"I am glad that you are in good health, Cter."
A few seconds passed by between the Monster King's question and the answer from his Monster Mage. In the quiet meanwhile, the sparks from the ignited campfire shifted from magical to natural, snapping with loud cracks which sent small embers trailing through the tense air where they suffocated into nothing. Only when one stroked at Cter's chin did one matter in the grand scheme of things, illuminating her deeply inquisitive expression that she had hidden within her given hat to hide who she was from the world.
She had not taken it off when she seated herself next to the Xoff king as both the Royal Mage of Ice and the Monster King had motioned for her to do. She found it useful to hide that she was looking at Manny rather than the Monster King which she should by all accounts have been looking at instead. He was her king who she hadn't seen in many months, bordering a full year. He was bringing her home to Monster Country. He was there to negotiate her release. He was there for her.
Yet still he wasn't who Cter paid attention to as the negotiations began. She could hear that they were pleasant which surely was due to the Monster King and the Xoff king being good friends, but the details slipped her by.
The war, prisoners of said war, lives lost, land lost, villages destroyed, and more just swept past Cter with less attention to them than the small ember that had briefly stroked at her chin. It didn't take long before the veneer of two military leaders negotiating about the war faded away between the two monarchs. While the words became warmer, the air between them was still cold, even as the campfire gained more life from the winds rolling down the hilly glade.
"To believe that you and I would be sitting like this again, Asgore. I remember when you first invited me for tea when I was but a young prince of Xoff. My first official business as a representative of my people."
What had Cter's attention was the young mage sat next to King Asgore.
"It's different from how when we used to sit like this though, I'm afraid. I am not sure if we can ever do it again the same as before. We aren't the same kings, you and I. We've...changed."
Yes, he had. The young mage had changed. His aura was different. Very much so. There was still the change in it from when he had managed to harness the true Cooperative Connection. He still wore Dr. Sallus' influence on his sleeve, but from the feel of it he hadn't...used it in a while?
It wasn't locked away like how Rasliela had done with her grandfather. Dr. Sallus' magic was still noticeably present within the young mage's sleeve, yet...preserved? Stasis magic, in a sense, but not in more senses, used on the Monster Doctor's presence within Manny's sleeve, perhaps?
"We are kings, you and I. We need to do what is best for our people. This duty is above friendship, even if it is the deepest friendship any two could ever have. I would lay down my life for you, Asgore. and I wouldn't hesitate to do so. However though, my life is needed for my regained people. I may choose to lay it down for you, but that would leave them without someone to help them cope with this raging fear they've all felt. This raging fear that I've felt too. I would lay down my life for my friend, but I can't for someone who has my soul quaking with fear when I am near him. You feel it too, don't you, Asgore? You feel my soul."
Was there stasis all over his soul? Was that what was going on? Was Manny keeping his soul static and not able to express itself? That would explain why Dr. Sallus' presence within his sleeve felt so different to the Monster Mage. If there wasn't any change in the young mage's soul then his magic would not activate, be it from the lie or the truth of the Cooperative Connection.
Even if he had managed to create his own magic his soul would have to move and change for it to make the own-made magic. Even more so since he would have to act both the monster and human part of the equation. His soul wasn't moving though, yet it was still active. Manny was creating magic, but how?
"I feel a part of friend of mine that I have not felt before. I feel his fears spread out all around him. A fear that I can not agree with. A fear which presence I feel to be unjust. A fear which is pointed towards me and my people the same as a merchant's sword is pointed towards a commoner because the burlap of their clothes resembles the burlap used to steal from a merchant."
The king breathed deeply.
"It is a fear which might be true for the merchant with the sword, but only becomes true because the merchant has never had anything stolen from him before. He does not know how to wield the sword he assured himself he never needed to wield, and thus does not realize that he has already thrust it through the burlap he believed to prove responsibility and into the commoner's chest. Dust is being spilled, old friend. Dust of my people I am sworn to protect. Their magic..."
It originated from within his chest the same as with all magic, but how it manifested was all throughout him, like a heartbeat that thumped everywhere on him. Only thumped too, without any silence between it. There was only the loud from a heartbeat with none of the pause to prepare for the next one. A constant inhale with no exhale, or was it vice versa? One could only hear the difference between the two as they went along. The rise of the inhale and the sink of the exhale weren't present as there was nothing that changed. A constant tension, without any release.
"That you feel my soul is what keeps me from allowing myself to hear what you are saying, Asgore. I know I should trust you in this, as I've always done. With what I saw though… With that I felt on that day… I can barely speak of it without my entire being wanting to crumble away. What my entire being is has changed as well. There is a stranger within me that calls itself by my name. It speaks in my own voice and thinks as I do."
There was a shiver to the human king's hand that he stared at.
