Cter awoke in a bed that she didn't recognize. Be it the shape, the smell, the mattress, or the pillows. She sat up in a startled gasp that made her dizzy, with the flat of her hand pushed against her forehead to hold up her head while blood returned to it. As the darkened corners of her vision were pushed away she took a long breath through her nose. It wasn't a smell she was familiar with, but it helped to remind her where she was.
The smell was very conflicting though. Through her left nostril that wasn't stuffed she couldn't recognize anything. Different wood on on the walls, different fabric on the sheets on the bed and the carpet which the bed stood on with legs of curled branches. It was magically formed, that much she could conclude. It didn't look sophisticated enough to be bent afterwards with human magic, so perhaps it was grown into its shape via magical means from a monster instead? She'd heard of imported furniture from Monster Country that arrived in seed form and had to be grown over a couple of years until it would become a table, bookcase, bed, or similar. She never really imagined sleeping in one though.
Now, where was she?
Just as Cter began looking around the room she found herself in she noticed her opened luggage right next to her bed with the lid resting against the side. She looked down and saw that she was in her nightgown, concluding that she must've changed before she fell asleep. On top of the pile of clothes inside the luggage was her mage sleeve which she picked up and put on the night table next to her. Seeing the unlit candle standing half-burnt she wondered if she used magic last night to light it.
Or was it Idyll that lit it?
"Oh!" Cter exclaimed as the name stirred up a storm in her mind. "Idyll." That was that monster's name. Cter was still in Jarasevo, in an apartment, with a monster roommate! She decided to stay the day before!
Despite her head hurting like it was stuck in a clamp, Cter nodded to herself.
Then she pushed her hand against her forehead again as the memories thumped against her skull.
Right, right… The two celebrated last night. Celebrated moving in and making official their promise to the other.
"To both get into the castle and drink all the Royal Purple together!"
Even the memory of Cter and Idyll's cups clanking together was too loud for Cter's hangover. If she was like this Idyll must be even more a mess being a monster. It didn't take many weekend nights for Cter to realize that monsters were more lightweight than humans both physically and when it comes to alcohol.
How many cups did the two go through? Cter could remember more than one empty bottle. That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all! That meant it would be the whole day with her hangover! An entire day of not being sure if her head was merely floating above her neck instead of being connected to it.
"Singe my soul."
And there's no water near her. That she usually could spare a thought to bring with her even if it was a post-exam celebration at Soul's School. That she forgot to bring with water meant that either she and Idyll weren't used to the stiff drinks available in Jarasevo and Monster Country, or that there wasn't any jugs in the apartment at all.
While both scenarios were bad in their own way, the latter one Cter prayed wasn't the case. She wasn't thrilled towards the idea to leave the apartment in her condition and wander around a large town that she didn't even know which street she lived at to find a jug to buy and then find her way back home.
Getting up on her legs after yesterday too was to her like facing death. She was surprised that she could even see her legs through her nightgown and the cover wrapped around her still-there shins. All the way throughout Jarasevo, then up the hill towards the castle, then down the hill towards Jarasevo again, and then finally all the way throughout Jarasevo again to find Idyll's apartment.
Cter's shoes were more like a twin pair of torn leathers rather than a functional pair where they laid thrown like curses at the floor near the end of her bed. Her toes curled in horror having to dive into those again. If she did they would probably just fall apart with the first step she took.
Great, that was on her mind as well. In her crowded mind aching like her legs were. She turned to look for something to soothe her but all she found was more headache.
"Urgh," Cter stated with her tongue flopping out of her mouth.
There was her sleeve though. Frost magic was at her fingertips with it. Would it help? That Cter wasn't sure of. In fact, she doubted it. She'd have to somehow just conjure up the feeling of the cold in a way that wouldn't just worsen her condition and give her a hefty freeze of the brain instead.
She already made that mistake once.
But she was a mage though, wasn't she?
That's what she told herself, yes.
