It should have been a bigger deal.

"You sure you're careful with it, Cter?"

It should have been something she found horrifying.

"You're being a bit...careless with your prodding, aren't you?"

Yet despite that, she found it more as a positive sign than a negative. It wasn't the same as when she first discovered it, the White Flesh on her hand. She had gotten used to it. Gotten used to it being a part of her.

"Do you really have to use a knife for this?"

All she had to do was to get used to it a bit more. Comparatively it wasn't a big deal. Her figuring out that she could have the barricade magic be one-sided was a big deal, for that opened up her magic for her.

Literally.

As well as the opposite.

"It's–" Cter answered briefly before sucking in air between her teeth. Once she managed to slice off a small piece of her White Flesh she could breathe out the stinging it felt. "It's fine." The metal blade scraped with a small screech as the Monster Mage dragged it against the lip of the small glass container she had fetched from the alchemical department. Same as said department, the piece of White Flesh landed with a flop on the bottom of the glass container seemingly unaware that it had been cut off from its larger structure. "It'll heal without scarring."

Which only seemed to make the Royal Mage of Ice more uncomfortable about the process. His aura sank as he looked with retreating eyes at the piece of White Flesh spreading out like cold honey. "Same as the Second Fusion did," he said quietly with a grit to his teeth. "From the letter they wrote."

The Royal Mage of Noitaidarr sat next to him didn't show a similarly adverse reaction to the Monster Mage cutting off a part of her hand without much effort or hesitation. If anything she was more interested in that Cter asked her to be present judging by the way she carelessly drank her tea while Cter was cutting off a part of her Fusion-covered hand.

The overturned bookcase she was sat on seemed comfortable enough for her old body since what she had been asked to attend piqued her interest more than any cushion-less seat could ever bring down for her. "How long will it be moving after you cutting it off, Cter?"

"If it is the same as the rest of my hand then for ten minutes or so," came a direct, factual answer while the Monster Mage first heated up the blade of the improvised-scalpel the physician had brought with him. Once it began to glow red she cooled it off with ice magic. "I'm not going to keep it around though after those ten minutes if it continues to move. If it stops moving then I know that it is the same as my fingers."

Next to the glass container the Monster Mage summoned an hourglass filled with a fine powder of crystal. She flipped it between her index and long finger with a scissor-like motion to start the ten minutes the cut-off piece hopefully had left to live.

The piece looked to be separate when she first laid eyes on it, akin to how oil and water separated in a glass. While it could have been because it grew due to barricade magic and that it inherited some of the properties from that, there was still a chance that it was something else. There had been a Second Fusion since last time the White Flesh on Cter's left hand had taken over more, and since there was a tendency for the Fusions to affect souls around it, Cter wanted to be on the safe side.

She might have been far enough from it that the stretched width of Rasliela's hand could not reach to Soul's School from where the Second Fusion was born.

But what she said about the Cooperative Connection applied to her as well. Her soul was affected by the Second Fusion, and if a human could transmit disease to another, could their soul do so as well?

Cter's experiment had two functions to it. If her cut-off piece of White Flesh stopped moving after ten minutes then she knew that the extended influence of the white on her left hand was only that, an extension. A growth of it was then due to her straining her soul with magic, the same as before. To boot she would also know that her soul would not be affected second-hand from what the Second Fusion did to Rasliela's soul.

Enough for her to stop using magic altogether. Enough for her to cut off her grandfather, and isolate his presence.

Something that Cter understandably did not want to be infected by. Not only that, but earlier when Cter and Rasliela talked, or whatever it really was, about the map that at the moment laid like a discarded towel wrapped around the knocked-over podium, Rasliela had said something that Cter hadn't caught in the heat of the moment.

Something that only clicked when Cter had understood that she had managed to manifest the one-sided barricade magic.

And which might also have explained what the Soul Rainbow was.

