"You ever feel like you've done a job too well, pray?"
Cter was more taken aback by who it was that asked the question than the actual question itself. "What?" she reacted out of reflex while putting down the parchment about potential book purchases she had been noting down the last year to get for her study's extension into the cone of the castle tower.
It hadn't been signed off on yet, but it had been leaning towards that as Cter had leaned more and more onto Fang Shuey to get the project going with Donial's expertise. The ghost custodian was still adamant against the idea, so much so that Cter was forced to mend the beam she broke with her own crystal magic.
With Donial's cover job having marched steadily to a finish though he would need another excuse to be renovating Jarasevo Castle for looks to the humans outside its walls but for defense to the monsters inside its walls.
He could have gotten a very excellent excuse by marrying Idyll, but strangely enough the two had moved quite slowly on that front. To the point that–
"I've had a few instances of that during these last few years."
What?
Oh, right, the question.
Cter blew on her parchment to dry the ink real quick before setting it aside and giving Sir Gerson the attention he was fishing for by throwing the magnifying glass he had in his hand confidently like a very boring juggling act.
The glare from the convex glass darted around his office as it ascended with his confident throw then came back down to a calm, collective catch on its handle over and over again. Sir Gerson sat with his legs crossed up on the corner of his desk, his foot tapping towards the sun-covered landscape outside with the same rhythm his thrown magnifying glass oscillated up and down.
Had King Asgore been there he would have pocketed the darting sun cat for use in the Royal Garden on a rainy day. The one he had given Cter long before she still had stored...somewhere.
"None have brought me the satisfaction I imagined it would though."
A blown-up smile tugged at the blown-up lips Cter saw through the magnifying glass Sir Gerson finally caught still, holding it loosely on its wooden handle.
"They've all been more than I would've dared imagine."
The Fourth Monster Mage watched the turtle monster's smile widen to a row of large teeth through his held magnifying glass. It was a sight quite unfamiliar to be worn by Sir Gerson, but it looked natural on him.
Barring the widened perspective of the smile, naturally.
"Not what I expected you to say, if I'm going to be honest," Cter commented with some uncertainty in her voice as Sir Gerson stood his magnifying glass on his desk with a finger on its top. He gave it a spin, oblivious to the fact that its glare whipped across Cter's eyes. She sank down a bit in her chair as to not have her vision covered completely in purple dots. "Why did you ask, if I can be so rude?"
The spinning magnifying glass was stopped by Sir Gerson slamming a hard, green thumb at its side. "Because if I say it later when the rest have gathered here I'd have to explain to all of them rather than just you. Unlucky for you, Cter! Wa ha ha ha ha!"
Out of all days Cter chose to skip her morning routine sitting in her window sill drinking tea it had to be the one weekly meeting when Sir Gerson decided to sing a song he had apparently been keeping in his soul for quite some time…
With a defeated sigh that prompted another laugh from the Leader of the Royal Guard, Cter hung one arm over the backrest of her chair. "And why do you feel like you've done a job too well?" she asked like she was reading the next item on a list.
"How long has it been since the Noitaidarr Trial, Cter?" Sir Gerson tapped with his magnifying glass. "You wouldn't mind reminding me?"
"Five years next month," Cter answered straight while wondering why it was that he needed to be reminded of it. There was no way that he would have forgotten it at all considering that the waves its revelation tossed up had been on the Royal Councilors' plates ever since. No matter how much work they did it had been piling up.
They had hindered it from piling up beyond what they could handle, but it was still piling up regardless. From the rumblings at the Monster Hunter guild and at Soul's School to the withdrawal of humans living in Jarasevo back to their home countries. It wasn't an exodus, far from it. Frankly it was only a trend visible in the logs of human residence in Jarasevo collected by Jarasevo Castle, but still.
Somewhere in those logs was Cter's name when she registered her mage business when she was a lower case monster mage. When she became a proper Monster Mage her name had been removed from the logs as part of her becoming a monster in the monsters' eyes. They even had her witness it being struck which was a bit strange to her at the time. It was a lot of fanfare for just a quick whip of an inked line.
Although that was more the rule rather than the exception when it came to whipping inked lines on important documents.
