"You're not being stealthy, if that's what you're trying to achieve?"
The Fourth Monster Mage, deep within the human encampment in her opulent purple among the functional drab of the tent fabrics around her, turns with a startled breath behind her to the mustached human approaching her with his hands casually within his vest pockets.
"So I'm going to stay here with you so that everyone won't be immediately suspicious."
The hushed bend to Cter's back as she leans with just her head around the tent corner straightens to a surrendering, but not defeated, posture. "I..." she begins, but does not immediately find the words she needs. "I am here with good reason." Her try at explaining is whelming. "It is about the...um..." Lying about another reason will only make it worse, she realizes. Really, saying anything else than that it is about the Barrier will be more suspicious than it already is, which is quite a lot. "The Barrier. It's about the Barrier."
"I see," acknowledges Sarbor with a small sniff which tugs slightly at his bushy mustache. His neat, black hair he scratches at the corner of, flicking away some dandruff. "And since you did not summon a meeting with me I'm guessing that there is still no change back with me being the seventh mage?" There is relief amid his words. "For the better, I should say," he comments while extending his arm to have Cter follow him. "And for the better? Please?"
Cter looks over the shoulder to between the quiet business in the human encampment. Many of those that pass between the tents notice her, but only passingly. None stop to look closer, giving weight to Sarbor's suggestion that he should be with Cter to help her blend in.
Frioke must have been given similar treatment, perhaps by Manny himself, as Cter lost track of the Monster Priestess just three turns into the human encampment. She must have hidden her aura for Cter to have lost her like that.
Or perhaps someone else hid it for her?
In any case, Sarbor is correct in that it would be for the better if he and Cter weren't standing in the middle of the human tents, and she follows him for a minute or so as he navigates the well-used plank streets to a tent that's not as simple as the other ones around, but not as decadent as those upon the small hill. He opens up the tent for her, inviting her in with a sweep of his arm. "I don't have any tea at the moment, so would it please the Monster Mage with some lemon-infused water instead?"
It would not not-please her, so sure. "I can take a cup, thank you."
"If it is not too much to ask on top of that," continues Sarbor with more weight to his words. "Could I trouble you about my sister, if you would not mind?" Even with his faint aura he could tell immediately from Cter's that it is both quite troublesome and that she would very much mind. He freezes in his step with his chest falling into his hand as he pivots forwards, falling down onto his frozen leg. "I...see." As he goes to serve the lemon-infused water there is a quiver to the pour, with a slight spillage as he's surprised by the slices of lemon that falls out with the pour. "You've..."
"We've talked," is all that Cter affords him, and distantly to boot. She finds herself standing awkwardly in the middle of the tent that's just above her height, but really that's the appropriate position to be. She might be less suspicious to the many humans outside the tent, but that comes at a cost. Of course he would want to know more about his monster sister. Hell, he still believes that he will be joining her down in the Underground.
"Then I guess that I'll have to stay behind then."
...Or maybe not?
The cup of water he poured for Cter escapes him completely as he takes a deep swig of it, breathing out with deep conflict in his breath and faint aura. It is only when the water helps that he remembers who the water was for, and with a disappointed shake to his head he pours up a new cup, making sure that it is steady and that there's no spillage. When he hands over it to Cter he does so with a slump to his head and a grip on his vest pocket.
"We've...talked," Cter repeats as the weight of the cup is heavier than she expects. "That's...all I should tell you."
"Yeah," he agrees weakly, fumbling behind him for a chair to carry him rather than his legs. The legs of the chair he finds sinks down into the grassy ground as he sinks down onto its seat, his arms folding onto his knees. "You shouldn't tell me more." The furrow to his brow is deep. "If anything I should ask you to leave so that I don't try and convince you to tell me more about her."
The heave to his shrug is weak.
"But no matter what I should and should not do the fact remains that I am her brother. Even after everything, that is something I will never want to let go of." His eyes stare through the fabric of the tent towards the lumbering mountain, narrowing to see through the dense rock as well. "Even if it is clearer to me now than ever that I have already seen her for the last time. That I have already said my last to her, and more importantly, that she has said her last to me as well."
There is common ground between the human doctor and the Fourth Monster Mage. Common ground that they both have tread, and that they both know that they will never tread again. They have been the same to the blue monster, even if their circumstances around her could not have been more different. In the end, the two became the same for her.
For that, Cter seated herself as well facing the defeated human.
For she is one just the same as he is in this.
"She's done more with her life than I have, and for that I could not be happier for her." Sarbor manages a smile, but it is a difficult one. "How could I not be?" And only for a brief moment in this world. "That only makes it more tragic though, doesn't it? As if it could be even more tragic than it already is. I will miss her, more than I ever can imagine now."
His deep bend at his waist has his back at an awkward angle, but if anything he embraces the discomfort as a punishment. "When I was, well, away from her I never really thought of me being away from her."
There is more to what he says, the Monster Mage notices without having to prod at his aura. "You never really thought of her at all?" Cter pries not-so subtly.
