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 she pushed against her forehead to hold up her head while blood returned to it. As it pushed away the darkened corners of her vision she took a long breath through her nose.

The smell was very conflicting.

Freshly laundered sprung to her mind, but fresh in a way she'd never smelt before. Like a freshly cut lawn with nothing but lavender in full bloom. Her inhales soared throughout her like mountain air hurried down a snow-filled ravine, and the air she breathed out was…

The air that one was assaulted by when opening a long-forgotten spice cupboard.

"Singe my soul," Cter cursed at the foul cloud of her own breath that permeated the immediate volume in front of her nose. She instinctively threw her neck back away from it while fanning with all her might to have it dissipate away from her.

Those eggshells didn't really sit well with her stomach. Didn't sit well enough for her to feel comfortable with the notion of sitting up herself, so instead she shimmied over a bit in her new bed to get away from the belch that would make the wallpaper curl in agony. Even if it was magic it would still react to Cter's physical expressions from what she understood when the ghost attender gave a brief introduction of her new room.

About the wallpaper to begin with, that which Cter had to close her eyes against due to how bright it was in the morning sun. "It's enchanted so that the room changes its color to that of the weather outside. Not transparent per say, but taking in the reflection and translating it inside. Projecting it through magic, if you will, Monster Mage."

While it was jolly interesting to Cter in terms of magical curiosity and that she would've asked the ghost Fang Shuey to explain further, perhaps even let Cter have a feel for the magic to perhaps improve its potency, had she asked in the state of Royal Purple ascension that she was the night before it would've been awkward at best, insulting at worst, as well as most likely.

"I'll appreciate it later," Cter mumbled as she hazarded dragging her cover over her head to make it darker for her. That it felt like the softness of water stroking over her face was an added bonus. Had she'd poured some water on her face she could've imagined her away to floating in water, but after weighing that option against that at any time Fang Shuey could enter only to see the newest Monster Mage trying to drown herself, Cter opted to just experience the touch instead.

That touch unfortunately jumped away from her as another deep, feral belch snuck up her relaxed throat.

She was trapped!

The white cover hung in the air as if floating as Cter rolled out of her bed with coughs abound and limbs flailing even more. The floor she landed on was hard, yet not cold. It was stone. Polished stone. Smooth like water-eroded rocks. Cter's skin peeled off it with a disturbing sound, yet she found herself at ease with the sound. After all, it came from such smooth stone. How then could it have been disturbing?

Her tentative shrug preceded her hair getting thrown over her shoulder from a gust created by her cover landing flat yet again on her bed. Silhouetted against the bright of her walls, her hair looked like a forest of thin, cooked pasta hanging in front of her vision. It bounced just the same as she stood up clutching her head against the headache which she knew she'd have. "Blargh," she groaned while flexing her left wrist to summon some ice to push against her skull. She expanded her aura…

She made herself aware of her aura…

She searched for her aura…

"Why isn't?" Cter asked through a narrowed-eyed whisper before lifting up her left arm to see why her sleeve wasn't working.

Truth be it could've worked as well as any other monster sleeve in existence, but the fact that it wasn't on her arm explained quite a lot of things. Cter blinked. "Oh." She blinked again as she began remembering everything that had happened the day and night before. "Oh!" she piqued a bit louder while her eyes widened.

Water was probably a pretty good idea right about then.

Cter navigated her hands between the purple blobs in her vision until she managed to grab the handle of the jug of water at her nightstand. The handle was cold, which surprised her.

"I took the liberty of asking Kurant to make some of her ice for your water," Fang Shuey had said the night before in a tone which Cter remembered not taking a liking to. She couldn't really confront the ghost about it though because of the glow she had to her hovering, transparent form. Especially since Fang made sure to glow a bit more so that Cter had to abandon the turn of her confronting head. "It should be cold until tomorrow when you're to get up bright. And. Early."

Well it sure was bright, alright, as Cter poured some water into a mug to drink, so that meant it had to be early too. She noticed that her window had been left open too which struck her as strange. Had it been back in Hjearta Cter wouldn't have been able to breath through her nose at all.

Speaking of Hjearta though!

First a bit more water though, even taking a step rattled Cter's head enough for her to feel faint. Maybe a bit more water after the first bit.

Speaking of Hjearta though, after Cter managed to walk without each step being like a hammer against an anvil.

With a quick tie of her hair behind her neck using a ribbon meant for what seemed to be some form of exquisite soap, Cter walked over to her room's window with her mug in hand and her headache receding. From the view alone she could deduce that her new room was in a tower, and the eastern most one at that due to the sunrise happening with all its morning might straight through her window.

