"Could I have a minute of your time, Monster Mage?"

Yet another mage that was stood outside Cter's room waiting for her.

How many times...

"Only if you have one to spare, that is."

She had, technically. There was still time left of the court room break. However though, Cter was already stretching things thin by requesting to go back to her room to fetch her inert sleeve. Not a lot of what she had said during the first half of the second day of the trial had actually been heard what with everyone staring at the soft glow of her left arm, waiting.

Ironically, for her to be seen as more human she apparently had to wear her Monster Mage sleeve. Couldn't have her a pair of sleeveless arms while talking about a more human perspective of things, it seemed.

"There would surely be talks about bias should anyone see you and I talk," Cter answered while tugging tighter her sleeve over her fingers. It didn't work with the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr, but perhaps it would work with this other mage from Hjearta? "They don't have to hear what we're talking about. All they have to do is see us talking about."

The other mage from Hjearta, who Terri had told of from Cter's visit to Fenkeep Castle. What was her name again…

"Then if you answer me quickly we won't have to worry about that happening," mused the other mage from Hjearta who's name escaped Cter. She bowed her head wrinkled with aged wisdom, letting her white hair trail down her left cheek. "I am Lerjung," the mage introduced. "Former Royal Mage of Fenkeep Castle and one of the first generations of human mages."

On her right arm which she held over her heart she wore an old sleeve that sported large spots of flaking and mending. A quilt of leather and felt, almost. Between the spots of resewn leather and felt ran thin lines of magic, dodging and weaving between the patches. "At your service, Monster Mage." From Lerjung's aura Cter felt...not a whole lot, to be perfectly honest. Not hidden like with Rasliela, but due to a lack of aura. It was weak.

That weak for a Royal Mage?

"I hope you've recovered well from yesterday, Cter." Hearing her name spoken with such an old and gentle voice had Cter flinching slightly. It had the same soft cadence as Romrom's voice, but it was human instead of monster. "Never in my many years have I ever seen someone so magically exhausted as you were."

Cter too recognized that the old mage was skating around something, both in her voice and her aura. Romrom had done the same when Cter had asked what it was her monster grandmother had done in Jarasevo for her to have made the promise she made. "You seemed well enough to continue today and to expand on what you did yesterday, but to continue is one thing. Once the court reassembles it'll be something new entirely, and that takes more out of you then continuing down the path you were going initially."

Took a lot out of Cter to continue too. She had to reiterate her involvement in the creation of the fusion in more detail to help drive home the point of the extremely specific circumstances that essentially forced the fusion to be created.

Talking about how it was all an extremely tragic event which could never happen again considering said extremely specific circumstances while waving around an arm which was a consequence that still lingered like open wounds visible for all to see on Cter's arm wasn't really putting actions the same as the words she spoke.

It was akin to talking about how safe a fire was while her arm was in the process of self-combustion.

"I'm as well as can be, considering," answered Cter with another tug on her inert sleeve. The barricade magic around her fingers had it fitting more snug than before. "Like I said to the Court Speaker I feel well enough to still be a part of the trial, and will continue to uphold the Court Oath that I took. I'll also warn beforehand should I want to do something similar."

"The town criers have tolled their handheld bells about what you did. Noitaidarr has echoed with your words more than they did yesterday in the court room." Lerjung looked down the white hallway towards the Xoff capital. Cter's pupils widened uncomfortably at the bright. "The fusion is now known throughout the entirety of Noitaidarr, as well as your plead to only blame you for it and the tragedy at Clinic Hill."

With a glint in her eye and a slow motion of her sleeved arm Lerjung summoned a form of magic that felt simple to Cter. "It'll only be a matter of time before it reaches the rest of Xoff, then Monster Country, and finally towards Hjearta. While King Asgore and Queen Toriel managed to get word about this trial to us first I don't think you monsters will be able to tell Hjearta about the fusion first. It'll be a human view of the fusion that will be the first to be heard, so naturally the only move you monsters can make now is to angle this human view more towards how you want it to be seen. Hence, this."

Lerjung motioned with her unsleeved arm towards Cter's sleeved one.

