Getting up on the castle roof was much simpler, not to mention much easier to boot, than what Cter had thought. For some strange reason it was as if the path there through the many straight hallways and winding staircases were leading rather than having to be found out through hushed whispers among some of the more renegade Royal Guards.

As Cter sat herself down with her heels hooked underneath the ceramic slates to take brace on the top of the slate underneath she quirked an eyebrow at the small wooden table jutted out from a few of the slates. On it was not only carved-out holes to snugly fit not only bottles of wine, but accompanying glasses, mugs, or chalices as well. Inscribed next to the respective holes were magical writing of which hole fitted which bowled container.

The stains around the holes and among the nearest slates around the table weren't only of wine, but of other types of drinks as well. It had not rain that long ago, so either the roof had been very busy in the span of a week or so for the rain to not have washed the stains away, or the roof was a common-enough meeting spot for the inhabitants of Jarasevo Castle that the stains of various alcoholic beverages were as ingrained in the ceramic slates as magic was throughout the castle.

There even was a net set up at the bottom of the roof strong enough to catch wayward bottles and people slipping down.

There had been stories around about how Queen Toriel and King Asgore did sit on rooftops as they fell in love, and of all the things Cter had heard about those two, that was actually what made her shake her head and declare it to just be hearsay. That King Asgore couldn't navigate or understand street signs as he was too sheltered in the castle during his upbringing, that at least had some logic to it, but that the same sheltered Prince would then either suggest or go along with trespassing property?

Only so far one can stretch a lie before it becomes silly.

And if the logic was for the two to enjoy the beautifully and magical sunset from a better view then why didn't Prince Asgore just invite Commoner Toriel up to the castle? The King could convince a desert to freeze over, surely he'd been able to invite up the one he truly loves?

The rumor spreaders just didn't think it through…

That view though.

That view though…

Cter had now seen that magical sunset from three height, four if she'd count seeing it peek through the strangely-shaped houses of Jarasevo like abstract flings of orange painted before her as she walked home from work. More than four even, as each sunset she saw with a different blend of monster inside of her. The blend one day gave her such appreciation for the orange, while on another it gave her something different. Boring. Disgust. Apathy. Joy. Confusion. Strangely enough, after enough time of it being different each day, the differences became mundane to her. She knew it wasn't her opinions she felt, so eventually she began to mentally discard them. Some days she would startle herself by lifting her neck and seeing the staircase up to the apartment. Discarded a bit too much, she did on occasion.

Up on the apartment's roof was the second height she'd seen the sunset from. She and Idyll had looked up to where Cter was sitting reminiscing about it and promised each other they'd drink there.

Together.

Cter glanced down at where she first met Idyll. Where the two had promised they'd come back to the castle which had thrown them both out.

Together.

And here Cter sat, on the roof of Jarasevo Castle.

Alone.

Alone all by herself. As she looked over the rest of the roof surrounding the Royal Gardens with its reflective orange turning slight pink from the setting sun allowing the night to take over after a day with enough goings-on to last a week, Cter did see more of those tables which she had next to her. Equal amount of safety nets underneath too.

Probably was for the best.

No one sat at those tables though. No guards. No humans. No Monster Mages. No Royal Advisers. No Royal Couple. They were all empty, yet they weren't devoid of life. The way the setting sun cast the shadows over the roof's apex, and with how the luster from the garden below shone and danced with the warm wind, the memories which they'd witnessed the many monsters share on top of the castle roof flickered on the slates. It was similar to how the presence of the old Monster Royals were said to still inhabit the castle. Cter didn't see any flickers of either the King or the Queen. Shocked as she'd been if she'd seen the one and not the other.

Or even worse…

One with another and not the other!

Maybe that was why King Asgore spend so much time in the Royal Garden? To make sure that the trees knew that his crown was the one that should speak, and not theirs?

"Heh."

Cter had been in the castle for only a day and she had already figured out, in her own logic, that the King was possibly unfaithful to the Queen.

And she hadn't even drunk as much as a single drop of Royal Purple!

Singe her soul…

She was dead tired, wasn't she?

Even with that it would be impossible for her to sleep, she reckoned.

And felt.

After she'd tried.

And failed.