"The sun rises in the east, not west, Cter. You'll have a sunrise view, not a sunset one. Something tells me that you'll be enjoying those on the castle roof rather than in your room."

From what Cter could remember she wasn't really sure one way or another if her first impression on Fang Shuey was a positive or a negative one. On the one hand she was in a bit of a stupor due to Idyll's cooking as well as their shared drinking afterwards while they talked about...nothing, really. Right from the first moment they made eye-contact it was clear that neither were settled in enough with themselves to talk to someone else about it.

Cter with the news that she was a monster from then on.

…

Same with Idyll, in a way. Same surprise to her that she was a monster, a new one from what she was. With new magic, which meant everything to a monster. Literally. Her soul was changed, and it was up to her to make it for the better. Cter would be there with her, as only a true friend could, which was why neither she or Idyll pushed anything besides the neck of the bottle of Royal Purple into their friend's emptied mug until the bottle was as transparent as the ghosts that awaited them in the staircase afterwards to take them to their respective rooms.

"Greeting bullets," Cter let ruminate as the suggestion from Idyll came to light to her again sitting on the stone sill of her room's opened window with one leg hanging inside the room for reasons physical rather than magical.

Even magical beings fall from tower windows if they have too much weight out of it, be it magical politically or magical from birth.

"Greeting bullets," Cter repeated into her mug which she drank some more from. She sat it down into her hand and rubbed its side with her thumb. Hjearta could wait. It was behind the horizon which the sun so eagerly occupied with its gracious rays that made the mountains, rivers, and lakes glimmer like conjured pixies, so Cter wouldn't be able to see her previous home country until later in the day. "Greeting. Bullets."

How and when Idyll found time to come up with the idea Cter had trouble fathoming, although that could just have been her hangover.

"Next time we meet, Cter, we'll greet each other with some pellets of our magic. Friendship pellets."

For some strange reason that didn't really sit well with Cter.

"How about bullets instead?" Cter had spurted out in response. "Professor Leraull called something similar the same. Greeting bullets?"

"Sure. Greeting bullets for tomorrow then, Cter." Idyll then nodded as a goodbye and disappeared down the staircase with one of the ghosts while Cter was escorted by Fang Shuey.

"Greeting bullets for today then, Idyll," Cter nodded back inside the opened window. Better late than never.

She'd need a sleeve for that though…

There was a sleeve-like piece of fabric on the dress table stood awaiting for Cter at one of the walls. Colored a hefty purple similar to that of which the Monster Mages wore on their robes. Some might even have said that it was identical, even Cter. Not out loud though as she was busy drinking some more of her water. From where she sat in the window, and with her hair falling over her eyes constantly, it was hard for her to discern whether or not the sleeve had any lines to it.

If it did have lines to it, who would be the monster?

"Idyll?"

The question provided no reaction nor action from the sleeve, and despite her knowing that there wouldn't one since it wasn't connected to her soul, Cter concluded that it wasn't anything from Idyll inside the sleeve. That left...every other monster in the world.

Narrow like a needle's eye!

Perhaps it was the Royal Guard she had talked with outside her comfortable prison cell as opposed to her uncomfortable one she was put in to begin with. If he'd been convinced by the Royals or Advisers then surely the potency of his memory with Cter would've increased since it would be connected to praise from someone he really looks up to.

Kinda like if his little brother had done it?

Cter reminded herself to remember her promise to the Royal Guard to speak to his little brother if the two would cross paths. What was the message again? That the big brother was ever so proud and…

A gentle thud split off into the sparsely-decorated room with an echo and out into the awakening world outside who's voices and commotions began to sneak up the hill and reach up the towers. It was followed by an equally splitting "Dammit." from Cter as she tried to jog her memory by bringing some more blood to her brain. Even with the bump she couldn't formulate exactly what the Royal Guard had asked her.

It brought some shame to her cheeks which began to gently glow with her emotion.

Although...as she gave some thought to it...maybe that wouldn't be a problem if her given sleeve was inert of monster magic. Then she could implant some of the Royal Guard's memories into it and keep it as a reminder. If it would be strong enough for her to be able to hold up her title as Monster Mage though Cter wasn't sure of, but wouldn't it be expected of a Monster Mage to make mountains out of pebbles?

A legitimate question, she felt it was. She hadn't been given any job description yet, even less a contract to sign. She'd been informed where the outhouses were, at the very least. She had her own to utilize, and that her relievings, as Fang Shuey put it behind a cough, would be used to help grow the Royal Garden.

