div id="chapters"
div id="workskin"
div id="chapter-317"
div role="article"
p align="left""Your majesties!"/p
p align="left"Cter looked up from her parchment she was writing on to the wide-eyed expression on Kurant having shouted Cter's ear into borderline bleeding. The unfamiliarity of Kurant's face with her eyes so widely opened lingered for a moment before what she had yelled registered with Cter, who whipped her head around fast enough to slap her shoulder with her combined braid./p
p align="left"In the door frame of Sir Gerson's office, filling it fully, stepped King Asgore through with an angle to his decorated shoulders that still barely fit through. He lifted his hand gently to his Royal Councilors standing up to bow at him. "Do sit, please," he asked of them gently. A small smile parted the golden beard around his mouth./p
p align="left"Behind his bent down frame to get his horns through the door without scraping the wooden frame entered Queen Toriel with a similarly purple dress to her king's draping cape down his front and back. Her smile was the same as her husband's, warm and calming. "You of all monsters deserve to sit." Her long ears coiled comfortably into the collar of her dress, resting like fine wine inside an expensive glass. "Both due to how much you have done already." She looked slightly up to her king./p
p align="left""And due to how much you will be doing come the future," King Asgore finished while still keeping his smile visible through his thick beard. His cape barely moved as he closed the office door behind him and his queen, taking a step aside to let Queen Toriel through to Kurant, who had to be reminded once more by the Monster Queen to not stand up./p
p align="left"She did appreciate Cter hopping to the side with her chair so that it wouldn't be too much a squeeze for her though. "Thank you, Cter."/p
p align="left""Of course," bowed Cter while also taking it upon herself to clear away some of the parchments laid spread on the curved table. In her haste one fell down on the opposite side she was sitting, but before she could reach over to fetch it with either her hand or her magic, the impressive frame of King Asgore descended in front of her to pick it up for her./p
p align="left"He did so with a grace that Cter had only seen Queen Toriel move with. Again his cape fastened upon his wide, armored shoulders did not move, only when he tilted his head a bit more to the side to show Cter his smile fully./p
p align="left"As Cter took the parchment detailing the thoughts she had on Rasliela, the King of the Monsters still held onto the parchment, observing Cter's sleeved arm with a slight crease to his forehead. Not a worrying crease, but a confounded one. "Would you mind me taking a look at your left hand later?" he asked so gently and so warmly. No suspicion in his voice either, just with care for his Monster Mage./p
p align="left""Asgore?" wondered Queen Toriel as to why with a turn of her body like she was about to stand herself behind Cter./p
p align="left""Only if Cter wants to," ensured King Asgore to his wife and to his Monster Mage. "While I am here to restore Kry's sleeve I'd too like to tend to my other Monster Mages as well if I can." He looked to Kurant. "Your leg as well, if I may?"/p
p align="left"She nodded./p
p align="left""I don't think you should, King Asgore," brought the large ears and swaying beard back to Cter, who retreated her hand back to her with the parchment that King Asgore let go of feeling Cter tug away with her left arm. "Not tend to it, that is. I..." The image of how violently she yanked her left arm away from Idyll flashed through Cter's head. "We don't know exactly what it is or what it does. It is a remnant of the fusion, and if it were to interact with your Boss Monster soul then..."/p
p align="left""Then I'll just have a look at it then, if that's okay?" said King Asgore to alleviate his Monster Mage's worries. He stood up again before putting his large, soft hand onto Cter's naked right hand. "I trust your judgment. It is your hand and you know it the best."/p
p align="left"Unfortunately that only reminded Cter about how little she actually knew about her condition, but she was thankful for the Monster King's calming words. "Thank you, my king." She placed the parchment she had been crunching in her hand to the side along with the others about the journey to Noitaidarr as King Asgore made his way to the one he was there for primarily./p
p align="left""Kry..." The Monster King sighed melancholic. "How it has been ages since the last time I could not feel your aura among mine." It troubled the king, creasing another fold on his forehead. "And if it feels so difficult for me then I can not imagine how difficult it must feel for you." From inside his cape he brought forth a sleeve the same as what Kry had worn prior. The same lines carved onto the same leather. It was meant to replace./p
p align="left"And it was that sense that had Kry averting his eyes. "Please forgive me for making you unable to imagine, my king," he said while taking off his glasses and looking down and away from the Monster King which he made blurry as to be unable to see the lament the king had over what his chosen Monster Mage had to go through. "Had I been able to achieve what I wanted without casting away what you had given me from the bottom of your soul I would have done so."/p
p align="left"The Monster King sat down carefully in an empty chair opposite of Kry. Carefully enough as to not have it squeak. "I do not blame you in the slightest, Kry," replied the king with a wider smile parting his golden beard./p