She wouldn't have let herself sleep for long though. She was supposed to meet Idyll up on the roof for a drink after Idyll had woken up. It was the last thing she said to her friend before she put the limp hand down from her chest and tucked it into the rising and falling duvet. Cter managed to give more back to Idyll. Perhaps even she filled in a bit with her own soul. She made sure to be aware of it lest she made Idyll even worse-off than she was, but it was still something Cter had never done before.

Again.

A lot of those Cter had done that night and subsequent day. A lot of firsts for her. Many firsts she'd never wanted there to be a first of, yet also many firsts that she didn't know that she did want there to be a first of.

Like the first time she put on a dress with Xoff pattern to it. That was a first which was still going on for Cter, as the silver and gold threads in her forest-green robe glimmered in the setting sun's rays of increasingly pink from orange. Hopefully Queen Toriel would mention how well it suited Cter to King Asgore so that the conversation would then flow to how Asgore were to commission one for Cter in purple instead. Hopefully on top of that would then be Queen Toriel remembering that it needed just a bit more room for Cter's shoulders so that it wouldn't chafe.

"Can't have a chafing Monster Mage at the castle," Cter said towards the Deltarune-respecting flags in various states of waving while her voice imitated either Queen Toriel or King Asgore, which one her voice did she wasn't sure of. Queen Toriel, most likely, as only she gave some of her magic to Cter, even if it was her acting her magic upon Cter instead of letting Cter act through her magic.

A stark difference to the two ways Cter knew how to influence a monster's magic, but without a sleeve to amplify and act as a catalyst, only her soul, the difference wasn't as clear to her as it normally was. "My child," Cter said out loud again to gauge how much the imitation was similar to Queen Toriel's.

Yeah, Queen Toriel it was, she concluded with a shrug. It wasn't as soothing or nearly as motherly as Toriel's voice, but at least the inflection was closer than Cter's normal voice.

Her voice would have to darken with the Royal Purple for it to sound even remotely like Asgore's, and she didn't really want to get a leg-up on Idyll since the two had a lot to get through together.

Together.

Properly.

Properly together as they had done before, and would do again! They'd moved in together and become roommonster and roomhuman immediately after meeting each other, reconciling events when they were together at their goal's end would be easy!

Roommonster and roomhuman.

They weren't any longer. The two were still friends, that not even a thing like the two almost dying would change. That the two had changed to boot wouldn't change the fact either. Everything around the fact could, and might even had changed, but never the fact.

Never that the two were friends!

They would be roommonster and roomhuman no longer though.

Only roommonsters.

Cter lifted up her hands in front of her. The glistening green of her robe stopped at her wrists with her two hands poking through with all their ten cumulative fingers. Fair skin brought a more beige tone to the increasing pink of the lower horizon behind those ten spread-out fingers. Cter turned her hands around to look at their flats. She closed them shut, before opening them up halfway so that the lines in her hands deepened into folds. It was exclusive to humans, those lines, bar a few monsters that had grown up around humans and had more of those consequences of natural causes. On the vast majority of monsters the hand-lines only came to while they were actively summoning, so to speak. Only when they closed their hands did their skin, scale, or fur fold. It didn't stay permanent over time since that wasn't how the monsters saw themselves to be.

In magic monsters were more permanent and lingering.

In nature humans were more permanent and lingering.

The bridge between the two were of human magic.

"I'm a monster now," Cter said out loud while she began massaging out the lines in her left hand to negligible effect. Her right thumb ran over the bones in her left hand, bumping and shifting them around slightly.

Did that mean that she was a skeleton monster?

She did have one inside herself, true. A full one to boot. Stronger in a few places due to some injuries she'd sustained during her childhood. Her tongue ran over her flat teeth which did add to the theory.

However it also shut it down completely.

Since she had a tongue.

And skin.

And muscles.

And blood.

The last one kinda shut everything about her being a monster down completely, really. She cut on her arm which she'd sustained as Idyll clasped it in her sudden awakening wasn't bleeding before Cter began picking at the scabs, but it sure was when she flicked one away and squeezed the skin around it to see if she still had blood in her. With everything that had been laid on her she felt she needed to check to be sure.

