Dusting the flour and yolk off of Urokai along with his dignity, Zarga cast a gentle cleaning spell to separate and collect the two ingredients in floating balls. They... were much larger than he expected them to be. Was the yolk ball really the size of one of his scales?

"Damn, what were you doing?" Arakei asked, just as impressed as he was.

Urokai just huffed, wrapping his arms around her and hiding his face in her neck.

"Aw hey, won't you tell me, pleassse, monsster of mine?" she said even as she hugged him tightly, making him squeak. Zarga smiled, bemused.

Urokai mumbled softly in response, his quiet words muffled even further, "Cooking. Obviously."

Obviously? Arakei nuzzled her cheek on his hair- "Ssince when do you cover yoursself in food while cooking? It'ss meant to end up in your mouth, not your hair."

All that got out of Urokai was a half-hearted groan. That's what he'd been telling that idiot magician just a few minutes ago. How was it possible to be so useless? A child would do better at making a meal than Raizel.

"The sacrifice must be a flaky one this time," Zarga commented, whirling the ball of flour and making patterns with it. Urokai was a good cook and it wouldn't be the first time one of the humans sent had been trouble.

"No, Raizel isn't an ass," Urokai sighed. If only he was... People like that were much easier to deal with. He pulled away from Arakei, stepping out from inside the walls and into the castle grounds- "But he is an utter pain in the ass."

Zarga frowned. Like being annoyingly outgoing? It would explain things if this Raizel was playful rather than cruel considering Urokai didn't deem him bad.

"What'ss the difference?" Arakei asked as she took Zarga's hand and slithered after him, perking up as the sun warmed her instantly.

"Well, at first I thought he was a noble brat who's been coddled all his life to the point of incompetence and staying that way would have meant he was an ass." However, Urokai had quickly learned that wasn't the case and instead- "Raizel is just plain incompetent though. My guess is his family gave up on him after it became clear how bad he is at just... doing basic tasks."

"Issn't he the topmosst magician of Ssol?"

Huh. Zarga blinked, letting the flour and yolk settle as crowns floating a little above Arakei and Urokai's heads. The Ssolian kingdom's most powerful magicians also tended to be the world's most powerful ones. So the man sent was... important? This was different from the usual, wasn't it?

"Yeah."

Arakei giggled at Urokai's tone and non-answer. So Raizel was good at magic and little else then it seemed. "He can't be that bad."

Urokai frowned- "Did you not see me covered in flour and eggs? That happened because I was trying to teach him how to make a cake!"

"Eggss don't crack on you for that," she replied, watching her monster's reactions closely. He was so fun to tease!

"Exactly!" he huffed. He'd thought that since Raizel had managed just fine with making eggs in several different ways, they could do something a little more complicated. That had been proven wrong immediately. Urokai had left him partway when some of his paper familiars had come to tell him of his visitors so- Oh. Oh no. Eyes widening, he practically spun around as he broke into a run.

With another slow blink, Zarga barely reacted to Arakei pulling him along as she followed after Urokai. "Hey! What'ss the hurry?"

"I left that fucking idiot alone with the oven still running!" By Mother Astra, he prayed fervently that Raizel wouldn't set the kitchen ablaze again in the time it took for him to get back.

"That's a bit much, isn't it?" Zarga quietly said to his mate. Urokai had always been loud so surely this was just an exaggeration?

"The ssacrifice did sseem kinda dumb when I led him here," Arakei huffed, her annoyance rising as she remembered. "He doesn't know a sspeck of history or about the nationss near Ssol. But apparently he volunteered for thiss anyway. It wass obviouss he wanted to get rid of my monsster-" so she'd gotten mad at him- "and I ended up ssaying there wass a cursse."

"That was you?! I thought he'd mixed shit up when he said you told him!" Urokai half wailed as he fumbled with his mask, putting it back on. "Do you know how annoying Raizel has been? Always going on about curse this, curse that. Who knows what he'll ask once he's done with the library!"

"...My bad," Arakei said, eyes pitying at the thought of dealing with Raizel. "He wass jusst really annoying."

Zarga chuckled as they passed through the halls- "Why don't you kick him out then? It's not like you have to keep him." If he was remembering right, Urokai did force most of the sacrifices out after the first week or month. Or was it year?

What, and let him starve? He'd die if Urokai did that. Aside from the worrying consequences of somehow causing the death of a man from Suldala's nobility, as unlikely as that was with Arakei and the rest of the village nearby, he did have an actual reason for letting Raizel stay. Slowing down now that they were near the kitchen he'd left the man in, Urokai cast his eyes around the area, making sure he hadn't come out. He lowered his voice even after confirming that, clutching at his pendant, and murmured, "I thought maybe he'd be able to actually end it. A human magician cast the curse in the first place, so it makes sense that one could remove it too, right?"