Despite that she hesitated upon grabbing the sleeve from the top of the pile in her luggage. The voice of that Royal Guard manifested itself in her mind, sobering her up as he again spoke the lines written by Kry, the First Monster Mage.
"Knows magic. Knows might be too strong a word."
Truth be told the Royal Guard actually never said it out loud to her. He was the one that handed her the document though, so to her he might as well have said it. Her fingers curled as her brow furrowed, and she slid the sleeve up her left arm and tucked the chest-covering underneath her nightgown so that it touched the skin on her chest. The lines that were Romrom's memory gently awoke in contrast to the more ungraceful awakening of its wielder.
Cter closed her eyes, being careful not to close them too much and fall asleep again. She breathed in the somewhat-stale air around her, and exhaled. She could taste the cheap alcohol through her breath, and winced against it reminding her of her hangover. It was enough to allow her to focus on her soul though, and she made herself aware outside her physical body and began probing at the starter-memory. As the reaction began reaching up her sleeve towards her soul Cter retracted her magical presence to only allow the vaguest of cold to flourish in her soul.
However, there wasn't a lot of cold coming up the inscribed memories. There were...other memories. Similar to those that Cter felt. About…
Drinking?
Romrom?
Her grandmother?
No.
No no no!
No more of Romrom's memories when she was young in Jarasevo!
Cter refused the reaction to mature and expand inside her soul, disconnecting the magic and sending it back into her sleeve. It returned to its normal subdued glowing, which meant that it wasn't reacting, and Cter sighed in relief.
With what she'd almost learned the day before with that tavern owner about Romrom's past it seemed that those hazy memories of Jarasevo had become a bit clearer to Cter. She wasn't really sure if she liked that. It leaned heavily into not liking it due to the implied nature of how Romrom was in her youth. A completely different monster from who she was as Cter's grandmother, that's for sure.
And that sure was not something Cter had meant to learn when she accepted her mage sleeve from Romrom. Couldn't she be sure about getting an apprenticeship at the castle instead? Or be sure not to have the splitting headache trying to crack open her skull to find where the problem was?
Cter dropped her sleeve off into her luggage again and slid down the backrest of her bed down fully onto the mattress again. She put the bend of her arm over her eyes, hoping that the lingering magic would still give her some respite.
It didn't.
And she sighed into the unfamiliar room.
"Who the hell are you really, Romrom?" the human asked out loud, but not loud enough so that it would worsen her headache. It was like a rugged whisper. "And why did you give me these memories?"
Well, that Cter knew. It was because of the promise she made. The first one. Because now she had two. Two promises to keep. The second one a bit more pressing than the other. She'd have to make that one come true before she could start tackling the first one.
Not in the state she was though, of course. The darkness and pressure from her arm that laid heavily across her face helped subdue her hangover enough so that she could feel tired again. With her free hand she dragged up her cover that she had kicked off as she startled herself awake. It sank heavily over her body like her arm did over her eyes.
And she again fell asleep in her new bed.
Cter awoke again after what seemed to be hours later judging by how the sun had shifted its slash across her bed to a more angled attack. She got up to, and by, the smell of cooking dancing inside her nose. With a greedy inhale she sampled it on the behest of her stomach. It was definitely something cooking, but she couldn't really put her finger on what exactly. Eggs, perhaps? It was an oily smell, that much Cter could deduce. Perfect for after a night of drinking.
With a quick redress she traded her nightgown with a casual dress from her luggage. An old one that she used to just wander around Soul's School in, and why it shouldn't continue with that job she didn't have a good reason for. It brought with it a familiar feel and smell to it as it slid over her head and undone hair that she flipped out of her neck-hole with a quick shake of her head.
The door to her room was heavier than she thought it would be, and her first tug only made her elbow and shoulder hurt. Her second try fared better, and she emerged blinking into the sunlit hallway blazing with midday light. The brightness stabbed at her mind, causing a groan to slip out of her.
"Morning!" the blue-scaled monster greeted from around the hallway corner after having heard her human roommate's clenched vocalization. "You hungry? I'm in the middle of some cooking."
