The sharp, almost suave, instilled confidence that the Monster King did lend Cter with his encouraging words and theatrics for the Monster Mages began to drain from her lips thinned into a smile that at first radiated said instilled confidence, but then faded with each step the Monster King took as he walked away from the bench he'd shared with the escapee. While his front gave Cter confidence in spades, his back shoveled it away from her as he excused his broad shoulders still broad enough to force him to verbalize his excuses even as he was turned on his side.
"My apologies, Kry," the Monster King piqued sheepishly as a golden tassel on his ornate belt brushed against the frame of the kneeling Monster Mage's glasses, pushing it down his nose until it hung on the robust edge very close to falling. It took the Monster King a few more careful and awkward steps up on his toes to make it through the path laid for him by his three Monster Mages kneeling down in respect. The path they created in their collective hurry was just enough for Asgore to make it through, but not wide enough for him to make it through without bumping into all three of them, even if it was just slightly.
While the sight of the three most powerful mages in the world kneeling with their purple robes absorbing the spilled tea was a strange one to Cter, it wasn't strange enough for her to not feel the effect of her draining confidence in each of her face's muscles. Her cheeks which had begun to warm up had become cold, and her teeth began to silently clatter due to it.
Why was he leaving?!
Cter thought the Monster King would stay and be a mediator of sorts! She didn't know exactly how he'd mediate, but leaving her alone, just like that? The three mages were surely fuming inside their subdued auras. As soon as King Asgore closed that balcony door behind him and the sound of the kneeling Royal Guards down the hall would fade away into less of a metallic clatter than Cter's teaspoon was drumming due to her increasing realization that she would be alone with the Monster Mages, they would evaporate the tea their robes had soaked up into angry steam.
"K-King A-Asgore!" Cter shouted towards the Monster King's cape lifting with his last step into the balcony door he had opened. It settled without a single wrinkle to it while he turned his head around to address the forest-green-clad human leaning over the armrest of the bench on both of her tensed arms. Moving in such a way that it didn't make a rustle on his cape, the Monster King put a finger up on his bearded lips. He indicated towards the three Monster Mages with his eyes.
"Your. Own. Terms," he mouthed, with heavy emphasis and an accompanying nod on the first word. It was enough for Cter to understand what he meant. Tell a lie, mostly to herself, she knew it when he said it the first time, yet she still wished for him to be present. She didn't have any monster presence left in her soul yet again having spent the last on applying stasis magic to her teacup and then shutting it off amid an emotional spike. Without a sufficient-enough sleeve her human soul swallowed it whole, so to speak.
And she had gotten tummy aches because of it…
Just perfect...
She nodded to the King, and he nodded back with an encouraging smile.
It helped.
"Any decision made here I want to be informed of immediately afterwards. You'll find me in Gerson's office. Do send for Frioke too before joining us, if you'd please."
"Frioke is already present in Sir Gerson's office, my King," answered Kurant with her head still faced down. "She was studying the sleeve she made for the human Cter and what effect the separation might've had."
The human Cter? Not a prisoner, but only human? Maybe Kurant didn't want to besmirch the Monster King by suggesting that he was talking to a prisoner?
"Oh," Asgore perked close to a whistle. "So the separation was a success then?" He made sure to speak his question a bit louder, and to roll his neck over his shoulder towards Cter. "Idyll is healthy and well?"
The three Monster Mages too glanced over to Cter, albeit in a less-friendly manner, before their eyes met in a consulting matter to weigh their options. Asgore was giving Cter more advantage, but they obviously didn't know why exactly. "That is true, King Asgore," answered Sund for the mages. His nose wrinkled having to say it. "The other presence inside Idyll Fech has been removed, yet she is still unconscious, most likely recuperating. Quee–"
"And was it the mage Cter that managed to remove the other presence?" Asgore interrupted, to Cter's uncertainty that time. Sund was about to say something regarding the Monster Queen, that much was obvious, but what exactly?
A reluctant sigh heaved Kry's sunken shoulders before it was his turn to speak. "Yes, it was the human...mage Cter that headed the removal of the second presence inside Idyll Fech's soul."
"Fech..." Asgore let ruminate in his large, floppy ears which swayed heavily along the thinking nods of his head. "That name I'm sure I've heard of before. Pray, would you remind me?"
