open and her frightened inhale had her coughing from the way her inhale sliced down her throat. Amid her coughing, Rasliela slowly pulled back the fabric over her right arm, revealing distinct and sharp lines in her otherwise-loose and wrinkly skin. She motioned over the lines with her left hand respectfully, ignoring Cter's coughing. "May I present to you King Kheydan," the old mage introduced with a gentle serenity and pride to her voice. "My grandfather."
By all accounts, Terri and Cter's reaction should have been switched. It should have been her that was calm, collected, and curious towards Rasliela's exposed arm. She was the one that had something similar on her arm. She was the one that had experience with it. She had figured that such was the case with Idyll in the Royal Garden. It should have been him that coughed while startled, shocked at the revelation of a powerful set of magical lines carved upon a naked arm.
Yet the opposite was what took place inside the Main Lecture Hall.
"A Boss Monster sleeve inscribed upon skin," said Terri thoughtfully to himself with a lean down of his chin into his hand. "From your grandfather." Many thoughts accompanied his words, many of which tugged and pushed at his voice enough to not allow it to rest at a particular cadence. "You've been hiding it," he said to himself. "You've been hiding it from yourself," he said to the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr.
One of the respectful fingers motioning over the magical lines touched at them gingerly, causing Rasliela to breathe in through her teeth. "I've never looked," she began after getting used to the stinging touch.
"Ever since he gave me his last memories and will I have never looked underneath my sleeve. I've always kept it on. I've always worn it, regardless of situation. Eventually I must have forgotten why I didn't take it off, only that I hadn't. On the few moments I did take it off temporarily when my grandfather asked me to, I never looked at it either. It was his decision to have me take it off, and not mine. I have never done so. I have never chosen to, and for how long that has been I have forgotten. When I forgot though I've also forgotten with time. Was it as soon as he gave me his memories? Did I wear it when he gave them to me? Did he mean to do it, or not?"
The entirety of the old mage's left hand clasped gently over the magical lines glowing with a gentle white, weathering the burn-like stinging with another inhale through her teeth.
"Or did I ask him to?"
Cter didn't clasp with her hand. She had no choice in the matter. It was given to her, and she made it hers. She had to remember that. She had to!
But...if it already happened once with Rasliela, what did that mean? And what did she mean by it almost happening to Cter? Why did Cter feel so panicked about it?
"As the Second Fusion came to be I recognized its aura. I recognized it from my own arm." The clasp tightened around the thin arm by the thin hand. "And I recognized something else from it. I recognized Cter's aura. Proof that she wasn't lying about her magic, as if I ever had any doubts about her lying about that. I never lied to her, so she would never have lied to me."
Rasliela looked to the Monster Mage hiding her left arm inside the security of her robe. The look wasn't judging or teasing, but sympathetic. A first for Cter to see from Rasliela. It looked...strange. "More than that, I finally understand something else from when my grandfather gave me all that he was. What almost happened to you almost happened to me too, Cter."
What did she mean? "What almost happened to me?" Cter...she...did she already know? Did she already know what Rasliela was going to say? But what though? What was the Royal Mage going to say?
"I don't remember much from what happened after my grandfather gave me his magic, but what I do remember is that there was a time afterwards where neither human nor monster dared approach where my family and I had lived in exile. Even my parents did not dare stay near the place for months. They never told me why, as they could not explain why. Neither could the villagers from the nearby villages."
There was a distance in the Royal Mage's voice.
"That it was like miasma was the closest explanation they could tell. It just felt so...wrong to them that they dared not approach it nor speak of it. Just as strangely, that sense of wrong disappeared after a while, again like miasma." Empathy arose in the Royal Mage's eyes as she blinked slowly towards the Monster Mage. "You recognize this, don't you?"
She did?
"From one faithful night in Jarasevo with the Monster Chef friend of yours, Cter?"
She…
She did!
"Idyll," dripped from Cter's stunned tongue as she looked down to her left arm. The memories flooded back to her about what happened. About how she felt her soul so strongly connected with Idyll's. How she felt herself being taken over with Idyll's memories. How she… "No, no my soul was the one taking away from hers." Right? "I-It w-was..."
Idyll's face, half of Romrom's.
"No."
Her magic, half of Romrom's.
"No!"
Taken from Romrom's influence inside Cter's sleeve. Romrom's memories, Romrom's soul given to Cter.
"No no no!"
Idyll's soul absorbed them.
"No no no no!"
Idyll's soul fused with Romrom's memories.
"No..I..."
Instead of with Cter's.
"I refuse to..."
Not even a complimentary second passed by before Rasliela exhaled calmly. Her eyes met Terri's, looking past the shaking Monster Mage. "There has been a fusion walking around Jarasevo Castle all this time."
Don't.
"A fusion of monster and monster."
Don't!
"A monster's soul can absorb both a human's soul and a fellow monster's," said Rasliela factually. "Although it seems to need a human conduit to do so."
Stop!
