Soulay's Academy for Humanities and Magical Studies for the Betterment of Monsterkind and Humanity.
"Words that rang inspiring before, but ring hollow today."
Feathery shivers ran through the Griffon Commander, ruffling the wings folded over the stuffed pouches. The stuffed ones had become equal, with just as many on the left side of the harness as there were on the right. The completed scrolls on the left were shielded with more barrier magic than those on the right, however, so a perfect balance was still not present.
It was as balanced as it would ever get though, with an imbalance worse than how it was when the two Royal Messengers began their mission over half a year prior. More barrier magic on the completed scrolls were necessary both so that their work would not be for waste.
And so that the two could be more aware of the monsters they had condemned, together. Aajja had been quick to suggest that he would feel as much as Cter did of the names that had been confirmed either by dust or by voice.
"Hopefully the dean of the institute can bring some of that inspiration back to it."
The campus had been even emptier than it had been the last time Cter was there. No guards were to be found, be it human or monster. The fate of the Royal Guards that had been with Cter was yet unknown, and they were for certain not at the campus or near it. Cter would have noticed, same as she would have noticed had there been any human guards there as well when Aajja descended down for a landing at the entrance to the campus. The flagpoles at the main gate carried only banners of air, waving for no one and nobody.
"I have never been here, to be honest. The famous Soul's School I have only heard about, and never seen. To finally see it is a joy, but..." The Griffon Commander's bendy neck swiveled and bent like a flag among unruly and mischievous winds to look at the different brick buildings both in human and monster styles. There was both enjoyment and disappointment in his aura which both seemed to want the other one to be foremost emotion.
It was complicated for him, and culminated in a sigh that had his gular flopping like a fish on dry land. "It is as if seeing a monster without an aura, maybe?" A whip of his long tail had him retracting that analogy, but his ears bending curiously had him retracting the retraction. "It's strange," was what he managed to conclusively conclude. "There is a lot here that has been and is not anymore." His neck raised high and faced his head towards Monster Country. "Will this be how Jarasevo will feel after we..." It sank down into him like a deflated accordion. "No, shouldn't say that."
Cter understood what he meant by it.
But yes, she agreed that he shouldn't say more about it.
"Maybe I'll return to dean for this place one day, or perhaps I'll be dean for the one we build in the Underground," said Cter with a small sigh. "In any case, feel free to look around wherever you want, Aajja." She smiled at her friend. "You have the dean's blessing."
Her friend smiled back. "Do I get the dean's keys too?"
That...was a good question.
With a rather fruitless pat around her pockets, the dean found nothing of use for the Griffon Commander. "Um...maybe...use magic?" she suggested vaguely to hide the fact that she hadn't even gotten a key to begin with when Professor Leraull gave her his title. She had not seen him since then, and when asked, Sir Gerson only answered without commitment that he still had the same position as he had outside of being the dean of Soul's School.
If that meant playing chess via correspondence with Sir Gerson or still keeping tabs on the goings-on in Hjearta was a coin flip.
"More magic, you say?" Aajja replied with a quirked brow. "But quiet, hushed magic instead?"
Cter reacted to the small, subtle, even nostalgic hum that sprung into life in the Griffon Commander's aura. Something that he had wanted for long before, but could not do. "You sound a bit excited at the idea." With some help from a wind swimming through the few, sparse leaves that still clung onto the branches., her turn around with folded arms became more dramatic than she had planned it to be.
Not that she would complain about it. "Excited at the prospect of some subtle burgling before we make it very loud burgling?" Was there a similar backstory with Aajja as there was with Queen Toriel, mayhaps? A simple life before rising up high in the ranks? With Queen Toriel being but a bar maiden before she ascended into the Royal Purple, what was the Griffon Commander before he became his title?
A highway robber? Flying around and ambushing unsuspecting transports with quick dives down to hold up at rapier point? His own feathers in his hat too and a mask around his eyes and beak? Would have needed to be a very large mask though.
The Monster Mage snickered at the mental image.