"Sarbor Fech is the–"
A polite cough from King Asgore had Kurant lifting her head up to see her Monster King look over her and her colleagues towards the human that stood up next to the black iron bench. Sund and Kry's neck followed shortly after, turning with expressions hard to distinguish between anger and held-back anger. "Does Idyll Fech have family, human?" Asgore clarified his question with a gentle sweep of his opened hand which he had held out for Cter only a minute or so before. "You and her were roomhuman and roommonster, after all. She must've told you something about her family, correct?"
The Monster King's intentions were friendly and aimed to help Cter find more ground to stand on against the Monster Mages once he inevitably ran out of excuses to stay and continue talking to her. His soft tone of voice, and the incredible depth to it, was like a reassuring hand on Cter's shoulder. On her other though, the weight of the memories Idyll had given Cter about her family were pushing her down. The deaths of her human parents, and the subsequent departure of her brother.
"She..." Cter balled her fists and lowered her head to obscure her watering eyes behind the dark shadow of her fringe. "She has a brother," Cter informed with harsh effort taking a toll on her throat that she held tense so that a sob wouldn't sneak out of it. "Sarbor Fech. A human under the tutelage of Bonny Sallus."
"That explains it!" cheered Asgore to try and divert attention away from the sensitive nerve he'd accidentally touched with a bit too much enthusiasm on his part. "It's the human with the large mustache at Clinic Hill!" He chuckled while running a pair of fingers over his own, with each gold-yellow strand bending like a magnificent tree being forced to bow underneath a hurricane of apocalyptic proportions. "I remember giving him some advice on maintaining it after he awkwardly thanked me after I complimented it the first time I saw it. Sarbor Fech…" The Monster King put his hand behind his back in a right angle after he'd finished caressing his mustache and tilted his head down to address his Monster Mages. "Would you kindly give an update on it the next time any of you go visit Bonny Sallus' clinic? It would be you, Kurant, yes?"
"Most likely due to my leg, sire."
Asgore's eyes shot over to Kry for a split second. "You're not experiencing any complications with it?"
"I haven't for several months, sire."
"Glad to hear it, Kurant. You'll make a note of Sarbor Fech's mustache for me then, please?"
A very, very long second passed before Kurant answered.
"Yes, yes I will."
"I'll arrange for a bottle of scented oil to be sent along with you then for him once that time comes then," Asgore again cheered happily after a very, very short second passed by. "Finding more common ground for us monster and humans to share always brings a smile to my face. Who knows, perhaps facial hair will be the next step in furthering the Cooperative Connection for human magic?"
None of the mages laughed with the King's self-amused guffaw, and neither did Cter. Not that any of them would've been heard even if they did laugh with him. A tear born from what struck the Monster King as fantastically hilarious carved deeply in his cheek's fur before it slid onto a gold-yellow strand and was thrown off by the quaking laughter.
Whether it lowered the tension building between the Monster Mages and the monster mage or heightened it was left to be seen, as all four patiently waited for the King to simmer down enough so that the glass door he held open with his shoulder didn't risk shattering.
"Well then," said the King with a gentle cough, "I'll leave you all to it." He met each of the pair of eyes that looked at him in turn, saving Cter's for last. He nodded one final time towards her, and then entered through the door, closing it behind him.
The following silence was tense, with even the wind deciding to move around the four left alone on the balcony. Cter stood with her hand gripping the armrest to the point of feeling it cramp up. It dug into her flesh, yet she didn't make an effort to ease up. She let the pain build up inside her, forming the restless energy into a hammer that knocked up the words stuck in her throat. "Take me to Idyll!" she demanded while immediately afterwards sucking back her lips, almost swallowing them. "King Asgore promised me I'd be allowed to see her." The followup was weaker than the initial demand. "T-Take me t-to her."
Buckets held upside down drained slower than her confidence did…
The three Monster Mages shared a collective glance and subsequent nod before Kry stood up from his kneel. After quickly inspecting the cold tea on his robe he swept over the stained fabric with his sleeved hand. A wide trail of fire followed it, leaving behind it a translucent cloud of scented vapor as well as a faded stain that colored the purple a wooden brown. "You've done magic in the presence of the Monster King, human. What did you do? Be exact."
Cter squeezed her hand harder onto the armrest so that she could lift up her free one and point down the hallway through the window. "I can answer that while we walk." She had to keep squeezing to keep her arm upraised. "T-Take me to my friend."
A heavy sigh flowed between Kry's loose lips. "Listen, human," he began as he took off his glasses and massaged his eyes, "you've escaped from custody even though we gave you accommodation fit for human delegates." Once he lifted his fingers from his eyes Cter saw heavy bags underneath them. "While what you've done is something of great interest to us, perhaps even great importance, we can't just let the night's event just slide away without giving it thought. This is not something that should be solved quickly. It'll reflect poorly, both from inside, and outside the castle."