"The Cooperative Connection," continued Terri with a contemplative curl of his sleeved fingers underneath his chin. His magical fog began to fall down towards the Royal Mage, avoiding Cter as well. "That would make every mage a potential source of such a fusion." There was suspicion in his voice. "Another truth to the Cooperative Connection?" he let hang in the air to observe how he felt about it. "It would explain why her ice magic was so different. She is a Fusion, that Monster Chef. A Fusion who–"
"QUIET!"
Startled bowstrings were taut once more as Cter's voice shook the walls. Her left arm glowed with a bitter purple to it. Despite the intense glow though, there were no crystals forming. There was no magic solidifying on her sleeve. All she could do was to try and make sense of things. Try and understand what her own thoughts were on the matter.
The inner conflict spilled out on her face and her left arm, twisting into a troubled expression and a turbulent aura respectively. Her emotions couldn't solidify into something cohesive, so her magic could not either. It left the Monster Mage standing on weak knees impotently grimacing and flexing her arm to try and produce...something. Anything!
Anger, grief, fear, anything! She needed something discrete to hold onto. Something solid she could plant her foot down on to take a step, and not the pile of loose emotions she kept slipping on like slick gravel.
"Quiet," she repeated weakly, shaking her head just as weakly. Her loose hair slipped down to cover her face, yet she still turned away to not have the other mages see. They could feel her aura just as, if not more, precisely though. "Please just be quiet about her." The plead preceded a hefty, raw sob that shook the entirety of the Monster Mage's defeated frame. "She's not a part of this. Please don't make her a part of this. I beg you. Please, humans. Please don't bring Idyll into this."
Cter didn't want to think. She didn't want to consider that Idyll wasn't Idyll. That she had been changed from that night more than she promised Cter that she had been. She didn't want to think that it was Romrom's influence that had Idyll lying to Cter to protect her. She didn't want to think that Idyll knew of Cter's promise to her grandmother. That her love towards Donial was that of Romrom's. That Cter had replaced her friend with her grandmother. That she had made Idyll less of herself.
That Cter had...killed...Idyll…
When she laid quiet and still on the bed in Jarasevo Castle with Queen Toriel watching over her sleeping body, was Idyll already dead? Was it Romrom that Cter brought back? Did Idyll hear Romrom's voice inside of her? Did she have an older monster advising her? The same as…
With eyes distorted by the tears filling them up, Cter looked towards Rasliela with a slow, deliberate turn of her head. The Monster Mage collected her loose hair behind her ear, pushing her combined braid further out on her shoulder. "You," said Cter distantly and breathy. "You want her to be the same as you." Her sleeved index finger extended towards the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr, crystals forming on it in fractal-like patterns. "You're worried about your grandfather's influence over you."
Rasliela's reaction was muted, hidden, yet it still was a reaction. A reaction that she herself noticed as it perpetuated between her grasping fingers around her arm as a diffuse, white blush. Her eyes relaxed, narrowing with her sigh. "Seeing the Second Fusion, and more importantly, feeling it, has put a lot of...turmoil on my soul."
A cold shiver ran through the Royal Mage's body, tensing her frail frame uncomfortably. She reached for her conjured cane, holding its handle tightly for comfort. "I said that the Princess of the Lineage surrendered, and I meant that in more ways than just giving myself up to the...king of Xoff." There was bitterness on her grimace saying that. "My grandfather, he..." Bitterness in more ways than one. "He told me things. He told me things when I felt the Second Fusion. He spoke as if he...wasn't he. As if he was influenced. As if his words were changed. Changed by the Second Fusion."
Cter had never seen Rasliela so afraid. Never seen her so...old. Even though her face was hidden within the darkness of her hat Cter could still see the frightened wringing and shivering. Was this what the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr was without the Princess of the Lineage?
Was this who Rasliela was without her grandfather?
"And if his words weren't, than what he said was..." There was disgust in the words, and Rasliela had to calm herself down with some long breaths to not lose herself. "Either scenario begets worse than the other. Either scenario I'd prefer over the other, yet I fear to be more true over the other at the same time. Should my grandfather's voice and words have been taken over by the Second Fusion, then has it been taken over before too? Have others spoken to me through him, disguised as him?"
Cter could feel the old mage's eyes glance briefly past her.
"And if the other possibility is true, that it was him that spoke those words to me, then I..." An audible gulp snuck out the deep shadow of the wide brim. "Then I fear him too."
A thick quiet built among the three mages which hung for a slow couple of minutes. Much had been said, and to digest everything would take time.
But would they have that time?
Would they have that time with a war between humans and monsters beginning far, far away? Was it already too late? Those questions were seeded deep within Cter, and she feared how they would take root.
"It is why I am here," said Rasliela after the long minutes, breaking the silence carefully. "It is why I want to be here. I want to understand."
Cter sat herself down. There was no reason for her to be standing no more.
"I want to understand what the Fusion truly is."
She would need the energy for later, she reckoned.
"And for that we need to understand what the human soul truly is."
Reckoned beyond confidence.
"And what the monster soul wants from it."
