"Good morning, your Highness, I'm glad you could join me here."

Luna, sitting on a rock under the Wishing Room's twinkling canopy, watched as a slightly groggy Asriel walked into the open chamber, splashed his own face with some cool water trickling past his feet, and waved through the fine mist.

"It took a lot of convincing for your mother to let us do this, but given recent events—um…what exactly is that you're wearing? I suggested you bring something comfortable, but this may be a little too...literal."

Now close enough that the mist no longer obscured him, the now fully-awake goat prince let the goat commander take in his rainbow-striped elastic headband and star-embroidered wristbands. Luna couldn't help but snicker just out of audible range; however, to the prince's credit, the tank top, shorts, and enthusiastic face were sensible choices.

"Chara says this is what humans wear when they exercise."

"Not exactly a lie, I suppose. However, I didn't drag you out at this hour for an hour of mountain climbing."

Luna gestured toward a whiteboard, a small trampoline, and a bowling ball, all gathered in a rocky nook as if it was his cluttered garage.

"Like I said, I've had some concerns based on recent events topside. If you've watched the news, you've learned that the prison Chara's biological mother was sent to is currently a smoking crater. Our agents couldn't find Clairine's body, which means she's either super dead or figuring out her first day as a fugitive."

"Hunter says people on the run like to seek out friends and family."

"Exactly. Perhaps Clairine will search for her husband first, but inevitably, I think they will come here. Restraining order or not, we should prepare."

The whiteboard and a thin, black marker came out of hiding. Asriel grinned ear-to-floppy-ear when his opposite finished writing and stepped aside.

"Wormholes and the Gravitational Field"

"I suppose your mother had a good point. You'll survive many more fights fleeing by wormhole than through masterful sword skills. Since we have some time, let's start with some basic theory."

Luna walked over to the trampoline, bounced on it exactly once, and landed on the dirt beside it.

"Things fall when you let them go. Absolutely groundbreaking science here. But have you ever considered why?"

"Gravity, right?"

"Yes. But, what is gravity? It has no taste; no smell…you cannot touch or see it, but something is certainly connecting you and me to the Earth. Experiments have shown us several quantifiable properties of this strange connection; for example, that it gets stronger with heavier objects and weaker with increasing distance, so we know it's definitely there. Still following along?"

F = GMm r-2

"Uh…sort of?"

"Hmm…let's try something more visual."

Luna plopped the bowling ball onto the trampoline, letting it roll into and create a funnel-like depression in the center of the elastic fabric.

"Wait, I think I've seen this before. So we can pretend that the gravitational field is like a curve in space, which makes smaller things like the Earth roll toward bigger things like the Sun?"

"I'll admit this model is a bit simplified, but yes. That's right. Every object generates a gravitational field around itself, which, if you look at the equation, depends on mass and distance. In other words, the 'hole' gets steeper the closer you get to the bowling ball, but heavier things like you…"

The bowling ball came off. Luna motioned for Asriel to take its place.

"…make steeper 'holes' to begin with."

Asriel's face showed an elation reserved for those who, like daybreak through the trees, understood something in complete clarity.

"But that's enough boring book learning. What if we had something so massive that the hole it made was infinitely steep?"

"Then F would be really big, which means nothing that fell in would ever get out…a black hole?"

"Yes. A true black hole is effectively a hole in the fabric of the universe. Not so useful for traveling, but a useful intermediate. But then, we have another problem. I'm clearly not infinitely massive, so how am I creating black holes like this one?"

Luna breathed in and snapped his fingers. A dark sphere appeared above his right paw. Luna snapped again and the sphere vanished.

F* = GM(E*) (cr)-2

"As you and your fireballs know, magic can replicate many natural phenomena, including gravitational fields. Ask 'Z' about electric fields and she'll talk your ears off. By concentrating enough magical energy—the E-star—I can approximate the ones formed when stars go out."

"More math?"

"Um…no. No more. I promise. I'm afraid this is where our two-dimensional model fails us, but I want you to imagine: what if you created two black holes at once, bending the fabric of space in such a way that the two holes lead into the same place?"

