"Yellow..."
The Royal Mage of Ice had a lot to digest.
"Sund's soul was yellow..."
Cter had told him everything. From the way she felt Sund's soul waning to it radiating with a presence so unbearable that she had to shield both Dr. Sallus and herself from how much it felt to them. How large and overbearing Sund's aura was without his body to contain it. How it was so much...him. Too much of him. Too much that it almost felt to Cter that she was becoming him for a moment.
"The middle of the rainbow."
And Terri's focus was on the color?
"Yellow..."
The Monster Mage sighed with an exasperated hand rubbing at her forehead, squeezing and pinching like dough. "Yellow," she repeated with an emphatic tone of voice. "Yes, his soul was yellow." She threw up her other hand in the air hard enough to almost dislodge her shoulder. "That's what you wanted to know, right?"
The Royal Mage blinked awake from his contemplative scratch at his chin to his bench-sharer glaring at him with a look that spelled murder in every language possible. "Y-Yes," he answered with a quick nod that quivered with fear from Cter's deathly glare and aura that dripped with venom and a void-like dark all around her. "M-My d-deepest thanks with y-you telling me."
His head bowed down quick, snapping a frosted tip on his ice-hardened hair into a bend. "I...I...I very much sympathize with the horror you must have felt at the time!" The Royal Mage tangled himself up in his cape from his hurried backtracking. "T-That you're w-willing to tell me shows great strength in your soul, Cter. A resolve shared no where else!"
A resolve that was swayed easily, it seemed.
Terri hadn't exactly been at the monster's side during the Council of Three Countries, so why did Cter expect him to be sympathetic to her after telling him about how it felt when a dear friend of her died and was transformed into a nightmare creature that became the starting point for years upon years of turmoil between humans and monsters?
Cter shook her head.
"Singe my soul..."
And stood up from the bench with a spitting sound to her side.
"Do what you will with the knowledge," she left behind as she turned away to head towards where her colleagues were keeping busy with some of the monsters living in the village. Perhaps with them she'd find some sympathy?
"W-Wait!" the Royal Mage called out from behind Cter's back, but she did not turn around. "Forgive me, Monster Mage. Cter. Let me explain!"
By all accounts, Cter shouldn't have stopped. By all accounts, Terri had expended all of her goodwill. He should not have been worth her time of day.
The audacity of him thinking that he would have a good enough of an explanation for her to change her mind though? After him having completely ignored all of what she had told him apart from the color of Sund's soul?
Now that was intriguing.
"What?" Cter whipped from her tongue like poison as she spun on her heel with her brow hardened and her arms crossed tightly. She made sure that the Royal Mage was fully aware of what she felt, and laid into him the unfiltered grace of her aura.
To his credit, he did not try and divert it from him. "That's fair," he said akin to a child being caught with his hand inside the cookie jar only accessible through magic. Cter knew that downwards tilt of his head very much from her youth. "It's just..." He even began his explanation and or excuse the same way she did.
Difference being that Cter was ashamed of having been caught taking a cookie when she wasn't supposed to while Terri was ashamed of boiling down the most tragic event in recent history to one single color.
"It's just that...well...you already told about all that happened at the Noitaidarr Trial. You told about Sund's and Dr. Sallus' faith. You went into the same detail, but you never told the exact color of his soul."
That's...true.
But still…
"You never specified the color of it." Terri shrugged a rather reserved shrug. His aura gleamed with anxious regret. "You only told that it was bright." It gleamed too with a realization that he had misunderstood things. "I guess...it's different when you tell it to just one other rather than a room full of others." He scoffed, disappointed in himself. "Should've obvious to me."
He shook his head angrily, huffing at his incompetence. "I was too excited about talking to you about it." Then looked up at Cter's furrowed expression with eyes that displayed his soul clear as looking through a thin sheet of pure ice. "I am sorry, Cter." His head bowed down again. "Please, forgive me for being this stupid."
Cter's forehead found her hand again, pinching hard with her sleeved fingers.
Terri was…
He…
Well, he was correct.
She had already told what she did to him at the Noitaidarr Trial. She had been repeating herself, apart from the color of Sund's soul. He asked how Sund's soul looked like and she had answered that, but also told everything he already knew about again.