"We're telling you this," added Sund after steaming his own robe as well. "We wouldn't if we were seriously considering a position for you here at the castle." He silenced his colleagues protests with a look. "She's already figured it out by now, even if she doesn't know it yet. Better to tell her so that we're all on the same page."
The restless energy calmed itself inside of Cter as her hand loosened from the armrest. Deep, red lines ran across both her palm and her fingers. "At the castle..." slipped from her tongue out of her own control.
"You might be the Fourth Monster Mage," continued Kurant with a tone that was still undecided when she began, but gradually became more decided as she locked eyes with Sund. He then broke contact and moved his attention over to Kry. "Not in the state you are in now though. You'll have to be schooled further here at the castle should we find your particular magic a worthwhile investment."
"Should, that is," said Kry while breaking off from Sund's look himself. "And that should is why we need you to answer our questions, human. We're asking for your sake." The lie was poorly hidden, yet there was something about it that was stemmed from truth. Be it the way Kry fiddled with his glasses when he said it, or be it that Sund didn't look back over his shoulder to contradict. In either case, Cter felt a slight semblance of guilt inside her.
She sat back down on the iron bench with her shoulders limp and her arms even limper on her knees. Her gaze sought a middle distance that didn't exist, and through habit she lifted up her left arm to try and comfort herself with her grandmother's presence. All she found, however, was intricate Xoff tailoring bringing to life a shimmer of forest-green. There was a sense of human around it that both comforted and reminded her of the emptiness inside her soul.
Just a bit longer…
Just a bit longer until Cter could give in to the inevitable. She had to do it with her friend though. It would be the only way for Idyll to wake up. It was how Cter had done it last night. Without the connection between their souls though Cter would need even more to get through to Idyll's soul. They'd been closer than any human and monster had ever been before, and after that they were as distant as any human and monster could be.
Pushing ice over ice was easy, but pushing ice over gravel was anything but easy, so Cter would have to push harder.
"I...The Monster King asked me to do show him some magic," Cter began explaining. She didn't have it in her to speak loudly so that the Monster Mages could hear clearly, so they walked up to her and positioned themselves around her. Neither of them sat down next to her, which she appreciated if it was a conscious choice on their part. "I moved my tea cup he had given me with stasis magic."
"Where did you get the magic from?" pried Kurant. "Did he..."
Before the worry could take root among the Monster Mages, Cter shook her head. "No, it wasn't King Asgore. I met a Royal Guard which gave it to me. A rudimentary Cooperative Connection. Please don't ask me who it was. I don't want him to get in any trouble. I...tricked him, to begin with. From that though we built a small connection which I used to make a small Cooperative Connection. His magic ran out while I was moving the cup, and..." Cter lifted her hand towards the shattered tea cup and its partly cleaned puddle of tea.
The three Monster Mages all looked at the stains on their robes in unison. Cter held back her amused snicker in case they'd take it the wrong way. It was only the simultaneous tilt she snickered at, not that their robes were stained. She didn't plan for them to kneel for their king in the lemon-squeezed puddle.
She still apologized for it. "Sorry about your robes." Just felt like the right thing to do, all things considered.
"What about yours?" wondered Sund with a motion over Cter's body. "Did you get it from your room?"
Her room? That was a bit...strange to say. "Yes." There was something Cter wanted to know in return, so before any of the Monster Mages could formulate their next question she intercepted with one of her own. "When I woke up in there I had different..." She looked to both Kry and Sund with narrowed eyes, hoping they would catch the hint.
They didn't.
Kurant did, however, and she gestured for her colleagues to step aside and cover their ears. The two looked quite perplexed over the borderline-rude dismissal. "She's a human," Kurant stated. "She." The smack of Kurant's tongue after her repeat managed to drive the point through the granite skulls, and Kyr and Sund walked their separate ways with their hands pushed against their ears. Kurant then turned her head towards Cter so that she could continue.
"I had different undergarments," Cter explained. "I want to know when and who changed them. It wasn't any of you, was it?"
"Any of us Monster Mages? No. It wasn't a human either. Most likely the ghost which was tasked with providing your room."
Cter wasn't sure how to feel about that answer. While normally it would've been quite high on the priority list, with the situation unfolding around her she felt like that answer was the best she could've hoped for. That it wasn't a human was enough, really. A ghost to boot too. However… "Was it a she ghost?"
"Yes."
