War.
War against Cter's people.
Far, far away from her.
Or perhaps just around the corner from Soul's School.
Not that she'd know.
The weeks immediately following the declaration of the shifting war as well as Rasliela's arrival was strangely similar to how things had been when the war was just between the two human countries. To Cter it was strangely similar, that is. She wasn't a part of either wars, she felt. Even if she was a supposed prisoner of war held away from her people she was still waking up in the same comfortable guest house that she had been using ever since she was inaugurated as a magical scarecrow.
She still spent her days walking freely around the campus reading and researching without any chains restraining her. There were more human guards around and she was given a set time to take a swim alone in the lake, but was that really indicative of her being imprisoned? Not to her. Not when she was more imprisoned back at Jarasevo Castle the day after that faithful night.
It was...strange.
She hadn't heard any news about the war since when Rasliela had arrived. She wasn't allowed any news since she was the enemy. The two Royal Mages would confer alone after asking her to please excuse them. She didn't mind. If anything it gave her more quiet for her research and some time alone to try out her new theories so that she could keep her failures to herself. The war was good to her in that regard. It had even gotten to a point where she would quip at Terri or Rasliela asking the other to discuss the newest developments.
"Peace yet?" she would quirk with a raised eyebrow then casually shrug when they shook their heads. "Maybe next time then." Afterwards she would go back to her research as if nothing had happened. Hell, she even asked her own captors if they wouldn't mind bringing back some tea once they were done discussing.
And they wouldn't mind. Not at all. Lemon? Milk? Both? No Golden Flower tea since there weren't any trade with Monster Country no more due to the war, but there were some mint tea from the campus garden Terri could pick on the way back.
"Please, and thank you."
And then Rasliela and Terri would head off to whatever room it was that they conferred their human secrecy in, leaving Cter alone with a guard outside the library, not inside it. All alone, the most powerful mage in the world, and an enemy of humanity.
All. Alone.
Yet she did not try and escape. She did not try and flee back to Monster Country to help in the fight.
Because again, what was the war to her? What was it for her? What was it? To her, there was no war. To her, there was nothing to escape from, or to. She kept things peaceful by being calm. She kept things calm by being peaceful. That was what Sir Gerson would have wanted. Using the Monster Mages against the humans would be inviting more danger towards the monsters as the humans would have to respond in kind. If the humans did not want to use mages against other human mages then they would not use them against monsters. With magic it would have been more fair.
And fair be not what war be about. Fair enough that it wasn't fair too, for there were no consolations prizes for war.
"It's rather interesting, isn't it?"
Cter looked through the steam from her cup of warm mint tea at the old Royal Mage standing at a reading podium with a wide map draping down the sides. She could see the ocean that bordered Xoff dangling like a wet towel. Would be fitting too had it dripped some drops of ocean water from the weathered corners and edge, telling how old and used it was. The shoreline slipped up and down from the Royal Mage moving the map to look at different parts of it, drawing with magic on it with a conjured feather and ink well that glowed in the shadow of her hat.
The Monster Mage finished the last few paragraphs of her book about recipes of old that she were scouring through to find some, if any, relation to the Soul Rainbow. "Many things are quite interesting nowadays, Royal Mage," she replied before taking another sip of tea with the finished page about cinnamon buns half-turned to the next recipe about a cardamon variety. It had been a long while since she last had either of them. "You'll have to be a bit more specific." Could she ask for a few despite being a prisoner of war?
Maybe if she did it while pretending to be under some emotional stress?
Rasliela dipped her conjured feather into the magical ink well with a few unfazed taps. "You'll have to come here then for me to be more specific." From where she was drawing in relation to the Xoff shoreline Cter figured that she was doing something with Monster Country. War plans? In plain view of the Monster Mage prisoner not allowed to know anything about the war?
The Boss Monster carvings on Rasliela's arm looked calm so perhaps it was Terri's magic she was using? She must have told him a thing or two about obscuring his magic if that was the case since Cter couldn't make out the details of what she was drawing from across half the library the two were in.