"Five years," repeated Sir Gerson out loud. "That makes..." He mumbled a few numbers before finding what he looked for. "One and a half instances per year at an average." He spun the magnifying glass again. "Far, far more than what I've felt about my duties prior to the trial."
"Which was on average?" Cter asked after putting up her sleeved hand over her eyes to block the spinning glare. After realizing, Sir Gerson angled the magnifying glass, sending the glare up into the ceiling instead.
"Quite few," the turtle monster answered at the next beat after Cter's question. "And not quite a few, but just quite few." He adjusted how he was leaning against his shell, creaking his chair and desk in the process. "Not anything to decorate the yule log with, if I'm allowed. There is joy to be found planning things and playing a game longer than any one human could understand due to their lifespan, and there have still been moment where I've been proud over what I have managed to accomplish. Us sitting here so casually is in large thanks to that, if I'm allowed once more to toot my own horn."
"If so then am I allowed to ask if me becoming a Monster Mage was one of those few times you felt proud of what you have managed to achieve?" Cter tooted as well with an eyebrow raised in challenge to the Leader of the Royal Guard.
The same hard, green thumb stopped the magnifying glass abruptly once again accompanied by a slow, deliberate tilt of Sir Gerson's head to inspect Cter. He let his eyes move slowly up and down the Monster Mage before shrugging. It only took a simple, perky "A lie" from Cter to break and shatter the turtle monster's facade of being unimpressed and dismissive about Cter's slightly facetious pondering.
"Of course you Monster Mages are on my list of proud accomplishments," Sir Gerson said while laughing, making it impossible for Cter to tell if he was saying it in jest or sincerity. "We wouldn't have been able to keep the Cooperative Connection going had it not been for you."
Wouldn't have had its truth be revealed too…
"Oh come on now," Sir Gerson read on Cter's face draining away from her smiling. He folded down his legs from the corner of his desk to face Cter fully. "I am not going to tell you again that it's not your fault, Cter." He put his palm together, folding in his fingers, excluding his index fingers which he pointed with authority towards the Monster Mage sitting at the curved table. "And you know that." He bounced his hands to emphasize. "You feel it too."
Well...yes, she did. Thing was though that...well...
"I'm just confused as to why you're so cheerful all of a sudden, really," Cter replied with a loose shrug. "Out of the blue you say that you're proud over what you have accomplished half an hour before we are to meet to discuss the letter that came in last night during supper." She extended her left arm at it laid on Sir Gerson's desk. "You know something that I don't about it, Gerson." That was her only explanation as to why he was so calm about it.
"Something you've set up earlier, right?" She didn't want to be so confronting about it, but Sir Gerson acted as if he bordered finding it exciting that things were becoming tenser and tenser with the humans with each passing day. Sure, Cter remembered that he made a statement about how he found pride and a meaning in life with his quest to protect the monsters, but he can't just start keeping scores about it and bragging that he had achieved new heights to said score.
It made things strange.
A claw tapped on the wax sigil of Mt. Ebott that kept the letter closed. "This letter I have expected," said Sir Gerson gently. "I have expected it because King Asgore and the Xoffian King are good friends and he has heard of it earlier than this letter could arrive."
He picked it up the letter between two fingers, "The reason I haven't told you or Kurant about this is that Kry and Frioke are confirming with King Asgore that the magic on this seal is true," and with a flick of his strong wrist he sent the letter spinning horizontally over to the curved table where it landed smoothly in front of Cter. Mt. Ebott on the wax seal was even facing the proper direction for her with its strong peak pointing towards Sir Gerson in its sanguine, dented color.
"Magic on the seal?" wondered Cter out loud while taking the letter in her right hand. She turned it only to find a handwriting so cursive and fancy that no one was able to read it. It must have been addressed orally to the courier during postage rather than the courier reading the address on the letter, surely. Just following the line of the pen made Cter slightly seasick with how much it slashed violently across its white canvas.
"I haven't heard us having to confirm the magic before, to my knowledge." Cter turned the letter around again to inspect the wax seal. There was some magic on it, but it was quite weak. More of a hint of magic rather than anything discrete to it. "Is it the King of Xoff's magic?"
