"You want to do the honors, Cter?"

The Monster Mage was handed a large sledge with great effort from the jester monster curling his horns to be able to hold it. His smile was quivering, fraying at its edges due to the sledge's weight.

Cter did not notice the strain and effort the jester monster was underneath at first. Her eyes were elsewhere, looking up. Up at the ceiling of her study. Up at the bottom of the cone of the castle tower.

Would she want the honors of finally getting underway the extension into the tower as she had been wanting for so many years?

Viscous, orange magic expanded out of Cter's sleeve like molten glass, climbing and sinking up and down her left arm out to the tips of her sleeved hand and continuing behind her neck and down her right arm similarly.

As she easily took the sledge from the jester monster breathing out in thanks, the viscous nature of the orange strength magic tensed, solidifying thin strokes of muscle-like patterns as Cter's fingers closed in over the long handle. She hadn't used strength magic in a while, and even less with such a wide application of it, so the magical muscles weren't as detailed as Barbeqa's fiery ones were.

But while the form wasn't all that, its function was what was needed perfectly.

Donial's robe cascaded upwards from the draft following Cter's wide swing upwards with her given sledge, forcing him to push his robe down lest it peeled him naked. A loud thud rocked the study as the sledge connected with the roof of Cter's study creating a wide, crackling crater that immediately began to chip pieces that rained down onto the Monster Mage and the handful of monsters around her.

She caught the pieces with stasis magic, easing them down safely onto the floor. With a hard pull she dislodged the sledge from her study's roof, handing it over to a wide-shouldered wolf monster who's wide shoulders deflated as he looked up at the damage on the roof. His ears flopped down with a small whimper.

A whimper that was cut short by Donial clapping his hands together and clearing his throat for the attention. "And with that, let us begin!" He opened his clapped-together hands, bowing towards the worker monsters who nodded in acknowledgment.

The deflated wolf monster went to work despite his ego having been shattered. After waiting for his ghost colleague to wiggle through the crater Cter made in the roof, the wolf monster swung the sledge up where the ghost told him to. A sheep monster with short-shaved fur collected the pieces that tore off the roof with a conjured broom.

Donial gave Cter a look with his stitched eyes. "And with that." He bounced with his eyes towards her study's door before taking lead to it. Cter followed, and closed the door behind her. Muffled yelling was followed by muffled crashing that was followed by muffled sweeping. An...interesting series of sounds to hear from where she was supposed to be sleeping later in the day.

"If I may?" waved Donial gently to get Cter's attention from her door over to a table set up in the corner next to the spiraling stairs down the castle tower. On it laid a large roll that the jester monster rolled wide, weighing down with a pair of conjured shapes on each rolled-out short ends of the parchment. Cter saw a small resemblance in the conjured shapes which only came to more light as Donial motioned with his hand within his green robe at an oil lamp, igniting it.

"Are those...in the shape of Idyll?" asked the Monster Mage instead of inspecting the plans of her study's vertical extension. She reached for the one closest to her to turn it towards her. "Oh, it is." She spun her head a bit too quickly to Donial, bordering on confronting. Her combined braid followed half a second later, jouncing to a standstill while the jester held his head slightly craned back.

The horned head returned forward through the process of a few nods. "Yeah," he answered carefully. "Yeah, they're in the shape of Idyll." A quick look ricocheted his star-shaped eyes between Cter and the conjured idol of Idyll. "S-Shouldn't they?"

"No, no they should," came as a bit of an awkward answer. "I was just a bit surprised by them." She picked up the Idyll closest to her, catching the parchment trying to roll back with her right hand. From the conjured Idyll Cter could feel that Donial had created it very easily. Couple that with the detailing depicting both each of her teeth in her smile and the majority of the strands of her hair it was clear that they were a couple, if proof was needed. A couple coupled enough for Donial to make a couple of her very easily.

Cter blinked away the thought as she put the conjured Idyll back down to weigh down the roll again.