p align="left"He caressed the deeply tanned cheek in his snow-white hand, angling up the heavy chin with his thumb. "If anything I thank you for the sacrifice you made for the monsters' sake. You losing your connection to me is akin to me losing Toriel, and I shudder with my entire being with that thought even passing me by."/p
p align="left"He did indeed, but Kry could not tell./p
p align="left""That you then managed to stand up and deliver such a magnificent speech while under such distress and pain only reinforces why I made the choice to give you my magic so many years ago." King Asgore found a tear in his eye which he let fall./p
p align="left""Truth be told, it is very strange to me talking to you without your aura. In a way you feel like a distant memory, even when my hand is touching at your skin. Again that is only a testament to your endeavors as a Monster Mage. To have developed such a strong and intricate aura so that you may be more monster than me."/p
p align="left""My king," refuted Kry, "never would I–"/p
p align="left"A raised, fuzzy hand stopped the aura-less Monster Mage's tongue. "Let me finish," the Monster King requested with a small chuckle. He gave his head a small tilt and raised one eyebrow at Kry. "You know how I feel about people throwing themselves on the ground in front of me."/p
p align="left""It is more work for the caretakers," Kry replied with the beginning of a smile tugging at the edges of his lips. He inhaled deeply while leaning his head heavier into King Asgore's large palm where he laid for a few seconds looking through his king into a horizon of his own making./p
p align="left""If I'd known how difficult it would be for me then I wouldn't have done it. The world has felt so...quiet to me, ever since. It has felt so quiet and so lifeless. Trapped, I've been. Trapped within myself without being able to know what is going on around me. I've been blinded and deafened towards what is around me."/p
p align="left"King Asgore sensed that there was more that his Monster Mage wanted to say, so he kept his hand still where Kry was resting his head which had begun to crease a few folds as his eyes narrowed./p
p align="left""I've had thoughts come to me that I hadn't before while we traveled back from Noitaidarr Castle. Thoughts that I...don't remember me ever having ever before. Fear in a way that I don't remember feeling before. A sense of loneliness, even though I knew that around me I had life-long friends and colleagues, and that when I arrived back home here in Jarasevo Castle I would be given another sleeve."/p
p align="left"But it wasn't what he felt, Cter anticipated./p
p align="left""Yet still, I found myself thinking about what could go wrong. What could be wrong. It was all..." His voice lowered. "It was all fueling itself. Each bitter thought lingered as I did not feel through my aura someone else telling me that it wasn't something I should have been thinking about. I had no aura with me. No one around me to share the bitter sense with and then suppress them since I could feel that I was the only one having those thoughts. Without that, it was possible that the ones around me could have the same thoughts that I had, and that meant that what I was thinking was true if others were thinking of it as well, right?"/p
p align="left"Kurant grabbed tightly Queen Toriel's palm on her shoulder. "Was that when you..."/p
p align="left"Kry nodded, raking through the white fur on King Asgore's palm. "That was when I woke up screaming in the carriage, yes. Forgive me for that, Kurant. I did not mean to scare you."/p
p align="left""Oh god..."/p
p align="left"He nodded again, slower. "I knew as soon as I regained myself that I had scared you, Kurant, but how could I know for sure if I could not feel your aura? I couldn't ask you, for how would you answer? I've never asked you something that was as blatantly obvious before, so how was I supposed to ask you then? We have never had to, you and I. We have never had to ask the other, and I did not want to worry you further than I already had by asking you, so I did not mention it. Forgive me for putting you in such a situation."/p
p align="left"Queen Toriel glanced down at her Monster Mage that she stood behind, running her warm thumb over the back of Kurant's palm for comfort. "Do not apologize for being hurt," replied Kurant with the aid of Toriel's support. "It is not something you should apologize for. Truth be told you did not wake me up, Kry, for I could not sleep that first night after we departed from Noitaidarr Castle."/p
p align="left"She gripped Queen Toriel's hand harder. "I could not sleep because I could hear your breathing, yet not your aura, Kry. You slept on the opposite side of the carriage, but it wasn't...you...to me. Your breathing was yours, and your scream was too, but with that distinct lack of your aura, it wasn't you."/p
p align="left"The other, large hand of Queen Toriel was laid gently onto Kurant's other shoulder, holding her secure with the queen's long, heavy ears just above the Monster Mage's hair casting an elongated shadow from the midday sun through the office window Priestess Frioke was standing next to, observing the room quietly. She and Cter met eyes for a few seconds, sharing the same thought with a joint nod./p
p align="left"To just listen, and nothing more./p
