Amethystale//Vessel of the Heart

CHAPTER 6//Part 1

Patience is a Virtue

After properly calming down, and getting a bit of a chew out lecture from Grillby having to worry about this stranger, and the apparent charge Sans had, both of them left silently and slowly, but still side by side.

Susan was trying to recollect everything she was told during her 'inner being' trip. What it all meant to her at that time; she had to collect souls that only she could see, and absorbing them was no easy task either. She had to learn how to control each one she harbored in order to help Frisk and Chara in some way. Gaster hadn't been very descriptive on what it would all be used for, but a slight mention of the two children who were also inside her from the beginning.

Sans on the other hand, was more so shifting his gaze from Susan's trouble and pondering face to the snowy ground that was beneath them... he'd seen everything. The house, the people, the shadowy figure...which seemed to only notice him. It wasn't all he saw, and doubtfully like Susan, his own head swarmed with questions. He wanted them answered badly, especially since the 'human' that had fallen wasn't entirely human after-all. 

But he wasn't about to tell her what he saw, things he saw that apparently she didn't...or couldn't at the time. If anything, he needed to get back into that state with her, and get more answers. For now, he'd have to be slick and sly with what he said. After-all, he knew Susan had powers now, and absorbing souls giving her new abilities, was all the more interesting to him and his plans.

"Seems like you had a real bad dream there kiddo." He finally spoke, a teasing smile on his skull. "You're little light show was quite impressive as well." This brought Susan out of her zombie-ish trance of thought. "Light show?" She looked puzzled at the skeleton.

"You were lit like a flame. Didn't damage anything Thank Gods. Not like Grillby's flame, just a small green flame covered ya." Susan looked back to the ground, she remembered what Johll had told her about glowing while she slept. 

"You talked an awful lot too." Sans added as he saw Susan's gaze go back to the ground. "Said something about magic." It was too easy for him to slip this through, over the years of resets he endured, getting easier at lying to the unknown and confused became more of a habit of his. "Maybe that's why you glow when you sleep, and explains your big shield too. Who knew humans could harbor magic!"

Susan pondered the word. 'Magic, was it really magic? Was it really what helped her make the shield. Did each of the souls have different magic properties?' Susan's head pinged in pain, all the thinking and no answers really did nothing for her mental health. "I guess it is...magic. But how would I be able to control it? It seems to be random?"

Shaking his head, Sans replied, "Not entirely. I noticed when you built that little snow toy for the kids, your eye started glowing." He pointed to his own eye, and a small flash of blue sparked for a few seconds, covering his own iris. "Kinda like most monsters. Youngsters learn how to form, manipulate and control their abilities from the start. Maybe humans have the ability to have magic, but only a select few can get it." He motions to her, suggesting she was one of the few.

"Since you have magic, you might need a tutor to teach you the basics." Sans points to himself, "I'm not the best at teaching to be honest. Don't have the energy for it. But Papyrus does! He's quite the naturalist when it comes to showing off his magic." He boasted, more than glad to talk highly of his brother.

"Do you think I can control it?" Susan questioned, unsure to the response. This all seemed so much, and she didn't want to take advantage of Sans idea if he wasn't all for it. But the un-sureness was swept away with Sans hand placed on her head, rubbing her slightly messy hair.

"Trust me Kid, your in good hands with such an awesome brother such as mine. Lets go tell him the news, he'll be thrilled." Removing his hand from her shoulder, and pointing the way back to his home. "By the way, lets keep this whole 'dreamin' stuff between us ok? My brother might not understand much of it, and questions might come that we can't quite answer. Aight?"

Susan followed suit of Sans as they headed off, agreeing with his proposal of secrecy, both of them thinking about how this would all play out once 'training' would begin. With this in mind, both of them had completely forgotten one small detail that they had brought with them to Grillby's before...the crutches were no longer needed.

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The screen flickered in response to what Susan was seeing from the outside world. Below the floating screen was a arm-crossed Adder, watching and listening. No longer shrouded in a thick black shadow; black bones bare to the elements, a long swishing tail flicked behind her tipped by a crystal point, sharp crystallized claws at each digit on her hands and digitigrade legs. Large and thick dale horns on each side of her skull littered with amethyst crystals, teeth sharpened to the point, and as hard as diamonds with the same purple-ish colour A distinct separation of her rib bones, seeming broken from her sternum, would shift and shutter every once in a while, in a way to signal a breath in and out. 

She wore nothing, leaving her bones completely exposed. But everyone who was with or near her grew used to her completely revealing self, along with the antics and rules she had set in the house.

Adder sighs as she watches the large floating screen from above. Behind her the large wooden house buzzes with voices and the smell of food, which she ignores as she observes. Silently tapping her crystal tipped tail to the floor, creating new scorch marks right where old ones faded away. "Your going to wear out the density Adder." A slight twist of Adder's face as she hears Gaster's figure glop behind her. "Old man, I've scorched every inch of this never ending floor with all parts of me...I'm still as sharp as I've ever been." 

Twisting her head to a saddened mug of a void mass, Adder's smile faded away as she looked back to the screen, "I'm sorry for the way I behaved, I know you came to tell me I was wrong to do that to her..." scratching crystal claws to the back of her skull, her voice lowers, "But I had too... It's way to early for her book to be open and read through."

Gaster, now at Adder's left side, looks to the screen. What can be seen is snow kicking and the flash of a green shield...and the image of Sans and Papyrus testing out the strength of the shield with small ground-raising bone attacks. "Eventually...she is going to remember more than you give her."

"Then I'll feed her mind lies. Just to keep her safe." Gaster's gaze slides to the black skeleton, whom is still staring at the view of the underground. "Have you rested recently?" Asked as a question, but taken in as an order, Adder shrugs her shoulder-blades with a smirk rising to her fanged mouth, "You know me. I don't sleep."

"I didn't say sleep, now did I?" His whole frame now faces Adder, " I request that you rest when Susan wakes from her next night. You know how you get without rest and I'm not about to sit and watch you turn down that road again."

"Will you at least watch her this time then?" Her white slit pupils glide into his, "Help me rest, and watch her to make sure she's safe and out of harms way. I'll give you permission to take over if needed." Gaster hesitates for a minute at the request, but gives a small nod to the skeleton before him. "Of course Adder."

The smile returns to Adder's features as she almost hums the next few words, "Plus...I like the way you help me rest...reminds me of the old days..."