"I did," Sarbor refutes, but not fully. "Although not as much as I should have, that is true. Dr..." A cold shiver has his eyes widening with panic, and his breath is interrupted by a shocked gasp. "Dr…? Dr. Sallus!" It is too late though, him remembering, as the fact that he had forgotten was already clear. "Damn it," he spits to the side. "Can't even focus on one monster that has escaped me at a time." The discomfort to his deep bend at his waist catches up to him, and he instead leans himself tiredly against the simple backrest of his tent chair. "God...how long will it be before I start to forget her name too?"
The anguish of the possibility has him in even more discomfort than his awkward bend. From his vest pocket he retrieves his golden watch which he opens up only to close his hand around it with a hard clasp.
"No, it's..."
Its winding mechanism digs into his fingers until he surrenders to the pain, breathing out exhaustively. "It's no more." Slowly his fingers loosen around the golden watch until it falls between the gaps, caught only by the chain fastened inside his pocket. It opens up as it recoils from the fall, showing that the handles are missing from it. There's only the face and the engravings, scratched unreadable.
"To remember her," explains Sarbor to Cter's squint to try and deduce what she can about the watch. He cups the hanging watch in his palm, holding it for her to see. "My magic, it's about her, and why Rasliela gave me this watch for was that I did not want to be constantly reminded of how much I've failed as an elder brother for her. I could look at the watch and focus on it instead to dampen the magic the First Fusion gave me, but now?"
A meek glow surrounds the watch, forming a crystal-like shell around it. It's thinner than a sheet of parchment though, and cracks just by the air moving around it to curiously poke and explore. "Now I want it so that I will never forget her. So that my memories with her can be here with me when she can not no more. I'm already beginning to lose the ones I wanted to have with me about Dr. Sallus, as you can probably tell."
Amid the sorrow the human doctor still has some clarity to his thoughts. While he might be starting to forget about Dr. Sallus he still remembers what he's been taught at Clinic Hill. There's more to him that he has not yet realized that he remembers.
Is it something he deliberately tries to hide? Deliberately tries to keep under wraps in his mind so that he doesn't know that he's starting to forget? Or perhaps even that he tries to not think about so that it will not be possible for him to forget? A sword does not get rusty if it is not used, after all.
And really, it is that which Cter's greatest fear is about her legacy. She will be able to do a lot about everyone's memories, but not all. She can only do as much as she knows to do, and with each one that has shared with her how they see the end of this world as they know it, she has gained more and more about what, and how, memories are to everyone. There will always be something that she has not yet caught onto though. Some way someone carries their memories with them that she has not considered.
But that's why she will leave a little bit of monsterkind with all humans. A little bit of monster to make sure that those that are fully monster can live in peace.
Monsterkind protecting monsterkind.
"Since you know magic more than anyone, Cter?" brings her out of her thinking to find the mustached human once again leaning forwards with an awkward bend to his back, but in a humbled and pleading position rather than the previously defeated one.
"And in extension, also about memories more than anyone?" His hand holds out his golden watch. "As magic are memories, is there a way to invert? A way to make it so that memories are magic? I ask because if that's the case, then can one specifically pick out some of the memories to...discard? To preserve too?"
Cter is soon gonna need both her hands to count how many there is that someone have guessed correctly at some angle to her legacy, but not realized the full picture of it. It is a good thing there has been so many years of strife that they're not talking amongst each other personally enough to have their thoughts come together. Cter was worried that had been the case with Kry and Rasliela, but the topic they came together on was luckily far away from what Cter is worried about.
"No," she answers to Sarbor with an averse shake of her head. "No, that's not something that would work." She makes sure that her lips hang loosely so that the lies through her teeth are not exposed. "Or if anything that is a question to be answered after the raising of the Barrier. If I knew anything I would tell you. No use in keeping secrets now, is there?"
She did not need a prick of one of her feathers for her to lie so easily to Sarbor. A reminder to her about how far she has gone to prepare her legacy, and that nothing will stop her from leaving it for all to be a part of. She is leaving so, so many black marks on herself for it, but all of those will disappear. They will all be for nothing.
She will bring everything back to zero.
"I suppose," sighs the human doctor. "Even if they are secrets that are kept understandably so, like the truth of the Cooperative Connection was for so many years." He looks to his golden watch. "I guess that it was fate that made me the first recipient of the truth of the Cooperative Connection. Throughout all these years I have not come to a conclusion whether or not it was ironic or not though. Fate I am sure, for what else could have twisted this world into such a state other than it? Not us, that's for sure."
Not back then, no?
But now?
"Well if this all is due to fate," says Cter while gesturing vaguely around her, "then I curse it will all of my breath. All that it has done, and all that it will do, I curse with both my heart and soul."
"Same as Idyll has done both you and I."
Sarbor's comment is anything but subtle, however what reason would he have for keeping it subtle? No use in keeping things secret, as he supposed, after all.
"I have witnessed two fusions in my life," he continues with a pained narrow to his eyes. "Seen two paradigm shifts in the world and lived to tell the story of both." The narrow finally closes shut his eyes fully, and with a heaved exhale he pockets his watch back into its felted home. The sway to its golden chain reminds Cter of Aajja, and that the last time she saw him was with him offering her to explore the Underground together.