"She likes to see me work when she gets the chance," said Donial as if he was defending his magic and the shape it was in. He shrugged, lifting his green robe. "Not many chances these days though, unfortunately." There was disappointment in his voice and aura. "I know she would have loved seeing you make that first hit with the sledgehammer, doubly so if you then would have asked her if she wanted to make the second one."

Oh he knew Idyll very well. "Would've been nice to see her use strength magic again, yeah," chuckled Cter. "She had it when we met. She told you that?" It was a bit of a secret that Cter had changed Idyll's magic, after all. However, with the biggest secret of all floating across the world like a heavy cloud of miasma for years perhaps that smaller one had come to light too.

"Idyll has told me about what happened with the two of you during that night in your apartment down in Jarasevo, yes." The flickering light of the oil lamp accentuated the fabric-textured furrow of Donial's brow. "That the two of you accidentally connected your souls after Idyll opened hers up too much for you." He shook the furrow away, as well as the growing shade in his aura.

"My apologies for that, Cter. It's just that..." A small scoff poked at one of the corners of the blueprint. "Well, I've been closest to her physically, but you've been closest to her in terms of closeness to soul. I'm not going to say that I am jealous, because I'm not sure if I am. It's...strange though that I am the one she loves, and who I love back just as much, if not more, but you are the one that is closest to her soul. I don't know if I should have that closeness as a goal or to try and leave it be, is all."

"She don't really stops talking about you when I met her, if that helps?" offered Cter sheepishly. She wasn't really ready for Donial to lament that he felt that Idyll loved Cter more. It was true...in a way. They both loved each other as sisters, and if that went deeper than her love to Donial Cter wasn't really in a position to comment on.

She was a bit biased in the subject, after all.

A relaxed chuckle relaxed the jester monster's tensed shoulders and collar. "Not too detailed, I hope?"

Unfortunately...yes. "But not too too detailed, at least," Cter quickly added seeing Donial's smile sink with mild horror and peril. "She stops at her crushing her own throat when looking down to take off her shirt more easily." That was not exactly true though. "I stop her there, that is." Cter shook her head with a slow exhale. "Always in the nick of time, and never before. Always gets to that when I'm in the middle of chewing and or drinking. Keeps me on my toes, she says."

"Oh I'm sure she does..." said Donial with an equally slow exhale that matched Cter's perfectly. A variety of emotions filled his aura like the tingling feeling one gets when a hand or foot falls asleep. His head shook again. "At least it's with a Monster Mage she is sharing it and not her superior." The star-stitched eyes widened. "I'm on thin ice enough with that one without her being told how Idyll and I spend time with each other."

"Thin ice not the best place to be when a fire monster is huffing her flames larger against you," offered Cter with her deepest empathy.

Donial's coughed-out worry echoed down the spiral staircase. "Can say that twice, I can't."

...Can't say that twice he can…

...

Oh well.

"What about Fang Shuey, the Ghost Custodian?" Cter's curiosity had her asking. "In regards to my extension, I mean?" She explained with a point over her shoulder at the worrying sounds muffled through her study door. "It's been a few years that I've tried to get this going with her, but it has always been a brick wall with her. One that she just phases through without giving me the time of day to ask her about it, even."

The jester's star-stitched eyes almost unraveled with his hesitant inhale and sudden tilt of his head. "About that..." he said with his hesitant air. "I know of Ms. Shuey's reputation around the castle due to her rather...dense personality, considering. Translucent in form but not as much in soul. I won't say that I haven't come across that myself during my many interactions with her, but it has not been as bad as the castle has made her out to be."

Mhm?

"I can't really make an enemy of the one I have to work the closest with here in the castle," Donial added seeing Cter fold her arms with one eyebrow raised. "It would be you making an enemy out of Sir Gerson in comparison, wouldn't it?"

Cter could concede on that point. "Is it more that you tolerate her better than us?"

"I respect her in that she has managed to keep this castle as white and glistening as the day it was inaugurated despite the Royal Guards' best attempts to be mindful about other things," said Donial so quickly that his words stumbled together in their echo down the spiral staircase. "A lot of the rooms I refurbished were in quite dire need even with Ms. Fuey's best efforts to keep them worthy of the castle's promise and image. She showered me with thanks seeing me work for the first time."