"A Boss Monster's magic is strong enough to linger much more potently than other monsters, that you know," assumed Sir Gerson casually while putting up his feet on his desk's corner again. "And King Asgore has given some of his potent magic on a stamp for the King of Xoff to use whenever he needs something sent that is of utmost importance to both kings."
With his magnifying glass Sir Gerson tapped once and heavy on his desk, smearing the end of the handle slightly. "It has happened a few times before, but today it was expected." His palm opened up at the beautiful day outside. "Expected like the sunrise this morning and the..."
The turtle monster's hand clutched and his legs retracted from the dark, skittering pour of spiders inviting themselves through the opened window with a sandwich-shaped parcel. The many, many legs moving from stone to wood did not mask the sound of the Royal Guard's leader grinding his teeth with a pair of squinting eyes following the sandwich parcel as it moved to a stop just before Cter.
"One day these spiders will release something to the newspapers, I just know it," he grumbled under his breath while Cter fished in her robe for some money to pay the spiders with. "And if all I've done throughout the years gets put into the light for all that shouldn't hear it due to spiders delivering sandwiches then I'm not sure how I'll handle it."
After handing the spiders the asked-for amount of money on the receipt fastened with some silk on the sandwich parcel and letting them sort it into neat piles Cter put two of her left fingers together and formed a sharp knife out of crystal to cut the parcel with. "We don't have to worry about that as long as they get paid for what they've been asked to receive."
The skitter reversed, pouring down the curved table's leg and up to the office windowsill and out it. "The spiders can really do one thing properly, be it carry the sandwich, count the money received, or guide the rest of the group." Cter waved with her left hand, including her crystal knife, to the last spider waving goodbye at her. "The Spider Butcher informed me of that when I first helped him. Never did I have to order them to do something more complex than to carry large pieces of meat though. Just ordering the small army of spiders that was necessary was complex enough."
Once the crystal knife hit the bottom of the parcel Cter smashed its flat side against the lip of the curved table, ringing out a loud, beautiful tone as it broke into pieces followed by a trickle of gentler tones as the shards bounced to a standstill before fading away. Cter handed one half towards Sir Gerson who nodded that he wanted it. With stasis magic Cter floated the half over to the turtle monster who flipped through the layers of ingredients in the crystal cross cut like an interesting book.
"I recognize the bread smell from when the wind chooses to take to the streets of Jarasevo before it heads up here." One particular layer of ingredient he found quite interesting. Enough so that he opened up the sandwich fully to pluck it out. "Is this?" he asked a slice of sauce-splotched meat as he held it up to the sun through his office window. "It's lamb from Xoff..."
How he said it had Cter aborting her first bite into her sandwich with her teeth halfway through the bread.
"How the..." slipped off Sir Gerson's stunned tongue as his attention recoiled between the held-up piece of meat and the dug-through sandwich staining the parcel parchment as if Cter had thrown it rather than used stasis magic to get it to Sir Gerson. His other hand searched and found his magnifying glass which he used to study the dotted ingredients in the slice dripping with a sour vinaigrette. "Singe my soul, how does a damn Spider Butcher get a hold of choice-cut sausages from Xoff when..."
When luxury trade had been steadily declining between Xoff and Monster Country?
Good question, actually.
It had gotten to the point where Barbeqa had been forced to change up some of her recipes due to spices, fruits, cheeses, meats, etc. having been traded less and less between Monster Country and the human countries.
It began with jewelry and gems when trust towards monster jewelers sank in the wake of trust sinking for the Monster Hunters which was in the wake of trust sinking for Soul's School and so on. Efforts were made to not have trade fall too much, but not enough to stop more and more things being declared luxury goods and thus being heavily restricted when it came to trade between monsters and humans.
So finding a slice of Xoff-made sausage in his surprise sandwich-half was indeed something that piqued Sir Gerson's interest. "I ought to ask the Spider Butcher," nodded the turtle to himself. "If there are trade routes that are either ignoring or refusing to believe the truth of the Cooperative Connection that can be useful for us..."
With a fold he placed the slice of choice-cut Xoff ham back into his sandwich half. "Can't launch an investigation though. Can't bring light to what's hidden if I want it to still be hidden," he then explained to his restored sandwich while taking a sturdy grip on the bread's crisp exterior.