"I am not wrong, am I?"

That was more a question towards Sir Gerson than Cter. He was the one that tugged a cheeky smile at the notion of tugging at the humans' empathy as humans rather than monsters. Strangely though, hearing Lerjung lay it out like she did in front of Cter as if she had a winning hand in cards made Cter understand the card game a bit better. Sir Gerson was always thinking, at the very least, one step ahead of things. He preferred two or three steps ahead, normally. Five when playing chess with Professor Leraull via post.

Despite Lerjung's slightly shorter stature than Cter's, her Hjearta-ornated robe with its bright colors and that she had laid out Sir Gerson's plans without a lot of effort had her standing taller than Cter in the moment.

That meant that Lerjung's aura was excited though. That she had just done some form of magic too added to the stirred pot that was her soul. After not being able to read Rasliela's aura no matter how much Cter tried, it was too easy an opportunity for the Monster Mage to just let slip away.

The worries about being found out dropped out of her mind like a ball of lava from a pleased Vulkin.

But would it scorch just the same?

"You're not wrong, no," admitted Cter, immediately sensing an updraft of self-pleased from Lerjung. "It's the only choice we can make, really. Even if it is one that we ourselves wouldn't expect to make it's one that we had to do."

Surprisingly, Lerjung didn't gloat, nor did she push it any further. That she caught onto the monsters' plans was enough for her. She chuckled out her small, pale nostrils and put her hands on her hips while she shook her head. "So many years and he's still the same," the old mage said to herself with a flood of memories behind her sentence. It rattled through her aura, causing the faint, weathered lines on her sleeve to glow briefly. She slid it behind her back, careful not to have her robe shake too much. "I'd wager that Priestess Frioke is the same too?"

Cter might not have been stunned by her side's plans being laid out complete before her, but Lerjung speaking about Sir Gerson and Priestess Frioke as if the three had dinner parties every month or so?

That had her brow dancing and her lips smacking dryly as she struggled to figure out a good explanation. True, Lerjung said that she was the first Royal Mage at Fenkeep Castle, and that would certainly have put her in contact with both Sir Gerson and Priestess Frioke at one time or perhaps even twice. Meeting just once or twice wasn't enough for Lerjung to figure out the monsters' strategy just by correctly guessing that it was Sir Gerson that had formulated it and then following along from that.

"Why isn't she a part of the prosecuting side, pray tell?"

Cter blinked. "Hm…? Who?" Then realized. "Ah, Priestess Frioke?"

Lerjung nodded back, patiently. "Yes, Priestess Frioke. I imagined that she would be here considering her role in things magical at Jarasevo Castle as well as her being equal to Sir Gerson in rank when it comes to the Royal Councilors."

Cter had to blink again. She wasn't used to humans knowing that much about the Royal Councilors to the Monster Royals. Humans being briefly acquainted with the Cooperative Connection was what Cter was used to. She had to give credit to Lerjung being a mage, and a former Royal Mage at that.

Still though…

"Equal rank means that it would be superfluous for Priestess Frioke to also attend. Matters of national security and the defending of monsters and monster interests falls on Sir Gerson's shoulders." That answered Lerjung's question, but Cter suspected a followup. "All the Monster Mages are present here because it is our duty to keep a balance between humans and monsters. Like how you need to keep in balance your salt and water to prevent heat exhaustion, in a way."

"I see," replied Lerjung, impressed. "Yet still..."

Yet still Cter fainted the previous day.

Yes, she was very much aware of that. "I know how difficult it is to convince a human otherwise to what they already believe, despite evidence and the saying that one should put more weight on things being a misunderstanding rather than an act of complete malice."

"Complete malice is a perfect act, and no human act is perfect?"

It must have been an older saying that Lerjung stated, but the thought was the same. "Yes." Cter motioned vaguely over Noitaidarr. "Even more difficult now that it'll travel without the full context or the follow-up of today."

"I don't envy your position," offered Lerjung with sympathy. "Despite your incredible magical abilities and the fact that you've even managed to create your own magic, things are still stacked against you and your colleagues."

