Did Cter faint? She was lying down, that as much she could gather. Not on that prison bed either. It was...soft. What she was lying on was soft. So very soft. The softest she's ever felt.

With her head spinning to the point that it almost threw her off the side of the soft bed she'd been placed in, Cter sat up with both of her hands on her head to prevent it from unscrewing. She was nauseous, and the cold void inside her had returned. As the silken duvet dropped off her she gasped seeing what she was wearing.

Not her own clothes, or the robe she was given by Kurant. I wasn't even her own nightgown! It was undergarments! And not her own! Cter threw herself backwards, slamming the back of her head into the hard wooden panel of the soft bed. Immediately she stopped any and all movement as her mind put the pain in priority.

It was a blessing though, as it helped her remember that even though the undergarments she was wearing weren't hers she had been given them after she'd bathed to be presentable for Idyll. Then she had been led to that obscure room which the Third Monster Mage had covered in his barricade magic so that Cter could help save Idyll.

Yes, yes, it was slowly coming back to her. All of it. The bedroom she was in was almost as bright as the barricade-covered room she had helped Idyll in. It hurt her eyes and head, and she could only barely keep her eyes open looking around to try and orient herself in it.

Opulent, that was the only way she could describe it.

The wooden frame of her bed was surely grown in the Royal Garden. It hadn't been sanded, yet still it was as smooth and splinter-free as anything she'd ever laid her exploring fingers upon. Same with the duvet that both stuck to her form and seemed to hover just above her skin. Could it have been spider silk? Maybe? In any case it breathed like it was alive, almost whistling when it settled flat after Cter threw it off her and onto the bed's frame. A quick glance at the door was all it took for her to feel secure enough to stand up in just her…not even her, undergarments, and walk over to the strangely shaped wardrobe rounded at its gradient-salmon edges standing on spindly feet painted gold.

Or...maybe it was gold?

Cter tapped a naked toe against one.

Yes...yes it was gold.

"Still at the castle then," she concluded with her voice harsh and gravely. Her face contorted painfully as her swallow felt like pushing a pumpkin through a needle's eye. Had she not felt that immense cold inside her she'd probably figured out a more magical way for her analogy, but with it being as scarily quiet as when she was in the prison cell she couldn't really put the effort and thought into it.

Waking up inside an expensively decorated room in a soft bed among a faint, agreeable odor of fresh fruit did probably help with that compared to a hard bed inside a prison cell stinking of mildew. Even if the nicely decorated room which Cter found herself in made her suspicious to the point that she hesitated to grab the thoughtfully provided jug of water for fear that it would have been...something else.

She'd not forgotten the words Kry had poured over her. The accuses worthy of a trial, but with no trial provided to her. Was it really enough for Cter to right what she did wrong to be treated to such luxury? There had to be something else to it. Some other caveat added on top of what it was she had done.

But what exactly?

With a filled cup of water, Cter sat herself down on the bed again. It formed nicely around her seat and legs, stopping short of beginning to massage them. Had the bed done that she'd probably done...something. Everything except continue sitting on it. Screamed, kicked, thrown her cup in fear, screamed some more.

The cold and refreshing water helped her head clear up from those thoughts. It first removed the lingering air of blood inside her throat as she carefully drank to not have it hurt. Once that was cleansed the water could help with her pounding head, both from lack of water and the impact on the back of her head.

Finally she breathed out, content for the moment. She filled up her cup one more time just in case and then used the rest of the water to fill up the metal bowl the jug sat in. After wetting the provided towel and wringing it out Cter let it rest heavy on her face to have her fall back into her bed with arms outstretched as wide as she could.

Her heavy sigh through it sent warmed drops that landed on her bare stomach. If she had her sleeve she would have warmed the water up first before wetting the towel, but she wasn't really in a position to make demands, she felt.

She was in a comfortable position in a room that wasn't a prison cell, in fact it was the most expensive room she'd ever been in, but it wasn't a negotiable one. That she could tell from there being no letter on the bedside table with the jug of water and its accompanies, no put-forth clothing, be it her own or some for her to borrow, or no handle on the door for her to open it and exit what was essentially just another prison cell with more comfort to it.