If anything, him not reacting to what she had told about the hour before Sund died showed that he still remembered it all. He still remembered every word she had said at Noitaidarr Trial about Sund, Dr. Sallus, and the Fusion. Terri still remembered everything…
Dammit all!
Why did he have to be smart by letting Cter calm down and think about it for two seconds! Why couldn't he just have waved her away dismissively with a white glove like those nobles would've done at Fenkeep Castle once they got done hearing what they wanted to hear and then completely shut out the rest?
Singe Cter's soul!
And why did he have to have that adorable dent on his cheeks as he smiled so awkwardly!
"Woah..."
Where...where did that come from?
"Woah?" Terri quirked back along with an eyebrow.
With a hark of her throat, Cter shook the thought away. "Never mind." She kept her head turned to the side, observing the quiet commotion taking place among the many carriages of various make and model. She scratched at her nose to have it look like she was occupied.
While she could...accept, even if just barely, that she could excuse Terri focusing on the color of Sund's soul rather than the hurt that surrounded her seeing it, there was still the question of him taking Rasliela's case during the Trial of Three Countries. What did that mean then with him being here at The Flipping Heart on the behest of the usurped king of Xoff? Both him and Lerjung?
"Pray tell," said Cter with a small tilt of her head over her shoulder to the Royal Mage of Ice sat alone surrounded by his cold fog that sifted through the empty space of the pattern of the metal bench. "You were nibbling out of the Princess of the Lineage's hand at the Council of Three Countries, but now you're here to support the Xoff king?" She posed her question along with an inquisitive eyebrow and flair in her aura. "How come?"
He shrugged as if it was supposed to be obvious. "We were there to represent Hjearta's best interest." His head nodded sideways to his old mentor sampling some mint with a pleased warmth to her quaint aura. "And as the Princess of the Lineage promised, the subjects discussed during the council will be brought up and considered no matter who's in charge."
The cold fog whirled into his sleeved palm, forming into a crystal-like statuette which he held aloft for Cter to see. It was that of the Princess of the Lineage. Cter could tell from the size of the ice hat it was wearing. She wasn't gonna correct him that Rasliela only wore that hat to conceal who she truly was.
Once her identity was outed she had no real need for it no more. If Cter were to guess then the next time she would see Manny, he would wear it as a passing torch from the Princess of the Lineage. Perhaps when he becomes the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr Castle. "If I play along with the Princess of the Lineage I can assure that she will be supportive of Hjearta if she remains on the throne. Even if Hjearta fights against her, she knows that she will have the support of Hjearta and Monster Country should she win."
Terri placed the icy statuette in the gravel between his feet.
"Diplomacy gets you far, but a bigger army gets you further. Not as far as to stand alone with two hostile countries bordering hers though. She would want to smooth things over and be gentle with her peace settlements lest she has to fight a later war not on her own terms. She wants the best for Xoff, after all, even if it is her own view of what the best means."
Then he conjured up another statuette in the shape of the Xoff king who was sitting just behind him within the lumber-stacked wall the metal bench rested onto. "And if the Xoff king wins he will be grateful to Hjearta for helping him get back on the throne." As he gently buried the base of the second statuette into the gravel he flashed a smile to Cter. "To Monster Country too, of course."
That so? "And you figure this, how?" Cter wasn't completely convinced despite the detailed ice statuettes standing defiantly against the warmth of the slightly clouded sun. "From the way Rasliela's aura was during the Council of Three Countries?" If so, then by golly was he in for a surprise.
"Well..." Terri uttered with a sideways bounce to his head. "I'm assuming a few things, true. However though, I've some good basis for those assumptions." With the toe of his shoe he drew a line in the gravel between him and the ice statuettes, creating a wide, heightened mound.
"Hjearta only borders Xoff by the mountain line between the countries, and that isn't really something to bargain for even if it would become passable for trade. Maybe the Princess will think ahead enough to try and levy the taxes in Xoff's favor, but she would still need Hjearta to do trade through it, so she can not be too greedy with her terms regarding that part. She can't really take any land from Hjearta, as moving the borders between the countries past the mountain ranges would just look horrible on the maps."
With the way Terri said that ridiculous assumption with such conviction and faith in his words it had Cter nod along in complete agreement. It was true that the border would look out of place if it didn't line up with the mountain range, like someone had accidentally drawn it wrongly.