p align="left""I didn't think of you as you, so in a way I...dismissed it?" said Kurant with disappointment over herself. "Maybe it was the tiredness that I succumbed to after the shock of the startle you gave me, but I think I just...ignored it, partly. It didn't sit with me, but it also didn't sit with me like how you are next to me right now, Kry. That you screamed even more desperately than you ever had before, and that I thought of it as the least desperate you'd ever been is..."/p
p align="left""Kurant," calmed Queen Toriel while descending her ears, head, and torso over her Monster Mage inhaling hard with quivering breaths. "Be calm, my Monster Mage. It will be back to normal soon for us."/p
p align="left"Cter's eyes met with Sir Gerson's for a brief second before he deliberately broke contact and looked over to King Asgore and Kry again who's head leaned away from King Asgore's hand to face Kurant's tightly contorted expression. He looked at his colleague as she regained her composure, breathing in sharply through her nose to steel herself./p
p align="left"Cter had some guesses as to what he was thinking, but she wasn't gonna throw them out there. It wasn't the time for that. She wasn't a part of it, both having a Boss Monster presence within her sleeve and having it removed./p
p align="left"She wouldn't tell anyone, but she was relieved that it was not about her./p
p align="left"For once./p
p align="left""I'm fine now," said Kurant after another deep breath that rushed through her aura like a cold splash of water to her face. "I've said what I wanted to say." She looked to King Asgore, with Queen Toriel doing the same above her head. "You can begin now."/p
p align="left"King Asgore turned first to Priestess Frioke and then Sir Gerson, who both nodded. He stopped at Cter. "Anything you want to mention?"/p
p align="left"Frankly, no. Cter understood that it was an opportunity to take note about a situation that would not happen again, hopefully. A Monster Mage losing what it meant to be monster to them due to extraordinary circumstances was good to have noted down in the history books for the future Monster Mages, but said extraordinary circumstance was the fusion./p
p align="left"And it went against Cter's self-appointed mission to make the fusion but a memory to partake in what the Monster King was inviting her to. "I do not have anything to add," she answered to her king with a bow to her head that pulled her combined braid off her shoulder. "You may continue."/p
p align="left"She was gonna make herself aware about what was about to take place though. To be witness to a Cooperative Connection between a Monster Mage and a Boss Monster was something she was gonna have a quill ready at hand for, as well as at least two clean parchments to write down on. Perhaps even two quills, one held in her hand and the other writing magically. One writing what she was observing, and the other what she was feeling within./p
p align="left"Like...how the skeleton librarian was reading with her magic, but used for writing instead!/p
p align="left"Yes!/p
p align="left"Although, Cter did not have a quill made from her grandmother's feather just yet though, so a normal quill would have to suffice. If she practiced the first time with a normal quill then once the quill made from her grandmother's feather which she sent for in the letter she wrote after her breakfast tea would be much more useful if she had some idea as to how to write with it already./p
p align="left"Yes, perfect!/p
p align="left"Cter looked up from her loud rustling of empty parchments to the others in the room giving her strange looks at her sudden enthusiasm heavy in her aura. Heavy on her face too, as even Kry raised an eyebrow at how energetic Cter became out of the blue./p
p align="left""Sorry," she apologized meekly while sorting the empty parchments a bit gentler. The excitement in her aura brought up the spirits in the office though, cleaning the slate for the Cooperative Connection to begin in its purest of form. Both parties, the human and the monster, knew the truth of the Cooperative Connection, yet chose to have the connection be by the white lie rather than anything else./p
p align="left""Your left arm, Kry," asked the Monster King with his own right one extended for the Monster Mage to rest his on. The contrast between the fluffy, dense, and white fur and the smooth, reflective, and dark skin was like a winter river through a snowy landscape. Kry spread out his fingers to pet at the fur before collecting them together with a relaxed tightness to allow King Asgore to slip on the inert sleeve over the First Monster Mage's left arm./p
p align="left"The detailed lines were deep and numerous, like an angular spider web. "Does it fit?" wondered the Monster King. "Or is it a bit tight around the fingers? I had it made a bit thinner as per Fang Shuey's request." The King waited patiently for the Monster Mage to fasten the sleeve on the shoulder-worn fastener. Only a temporarily hold though, for once the Cooperative Connection was done Kry would hold the sleeve in place on his shoulder with either some simple weight or stasis magic like all advanced mages did./p
p align="left"Kry shook his head, flicking away a few building tears. "No, my king." To say that he felt immense relief at his left arm being covered in a sleeve once more was to downplay it. His breaths became shaky the moment the fabric touched him, with a hard swallow following shortly after. "It...it fits." Overwhelmed with emotion, and the connection hadn't yet begun./p
p align="left"It was soon to be over for him, this struggle of his to be a Monster Mage without any magic./p