Even less than the stone-walled one she was in before since she couldn't see out of this new one. There were no windows, nor were there a way for her to peek out of her room. In her previous cell she could look out the iron bars and make some sense of how it was outside, but with the bright-painted walls adorned with expensive patterns all she could see were confusing shapes before she put the towel over her face to focus inwards.

What did she know for sure? What could she feel for certain?

Was Idyll alive?

Cter breathed slowly as she let the question reverberate and echo throughout her as long as it was able to. Through her hands which held onto her friend's, through her legs which stood close to where Idyll laid, to her nose that inhaled the faint blood and dust smell from Idyll's ruined clothes, to her mind which was finally settling down enough to begin processing and putting things in order both in regards to time and emotion.

And finally her soul, hollow and cold as it was without the magical closeness she'd gotten used to with her sleeve. As the question bounced from the corners of her physical being they converged into her soul where the hollow feeling made it feel more distant to her. She was more unaware of it, taking more focus from her than usual.

Which was why she put the towel over her face.

Its weight gave her the impression of being just underneath the calm surface of a lake. She'd always appreciated the sensation of being between two planes, of air and water in the lake, and of magic and physical with being a human mage. There wasn't a lake near enough for Cter to use frequently enough for her studies at Soul's School, so wetting a towel and placing it over her face was the next best thing she could do.

Well, there was one lake easily visible from the campus, but it was a bit too public for her to be able to float just below the surface of the lake without anyone misinterpreting the situation.

While it didn't allow her to wiggle her finger and toes to have them emerge and submerge from the water, or feel her hair be weightless, yet still gently pull at her head from the small waves bobbing above her hovering body held as if surrounded by stasis magic, yet purely physical instead of magical, the towel with the added weight of the water to it pushed down harder on her face, making her vision dark as if she was deeper inside the lake.

She breathed out.

Underneath the weight of the wet towel she could pick up even the slightest perturbation from her soul. The faintest of answer that could either make her feel like she was drowning, or have her float up to breathe in without any worry.

With bathed breath she listened to the hollow inside of her soul.

It moved her head.

A nod.

Yes, Idyll was alive. Cter had succeeded. Her friend was alive again!

But where?

Not in her room, the brightness of which Cter had to squint at when she removed the towel from her moistened face. The duvet worked surprisingly well as another towel, although its breathing fabric did lend it a strange sorta tickle as it ran over Cter's lips. She fully expected to pull away some string from her lips afterwards, but there were none for her to grip. With a shrug she sat back up again and slapped her cheeks to get some blood into them.

"Alright," she said to herself. "Idyll is alive."

It was important that she heard it be said.

"Idyll is alive."

Twice didn't hurt.

"Idyll. Is. Alive."

At third time it finally got through to her.

And she laughed with relief.

Alright, good. That was sorted out. The first check of the agenda's list long enough to repel down from the tallest castle tower that she might be locked in. Like those fairy tales it was always either in a tower or in a prison cell. Since Cter aws already been in a prison cell that left a tower as the single alternative.

Or something along those lines.

It wasn't really important exactly where Cter was, to be honest. She just had to imagine that there was something outside that locked door on the far end of the room. Somewhere she could escape into, and then try and find Idyll.

She had to escape, right?

Why else would they have removed the handle to the door? If not to prevent her from escaping? No, with everything the Monster Mages had said previously about what Cter and Idyll did being a new step in the magical understanding of the human soul they were not gonna let her and Idyll just walk away just like that.

And Cter wasn't gonna let Idyll be a carrot dangled in front of her by the Monster Mages to motivate her. She was gonna see her friend alive and well. She was gonna hug her and realize that everything was fine.

Cter stood up with a determined huff and her fists balled at her sides. The silver-lined mirror next to the wardrobe reminded her that she had something to do before she stormed out and potentially alerted the entire castle. She was just in a pair of possibly hers undergarments. That wouldn't really have helped her with melting in with the monsters, would it?