His words made the atmosphere darken and neither Arakei nor Zarga said anything, simply exchanging pained glances. Slithering and letting her tail wrap around Urokai in loose coils, Arakei ran her fingers through his hair.

With both deep determination and gloominess, she spoke, "There'ss only four yearss left, and if the magick could sso eassily be cassst off it would have been. Jusst fulfilling the conditionss given would be eassier now, don't you think?"

"You know I've tried. But love isn't something you can make happen just like that," he complained. Still, Urokai could feel himself relaxing at her touch. "Then there's the whole problem with the conditions making no damn sense."

"They are nonsensical," Zarga agreed. There were still people poring over the words and phrasing even now, though he himself had deigned to pretend the poem didn't exist. How was one possibly supposed to know what it meant when there were so many interpretations? At least they had the timespan attributed to each line although some were rough estimates.

"It'ss not that bad," Arakei said, trying to calm him even though she herself thought it was all bullshit. "Even if the curse doess become permanent at leasst you'll be able to leave here in four yearss."

"Of course it's that bad! Nobody knows which line we're even on right now and even if we did it's not like I want people to see me like-" Urokai gestured at himself- "this."

Arakei twisted around to raise his mask slightly and squish his cheeks- "You look fine to me, monsster." From the start everyone had said he should at least keep meeting people. Continue living his life even if he couldn't leave the castle grounds, but he hadn't wanted that. So she had made it so, letting this castle become forgotten - forbidden - over time.

"You say that no matter what." Like when he'd been sick in bed with a high fever and looked like utter shit about a decade back. Urokai knew she was only trying to keep her mind on the bright side though. That she would be the one most devastated if the curse remained and he was stuck like this forever. If in four years the transformation was complete and he truly was human, and everything that meant.

"You do always say that. Even when it's obvious he looks horrid."

"He may be a monsster but he'ss sstill handssome even in the worsst ssituation. Maybe you jusst need to get your eyess replaced," she hissed, joking, "I can take them out for you."

"What are you doing to him? Why would you tear out Urokai's eyes?" Raizel's voice was clear and seemed resound through the hall despite being quiet. He'd wanted to interrupt immediately but he'd found himself listening instead when he'd realised the elder from the village was here as well. Then he'd been reminded of his brother telling his sister to never let people know you were eavesdropping

Urokai immediately pulled down his mask, making Arakei hiss as it knocked against her fingers, and scrambled out of her coils. Thank the stars that it seemed Raizel hadn't heard their conversation. "Nobody's tearing out any eyes. Is the kitchen fine? Not on fire? Still salvageable?"

Zarga snorted at the questions. If the kitchen was on fire, wouldn't his familiars have come flying to find him? It's not like the paper birds could burn up with the enchantments that protected them.

"I don't know. The magician'ss eyess sseem tempting." Annoyed even by hearing Raizel's voice, though mostly because she always got sour when her monster left her coils so suddenly, Arakei wrapped tightly around Zarga. She rested somewhat along his shoulders, glowering.

"I cleaned it up. Are they-" Raizel's eyes rested warily on Arakei- "your guests?" It didn't seem as if she was fond of him with the way she glared but her mention of four years had been why he'd stopped around the corner. Then there had been those strange things Urokai had said after... Was he perhaps not human? And what about the 'lines'?

Whether the kitchen was clean or not would be up to Urokai to decide, not him. Despite that, he found himself sighing in relief, "Yes. You've met the elder of the village before of course. The man she's trying to squeeze dead is her mate, Zarga."

"Tch-" she wished she had the strength to kill a dragon like this. Trying to be pleasant, she attempted a smile though she had a feeling it was more of a snarl- "Nice to ssee you again, magician."

"A pleasure to meet you, child of Suldala." Unlike Arakei, Zarga was genuine. He'd known that the Solian magicians were powerful but the magick he could feel within the human was beyond what he had imagined. Even Mevek didn't come close and up til now she was the only person he'd known who felt more like a container for magick than a person utilising it. Now he knew two.

"Oh, yes. Me too." Raizel already wasn't much of a talker, and being put on the spot when he had been busy realising that Zarga's horns and patches of scales upon his skin along with his strength meant he was a dragon just made his conversational skills worse. "I'm Raizel. Cadis Etrama di Raizel."

"Who could forget?" Arakei muttered. That name made it pretty obvious he had royal blood and the Solian people loved their royalty. Even the ones bordering other lands like her villagers.

Raizel blinked- "Urokai did call you senile."

Urokai just sighed at the resulting shriek; Zarga flinched, unprepared for the loud noise.