Cter still had to mull about her mould being moulded like that so that when she inevitably had to use it for the first time she wouldn't just be sitting there holding it in with her thoughts about the whole situation. Or maybe if push came to shove she'd become fine with it?

Either way it would be interesting using an outhouse while still technically being inside. It had a window too it to, mounted to face the same way as the one in her room which she was sitting in. Not only was she to use an inside outhouse, but also was she to look out over the city which she had lived so far down in while she did it. Over the rolling hills and pearly rivers of Monster Country filled with magic and which had taken her in as one of their own, and made their own, an elite of their own to boot.

A view that she almost killed for.

A view she'd take in while she was pooping.

Her brow furrowed and her face contorted into a neutral expression which was neutral more to the fact that she didn't know what or how she felt about it.

She didn't feel that she needed to relieve herself, at least.

"You're a monster now," Cter said while mimicking King Asgore, albeit poorly. "Now here's your indoor outhouse," she then added with her voice drifting of as the absurdity of her words sank in.

Monster Mages are the only monsters that poop.

That...wasn't taught at Soul's School.

Cter wasn't entirely comfortable with insisting that it be included in the curriculum though, even if it was a revelation that struck her like the time she realized she could just buy loafs of bread during her free time and then only the salad from Soul's School's café and combine the two instead of paying almost double for the sandwiches on sale.

Because then the curriculum would be about her pooping in Jarasevo Castle. Yes, the temptation was there for Cter though. That every new student of human magic would have to learn about her and that she was one of the few monsters that could poop made the child inside her giggle childishly, funnily enough. However, there were far too many ways Cter saw that revelation backfiring compared to the ways she saw it being amusing.

What was she thinking of again before the oxymoronic concept of monster poop took her over?

She scanned her room for any clues. No, not her bed. No, not her wardrobe. No, not the door. No, not the other door. Ah, right!

The dresser!

More specifically, the sleeve on the dresser. The one which she didn't know who it was inside it, or if there was anyone inside it to begin with. "Right," she said in conjuncture with a grunt as she jumped down from the window down to the pleasantly-warm stone floor.

Her feet slapped as she walked over to the dresser with her mug angled high to get the last of the water out of it. She placed the emptied mug near the sleeve as if it was a meal, and sat herself down on the chair. After leaning over its side to check if it was of monster or human make she jumped it a bit closer to the dresser.

The one that lived here previously must've been a bit taller than her.

Oh, and the chair was monster make. Something that was to be important to Cter in a bit.

Like a piece of parchment, Cter rolled out her new sleeve across the dresser. Her guess that it was identical to the Monster Mages' robes was indeed correct. It had the same fabric as well as the same color to it. A nice, regal purple that of the Royals. On the back of the hand was the Delta Rune in its white the same as the Royals' fur. It was as fluffy as them too, yet there was a subtle difference to it. Cter's finger stopped halfway across the rune's middle piece when she felt the difference. While it was just as soft, gentle, and comfortably tickling as the fur of King Asgore and Queen Toriel, there was a distinct lack of either of the two's warmth, aura and physical.

To anyone else who hadn't met them perhaps it would be just the same, but to Cter, and presumably the other Monster Mages too, it was more a doll of the King and Queen rather than a representation of them. She'd have to ask about it later.

First she had to see if it fit her arm to begin with. No lines were present on its very intricate fabric, but just looking at them inert Cter could tell that they could store more monster presence inside of them than neither Soul School's sleeves or Romrom's could ever. Both organic ones like her veins and more rigid ones had been sewed in. Some even resembled that strange phenomenon where lightning had struck sand and made streaks of glass. Cter had only heard it described to her before, but seeing it unfold as she rolled her sleeve up her arm had her instantly recognize it!

Her fingers eagerly explored the lines, finding ones that were in the shape of the skeleton of different leaves, as well as more of her veins. Sinews, even, she thought at first. With the way the other lines interacted with them though she became less and less convinced of it. Maybe it was more a monster thing than a human one? Would explain why she didn't know exactly what it was. There were lines on Romrom's sleeve that Cter didn't recognize, even after the years she'd worn and used it. She wouldn't figure out all the lines on her new one anytime soon. That was a fact.

The monster presence she was to have would have a good home with plenty to recognize and transfer her soul's potential through, that was for sure.

But whom to have inside it?

Idyll?