"Nope."

So with rigid and stern steps she marched over to the wardrobe and swung it open via its golden knobs on its doors.

"Wow..."

Cter closed the doors to meet her surprised expression in the full-body mirror. She blinked at her own reflection, sighing towards it which made a small, irregular circle of fog that obscured her eyebrows raised in bafflement. As she blinked, her vision was largely dotted by purple from the splendor that had assaulted her eyes.

And she thought that the room she was in was the definition of opulence…

With her eyes opened just narrowly Cter again peeked inside the wardrobe slowly as to not be half-blinded yet again. It took a long while for her eyes to adjust to the glittering inside, and even longer for her jaw to retreat back up from the ground. The variety of styles and fabrics on hidden display was staggering, causing Cter to become light-headed and step back.

The embroidery across the different robes and dresses were even more intricate than the lines on the Monster Mages' sleeves. Cter hesitated to reach for a dark-green robe which struck her the most fancy, and the most fanciest. Too fancy, even. Too fancy for her to even imagine it touching her skin. It looked human-made, but not of something from Hjearta like some of the other ones that hung with splendor and expensive pride. Was it from Xoff then, perhaps?

Cter knew that there was a sort of hidden and secretive rivalry with the two human countries to put in more favors with the monsters since it was the monsters that held the important half of human magic. The human countries couldn't do any human magic without monsters willingly living inside their borders, and willingly giving out some of their souls to the humans to become mages from that.

While Hjearta had Soul's School which was the only one of its kind when it came to magical education for humans, Xoff had Mt. Ebott and Mt. Ymmet which both were believed to hold magical importance, giving the country more magically inclined humans compared to Hjearta.

Xoff also Bonny Sallus' Academy of Medicine and Tinctures which was a parallel to Soul's School to a degree. Human magic versus human science. Both headed by famous monsters from Monster Country, both privileged, and being a privilege, to and for their respective human countries. If one of the countries could impress the Monster Royals and their court enough to be given a second monster of equal sky-high credibility then it was worth showering Jarasevo castle with enough master-tailored, human-made attires so that even prisoners were invited to dress themselves in those expensive fabrics.

There was nothing hidden and secretive about the clothes Cter had displayed in front of her though. If anything the wardrobe was screaming to her to try all the pieces out and to revel in the gift she'd been given. Tempting, it was. So incredibly tempting.

"It did help when I washed myself before seeing Idyll," she said to try and convince herself that it was fine for her to indulge a bit. She felt that Idyll was alive, right? That her friend was safe and healthy? Somewhere in the castle…

Perhaps...perhaps if Cter makes sure to pick an outfit for Idyll to wear too then it was justified?

The fabric Cter held didn't even wrinkle when she anxiously wringed her hands to fight against her sneaking consciousness.

It was justified, right?

In stark contrast, the gold-enriched threading chaffed against her fingers, reminding her of the luxury she squeezed like a child with their favorite toy.

It had to be justified!

Because otherwise Cter would've been trying on robes and dresses while her friend was in potential agony and fear. Idyll wouldn't even know where she was! Perhaps even who she was as she woke up! If Cter wasn't there as soon as she could, and instead was greedily savoring the way the colors draped over her fair skin and brought out the color of her hair against the shimmering of the threading that caressed her form as if massaging and–

"Aaaaargh!"

The wardrobe doors slammed shut, but opened just as wide as they'd been when Cter threw her arms and full frustration against the salmon-painted wood. It had the human sigh heavily and glance down at the dark-green robe in her hand which she only noticed to be more forest-green from the angle she held it in due to the way the gold and silver patterns both cast different shadows and reflected different angles of the magical cast-iron chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

Well, she had to wear something, right?

Might as well be the robe she had in her hands already, right?

She was right, right?

Right?