A shame that he continued talking to himself, for he didn't hear the crunch of his fingers breaking the brittle, golden crust. A pleasant sound that he surely would have enjoyed. "Got to be more too than just the Spider Butcher. Perhaps a small deployment of Royal Guards to see which luxury businesses are still operating and still selling luxury goods?"
It was as far as he got to voicing his thoughts before he bit down on his sandwich half with a snap. He chewed rather exuberantly, tearing into the fresh bread with an energetic fervor that grew and grew with each bite he took.
To be fair to the turtle monster eating like a child tearing apart a freshly baked muffin, it was a very good sandwich. Cter could detest to that fact.
After she had finished her half, naturally.
"Right," made Sir Gerson known after he had finished his half of the sandwich and suckled off the last drops of the vinaigrette from his fingers. The cheap parcel paper stained with fatty spots he crumbled into a ball which he then lobbed into the basket he had next to him filled with similar crumbled-up balls of parchment.
He quelled a burp that inflated his cheeks, knocking away a few crumbs that clung out of sight as to not be eaten. "Despite this though I still don't approve of the pour of spiders in through my office window when we're tending to sensitive material." Another burp had him speeding through the end of his sentence, catching the burp just in time. "Good sandwich though." He wiped his mouth. "Very good. Does the Spider Butcher do the bread as well?"
Cter still had bites left to get through with her half. "Don't think so," she answered between one bite which she caught more salad than meat with. "Or at least, I haven't seen any bread ovens that he would be using then. My guess is that he's getting from a bakery. There are a few between where I used to live and where he has his stall, so he has a few options."
"Mmm yes," came as a reply more out of obligation rather than interest. Sir Gerson had, between asking and getting an answer, seemingly completely forgotten that he had asked in the first place and had begun scouring a binder from a drawer in his desk with the use of his magnifying glass. "Options, yes."
Since the bread seemed to become uninteresting to the Royal Guard leader as soon as it reached his stomach, Cter opted instead for something else. "Your magnifying glass," she brought up, finally. "I never really saw you with it before the Noitaidarr Trial. Been using it more and more ever since."
Sir Gerson held it up curiously. "This?" Not because he didn't know what it was, but because he didn't know why it took so long for Cter to ask about it. "I assumed you already knew about it since you've never really paid any mind to it."
Well… "Guess today's the day."
Sir Gerson shrugged. "Fair enough." He angled it to have a sun cat wandering around in his palm. "There was a priest in Xoff that King Asgore and Queen Toriel studied mathematics with for a few years after their marriage in preparation for their eventual ascension to the Royal Purple. He was a human fascinated with glass and its properties. Was always seen wearing spectacles even though he had good vision when he strolled Noitaidarr Castle. He even introduced to the Monster Heirs the wonders of the telescope and star gazing which Queen Toriel would then pass down to Prince Soulay via the blanket she did sew for him."
The wooden handle Sir Gerson pointed with towards Cter. "You owe your magic to this Xoff priest of years past, Cter."
She took another bite as a response.
"This priest also enjoyed to have me at the castle too. I was there to guard the Monster Heirs as a reason to travel with them, but really why I was there was to help the Xoff military with restructuring after the self-exile of King Kheydan."
The handle pointed down at the sealed letter with a quick wink from Sir Gerson.
"The priest was curious as to my rank and my duty, especially in that it was similarly vague to his rank and duty. Mine was, and still is, to protect the monsters. His was to keep to hope to the people of Xoff. Both tasks were very broad, we concluded with newfound companionship, and to help me narrow down when needed he gave me this when Prince Asgore and Duchess Toriel got too excited and curious as to how the night sky would look back at Jarasevo Castle. The priest told me that there would come a time when I would need to take everything into one task rather than have one task be everything, and with this in my hand I would be able to make the shift more easier for me."
With her hand half across her mouth mid-wipe, Cter nodded along with Sir Gerson's story. "And has it helped?" she asked before thinking.
Quick footsteps outside the office door stole Sir Gerson and Cter's attention away, and a second later it opened. "It's real," informed Kry with Priestess Frioke and Kurant behind him. Without saying anything else the three newly arrived headed over to their respective chairs.
Sir Gerson met Cter with an eye through his magnifying glass, enlarging how it smiled.
"It got me half a sandwich, didn't it? Wa ha ha!"