"You're paler than a ghost, Cter."

From across the Monster Mage study situated at the top of the Jarasevo Castle tower, the peering, translucent eyes of Fang Suey pierced through Idyll's soul with an angry leer that threw white-hot daggers.

"S-Sorry Ms. S-Suey, I–"

"Didn't see me," the custodian ghost finished with an accusing tone to her distant voice. "Yes, I've heard that one before, Ms. Fech." After a final check towards the shivering Monster Mage covered in fevered snot stuck in the sweaty clumps of hair sprinkled over her face like a handful of thrown hay, the butler ghost hummed a thought before heading towards the door Idyll was standing at. "You wouldn't mind keeping Cter company while I procure some medicine to help with her fever, Ms. Idyll? I'll let Barbeqa know."

Despite Idyll's courteous step aside, Fang Shuey decided to just phase through the door instead. She floated down the staircase less silently than normal, as her humming thoughts hung behind her like clouds in the sky. "No considerations for the consequences and the reshuffling itineraries that has to be undertaken." Her ghostly scoff echoed loud enough that Cter heard it loud and clear, and coughed a pained moan in response.

"I can't remember how it felt to be healthy anymore."

With a swift kick with her heel, Idyll closed the door she had offered to the ghost monster. "You know I once submerged my entire body inside a vat of boiling soup so that I could better understand how the taste was." She sighed with nostalgia whirling inside her exhale. "It had my soul grow, making me a better chef."

She...she did?

Cter turned her head slowly over to Idyll so that her headache wouldn't explode again. It was a good thing her door was relatively new, otherwise the hinges would have sang the most painful of laments when Idyll kicked it close. The hard close still echoed its thump inside her head though. "You did that, Idyll?" the Monster Mage asked through squinting eyes and dry lips. "In the soup?"

"No," stated Idyll as she sat herself down in the chair next to the bed without easing herself in the slightest. The bowl of hot chicken stew on the serving tray she carried swayed from the sudden motion, but luckily didn't spill. "No of course not I didn't do that, Cter." She leaned in closer to the Monster Mage. "Because that would have been stupid."

The Monster Mage's disappointed sigh became a cough immediately as it escaped her lips. "You too, Idyll?" Even her best friend was snarky about Cter exerting her soul to the point of fainting, even with the added help from the other Monster Mages, and especially with the help of the other Monster Mages to boot! "I was...I was caught up in the moment." The explanation was weak in both senses of the word. "But I..." Cter burrowed deeper into her duvet, with only her nose and above sticking out from the top. "But I forgot about the humans..."

"Oh for..." Idyll cried out exasperated while throwing her head over the backrest of the chair. Her hand came up to pinch her brow, only to then fall down and hang on her muzzle. "Performing miracles ain't enough for you?" Her hand slipped off and balled underneath her cheek which she then leaned onto with eyes rolling up to almost touch at her raised eyebrows. "You know, one day someone will come to see you doing all these advanced magics as you just showing off rather than it being the love for monsters from the borderline-sacrificial Monster Mage that you are."

"Y...You think?"

Idyll couldn't hold her face against the childish snivels and softly delirious, vacant stare that her best friend was looking at her with. She broke into a chuckle that again had the chicken stew swaying from side to side dangerously close to the rim of the wooden bowl. "It's ridiculous how unlike a Monster Mage you're looking like right now." With a gentle claw she swept aside the sweat-crusted hair from the pale forehead. "You want to eat or have a new cold towel first?"

"Both."

"Alright now you're pushing it."

"Sorry."

In any case Cter had to sit up.

Unfortunately.

"It's like watching laundry trying to escape the basket," Idyll didn't have to comment, but did so anyway, as Cter struggled to wriggle herself out of her burrow of purple-colored duvet. As help, Idyll stacked up some pillows for support so that Cter didn't have to strain herself by sitting up. "Now, my little, escaped laundry, how about you open up the curtains so that I can let the sun in?"

With a limp turn of her head, Cter shot a glare to the overtly smiling and supposed best friend of hers holding a filled wooden spoon high. "You're enjoying this too much," the sick Monster Mage huffed which again had her cough. "Way too much, Idyll."

The expected snarky look in response wasn't visible on Idyll's face, but instead what she displayed was the complete opposite. Slowly, and without blinking her worried eyes, she lowered the wooden spoon back into the bowl. "Your arm," she pointed with a finger curled with the same worry that was deep in her eyes. "Where's your sleeve?"

