"I wonder what sighs louder."
Upon the slightly elevated hill overlooking the endless stretch of monster and human logistics separated more than oil and water, the Fourth Monster Mage is joined by a four-legged monster clad in purple fabric which she has never seen him wear before.
"Us monsters breathing out after this journey of ours, or this lonely mountain that's suddenly swarmed with guests."
Said loud sigh rolls up the slight hill the same it did the castle walls of Jarasevo. Sitting in the window of her tower, Cter had a similar view of Jarasevo that she has over the many monsters she has been guiding through their old country as well as through this human country that is to be their last stop. Mt. Ebott has been a distant sight for a few months, and a close sight for a few weeks. Standing underneath it, Cter's neck strained as she looked up towards the cloud-hidden top for the first time.
"You would do good in returning to being a monster fully, Huvett and Huvtvao," says Cter almost as an order. She isn't stopping there though, for that would lead on as to the Monster Mages' plans. "At least for the time being now that you're to be the Royal Pathfinder."
"I suppose," the large monster agrees with a sigh to join with the one from the mountain and the one from the thousands of monsters preparing for the very last leg of their almost year-long journey. "Difficult to shake off a habit you've forced yourself into for many years though."
"Besides," adds Cter with a turn behind her towards Mt. Ymmet in the middle distance. As she turns she spots what she thinks to be Clinic Hill, but with the sun hiding behind the gray overcast she is not sure exactly where on the compass she is looking. She has no intent of finding out about if it is Clinic Hill though, and continues her turn behind her. "How can Mt. Ebott be lonely with Mt. Ymmet is right there?"
Huvtvao's head turns with Cter's, with Huvett staying behind with closed eyes to enjoy the warm breeze. "Would be lonely with just one for company that is so far away, wouldn't it?" There is agreeing in his voice though, as he mostly posed the question to make conversation. "It is going to be quite busy for Mt. Ebott from now on though, so I hope it doesn't mind the noise and the ruckus we will be doing inside of it."
Cter and Huvtao returns to join with Huvett looking at Mt. Ebott. "You seem in high spirits about this," poses the Monster Mage after a momentary gust washes through her and Huvett and Huvtvao. "May I ask why?"
"Well..." In unison the two heads turn towards the Fourth Monster Mage with a slow and methodical motion. "Why should I turn my back against the knife that I know is in front of me?" The heads angle away from each other, forming mirrored question marks.
"To boot, I have always had my trust with the Monster Royals. They allowed me to be as human as possible yet still put their trust in me that I was doing it for the good of monsterkind. Wrong would it be for me now to abandon them now that they face their biggest crisis yet of their reign." Huvett and Huvtvao's heads straightens up. "I would rather follow those who have planned for this since the very beginning than those that still hesitate even when the shadow of the inevitably looms over us quite literally."
The shadow that passes over him as he says that is from a cloud, but his point gets through regardless.
"And do forgive me for this, but I do hope that you did not ask this because you are hesitant over what you must do. Or that you are feeling discontent against me because I was supposed to be human, yet I'm allowed into the Underground, as opposed to you Monster Mages? You will still carry out this through the end though, despite if those feelings exist within you?" Huvett and Huvtvao's words were quite direct. Not chastising, but disciplinary enough to know that he was being fully serious about what he was saying. "The last, and perhaps most important, duty to monsterkind from you Monster Mages. The final protection from the humans that you will grant us."
Penultimate protection.
But that Huvett and Huvtvao does not need to know.
"Not a single doubt in my mind or soul," informs Cter with her aura showing the Royal Pathfinder that she peaks the truth. She holds it steady against the wind, with neither the sighs from the monsters nor the sighs of the mountain blowing it away the slightest. "You can rest assured that once you are inside Mt. Ebott there is no way you are getting out."
Two pairs of lips smacked out of sync.
"Well..." repeats Huvett and Huvtvao with a slight chuckle that exhaled an interesting concoction of both impress and worry. "When you put it like that..." His swallows were arrhythmical as well. "You sure are convincing when you say that in both word and aura."