Oh that Cter could tell by herself. "If it's not too much to ask," she responded as she made her way down the hallway where the smell was stronger. Cter navigated only by her nose as her eyes were too hurting to see anything without the helping shade of her arm. "What are you cooking?"
"Just a stew with a bit of everything," answered Idyll with a casual sniff as she brought up a wooden spoon simmering with steamy stew to her mouth. The spoon and the majority of its handle disappeared between her teeth, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she thought about the taste. "A bit too naked," she concluded with a just-as-naked admission. With her brow furrowed hard and again stretching her scales she reached over from where her simmering pot hanged over a wooden fire towards a cupboard.
Wait…
Wooden fire?
Cter stood perplexed for a brief moment as she observed the flames underneath the cast-iron pot occasionally coughing out drops of stew due to the harsh simmering. Those were no magical flames. The crackle of the wood actually burning was unmistakable, lobbing small cinders that bounced against the black pot and dissipating immediately afterwards. The way the fire licked and breathed with irregular interval was also a telltale sign, which did nothing to undo Cter's confusion.
"You smell it too?" Idyll wondered as her face streaked by Cter's sporting the same furrow but with an added wrinkle of her long muzzle too. "Maybe some coriander outta spruce it up." She halted in her step, the motion of it flowing through her like a carpet shaken from one of its short ends. Her thick tail tugged her back towards the cupboard, and the rest of her large body followed. Her bright hair didn't even have time to settle over her muzzle before it again found itself hanging after her rapid walk like a threaded flag. "Yes, yes. Spruce!"
The sudden energy in Idyll's cheer snapped Cter out of her fire-staring with some hard blinks that made her aware of just how dry her eyes really were. She pondered if she should suggest for Idyll to add some onion to the stew so that Cter could lean over and moisten her eyes up. How the smell changed when a giggling Idyll poured in her spices did enough to make Cter wince though, and she took a step back as a strange blend of both sweet and bitter hit her like a brick wall.
"Serve you up?" Idyll threw over her shoulder while brandishing a wooden bowl between two of her claws, almost as a threat. "One or two eggs?"
Oh no! "E-eggs?" In that pot?
"With or without shells? How do you like them?"
With or without…
"Eating them with?" Cter couldn't stop her tongue from speaking. "Eggs with shells? You're asking me if I want to eat my eggs with the shell still on?"
A slow nod from Idyll almost had her hair become a main ingredient in the stew. "Yes?" she rebuked as if Cter was seriously asking if the sun had risen that morning. "I know some humans like their eggs without the shell, so I added some too since I didn't know."
"Some humans?" Cter had never felt her eyebrows as high up as they were at that moment. "Not all humans?"
"Well..." Idyll scratched her chin with the back of the bowl. "I've not met a human that didn't want the shell on, but there's gotta be someone out there that likes them with the shell on. Maybe my brother likes them with the shell on? I gotta make sure I know how to prepare eggs with and without shells just in case he likes either." She shrugged, almost throwing some of her stew off her spoon. "There are humans that eat apples and pears with the skin on, so why not eggs?"
It only got worse and worse for Cter's confusion. Didn't… "Didn't you come from a human family? Do any of them eat their eggs with the shell on?"
"You're from Hjearta," Idyll said almost as if reminding her roommate of her birthplace. "You eat different things there, maybe even eggs with shells on. If my brother has visited there then perhaps he's started eating his eggs with shells on too."
Cter must've been starving.
Because she took that as fair enough of an explanation, and shrugged. "Without shells, please."
"Coming right up!" Idyll almost gave her spoon a twirl before remembering that there was stew on it. She stirred around to find an egg without shell, and scooped it up along with some of the surrounding soup into the bowl which she handed over with a wide and crooked smile. "Let me know how it tastes and if it needs anything else."
It took Cter only a sip before she found a little something that the soup needed.
Consistency.