p align="left""Please, King Asgore," he said quietly before having to swallow his words again. "Please, I'm ready."/p
p align="left"The golden beard and hair swayed calmly as King Asgore nodded even quieter./p
p align="left"And as he did, Cter gripped a quill in her left hand, and another with stasis magic. She wasn't afraid that it would interfere with the bonding King Asgore was about to connect with Kry's soul. Nigh, the sky falling down over the castle would have disturbed the two./p
p align="left"The two hands, white and dark, gripped at the opposite's arm tightly./p
p align="left"The linework of the Delta Rune on the back of Kry's hand began to glow gently, signifying that King Asgore was giving memories to the sleeve. White to begin with, the color of a monster's dust and soul, but as the Delta Rune grew brighter and brighter, the white drained into a single color. From the universal view of death held by all monsters, the white of the dust, he poured into his own, personal memories into the sleeve, coloring the Delta Rune a deep red./p
p align="left"Almost like...blood./p
p align="left"What Cter wrote with her hand and her magic was different as she realized. Her magically held quill noted the strength and the hue of King Asgore's magic, whereas Cter's hand-held quill wrote what she and the others in the office had noticed about the color of King Asgore's given memory./p
p align="left"It was different from what Kry had worn in his previous sleeve./p
p align="left"From the Delta Rune, the magical lines were filled like glowing creaks, stopping and turning at right angles without spilling or sloshing, preordained to flow exactly like planned and sewn. Only the monster knew how its magic flowed and behaved, so it carved the lines./p
p align="left"Only furthering the fact that Cter's sleeve was of her own soul and magic in how it was spiraling with the fact that even a new sleeve filled with a Boss Monster's magic still was angular in its lines, even if vastly more intricate than a normal monster sleeve./p
p align="left"As the magical lines grew up Kry's left arm, Cter noticed something different too./p
p align="left"As well as different two./p
p align="left"His face relaxed in a way that she had never seen it do before. The small wrinkles around his eyes smoothed as it was as if his presence descended inwards, culminating in an exhale that seemed to breathe out the darkest and thickest of smoke./p
p align="left"Cter let go of the quill in her left hand and let the one she wielded through magical means continue on its own. With Kry fully immersed within his own soul and King Asgore's memories, her hand had nothing to write about./p
p align="right"Her soul, however…/p
p align="right"His descending inwards, while moving him away from expressing anything on his face, made him feel more alive than before. Like every emotion he could not express during the time he spent without a sleeve came roaring out like a bursting dam, but that he weaved back into himself, without anything spilling out from him./p
p align="right"As King Asgore's memories reached further up Kry's sleeve, the Monster Mage's aura became again. Starting off as a tiny echo in the far distance, but with promise of greatness to follow it. While he held back the emotions he could not express without a sleeve, he let radiate the emotions he could with one restored to him. It rang out like a gust of sweet summer air across a sun-swept, green meadow, calling all that could hear./p
p align="left""My...my king..."/p
p align="right"The red lines turned yellow as Kry's aura flashed into existence, igniting his left sleeve in a blaze of red. A different red from both fire or the sanguine that King Asgore's memories had imparted onto Kry's sleeve. The red was different. It was changed. It was given to Kry in complete trust for him to change./p
p align="left"But first came the original for him to get accustomed to./p
p align="left"King Asgore stood up from his chair, rolling his shoulders back and wide, completely enveloping Sir Gerson's office with his presence. The purple cape draped down his impressive form was flung back as he thrust his left arm fully out on his side./p
p align="left""Kry," he addressed with a respect that should only be reserved for him. Inside his opened, left hand began to form a bright-red handle that expanded in length. "First of the Monster Mages." He swung it in an arc before him as three horns manifested on its end. Angled upwards over the middle of the curved table, he waited with his imposing breathing pulsating his magical trident./p
p align="left"Waiting for his Monster Mage to join him./p
p align="left"With the sparks and crackling following unfamiliar magic, Kry arose from his chair with his left arm tensed and his eyes closed. The bright, yellow lines on his sleeve began to tint, collecting upwards into his palm. "My king," he answered as a handle grew the same in his hand the same it had done in King Asgore's. "Thank you."/p
p align="left"Mere seconds later, the two magical tridents touched like a handshake with a burnt scent that reminded of the air after a lightning strike. The combined color was warm like no other./p
p align="left""Kry, the First Monster Mage."/p
p align="left"Their magic, like no other./p
p align="left""Welcome back to active duty as one of my Royal Councilors."/p
p align="left"Their Cooperative Connection, like no other./p
p align="left""And welcome back to what you truly are, Kry."/p
p align="left"Their bond, like no other./p
p align="left""My Monster Mage."/p
/div
/div
/div
/div