"Stacked against, and keep getting stacked."

At least Lerjung's aura told of genuine sympathy. A silver lining against the bright white of the marble hallways drenched in the midday sun.

Oh however weak the silver lining was against that bright white though.

The bright white of the walls.

Her fingers.

And the carvings on her left arm.

"Apologies for the retread, Monster Mage, but how is Priestess Frioke? Is she the same as Sir Gerson is the same?"

Oh no need to apologize in the slightest! Talking about Priestess Frioke instead of the trial hanging over her like the darkest of clouds?

Any day of the year!

"She's fine."

No, more.

"How do you mean the same, exactly?"

Better.

"Well," Lerjung began while motioning her sleeved hand in another wide, vertical arc across the width of the hallway, "I was the first Royal Mage appointed by Priestess Frioke. A title not as old as that of the Monster Mages, but one that still means a lot." Her voice perked up with pride. "An honor which I've been forever grateful to her for despite her insisting that I don't need to be. She's never said no to the bottles of mead I've brought over as gifts for her though so..."

The mead at Fenkeep Castle was pretty good so Cter understood why. She'd tasted it both in Frioke's memories as well as on her own tongue. A nice tang to it. Very fruity.

"Sir Gerson was present at Fenkeep Castle to supervise the tail-end of the restructuring of the army and castle garrison to involve monsters. Following King Soulay's rule magic became a more integral part of Hjearta society. Soulay's Academy for Humanities and–"

"Soul's School," interrupted Cter out of reflex.

"Soul's School was commissioned as a joint project between Hjearta and Monster Country, something that would eventually lead to Clinic Hill here in Xoff." Lerjung hurried past that fact so that there wouldn't be time for more to be said about Clinic Hill. "I had a grandmother that become a mage when Soul's School was finished and swung its doors open for both human and monster students. She was present at its opening, and stood between Sir Gerson and Priestess Frioke as the ribbon was cut with a scissor that had one blade of metal and the other of conjuration magic made by Frioke. King Asgore and Queen Toriel were present too, and happily attended the first lesson in human history as students."

Lerjung's grandmother was present at the opening of Sund's School? But that was…

"She lived a long life," Lerjung answered before Cter could ask. As she did it looked as if her wrinkles deepened as she looked down her body with a tired sigh. "And so have I. I'm more monster than you in terms of lifespan." The old mage immediately regretted saying that, and her cheeks loosened a bit more from the frown she gave to herself.

"Not in terms of magical ability though." She said it as if Cter was about to mention it too. "With the increased human affinity for magic throughout the generations as well as the more focused teaching of magic at Soul's School it's safe to say that my position as a Royal Mage was more akin to a parade uniform rather than a functional one."

With a slightly happier nod, Lerjung drew Cter's attention to further down the hallway.

"No, closer."

A few inches down the hallway.

"Yes, there," said Lerjung with a growing smile that smoothed out her deepened wrinkles. "A wall of illusion. If you look closely you can see some shimmering at the walls, floor, and ceiling." Cter could, but it looked very, very faint. "Since this hallway is majority the same color even I can make a convincing-enough illusion to fool those glancing over here from the end of the hallway where it connects to the grand hall. Don't move around too much though, for then it'll be obvious that there's something here."

That and the magical presence from the illusion too.

"I'm relying on people assuming that our distant conversation is from the grand hall," the old mage had to admit with some shame to her weak magic. "Sight is weighted more than hearing though, so if they look down here just to find nothing and no one then they'll think that the sound isn't from here."

Cter should have raised a wall of barricade magic to make sure that it was only her and the old mage that would hear their conversation. It was the smart and logical thing to do. However, the calm that Lerjung had when explaining that there wouldn't be no worry had Cter trusting in the old mage.

"While a Royal Mage I quite often did feel like it was all an illusion with me having my position. My magic was outclassed by the freshmen years of Soul's School just a couple of decades after I left it, yet still none challenged my position as a Royal Mage. I was able to ignite the first fire in the tiled stove of the Royal Hall at Fenkeep Castle each autumn to bring my hopes into the warmth that would protect us throughout winter, but anything more difficult than that was mostly relegated to other mages that were visiting, or one of the monsters at the court."