"This stranger though feels just like me. This stranger is me. A mirage within me that I can not blink away. A reflection of something that I should not have. Something that I am, but should not be. A second guess that always agrees with me, yet has me hesitating because it is always there. How can I know that I am myself if I don't know what myself is? If this stranger within me is me, and he's supposed to be the culmination of my entire being, then does that mean that I am a stranger to myself?"
It was strange, to say the least. At the same time it was fascinating to Cter. She had always been the one to twist the concept of human magic in ways not seen before. To be sat next to someone who mystified her with his human magic had her interest spiked. That it certainly was due to the Second Fusion did not mean much to her in the moment.
She knew that her sentiment would change about that once she found out fully why Manny's magic was how it was, but that was for later. If that meant in a few minutes, a few days, weeks, months, or years she could not say for certain, although if she was allowed to brag a bit she was confident that she would have it figured out before the kings' conversation was over. Whatever it was that they were talking about.
"You are a stranger to yourself because you know that this war is not a fair one. You feel like you are being second guessed because that is what you truly believe. Even if it agrees with you in the end it is because it is being forced to be as such. You fear your soul not because of the Second Fusion, but because you don't understand who it is that you truly are. You don't want this war, yet you continue it not because the Second Fusion scares you, but that you yourself scare you."
How tired, the voice was.
"The fusions have brought out the worst of both of the races which it needs to consume, but you don't see it as such. You see it as something us monsters have harbored in secret towards you humans. The fear of being afraid is what you fear, because you have not been afraid. Monsters have. For years uncountable we have known the fear that a single human child can bring down the entire monster race should something take it over and allow it to do so. We can explain that fear to you humans, but you won't listen."
Manny did not seem to be afraid of it, his magic. That told Cter quite a lot from just the outset of it. Suppose that this new magic of his was birthed in one way or another from the Second Fusion. It was a certain assumption that Cter could make from where she sat. Both just opposite of a campfire from Manny and also having had her own magic change drastically after an encounter with a Fusion. She knew what it meant to be the closest mage to a Fusion. She knew how it felt to have her soul ravaged by the tragic amalgamate both confused and dangerous. To Cter it became a reason to fear her own magic. A mountain to climb to come to grips with accepting that she had been scarred and to accept that.
"How are we to listen to those that tell us that a Fusion is nothing to fear? How are we to listen to those that tell us that a being who slashed through a platoon of soldiers with a single swipe is to be understood as if it is a being that can be reasoned with? A being that roared beastly but with a human's voice? A creature that was too white to look away from and who's magic cursed two armies, giving souls to those who hadn't and an overpowering presence to those who had. You saw it, Asgore."
The point from the human king was half scared.
"You felt it too, even at the distance you and your Monster Mages stood. Two armies, dedicated to defend their sides as only humans could be, falling over like wheat in a breeze. None were stood. None were silent. All of their collective voices did naught against the Second Fusion's. Had it not been for it pausing to reach for those that it had killed we would not be sitting here. It would have continued until none were left alive. Asgore, you and I, the us that aren't the same as the two kings that stood against the Princess of the Lineage, are still alive. The ones who we were are dead though, killed by the Second Fusion."
It was not the same as what the Royal Mage of Ice had said though to Cter. It was...it was different. She wasn't changed, instead she had learned. It wasn't her becoming someone different. Cter was still her old self. She still enjoyed the quiet of the world below the lake's surface, but she had learned to make that for herself with her one-sided barrier magic.
She had learned, not changed. She had become wiser to the world, and that it was a world that only became worse the more she became wise about it was not her own fault. She knew things that should not have been known, but she had used that knowledge to make something better. She had found a new type of barrier magic inside an old recipe book, dammit! Was that not proof enough that she had learned instead of having changed?
"We are not dead, old friend. We are still alive, in and despite of the Second Fusion. Its power is no more, only what we allow it to hold. It is dead, and we are alive. It killed monsters as well as humans when it was formed, and it took a monster and a human working together to kill it, same as what ended the First Fusion. What is being done today is not due to it. It is due to humanity. The dust that is spilled today, tomorrow, and the day after that is not due to the Second Fusion. It is what humanity blames their fear on. It is what they continue each day to punish my people for."
King Asgore spoke as softly as he could.
"Children, families, old or young, all bear the sin of being a possible Fusion in the eyes of humanity. In the eyes of those that too have the potential to become a Fusion. My people are suffering the worst of fates because your people do not want to listen. You speak of the truth of the Cooperative Connection, holding it up as a beacon that monsters should not be trusted. You believe the truth to be that we have lied to you, but no. The truth of the Cooperative Connection has been that the two races have to work together to make a peaceful and prosperous world. The lie of the Cooperative Connection is the two races coming together to make the world a worse place for all. The lie of it are the fusions."
So what was it that Manny had learned from the Second Fusion? What was it that he had learned to make and do with his magic? Could Cter put herself in the young mage's shoes and soul and deduce from that what his magic was? To begin, from the First Fusion he had learned to utilize the truth of the Cooperative Connection. He was able to make magic by using Dr. Sallus' memories in his sleeve not as something to ask for power from, but something to demand power from.
