Cter wasn't gonna hide the fact that she was a bit jealous of Kry as he was taught how to hold his magical trident by King Asgore at the more vacant corner of Sir Gerson's office. Jealous in a good way though. Like a friend seeing another friend getting a new, fantastic toy. Sure, Cter would want one herself, but she was happy that her friend had one. That way the two can still play with it together.

Besides, if her jealousy became too much for her she could make her own trident with her crystal magic. Wouldn't really be the same though since then she would be making it her own instead of being given it as a gift.

She wasn't gonna be greedy though.

Especially not with how much life was back in Kry as he and King Asgore talked and asserted different stances with their tridents at their side, in front of them, and gripped at the ready for sparring. Hands shoulder width apart, over and under grip, and feet placed with the shoulder closest to the trident's fork held forward.

None of that Cter knew, obviously. She only listened to Sir Gerson mumbling behind her as he peered over his flat-folded hands underneath his nose. "Arm at a right angle when standing at honor with the weapon," he continued as if he was reliving the first time he was teaching King Asgore about those first principals of weapon wielding.

Cter was curious as to what exactly was flashing through Sir Gerson's memory, in particular his subdued giggles. She entertained the idea of bringing up the suggestion to wander through his memories with the excuse that it would be good if Cter knew what Sir Gerson did about weapon handling so that she could teach him further when Sir Gerson wasn't available.

"You're still unsure about that, ey, prince?"

With how delightfully Sir Gerson let that trickle from his licked lips it was clear that he wasn't gonna let anyone else savor the delight of training another one in the art of trident usage. His green-scaled head shook slightly with his eyes locked on King Asgore changing the angle which Kry's elbow bent. "Golly, golly," he savored ever more. "You've been slacking a bit, king."

"I've told him," chimed Queen Toriel in with a neutral smile while she tended Kurant's knee up on the curved table. The gentle green glow of her healing magic disappeared underneath the straps and metal hinges of the knee brace of the late Dr. Sallus' design. "But you know how he is at this time of year with the Royal Garden in bloom and harvest, Sir Gerson." She put one of her hands onto Kurant's shoulder, pushing gently. "Can you turn your body a bit so that I don't twist your knee?"

The Second Monster Mage nodded with her eyes still closed. She was making notes about the Monster Queen's healing magic so that she could reproduce it more exact. With Dr. Sallus departure there were none who could make physical adjustments to her knee brace for more comfort, so it was up to her to make it more comfortable magically instead.

Kurant had wanted to do it on her own, but with Kry losing his sleeve and his connection to King Asgore it was no wonder that Kurant asked Queen Toriel to refresh their connection a bit, if possible. mSeeing someone else lose something you yourself have is a good way to be reminded of what it was you had, after all.

"Anything more and I might fall out of the chair," said Kurant with her folded arms shifted to the side for balance. "Do you need more?"

Queen Toriel shook her head lightly enough that her ears did not move. "It is fine, my Monster Mage," she replied while rolling up an arm to expose fur even more glistening-white than King Asgore's. She tucked the rolled-up fabric under her dress' shoulder before continuing with caressing the knee brace with her healing magic. "Can you feel where exactly I'm applying the healing?"

Kurant's eyes closed harder for a moment. "Underneath the strap leading from the right-side hinge to the left side hinge across the hollow of my knee. At the...second vertical strap up to the wooden support?"

A proud smile exposed a queenly fang. "That it is, Kurant." The Monster Queen continued to massage in the healing magic into both the knee brace and the knee it held. "My, I've almost forgotten how intricate this contraption is." Then another queenly fang popped out from behind the thinning lips widening into a cheekier smile. "Guess it is good that we are working together to make sure that is won't become abracive on you."

Cter caught the tiniest thought about walking out the door despite the presence of both Monster Royals surging through Priestess Frioke's aura, fast and sudden enough to have one of her long ears twitch. It wasn't enough to catch the attention of Queen Toriel giggling to herself, luckily.

Well, luckily was a bit hyperbolic since if anything Queen Toriel would have enjoyed the annoyed reaction. She searched for it on Cter, but found none, to her playful dismay. "Kneed I say another one?" the Monster Queen asked with a small dance to her head. Cter put on a small laugh at the queen's quip. "How long has it been since we had this quaint a moment?" came a more quieter contemplation after a pleased and content sigh from the Monster Queen. Cter still searched through the question for any hidden quips despite the sincerity of it. "We should have tea together soon in the Royal Garden, don't you all agree?"