She felt the fabric dancing beautifully over her form, and as her head emerged from the neck-hole Cter couldn't prevent her cheeks from blushing as she saw herself in the mirror. How absolutely stunning the green looked on her. How her fair skin emerged like poffs of snow in a deep and ancient forest. How she looked as human as a human could be. An example of humanity met Cter in the full-body mirror. Standing with cheeks flush with blood, partly hided by her long hair combed into half-a-braid down her neck and laid over her shoulder. Hands, feet, on her two arms and two legs respectively, peeking curiously out from the expertly tailored fabric that was like another layer of colorful skin on top of her own.

As human as a human could ever be…

"Dammit."

Wouldn't really do a lot of good if she was trying to hide the fact that she was a human! Her kicking the handle-less door open and shouting that she was the human and that she was escaping, come restrain her, would've been more subtle than her waltzing about the castle in that forest-green robe.

It didn't chafe angrily at her armpits or shoulders as she lifted her arms to move the remaining clothing over to find something that would hide her humanity rather than make a show of it. It was another plus for the green robe to almost being fitted for her exactly. Perhaps it was magical in nature due to it fitting her like a glove minus it not having any gloves to it? Or at least none that she could find.

Could actually have been that it was tailored by a human mage. Cter wouldn't put past either the court of Xoff or the court of Hjearta to either teach their tailors human magic or teach their human mages tailoring. She didn't know which choice would've been the more difficult one, although from her taken-away pride of being a human mage still faintly lingering inside her she had go with the first option.

Should the forest-green robe be magical that would have been a boon for her trying to escape. A slight, magical aura would be better than none, so it still did her good wearing it for her plan.

On top of not going around in just her undergarments, that is.

Still, she had to find another attire to wear above it so that she could at least obscure her humanity at a glance. Maybe even a double-take if she was lucky, but she would have to weave quickly around a lot of corners to be sure none got a long look at her.

Monster-lot of corners, as opposed to human-lot of corners.

When she got to the end of the row of strikingly gorgeous outfits, a large flap of purple cloth folded down with a surprising flop. It was a dark-blue robe with a hood big enough for her to curl up inside of.

Perfect.

It weighed quite a lot compared to the green robe she was wearing, and looked more like a tent than anything else. She had to roll it up like a carpet before she could insert herself into it and not risk getting lost and drowning, trapped in an endless darkness without any means of escape. The hood on its own was enough to have her lose balance backwards and stumble onto the bed which creaked under the added weight.

Once she looked to the mirror though she had to really squint to find the outlines of her body. Since her shoulders were too narrow it could just as well be a soft-bodied monster inside the robe with how collapsed the robe looked. Her neck tensed to not submit to the heavy burned of the hood that completely hid her face inside its swallowing yawn. Cter grunted as she stood up, but she could still walk. She had to be careful with each step so that her feet didn't tangle up in the curtain-long cloth that dragged along the floor like a snail's trail.

Only thing that was missing was a magically conjured light or some other form of persistent magic that she could use to cover up her aura and none would be the wiser, but alas, she was only human.

The only human in Jarasevo Castle.

And she had to find one monster among the hundreds, if not thousands, of monsters that probably were inside it the same time as she was.

And then there was the door.

As Cter neared it she couldn't really discern any other way it could be opened except the one way that had been removed from it. It looked heavy too, so even if she leaned on it it wouldn't…

"Oh?" slipped off her tongue as the door began to swing open without barely a touch from her hand covered with the purple cloth cascading like a disappointed elephant monster's trunk down from her fingers. It was a good sign that the memory was vivid to her. Firstly because she still owed that disappointed trunk a drink after she accidentally spoke a bit too much for him to his mother after having helped the elephant monster some weeks before with amplifying the precision of his cutting magic to polish a commissioned porcelain sculpture.

It meant that Cter still knew and could feel her magic, she only needed a sleeve again to project it. Perhaps if she managed to convince the first monster she saw to make a rudimentary one she could just hide her aura for the time being while she was sneaking around? It would be risky though, as she would have to explain exactly what she intended to do with the magic so that the Cooperative-Connection would work.

From within her overly large hood Cter peeked outside the handle-less door.

"What?"

Right into the elbow of the stationed Royal Guard on duty.