div id="workskin"
div id="chapter-317"
div role="article"
p align="left""Your majesties!"/p
p align="left"Cter looked up from her parchment she was writing on to the wide-eyed expression on Kurant having shouted Cter's ear into borderline bleeding. The unfamiliarity of Kurant's face with her eyes so widely opened lingered for a moment before what she had yelled registered with Cter, who whipped her head around fast enough to slap her shoulder with her combined braid./p
p align="left"In the door frame of Sir Gerson's office, filling it fully, stepped King Asgore through with an angle to his decorated shoulders that still barely fit through. He lifted his hand gently to his Royal Councilors standing up to bow at him. "Do sit, please," he asked of them gently. A small smile parted the golden beard around his mouth./p
p align="left"Behind his bent down frame to get his horns through the door without scraping the wooden frame entered Queen Toriel with a similarly purple dress to her king's draping cape down his front and back. Her smile was the same as her husband's, warm and calming. "You of all monsters deserve to sit." Her long ears coiled comfortably into the collar of her dress, resting like fine wine inside an expensive glass. "Both due to how much you have done already." She looked slightly up to her king./p
p align="left""And due to how much you will be doing come the future," King Asgore finished while still keeping his smile visible through his thick beard. His cape barely moved as he closed the office door behind him and his queen, taking a step aside to let Queen Toriel through to Kurant, who had to be reminded once more by the Monster Queen to not stand up./p
p align="left"She did appreciate Cter hopping to the side with her chair so that it wouldn't be too much a squeeze for her though. "Thank you, Cter."/p
p align="left""Of course," bowed Cter while also taking it upon herself to clear away some of the parchments laid spread on the curved table. In her haste one fell down on the opposite side she was sitting, but before she could reach over to fetch it with either her hand or her magic, the impressive frame of King Asgore descended in front of her to pick it up for her./p
p align="left"He did so with a grace that Cter had only seen Queen Toriel move with. Again his cape fastened upon his wide, armored shoulders did not move, only when he tilted his head a bit more to the side to show Cter his smile fully./p
p align="left"As Cter took the parchment detailing the thoughts she had on Rasliela, the King of the Monsters still held onto the parchment, observing Cter's sleeved arm with a slight crease to his forehead. Not a worrying crease, but a confounded one. "Would you mind me taking a look at your left hand later?" he asked so gently and so warmly. No suspicion in his voice either, just with care for his Monster Mage./p
p align="left""Asgore?" wondered Queen Toriel as to why with a turn of her body like she was about to stand herself behind Cter./p
p align="left""Only if Cter wants to," ensured King Asgore to his wife and to his Monster Mage. "While I am here to restore Kry's sleeve I'd too like to tend to my other Monster Mages as well if I can." He looked to Kurant. "Your leg as well, if I may?"/p
p align="left"She nodded./p
p align="left""I don't think you should, King Asgore," brought the large ears and swaying beard back to Cter, who retreated her hand back to her with the parchment that King Asgore let go of feeling Cter tug away with her left arm. "Not tend to it, that is. I..." The image of how violently she yanked her left arm away from Idyll flashed through Cter's head. "We don't know exactly what it is or what it does. It is a remnant of the fusion, and if it were to interact with your Boss Monster soul then..."/p
p align="left""Then I'll just have a look at it then, if that's okay?" said King Asgore to alleviate his Monster Mage's worries. He stood up again before putting his large, soft hand onto Cter's naked right hand. "I trust your judgment. It is your hand and you know it the best."/p
p align="left"Unfortunately that only reminded Cter about how little she actually knew about her condition, but she was thankful for the Monster King's calming words. "Thank you, my king." She placed the parchment she had been crunching in her hand to the side along with the others about the journey to Noitaidarr as King Asgore made his way to the one he was there for primarily./p
p align="left""Kry..." The Monster King sighed melancholic. "How it has been ages since the last time I could not feel your aura among mine." It troubled the king, creasing another fold on his forehead. "And if it feels so difficult for me then I can not imagine how difficult it must feel for you." From inside his cape he brought forth a sleeve the same as what Kry had worn prior. The same lines carved onto the same leather. It was meant to replace./p
p align="left"And it was that sense that had Kry averting his eyes. "Please forgive me for making you unable to imagine, my king," he said while taking off his glasses and looking down and away from the Monster King which he made blurry as to be unable to see the lament the king had over what his chosen Monster Mage had to go through. "Had I been able to achieve what I wanted without casting away what you had given me from the bottom of your soul I would have done so."/p
p align="left"The Monster King sat down carefully in an empty chair opposite of Kry. Carefully enough as to not have it squeak. "I do not blame you in the slightest, Kry," replied the king with a wider smile parting his golden beard./p