Not in how viscous it was, but that the taste changed borderline-drastically from the stew first touching her lips to her actually tasting it. It wasn't pleasant. It was uneasy. As if it was rotten, but turned sweet instead of sour. Cter smacked her lips thinning into a distraught scowl. "Is this a Xoff dish?" she questioned with her tongue having withdrawn as far back in her mouth as possible. The shell-less egg loosening up in the soup didn't help much either. It scrambled itself. How it did without Cter burning her tongue was a mystery to her. Another mystery, that is. "What's it called?"
"Oh it's my own concoction," Idyll corrected playfully while scooping up some for herself. She chose some eggs with shells from her bubbling concoction. "It is what I boiled together for the castle yesterday."
Cter's eyes were drowning, and she cursed herself for wishing it upon herself. It really was stinging like the needles of a spruce. Was Xoff cooking this different from Hjearta cooking? Oh boy, it was gonna be interesting for Cter living with her monster roommate if this was on the menu. "It's certainly different from what I'm used to eating." It was as friendly as she could describe her woes.
"Hm?" Idyll asked with her bowl almost entirely inside her mouth. Cracked eggshells were scattered around and between her teeth, which she licked up with her tongue underneath her lips. She nodded behind her. "There's much more if you want. Should even be enough for leftovers. I can try baking it next time."
Cter's eyes wandered off towards the pile of cooking equipment in the same state of unruly as her clothes were in her luggage. One loud sneeze and it would all topple over. Must've been heavy for Idyll to have carried it all with her. There wasn't anything there that would allow for the stew to be baked though, which was concerning.
"You want some more?" Idyll eagerly offered as she filled her bowl again. "Oh, you haven't finished."
Cter really couldn't. There were too many question for her to enjoy her meal. Had it been her mom's cooking she'd been able to enjoy and process at the same time, but with the confusing taste it took to much of her to eat it without her mouth refusing to open. All she could was slowly stir with her spoon and move it to the side of the bowl to make it look like she had eaten more than she had. It was a short-term solution though. Eventually she either had to swallow her pride and ask or swallow her meal and…
"The fire," Cter asked after quickly swallowing her pride. "It's not magical." Without thinking she extended her left arm towards the crackling wood underneath the pot. "You don't know fire magic?"
"No, I don't."
The answer sounded weird to Cter, like a confession of sorts. The way Idyll pushed some of her combed hair away from her cheek and over where she'd have an ear if she was human brought both an endearing snicker seeing this monster act so very human and a thoughtful lowering of her brow at the same time. Her twin emotions existed simultaneously on her pale face made even whiter by the over-abundance of light in the rather-sparse kitchen. Still there was a clear and visible line where her smiling folds clashed with her furrowed ones, smoothing it out in a way that would be uncomfortable for a human, but Idyll didn't react to it.
Why didn't she react though? She'd lived her entire life in a human family, so why couldn't she pick up on Cter's human subtleties?
"So, yeah," Cter began as she placed her full bowl beside her on the kitchen table with similar wooden legs as her new bed. "How are we gonna do rent?" Her question had the entire room fall into a heavy darkness despite the long fingers of light stretching in from the windows. Idyll was visibly uncomfortable hearing the question. She almost flinched as it hit her. "I'm sorry that I'm so upfront with it, but-"
"It's fine," interrupted Idyll before pinching between her eyes. "I just..." She exhaled her troubles, but there was still a lot of it inside her even after her heaving sigh that raised her stumpy tail. "I just thought we could have some lunch before we jumped into real life."
Cter's eyes popped open. It was lunch already? How long did she sleep? And why wasn't she starving to the point where she'd eat even what Idyll served? All of these question raced to her head, fighting for dominance as they arrived in a jumbled mess all together. Cter clutched her head and reached over for a nearby jug to pour herself some water. It gave Idyll some pause for thought too.
Two refills later Cter breathed out through both her nose and mouth. "Guess I'm still a bit bitter from yesterday," she sorta apologized. Not really actually apologizing, but more making a case for why she was acting the way she was. "I'm still wondering how we're supposed to get rent. Are there any places here in Jarasevo for castle rejects?" Would have been lovely had there been any.