Cter nodded. Idyll hadn't really cared about Cter's human form, in a good way, and she was raised among humans. A ghost monster that worked in Jarasevo Castle would've been less interested. "Did the ghost do it for accommodation's sake?" she shoot over to Kurant half-accusingly, half-curiously.
"Yes," the Monster Mage answered again. "The last I saw of you were you sleeping in the provided bed, duvet over you. You were in the clothes you had when we brought you to help Idyll when the guards laid you down, and still when the duvet was placed over you. Fang Shuey, the ghost in charge of your accommodations, most likely changed them so that you wouldn't wake up in your own sweat. I would guess with stasis magic so that you were still covered by the duvet."
There were a calm and a distance in the Monster Mage's voice that made her come across as a monster explaining it rather than a human. She was aware of Cter's humanity enough that she understood to send Kry and Sund away though. That she was so distance with explaining it meant that she didn't see any major grievances with Cter's change of undergarments.
Cter knew that the Monster Mages had abandoned their humanity to be more monster, but the extent of it she finally began understand. A strange way for it to sink in, so Cter leaned back with her hand caressing her forehead.
She'd been nude around monsters plenty before, and Romrom had helped her dress herself many times over back in Hjearta, so it wasn't as much what had happened as who had done it. That a monster did it was fine, as fine as it could be changing someone's undergarments without asking first, even if it was with good intentions and a much-more soft and expensive fabric, as long as it wasn't a human.
Cter wasn't really one to say anything about overreaching intimacy, what with her being a human mage who prods intimate memories from monsters on a daily basis for work reasons. A monster's soul, emotions, and memories, being as sacred to them as the sanctity of a human's body.
She just wished that the ghost monster Fang Shuey had put them the right way on.
With that cleared up in her mind as well as could be, Cter decided to show that she was the one wearing the pants among the present company, even if they were on the wrong way. With only one Monster Mage paying attention to her it was the best shot she would get. Convincing one would be much easier than convincing three. "Are there any reasons that I can't go see my friend? Is it absolutely necessary for you to question me at this point and not later? These questions are to decide whether or not I become a Monster Mage, so isn't it better to do it when we're all rested up and are all at a clear state of mind and soul?"
Kurant expression flinched only to soften into respectfully considering the proposal. Cter opened her mouth to speak further, but Kurant raised a finger against it. "Anything more and you'll lay it on too much."
Cter was grateful for that.
She knew she spoke the truth. If the Monster Mages were seriously considering her becoming the fourth one it was in their best interest to conduct an interview when not only Cter was rested, but they too were as well. With those heavy, dark bags underneath their eyes it was obvious that they needed to catch up on sleep for a week before they were rested up, so any decisions made with them dead tired would be moot at best.
"How fast can you run?" Kurant asked, indicating at the brace on her knee. "Could you make it down the hall to the right, down one floor, then the second left, and finally the third door to the right, before my colleagues or the guards inside realize anything?
Down the hall to the right, down one floor, then the second left, and then the third door to the right?
And fast?
Yes, that Cter could.
So she nodded.
"Just be careful with the door to the room with your friend, human. Don't scare her."
Never.
"Thank you."
Cter wouldn't dare to.
The forest-green robe was surprisingly easy to run in, and Cter managed halfway down the hallway before the balcony door closed shut. The Royal Guards stationed looked at her confusingly, which gave her enough time to enter the nearest staircase without them understanding the situation enough to leave their posts. Taking two steps at a time, Cter held her hand against the inner wall for balance, with her hand suffering some harsh scrapes against the rough stone.
The guards on the lower floor too followed her with their stunned, baffled, and unblinking eyes. "Excuse me," she informed a porcupine guard who turned around so that she could slip past without impaling herself. "Thanks."
Second left. No guards.
Cter slowed down to a casual jog to catch her breath before the third door to the right.
It was a normal door like the second, first, or even the seventh door to the right. Behind it was Idyll though, behind it was her friend.
If the Monster Mage Kurant spoke the truth.
If…
Cter's hand was heavy on the handle in the shape of a large metallic ring. Her breath broke upon the wood on the door.
Behind it was Idyll. Behind it was her friend.
She swallowed hard.
And opened.
"Close the door gently, please, human."
It shut itself as Cter dropped the handle after a sharp gasp.
"Your friend has been waiting for you."
Her too?
"She's been sleeping soundly, I promise you that."
A warm, gentle smile split lips of glistening snow-white.
"It's time for you to wake her up now, though."
Said Queen Toriel.