"None of the hostile souls will enter through the Barrier as well." Cter is very particular with her choice of words as to not lie.
"Better." The worry in the large monster's aura simmers down, and his heads once more straighten out. "At least to my ears, that is." He glances down to the thousands of individuals in various colors and forms. "Although, and again I do apologize for this, it might be for the better should you not say either to them." The glance moves over to the largest of the tents on the small hill. Windy waves reverberate through the fabric and the purple flag on the top, but the tent keeps steady. Even in the building storm, it keeps steady.
Just as the Monster Royals within.
"We should leave the talking to the Monster Royals when it comes to addressing the populous. It is their people that they are leading into the Underground, after all. Not to say that you would make things worse, but I'm afraid you would not make things better with what you are saying, is what I am saying." Huvett and Huvtvao pauses for a second to recuperate from what he just said.
"If anything just to deprive them the opportunity to ask questions that they should not ask during this time. The less details they are aware of the better, when it comes to this. What with the Monster Royals being barely able to formulate themselves properly regarding all of this, I mean."
He is correct about the less details known the better, at the very least.
However…
"To go back a bit," Cter mentions while brushing aside some of her loose hair that the wind tugs over her face. "When you say that you have shaken off the habit you had forced yourself into for many years." Huvett and Huvtvao turns his heads and attention to the Monster Mage. "When was that, exactly?"
"Surely–"
"For you, that is," the Monster Mage clarifies with a casual point at the monster. "I know when it was for everyone else." She moves her point across the large monster's size. "It was when you donned the monster colors to your attire rather than the red, green, and blue of Hjearta." The purple suits him better, but that most likely is to Cter's ingrained bias. "When did you shake that off?"
His quiet is answer enough.
"If you even have shaken it off?"
But Cter wanted more.
"No," answered Huvett.
"No, I have not," continued Huvtvao.
Together though, the heads inhale deeply to return to how he should be speaking. "And to be frank, I don't think I will ever be able to shake that off me. I can feel with each word that I say that there is more thought to each of them that I speak. Not thought as in more deliberation, unfortunately. More in the sense that I am walking on poorly maintained cobblestone rather than a smooth road. I can walk just as fast on the uneven cobble as I can on the smooth road, but it requires more effort."
He sighs, joining the thousands of monsters and the previously lonely mountain.
"I owe it to monsterkind to shake it off me though. I owe it to them to leave my mission to become as human as possible behind me outside of the Barrier as you close it behind me."
Cter faces the wind directly, letting it pull back her hair to display every minute detail of her face as she asks the large monster the question she wants for him to accept. "You owe it to them all to forget?" she presents not as a choice, but as an offer. With a slight move of her left hand her cape is caught in the wind as well, displaying for the large monster the glowing lines on her inert sleeve. "To leave all that is human behind here on the Surface?" The Fourth Monster Mage waits patiently as a flurry of emotions clouds Huvett and Huvtvao's aura more than the sky is above.
"No, but.."
"Yes...?"
"Although."
"I should..."
"No, you have!"
The two heads alternate back and forth, speaking in the other's stead and against its own words.
It is where Cter wants him. How she wants his aura to be. Each time he speaks the wrong words out of the wrong head she can feel how his aura is distinctly in twine. Twine that twists together with each switch of opinion the two heads undergo. Cter showed it plenty and without doubt that she was fully serious.
And that Huvett and Huvtvao have no real choice in the matter.
"I..."
"I..."
"I..."
She had called for him under the pretense of wanting to discuss some about the humans that wanted to join the monsters in the Underground. To discuss with him how to best arrange their journey up the mountain, and if it should be with or after the monsters. It was a reason that was good enough to not draw official suspicion, but not one to not draw suspicion from Huvett and Huvtvao. However, to him the reason was for Cter to meet with him and talk, which he wasn't suspicious of.
Now though there is naught but suspicion within the Royal Pathfinder, but too late for him to do anything about it.
