There were more carriages than Cter expected when she stepped out of the dense forest onto a lonely road which had been almost torn to pieces by the aforementioned many carriages. Strangely, some of the tracks from the carriages further back looked fresher than the ones in front. Cter hadn't noticed had she not sunk down with her foot into the soft mud and gotten her boot stuck. The woodwork she had to lean the flat of her palm against not to fall over completely was rough and old.

How King Asgore managed to be so light on his feet was a sight to behold. His snow-white feet had naught but a single spot of mud on them as he managed to the front of the carriage without any difficulties whatsoever.

He had been attentive to Cter being near him through the forest, but as the two managed out of the last row of leafy trees, he had elongated his steps and walked ahead of her deliberately. That she got herself stuck in the mud after being left behind was not something Cter was gonna think about. After her king had lifted off the wide hat from her head she felt that she was able to not think about it. Her head felt lighter.

Bar one of two stuck pieces of leaves.

As the Monster Mage managed to get her boot unstuck from the mud she was met with a friendly voice calling for her from the front-most carriage. "Cter!" The Monster Mage turned to the voice, almost replanting her unstuck boot stuck again.

At first she thought that it was Idyll that was freezing the ground for Cter to more easily walk on, but as the long, bunny-like ears folded up after having bent down to get through the carriage door, Cter could see who it was.

"Frioke!" she called back, waving happily and tapping her feet with exploratory taps on the magically frozen ground to see if it was slippery. Luckily though, it wasn't, and the Monster Mage walked up to the front-most carriage into the wide arms of the Monster Priestess. Her whiskers and rough skin tickled at Cter's cheeks, and the long ears seemed to hug around the Monster Mage's head as well. "It's good to see you again."

"Not as good at is it seeing you again, Cter," the Monster Priestess whispered wistfully with her arms and ears tightening around the long-gone Monster Mage. "We haven't known anything about you for so long. Haven't heard anything about you for months. Had I known that this would have happened I wouldn't have suggested to send you to Soul's School. I should have thought ahead that perhaps–"

Frioke caught herself with a deep exhale that had her entire being sinking in Cter's arms. Even the long ears slid down, partly covering the Monster Mage's eyes.

"You're here now," said Frioke to herself, mostly. "You're here now again with us. We're all back together again. All Monster Mages are back again with monsterkind."

"All of them?" asked Cter's mouth before her head could think. Perhaps it was for the better that she asked it straight though as otherwise ti would have festered in her aura and Frioke would have noticed it on her own. Both the long ears and the Monster Priestess' aura sighed again while through her nose was inhaled a deep breathe which took in the forest dew greedily. Frioke leaned back from the hug at her arms' lengths still holding onto Cter's shoulders. Her eyes were closed, and she nodded as she managed to gather her words.

"I guess it's better to talk about that sooner rather than later, isn't it?" There was some disappointment in her aura that it had to be this quick about it, but she understood why. Her nose bounced at the warmly bitter smell off coffee being brewed from the carriage she had just left. "My King," she began with her neck turning slightly.

It only managed so far before there came an order from the addressed Monster King. His voice had the front-most carriage seem to vibrate further down into the mud with the deepness of it. "I am fully capable of making coffee too as well as tea, Monster Priestess. Tea is not a drink of war, as I've told before. Now please continue, you and the Monster Mage." The telltale orange glow of fire magic softly lit the opened carriage door. "The coffee will be done shortly."

With a begrudged grumble, the Monster Priestess conjured up three magical chairs next to the coffee-smelling carriage. "As you wish, King Asgore." She motioned with her hand at one of the chairs for Cter and sat herself in the one next to the Monster Mage. The lower angle had Cter seeing that the rough texture of the carriage she had leaned on just before wasn't due to it being rough and old. On the contrary, the wood was new and smooth, and painted just recently, most likely just before the departure.

The rough texture she had felt was a fair share of battle-wearing on the carriage, with arrow and swords marks running just above the wheelhouse. Cter ran her hand carefully over some, stroking the battle scars with a growing worry to her expression and aura.

