What...

"E...Excuse me?"

In the…

"H-Hello?"

Absolute…

"Monster Mage?"

Audible blinks clinked gently against the recently cleaned dining hall floor. Cter shook her head off her new Monster Mage colleagues throwing magic around like a group of school-monsters playing on their way home.

Well, she tried to, but it was trying to shake off her skin from her hand. While she was a monster in spirit, soul, and politically, she still had a rather intimate and necessary relationship with her skin. Maybe it would lessen the more into her role as a Monster Mage she got. Too early to tell for her. However, the three other Monster Mages had their skin left on them, as far as Cter saw the day before, and from what she saw of them three sitting at the far end of a distant table waving to her.

She waved back.

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait!"

She began waving back.

"I'm slipping!"

But she had to stop as the hedgehog Royal Guard she had put up on her shoulder began to trip backwards from Cter lifting her arm up. His small hands didn't find any grip on her robe, and he curled up to a ball as gravity took hold of him.

To both his and Cter's relief he landed inside her hood with a bounce that yanked at Cter's collar, causing her to cough. She strained her neck looking over her shoulder, which made her aware of the accusatory silliness she had just made towards the Monster Mages. Who was she throwing stones about that, be it via hand or magic, while she was spinning around chasing her hood like a Royal Guard dog after its tail?

Eventually the hedgehog monster unfolded himself after a curious peek to begin with. "Your stasis magic is much more softer than any other I've felt, Mage," he mulled with amazement. "I can touch it, even. It's like silk."

Technically he was correct? In a way he was. He was held in stasis against gravity, and the reason was because of something connected to Cter. With that in the back of her mind, Cter decided to take the compliment without correcting the monster. "Thanks," she said with her head faced forwards. Rather awkwardly she lifted the hedgehog up by pushing from underneath her hood until he could jump off onto her shoulder again.

Not as awkward as she proposed the idea to him to begin with though.

It was instantly clear to Cter that the twenty five minutes it took the Royal Guard to make it from the kitchen to her room up in the eastern tower wasn't a universal time frame which she were to obey. To boot the hedgehog was proficient in conjuring smaller stairs of cyan magic between each one made out of stone. The magical stairs had a similar glow to them like what Cter had heard Sir Gerson's magic would be. An almost ice-blue one bordering on snow-white at its edges.

Rather strange seeing the magic which the most respected military monster wielded with pride and magnificence that was as dutiful and dedicated to the Monster Royals like no or anything other be used to make small magical staircases.

Handrails to boot. Ornate ones for the other boot. Third boot which Cter couldn't wear nor accept was the way the magical staircase moved on its own! After he'd seen Cter lock her room with the key she found lying on a table next to the door, the Royal Guard saluted, which Cter returned without knowing if she should've or not. "On our way then. Follow me, Monster Mage. If you hurry along and manage to keep up I'll be glad to tell you a bit more about the castle as we walk."

Before she could though Cter was struck by the frugality of locking her door when she knew that there were incorporeal ghosts floating around which could easily just either possess the lock or just go through without knocking either due to their inability to move an object without outright possessing it or just Cter being a monster in all sense but physical, which again any other human would be technically since it was the physicality between monsters and humans that separated the two and-

"Why are you staring at your door, Mage?"

"Hm?" Cter answered absentmindedly as it took a couple of seconds for her mind to return to her. "Oh, nothing. It's just a...new one. That's it. It is my new door," she said with a bit more enthusiasm than what the subject called for. "Gotta remember it from now on." She chuckled.

The Royal Guard returned it out of courtesy but let it fade away quicker than how it would naturally. "All well and good, Monster Mage. However I do must insist that we hurry along now. My orders are to get you to the dining hall within the allotted time so if you're not there it reflects badly on my services as an escort."

Cter felt shame over the thought that momentarily popped into her head.

"Please," the Royal Guard asked friendly with a bow down the stone stairs. "Do follow me."

The Royal Guard hedgehog stepped on the highest stone step and summoned a magical staircase between it and the next stone step. With a straightened back he stepped onto the highest magical step with his spear in one hand and the ornate railing in his other. Then he descended.

He didn't walk down the magical staircase.

He descended down the magical staircase.

Without any movement from him, only the steps. Not a single step of his own it took for him to get down the first stone step.

Magically he was down the first one.

And magically he was down the second one.

Third.

Fourth.

Each one the Royal Guard paused at the bottom of his summoned staircase to make it dissipate and then reappear underneath him for his next journey. That allowed Cter to take a step herself to then wait for the Royal Guard to descend her next one. She could easily have stepped over the hedgehog, but if she did it would've been metaphorically as well as literally. He was supposed to escort her, not the other way around.