"Fine," the Monster Mage sighed, making a quick magical bookmark to find where she left off as she closed the recipe book. She brought with her tea, covering the saucer in stasis magic to float over her left shoulder with a gentle hum. With leisurely steps she sauntered over to Rasliela who rearranged the map for Cter's arrival. A drop of tea spilled out of the cup and onto the saucer as Cter stopped with a quick click of her heels onto the stone floor. "I'm here," she made known to Rasliela who already knew.
After setting aside the magical feather and ink, Rasliela smoothed out the map over the reading podium, focusing it on Monster Country sandwiched between the two human countries. The ink which the map was drawn with was old and dry and had faded around the borders of the countries.
How...interesting.
"Isn't it interesting how we can be here, miles upon miles away from the war yet still dictate it to the most minute of details?" began the Royal Mage with a wrinkly finger circling at the faded border between Xoff and Monster Country. "I can point wherever within this and give orders to move to..." Her eyes closed and her finger moved sporadically for a few seconds.
"Here. I can point here and give orders to move a platoon of the human army here to take a strategic position." Underneath her finger, peeking just out over her raspy fingernail, was the name of a border town Cter had passed by on her journeys into Xoff. A sleepy one mostly there to provide a rest stop for the trading caravans. Unassuming at best. "And when they do, monsters are sure to die."
Cter's eyes shot from the map into the deep shadow of the wide-brimmed hat.
"No human will die," was continued from within the deep shadow. "That's just a fact. Whether or not any monster will die will be up to them. With the Second Fusion looming behind the soldiers the monsters ought to listen precisely lest they reignite that lingering fear." Rasliela spoke factually. "There won't be a single human death in this war, and you know that too, Monster Mage."
She also spoke without any emotion.
"I do?" Cter replied with difficulty keeping hers in check. If all Rasliela wanted to do was provoke Cter then she would have to try harder. She'd done it plenty times before so Cter managed to catch herself wanting to throw her stasis-held tea into the Royal Mage's face and promptly put a stop to it. Sure, throwing the hot tea into Rasliela's face would have stopped her, and it would have been quite cathartic for Cter, but she was gonna be the bigger mage though.
Just had to think about the recipes she had just read. Just had to keep the mind occupied with the golden-brown crust of freshly baked cinnamon buns smelling both sweet and tingly from the cinnamon spice. "And didn't you just reveal to me a part of your plans in the war? Are you aiding and abetting the enemy of humanity, Royal Mage?" Cter swiveled her head over to the wide doors of the library. "Maybe I should report this to the guard on duty?"
"And aid and abet humanity by revealing that one of their highest commander is a traitor?" Rasliela replied without pause, amused. A flash of teeth followed her amused scoff. "Are you wanting to return your humanity? Cast away what makes you monster and be human again?" Her wide hat shook with the continuous amusement. "Perhaps the spirit of monsterkind is as easily broken as their souls."
Right then.
If Rasliela was only going to antagonize then Cter had a book about snails she would rather be reading. "If that's all then?" the Monster Mage shrugged dramatically, touching the bottom of the saucer with her shoulder. "Can I go back to my reading now?"
A rigidity in the green brim had the wide hat slicing through the air as Rasliela turned to Cter with a gravity to her motion. Her finger on the map circled wider, encompassing the entirety of Monster Country with a dry rasp.
"I can point to any village in Monster Country on this map and it will become the worst any of the inhabitants could ever imagine. I can point to any village in Monster Country on this map and it'll be a day of grief that will be remembered for as long as the village stands, if it even will stand afterwards." The wrinkly finger moved to point at Rasliela's face hidden inside the hat. "But to me though?" she posed before shrugging gently. "To me it'll be a Monday."
Cter's eyes narrowed.
"To me it'll just be like any other Monday. To me it'll just be like any other decision I make." Rasliela motioned over to the half-empty cup she had on a small table next to her. "Do I want mint tea or herbal tea?" Then she motioned back at the map, tapping at the different named dots within Monster Country's faded borders. "Do I want to send troops to attack this village or this one?"
