The weeks scheduled for Cter's visit at Fenkeep Castle were uneven in terms of what she predicted them to be. On the itinerary given to her by Huvett and Huvtvao each morning she could, at most, only glean what each scheduled event was to be. Sure, she understood that she was expected to be in the gazebo at three in the afternoon looking her best because she was to have tea with the king and queen of Hjearta, but where on the scale of magic usage that entailed was all but guesswork beforehand.

A beautiful day for her to bow and present herself for the two fair-skinned humans who's eyes lit up at her arrival, yes, but not the most beautiful day to try and both show her magical prowess while at the same time not overdoing it with the ice magic as to in a way suggest to the Hjearta Royals that their choice of Terri Fyed as the Royal Mage of Ice was wrong and made in poor judgment.

Having tea with the Hjearta Royals was a bit different than having tea with the Monster Royals. For starters, Cter was the one bringing something to the table firstly before the tea arrived. A quilt from Queen Toriel to the newly wedded Queen of Hjearta. A commoner at birth, finding love from the prince via her family of mages moving into Fenkeep to set up shop. A similar, yet different-enough story to how King Asgore and Queen Toriel found love. Queen Toriel sewing a quilt or a blanket for each new Hjearta royalty was tradition ever since the first one for Prince Soulay, even if it was mostly her adding a patch of the Delta Rune onto the fabric. Similarly, King Asgore's tradition was for each new Xoff royalty to be gifted a walking stick to help their first climb up Mt. Ebott.

In return for being entrusted to bring the Queen of Hjearta her sewed quilt, and more importantly, for fulfilling that trust, Cter was promised a wide array of other gifts to bring back to Jarasevo Castle. Silverware, cheeses, mead, licorice, dresses, and intricate, astronomical instruments which Cter understood none of, but accepted on the behalf of King Asgore and Queen Toriel regardless. The intricacy of their nature meant that she would have to keep them under a more detailed stasis magic so that they would survive the long and bumpy road across Hjearta and Monster Country.

Cter didn't get a sun cat to pocket though at the end of her tea with the human king and queen. All she got were sun cats in her eyes.

Some of them were from her magic that she demonstrated, to be perfectly fair. Again, variety was the key to showing her magic as it was during her entrance. She didn't give the king and queen any magic to use on their own though. What with the air of military cold from the guards stood like decorations same as the statues and trimmed shrubbery in the garden, but ready to strike before a moment's notice. If Cter was to reach for either the king or queen's wrists she would've been skewered before the king or queen could explain that it was a misunderstanding.

She didn't have any animosity towards the guards for that though, only respect. It was a bit different from how the Royal Guard was back in Jarasevo. The variety of monsters made it impossible for even Sir Gerson to keep them all equally rigid and mustered. Hell, there was even an owl monster appointed as a secretary for the parade division. Not wrong in of itself, but a secretary that couldn't read or write? Just assumed to be smart because he was an owl, and never given the education to read or write, because of that assumption?

While there weren't any real obvious problems at the time since the owl monster had his own system of organizing things, the one that would follow him in that position would find a pile of nonsense to them. It was one of the few topics Sir Gerson could only clench his fist at behind his shell and mutter that he'd cross that bridge once he got to it.

Perhaps that was why he traveled to Xoff and Hjearta to help with military advisory and training? So that for once in his life he would be able to drill an army fit for a commander such as he. It wouldn't have surprised Cter, had that been the case. Only so many times one can witness a Royal Guard diving hungrily and headfirst into the castle gate towards a dropped spear on the other end of the metal bars before one began to pity Sir Gerson among the echoing metal clang and following whimper.

Quite a monumental number, in fact.

But that only made the pity even deeper once it reached that number within just a few months.

During Cter's stay at Fenkeep Castle she didn't see a single guard drop a weapon, nor a single guard diving with an excited bark against the weapon that wasn't dropped. For all of the large halls and splendid garden reminiscent of the Royal Garden tended by Asgore, that was really what stuck with Cter in her visit. The rigidity of humanity.

Not all positively though.

If there ever was a war, those rigidly trained humans were the ones whom would fight against the Royal Guard diving towards dropped weapons.

Which was another reason on top of the many for her not to reach for the king or queen's wrists with her magic.

The pot of tea that she shared with the Hjearta Royals though, that one she could play around with magic without any worry. Pouring a second cup for the king with stasis magic, keeping the pot warm with fire magic on top of a conjured stand. Again, variety was the best way to promote monsterkind, because that for every owl monster secretary that couldn't read, and for each Royal Guard diving into the metal bars after a dropped spear, there were monsters helping humans in Hjearta with crops and husbandry. From the red magic at the top of the rainbow all the way to the purple magic at the bottom. That was what Cter had to promote to the Hjearta Royals.

Even if she had to be very much on the nose with it and make one form from pouring the pot floating high above the cup. As much illusion as it was magic, again just like her entrance. She was partly a jester for the court during her visit, but that didn't really hit her pride as much. It might have been mostly magic to awe and woo, but it was to promote and protect monsterkind. With that always in the back of her head she would do magic-assisted acrobatics had the Hjearta Court wanted her to.