Perhaps that was why she could tolerate Donial apart from all the other monsters in the castle since he was there to fix up the castle rather than wear it down by living in it. The first net positive to the castle in ages, according to her? "Pray, Donial," pondered Cter out loud, "when she's been visiting you throughout the time you've been here, did she ever phase through the walls you were fixing? Any of the furniture too?"

The question took the jester slightly aback. "She did..." he answered vaguely while leaning his head to the side to help shake out a better answer. "After a while she did. In the beginning she knocked on the door, if I'm remembering correctly."

Well that told everything Cter needed to know. Fang Shuey was so surprised and or shocked about someone making a net positive on the upkeep of the castle that she could not phase into the rooms Donial were working on in the beginning. She couldn't not think about it so it became physical for her. Then she must have become used to Donial working and could phase through once again.

Seemed fair enough.

"I'm sure I can trust your memory," assured Cter with a smile. "And if not then I'm more sure that Idyll can tell me something that's vaguely close to the truth." How vague it was though depended on the question.

A few beats passed by with only the muffled demolition behind the Monster Mage and jester monster lit dimly by the old oil lamp on the table. "Speaking of her," Donial said quietly while glancing over to the conjured weights in the shape of Idyll that Cter had looked at.

He reached over the rolled-out plans to turn it towards him the same as the other one was facing as well. "Or to be more specific, speaking of me speaking about her." His sigh bent down one of the plan's edges. "You remember a while back when I came to you asking about your help in me trying to keep Idyll out of the...things happening in the world?"

The very bad idea he proposed which Cter luckily managed to talk him out of? Where he was essentially asking Cter to either change or block his memories so that he wouldn't be able to answer when Idyll came to eventually pry more about what he was actually doing at the castle? "Yeah, I do." It wasn't something she would have agreed to do even if she hadn't managed to talk Donial out of it.

She had changed how monsters used their memories to make changed magic. She had experienced the memories of a few monsters herself. Never had she ever touched a monster's memories in order to change it though. Cter had only changed how the memories expressed themselves, never how they were.

So Donial asking Cter to change or suppress his in any way, shape, or form?

No.

And that was all the she answered.

"I would like to ask you something else about that too, if that is fine with you?" The star-stitched eyes looked softly at Cter. "Something similar."

Something similar didn't fill Cter with a lot of confidence. Considering that she managed to talk Donial out of it the first time by advising him that Idyll would not push a subject she knew was something he did not want to talk about, even if she would tease about it. She knew where the boundaries were, but had a habit of trying to expand those by the way of good food to lower the defenses.

She wouldn't push those boundaries out of a will to know though, but instead out of a will to see those close to her become more comfortable with sharing their burdens. Since Donial hadn't come asking for more advice later on Cter assumed that things seemed to have worked out in that regard.

What swirled inside Donial's aura more diffuse than the light from the flame through the soot-painted glass of the oil lamp though was different than when he approached her about Idyll the first time. There was something a bit more urgent in his lowered shoulders and weight onto his flat palm against the rolled-out plans. A bit more defeated rather than planning ahead in case something did come up.

Something had already come up.

And Cter had her guesses as to what.

"The council called by Hjearta to be hosted here in Jarasevo?"

It was if Cter's question slapped at the back of Donial's head. "I've done so much!" he grunted after slapping the table with his hands to push him up from his hunch over. "Done so much to keep her away from it all!"

Between his loud echoes there was quiet from inside Cter's study.

"God, she doesn't know half of what happening outside the castle walls, and I've been so happy that she doesn't. She's been happy about it too. Each time she has overheard some new friction between humans and monsters her aura has sank like a rock in a damn lake. Now, what I've done so much to protect her from have invited themselves here! Humans and their damn–"

The stitches at the ends of Donial's lips began to unravel, loosening his mouth like frayed ends of a collar. His deep breaths blew at the loosened fabric like wind before a storm tugging at clothes hung out to dry. What had been a soft smile continued to unravel until it was a fabric-frayed, jagged frown which would have continued in a tear up to his eyes had he not caught himself with a shocked inhale that sucked in the curtain-like lips with a high-pitched, flapping sound.

