"I'm sorry that it took me so long to come here. I want you to know that I never doubted our friendship. I was just scared. All the undead I met until now were bad people and hearing that you are some kind of undead and an Abomination at that overwhelmed me." Friya said.
Quylla opened her eyes wide, realizing that Friya had decided to take the fall for their late coming to not make things more awkward between her and Lith.
"Don't apologize, being scared is natural. Even I am afraid of myself ever since I almost killed Solus while fighting the Puppeteer." Lith hugged her, thankful to Friya just for being still there and for not quivering at his touch.
"Watch your hands, big guy, or I'll tell Kamila." She chuckled while returning the embrace. "By the way, have you decided what you want to do with the Hands?"
"Mine or Menadion's?" Lith asked, moving one hand on her hip and changing his stance as if he was about to kiss her.
"The Hands of Menadion, smartass." Friya said with a chuckle.
"Then no. The problem is that an imprint cannot be taken back so unless I give them to someone disposable, it's not like I can kill them the moment I change my mind. It's a big decision." He let Friya go and took the Hands of Menadion out of his pocket dimension.
They looked like thick silver working gloves with one mana crystal of a different color on each fingertip and a sixth in the middle of their backhand. The crystals went from red on the little finger to blue on the thumb.
The green gem was replaced by a bright silver while the gemstone on the backhand was black.
"They are beautiful." Friya wasn't an Awakened, yet she could feel the hair on the back of her head stand up in front of the raw power the Hands emitted.
"Is it me, or the six gems represent one element each? Doesn't that mean that they are all white crystals of which Menadion has amplified the affinity toward a single element to their utmost limit?" Phloria asked.
"Indeed." Lith said. "It's a work similar to the sword of Saefel, but meant for crafting rather than fighting."
"It's actually better." Solus said while assuming her humanoid form and letting her own gloves cover her hands. They all could notice how the relic related to the tower and the Hands were almost identical.
The only differences were Solus's gloves being white, the gems being positioned on the knuckles, and their number. With just a deep cyan core, Solus could manifest only four mana crystals.
She drew in the world energy from the geyser below them and split it into its six elemental components by channeling it through the gloves. The missing gems made the flow of the light, darkness, and fire element thinner, but Solus had no trouble lowering the output of the other elements to make them match.
Then, she breathed a spark of her vitality in the six streams and they suddenly merged into a single one of emerald green color.
"Is that Spirit Magic?" Quylla was flabbergasted.
"Yes. I've scanned the Hands ever since we retrieved them and even though I didn't imprint them, studying their power core has made me regain this memory about the tower's abilities.
"I'm now certain that I possess all the abilities of the four relics of Menadion's set, I just have to wait until my body fully recovers to master them." Solus said.
"That's great for you and Lith, but why does the ability to produce Spirit Magic make the Hands better than the Sword of Saefel?" Phloria asked without bothering to hide the greed in her eyes, just like everyone else in the room.
"Unless Tyris's sword has some secret I'm not aware of, only the Hands can be used to both craft powerful relics that employ Spirit Magic and to fuel their master's spells.
"The only weakness of Spirit Magic is how mana expensive it is since it relies entirely on the mana core, but with the Hands, one just needs to use a bit of life force to turn the elements into their own mana." Solus said.
At those words, all those who weren't Awakened tried to put Solus's theory into practice. Success would mean the ability to use Spirit Magic, at least for crafting.
Conjuring six streams of elemental energy wasn't hard at their level of mastery. Yet only Friya managed to keep them exactly at the same level due to her being equally attuned with all elements.
"How the heck do you add life force?" She asked after trying and failing several times.
"I don't know." Solus shrugged. "I just do what we do every time Lith breathes his Origin Flames. Whatever it is, it must be hard to grasp since not even Kolga's King used Spirit Magic this way."
Her words caused a lot of swearing that only ceased once Lith Warped everyone back into the dining room, where hot tea and pastries waited for them.
"Now that you know what happened in Kolga, I have to tell you what happened here during my absence." He said.
Aside from Phloria, no one remembered who Trion was. No condolences were asked or given since no one cared about his death if not for the pain it caused Elina. The part about Orpal's return and Kamila's parents, however, sent the room into an uproar.
"Here I thought we had it hard in the Fringe!" Quylla clenched her cup so hard that if not for its magical nature, she would have crushed it many times already.
"Do you really think the three events are linked?" After being betrayed by the Dewans, Nalrond's mistrustful nature had become even worse, but even to him that hypothesis seemed a bit farfetched.
"I really hope that Orpal didn't kill Trion just to get back into the family." Tista sighed. "As for Kamila's parents, I don't know them well enough to answer your question. Orpal's arrival helps their cause, but not by much.
"Involving themselves with him is a double-edged sword. It allows them to ride his second chance bullshit, but if their 'business relationship' gets exposed, they'll lose even Zinya's trust."
"Call me crazy, but I don't believe that Trion killed himself." Phloria said.
"Even after what he did to me, I kept an eye on him because he was your brother. Sure, he was green with envy and would w.h.i.n.e about his family with whoever was willing to lend him an ear, but he loved his job.
"The army was his new family and he had lots of friends. Before my discharge, I heard that he was about to get promoted. That coupled with the fact that he died months after you became an Archmage instead that immediately after, sounds suspicious to me."
"Kamila is already looking into it, but at this point, maybe it's better if I ask Jirni for help as well." Lith pondered Phloria's words, feeling his paranoia sense tingling more and more.
"Please, you know how my mother works. She probably already has a folder thicker than my arm about everyone involved. I bet that if she found anything suspicious, she would already be at your doorstep." Phloria said with a sneer.
"You are probably right, but I'll ask her anyway, just to stay on the safe side." Lith nodded.