p align="left"He caressed the deeply tanned cheek in his snow-white hand, angling up the heavy chin with his thumb. "If anything I thank you for the sacrifice you made for the monsters' sake. You losing your connection to me is akin to me losing Toriel, and I shudder with my entire being with that thought even passing me by."/p
p align="left"He did indeed, but Kry could not tell./p
p align="left""That you then managed to stand up and deliver such a magnificent speech while under such distress and pain only reinforces why I made the choice to give you my magic so many years ago." King Asgore found a tear in his eye which he let fall./p
p align="left""Truth be told, it is very strange to me talking to you without your aura. In a way you feel like a distant memory, even when my hand is touching at your skin. Again that is only a testament to your endeavors as a Monster Mage. To have developed such a strong and intricate aura so that you may be more monster than me."/p
p align="left""My king," refuted Kry, "never would I–"/p
p align="left"A raised, fuzzy hand stopped the aura-less Monster Mage's tongue. "Let me finish," the Monster King requested with a small chuckle. He gave his head a small tilt and raised one eyebrow at Kry. "You know how I feel about people throwing themselves on the ground in front of me."/p
p align="left""It is more work for the caretakers," Kry replied with the beginning of a smile tugging at the edges of his lips. He inhaled deeply while leaning his head heavier into King Asgore's large palm where he laid for a few seconds looking through his king into a horizon of his own making./p
p align="left""If I'd known how difficult it would be for me then I wouldn't have done it. The world has felt so...quiet to me, ever since. It has felt so quiet and so lifeless. Trapped, I've been. Trapped within myself without being able to know what is going on around me. I've been blinded and deafened towards what is around me."/p
p align="left"King Asgore sensed that there was more that his Monster Mage wanted to say, so he kept his hand still where Kry was resting his head which had begun to crease a few folds as his eyes narrowed./p
p align="left""I've had thoughts come to me that I hadn't before while we traveled back from Noitaidarr Castle. Thoughts that I...don't remember me ever having ever before. Fear in a way that I don't remember feeling before. A sense of loneliness, even though I knew that around me I had life-long friends and colleagues, and that when I arrived back home here in Jarasevo Castle I would be given another sleeve."/p
p align="left"But it wasn't what he felt, Cter anticipated./p
p align="left""Yet still, I found myself thinking about what could go wrong. What could be wrong. It was all..." His voice lowered. "It was all fueling itself. Each bitter thought lingered as I did not feel through my aura someone else telling me that it wasn't something I should have been thinking about. I had no aura with me. No one around me to share the bitter sense with and then suppress them since I could feel that I was the only one having those thoughts. Without that, it was possible that the ones around me could have the same thoughts that I had, and that meant that what I was thinking was true if others were thinking of it as well, right?"/p
p align="left"Kurant grabbed tightly Queen Toriel's palm on her shoulder. "Was that when you..."/p
p align="left"Kry nodded, raking through the white fur on King Asgore's palm. "That was when I woke up screaming in the carriage, yes. Forgive me for that, Kurant. I did not mean to scare you."/p
p align="left""Oh god..."/p
p align="left"He nodded again, slower. "I knew as soon as I regained myself that I had scared you, Kurant, but how could I know for sure if I could not feel your aura? I couldn't ask you, for how would you answer? I've never asked you something that was as blatantly obvious before, so how was I supposed to ask you then? We have never had to, you and I. We have never had to ask the other, and I did not want to worry you further than I already had by asking you, so I did not mention it. Forgive me for putting you in such a situation."/p
p align="left"Queen Toriel glanced down at her Monster Mage that she stood behind, running her warm thumb over the back of Kurant's palm for comfort. "Do not apologize for being hurt," replied Kurant with the aid of Toriel's support. "It is not something you should apologize for. Truth be told you did not wake me up, Kry, for I could not sleep that first night after we departed from Noitaidarr Castle."/p
p align="left"She gripped Queen Toriel's hand harder. "I could not sleep because I could hear your breathing, yet not your aura, Kry. You slept on the opposite side of the carriage, but it wasn't...you...to me. Your breathing was yours, and your scream was too, but with that distinct lack of your aura, it wasn't you."/p
p align="left"The other, large hand of Queen Toriel was laid gently onto Kurant's other shoulder, holding her secure with the queen's long, heavy ears just above the Monster Mage's hair casting an elongated shadow from the midday sun through the office window Priestess Frioke was standing next to, observing the room quietly. She and Cter met eyes for a few seconds, sharing the same thought with a joint nod./p
p align="left"To just listen, and nothing more./p