Some were deeper than others, with the more shallow marks being focused closer to where the seats were in the carriage. The cuts and holes exposed that the carriage had been repainted from its usual purple color, giving the splinters a fade to them similar to how some of the surrounding leaves had begun to express as well. Cter broke off a piece and kept it in her hand.

It weighed like lead.

"They were not focused attacks," said Frioke factually with her own hand stroking the scarred outside of the carriage. Her ears flattened behind her as she touched at a splinter, and she had to dig it out with a claw of hers. A light sprinkle of dust began to bleed, but Frioke was quick to heal the small gash with her magic.

It was enough for Cter to notice though, and the Monster Mage's brow sank down. "They were just opportunistic ones against a surprise target. King Asgore..." Frioke angled her head back at the carriage door with one of her long ears turned towards it. The blue of hers contrasted with the breathing orange from the Monster King's fire magic.

When the Monster Priestess turned back to Cter, her voice was lowered. "King Asgore said that we would only meet light resistance, if any, and that the humans would not pursue us if we just kept going through the ambushes. He had been promised that from the Xoff king, and while I want to attribute that to having been correct, I..."

She looked at the damage on the carriage's outer again, her eyes moving through the sword cuts, spear stabs, and arrow holes in a pattern from deepest to most shallow. Her hand touched at one of the arrow holes in the middle of the carriage.

"I was stood here with my magic to protect the king, but I could not do it well since I could not have it be visible to the humans. At best I was only able to apply some stasis magic on the spear and arrowheads." The blue hand then moved further back closer to the more deeper cuts on the carriage, back where Cter had plucked her piece from. A few, weak taps followed, and the sinking sense within the Monster Priestess aura dove even further. "Here King Asgore sat."

At where a few of the cuts looked to have reached the upholstery

Flakes of paint fell off as Frioke's hand slid down the carriage wall with a defeated sigh. "I trust him with all of my soul, but when I heard the loud human voices through the wall which then was quickly pelted at with arrows then with swords and spears I..." She inhaled to strengthen herself.

"I felt that trust waiver. I thought that he had been easily fooled. That he had been so naive as to trust one of the human kings that he was at war with. At the human king which had been the first to doubt monsterkind after the Noitaidarr Trial and the truth of the Cooperative Connection came to light. Perhaps though..."

The blue hands tightened into reprimanding fists, but neither they nor the clenched-together teeth that barred angry fangs could stop the words the Monster Priestess wanted to say. "Perhaps though I didn't protect enough because I trusted him despite my worries."

There were a lot of emotions within the Monster Priestess' soul. Cter guessed that it was because she wanted to say something else, but couldn't. Whether it was because she thought that King Asgore would hear or that she didn't want to hear herself say it, her aura was too much in turmoil for Cter to tell exactly.

It was enough for the Monster Priestess to lift one of her balled-together fist and throw it against the carriage scars, but not enough for her to hit it. Her hand shook with the building anger in her that she couldn't let loose against the carriage, and she ended up throwing her fist against her leg instead, cursing under her breath as it hit.

"Singe my soul..."

Cter felt some slight guilt over having asked so quickly and interrupted Frioke's embrace. From what the Monster Priestess told it sounded like she needed the hug to be much, much longer.

The gentle smell of coffee which had permeated throughout the conversation grew stronger first through the deeper slashes and then through the opened door. Out from it stepped King Asgore with the pot in one hand, a small bushel of biscuits in the other, and four cups hanging by their porcelain ears off his horns, two on each.

"Queen Toriel does not approve of you making yourself a fool like that, King," reminded the Monster Priestess over her shoulder after a mere second of a glance at the imposing figure with clanking porcelain cups ringing from his horns like hoarse bells. She tried, but failed, to hide her bemused smirk at the image of the Monster King not only folding himself out the small carriage door, but also doing so while dancing with his head to keep his horns from scratching at the door frame while at the same time keeping his carried cups from slipping off.

"It's fine," he said when Cter raised a white-fleshed finger with a quiet, purple glow to it. She had only managed to lift up the cups slightly before the Monster King had noticed and nodded slowly with his remark. "I've done this more time than Toriel could ever imagine."