"There is bound to be places in need of cooks or waiters," answered Idyll with a bit of sadness to her voice. Cter soon understood why. "Even for monsters who's magic isn't even relevant to cooking." Idyll must've taken a blow to her own self-conscious from the day before. The change in her aura told as much.
Cter looked over to her bowl that she placed away from her without even tasting properly. She was not really making the situation better by not wanting to eat it, was she? It would be like if Idyll was to greet Cter with the letter Kry wrote. The thought had her fists tighten in both anger and sorrow. The wave of emotion she let lash out into her right arm so that it snapped towards the bowl. After some steadying breaths Cter took a first bite, chewed quickly, and swallowed even quicker. It didn't sit well with her. The egg, the faint taste of spruce sap, and a myriad of other spices rolled down her throat.
Luckily they stayed there.
But only barely.
"Not sure about any mage apprenticeships though here in Jarasevo," Idyll continued after bending her head down to her own bowl. Her spoon needed only travel a finger's length from the bowl before it reached her mouth. "Could be that there doesn't even exist any? The Monster Mages are enough human magic to go around for the entire city, some say even the entire country. They must be incredibly strong." Her eyes shot up, looking through her combed hair hanging over her eyes towards Cter. "Did they teach anything about them in Soul's School?"
Cter must've told Idyll about where she came from last night while the two were drinking. "Yeah, but more as an example and as an incentive to study. If we did it really good perhaps one of us would be the next Monster Mage!" Her faux cheering quickly faded as she reluctantly ate another bite. "But really, I only know of their names."
"Kry, Kurant, and Sund?" Idyll guessed. "In that order as they came to be Monster Mages? It's what I've heard."
"Correct."
"And you met Kry?" she added as carefully as she could.
It still hurt at Cter's soul though. Enough so that Idyll could feel it. "I don't want to talk about it," Cter answered with her brow casting a deep shadow over her eyes. "Not at all."
Idyll offered an understanding nod. In any other case Cter would've felt it as not genuine. A monster saying that she understood a human mage being rejected? That's not really something they could understand. With Idyll though having been rejected almost the same way with what she wanted to do though, it again had their auras mirroring the other's. They exchanged nods through their auras, and felt warmed by the other as if they were hugging.
"I'll not bring it up again," promised Idyll.
"Thank you."
The stew tasted better after that. Cter even asked for another bowl which had Idyll drag such a wide smile the room almost caught on fire with how much it reflected the sunlight. "Of course!" her ecstatic voice cheered, almost breaking into tears in the middle. "Eat! Eat, human! Eat as much as you want."
Two bowls were enough. It was an incredibly dense dish which actually put some hefty strain on Cter's wrist holding the full bowl. Despite having apparently slept for half a day Cter also felt tired from the dense food that was like a large stone in her stomach. She eventually sat down at the table on a chair with more straight legs to it. Monster-made table with human-made chairs? Certainly was an interesting choice at the time, even with the long history between the two races. Usually it was one or the other, mostly due to knee-clearance between the table and the chairs.
Idyll joined her roomhuman half a minute later after first calming the fire underneath her pot by spreading out the wood underneath. She made an angle between her chair and the table due to the knee-clearance not being enough for her to sit normally. Her tail fit snugly in the carved monster-soul-shaped hole at the bottom of the chair's backrest though. Cter guessed that it was the reason why the apartment had those types of chairs.
"I think I might know a place where you can ask for a job as a waitress or similar, actually," spoke Cter after finishing her second bowl. It halted Idyll mid-chew, and she stared with bated breath through her hair which almost parted on its own from the excited static forming inside the monster. Cter wasn't sure if she would wait for Idyll to swallow first or…
"Whadya meangh?"
Yes, definitely wait.