Still, despite her being fascinated and rather amused by the way the hedgehog utilized his magic, by halfway down the stone staircase Cter realized that her cheek facing the staircase window had become warm from the morning sun patting her with its bright, and early, rays. She struggled to formulate the best way to address the worry of time which the hedgehog had been so keen on at the top of the stone stairs but not so much on his conjured ones. "Um..." she said while scratching her warm cheek. "Is it long to the dining hall after the staircase?" She tried to have it sound more as curiosity rather than a reminder. "I don't want to be late if it's important."

"Breakfast is important," agreed the Royal Guard with a nod. "You are quick to adjust to a life as employed by the Monster Royals, Monster Mage."

If Cter's sleeve had been imbued she'd been more sure whether or not what the Royal Guard said was sarcastic or not. "Breakfast is important in Hjearta too where I'm from." Nor was she sure why she felt she needed to bring that up too. Making small talk would only have them walk slower and be there at the dining hall later.

Although then why did the Royal Guard offer to explain more about the castle? Did he have some kinda plan to move faster? Could his magic make him move horizontally faster than he could vertically too?

"Hjearta is one of them human countries, correct?"

Again…

Was it sarcasm or not? Cter couldn't tell! Was it a test of some sort? Like how much she answered like a monster rather than a human to the questions to gauge her dedication?

"My grandpa was the one well-traveled, and he passed away before he was born, which is why I'm asking," continued the Royal Guard as Cter didn't answer him. "It's a reason why I want to show that I can handle escort assignments which would give me a way of following in my grandpa's footsteps."

"Literally?"

...But why? Why did she ask that?

"That obvious?" the hedgehog scoffed. "I can't even feel your aura and you can read mine all the way to my grandparents." There was some slight worry that slowed down the Royal Guard at the end of his sentence, as if he worried that Cter was reading more about him than he'd, or she, would've wanted. He cleared his throat as he boarded another of his magical staircases. "My grandpa was a monster the size of your run-of-the-mill mill, which I was told led to him being attacked by a human deep in Xoff for some delusional reason." The hedgehog Royal Guard shrugged. "It was more a slight annoyance to my grandpa being quote unquote attacked on his callused heel by that human, as the human's spear didn't really do much else than just break instantly like a dried blade of grass."

"Mhm," fell out of Cter's closed mouth as her eyes glanced over to the spear the hedgehog held in his small, albeit steady hand. "I can imagine that." Truth be told it was a lie. Cter had never really seen a monster the size of a mill. The hedgehog didn't describe what type of monster his grandpa was either, so it didn't really help with her narrowing down her mental picture enough to have it be vivid enough for her to paint a clear imaginary picture of said grandpa.

Hesitation erupted on the hedgehog's back as he heard the gears turn in Cter's head, with his quills stiffening and straightening like hair stood on end. "H...how do you mean by that?" came a shaky question after a hard swallow. "N-Not that I'm q-questioning you, M-Monster Mag-ge. It's j-just that...well..." The Royal Guard's hand clenched around his spear. To Cter it sounded like pinching her earlobe. "Y-you're n-not reading my memories when y-you say that you can imagine that?"

"What?" Cter rebutted with an involuntary furrow to her brow. "No, I'm not doing that. Why would I?"

The hedgehog sighed, but whether it was out of relief or self-punishment was hard to tell due to the echo drowning out the undertone of it. "T-Thank you." His next conjured staircase had a bit of a squeak and crackle to it which he also noticed. The one afterwards took on a bit a focused glow to it, too much on the opposite side of the spectrum.

With a clear of her throat Cter managed a slightly less awkward change of subject. "Your grandpa. Who was he? What kinda monster? I've never heard of one as big as a mill."

"Well, probably not one of you…the human mills," the Royal Guard caught himself with a hard bite down on his tongue. His follow-up was slightly slurred due to that. "The ones used in my village are the size of...let's say the Jarasevo Time's Square clock. Still, he was large for where he was stationed at and where he met my grandma."

Well that explains it a bit better. Although it also raises a few more questions. "Then was the human that attacked him really small too?" Cter pried with her face contorting in confusion against her mental image. "You said the human attacked you grandpa's calluses?"

"He was a rock monster."

Cter's chin flew upwards. "Oh!" It then oscillated down and up in long nods as it became clear to her. "Right, right. I understand."

Well...kinda.

Sorta.

Maybe.

The Royal Guard didn't explain why the human attacked to begin with even as Cter's question referenced said human. "What was your grandpa guarding?"