Where was her…

Wait.

Where was her sleeve!

The heavy duvet was thrown as if it weighed nothing, with Cter throwing herself up even more violently. "My sleeve!" She did it too sudden and too forcefully though, causing her to just be able to straighten herself up for a brief moment before her head felt faint and she collapsed into her bed again. "My...my..." Her breathing was interrupted by coughing that had her chest aching like flu.

A towel chilled with magic was placed on her forehead. "Dammit, Cter." Idyll's swear was through clenched teeth, unsure of what to do. "Just...just lie still, okay?" She prepared herself to push down Cter if it was needed, but luckily it didn't come to that. "I'm sure the other Monster Mages are just washing it or something." It wasn't the most comforting comfort, but it was all Idyll could think of, that was clear as day from the anxiety present inside her voice sipping between her closed, uneven teeth. "Don't worry about it, Cter."

It was nice to have something cold on Cter's forehead. A cold that managed to help against the fever that had her eyes feel like they were on the brink of boiling. "Are you sure that the sleeve is safe, Idyll?" It was all she could do but plead with her friend that she was telling the truth. "That it's not gone?" To be perfectly honest though, Cter didn't really feel that bad about it. Maybe it was because of the fever and the flu-like aching with each breath and cough, but she didn't feel that scary void inside of her. Still, she still wanted it back. "Can you look for it later?" With all of her mushy soul she wanted it back. "Please, Idyll?"

"I..."

Oh…

Cter understood.

"I'm not the same sick as you parents were, Idyll," said Cter with clarity. The realization pushed away the fever and aching, sobering her up colder than the magically chilled towel Idyll held in a grasp tight enough that Cter could feel Idyll's claws through the fabric. "I-Idyll I didn't mean to." It was too late though. "It's just for a couple of day tops. I just need rest. I just–"

Each word she said Idyll's parents said too to the small child wearing the exact same held-in expression as Idyll did at the bedside of her best friend succumbed to high fever and coughs. Cter had to race her already cooking mind to remember exactly what she had heard Idyll's parents say from Idyll's memories. It pained her to relive the moments, but it hurt her friend even more. She had to weather it, even if it had her entire body arguing loudly against continuing. "It's different," she managed to utter quietly before another cough stopped her from saying more. She would though! Even if she ended up coughing blood she would still comfort her friend!

However much good coughing blood would've helped in that situation was up for debate though.

Most likely it would've just made things worse. It had Cter calming down a bit, which was for the better. Even if she wasn't sick per se, she was still very much under the weather. As far deep under the weather as she could be. For all intents and purposes, she was sick. Fever, coughing, aching, everything. Even if it was different, it was the same to Idyll, and that Cter had to be aware of. She would be healthy again in a couple of days, but if she acted like Idyll's parents did that would haunt Idyll for much, much longer than just a few days.

But if so…

"Why did you come here, Idyll?"

If it was so similar to what happened with her parents, then why did she expose herself to it again?

"You're going back to see Sarbor," answered Idyll after an inhale to collect herself and to give her a few precious seconds to wipe away the building tears in her eyes. "And I..." Just one inhale wasn't enough. "I want you healthy for that. I want..." Or two. "I want..."

Or three.

With both her arms, as human as can be, Cter embraced her friend in more need than she was. For her friend she would be human again. Only human, with nothing monster at all. "This human you will save, Idyll. This human will survive." For Idyll's sake Cter would be anything. She would be monster, human, or whatever in-between.

The tender moment between the two friends-turned-sisters hung for a long, quiet while, with only the gentle wind from outside keeping them aware of a world beyond just them two. Within the silent moment Cter felt remorse for frightening her friend to such degree. Idyll was the only one that succumbed to fear from the Crystal Day. Thousands had witnessed Cter's crystal magic with awe unmatched, and hundreds had skated on the crystal rink like their king and queen had. Idyll had been one of the ones skating. She must have been so joyful, so happy and carefree with whomever it was she skated with.

Only for it to come crashing down when she heard what Cter had done to achieve it.

The naked Monster Mage, being only human, embraced her monster sister tighter. The roughness of Idyll's scales scraped against the skin of both her arms, but still it wasn't the same as the missing aura that Cter couldn't sense. "I didn't mean to," she pleaded with her chin against Idyll's neck. The blue of her scales were the same as the sky outside. "Forgive me, Idyll."