p align="left""I didn't think of you as you, so in a way I...dismissed it?" said Kurant with disappointment over herself. "Maybe it was the tiredness that I succumbed to after the shock of the startle you gave me, but I think I just...ignored it, partly. It didn't sit with me, but it also didn't sit with me like how you are next to me right now, Kry. That you screamed even more desperately than you ever had before, and that I thought of it as the least desperate you'd ever been is..."/p
p align="left""Kurant," calmed Queen Toriel while descending her ears, head, and torso over her Monster Mage inhaling hard with quivering breaths. "Be calm, my Monster Mage. It will be back to normal soon for us."/p
p align="left"Cter's eyes met with Sir Gerson's for a brief second before he deliberately broke contact and looked over to King Asgore and Kry again who's head leaned away from King Asgore's hand to face Kurant's tightly contorted expression. He looked at his colleague as she regained her composure, breathing in sharply through her nose to steel herself./p
p align="left"Cter had some guesses as to what he was thinking, but she wasn't gonna throw them out there. It wasn't the time for that. She wasn't a part of it, both having a Boss Monster presence within her sleeve and having it removed./p
p align="left"She wouldn't tell anyone, but she was relieved that it was not about her./p
p align="left"For once./p
p align="left""I'm fine now," said Kurant after another deep breath that rushed through her aura like a cold splash of water to her face. "I've said what I wanted to say." She looked to King Asgore, with Queen Toriel doing the same above her head. "You can begin now."/p
p align="left"King Asgore turned first to Priestess Frioke and then Sir Gerson, who both nodded. He stopped at Cter. "Anything you want to mention?"/p
p align="left"Frankly, no. Cter understood that it was an opportunity to take note about a situation that would not happen again, hopefully. A Monster Mage losing what it meant to be monster to them due to extraordinary circumstances was good to have noted down in the history books for the future Monster Mages, but said extraordinary circumstance was the fusion./p
p align="left"And it went against Cter's self-appointed mission to make the fusion but a memory to partake in what the Monster King was inviting her to. "I do not have anything to add," she answered to her king with a bow to her head that pulled her combined braid off her shoulder. "You may continue."/p
p align="left"She was gonna make herself aware about what was about to take place though. To be witness to a Cooperative Connection between a Monster Mage and a Boss Monster was something she was gonna have a quill ready at hand for, as well as at least two clean parchments to write down on. Perhaps even two quills, one held in her hand and the other writing magically. One writing what she was observing, and the other what she was feeling within./p
p align="left"Like...how the skeleton librarian was reading with her magic, but used for writing instead!/p
p align="left"Yes!/p
p align="left"Although, Cter did not have a quill made from her grandmother's feather just yet though, so a normal quill would have to suffice. If she practiced the first time with a normal quill then once the quill made from her grandmother's feather which she sent for in the letter she wrote after her breakfast tea would be much more useful if she had some idea as to how to write with it already./p
p align="left"Yes, perfect!/p
p align="left"Cter looked up from her loud rustling of empty parchments to the others in the room giving her strange looks at her sudden enthusiasm heavy in her aura. Heavy on her face too, as even Kry raised an eyebrow at how energetic Cter became out of the blue./p
p align="left""Sorry," she apologized meekly while sorting the empty parchments a bit gentler. The excitement in her aura brought up the spirits in the office though, cleaning the slate for the Cooperative Connection to begin in its purest of form. Both parties, the human and the monster, knew the truth of the Cooperative Connection, yet chose to have the connection be by the white lie rather than anything else./p
p align="left""Your left arm, Kry," asked the Monster King with his own right one extended for the Monster Mage to rest his on. The contrast between the fluffy, dense, and white fur and the smooth, reflective, and dark skin was like a winter river through a snowy landscape. Kry spread out his fingers to pet at the fur before collecting them together with a relaxed tightness to allow King Asgore to slip on the inert sleeve over the First Monster Mage's left arm./p
p align="left"The detailed lines were deep and numerous, like an angular spider web. "Does it fit?" wondered the Monster King. "Or is it a bit tight around the fingers? I had it made a bit thinner as per Fang Shuey's request." The King waited patiently for the Monster Mage to fasten the sleeve on the shoulder-worn fastener. Only a temporarily hold though, for once the Cooperative Connection was done Kry would hold the sleeve in place on his shoulder with either some simple weight or stasis magic like all advanced mages did./p
p align="left"Kry shook his head, flicking away a few building tears. "No, my king." To say that he felt immense relief at his left arm being covered in a sleeve once more was to downplay it. His breaths became shaky the moment the fabric touched him, with a hard swallow following shortly after. "It...it fits." Overwhelmed with emotion, and the connection hadn't yet begun./p
p align="left"It was soon to be over for him, this struggle of his to be a Monster Mage without any magic./p