"I need your magic," begins Cter while placing her hand gently onto the back of Huvett and Huvtvao. From inside the purple cuff of her robe crawls white, viscous tendrils pulled by a mixture of barrier and stasis magic that surrounds her inert sleeve with flesh glowing with a harsh white. "And I need it in a way that I can not take from you cleanly, I'm afraid."
The first piece of the puzzle that she has to make, both for the Barrier, and for her legacy. "It is for the good of monsterkind. Without it I can not give the other mages enough of the barrier magic necessary for us to make it strong enough to protect like how it needs to be. We imagined that five of us would be enough, but seven we have come to agree on will be necessary."
The lies and truths she speaks with the same cadence and gravitas has the separation in Huvett and Huvtvao's aura becoming even clearer. It is not yet as separated as the humans and monsters logistics are though. Cter needs it more separated.
"It won't hurt, I promise," she calms while letting her White Flesh curl and twitch as if becoming out of her control. "You will not even remember forgetting, and I will not touch what you need for you to complete your duty as the Royal Pathfinder. You will still be you. You will still be the culmination of all of your experiences, but those involving humans you will not remember. Not even this conversation will you remember, and that is for the better."
Impatient steps has the large, horse-adjacent body of Huvett and Huvtvao beginning to want to escape, but under the pressure of the aura the Monster Mage hangs over him, he can not move. He can only feel the white-glowing tendrils snake up him.
"C-Cter...p-please..."
"I know full well of what I am doing," says the Monster Mage instead of listening to the scared pleads. "And I am fully aware of what it means as well." Her naked, right hand is displayed with a turn to show both its backside and palm.
"The most human of acts to save monsterkind is not an irony that is lost on me. If anything it is something I have accepted to the point where I might as well be lying when I call myself a Monster Mage now." She runs her thumb against the skin on her naked hand, feeling at it as her unfeeling, left hand continues to spread over the back of the large monster stood next to her. "It'll be fine though," Cter then nods approvingly. "It'll just be a faint smell in the wind for all us soon enough, carried away forever."
The fear of the large monster is felt in each of the spreading tendrils Cter lets cover out more as a means of inducing fear than any real practical sense of reaching Huvett and Huvtvao's soul. She only needs a simple touch of her White Flesh onto the monster in order to reach their soul. Using the entirety of her left hand for the sleeping child made her realize that, on top of everything else that which she realized when removing the child's name from her memory.
Removing Huvett and Huvtvao's memories of being as human as possible is on a similar depth, however with his more-matured aura Cter will have an easier time navigating it. Especially since she has already done something similar once already. Way back when the most worries she had on her shoulders were making sure that the introduction she made to the nobles of Hjearta was grandiose enough.
Some of the colors she saw waving from the banners that day she sees faintly flapping in the far distance in the human side of the gathering at Mt. Ebott.
And she could tell that Huvett and Huvtvao did as well.
"B-Back w-when you f-first v-visited Fenkeep Castle, C-Cter?"
"Yes?" she amused the large monster. "Something you want me to let you know afterwards?" Tentative shakes told Cter that her guess was wrong. "Then go ahead."
"Y-You drew a magical bow at me w-when I told you about my worries of being untrue to my d-duty to be as h-human as possible." Two deep swallows calms the large monster. "I spoke like this to you, worried that I might have thrown away all of my progress for something so small in the grand scheme of things." Huvett and Huvtvao's heads turns to Cter from having slowly gazed across the vast land of tents and temporary buildings at the lonely mountain's base. "You told me that I will only truly betray your dedication when my intent is to."
Smiling.
"Thank you for sharing with me this intent of yours. Thank you for protecting monsterkind, and the lengths you're going to do so."
His heads separates, but his smiles do not.
"But I can never forgive you for this. Even if I am not to remember this, I will never forgive you for what you are to do to me."
One angry and full of hate, and the other happy and full of gratefulness.
Like two completely different persons.
With two completely different auras.
"I know," says Cter with an inhale to prepare herself. "And thank you."