The times Cter had thanked herself for being human had become seldom. They were rare enough that she would struggle to name any situation even if she was given time to think. Perhaps when she came home to visit her family, but even then that wasn't what she would call human, even if it was what Kurant had advised her to keep human. Her parents would still have been happy to see her even if she was monster. They loved her with their everything, including their souls.

Cter's stomach rumbling to shatter the tender moment into one of surprised laughing would be a moment she would always remember and be happy to have been human for though. It might have hurt her as she laughed hard enough to have her entire body in uproar about how to actually feel. Her fever helped less than nothing, only worsening the flu-like aching inside her.

Didn't hold a candle against how good it felt to see Idyll laughing to the verge of tearing up. To see her face go from forlorn, distant, and teetering on falling back into her memories, to exploding open with a smile that made even out of her uneven rows of teeth. She fell face first onto Cter's bed, muffling her laughter until the bounce on her muzzle had it loud again. Her head turned to the side in the air, and she finally came to rest with her arms folded in front of her, laughing herself short of breath while resting on her feather-covered cheek. Her hair was spread over her and the immediate area around her on the bed like a thin batch of poured pancake batter.

The tender moment was shattered like glass underneath a large hammer.

But the two sisters couldn't have been happier for it.

They didn't want to fall back into their history again. They didn't want old wounds to be ripped open on accident. They found no pleasure in reliving their reasons for being where they were.

"Why is your stomach smarter than you, Cter?"

Luckily, that was behind them yet again.

"I wonder about that too many times, Idyll."

No more disappearing into memories that wanted to be forgotten, but couldn't.

"Must be my cooking."

There was only the tittering between best friends.

"You wish, but I'll take whatever feeling this horribly."

Friends best enough to be sisters.

"Then no complaining about the food being cold?."

Forever.

"Use your fire magic then? Can't I at least get some service from you?"

As Idyll lifted up her head, her hair moved as if the batter was being sucked up. The blackberry and blueberry filling that was her face turned to Cter with a cocky smirk peeking forth between the many harp strings hanging down. "Bringing you food from across the castle and up several flights of stairs isn't enough for the Fourth Monster Mage?" A dismissive scoff had the golden hair sailing for a split second hung in the air heavily before returning down. "Do you wish for me to feed you as well?"

"No, for that be your wish," Cter immediately replied with an accusing point. "That was you doing it without any hint from me." Her pointing finger followed the monster chef as she stood up and mockingly mouthed her jaw like window flaps in a storm. "And I say again that you were enjoying it way too much, Idyll."

"Don't you want to open the castle gates for the prince?" Idyll sent right back with a pretend-hurt expression poorly held towards her human friend who's brow was so low it completely obfuscated her green eyes. "Don't you want to tweet for mommy bird?"

She paused to gauge Cter's reaction.

"Don't you want to–"

"How many of these do you have!" Cter finally snapped with both of her naked hands thrown in the air. "Is this what you and Barbeqa talk about in the kitchen to pass the time while the water starts boiling?"

"You honestly think that we have enough time to talk while waiting for the water to start boiling?" Frankly, Idyll was insulted. She wasn't, but it was fun to pretend that she was. "With Barbeqa's fire magic?" She ignited a powerful fire inside her cupped hand. "With mine to boot?"

"Can you to my cold stew instead of the boot?" hinted Cter with her point switching over to the bowl on the night table. "I can–" She coughed. "I can stomach sowls, but not soles."

Idyll's face shone up in a completely honest and not-pretend surprise. "Oh the magnificent Monster Mage Cter can stomach sowls?" Her voice betrayed her faux-amazement though. "This I outta go down to the newspaper with."

"Not too warm, please," said Cter as Idyll moved her fire to the bowl. "I still have a fever."

"Finger warm or pants warm?"

There was a difference? "Which one is hotter?" And didn't it depend on the pants? If it was one of Barbeqa's suggestions then wouldn't finger warm be hotter than pants warm?

"Finger warm is what you can stand keeping your finger in while pants warm is what you can stand keeping in your pants."

Idyll's answer only made things worse. "How about a third cooler than how you'd serve it warm?" Maybe that was a bit too cold. "A fourth?"