Had Mt. Ebott and Mt. Ymmet been a part of the mountain range rather than firmly within Xoff then there might have been more disputing over it, but such wasn't the case. Really, things looking good on a map was quite important, only noticeable once it looked wrong.
The Royal Mage's toe moved over the ice statuettes with a respectful distance to draw another, shallower line between them and where Cter stood. "And assuming that Monster Country does its best to stay out of the conflict then the Princess won't have any good reasons to impart peace terms onto you monsters. Humans fighting a human war over human politics. That is the best course of action for you monsters, clear as day."
He said while it grayed more and more with each passing second as the clouds above thickened.
A few dense knocks on the wood lifted up Cter's head to the Royal Mage's knuckles tapping on the tavern wall behind him. "My guess would be that what they are talking about in there is how to best move the troops from Hjearta, and whether or not the Princess of the Lineage will consider Hjearta troops moving through Monster Country as the monsters throwing in their lot with the usurped Xoff king."
Terri touched gingerly at the wide mound he had carved up with the heel of his shoe.
"We could try and move through the mountain range, but that would postpone the movement until next spring, or perhaps even next summer." He then pointed his toes down like a ballerina at the head of the ice statuette without the wide hat. "And I'm sure the Xoff king would not want to sit idly rolling his royal thumbs for almost an entire year to wait for the supposed-weather-hardened Hjearta army to postpone for more comfortable climate."
Cter tried to look through the thick lumber walls to see if Terri was correct in his guesses, but failed to. "Then they might be in there for a while."
The Royal Mage nodded in agreement. "That they might." He kicked off a pebble that had gotten stuck between the stitching of his sole which Cter watched fly off to land among numerous other identical ones. She lost track of it immediately after it landed. "Haven't heard too much shouting from inside though, so maybe things are progressing smoothly." His thumb pushed against the tip of his nose for a few second as he paused to gather himself some words. "But if you want to hear some colorful language I can try and continue at where I left off?"
"Singe my soul..." cursed Cter with both her palms covering her face followed by a low, rumbling exhale.
He had to be jesting, surely!
"Heh...hehe." The confidence the Royal Mage had while talking about the politics taking place inside the tavern he was sitting outside of was as if washed away as he rubbed at one of the frosted tips on his head akin to a monster rubbing at the tip of their horns. "I'm–" He broke one with an icy crunch, moving onto another which he handled a bit more carefully. "I'm sorry. Just..."
"Just completely went from fire to ice?" Cter words were slightly shocked as the ricochet from the sudden change in subject echoed inside her aura like an ache from the flu.
"Not as graceful as that monster chef at Jarasevo, yeah," Terri admitted with a slightly embarrassed blush to his fair cheeks.
"Idyll?" Who else could it have been, really? "Idyll Fech?"
The blush faded away like a candle that was blown out. "Oh?" The Royal Mage blinked, each one making his eyes smile more and more. "That was her name?" He almost knocked over the ice statuettes with his quick lean forward. "The monster chef with the long, blonde hair and the fire and ice magic? Not the fire monster, but the one with blue scales?" Terri's wrist rolled quicker with each descriptor he told. "She was serving the table where I and Rasliela sat?"
"Yes, Idyll," nodded Cter after first combing her memories to make doubly sure that she had not mentioned Idyll to Terri before. "She is a good friend of mine."
"I see." The Royal Mage looked to his sleeved palm among his slow nodding. With a gentle cup of his hand a small rumble of spinning frost began to gather. Strangely though, it looked less refined than the ice magic he had used to conjure up his statuettes. "There was something interesting with her magic." He formed the less-refined ice magic into a cube of ice which was speckled with bubbles of air and opaque, white streaks of denser ice. "Something...human, about it."
What? "Human?" Human how, exactly?
Terri looked to his naked hand, managing just barely to conjure up a magical flame smaller than the flame of a candle. "Or at least, human in the way that Priestess Frioke told me that my ice magic was very much like a monster's when I took the trial to become a Royal Mage." The difference in effort needed between his ice mage and fire magic was obvious with him being the Royal Mage of Ice, after all. "Hers though… Idyll's…"
If anything, Cter did not have to worry about trying to be eloquent in trying to ask why Terri took interest in Idyll's magic. What he seemed to imply though was something Cter wasn't completely sure or comfortable about. What exactly was it that had him hum and murmur about Idyll's magic?