"You'd get a funnel…no, an hourglass…wait…"

"Something like an hourglass, actually. More generally, you'd get a tunnel through space itself, connecting the two places where you formed the two holes. Make the tunnel big enough, and you can travel between the two places almost instantaneously. To demonstrate…"

A bright vortex appeared in front of Luna, slowly expanding until it was a head taller than him. Out of the corner of his eye, Asriel noticed a second vortex forming simultaneously on the other side of the Wishing Room. Peering into the closer vortex was disorienting—Asriel saw the same blue earth and twinkling rocks but blurry and at a strange angle.

"Wait, why isn't this one pitch-black?"

"Light can go through wormholes just like you or me; after all, it's really just a tunnel. An obscuring spell I use makes the others opaque—makes it harder to follow me—but maybe we'll save that for another day."

Luna closed the wormhole by lowering his paw. Panting, he continued, "Phew…now…there are some limitations. You have to open both ends at the same time, so you have to put in quite a bit. It costs energy and absolute focus to hold these open, so you have to keep putting in the longer you take. It gets harder the more space you have to bend, so you do have a maximum range. Even so, it's a very quick way to travel, and with experience, you can almost compete with true teleportation. Give me your paws."

Asriel stuck out his fluffy, white paws; from behind, the goat commander gently took his wrists and pointed them straight ahead. Speaking softly, he asked, "I want you to know how it feels before you try to make a wormhole yourself. One end will be in front of us. Do you have a destination in mind?"

"I do."

"Okay. I want you to visualize the space between here and your destination. Don't focus on the twists and turns you'd take on foot; instead, try a bird's eye view to really understand the relative orientation of these two points in three-dimensional space."

"Um…got it."

"Now, when you open it, you'll feel a very strong pinching sensation. Hyper Goner probably feels similar, but in your normal form you'll be feeling a lot more. It'll start at your fingers and toes and move towards your SOUL as if someone was sucking you through a straw. Don't worry; it won't hurt you, but you must remember to hold your breath until the wormhole is completely opened. Otherwise, the pressure will choke you, you'll end up coughing like you swallowed a pepper, and you'll most certainly lose your focus. On three, okay?"

"One…two…three!"

(Hold it…hold it…hold it…and…there!)

When the prince opened his eyes, he was face-to-face with a large sphere, edges glowing just like Luna's a few minutes ago. From the wormhole, he was able to make out a cloudy image of his home's living room, but from the raised perspective of an upper corner rather than a ground-level observer.

"Not bad. Places you're familiar with are the easiest to visualize. Unfortunately, I don't think you meant for it to drop you three meters in the air."

Asriel shrugged, but the moment he retracted his outstretched paw from the aperture, it wobbled like a hatching egg and went out with a startling bang.

"What was that?!"

"Easy there, everything's fine…like I said, you need to stay focused. What you just saw was the tunnel collapsing in on itself, followed by the gathered magical energy suddenly re-expanding. There is nothing physiologically 'wrong' with closing wormholes so quickly, but you'd clearly like to avoid scary noises. Let's try again. Same destination but try to get this one a little closer to the ground."

Once the prince's heart rate returned to double digits, Asriel and Luna raised their paws again; this time, the aperture captured the dining room table and chairs from an appropriate height. Chara and Frisk were busy playing a tabletop game; based on number of pieces alone, the latter had apparently gained a slight advantage. Frisk spoke inaudibly to Chara and pointed at their sudden spectator, leading both to get up off their seats and crowd around the space bubble. On the goat monsters' end, a muffled voice emerged, shouting, "Wha—Azzy? How?"

'Azzy', visibly straining, shouted back, "I…um…made a wormhole! Getting a little hard to keep it open now, so back up and let me try to close this thing…"

In a more controlled fashion than the first, the vortex shrank to the size of a marble and then evaporated into a cloud of white particles.