Luckily though it didn't really come to that. In fact, after her tea with the king and queen a week or so into her visit, the magic she was asked to perform became more and more serious, in a way. More magic to demonstrate complexity rather than spectacle. Some of it was at the behest and in cooperation with Terri to show the Cooperative Connection between a Monster Mage and a Royal Mage.

While again that meant mostly to make things a spectacle, Cter did manage to weave her magic together with Terri's in ways that had the two of them feeling like they learned something. Terri more about his confidence in his title, and Cter more about Terri's different approach to his magic. She wouldn't come to any conclusions during her time at Fenkeep Castle about it, but she did come up with a plan as to how she would be able to come to a conclusion. It wasn't anything she would be able to do at the castle though, so her plan would have to wait until she was in the carriage back to Monster Country.

For that though she would have to spend as much time as possible with Huvett and Huvtvao, which unfortunately had Terri becoming more distant as the weeks progressed and the itinerary became more denser for Cter. Had things been different, perhaps to the point where the two hadn't been mages at all, then Cter's time at Fenkeep Castle would have been enough for her and Terri to perhaps find a spark between each other. As things stood though, with her as a Monster Mage trying to figure out Terri's magic, and with him not being able to stand the sight and presence of Huvett and Huvtvao, that wouldn't be the case at all.

The time they spent sitting on that bench after their walk during Cter's first day of visit would be the closest the two came, and that was just two people enjoying the quiet for a while.

Cter had already experienced something similar in a way. During Priestess Frioke's memories as she rode through Hjearta her mind would wander over to that academic monster at Jarasevo Castle. That one Leraull monster that she had spent a night with underneath the stars in the Royal Garden. Her and his ambitions, him as an academic specialized in humans, and her training to become the Monster Priestess, meant that the two saw less and less of each other. Luckily, Cter could draw from that emotion from her memories as Frioke and keep her head clear of any lingering thoughts of Terri.

Well…

Quote unquote, luckily, perhaps.

Depends on who you'd ask.

Not to imply that Cter didn't loathe Huvett and Huvtvao for keeping her away from Terri. He went out of his way to make sure everything Cter wanted for was granted. Within reason, of course. He stretched that reason a bit though, going a bit too much out of his way on occasion for his royal buttling. Cter didn't actually need that refreshing tankard of glacier water to calm herself down before the ballroom dance, but when she exited her room in one of her gifted dresses rich in folds and...frillies? Cter didn't know the name of the parts on her dress' bottom. Frankly, she didn't know anything about dresses.

She had never really worn one proper.

And when she did she just, well, wore it.

It looked very beautiful hanging on the outside of the door on the wardrobe in her guest room. Looked very beautiful when she held it in front of her in front of the full body mirror as well. It was the prospect of putting in on and having others see her in it that had her gripping anxiously at its soft fabric.

Had the ball been in Jarasevo Castle it would not had been any problems to it. There Cter would have been just another varied monster among many varied monsters. Her in a human dress wouldn't have been the norm in the sense that there wasn't any norm to begin with. At Fenkeep Castle though, once she saw herself in the full body mirror in that beautiful human dress, she was just that.

A human.

A human wearing a human dress.

She would be a human mage going to a human ballroom dance in a human castle wearing a human dress. It was a worry that resonated with Huvett and Huvtvao when he asked Cter about the dress and if it fitted properly, or if she needed it to be changed a bit before the dance. She told him how the dress made her feel, and that resonated strongly with Huvett and Huvtvao. That strong resonate through him was the reason he went even further out of his way to get her a tankard of glacier water despite the nearest glacier being weeks travels away. Maybe he used some of his contacts from being a foreman before?

Cter wouldn't know, because she didn't ask.

That he managed it though had Cter realize how much her worry had reflected what Huvett and Huvtvao had told her about his efforts to be human. She had to make herself be monster even while wearing that human dress, not only for her, but for Huvett and Huvtvao too.

She began with writing a sincere apology to the dressmaker, overstating that she didn't want to alter the dress and its beauty, but that it was necessary for her as a Monster Mage. She apologized that her actions implied that the dressmaker had done wrong. She apologized that she didn't foresee during the measurements, where the dressmaker stated well and clear the question whether or not Cter had any thoughts or design revisions in mind. She apologized again that it broke her heart and soul that she had to make alterations on the dressmaker's design so intricate and masterful, and promised that the dressmaker would be compensated for Cter's affront to the design, with fabrics and books of monster designs to be sent the dressmaker's way as soon as Cter got back to Jarasevo Castle.

It took four tries until Cter managed to write the last part of her apology as an actual apology and not a backhanded and snarky call for the dressmaker to be educated in monster designs.

That was the easy part, however. Cter knew plenty about writing and how to write in a formal matter.

Designing dresses though?

She knew how to wield a needle to mend small tears and such, but nothing that required an actual eye for fabrics and the craft like her mom did. Cter was very much her father's daughter growing up, despite Romrom's best attempt to make a monster out of her.