Lerjung scratched at her temple with her sleeved hand.

"I haven't asked Terri yet how he does the first fire for the autumn considering his affinity for ice magic, but I'm sure he has figured something about it. It should be his turn coming up after we return home."

"I've seen him do fire magic when we were studying at Soul's School," replied Cter with a small, magical flame in her left hand. It tickled a bit strangely at her fingers with the magical warmth reacting with the barricade magic she had over her fingers. It would take a bit of practice for her to essentially be casting two separate types of magic at the same time.

Three types with the healing magic on her carvings too. Keeping separate and distinct emotions in her soul as well as the different ways to cast the magic she'd already had practice with before though through her own crystal magic. Keeping the barricade magic as thinking of Sund and the fire magic as thinking of herself worked to begin with.

Still though, it tickled strangely, and Cter extinguished the flame a second or so after summoning it. It wasn't a good idea either to exert herself magically too, even if it was just a small, magical flame.

"Oh, you two were in the same class?" perked Lerjung. "That I didn't know."

"Under Professor Leraull," continued Cter. "A very good lecturer. He managed to make me a Monster Mage. That's a feat, if nothing else."

Lerjung's eyes narrowed with her smile. "It's good to hear that Soul's School is able to produce Monster Mages still. I know that Kry, the First Monster Mage, was privately taught, the same as I, the first Royal Mage, was. Soul's School was mostly to make connections for me, but the more humans we give the chance the better it'll be in the end."

She hung on her last word for a good few, long seconds. Throughout the long seconds, a dark shadow gathered over her eyes as she tilted her head down slowly.

"As long as I've been alive I've always been told and thought to myself that the end goal of human magic would be the discovery of the human soul." Her grandmotherly voice became bitter, fitting of her old age. It had Cter feeling the same anxiety as the few times she saw Romrom furious enough to let all the cynical and negativity she had seen throughout her gather together. "And I would be lying if I wasn't heartbroken hearing that the human soul had been discovered amid the deaths of the entirety of Clinic Hill."

With just a look Lerjung made Cter a scared child frightened by the shift in tone in her grandmother's voice. "I've seen friends and family age and die that I should not have seen age and die before me, leaving me behind in this world. I've stayed alive through multiples of beyond my time and endured walking through the fallen down I once saw as children playing around my knees. Fallen down that now reaches up above my old knees which should have given out over a century ago, I feel."

The thin lines on Lerjung's sleeve tensed as she hardened a fist, stretching thinner the already-faint glow.

"I have endured putting what is most human aside. I have endured not growing old alongside those I've loved so dearly, only to hear that the human soul which I've stayed alive for brings nothing but death and destruction from its discovery."

A reluctant huff rolled out between the old mage's thinned lips.

"I left behind those I loved the same as the world left behind me in terms of what can be possible with human magic. I've had a lot of time to think about whether or not it has been a fair trade, but even today it's still a mystery to me. Mages today are capable of things impossible in my time, and I'm alive to have that rubbed in my face. I was happy about that once, but not anymore. Not when what I stayed alive for was revealed to be nothing but the death I've skipped."

Cter didn't move as the old mage's dilapidated sigh had her entire stature sagging tiredly, aging her up to the age she should have been. "Just tell me this, Monster Mage. Tell me, I pray to your soul and heart." She looked at Cter again, but with eyes softer than anything else in the world. "Were you responsible for the human soul as you testified that you were?"

Cter…

She…

"I testified under the Court Oath," she answered with her eyes averted. "What I told was from my heart. I told the truth, and only the truth."

Another scoff vented through Lerjung's small nose. "You protect the monsters above letting an old mage find peace." And a second one as she heard the accusatory tone she spoke with. "It's good that you do, Cter. The monsters need you as their Monster Mage."

"I'm sorry," Cter offered, but was rejected by a hard shake of Lerjung's head.