A lone, bow-wielding goat monster leaned over a wooden railing connected to one of Waterfall's many wooden bridges, ears being massaged by water trickling over the stones underneath. There were still a few magical arrows stuck in the far wall, vaporizing one by one and leaving small craters where they landed. It mattered not how slowly or quietly Rockefeller approached, as, without turning her head, 'Z' started, "So, do you still consider us dangerous 'living weapons'?"

The lawyer stopped dead in her tracks. Figured the goat would have heard someone coming despite the ambient sound.

"How did you know it was me?"

"I recognized your scent. Grit, sweat, and spearmint perfume."

"My…scent…?"

Rockefeller sniffed her jacket self-consciously.

"No. Few monsters wear shoes. Even fewer wear sneakers designed for human feet."

'Z' patted the railing twice. Two elbows joined hers by the riverside.

"Careful now…I could still bite!

One of them playfully brushed the other's shoulder.

"But you really do have a point. Magic can be scary if you lose control of it. I don't know how you feel about conscription, but we make everyone join the military for about…eight, nine…ten months whenever they reach a certain age. It isn't about might or even patriotism; it's about making sure that everybody knows how to use magic safely. And we definitely wouldn't send the first-years into battle."

"I'll wager that doesn't apply to you."

"Luna and I are exempt, for obvious reasons. It'd be counterproductive."

"While I'm apparently on a hot streak, let me also wager that wasn't why you started doing intelligence."

'Z's head jerked back slightly.

"Why I started doing this…I guess you could say family tradition drew me in. No harm in giving it a shot, after all. I figured I'd follow through for a few months, but…turns out I have a knack for this, and now we're here."

"It's good, being happy with your profession. It means you can focus on things you enjoy."

"Oh…?"

Something about the lawyer's tone seemed a little off.

"Fluffy, you're no prosecutor. You don't need to pretend to be one. You've already too many things to focus on. By the time we reached Hunter's case, all it took was a note card for you to concede those charges. Be honest with me, Fluffy. Did you ever have any intention of pursuing the king, or were you putting up a fight for my sake?"

"…how long have you thought that?"

"I had an inkling when you announced Plain View Doctrine before searching his Highness's closet. Fluffy, no officer I have worked with has ever said those words specifically. It felt as though you had researched legal terms last-minute just to impress me. I knew beyond a doubt when that angry mob descended on the mountain and all you cared about was dispersing them before someone got hurt."

'Z' shook her head.

"We really did have to find out what transpired around the six children, and soon, we'll have a complete case file about them. It'll surely be an interesting read, but…do we dare share it with the humans? The subject is a grisly one. We could set back human-monster relationships by decades, which means the king and queen probably won't make any more progress with the UEG in their lifetimes. I'm not sure if a monster would even be able to walk down the street, honestly. What would inevitably happen? Another war? Another dust storm? But, if we hid it from the humans, we'd be complicit in arranging a cover-up. Our good name would suffer as much, considering how intensely we chewed out the UEG for covering up the Golden Flowers Incident. Plus, we'd be keeping five families from ever discovering the exact fate of their loved ones…"

"If you're expecting a suggestion from me, I think you'd already know where I stand."

"I hope we can handle fallout."

"Try it yourself."

The goat prince raised his paw forward and curled his fingers as though pumping up a blood pressure cuff in slow motion. As the squeezing wrapped around his wrists and forearms, iridescent particles materialized in the cool air and began collecting themselves into a magical sphere. The proto-vortex widened by a couple of centimeters per second as more magical energy coalesced, but Asriel felt pressure weighing increasingly against his chest. It was as if the energy hated being forced into a confined space. It wanted to burst out of the prince's unqualified cage like a beast slamming against iron bars.

"…hnrrrk…kagh!"

Luna took a moment to fix the fur on his head, unstable detonation having blown it backward like a wind tunnel. He grabbed a bottle of water and set it down near an Asriel on his paws and knees, coughing and sputtering as if he too indulged in a bite of moldy pie.

"Can we…can…can…we…break?"

"Yes, of course. I assure you, these do get easier. It just takes practice."