"You mean why the human attacked my grandpa?" the hedgehog asked back over his shoulder.

"Yes."

"It was because the human thought my grandpa was a mill."

"Alright."

"Which in turn had the human believing he was a giant."

"O...kay?"

Strange that the more the Royal Guard explained the less Cter seemed to understand.

Considering that the countries were under a mutual and blossoming peace during the Royal Guard's retelling the human's attack must've been either a farce or about something so petty it was solved quietly. Nothing to write a thousand pages or so about though. It was for the better that Cter dropped the subject. "Then your family moved here, I assume?"

"Grandma and grandpa did, yes," answered the hedgehog with his pendulum of worry and overcompensating for the worry back in the middle and still again. "My aunt works at a tavern bordering Hjearta should you pass by there in the future."

A tavern bordering Hjearta…

Main Road Three number nine eight…

Um…

Six!

"The Flipping Heart!"

The pique in her voice was loud, but not as loud as the quiet that was formed as she stopped in her descending tracks. It halted the hedgehog too at the end of his lastly-conjured staircase where he turned around fully to look up at Cter's widened expression. "Yes, The Flipping Tavern," he confirmed. "She takes after grandpa a bit when it comes to her size, but not so much that she can't work among the humans as a Royal Informant. Sends back observations about the humans and monsters crossing the borders, be it in our out. You are from Hjearta, aren't you, Monster Mage? Perhaps you did meet her."

With a slight chuckle the Royal Guard summoned another of his staircases as he turned away from Cter to continue downwards. "Don't you worry about your first impression though. She's probably seen it all by now, perhaps even by years before you crossed into Monster Country. It takes quite a lot to get on her nerves. Her quills are seldom raised, if you understand the idiom."

Cter did.

Oh she did indeed.

"Yes..." she mumbled before instantly locking her lips together again. She didn't go so far as to hold her breath, but it was close that she did.

For having traveled and come so far and distant as Cter had done in Monster Country it was weird to her that of all the monsters she'd run into at Jarasevo Castle which employs thousands of monsters standing at the top of Jarasevo housing even more thousands of monster, she was escorted by a relative to the first monster she met in Monster Country. If the porcupine monster at The Flipping Heart was a supposed Royal Informant perhaps that first impression was somewhere in the castle for Cter to find. What with the importance of her given title, exemplified in the dust by the hedgehog Royal Guard saluting her, possibly, she would have access to those files, right?

Just out of curiosity, that is. When she found out Kry's impression of her it gave her the determination to prove him wrong. Maybe it would tickle her ego reading how wrong the porcupine monster was too?

Perhaps, perhaps…

Then, for some inexplicable and hard-to-fathom reason, the stone staircase ended without Cter realizing. She'd been walking so slowly down it she'd forgotten that it had an end. Her toes slammed into the lower floor which she found herself tripping forwards over. "Singe my-" she uttered through her startled expression as she tucked into a roll that ended at the feet of a large giraffe Royal Guard. Her purple hood fell over her eyes, obscuring the giraffe's neck tilting down towards her.

"Are you well, Monster Mage?" the slightly-perplexed guard asked not sure how she should move as to not be offending a higher rank. "Do you need help?"

Speaking of first impressions…

Guess Cter's was going to be on the long hallway carpet that she bundled up in her fall. "I'm fine," she answered while tugging her hood further over her eyes as she stood up. Only her lower lip and jaw was visible from underneath it. "Thank you." She managed to straighten the carpet out a little bit with the tip of her shoes, but not really enough to have it be any effort applied to it. It resulted in a half-bundled bend like someone was about to sweep dust underneath it.

With a disappointing turn of her head, Cter looked over to the hedgehog stood at the side of the stairs in case someone else wanted to go up them now that they were free. "Which way to the dining hall?" Cter wondered as neutral she could. "We should be on our way."

"Yes." There was a pause. "Yes, we should. After me, please." The hedgehog moved his hand graciously towards further down the hallway and began his lead.

A lead which didn't really do it for Cter, to be perfectly honest. With how long it took the two to descend the stairs and with her not seeing a door or pair of doors which spelled out that behind them were a dining hall, she began to doubt that the hedgehog's time limit would be possible. It was only four steps into the walk, which took the better part of a minute for the hedgehog to clear, that Cter cleared her throat to get his attention. "You wouldn't want to sit on my shoulder for the rest of the way?"