"Dammit all," he cursed quietly with his hand massaging between his horns, shaking his head disappointingly. A loose thread was shook out his mouth, hanging at the edge of his mouth like a stray strand of black spaghetti. Black, dense smoke began descending out his mouth. "Give me a second, I beg."

"Sure."

Cter had also noticed similarly about Idyll. It didn't take many rooftop meals for her to stop asking Cter about things relevant to what was happening outside Jarasevo Castle. Fewer questions about how the food was at Noitaidarr when Cter was there and more questions about how she could leverage her relationship with Donial to perhaps get a better room for herself. Less about what Cter was doing and more how she was doing. Less experimental seasonings to the stew and more elaborate dessert that Idyll wanted to give to Cter.

Their hug for the night had gone from a minute to long enough that both forgot about the time. The color dancing among Idyll's hair going from golden orange when she began embracing Idyll to a silvery white when she felt that she was done was all Cter knew about the time that had passed during their hug. The "See you tomorrow" the two friends shared had not changed at all though. It had remained the exact same throughout the turmoil-filled years. They still had each other. They still were friends.

They still were sisters.

"I'm not usually one for swearing," commented Donial while pulling the last on the thread at the edge of his mouth to tighten close the stitching on the inside of his lips. "It's vulgar and shows that you don't have control of the situation."

He touched at his cheeks to make sure they were the same as before. "Since I am entrusted with refurbishing something so culturally and royally significant as the interior of Jarasevo Castle, where the dust of the old Monster Kings and Monster Queens is still felt among its many..." Then tied the thread together again just outside the abyss-black void that was his mouth, tucking it underneath his upper lip like a Royal Guard pushing up a tea leaf or two to suckle on throughout their guard.

"Still felt among its many halls and hallways." Donial rolled his mouth to feel at it, concluding that it would have to do for the moment. His lips were more puffy than they had been before his aura ignited with sudden anger. "If I go about swearing when I'm supposed to improve upon the castle then that will seed badly within the walls I work between."

Cter felt a cold shiver of uncomfortable surprise up her spine and aura as Donial then poked at one of his star-stitched eyes after he was done with his mouth. "I don't mean it as my soul being powerful enough to match a Boss Monster's soul," he remarked to Cter's slightly disgusted look, guessing wrongly at it.

"It's more that I feel an obligation to be respectful to the work I do. Both in refurbishing for looks, and in refurbishing for function." He almost cut straight through one of his eye's stitching as he furrowed his brow. "Been difficult to apply that with Idyll, and this time it's not her making it difficult."

"Enough of a reason to be worried about it," offered Cter as sympathy, gaining a loose nod in return.

"Indeed." The jester monster breathed out long and slowly. "I don't want her to be ill informed of what is happening with us and the humans, but at the same time I don't want her well informed either. I want to respect her being able to handle things on her own, for that was why I fell in love with her in the first place. Again though, I want her to remain innocent to the horrors going on. I don't want her to be burdened by it. She has her world that is untouched directly by the aftermath of the Noitaidarr Trial, and that I want to preserve for her."

Cter nodded in agreement. "You've done a good job so far with it, Donial," she wasn't too proud to say. "I can see it in her soul the effort you've gone to preserve her happiness and...um...spry personality." The jester and the mage shared a chuckle. "The times we eat together on top of the castle roof are times where I feel that I can breathe out for a moment and talk about nothing for long enoughto push away the world in my mind and soul for a spell. For that I feel that I must thank you, Donial."

He refused with a sharp shake of his head and a raised palm. "What you are doing is more than I've ever done, Cter." Donial turned back to the plans spread out on the table. "Even doing this is not getting close, so please, don't thank me, Monster Mage." With a slow close of his eyes he inhaled gently, speaking just as. "Keep her safe when the humans come here, will you?"

Cter nodded. "I will."

"Thank you. She doesn't deserve the future this world is moving towards."

That Idyll didn't.

"Even if it includes her human brother."

…