"You got it as big as a beach ball before it blew up? Not bad. I think my first got just over...this dish, actually."

The training had obviously tuckered Asriel out, so the two agents accepted meeting the Dreemurrs for lunch at a fancier restaurant in Hotland. They still couldn't allow the king and queen to pay for their meals, but a few rent-free nights camping on the mountain during good weather and in Waterfall otherwise had saved them more than enough for some seared salmon with green onions. Toriel and Asgore had sprung for stuffed eggplants and a rib-eye steak, respectively, and their kids were slurping down three different pasta dishes.

"So, Rockefeller has probably informed you that we will not be trying to intimidate, search the property of, or otherwise hound his Highness for answers anymore. Believe me or not, but it isn't another trick this time. Turns out lawyers do not have unlimited vacation days, because she told me she'll be leaving soon, and she'd sleep better if we stopped doing that."

"Are you hurt? Child, let me see—"

"Une chèvre parlante!"

"…?"

"Um…you are…talking goat, no?"

A SOUL hovered over a candle set on the white tablecloth, drowning it in a deep blue light.

"Of course…it makes sense, considering the geography…um…Marie, parlez-vous Français?"

"Oui! But…it is maybe easier for other talking goats to continue this way?

I was going home from the ballet competition when our car started making all manner of strange noises. The mechanic told us they would need some hours to drive out here, so we walked around your beautiful forest to pass time. But then, the sunlight stopped shining through the leaves and it started to rain. We would have returned to the car, but there was a cave nearby. The clouds outside made it difficult to see far, and then I tripped. I needed special shoes for the dance, but they were most certainly not made for walking in caves! When she found me, I was trying to remove my shoes before I tripped again. The fall did not hurt very much, but I cut my leg on some of the rocks.

When Madame Toriel touched it with her paw, I felt warm and cozy inside. And then, when she took her paw away, the cut was almost gone. I felt safe following her now, but I would have felt safe even if she was not a magic goat.

The waiter, a tall lizard-like monster, lifted away a silver dome to reveal a plate piled high with oozing, slimy snails. Luna and Zephyr tried not to turn their noses up too quickly while Chara and Frisk just kept smiling, glancing at the dish every so often to make sure the snails weren't actually moving. That concern hadn't stopped Asriel and his parents, who had each topped off their plates with a generous scoop.

Bowing to the pairs of expectant eyes, the two guests retrieved one snail each with chopsticks and slurped out the gooey contents with their mouths. Despite the…interesting texture, they were pleasantly surprised by a taste slightly resembling garlic-seasoned oysters.

"Sniff sniff…what is that lovely smell?"

"Smell? Oh, it must be the snail pie I baked for myself this morning. I can make you something else to eat; what would you like?"

"I like snails. Could we share the pie?"

"Of course, dear."

Toriel cut a big slimy piece for me. I think she was happy because she had someone to share the snails with.

"Do you like it?"

"Mmph. C'est délicieux."

"Honestly, I did not know that humans eat snails, too. The other humans never seemed to have much of an appetite whenever I asked."

"They are a favorite in the little town I come from. But did you say that other humans have fallen through the hole where I fell? Where are they?"

"Perhaps it was an after-shock from the previous human, but for a reason I cannot describe, I decided to be completely and unsparingly honest with Marie. Sometimes children will do the exact opposite of what they are told, so I hoped my reversed approach would be more persuasive."

"You are not the first human to have fallen down here. There were five just like you, and they all passed through here. They searched for an escape route, but they could not find one. Now, four of them are dead."

Toriel touched my heart with her paw. It was a deep blue that made me feel sadness, just like how she looked.

"They…King Asgore…wants human SOULs to destroy the barrier that keeps monsters trapped down here. If you leave, they…they'll take you away and…there is no way out while the barrier stands. Please…don't leave me. I can feed you, and keep you safe, and…"

"Shh…it is okay. I will stay with you for a little time."