"Ustit was the son of a locksmith," told Aajja with the wind swayed his loosened ears. "He was keen at picking locks, both with tools and with magic." The longing in his eyes made Cter's snicker hurt, and she let it fade away from her lips.
"Sorry, I..." she apologized with a grind to her teeth that still chastised herself. "I didn't know." The humorous image in her head only harshened her grimace with how long it still lingered.
"I appreciate the apology, but like you said, you did not know." Aajja nodded with understanding. "You couldn't have." To show rather than just tell that it was water under the bridge, Aajja looked to the main building behind Cter, in particular to the large sign.
"Being a large griffon with a passion for locks that he could barely fit a claw into was quite the surprise for many and all of those that first saw it. He wanted too to come here and study as he figured that picking locks and perhaps even designing them was a more human endeavor rather than a monster one. Soul's School would have helped him with it."
Cter looked over her shoulder to the same sign that lacked the same sheen to it as there had been each morning when she headed for her early classes. The small labyrinth of reflections everyone navigated through on the rare days where there was mainly overcast with a lucky opening for the sign to be shone onto was a pleasant memory to her. The sign had not been tended to for a while though.
Perhaps the dean would have to restore it herself?
"Many new locks to pick here as well?" Cter joked friendly and respectfully with the Griffon Commander. "I'm sure he would have made a pretty penny helping the inebriated students to get back into their rooms after losing their keys to their rooms."
The Griffon Commander chuckled. "Oh I'm sure he would have loved that." As the chuckle faded he turned his noodly neck towards the auxiliary buildings around the campus. "I'll make sure to be as careful as possible with the locks, dean." His talons clicked against the cobblestone as his neck dragged with it the rest of his body towards the dorms of the campus.
"Some of them might have the key in on the other side," Cter told his swinging tail in hopes that it would reach past to his ears. To make sure he heard she added an unsubtle cough to her next sentence. "Also you'd want to look for room J43."
The long neck turned over the winged shoulder. "Why so?"
Cter extended her right index finger pointing at her head. "To let me know if I forgot anything."
"No one else lived there after you?"
Before she answered, the dean of Soul's School approached the large doors with her left hand painting down the divide between the two sides of the doors. She filled the slit with barrier magic, dragging down until she felt where the large bolts of the lock were. Like slime, she molded the barrier magic to grip at the heavy bolts, and with a simultaneous tug of the bolts and a hard push of the two halves of the door, fueled by orange strength magic, the dean opened the gates to Soul's School once more!
With a pleased smile she spun around with both arms wide with the loose of her robe flapping all around her from the rushing air escaping into the world outside the stale, locked-in place of learning. "Let me know if they forgot anything as well!" Cter told her only audience, who laughed heartily.
"It's good to see that side of you again, Cter," he replied with a flick to his ears. His left wing folded underneath him while his right one extended above him as a respectful bow. "Now do what you have to do, Monster Mage!" With that he headed towards the dorms, leaving just a reminder behind. "J43, right?"
"Yes," said Cter only to herself.
She was really going to do it, wasn't she? She was really going to make a decision that meant more than she could fathom. A decision all on her own to leave behind something for the future that would hopefully help the next cycle.
She nodded.
"Yes."
A shudder ran through her bones as the reality of the situation washed over her fully and completely. Awash with the chilling air around her, the Fourth Monster Mage gazed down the long, wide hallway still decorated for a day of study, but with neither students nor faculty anywhere for years on end. The large tapestry which hung as an ornate reminder of humanity and monsterkind cooperation looked slump, and barely clung onto the failing ropes which fastened it to the roof.
The dean had her work cut out for her, it seemed. The deafening silence that was only meant to be for the exam days had become the norm. That would not do. If this was to be the last time Cter saw Soul's School she did not want for it to be remembered as an abandoned institute which decay mirrored that of the relationship between humans and monsters.
If she was to be honest in her belief that there could be a better future for the two races then she would have to begin right there and then! The decision she left for the future was theirs to take care of, but for her, making sure that the birthplace of human magic for her cycle would be as proud as it was when it was unveiled.
Even if it wasn't to be remembered as such for the next cycle.
First and foremost though.