"Tea?" heard King Asgore, and nothing else. His wide eyes turned over his wide shoulder rimmed with glowing red. "Do we have tea here? I did not smell any upon entering, so do you mean a kettle at the ready?"

"I can fetch some," offered Priestess Frioke before Sir Gerson could. She was already stood up, and also not cooking up sinister training regiments behind her flat-folded hands underneath her nose. "Golden Flower tea from the storage or should I ask Barbeqa to dry some freshly picked ones from the Royal Garden?"

With a sheepish glance around the office that ended up on Priestess Frioke leaning up from the wall behind her, ready to go, King Asgore scratched his beard-covered cheek. "Oh no, no," he began still sheepishly but transitioned into his ordinary, deep voice. "Please stay, Frioke. Do not trouble yourself on my part."

A raised eyebrow from the Monster Queen had the Monster King turning back to the far corner of the office where he was occupied at. The eyebrow sank down among a few sighing shakes of the queen's head. "Sometimes I believe his beard to have grown into his ears, stuffing them." Her heavy ears bounced with an exhaled chuckle.

"To boot I've yet to understand how far he's apparently capable of lowering himself in his kingly humbleness. That he has yet to learn that being so humble when his stature and title impose the greatest of respects will forever haunt me." The way she said it though… "Oh, woe is me, and heavy is the crown."

Not really the slightest bothered by it.

Since what she wore was a tiara.

"If it wouldn't be too much to ask," the Monster Queen, so unburdened by her humbleness of her stature and title, mentioned following an inhale through her nose meant as the most artsy of breaks. "I do would like some tea, dearest Monster Priestess." She smiled at the blue-eared monster. "Would you kindly ask Barbeqa to dry some freshly picked Golden Flower petals?" In the corner of her eye she noticed Cter. "Actually, why don't you ask Idyll Fech to bring it up here to us?" The same corner of her mouth smiled wider for Cter.

Priestess Frioke bowed her head and ears as she pushed herself up from leaning against the office wall. "As you wish, my queen." Before she headed for the door, she raised her index finger to get the queen's attention. "If I may, could I later detail what you and Kurant are doing with her knee brace and your healing magic? I'm to detail Kry's new sleeve and the process he and King Asgore used the Cooperative Connection, so it would be a good idea to detail what you and Kurant are doing too, I believe."

"Certainly," nodded the Monster Queen and Kurant in unison. "We can detail the administrative after the tea, perhaps?"

"That we can do, my queen." Priestess Frioke bowed again. "I'll have the tea here soon."

As the Monster Priestess crossed by Cter she showed the parchments she wrote on when Kry and King Asgore formed their new Cooperative Connection. "My view on the event." Priestess Frioke took the parchments with an acknowledging nod, skimming through them quickly before reaching the office door.

"And if I may to you, Cter?" made the addressed Monster Mage turn away from the door to Queen Toriel inspecting the back of Kurant's knee brace. "A personal question, if I'm allowed to?"

Of course she was. "What is it, my queen?" She was the Monster Queen, after all.

"Look," began Toriel before catching herself, biting down on her lip for a moment before releasing it with a flick onto one of her queenly fangs. "I'd like to ask you as an equal, if I could, please? I want you only to answer if you are feeling comfortable with answering."

"Maybe if I ask it instead?" offered Kurant with one eye peeking open. "If that's better?"

Cter appreciated Kurant's offer, however her curiosity won over what it was Toriel wanted to ask about. "You can ask, Queen Toriel," said Cter while jumping her chair a quarter circle to fully face the purple-dressed queen. "What is it you want me to answer you as an equal about?"

It was quite difficult for Cter to see Queen Toriel as an equal with the way the sunshine through the office window reflected off the pearl-tipped collar as well as the tiara that rested carefully on her head. Strangely though, as she readjusted how she sat in her chair, the air around her reminded Cter of when Idyll worked at Krygino's tavern in years past.

Queen Toriel had worked there too more years past, so in a way that made sense that they would share something between them. That it was an air of commoner completely snuffing out the splendor of her queenly status and demeanor that the two apparently shared from working at the old Jarasevo tavern was quite surprising to Cter though. She'd imagined that it would have been a recipe of sorts or something similar.