That night, my curiosity got the better of me. I tiptoed down the stairs while she was fast asleep, and I nudged the door open. I saw so much snow outside; much too cold to wear my other clothes or a tutu and ballet shoes, and then I went back to bed. "Perhaps I am dreaming?" I thought, but I woke up tomorrow and found my tutu on the shelf exactly where I had put it.

Toriel made us goat—, um…oatmeal. It was okay. Healthy, but…I do not know how to describe it other than a very okay breakfast.

"Could you tell me about this 'King Asgore'? What is he like?"

She went to the bookcase and removed a picture from a dusty old book. She was much younger in that picture, and she was nuzzling another just like her, but with much bigger horns.

"Asgore, um…is my husband."

"Then you are…a queen? Oh, no! What has happened?"

"I guess this is not the fairy tale you wanted to hear, but there was a time when our lives were almost like one—married, two kids…but one day, some humans nearly killed them. In his anger, he decreed that all humans who were found underground would have their SOULs taken away, until there were enough to destroy the barrier and kindle a war with the humans above ground."

I tried to move my spoon toward the bowl, but I could not.

"He would not listen to me, he would not reconsider, and I could not recognize my children's loving father. But maybe, if I could keep humans away from him for long enough, he would come to his senses. Do you see now, Marie? I cannot let him see you for as long as he is foolishly chasing after SOULs."

I tried to have a bite of the oatmeal, but I could not.

A royal guardsmonster came running in, armor plates clanging around them like a pile of tin cans.

"Your Highness. We've spotted Chara's biological father walking around the base of the mountain. He said he would like to talk to Chara and Anta about Clairine. What should we do?"

"Send him away. We want nothing more to do with him but tell him he may contact us through the official e-mail address if he so desires."

"May I follow you out? Promise I won't start round two when we get there."

The guard waved Luna to the door. Just before they disappeared, Asgore called out toward them, "Remember. You need only ask him to leave. If he refuses, we may discuss next moves then."

Asriel heard a faint whooshing that he quietly wished was his. Still, he was nowhere near giving up on his unconventional studies.

After checking over their shoulders enough times to guarantee they hadn't been followed by Dreemurr and Co., Luna and the guard stepped out of the shadow cast by the cave entrance, walking over a faint black ridge marking where the barrier had cut through the rocks. Waiting there was a man in a nice shirt and slacks, escorted by two other guards flanking behind him. Clairine was nowhere to be found.

"Good afternoon. I am afraid that the princess is unavailable to visitors today. Please come back later, or—here's a better idea—don't. Ever."

The goat reached into his pocket and flicked something yellow and shiny toward the man, who caught it, turned it over with his fingers, and, not knowing what to do with it, handed it to one of the guards.

"This gold coin should cover your gas bill."

"No hard feelings, right, Fluffy? Come on, you gotta let me see her. Haven't you watched the news lately? I need to talk to her about her mother."

"Those are things you may communicate in writing. Also, don't call me 'Fluffy'."

"Right. My bad. But I'm her father. You can't just hide my daughter away from me!"

"One court ruling says you aren't and one restraining order says we can."

"You know darn well that order's a crock, from the same court that sent your prince crying in the bathroom and tried to make a martyr out of your queen. Don't you think what's happened to her mother is more important than a piece of paper? What if you take me to see Chara? Nothing can happen to her if you're watching my every move, right?"

"No!"

"Five minutes, and if at any point Chara wants me to leave, I'll leave without putting up a fight."

"This isn't something you can bargain over! Chara doesn't want to see you!"

"Really? Did Chara say that? Or is it just you putting words in her mouth?"

"Haven't you noticed that she didn't come up here with me? She's afraid of you!"

"Is she really hiding? Did you even let her know I came here? How do I know you lot didn't lock her up in a room somewhere?"

Luna's patience, rather scarce to begin with given the circumstances, had already skipped back into the cavern he emerged from minutes ago. After a curt goodbye and a "Have a pleasant day," his legs followed suit.

Out of the edge of his ear, he heard someone shout, "Unhand me; these legs aren't broken!" followed by someone grumbling, "Fantastic, even the monsters act like monsters."