"I'd like to see the white crystal as well. Even though my household is rich, Dad isn't allowed to bring them home or to use them for anything outside his Royal Forgemastering lab." Phloria said, not adding a single word about accepting so easily Lith being an Abomination, no matter how long he stared at her.
He brought them to the second underground floor where the crystal mines were located. The Eye of Kolga had taken deep roots that spread throughout the tower walls, connecting it to all the other crystals.
"What the heck is it doing?" Nalrond asked after noticing that wherever the white veins touched, the color of the lesser crystals turned brighter.
"My guess is that since there's nothing past white and that, due to the crystal being already cut, it cannot grow further, the Eye of Kolga uses the energy from the tower to overcome its natural limits." Solus replied.
"Can you please dumb it down for me?" Nalrond said.
"It's rearranging the crystal lattice of lesser gemstones to match its own." Solus replied.
"Okay, now pretend I'm ten years old and explain it again." Nalrond scratched his head in embarrassment.
"It's giving a special embrace to the other crystals that accelerates their growth and helps them to absorb the world energy more easily." Solus chuckled.
"It's beautiful." Phloria placed her hand on the crystal and used Invigoration to study it. "Did you try adding the Adamant we received from Xoth? Based on what Tista learned, the process that makes crystal grow applies to enchanted metals as well."
The Eye of Kolga didn't look to Invigoration like a piece of stone with a mana core, but as an Awakened mana core the size of an a.d.u.l.t man. It rhythmically drew in the world energy as if it breathed, splitting it into the six elements before reassembling it again and sending it through the white veins.
Phloria could almost feel the crystal wailing as it searched for a suitable body.
"I did, but if the tower has a metal mine as well, it's on another floor." Lith sighed.
"Is it alive?" Phloria pulled her hand away with surprise.
"No. It doesn't have any life force or consciousness. What you felt are just the echoes of the souls trapped in Kolga, but they are fading away." Lith replied.
"Then why does it look like a mana core?"
"It doesn't, you're just blinded by its brilliance. Ignore the wails and look deeper."
Phloria followed his instructions and made another attempt. The white crystal was just filled to the brim with world energy that the cutting process had compressed to its utmost limit.
She had mistaken it for a mana core because Phloria had never seen such dense energy in an inanimated object and because the nature of the white crystal focused the world energy, giving it a spherical form.
Meanwhile, in the living room, Friya and Quylla didn't know what to do.
"An Abomination. I'm already having trouble dating an Emperor Beast and Kamila didn't even flinch in front of an Abomination!" Quylla said.
"Yeah, she must have gone through a lot before meeting Lith to be so decisive. I would've needed at least two glasses of Blue Phoenix before making my mind." Friya nodded.
"Are you serious?"
"Dead serious. If I found someone that loved me despite my flaws and that I loved back despite theirs, after going through thick and thin together for three years, I wouldn't break up with them over a minor detail." She shrugged.
"If you've already made your decision, why are you still here?"
"Because if I left, you'd probably act out of peer pressure. Without a gorgeous friendly ear, you wouldn't be able to voice your doubts." Friya said.
"The last time Phloria had to talk me into staying friends with Lith after learning that he's a hybrid and now you want me to set aside the fact that he's an Abomination like dust under a rug. Is there something wrong with me or with you two?" Quylla asked.
"Neither. We just have different points of view. To me, the breaking point was learning that Ryman was an Emperor Beast married to a human woman who had given him children.
"After a huge bender and fighting side by side with him, I realized that Ryman is a good person and he deserves to be happy. After that, the rest came easy. Why do you think I had no trouble accepting that Lith was a hybrid or swearing alliance to a huge Hydra?
"Do you think less of Faluel because she's an Emperor Beast? Of Nalrond because a he's a hybrid or of Marth if he decided to date that crazy Dryad?"
"No, they are all wonderful people. I don't like that Ryssa, but I've never seen Marth smile that often ever since we left Laruel. He's the one who has to put up with her tomfoolery, so as long as he's happy, I'm happy as well." Quylla replied.
"Then how is this any different? I'm not telling you to trust a random Abomination, but to trust Lith who also happens to be part Abomination." Quylla tried to reply, but Friya gestured for her to wait.
"As I see it, Elina gave him his human side just like Mogar gave him his beast side. He told us that he wasn't normal ever since the fourth year of the academy and until a couple of days ago, neither we nor he knew what he really was.
"Now that we got our answer, how does it change our relationship?"
Quylla froze for a few seconds as she thought back to all the things they had gone through together. To how much Lith had suffered when he believed to have lost Protector for good despite having sacrificed so much of his life force in the attempt to save him.
To how that sacrifice would sooner or later kill Lith. Then, she remembered all the times that he had stood by her side in her hour of need just because he cared about her.
A tear streamed down her eye at the memory of how he didn't hesitate to reveal his hybrid nature to save her in Kulah or to give out Solus's secret to save Phloria in Feymar.
"I think you're right." Quylla said after a while. "No matter if his base is human, beast, or Abomination, Lith is still the same person I've known for years. Thanks for helping me to realize it before I did something I would've regretted my whole life."
"That's what big sisters are for, little one." Friya ruffled her hair while standing on the tiptoes, to recreate the height gap that separated them back at the academy.
"Stop calling me little one, you know how much I hate that moniker." Quylla left the room and the tower warped her in the mines where the rest of the group discussed how the white crystal affected the other gemstones.
Friya came in last a few seconds later, noticing that Lith sighed in relief at her sight.
'He must have been afraid that I would leave the tower without even saying goodbye.' She thought while walking in front of him with an embarrassed look on her face.