That would be a good candidate all things considered, although Cter didn't really feel entirely comfortable with the notion. A monster giving their magic was the deepest sign of friendship and trust, but with what Cter had done with Idyll their relationship was a bit too scarred to ever allow a Cooperative Connection to form. Surely that was of interest to the Monster Mages, true, but Cter wouldn't allow any other experiments with Idyll. Her foot was firmly through the ground on that.

Through the ground and out either Hjearta or Xoff, perhaps even the ocean beyond!

Her hand clenched to show its solidarity to the cause, pushing her knuckles into the sewed Deltarune. Never in a thousand years! Idyll's had to figure out her own soul before anyone came around poking at it.

Again.

Romrom then?

Cter would have liked that. Very much so. She missed her home village. Most of all she missed her family. Her parents, cousins, her grandmother. Even if Cter had taken steps closer to fulfilling her grandmother's promise she hadn't taken enough just yet to call it fulfilled. There was still a lot she had to do and work for to reach that point, even after having become a Monster Mage, of all things.

Perhaps not even a Monster Mage could fulfill Romrom's promise. Cter had become one, and was still squinting against the distance to figure out how to even begin working on it. She would though. It would be her life's work. A life fulfilled for her wouldn't be one without that promise.

However, she had manage to fulfill the one she made to Idyll about the two finding work at the castle, so it was not like Cter felt disheartened over the distance Romrom's promise had her walk. Quite the opposite, really. She'd come so far as to become a Monster Mage, so from then on her walk would only increase in length and speed.

But again, she needed a monster for her sleeve.

Frioke had borrowed some of her magic to Cter the day before to help Cter feel Idyll's conflicted aura, so perhaps the plan was for her to make the Cooperative Connection with Cter? There was some sense to it, and with the potential within the lines in Cter's sleeve even a weak Cooperative Connection would allow her to have a very potent catalyst. Since she was to have lessons with Frioke too the connection would grow with time.

Until maybe one day she'd be able to make her own magic.

Like what the Monster Mages before her all managed to do.

"Are you clothed?" came from the door leading to the tower hall after some careful knocks. Cter couldn't place the voice to any face. "I've been sent up to escort you down to breakfast, Mage Cter. I'll be waiting outside here, however my orders are to have you present there within half an hour."

"How long does it take to walk there?" Cter asked back while she made her way to the wardrobe. Inside it were an assortment of purple robes as well as the forest-green Xoff one. Since it was her first day on the job she thought it would be a good idea to begin to get comfortable with the purple ones.

Not like that was a difficult task though. The way it slid down over her body was as pleasant as a reassuring pat after a hard day's work where she wasn't sure if she'd done the right thing. Her head popping out the neck-hole brought a bit more dishevel to her hair which could've easily been subdued with one of the wide and pointy hats folded neatly above the robes. She'd never seen any of the Monster Mages with those hats in the castle so those were probably for some special events or something.

If the entire foundation of human magic wasn't enough a reason to put on the hats then breakfast surely wouldn't necessitate them either.

"Twenty five minutes!" the, presumably, Royal Guard outside Cter's door answered.

Twenty five minutes? That can't have been right! Didn't Cter run through it in a much shorter time than that? How far away was the dining hall? In another town? That seemed...odd.

Well then Cter would have to be a bit late because she really did have to brush her hair first. Her reflection was like a fishing net tied together and thrown into a whirlpool. No way was she presenting herself on her first day of work like that!

The provided brush was surprisingly effective with its task that would've rendered any lesser and weaker one broken and stuck. It must've been made for fur with the ease it straightened Cter's hair, and with way fewer strokes than she'd planned for, she came to look presentable.

A Monster Mage wearing a Monster Mage robe with presentable hair flowing down the purple shoulders.

Maybe she'll try some stasis magic to make it braided and then add a bit of a lighter tint to it if she figures out the magic used to simulate the sun's color in her room. Maybe even give it a deep-sunset-orange tint instead?

Oh the possibilities of being one of the Monster Mages!

Endless and staggering possibilities!

"I'm ready," Cter announced before opening the door to find...no one. Her newly-brushed hair swayed heavily as she looked left and right, but with only sunrise-lit stone to meet her eyes.

"Down here."

Cter looked down to find a small hedgehog dressed in plate armor which looked to be painted-over cutlery and bent plates.

Apt.

In a way.

"You're to escort me?" she couldn't help herself from asking. She did manage to keep her tone curious in a positive way rather than a demeaning way though.

"We should hurry," the hedgehog suggested with a distant point of his spear made out of a knife.

Twenty five minutes, ey?

Oh well…

"Lead the way then, Royal Guard."

"As you wish, Monster Mage Cter."

Oh yes, that sounded very good.