"If you want I could send for Sarbor to come here," suggested Rasliela seemingly out of nowhere. "From what I understand he has been trying to treat your left hand for both you and himself." She pointed with her cup at the cut-off piece of White Flesh moving strangely within the glass container. "I'm sure he would appreciate another look at it now that he has more than just the Hero of Xoff and his squad to treat."

A tired, confronting look was flung by the Monster Mage's eyes. "If I agree to that will you call for the war to end?" she asked while folding the White Flesh on her hand over the wound. It stretched like dough, melding together similarly as she massaged it shut with her right thumb. Like with the knife on the lip of the glass container Cter wiped her right thumb against her left wrist where it was engulfed in an orange flame.

"I am not the Princess of the Lineage," Rasliela reminded patiently before drinking some tea to let her reminding settle properly with the forgetful Monster Mage. "It is not within my powers to dictate the larger course of this war of ours. I have been granted dominion over some of the lesser courses, true," she added with a small nod over to the knocked-over podium and the large map laid clumsily upon it. "But if there are any particular monster villages you want me to keep in mind when choosing them?"

Keep in mind to use as leverage against Cter? "No, I've none," the Monster Mage whipped bitterly from her tongue. "In fact, perhaps it is for the better should the human armies be afflicted by the Second Fusion. Perhaps with a soul of their own they can recognize that the monsters hold no harm against the humans. That they only fight only in defense against a conflict born out of naught but pride and self-proclaimed importance."

The Royal Mage of Noitaidarr sighed deeply out the shadow of her wide brim. "Do I have to repeat myself about the Princess of the Lineage?" she asked like a disappointed teacher. "Perhaps you should have cut off a smaller piece of your hand if the pain has you this cranky?"

"Enough," came a direct and sturdy order from the Royal Mage of Ice. His arm slashed widely between the two bickering mages, leaving behind it a thick trail of fog that interrupted the narrowed eye contact. "Cter, if you don't want us here just tell us to leave," Terri said to the Monster Mage equally as direct. "Making the air tenser between us isn't going to do you any good and you know that."

He motioned around the library. "You are already going to have to be confined to your house for a while because of this. I've told you before to warn either Rasliela or me should you try something like this with your magic. If we allow this and word gets out about us keeping you on a long leash then fears might arise that we aren't to be trusted to keep you as a prisoner of war. Should that happen you can be damn sure that you'll be confined into something worse than a two-storied house with a lake view."

Cter averted her eyes as she failed to stop her guilty expression from taking root.

"Don't make me doubt that I can trust you, Cter," the Royal Mage of Ice punctuated heavily. "You know full well what a bad idea that is." Since he couldn't meet Cter's eyes he instead looked down at the piece of White Flesh writhing slowly in its glass container, reaching slowly up the glass container's walls. "I don't want to have to doubt you, for if I do that then I might as well travel to the front lines of this war." He tapped at the glass wall, causing the piece to fall over and fold onto itself like how Cter had done on her left hand. "There I won't have to doubt."

While the Royal Mage was being a tad hyperbolic in his melodrama, a part of Cter still felt remorse for Terri. How big a part that was she did not want to admit to herself. He spoke truthfully about her knowing full well that it was a bad idea to make him doubt. The reason she was allowed to essentially walk around freely was because he had convinced the human guards that she could be trusted fully to behave. It was the same reason that the other Royal Guards enjoyed similarly free living at Soul's School. However Cter sliced or angled it, the fact remained that it wasn't ideal to tempt fate.

Even Rasliela had argued in Cter's favor about being allowed to freely pursue her research. Although with her Cter didn't trust that there wasn't some other motive for that. Rasliela said as much when she arrived at Soul's School that she was there to find a solution to the human-monster war. What that entailed to her wasn't going to be the same as what entailed to Cter, that much was blatantly clear.

"They would never allow you to travel to the front lines," Rasliela made blatantly clear as well with an angle of her wide-brimmed hat at the knocked-over podium. "Magic is not something that is held at high regard at the moment." The wide brim shook. "If anything you should make sure that you're kept here at any cost, Royal Mage."