With a slow, reserved motion, the Royal Mage moved his sleeved hand over to Cter. "Could you?" he asked while bouncing gently the irregular ice cube he held. "I'd like to feel how your ice magic feels, please? For comparison's sake."
"Comparison?" Cter replied with a quirk of her brow. She still prepared her ice magic though, filling up the inert lines in her sleeve with sleet-like consistency. Making an ice cube didn't take anything from her, so she made sure to have her aura opened up more for the Royal Mage to feel at it better.
She wasn't sure exactly what it was he looked for, but when it came to ice magic, he if anyone would know something different about it than Cter did. Since she summoned up the cold that had been between Idyll and her during that night when they were angry between each other, perhaps he would see something in it?
A few seconds passed by as Terri took in Cter's magic. There wasn't an impressed look on his face, which only served to have Cter's pride tap at her shoulder to let her know that it had been slightly injured. She brushed it off her shoulder with her hand.
"You're very much monster," said Terri with another nod and an amused scoff. "Confirming the obvious." His scoff faded away into more thinking, and he exhaled the remainder of his scoff in as a contemplative exhale. "And at the same time confirming the opposite with Idyll's magic." He lifted up one leg onto the lip of the bench, curling his elbow around his knee. "Hers was human in nature when I first felt it. It came from her memories more like a human mage would compared to a monster."
First felt it?
"You told her how she could change it, she told me." Cter paused for a second to listen back to what she said to make sure she said it correctly. "Was that you telling her how to make her magic more monster-like?"
Cter wasn't entirely sure what that meant, to be perfectly honest. That it meant that Idyll's magic had been changed more than Cter wanted to admit was all she could be confident about. Another clue added to the stack that the two were on the cusp of creating a fusion that fateful night in Jarasevo. God, how close were they with becoming what Dr. Sallus and Sund became? How close were they in becoming a Fusion in the middle of the Monster Capital?
A frightened, terror-filled shiver rattled through Cter's body and aura enough to have the Royal Mage of Ice reach out his hand for her. "Something the matter?" he asked carefully.
"No," Cter lied, and obviously so. Terri did not pry further though. He'd already burned himself doing that once already. "My mind wandered, that's all."
"I understand." The Royal Mage cleared his throat. "And to answer your question, yes it was what I told her. I did not say to her that her magic felt more like a human's though and what I suggested was for it to feel more monster, for that I think would not have made things better. She seemed to take it to her soul though, and even the day after I could tell that her magic felt more secure and stronger. Both her ice and fire magic, which was a surprise. I assumed she only had one as her core magic and the other was something she had learned, but both seemed to have improved equally."
A smile flashed in the dimmed sunlight filtered through graying clouds. "Guess when she has the most powerful mage as a good friend of hers she can have two types of magic instead of one."
Cter nodded out of obligation, "Mhm," and turned away as to not continue that line of thought. "Something like that." The luster of the Golden-Flower-covered landscape had drained from the sun having hidden itself behind the deep-gray clouds. "Seems like it's about to be rain."
"Seems so," agreed Terri with his chin tilted up the same as Cter's was. His attention was taken away by Lerjung waving to him from the small herb patch she had busied herself with. He waved back to her before turning to Cter. "Would you like something to cover you for the rain or will you do something with your magic? We have some leather umbrellas with us should you want to borrow one." As he moved to stand up, he only managed so far as to place his hands on his knees. "One condition, if I may?" He shook his head at his idea which he already visibly regretted.
"And that would be?" said Cter as neutrally as possible.
"That you'll tell me where on the rainbow your soul is after the rain has passed?"
Cter had a slight respect to the Royal Mage for still having faith enough that Cter would even begin to consider the trade.
But unfortunately for him, the Monster Mage already had a crystal umbrella climbing up from her sleeved hand up into a shape that covered her head with a thin, glimmering dome that would shield from any rain there might be.
"Heh..." The Royal Mage chuckled, standing up with a hard push on his knees. He looked between his standing feet, brushing away the ice statuettes he'd placed down earlier under the bench and flattening back the gravel he had disturbed.
"That's fair enough, I guess."