The spread-out tendrils of White Flesh melt flat, widening into a viscous sheet glowing gently with its harsh white. Around it, Cter feels the split in Huvett and Huvtvao's aura, and forms her magic accordingly. The separation is distinct enough that Cter has to treat the two as two distinct monsters, but only when forcing the Cooperative Connection upon them to go deeper into the monster's soul. It is a bit like walking with both legs at the same time instead of one at a time, but it's really just a hop and a skip for her.
Two roads, but leading to the same destination.
As Cter's magic reaches Huvett and Huvtvao's soul though, from two completely different directions, it feels to her as if her magic has changed too. The different Cooperative Connections she has formed to get through the two halves of the aura are like red and blue, same in being two types of color, but different ones at that.
As they coalesce around the monster soul, it is at first a bit of a struggle for Cter to keep track of the two. She's letting one color flow from her own aura and soul into the two distinct halves to then having to keep track of the one color becoming two. It is strange, but it is not something completely novel for her, if she makes one to be human and one to be monster.
However though, that will not do for what she needs Huvett and Huvtvao's magic for. She needs it to be fully monster what it is she is taking from him. For that she needs both of the colors she uses to be human.
For that she needs to use the truth of the Cooperative Connection.
With the small, sleeping child she managed it with the lie of the Cooperative Connection, but from it she did not have to take, only change and obfuscate. Huvett and Huvtvao's magic Cter had to make her own physically rather than metaphorically like with her name from the small child.
Pained and confused huffs from the large monster's heads has his large body swaying unsteadily. His balance, same as his magic, seems to drain from him, and while he at first can brace himself against the onslaught happening within him, eventually he succumbs, and falls down on four knees with barely enough strength to hold his two heads above the ground. The two separate auras, distinct in them being just that, come together to form one that is the same form as how it was before, but cut from a different cloth.
A less-human cloth.
From what Cter succeeds in stealing from him.
"I..."
For a brief moment, Cter's White Flesh feels as if it is about to detach as it curiously inspects the new magic she has taken in. A way to separate. A way to make an aura two separate ones. An opposite of a Fusion. Not as powerful, but conceptually the opposite. Something Cter needs to make sure the six other mages are able to wield barrier magic as well as she can so that the Barrier they will form together can be proper.
The first piece of the puzzle.
And another step beyond the final line.
"I am..."
"You are..." Cter begins, but feeling as if it is not she that speaks. "Huvett and Huvtvao." Like the twilight between awake and sleeping she finds herself in a momentary daze. The same how she has extracted her emotions into magic she did in reverse in order to contain the new magic she has taken in. Instead of expressing it, she subdues it. Instead of allowing it to collect her emotions, she cuts it off.
A drop of oil suspended in water.
"Huvett and Huvtvao," samples the large monster, taking in his surroundings with his two heads moving on their own, but with one will behind their motions. "Yes." The two heads nod. "Sorry I..." Then furrow in worried disorientation. "I must be tired. I seem to feel a bit...lost." Thoughts filled in the emptiness Cter had left within him, his aura rebuilding itself in what she left behind for it to believe that it was. "I...can't forgive you?"
Like that.
"That you can't," she answers to his perplexed difficulty. As she breathes in the passing breeze she feels with uncomfortable precision that one of her nostrils is more clogged than the other. Same that her blinks aren't perfectly rhythmical. There is the slightest delay to her right one in more shadow than her left eye. With her having contained the magic she stole though that would fade eventually. However though, she will have to experiment for a bit with it to make sure that is not the case for the six mages she is to gift it to.
While she has placed the first piece of her puzzle she also needs to make sure that it fits properly. A long night is ahead of her, and a long day thereafter too. For how many though, she does not know. "You should head back to your tent for some rest, Huvett and Huvtvao." She has no more use of Huvett and Huvtvao though, so she is going to spare him...her for the rest of the day.
For the rest of time.
Her cloak catches the passing breeze as she turns for the largest tent where the next piece of her puzzle is.
"And never, ever forgive me for what I have done."
Where the next step of her legacy is.