A flicker in her voice was caught by the Royal Mage she was addressing, who's head tilted towards one of the windows showing a clouded exterior with a hum of thunder in the far distance. "Manny?" he pried. "Still worried about him?"

Cter felt Rasliela glance at her before sighing out a conflicted exhale. "I'm his grandmother," she said to hide any more details about her reasons. "Of course I'm worried about my grandchild. He's at the war, and I am not."

Cter shouldn't have.

She really, really shouldn't have.

Terri had just told her that she shouldn't make him doubt her.

"Because he's not as important?"

Yet still she said it. Still Cter said it with a thick layer of faux innocence to prompt a reaction. She could lie to herself and excuse it with that she needed Rasliela to express some powerful emotion to be doubly sure that her Fusion-touched soul wasn't contagious.

But the explanation wasn't as complex as that, really.

Another, tired sigh flowed out underneath the wide brim. "Monster Mage," Rasliela said with a raspy voice that had lost any semblance of life in it. "I know you might believe that this is deserving of me. You might even be correct in that." A weak shrug barely moved the small shoulders.

"However though, if there is anything I might ask of you, then please aim your anger and disdain at me, and not anyone else." She reached up to grab at her hat, but stopped halfway. "Manny is the reason I am still standing here today," Rasliela said weakly with a lean of her elbows onto her knees. "He is the reason any human still stands today, and any monster, for that manner."

Because he was the one that killed the Second Fusion? Because he was the one that remembered what Sarbor had told about how he killed the First Fusion? "You want sympathy for what you saw and felt during your encounter with the Second Fusion?" With only that one question Cter had Rasliela's head falling onto her balled-together fists. "Or should I call you onto a trial for it instead?" She fell right into Cter's trap. "Cast doubt onto this unbelievable sight that you've witnessed and which have changed your magic in a way you dread to imagine the ramifications of?"

"I get it!" the old mage shouted with her raspy voice causing her to cough with uncomfortable harks. She was helped by Terri who's patience was visibly running dry. "I get it," Rasliela repeated after regaining some of her voice. "It's hypocritical of me to expect you to give me any peace of mind about what I've seen." She wiped her mouth with her hand. "But what else can you expect me to do? What else can I do in this state of mine?"

From the dark of her hat's wide shadow her Boss-Monster-carved arm was displayed with confronting intent. It was inert, lacking any magical luster to it. The magical lines were thick scars on her thin arm hanging with loose skin. "I am afraid of my grandfather who I have kept near my soul for over a human's lifetime! I am afraid of what the Second Fusion means! I am afraid!" Her breath couldn't keep up with her desperate shouts. "I am only human!"

What exactly she meant by being only human could have meant quite a few things. Did she mean that she was only human because she was suppressing her grandfather's Cooperative Connection and thus wasn't much of a mage no longer? Did she mean that she was only human because, well, she was only human? Not a monster like Cter was?

Either case contradicted itself though, so what she actually meant Cter could not figure easily.

Did she even want to figure it?

"You're only human."

Not really.

Not to Cter.

"You're only human," the Monster Mage said with an irritated shrug that bounced her combined braid off her shoulders.

"You've never known what it is like to know that you are powerless against something. You have never known what it is like to not have the upper hand by birthright. Even as a helpless newborn you were capable of defeating an overwhelming majority of monsters, and that you have lived your entire life believing and trusting to be fair."

The white of the Monster Mage's arm showed signs of unrest.

"It has been fair because it was easy to balance the equation of power. It was never balanced in the middle, with equal weights on either side, but to you it was balanced. Now that the balance has shifted, and only in your eyes I should add, then this equation of power you have completely thrown out the damn window. You don't want to re-balance the equation, you want to remove the monsters from it completely."

Terri shot a narrowed look at the Monster Mage who stood firm about what she had said in the shadowed face of the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr laying her right arm along the length of her sitting thigh clutching hard at her knee. She was gathering up her response, but had to let her attempt at pleading at Cter's empathy fade away first.