Frioke's bemused smirk became a nasal scoff, and she shook her head and ears with faux disappointment. "That does not make me any less uneasy." With easy hands though she caught the cups as the large Monster King angled his head and horns down, sliding the carried porcelain off with rasping sounds. "Not a lot that does that nowadays though." The Monster Priestess' eyes moved on their own towards the fresh, wooden wounds, and she was forced to yank them back to the cups in her hands which she were clutching at.

The third conjured chair flashed like how water escapes around heavy footsteps at a wet beach as King Asgore sat down. Before his weight had settled he began pouring coffee for the Monster Priestess. "Well I hope that some warm coffee and honey biscuits are two of the few things that does then." His pinky claw through one of the cup's ear stole one for Cter who he poured some for as well. "It's good to warm oneself before one has to talk about the cold facts of reality."

Whether or not King Asgore said that to relieve tension or to confirm the tension Cter could not tell. Dwelling on it would have just plucked at the already-tense air, and whatever note that would have come from that would not have been a pleasant one. So instead Cter decided to heed the Monster King's suggestion and enjoy her coffee.

She had not had some in quite a while, and she could taste that immediately as it was harshly bitter on her tongue. It had been good for her when she was a scholar at Soul's School and not its supposed dean, and it did wake her up just as well drinking it whilst sitting on a conjured chair next to a wall painted with deep slashes of human aggression as it did when Cter was cramped in her student room trying to figure out what her soul meant to her.

At least she had some honey biscuits to balance the taste.

A few minutes of silence passed by before the tension in the air had relaxed enough that Frioke could raise up her ears enough to talk. She blinked some at her half-drunk coffee, exhaling ripples into it. "Manny was the one that killed the Second Fusion. When everyone else, human and monster alike, stood stunned and incapable, he managed to save us all. His mind was clear enough that he was able to kill it in a way that was different than how the First Fusion was killed."

The Monster Priestess searched for something to put down her honey biscuit on, and Cter conjured up a table for her to place it down. Her free hand then came up to her chest where she let her hand rest heavily. "It felt so very strange to me, the Second Fusion, again, differently from what you described about the First Fusion."

She had to place down her cup onto the magical table as well.

"The First Fusion tried to pull more monsters to it. Ziki and the monster that drove the Hero of Xoff's caravan were drawn to it. They felt hope from it and wanted to be closer to it, almost as an impulse of sorts. The Second Fusion though…" Frioke's brow folded deeply.

"The Second Fusion in a way tried to...force me to watch? Not run away, not come closer to it, but stay and watch it. Stay and witness what it had become and what it...wasn't no longer." Her eyes blinked underneath her folded brow that hung like awnings. "Does that mean that the fusions were sentient? Does it mean that they felt that they had a purpose to them? That they had personalities? That they were–"

"Manny," Cter interrupted as a favor to Frioke before she tumbled down her thinking too much. "We should focus on Manny, please." She looked to King Asgore for some assistance.

"I agree," he said with a nod and a large, warm hand on the Monster Priestess' back, caressing it carefully. "I know it is difficult, Frioke, but Cter should know about Manny and what we decided with him. We are past the battle now, so let us continue when he came to us, okay?"

The long ears loosened with the Monster Priestess' deep exhale. "Yes," she agreed. "Yes, I can continue with that." She just needed a brief of quiet to breathe some. "Manny surrendered to us a week or so after the Second Fusion appearance. The...logistics and paperwork, for lack of a better term, to change the war from a strictly human war to one with aggression towards us had just been made by the humans, and if anything Manny brought with him the news about the change in the war."

Priestess Frioke could not muster a chuckle.

"He did not surrender himself to us Royal Councilors directly, but instead to a village not far from here towards the Xoff border. He was put on a transport back to Jarasevo quicker than quick." A curious look the Monster Priestess shot over Cter's shoulder. "But as you might guess, transport across the roads is only leisurely at the best of times, and having to take smaller roads to dodge the humans meant that it took even longer for him to reach Jarasevo Castle than it usually takes."

"We've come to a solution about that though," King Asgore added in just above the rim of his cup. His look was sent over Cter's shoulder as well, and the Monster Mage turned to look at the carriages further back in the parked caravan. Was it magical, perhaps?