Idyll was too stuck in her waiting to swallow though, which made an awkward stalemate for the two. Cter realized that she'd made a bit of a mistake, but she continued regardless. "There is a tavern a...few...corners away from Time's Square that Queen Toriel worked at before."
The loud, startled swallow had the entire table shaking. "Queen Toriel?" Idyll exclaimed as she jumped closer with her chair, hit her knees on the lip of the table, apologized for making the table push into Cter's stomach, then jumped again, more carefully. "Queen Toriel?" she repeated more subdued.
While not even a horse and carriage could impart enough momentum to shift the boulder of food inside Cter's stomach, the table hitting her still made her queasy. Idyll handed her some water, which helped. "Yes, Queen Toriel," Cter confirmed after a quelled burp. "The owner of the tavern was a...friend...with my grandma. He was the one that suggested I travel to the castle after Kry spoke to me." With each word of her sentence Cter spoke slower and with less enthusiasm. She could feel Idyll wanting to apologize as she reached out for Cter's aura, but Cter shook her head. This was her doing, not Idyll's. "Maybe if you mention that you know me he'll be more inclined to offer you a job? Tell him it's about Romrom's promise if he hesitates."
"Romrom's promise?" Idyll was understandably a bit confused about that. A bit hesitant too. "Your grandma?" Cter nodded as an answer. "I see. Would..." She gritted her teeth for a split second. "Would I be lying if I said that?"
Cter didn't actually know if Idyll would be lying. It wasn't completely in accordance with the promise, but it was a way for Cter to continue working towards it.
So no?
Maybe not no, but it wasn't yes.
"No, it wouldn't be a lie," Cter assured to her roommonster. Was that even a big deal though? Well, Cter wasn't really someone with an unbiased view of lying considering what she did on her final exam. Still, if it meant being able to get a job and afford rent?
"Great!" Idyll bounced out of her chair with her entire length looming over Cter. She hadn't really thought about the difference in size between Idyll and her, but with Idyll blocking almost all of the sun from standing up across the table from Cter it put itself on full display. The only light was from her wide smile, and that Cter had to squint against. "Then I'm off to ask!"
Wait…
Off?
Just like that?
"Your set of keys are in the pot on the shelf next to the door, human!"
That was good. "Thanks!" But-
"I've written down the address too so that you don't get lost like yesterday!"
That was good too. "Thanks!" But-
"We'll figure out something for you later tonight!"
Also good. "Thanks!" But-
A gust of air hit Cter in the face, drowning out the slam of the door that Idyll closed behind her. A handful of brown hair rolled down over her eyes which she blew away only to have it tickle her cheek as it landed back down again.
Alright…
Cter was in Jarasevo with a monster roommate, and that roommate has just rushed out the door leaving her alone in an apartment which she has no idea where it is or what's close to it.
So what now?
She inhaled through a sharp sniff of her nose.
First she should probably put out the fire. That was a good start to make sure that the apartment doesn't burn down in the soon future.
But then? What about afterwards?
She sighed, sending flickering embers into deeper into the fireplace as she widened the charred wood enough so that they could simmer down on their own.
What about afterwards?
She looked out the window.
Outside there was a lot of monster life going on. Many different forms and colors moved like a very strange river she'd never want to take a dip in. No sign of Idyll or where she went off towards. There was only stranger monsters walking upon stranger roads inside a stranger city.
Although Cter was the one stranger there, wasn't she?
A human among monsters, looking through a window into their world from hers. She didn't know anything about this place.
And that was too strong a word.
Cter's fists clenched again as the lines of text scrolled inside her mind. Those four lines written by Kry, the Monster Mage.
She'd show him.
She'd make know become too weak a word instead!
Like hell would Cter be just sitting around until the evening inside this apartment!
A couple of minutes later Cter grabbed the handle with the glove of her sleeve covering only her palm. It turned cold in her hand, and as she closed the door behind her and locked the door she caught the faintest glimpse of a flake of ice falling off and disappearing.
"You and me, Romrom," she spoke to her sleeve.
"For our promise."