He had learned that there was no need for the emotion to be happy and constructive with the monster soul inside his sleeve. From that he could essentially make any magic he wanted without having to rely on the strengths of the monster's magic. To him the monster memories within his sleeve were just a conduit for his soul to become external, for him to project his soul outwards as magic. He did not have to rely on his connection and thoughts about monsters being that of a cooperative nature.
Did that mean that he could have found strength from the Second Fusion? Could he have seen the terror and dread that befell him and the humans around him and found something to use from that? Did his mind about monsters become that of the complete opposite of cooperative? Did he...forget in that moment?
"Then those lies have done more in their two brief appearances than the truth has for the hundreds of years it has existed. A fire provides warmth, but it also burns. We thought that death was understood by the truth of the Cooperative Connection, but the Fusions have made it clear that we were foolish to think that. The Cooperative Connection made death not an absolute. It solidified a belief in that we could harness death and make something alive from it, fallen down and human magic. Like the Xoff legend of old about the human who took to the sky with his monster friend's wings and became the stars as he fell down we made something wondrous with the Cooperative Connection."
The conversation started to take a toll from both the human king's breath and spirit.
"However, the legend also tells that the village was engulfed in flames as the human fell down covered in the feathers of his monster friend. It represents the Fusion. It is the other way death is not an absolute no more. A human's presence can still linger after they die. They can become tinder for something that becomes alive through death from a human and a monster. The death of a human is no longer a final rest, but a threat that more death will follow after them. A miasma that lingers after their death which can kill more than any plague has ever done. A miasma that can infect monsters as well. That it was Dr. Sallus who was the first to fall to this miasma only makes it poetical in addition."
But if he forgot then why was he in monster captivity? How did he end up on the wrong side twice? Firstly he must have gotten to the Second Fusion which was formed on the Xoff king's side, and then he ended up with the monsters as a prisoner of war? It didn't make sense for him to have been captured. How could he have been? Cter couldn't think of any way that he could have been captured even with the Second Fusion stunning every human that saw and felt it. The monsters would have been even more stunned in its presence.
Stranger still was that he must have been allowed to do this strange magic of his while captured too. Kry and Kurant were not capable of barricade, nor barrier magic, but they still could have taken his sleeve from him, a luxury that the Royal Mages did not have with Cter. Really, with all of the caveats rummaging inside Cter's head she could really only figure one possible explanation. However though, it was one she struggled to still accept. Manny...gave himself up to the monster side.
"You speak of the Fusion as monsters becoming more human. Of us becoming infected with miasma and infecting others around us. As if it is humanity that becomes at fault. That when humanity imitates monsterkind then that is for the better, but when monsterkind imitates humanity is where friction arises. Is it born out of this feeling of loss that has overwhelmed you? Of your belief that you were untouchable as a human? Of your belief that the human soul was something only to be sought after and never found now that we know what it is?"
King Asgore struggled to keep his words warm towards his friend of so many years.
"Are you afraid of yourself because you've learned more about who you truly are? Is it because monsterkind understands their souls that you find hostility against them? If we are comfortable with the strangers within us that fear our faces and speak with our voices, then can we really be trusted because we do not shun it? That magic has been tainted for you humans, and since we are made from magic that means that we are tainted as well?"
Still, it must be true. If Manny's own soul and magic were tainted by the Second Fusion then he would not be able to find any help among those around him. Sarbor had tried but failed to cure the curse from the First Fusion within his own soul and the souls of the Hero of Xoff and his subordinates. The only one he knew of that had managed to understand the First Fusion and utilize it was...Cter. A monster. No human could possibly have been able to help him. All which could have possible helped him were affected and afflicted as well by the Second Fusion. Rasliela, Sarbor, his adoptive father.
All were touched at their souls by the Second Fusion as well, leaving his only hope with the monsters. In exchange for his surrender to the monsters did he ask for Priestess Frioke to help him come to terms with his changed magic? Was it with her help that his magic was what it was?
"I am scared, Asgore."
How long had he been with the monsters then? As long as Cter had been at Soul's School?
"I am scared too, my friend."
A year then. A year to come to terms with what the Second Fusion had done to him.
"I do not know what fate awaits the monsters after this war. I do not know to what lengths us humans will have to go to rid ourselves of this fear of ours."
A year of being a prisoner in the eyes of the war, but a year of effort to try and make it disappear.
"Neither do I, my friend. Even less than you do I know about what you humans will do to my people. Like with you I have a duty towards them. I need to protect them, but how do I protect them against what they always have known they can't be protected towards?"
It seemed like Manny was more alike Cter than she previously thought.
"I do not know, Asgore. All that I can say for certain is that I am glad to see you again. Even if it is negotiating with us on complete opposite sides. A silver lining in all though, for at least we base it on a fair trade. A Monster Mage for a Monster Mage."
More, more so than she thought.