"Once he arrived I felt like things were repeating themselves," continued Frioke with a strained furrow. "Guards surrounded the carriage, but not too close. They didn't want to near it, and I could feel why in my soul and aura. When he exited the carriage, he could barely walk. All of him was tensed, both body and soul, to try and contain what he had sacrificed his soul to imprison. He had come to us for help. He had come to...me for help."

There was a mixture of pride and anxious within the Monster Priestess' aura, like oil and water dancing together, but always separate.

"In a way I did the same that you said that Dr. Sallus had told you. I would dedicate myself to help him, and only him. Not just for him, but for all of us. He could barely hold the Second Fusion within him, and if I had not been able to get through to him that it was me there with him, that he had managed to find me, then him traveling to Jarasevo Castle would have been regarded as an attack by the humans instead."

A cold shiver reverberated through the Monster Priestess' body and soul, shaking her whiskers, nose, and ears as it shot up her back.

"Weeks blurred together as I worked with Manny to help him contain his chosen burden. There were times when he was just the young human that he was, afraid and in pain, but in other days he was a mage who's strength was the same as that of you Monster Mages. It was not enough for him to only suppress the Second Fusion's presence within him. He wanted to banish it. He wanted it gone."

The sky-blue arm had claws dug into it by its sibling's hand.

"The days that followed him straining his soul to the point where it risked rupturing his containment of the Second Fusion were days of misery and dread for him though. It took time, but eventually he came to realize that he had done things perfectly. He had sealed the monster portion of the Second Fusion with a forced Cooperative Connection with and on his soul. He had done something unthinkable and beyond what the Cooperative Connection was meant to do. He had pushed human magic forward by a great leap, but it had cost him his soul. The bind is as strong as that which binds a mountain to the ground it stands upon. Nothing can move it, not even itself."

Concerned blinks had the Monster Priestess hesitant to say what she wanted.

"Even though he was with me for months, to him it has only been a few weeks. Each time he strained his soul to the point of almost shattering it, he fainted from exhaustion. When he woke up he had forgotten most of what had happened. He had forgotten that he had strained his soul, and what he had done to keep the Second Fusion under control better."

The claws dug deeper.

"And the courage he had built up against his burden was as if it had never happened, and I found him crying in fear exactly the same as how he had done during the first nights after arriving at the castle. It would repeat for months. He would be afraid about what had happened, and I would explain it to him, which either made him more afraid or steeled him further. Eventually his resolve got the better of him though, and I would find him fainted from doing exactly the same as I had told him made him faint the last time."

A deep sigh followed a weak shake of the blue head, finally releasing the sky-blue arm of its clawed clasp.

"I would never learn anything to help him as he never remembered it. All I could do was plead with him more desperately to either write things down or talk with me before making the decision. Still though..."

Frioke's eyes turned distant towards a horizon of her own making.

Seeing that, the Monster King continued in her stead. "The decision to make him a Monster Mage came when the Xoff king managed to get through a letter to me about wanting to negotiate for an end to the war. We had managed enough of a resistance to warrant some respect as an enemy, but he still needed a good excuse for it to happen. Since you were in their care and Manny were in ours, I could propose a trade of Monster Mages if we made Manny the fifth one. That way there would be the veil of an equal trade, and that was all the Xoff king needed for it to happen."

Asgore turned his head towards the forest which he had traveled through twice. "Whether or not he wants to stay the Fifth Monster Mage after the unceremonious ceremony I wouldn't know, but I do hope that he sees it as us wanting the best for him. Eventually Frioke managed to get through to him that he had to live with the Second Fusion within him, but if I were to guess I'd say that those will be the first words he forgets the next time he tries it again."

The Monster King stood up with a push against his knee. "With that said now I should probably introduce you to your transport home to Jarasevo Castle, Cter." With a fill of the fourth cup with coffee, the large king wandered to the back of the caravan. He knocked a rhythm on the door, then stepped back a long, long step.

"Finally!" shrieked a muffled voice from inside, and before another beat could pass, the door was kicked open by a large paw. Out the carriage exploded two wide wings spanning longer than the carriage they had been confined within. "Finally I may serve this war once more!" One of the massive wings was raised high and mightily. "But first!"

The other swiped the cup from the Monster King.

"Coffee!"