"Cter..."

Oh, right, the question.

"Don't feel that you have to coat your words," continued Toriel with a tilt of her head more sharply than usual. Enough to displace her ears flopping out of her dress' collar hanging down past her shoulders. She stopped just short of leaning forward with one palm heavy on her knee for intimidating support. "Be it sugary or bitterly." Toriel looked directly into Cter's eyes, observing deeply within them.

"How do you feel about not being either King Asgore's, Sir Gerson's, Priestess Frioke's, or my Monster Mage?" She paused to study how Cter's eyes and aura reacted. "How do you feel about not having a direct Cooperative Connection, for that matter? Does it feel lonely to you? Does it feel...as if you're not being worth the same, despite your incredible progress as a Monster Mage and that you were at the center point of where the fusion happened?"

Toriel's eyes might have been absent of all that made her queen, yet even without it, there was still a warmth to her words, even with her more lax demeanor that seemed to hearken her back to a time when she wasn't a queen. Cter hadn't really understood what Queen Toriel had meant by asking as an equal, but where Toriel had gone seemed to not have expelled any effort from her.

"Why I am asking," she added after noticing that she had caught King Asgore's ears, as well as Kry's. They both had turned fully towards her, curious as to Cter's answer, "is because of what you did at the human trial, Cter."

"What I did?" blinked the asked Monster Mage. One of the blinks traveled to Kry, with the rest of her head following shortly after. "How do you mean?" she asked back while her combined braid swung in an arc across her torso.

"Taking on all the blame for what happened at Clinic Hill," said King Asgore, taking away Cter's absentminded attention at Kry. The Monster King offered to take his Monster Mage's trident, but Kry confidently dissipated it into the palm of his hand. The king followed the same with his, giving back the color of the office to the bright sunshine through the one window present in it. The returning sunshine also woke Sir Gerson up from his memories, returning him to the present.

"We would like to know why exactly you felt that you needed to," continued King Asgore with Kry taking lead before him otherwise he'd be impossible to see behind the king's figure.

"And if it was due to you proving yourself to us monsters that you still are fully dedicated with both your heart and soul. Seeing as today both Queen Toriel and I have reconnected with our Monster Mages it would be a good time to ask you if you are feeling lonely with your own magic, or that because of your lack with Cooperative Connection with anyone here at the castle you feel that you need to do more than both Kurant or Kry in order to be the same as them in the monsters' eyes?"

King Asgore glanced at the door with a lamenting sigh.

"We are also asking because we now know how both sides react when a true Cooperative Connection is lost."

Both sides?

What did he–

Cter's combined braid swept harder across her torso as she spun around towards the door fast enough to jut her chair with a high-pitched creak. "Frioke," she breathed out in a trickle. "She..."

"She did not offer to bring tea out of the goodness of her soul," chimed Sir Gerson in with a neutral, detached look over his office.

"Not fully," corrected Toriel. "She offered out of the goodness of her soul, but she took the opportunity because she wanted to." With a soft motion she managed to drag Sir Gerson back from the distant horizon he had detached himself towards. "It'll do you good to talk with her."

The turtle monster looked down, contemplating. His forehead had managed to crease like a crumpled note before he huffed out an angered, disappointed groan at himself. "You're right," he agreed with a furrow to his brow that he raised towards the door. "I know where she'll be," he said over the stacks of parchments on his desk before he stood up without folding his hands behind his shell. His steps were long and hurried. "Please excuse me," he still managed to say even through the denseness of his aura. "We'll be back with the tea shortly."

And with that, Sir Gerson left his own office, leaving behind his colleagues and Monster Royals so that he could join Priestess Frioke, wherever she was in the castle.

For in truth, there was nothing for either him or Frioke in the office.

"Sund..."

For their Monster Mage was not there. Would never be there. How were they gonna reconnect then?

Cter expression deflated as she heard Sir Gerson's footsteps through the door. They did not sound at all like his, almost as if he had heard Cter say Sund's name through the thick wood.

"There was more than just the official reason as to why Priestess Friok could not follow to Noitaidarr," explained King Asgore as he offered Kry back his seat. The Monster Mage took the invitation, but slowly. He did not want to risk any noise from the chair drowning out King Asgore's voice, even if it would have required the combined noise of all the chairs in the castle to achieve that. "She did not want to share it with you as you would have more to worry about than her."