"S-Sin-n-g-g-ge m-my s-soul-l!"
She had to get some fire magic going lest she froze to death.
"C-Cold-der t-than w-winter!"
The chill of the previous winter had dug deep into the walls, ceiling, and floor. From all around Cter there was cold. From all around her there was the icy reminder that no one had been maintaining the place for over a year. The dry cold of the rushing air out the main doors she had opened was quickly supplanted by the wet, sinister cold from the building itself. The clatter of her teeth echoed in the brief moment before the Fourth Monster Mage surrounded herself with magical fire which burned enough for her teeth to relax and for her breath not to become fog.
Once she felt comfortable, Cter painted the magical fires as a layer on her clothing held away from the textile by a thin layer of barrier magic. Her large hat she took off, hanging up on a nearby hat stand. Its fiery layer she kept on it for later.
"I'm back," she then greeted to the school. The echo of her greeting found its way down the hallway and into the many corridors, but no one was there to answer. Had there been an answer it would have most likely scared her soul out of her, so it was for the best that there wasn't any.
No skeleton librarian reading at a table. No tea to be offered. No students. No Professor Leraull. No Echo Flowers to answer her either. No nothing.
The dean of the school would carry them all into the next cycle though.
"I promise you."
She would have them all remembered.
By making sure they were all forgotten.
"Anyone against still calling it the Soul Rainbow?" asked Cter to anyone who would have any argument against it. "None? Excellent." For it really was a good name for it. That the previous cycle did good, at least.
And while it might have been a bit flimsy for Cter to call something that had just happened once before a 'cycle' it would become one for the ones in the future by her decision, and soon, her actions.
Human magic had existed before. More so, it had been forgotten once before as well. The Soul Rainbow was left behind by those before. Whether or not that was intentional or not had not been discerned yet, however the fact remained that it was found too late for the cycle of human magic Cter's time around to take advantage of, either positive or negative.
The knowledge of the human soul had been discovered independently for Cter's cycle, and from what had been gleaned from the scrolls left behind in Fenkeep Castle, it had been discovered differently than the Soul Rainbow.
Based mainly on the simple fact that no one would ever call something as grotesque and bodily perverted as a Fusion something as poignant and poetic as a Soul Rainbow.
Added to that, humanity and monsterkind seemed to be living in relative peace afterwards. While the exact date was impossible to discern from the scrolls their writing was quite similar to texts that predated the formation of Hjearta. It seemed to be just sheer luck that the scrolls could be translated, but that was merely the story told about them.
"It was more that I felt that I could read them," had Terri explained during one of the days during the month and a half of discussion at Jarasevo Castle before the Monster Mages sat off on their missions as Royal Messengers. Which one of the days in particular Cter could not pick out from the blur they had all become. Same as the many, many villages she had visited on her mission.
"It must have been magic of some sort, but it was different from mine. It affected my soul, and I could feel that it affected Lerjung's as well from how her aura changed when she read them. I could not tell you what each symbol means, but I can tell you what the page reads. We know that it is magic, for Manny can not read them. It is my guess that there was magic cast on them to only allow for humans with magic in their soul to be able to read them, further corroborated by the fact that the Xoff king has too been able to understand the text, albeit with more difficult than Lerjung or I. Whether or not it was to make sure that only mages of the time were able to read them or if it was for us to read them I could not tell you though, for the scrolls have not told us about it."
That ambivalence Cter wanted to straighten out. Her plan was to not have it be any doubt that it was meant for those in the future. If the cycle before added the ambivalence as a form of security to make sure that it would not fall into the wrong hands then Cter needed her non-ambivalent method to be more secure to make sure that the right ones found it and could make good use of it. That way whoever it was could use the knowledge to prevent what Cter's cycle had bumbled themselves into.
The wet cold was more intensive down the main flight of stairs, with each step lifting the cold up the Monster Mage's legs until it reached her stomach at the bottom of the steps. Her fire magic kept the cold at bay from her, but it was still noticeable. While it was not an issue for Cter it was also not a boon for her either.