With her thumb on the last village she tapped at she tried to stretch her pinky finger to reach the smaller-named Soulay's Academy for Humanities and Magical Studies for the Betterment of Monsterkind and Humanity. "I can't reach here," came an obvious comment as the stretched-out width of her fingers barely reached over the border between Hjearta and Monster Country. "I can't reach to where my word would travel as law from where my word would originate."
If Rasliela wanted Cter to break her fingers so that she could reach, all she had to do was to ask. Didn't even have to be a polite ask.
"Yet still I can make decisions that would affect the lives of so many. Yet still I can make decisions further than anyone would ever have imagined." The old mage opened up her hand in disbelief. "Isn't it unbelievable?" She looked to Cter again, coming to face to a bitter and resentful expression. "Exactly," Rasliela agreed, nodding her entire hat with gusto. "It is not unbelievable!"
She lifted up her finger to waggle in rhythm. "It. Is. Not." Before Cter could understand what is was that just happened, Rasliela made another sweeping motion over the width of the map. "It is the Cooperative Connection reaching another stage."
Cter couldn't blink for she had to see it to even begin to believe it. "I'm sorry?" she replied with undeserving fairness to the Royal Mage. "The Cooperative Connection?" Was Rasliela's age finally catching up to her?
Was it her grandfather in her arm that kept her lucid and focused despite living longer than anyone else Cter had met? A mage who's life was extended not only by the prospect of being a mage, but also a mage with a Boss Monster's Cooperative Connection to her, the same as Kurant and Kry? An even closer connection to boot.
It had been a month or so already since she and the news about the change in the war arrived at Soul's School. It had been a month or so since she told about her reining in her grandfather's influence in her arm. Was it reaching a point where she was suffering withdrawal from him? Him and his magic? Was she starting to forget that she used to have subtlety to her actions?
Was this the true Rasliela?
"The Cooperative Connection," said Rasliela with a voice as if explaining it to someone who had never heard it before, albeit with a hint of condescending superiority added. "In its conception and execution it is about humans being able to project themselves beyond what they could naturally. It is the power of a human being able to reach out further than should be possible, but not on her own." The Royal Mage pointed towards a letter next to her half-drunk cup of herbal tea.
"For if that was the case then simply writing a letter about which monster village should be prioritized next would be considered a Cooperative Connection. A human using a carriage to travel further in a day than they would have managed if running isn't a Cooperative Connection. What is needed is a monster element. What is needed is a contrast to the humanity. A contrast between death, as the lie told. A contrast between how the human and monster soul functions, as the truth told. A contrast between how the human and monster soul dies, as the Fusion told."
Cter looked deeply into where Rasliela's eyes were inside the shadow of her hat. She looked for anything, but found nothing. No titter, no tiny smile, no anything. Rasliela was completely serious in what she said. She meant everything from the bottom of her soul.
And to that, Cter shook her head.
"For having witnessed the Second Fusion first-hand and felt its horror you sure seem to be taking all of this with a child-like curiosity." The Monster Mage nodded with disgust at the widely spread map.
"You seem to care only about the pain of the monsters instead of considering any pain the human soldiers would face with your orders. They're just pawns to you even though they were closer to the Second Fusion than you were? The Hero of Xoff had his soul cursed due to the First Fusion, and that he was only exposed to indirectly. Where there were just one human who's soul had been cursed directly by the First Fusion, there are now thousands of humans with their souls cursed by the Second Fusion."
Cter folded her arms, causing her hovering saucer to follow down and hover just above her left, folded elbow. "Sarbor was barely able to keep himself together about his cursed soul, and now you have two armies full of humans in the exact same situation?" Perhaps even more since Cter managed to somewhat protect Sarbor from the First Fusion. "You've no thoughts spared for the armies? For the soldiers that followed you because you convinced them you had Xoff's best in mind?"