Again, had Cter been back at Jarasevo Castle she could have borrowed some of the monster dressmaker's magic and let the memories of dressmaking wash over her for the necessary time to make the adjustments. Then she could have just relayed that to the monster mice that handle the clothing and attires at Jarasevo Castle. Always while singing a jolly tune which was always pleasant to eavesdrop on for a minute or so while walking by.

Cter couldn't do that with a human though. Couldn't just borrow some of the Fenkeep dressmaker's skill. Firstly, because the dressmaker wasn't at Fenkeep Castle, as there was business to do elsewhere. Secondly, because entertaining the thought of poking around in another human's soul might give Bonny Sollus' soul and memories inside Cter's sleeve a bit too much ground to stand on. She was sure that he'd already influenced her in a few ways already, and a few was already plenty enough for her.

Both reasons as different as they could be from the other, however just as important.

So instead, with the tankard of glacial water in her hand, Cter sat in front of the human dress hung on the wardrobe door, staring at it silently. Only her rhythmic breathing and rhythmic taps on her tankard to keep her company as she tried to take in the...everything about the dress. A blazing fast course in the theory and thought behind the human dress to find what makes it human. To find where she could make it monster.

Adding magic to it was a good start, but she also knew that Terri would have magic on his attire as well. So while magic would be a start, especially varied magic that wasn't focused on ice, it wasn't close to everything that she needed.

What was it that she needed though? What was it that was human about the dress that she could make monster?

Anything, really, she concluded after some hard thinking. Anything she altered on the dress would be seen by the humans as monster. She could have replaced the dress with a burlap sack with some colorful buttons on it and called it a monster dress and the humans would just have eaten it up. She could have made no modifications at all to the dress and then say that she had made plenty of modifications but only monsters and people well-versed in monsterkind could see the splendid modifications to it. None of the humans would dare to speak against Cter then for fear of being ostracized as a monster hater in front of a Monster Mage.

It was a very, very tempting idea.

A final resort though, the idea was. A final, desperate attempt if she wasn't able to come up with something else. A desperation that crept closer and closer as the glacial water was drunk more and more.

Maybe she was seeing things from a different angle?

Cter turned her human dress around.

But it didn't help either.

Before Cter finished her heavy sigh and walked back to her chair she noticed something as her left hand lingered on the dress' turned shoulder.

A discrepancy in the pattern of the lines on her sleeve and the pattern of the stitching and sewing on the dress. Spiraling on her arm and straight on the dress.

Monster and human?

Cter lifted off the dress again to check in the full body mirror. Awkwardly, and with the dress lying pretty much on the floor, she inserted her left arm into the dress. With her magical sleeve sticking out of the laced sleeve, Cter began to turn the dress sleeve so that the human, straight stitching was in line with the monster, spiraling stitching.

Yes...

Yes, she was getting somewhere with that! A human mage's sleeve had more straight and rigid patterns compared to a Monster Mage's, and especially compared to Cter's! She had something to go on! Something that she could work with!

The speed, energy, and eagerness with which Cter disrobed herself wouldn't have been explainable even to Idyll. Cter let herself be swallowed by the human dress before her own clothes had even landed from her flinging them off in all haste reminiscent of a storm yanking away articles from a clothes line.

Also reminiscent of Barbeqa scorching her chef's clothing that dared to cover up her fiery muscles that she lived to show to the world.

The human dress was much lighter than her Monster Mage robe sewn from Xoff silk. It was very much a summer dress, as wearing it on any other season would provide as much coverage to the wind and weather as a paper would against a fireball cast by Queen Toriel.

And her casting fireballs made a Monster Prince fall in love with her!

That the color brought out the fair blush on Cter's cheeks went completely past her as her eyes instead focused on how to turn the dress to have it continue the spiral from her mage sleeve. With her finger she traced the glowing spiral down onto the light fabric of the dress, extending it down the dress' forearm, around the elbow, and up the upper arm and shoulder. The shoulder mount down over the left side of her chest she painted with her entire hand, with each finger a different color. Once over her heart she brought the colors together into a white soul.

A badge of her as a monster.

From the white, glowing soul badge Cter painted down at an angle, and after pushing the magic on her left shoulder out a bit, she was wearing a dress that was half monster and half human. With a dainty turn on her toes she her sides and behind her to make sure that it was half and half behind her as well.

"Ladies dance," she said to her reflection with two gentle pinches on either side of the hem of her dress. She made a respectful curtsy, and couldn't help but giggle at how cute she looked. It was...different. A new experience for her. She could indulge in being a fair lady for one evening. She had deserved it.

That she couldn't actually dance wouldn't matter in the slightest. She just had to let her suitor lead her for the dance. Only for the dance though. She was planning on indulging in being fair, but she was still her own lady. She was still the fourth Monster Mage. Ain't were there any suitors at Fenkeep Castle suitable enough for anything more than just the privilege of being her partner in dance.

It would be a magical evening, sure.

But it was Cter who was gonna make it magical!