Yup, she had blood. Crimson, and pooling into a large droplet which she shook off. It landed among the many alcoholic drops on the roof slates, and would be indistinguishable from them come morn.

"I'm a monster?" Cter repeated with less conviction to her words. Did she even have any to begin with to have less of?

Not really.

She understood why, how, and again why she was to be a monster from that day on forward. Maybe not fully, but still a bit she understood why and why. Firstly why was that she had some monster inside her, a tint to her soul, as Frioke explained not but a few hours prior. "Like drinking tea from a cup which had soup in it just before. No intermediary cleaning between the refill. It's not a perfect metaphor," she admitted with a few tilts to her long bunny-like ears. "The other Monster Mages' cups had the wash between while yours were refilled immediately afterwards, Cter. It's a curious thing, and is most likely the explanation why you managed the magic you did."

...Sure.

"I know you've been promised more times than you have fingers that you'll get to meet Idyll today, but you must've realized that we needed to check on her both if you succeeded and if you didn't. With her changed magic now and how well she's managed to improve her cooking from her time at the tavern where Queen Toriel worked before she arose to the Royal Purple." Frioke then disconnected her magic from Cter. "We're gonna hire her too here at the castle. The two of you will be kept closely for the immediate time forward for study, both study on you and study which you'll be doing for your status as a Monster Mage, that is. You'll be supplied with a room of your own, naturally. Which of the towers we've not decided yet. Any preferences?"

Cter didn't have any at the time, but with her sitting up on the roof she made a mental note that the eastern one would be best for her with its view of the sunset. She'd be able to look towards Hjearta too from the eastern tower should she want. Just had to also specify for whatever window she'd have to also face east and not west. Wouldn't want to slip up on that.

Nor slip down the roof as well, which one would think would be the more pressing matter for Cter's thoughts. With the net to catch her though she wasn't that worried. Worry about herself when she wasn't sure how much Idyll were herself? Nope, not enough.

That Cter's mind had enough time to go wander off like that meant something, but exactly what she didn't know. It was either that Idyll was completely not herself and the other Monster Mages didn't know what to do with her, or she was giving it her all with the cooking she was doing to test her new magic.

Possible third option that she was dead and-

"Aaargghhh..." Cter blurted out to interrupt her mind. She dove her head onto her bent knees and circled it with her arms. A heavy sigh she sent down her legs which carried with it the thought. Hopefully it would slip through the net and not bounce back up to her. It was enough that she had to endure such test of patience after the earlier test of patience she'd gone through, but with the added spice of unfairness itching at her Cter could only huff and blow air out her nose to try and get it out of her. "Singe my soul," she cursed while she put her chin up on her hands resting on her knees. The wind took hold of her fringe and made it dance in front of her eyes, like an upside-down field of brown wheat.

She blew it to the side so that she could see the full colorful gradient of the horizon and not just glimpses of it between her hair.

The chimney above where Cter was told the kitchen was located in Jarasevo Castle was still churning out smoke even if dinner had been served hours beforehand. It was still being used, hopefully by Idyll. Cooking up a storm for Cter so that she could later cook up a storm for her big brother.

It was up to Cter to make sure Idyll was comfortable with the changes that had happened to her before that could occur. Physically, mentally, and magically. She'll have to be comfortable confronting her own new face in the mirror, as well as the soul behind those eyes in her new reflection. She would have her best monster friend by her side when that comes though.

The two had fulfilled their promise to the other.

"You sitting her all by yourself, Cter?"

And in turn they'd changed more than they ever imagined.

"I'm not anymore, Idyll."

But the fact still remained.

"Then you don't mind me helping myself to a seat next to you?"

They were friends.

"Take two if you need."

The best of friends.

"Don't need anymore after your help."

Who'd never.

"Wouldn't need two to begin with if it wasn't because of me..."

Never.

"You can make up for it by tasting my new recipe made with my new magic which you gave me."

Never!

"Are those..."

Break apart from the other.

"Eggshells."

Although…

"But why?"

They sure did tempt that faith.

"Because you're a monster now, Cter. Monsters like eggs with the shells on."

But with laughter that seemed to last forever.

"Maybe the castle wasn't such a good idea then..."

Together.