Cter knew exactly the response Rasliela was going to choose. She knew exactly from what position she had spoken from. She knew that being a Monster Mage did not mean that she was lowering herself to the level of a monster, but instead gaining what it meant to be monster on top of being a human. She was the most powerful mage talking about being weaker than a human.

And yet still she knew that she was true about what she said.

"And you say this while high up in your mage tower overlooking from a great height over all the monster living in Jarasevo? That fact is not clear to you?" Rasliela waited for an answer that wouldn't come. "You don't see from where you are speaking of this imbalance while you yourself disrupt said balance?"

"I make it more equal," said Cter teetering on it being a threat.

"So you're the same as the Fusions?" Rasliela replied immediately with an accompanying scoff. "Shifting the balance on the seesaw with a stomp on one end." She flicked a nail at the glass container, startling the weak piece of White Flesh. "You're partly one already."

The flick of the nail left a greasy mark on the inside of the glass container where the cut-off piece had tried to reach up only to be knocked off the slick wall again. It stayed folded for a long couple of seconds, not forming into itself again as it had before. Cter glanced at the magical hourglass she had conjured up. There were just a few minutes left before the ten minutes were up.

She still had some time.

"So are you," Cter told with a loose point at Rasliela's chest. "You're partly a fusion as well. If not from your own grandfather then from the Second Fusion's influence. Tainted by it and–"

"Cter."

The Monster Mage met the ice-blue eyes staring hard at her with her own disappointing ones. Her forest-green eyes became partly hidden by her disappointed eyelids sinking halfway down. "Now it's too much?" Cter asked the Royal Mage of Ice. "Now it's too much with what I've said?"

Terri knocked a knuckle against the glass container. "It's dead now," he remarked while pretending that he hadn't heard what Cter had asked. "It hasn't been moving since it fell off the wall." With his knocked knuckle he angled up the side of the glass container to prompt any new reaction, but the piece only slid without anything happening as it collided with the container's wall.

So it died before the ten minutes were up? True, she did conjure up the hourglass after she had sliced the piece off her hand, so the ten minutes for the piece wasn't the same as the ten minutes for the hourglass. There was more time left in the hourglass than had passed between the slice and the hourglass magic though.

A good sign which Cter wasn't going to think much more about since it meant that it took time for new White Flesh to grow as prominent as the White Flesh that was already there. If that was the case then perhaps she could find a way to nullify it growing more prominent? Perhaps even prevent it from taking over more of her hand? And maybe even take back her hand?

Her thoughts sloshed in her head as she shook it dry from her swimming thoughts. "Good to see," she said with a strong, orange glow casting sharp shadows on her face from her white-fleshed hand. The fire magic shone through the White Flesh, again almost like honey.

Honey-like fog held captive within a thin layer of two-sided barricade magic, letting through only the dancing light from the fire magic intent on leaving nothing within the glass container. Like a half-chopped onion dropped into a pot of stew, Cter let her fire magic fall from her white-fleshed hand into the glass container, engulfing its inside with a turbulent and roaring blaze which had the container shaking as if someone had slammed their fist into the table it stood on.

Cter looked through the upper half of the back of her hand covered in the White Flesh. With the roaring blaze shining through it she could see no indication that her hand had been sliced. There was no scarring, no wound, no crust. Only a uniform and orange-tinted white moving the same as a lake's surface without any wind.

"You may go now," allowed Cter to Rasliela while the magical blaze simmered down. "Your fusion-touched soul isn't contagious. Take that however you want." If the old mage had that to think on then she wouldn't say something as Cter then turned to Terri. "For how long will I have to be confined to the house?"

The Royal Mage of Ice exhaled long out his nose. His hand came up to comb at his hair, crunching the ice-frosted tips with a handful of snow falling off his hand as he whipped it clean. "I don't know," he stated with an equally unknowing shrug. "It depends on how long it takes for me to not doubt you again."

Cter looked to the glass container with a hot shimmer oozing out of it like a smoke-less chimney. "And that will be a while, won't it?"

"That it will."

Answered Rasliela.

"That. It. Will."