p align="left""Please, King Asgore," he said quietly before having to swallow his words again. "Please, I'm ready."/p
p align="left"The golden beard and hair swayed calmly as King Asgore nodded even quieter./p
p align="left"And as he did, Cter gripped a quill in her left hand, and another with stasis magic. She wasn't afraid that it would interfere with the bonding King Asgore was about to connect with Kry's soul. Nigh, the sky falling down over the castle would have disturbed the two./p
p align="left"The two hands, white and dark, gripped at the opposite's arm tightly./p
p align="left"The linework of the Delta Rune on the back of Kry's hand began to glow gently, signifying that King Asgore was giving memories to the sleeve. White to begin with, the color of a monster's dust and soul, but as the Delta Rune grew brighter and brighter, the white drained into a single color. From the universal view of death held by all monsters, the white of the dust, he poured into his own, personal memories into the sleeve, coloring the Delta Rune a deep red./p
p align="left"Almost like...blood./p
p align="left"What Cter wrote with her hand and her magic was different as she realized. Her magically held quill noted the strength and the hue of King Asgore's magic, whereas Cter's hand-held quill wrote what she and the others in the office had noticed about the color of King Asgore's given memory./p
p align="left"It was different from what Kry had worn in his previous sleeve./p
p align="left"From the Delta Rune, the magical lines were filled like glowing creaks, stopping and turning at right angles without spilling or sloshing, preordained to flow exactly like planned and sewn. Only the monster knew how its magic flowed and behaved, so it carved the lines./p
p align="left"Only furthering the fact that Cter's sleeve was of her own soul and magic in how it was spiraling with the fact that even a new sleeve filled with a Boss Monster's magic still was angular in its lines, even if vastly more intricate than a normal monster sleeve./p
p align="left"As the magical lines grew up Kry's left arm, Cter noticed something different too./p
p align="left"As well as different two./p
p align="left"His face relaxed in a way that she had never seen it do before. The small wrinkles around his eyes smoothed as it was as if his presence descended inwards, culminating in an exhale that seemed to breathe out the darkest and thickest of smoke./p
p align="left"Cter let go of the quill in her left hand and let the one she wielded through magical means continue on its own. With Kry fully immersed within his own soul and King Asgore's memories, her hand had nothing to write about./p
p align="right"Her soul, however…/p
p align="right"His descending inwards, while moving him away from expressing anything on his face, made him feel more alive than before. Like every emotion he could not express during the time he spent without a sleeve came roaring out like a bursting dam, but that he weaved back into himself, without anything spilling out from him./p
p align="right"As King Asgore's memories reached further up Kry's sleeve, the Monster Mage's aura became again. Starting off as a tiny echo in the far distance, but with promise of greatness to follow it. While he held back the emotions he could not express without a sleeve, he let radiate the emotions he could with one restored to him. It rang out like a gust of sweet summer air across a sun-swept, green meadow, calling all that could hear./p
p align="left""My...my king..."/p
p align="right"The red lines turned yellow as Kry's aura flashed into existence, igniting his left sleeve in a blaze of red. A different red from both fire or the sanguine that King Asgore's memories had imparted onto Kry's sleeve. The red was different. It was changed. It was given to Kry in complete trust for him to change./p
p align="left"But first came the original for him to get accustomed to./p
p align="left"King Asgore stood up from his chair, rolling his shoulders back and wide, completely enveloping Sir Gerson's office with his presence. The purple cape draped down his impressive form was flung back as he thrust his left arm fully out on his side./p
p align="left""Kry," he addressed with a respect that should only be reserved for him. Inside his opened, left hand began to form a bright-red handle that expanded in length. "First of the Monster Mages." He swung it in an arc before him as three horns manifested on its end. Angled upwards over the middle of the curved table, he waited with his imposing breathing pulsating his magical trident./p
p align="left"Waiting for his Monster Mage to join him./p
p align="left"With the sparks and crackling following unfamiliar magic, Kry arose from his chair with his left arm tensed and his eyes closed. The bright, yellow lines on his sleeve began to tint, collecting upwards into his palm. "My king," he answered as a handle grew the same in his hand the same it had done in King Asgore's. "Thank you."/p
p align="left"Mere seconds later, the two magical tridents touched like a handshake with a burnt scent that reminded of the air after a lightning strike. The combined color was warm like no other./p
p align="left""Kry, the First Monster Mage."/p
p align="left"Their magic, like no other./p
p align="left""Welcome back to active duty as one of my Royal Councilors."/p
p align="left"Their Cooperative Connection, like no other./p
p align="left""And welcome back to what you truly are, Kry."/p
p align="left"Their bond, like no other./p
p align="left""My Monster Mage."/p
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