Since the libraries that she had spent perusing for hints about the Soul Rainbow with the two Royal Mages were on the lower floors of the institute they were in the bottom of the sunken cold. There was a concern within the Monster Mage that the books that she wanted to find had been ruined by the cold, but at the same time that worry was also an opportunity. Another chance for her to make a choice all on her own about the future.
She did not need all of the books to keep for the future, after all. Her main goal was to make sure things were forgotten, so if the books that she did not need happened to succumb to the Hjearta winter then that would be a very happy coincidence for Cter.
She would not use Romrom's ice magic for that though. She'd use her own for it.
One book in particular Cter needed though. One book she had to have to fulfill her plan. A book that she herself had not read, but one that she had seen someone else read in a way she had never seen before.
What was that skeleton librarian's name again?
"Braille," the Monster Mage managed to remember. "Braille Script!" The name echoed down the empty halls.
If Romrom's magic lingered within her writing by her overwhelming emotions spilling out into what she wrote then would the same be possible for magic that was implanted into the pages by someone reading with their overwhelming emotions? If Braille's magic still lingered then that would be an excellent show that Cter's theory was sound.
She did not need it to be enough for her to copy it or to make a Cooperative Connection out of it, for that she could have done with the skeleton librarian back at Jarasevo. And if not she would just develop it on her own independently as she had done with barrier magic. It was no problem. She could do it!
And she also vaguely remembered that Braille Script mentioned that the book was an original example which meant that it would be stored in one of the libraries higher up in the building for the faculty to access rather than the students.
Things were coming together nicely.
...
What a foreign feeling it was to Cter.
A feeling she stopped to let notice about in more detail, letting it take over her aura as much as possible. It provided a warmth that was different from the warmth her fire magic gave. A warmth of self which pushed away the cold of self inside of her soul. Excitement, trust, and a sense of correct about her idea which she had developed all on her own. It was what she should have felt about her discovering barrier magic. It should have been the same as when she discovered her own crystal magic.
It was a feeling she had not felt in so, so long.
After a focused exhale, the Monster Mage raised her left arm before her, curling her palm slightly. The feeling she let take over her aura she collected into the White Flesh that began at her shoulder. The feeling drained into the White Flesh from her own, and the familiar cold of self began creeping back into her soul. It was a disconnect that was necessary though.
An abandon of the emotion into her White Flesh which she then forced to project as magic. The truth of the Cooperative Connection, in a way. Instead of her as a human forcing monster memories and emotions to succumb to her soul's strength she used her soul's strength to push her human emotion through, making the emotion monster in nature by the way of existing outside of her soul.
A Cooperative Connection where the monster and the human were flipped, in another way.
With her right hand Cter reached for one of the two books fastened at her side. One where she had begun writing for the next cycle, and the other for her to be able to do just that. It was a leather-bound book which contained pages upon pages of feathers of different colors donated by Aajja with pins of crystal magic holding them in place on the pages and a layer of barrier magic around the book to not have the emotions within the pages leak out.
Necessarily from him too, as they were to serve as the vessels for the emotions Cter wanted to write into the first book. For the future to understand she would have to write as she had lived it. As her memories were and as her emotions were.
She had to put her soul into it.
An orange flicker with a deeper red than that of her fire magic emerged as an amorphous glob in her left palm like a slime monster relaxing too much in a hot bath. A red feather from Aajja's collar was a good choice, thought Cter, and with one in her right hand she inserted the stem of the feather into her disconnected emotion like it was a hat to be decorated. Like ink the emotion was sucked up into the stem, giving it an orange glow and swirl like the White Flesh of her left arm.
The last drop she saved to color the crystal pin holding it so that she could easily find it without wasting the magical ink. A pleasant, hearty clasp echoed around her as she closed the book. She listened out for the echo in her left ear more so than her right, as the first set of books she aimed to sample were on that end. The cold from there was deeper too.
"Just like the ice around me," waxed the Monster Mage as she clipped her book back onto her belt. The warm, orange color in her left palm was then replaced by a cold blue which she gathered into a snowy whirl around her arm.
"I'll bring it all to zero."