"A third colder then if that's too cold I can bump it up to a fourth?" Idyll suggested back with the bowl in her hand. She hovered her magical fire underneath it, with the long flames licking the bottom and up over the rim. "Sounds good?"

To Cter's ears stuffed closed with her fever from within, yes. "Please." She didn't hear everything Idyll said lastly as her stomach's rumbling had begun echoing within her, but she heard enough to understand what her sister meant.

She hoped.

A few seconds later, Idyll presented the partly reheated bowl of stew to her human sister. "You sure you don't want to unlock the–"

"Yes!" sang Cter with annoyance as her tone before stealing the bowl away from Idyll before the monster could say something else. "Yes, a thousand times yes, I don't want to."

"So you make childish specifications for how warm the stew has to be, but don't want to eat it like a child?" Idyll leaned back with her arms folded with a huff and her head tilted. "When will I ever understand you, Cter?"

With the handle of the spoon acting as her tongue, Cter blew a wooden and sloppy raspberry. "Yough whcill..." She removed the spoon and shifted the stew it held to one cheek. "You will never, Idyll, and that's by choice."

"By choice?" the monster challenged to the spoon pointing towards her.

The pointing spoon turned around towards Cter. "My choice." Then it returned to shoveling food as it was designed to do. "My Monster Mage choice."

"Your Monster Mage choice?"

"Yes, my Monster Mage choice."

"Power has gone to your head then, I'm afraid."

"Or the fever."

"Or both."

"Or just the fever."

"Or just the power."

Had Cter not been hungrier than she thought she was before eating she would have entertained flicking some of the stew at her friend. Her hunger outweighed that desire though.

But not by much.

Once the bowl of stew was finished, Idyll reached out to offer to take it. "You feeling full?" The question was genuine. Cter could tell that it was, even without Idyll's aura to feel at. It was the way Idyll's eyes softened. They became rounded in a way that was exclusive to her being genuine, as if it was her very soul caressing them to be soft. "If not I can fetch more."

Actually…

"Could you, please?"

Cter would take Idyll up on that offer. Eating made her realize that she was even hungrier than she thought she was.

"As long as it's not too much to ask, Idyll. It's a long way to the kitchen and all that."

The monster sister shook her head at the silly notion. "I enjoy how the Royal Garden is in bloom this time of year, so any reason for me to walk either through it or around it is a reason I will take at any second of the day." She leaned in for another hug from her human sister. "I'll fetch you some more water too, so drink up what you have left before I come back, okay?"

"I will."

No thanks were needed.

The two were sisters, after all.

As the monster chef headed for the door of the Monster Mage study to help in fetching another helping, the emergency stress and awareness throughout Cter's body was turned off seeing how relaxed Idyll's shoulders and walk was, resulting in the Monster Mage remembering that she had a wicked fever and exhaustion. "Oh golly..." she whispered with her hand touching her burning forehead.

The whisper was enough for Idyll to hear, and she turned over her shoulder with one hand on the door handle. "I'll keep the second helping heated for you when you wake up again."

That was probably for the best. What Cter needed was sleep, even if it meant sleeping on drowning spots of sweat. Luckily enough though she managed to roll over to a cooler side of her bed, collapsing inelegantly with her limbs limply spread out. As soon as she heard the door close her eyes did so as well. She heard the wet footsteps of her monster sister walking down the tower staircase as she fell asleep.

"Am I allowed to finally bring the Fourth Monster Mage her sleeve which denotes her as one?"

The monster chef's grimace turned sour as she emerged out the door at the bottom of the tower staircase. Her eyes furrowed over to the Third Monster Mage standing with arms folded and legs crossed with a slumped lean against a pillar separating two of the large windows facing into the Royal Garden. The light during the early afternoon had long, hazy strokes of light filling the marble hallway, swaying as the many leaves did in the Royal Garden.

It was a dramatic scene, with Sund standing in the one un-moving shadow among the many-moving ones around him.

Just the way he'd planned.

"Had it been Sir Gerson here he might have had you taken in for insubordination by depriving a higher officer of the Royal Guard of her sleeve which she needs to do her job."

Amid the many hazy strokes of light that glittered in the monster chef's hair hanging down her tilted-down face like a curtain, a low snarl took root, scaring the shaking leaves frozen. "You have no idea about the bond that is between us, Monster Mage." Curled lips revealed a set of uneven teeth that were clearly visible to Sund even with the hair hanging thick and long. "And I suggest you let that go before you find yourself eating charred eggs for the week ahead."