"Truth is that she felt that she was not strong enough to argue about Sund's demise," continued Toriel as King Asgore seated himself too next to Kry. "And more, about what the humans believed should follow his death. Without his Cooperative Connection she has..." The color in her eyes faded slightly. "She's been sat more in the Royal Garden than previously. Her time with Dr. Fech has been good for her though to have someone keeping her company in the Royal Garden, but with his departure back to Xoff soon..."

"It has been good for her," repeated King Asgore with a hand on his queen's shoulder. "She'll be stronger for it, Toriel."

Toriel's hand caressed her king's hard with her chin lowering and her eyes closing. "I truly hope so, Gorey." The weight of the hand on her shoulder was comforting to her.

"And adding to it that the lie she constructed around the Cooperative Connection being seen as something that was against the humans rather than for the monsters I do need hope for her. The lie was for the humans' benefit too. Why can't they see it? There would be war between them had the monsters not been the mediators of human magic. The Royals of Hjearta agreed to keep us monsters in mind when hearing about the trial. They told us," a returned Queen Toriel told her king behind her without turning. "They promised us over tea. A human queen's promise to a monster queen, and a human king's promise to a monster king."

King Asgore's other hand folded over his queen's grasping on his resting on his queen's shoulder. A white tower of tensed fingers holding on to what they loved most in the world. "The Hjearta delegation still have a ways left before they're back at Fenkeep Castle," said King Asgore as he rested his cheek between Queen Toriel's horns. "There is no sense worrying about it now, Tori." His head rose and fell with Queen Toriel's long sigh. "We have to worry about those in our castle first and foremost before we can worry about anyone outside it."

The two Monster Royals looking over to Cter at the same time had her flinch slightly, but quickly recovered from it as King Asgore lifted up his head from his queen's with a loving peck next to one of her horns. "Forgive us for going on a tangent away from you, Cter," asked the Monster Queen.

"The trial at Noitaidarr castle has put some things into preliminary motion which we've made sure to prepare for, in case of, but never truly believed to be necessary. To preserve the political balance between humans and monsters we outta move carefully through now that there has been shone a light upon something we kept in the dark for reasons the humans would never be able to understand."

Queen Toriel shook her head with an angry furrow. "Forgive me again, Cter," she huffed with disappointment at herself. "I am being unfair to you now by tripping over these tangents back to back." With another huff she exhaled her anger at herself and inhaled a full focus at Cter. "May I ask again if you are feeling left out by not being a Monster Mage connected to someone here at the castle?"

Seemed like Cter had to answer the question lest Queen Toriel beat herself up more. Really, the answer was simple. The simplest an answer could be.

"No, I'm not."

But it was too simple to be in the same conversation as all that came before it.

"I don't feel like I am less connected to you than what Kurant or Kry are," Cter continued while extending her left arm. "If anything I think that it is good for us that I have my own magic. Not only because it makes sure that we have the most advanced knowledge of human magic, but also that I can serve as even more a mediator than Kry or Kurant can since I am not directly connected to the Monster Royals." She shrugged. "If anything I am more a Royal Mage here at Jarasevo Castle than the Third Monster Mage, and that I think the other Royal Mages feel too. I say that in a good way, I promise."

"You still feel like you are a Monster Mage though?" wondered Kurant while pointing between Kry and herself. "Because we do. Everyone does. There is no one in this world that believes you not to be a Monster Mage."

"And neither do I," clarified Cter. "However, I do think that I'm seen differently than you two are, especially from the two Royal Mages. I'm not seen as...connected to the monsters as you are, even though I am arguably more connected due to..." She began to tug loose her inert sleeve, but only came as far as emptying the top part of her sleeve's fingers before regretting it. "In a way you also see it that way with your worries about me feeling that I have to prove myself more for the monsters' cause."

Contemplation took over Queen Toriel and King Asgore for a few seconds before they came to the same conclusion which they shared by standing up at the same time, moving their chairs to the side, and kneeling down in front and next to Cter.

"Thank you, Cter," said Queen Toriel before embracing the Third Monster Mage.

"Thank you for giving us trust beyond measure," added King Asgore as his arms enveloped the Third Monster Mage too.

It was warm within the Monster Royals' arms.

Warm and soft.

It was nice.