The offer was genuine. Cter had previous customers sit on her shoulders if their size allowed for it. Birds, small jesters, ice monsters which had her shoulder ache afterwards necessitating some warm towels to not get frostbite, and so on and so on. She even brushed them off from her tumble to further invite. With the Royal Guard's worry about reprimands too if Cter was late it was in his best interest to. Cter was also starting to feel some hunger to boot so the quicker she got to the dining hall the quicker she'd be able to get some breakfast inside her.

And to meet Idyll again.

No, wait…

The greeting bullets! Cter didn't have any magic to use! Her sleeve was inert! How was she supposed to greet Idyll back? Throwing a handful of oats at her like confetti?

"You're a higher rank," said the hedgehog as if reminding. His hand opened up like Cter was supposed to know it already. "I couldn't possibly." His open palm turned into a shrug. "I don't know what kind of punishment would be in store for me."

Punishment? "But I'm asking you," Cter replied with an open palm of her own. Her right one, not her sleeved one. Opening her left one without her aura around it felt weird and hollow. "Do you want me to rephrase it as an order since I'm a higher rank than you?" Because apparently she was. How high exactly Cter didn't know, but with it being taught that the Monster Mages were equivalent to the Royal Advisers answering only to King Asgore and Queen Toriel it sure looked to be that she could order the Royal Guard to jump out the nearest window if she chose too.

She didn't.

"I...guess," the Royal Guard capitulated. Not emotionally, but more formally. In fact, he was quite happy as he scurried up Cter's arm and stood himself on her shoulder. Her left one. Right on the fastening of her sleeve did he stand on with his spear held for balance. "I'm ready," he informed Cter with a smile that was as informal as informal could get. "Just go down the hallway to begin with."

As Cter's hair swayed back from her steps she caught the smile of the hedgehog growing bigger and bigger in the corner of her eye. It wasn't long until it was beaming, and she decided that it was the perfect time to try to connect a bit more with him.

She just needed enough of a Cooperative Connection to cast one small flurry of magic, that was all.

Maybe two with one towards the other Monster Mages too?

Either way.

"Does it remind you of your grandpa?" she sprung on the hedgehog with a friendly smile. It hit him hard enough that his feet curled, creating a slight tingle in Cter's shoulder that echoed into her soul. "Should've drank more milk then so that I could've been taller."

"Heh," the Royal Guard laughed with, both embarrassed and ever so grateful about Cter's order. "I don't remember the time I did ride on his shoulder." Despite the gloom that took him over there was still some faint hope in his voice. "I...I lied to you, Monster Mage." He tucked his spear closer in towards him, worrying Cter for a split second that he was about to stab himself. "Well, not entirely, but still." The Royal Guard breathed in deeply. "I...we have all heard about the type of magic that is to be expected out of you. Changing a monster's magic. Why I asked if you read my mind was that I thought that you changing a monster's magic meant you'd found a deeper access to a monster's memories. I thought...I thought you'd be able to find the memories I've forgotten about my grandpa."

That...Cter didn't know actually. It made sense since she'd delved deep into Idyll's to be able to change her friend's magic, even if it wasn't the plan. Could the quick Cooperative Connection she made with the dog Royal Guard be evidence enough of the hedgehog's theory?

She lifted up her left hand, clenched to straighten the Deltarune on its back.

"I can take a look if you want," Cter offered while slowing down a bit between stationed Royal Guards. "Do you know about the Cooperative Connection? How to achieve it?"

"I know about it," nodded the hedgehog. "I've not met any...um...humans...uh..."

"It's fine," Cter assured.

"I've not met any humans before," continued the Royal Guard after meeting Cter's eye to confirm that she meant her words. "So I don't know the procedure."

A bit awkwardly after some failed attempts to both have the hedgehog reach her sleeve and for her arm not to dislocate out of her shoulder, Cter angled her arm up for the hedgehog to touch. "Open up your soul," she began as she closed her eyes. "Help me to find your memories." That will be the connection. "Our souls will bond over that. Look for me through the lines. It should be easy since I'm wearing it. We've just met, so your memory and emotion of me isn't that strong, so try and think back hard on how your magic felt when you made the staircases as you explained your grandpa to me."

"I..." the hedgehog began with a doubting tone that dragged out into more and more of an optimistic one. "I think I understand. What about this?"

Faintly, like looking through a dirty window into a fog-ridden landscape, Cter felt a close warmth inside her soul. She peered further, and was just barely able to make out a hand the same gray as the fog and the grime on the window. There was a different texture to the hand though.

Rough, gritty.

Rocky.

And in that hand was a small ball. A small, fluffy ball.

A gasp emerged from the Royal Guard.

And the Delta Rune on Cter's arm stood up.