She gladly accepted, just as Kurant had done with Barbeqa. "But when I truly felt that everything around me was crumbling beyond repair was her telling me that the future of monsterkind was not for the humans to bother themselves with. More so, it is nothing the humans should bother monsterkind with too."
Even when closed Sarbor's eyes seems to narrow even harder. "She did not tell me about her daughter. That I noticed was serendipity to me, but unfortunate to her. I have never seen so much anger and hate before as when Idyll saw me see her daughter. Even then though I still hid my aura from her. Even when I could show her without any doubts that I was nothing but joyous and proud about her I still did not reveal my aura to her."
Another, deep sigh has the human doctor's shoulders deflate deep, deep down.
"Yet still I pursued trying to follow her into the Underground. Even though I had already made the choice of not involving myself with her and her family any more." Sarbor tries to gesture for something but his hand only falls flat on his knee. "How was I supposed to listen to what my soul thought throughout this? Not just because of the First Fusion forcing it upon me, but also due to the true nature of it that is the reason we are here in the shadow of Mt. Ebott? Of course I did not heed its warning. Of course I did not listen to it when it told me not to involve myself with her no more."
Cter nods more out of courtesy than actual sympathy. It's clear to her now that Sarbor is taking the chance to share something he can not with anyone else. A running theme in Cter's life, and one she will be glad to have behind her as her legacy is fulfilled. To be just someone normal again will do her good. She has seen with Lerjung what happens when a life is lived too much, and considering everything she has gone through that would catch up with her much faster than it did with Lerjung. Just a few more days though.
Just a few more days.
"I fear that afterwards we will all be busy enough trying to fill what we've removed the monsters from to be able to have time to mourn that we've lost them from our lives," says Sarbor with a bit more steady to his words. Cter is not sure exactly what he means by that though, especially not since it seems to have steadied him.
"Monster Country is to be divided up quote unquote fairly between Hjearta and Xoff, the mountain pass to allow for the continuation of the ice transports to the remote Xoff villages, and most of all the loss of the political mediator between the humans that were the monsters." He points over to a stack of parchment rolls on a simple desk at the corner of his tent. "The only thing I will envy you monsters about is that you will not have to go through the aftermath here on the Surface."
"And a reason that you wanted to follow us into the Underground?" Cter hazards quite casually more as a sting against Sarbor than anything else.
"Yeah," he admits rather truthfully to that. "A part of the reason, I admit. However, I can do better for Idyll if I stay behind on the Surface to make sure that the anger between the humans stay between the humans, so that it does not spill into the Barrier."
Sarbor exhales.
"I know far too well that sickness can pour down and infect those that are below. You have my word that none of what us humans will squabble over will reach down into the Underground, be it either our emotions or our weapons. It will be how I protect Idyll and her family. It will be how I protect all of you, so that when you return you can do so to a peaceful Surface."
Another thing Cter had to be careful with then. Another one to her list. To preserve the want to make peace, but not the reason. Gradually it would probably come naturally that the want takes over while the reason is forgotten, but still it is a good idea for her to have in mind.
Can never be too careful when making sure that the legacy she leaves behind is more solid than the Barrier she's to help create, after all.
"I won't ask you to let her know that. I want her to realize that herself. That will be the only way she can forgive me. Not by me, but by herself. Maybe somewhere up the family tree she's sprouted there will be a branch that will want to find out who I was? Wishful thinking, I know, but it gives me hope and a reason to remind myself to stay behind and let her go."
Sarbor's eyes look down into the ground, perhaps even as deep as the Underground somewhere below. "Forgive me for repeating myself, but I won't be able to otherwise. It worked when I stayed at Clinic Hill instead of returning to her, so it will work now as well." His scoffed chuckle is pained. "Even if it will be difficult. Whether it will be First Fusion difficult, Second Fusion difficult, or both of them combined..."
He regrets his choice of words slightly. "I will do it though. For her."
Unfortunately, if he was looking for sympathy from Cter he would not find any. She was on the same side of the burnt bridge as he was, and soon there would be a Barrier over the river as well.
And then Cter's legacy on top of that.
"She will have it good in the Underground," the Monster Mage says though, albeit more to her than the human doctor. "She will be safe and will be able to carve out a new life of hers without any humans to threaten her. I will raise the Barrier, and you will make sure that the monsters have seen the last of human politics, won't you?"
Sarbor's nod is hard and direct.
"I won't be able to raise the Barrier on my own though," Cter continues as she notices a chance. "And to tell you the truth," at least partially, "I came here to make sure that it would be as sturdy as possible." She looks to the human doctor with honest in her eyes. She is not lying. "Where is Manny?"
She is just not telling the whole truth of it all.
The human doctor ponders for a second before standing up. "He's with Frioke." Bringing the third piece closer to the Monster Mage. "I had just smuggled her through when I spotted you."
So that explains it.
"I'll take you there."
Cter stands up as well, a friendly smile upon her lips that comes into view as her hair parts from her thankful nod.
"Please, if you would."