"Don't apologize for the choices I made on my own behalf. I've heard that too many times throughout my many, many years. It rings hollow to me, and I became desensitized to it after the first hundred times." There was more. "I never had children because I knew that I would have to most likely watch them grow up older than me. I distanced myself from other humans."

Not all humans though. "Terri spoke of you before when I visited Fenkeep Castle. To him you were family." Was it because he too had magical potential? "He was the one that invited you here, wasn't he?"

The old mage blinked, her head tilting slightly down. "He was. I still have some authority being the first Royal Mage even if I'm not the current Royal Mage. Terri does a good job. I'm glad that he's the one that replaced me. His family of herbalists I've known about from before they changed over to spices and cooking herbs rather than curative ones. I was the one that discovered his magical potential, so it is fitting that he was the one to replace me. The cold heart of Hjearta beats from his ice magic. His heart too beats for his country. His heart and his s..."

Sour and bitter regained authority over the old mage's face. With a pair of heavy brows the dark shadow took over her eyes again. She inhaled deeply through her nose, breathing out disappointingly. "I wish that I could see past you tainting the discover of the human soul, Monster Mage." The words were the heaviest she had ever spoken.

She could feel it in her own soul, which she winced against. "Lifetimes of waiting only to have the worst case scenario presented to you can not be undone by a couple of days of explaining. I… I can not think of it other than betrayal. All of those I told I had to stay alive longer to as they became fallen down around me now I see was wasted breath. Wasted breath and a wasted life."

A tear formed and lodged itself inside a deep wrinkle underneath one of the old mage's brown-tinted eyes.

"I'm sorry, Monster Mage."

Any more though the old mage could not muster enough to weep.

"I've been a human for too long."

The old mage stepped through her illusion magic, dismissing it with a tired motion of her sleeved arm.

But only a step later, she paused. Behind her, she did not see the Monster Mage. There was nothing, just an empty hallway. Only a faint shimmer at the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Through the thin crystal magic Cter had painted with the image of an empty hallway, she looked the old mage directly in the eyes. "To answer your question," she said, waiting for the wrinkled, brown-tinted eyes to find her through the thin crystal magic masking as illusion magic. "Priestess Frioke is her same like Sir Gerson is his same. I'll let her know that you said hi."

Lerjung opened her mouth to thank the Monster Mage, but decided against it. With a gritted expression she turned sharply around, her Hjearta-ornate robe billowing with the sudden movement.

"She's not who she used to be though," Cter let know through the thin crystal wall, stopping the old mage once more in her track. "There was a time before you met her when she wasn't a Monster Priestess. When she was only an apprentice. She was more chipper, but the weight of her responsibilities as the one that discovered human magic has subdued that a bit. Inside though, and when she sits in the Royal Garden at Jarasevo Castle reading her romance books, you can see who she was before the weight of her choices was put on her."

Lerjung's neck turned slightly.

"She showed me," answered Cter to the question Lerjung couldn't state. "She showed me who she was before she confirmed Prince Soulay's magical abilities. She was different." Cter chuckled through her nose. "Sir Gerson was the same though."

Why Cter was telling Lerjung all of this she didn't really know exactly why herself.

"He had white-gold hair, Prince Soulay."

Maybe to make Lerjung feel young again?

"Priestess Frioke was a tad disappointed when it grew to the more usual blonde. It became sun-colored rather than sun-bleached. It reminded her of pancake batter, funnily enough."

Maybe to let Lerjung know that despite her long life there was a lot she still didn't know?

"Sir Gerson agreed with that, but also agreed more that they perhaps shouldn't let anyone else know."

Maybe to let Lerjung know that two could play the game of not changing the mind after just a few days of knowing the other? She did not know about Prince Soulay's pancake batter hair, that much was obvious in her expression and in her aura.

"Because it wasn't something that was worth sharing for nothing good could come out of it."

Whatever the case.

"Keep that in mind now that we have shared the truth of Clinic Hill, former Royal Mage."

Cter needed to head back to the court room.

"Remember to drink some water, Lerjung."

She faded away her crystal magic rather than letting it shatter into pieces.

"As should we all."

Just felt more appropriate that way.