"Making threats to a higher officer directly as well, are we?" said Sund in return. If this monster chef was gonna try and intimidate a Monster Mage who was accustomed to Kry and Sir Gerson then she would be surely mistaken in her thinking. He even knew how to play favors with Barbeqa, so this Idyll Fech had no power at all. "You wouldn't be resting too much on your friendship with Cter, right? Rules are still rules, even if you have friends of much-higher ranking."

Sund's remark didn't change anything in the monster chef's expression. It was still curled and sharp, with daggers shooting out from underneath the veil of golden hair.

Good.

"Guess this is why even Barbeqa has respect for you, Idyll Fech." Sund bowed his head with a smile to his thinned lips. The blue monster passed the test with more flying colors than the ones around her, that monster chef did. Impressive. "And why Sir Gerson has decided to just let you do as you do with your leisurely wandering up and down the chain of command."

A scoff had the golden veil bouncing before Idyll swept her hair behind her with an angled whip of her head. She cocked on hip to the side which tightened her purple apron, even more so as she placed a hand on her cocked hip. "I'm not here to work for the castle, Monster Mage." Idyll threw a cocky thumb up towards her confident smirk. "I'm here to let the castle work for me. Where else in the world can I experiment with exotic and expensive ingredients without any repercussions whatsoever?"

Sund quirked an eyebrow and an innocent shrug. "Nowhere else, would be my guess?"

"Nowhere else, Monster Mage."

"Then I should let you get back to exploiting the goodwill of our Monster Royals." Sund bowed his head again. "However though, before you leave." There was just one small thing. "In regards to the exotic and expensive ingredients."

Another scoff was heard, albeit less confronting and more agreeing. "It'll take some time for it to arrive all the way from the most northern parts of Hjearta, but I will have it ready for when you come back from Clinic Hill, Monster Mage." Idyll bowed her head too. "Thank you for allowing me the time with Cter in her naked state. I...needed it." She peeked up her chin before Sund could think too much about her pause. "Even if it required payment in return."

"Cooperative Connection," explained Sund. The third scoff was a chuckle through Idyll's nose. "That sounds good, doesn't it?"

"Good?" Idyll challenged while brushing her hair with one of her claws. "In what way?"

Oh…

That obvious, ey?

The Third Monster Mage's cheeks blushed, prompting a hearty laughter from Idyll. "Barbeqa is going to enjoy knowing that I can do to you what you can to her...Sund."

He had to avert his eyes from the breathy voice saying his name through flickering eyelashes. "All good things come to an end eventually, I guess."

"Before I go though, Monster Mage." Suddenly Idyll's voice turned serious and quite...thoughtful. She looked up the staircase behind the marble wall. "You said that Cter might feel more of that inner void due to her more-advanced magic?" She shook her head. "She didn't feel any of it."

Didn't feel any of it?

How was that possible? Sund had Cter's sleeve slung over his shoulder. How did she not feel that she was missing her magic?

"I only really realized it after you mentioned the Cooperative Connection."

"That nonexistent?" Surely not? "Not even the slightest? Are you sure?"

Idyll nodded. "I am, Monster Mage. Cter did not feel any void from not having her magic at her soul." The nod turned into a slow blink. "I think..." A blink that she turned over to Sund. "I think she might be more monster than she thinks."

"Could be residue from us three giving her our magic to help her. Did she have any aura to her?" Sund stepped forwards into the hazy strokes of light. "Anything at all?"

"None what I could feel," answered Idyll. "On the outside she was all human. More human than the day I met her, funnily enough." Her eyes were lowered down to the empty bowl in her hand. "Whatever the reason is it will be up to you Monster Mages to figure out though." Then up to Sund. "I'm just a Royal Chef, after all."

"You're her friend too," added Sund with respect. "Thank you for this information, Idyll." With as much respect in kind he lowered Cter's sleeve from his shoulder into his gentle hands. "I don't know what this means just yet, but with our travel to Xoff I'll be sure to be aware of that. It can just be that her fever is high enough that her human side is completely dominating her right now, but it could also mean a thousand other things. I promise you that I will make sure that it will be something positive for her though, Idyll."

The Royal Chef bowed her head. "Until next meal, Monster Mage."

As did the Monster Mage. "Until next meal, Royal Chef."