Rasliela stood firm against the avalanche of hefty words poured over her like an indiscriminate bucket. "I am not speaking as the Princess of the Lineage, Monster Mage," she said as if reminding. "She is not relevant for Xoff now that the threat of the Fusion once again hangs over humanity, I say again." With a slow reach over to her half-drunk cup the Royal Mage hummed quietly. "While I've been here it feels like I'm starting to forget her too." Her right arm tensed slightly.
"The princess' relevancy might be back in the future, but until then all I say is as Rasliela, the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr. While I have subdued the Cooperative Connection in my arm, I have strengthened the Cooperative Connection that my position affords me. The Cooperative Connection this war and this map affords me. Even though I'm kept at an arm's length across this map, my advice is still considered in high regard. The Xoff king might not trust me, or any else of those that had their lot in with the Princess of the Lineage, but how is he to completely remake his inner circle when he has to fight a war both inside and outside his reclaimed borders?"
The quiet sip that the Royal Mage took was still audible despite its gentle nature, as was the calm clink of the cup being placed back on its saucer on the small table next to the reading podium.
"After this war the Xoff king will only have good people around him, be it the same ones that betrayed him, or not." Rasliela touched at the Noitaidarr drawing on the map gingerly. "The good always win in the end, for it is the victors that decide what is good."
That so? "So you want monsters to be bad?" Was it that what the Royal Mage was implying? "You want the monsters to be the blame for this war?" How much of this disdain against monsters was she hiding? How much of it was kept at bay by her grandfather?
Playing the monsters for evil for political gain was one thing, but this was different. The Princess of the Lineage had a goal for the monsters to be the evil half. The monsters being evil for her was a means to another end, a walking stick to help her reach a goal. For the Royal Mage of Noitaidarr though it seemed like monsters being evil was the goal. "How would your grandfather say about this, Rasliela?"
The Royal Mage turned her head with a sharp angle to the tilt of her hat.
"Ask him," urged Cter further with a lowered brow and a nod towards Rasliela's right arm. "Ask him if you should continue this or if you've gone too far." She waited, but there was no motion from the Royal Mage. "Or do you not dare because you know what he will say?" She waited some more, her patience running lower. "Because you know that he will decry what you're doing. Decry that you're allowing this war to happen. Decry that–"
Cter's sweeping motion of her arm knocked her floating cup over, spilling its minty tea with a loud splash against the stone floor. Had she been quicker to react and not busy being angry she might have caught the tea in the air with stasis magic, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. With angry mumbling she froze the spilled tea solid to make it easier to clean up, being careful not to leave any slips behind as she lifted up the frozen tea pieces with stasis magic too late to make any real difference.
Maybe it would be wise if Cter took that as a sign to leave things be and return to her research? What good could have come from her continuing to talk with Rasliela, really? The two were at war with each other, after all. No need to further fan the fires of war. They were burning over the horizon, so why bring them here? Cter should have just walked away when she first thought about doing so, dammit.
"I'll leave you to your map," the Monster Mage growled under her breath with the splattered pieces of ice tea detaching from the stone floor and depositing back into her cup like cold pebbles clinking like hail. "Draw on it however you damn well please. Don't bother asking me for more tea, I'll get it on my own if I want some more." And because Cter was feeling very petty. "And not from the Xoff kettle you used when we first met." What that really added was debatable, but again debating was what had her upset in the first place, so no thank you.
Between her heavy and dramatic steps Cter heard the Royal Mage mutter to herself. The words were surprisingly...worrisome. "The kettle..." flowed quietly out the wide reach of the green brim. "The...kettle?" Cter looked over her shoulder to see Rasliela begin to clutch at her left arm, but stopping just before touching it. "The kettle was..."
The Monster Mage shook her head at the theatrics. She had already humored Rasliela too much when she walked over to look at the map, and made it worse with each second she spent there. Cter returned to her recipe book with an annoying anger in her throat and soul.
And even worse.
"Gonna be parched for the rest of the day..."
Without any tea to drink.
Now where was she…
'Cooking Vessels and their Usages'