"I will leave an unprotected opening near the third turret of the west wall. Once you get in, use the secondary entrance." Jirni closed the call the moment she was done talking, making it too quick to trace.
Lith had no problem following the instructions and sneaking past the otherwise insurmountable crystal walls that surrounded the Ernas household. Somehow, Jirni had set up a small hole that was invisible unless one knew where to look that disappeared the moment after Lith passed through it.
"If I knew what waited for me at home, I would have never gotten back." Friya said with a sigh while greeting him. "I would have come with you, even if it meant to be the third wheel for the whole time."
"What do you mean?" Lith said while looking at the entire Ernas family that waited for him in one of the innermost and most secure tea rooms of the house.
All of them looked tired and worried, except Jirni who welcomed Lith with a youthful smile.
"She means that ever since they came back from their respective trip, my daughters have never left the house for security reasons." Jirni explained to him about the Balkor-like cards that many people in the Kingdom had received and how seriously the Royals took such a threat.
"Are you telling me that Lark isn't just the victim of a sick joke?"
"This is no joke. Balkor may not be involved, but that doesn't mean that we can afford to underestimate the problem. I've called you here to share with you what we know and how we plan to respond." Jirni said and Lith nodded for her to continue.
"As you know, the fall of Kogaluga, the invention of the DoLorean, and even your scuffle with the Vagrash, have increased your already considerable fame."
"How do you-" Aside from his parents and Lark, no one was supposed to know the car's name. Yet Salaark first and now Jirni treated it like yesterday's news.
"What you probably don't know, is what will happen during the Gala. According to my sources, between my political plays and Phloria's contribution in bringing down the lost city, her trial is almost over." Jirni cut him short.
"During the award ceremony, the Royals should declare the full refutation of the charges against her, putting an end to the fight between old and new magical bloodlines."
"That's good news, correct?" Lith said.
"You wish. The timing of your brother's return, of the arrival of Kamila's parents, and the delivery of those cards it's too convenient to be just a coincidence." Jirni placed in the middle of the table her exclusive Verhen's chessboard limited edition where silver and gold replaced the white and black.
"At a first glance, it looks like the work of an idiot that resents you, but let's take a closer look. Using you as a pretext, whoever is behind this managed to involve in their scheme the Ernas…" Jirni put a card that said "Present" under the silver queen.
"Marchioness Distar…" She slipped a card that said "Past" under the silver mage/bishop.
"And the three best healers of the Kingdom." Three more Past cards slipped under the other mage and the knights. "All people who stood in the way of Deirus's revenge. The fake Balkor offers him a scapegoat and several decoy targets like Lark."
"Why should he do something so elaborate?" Lith couldn't find any fault in Jirni's reasoning. Even on Earth, killing innocent people was one of the best ways to hide the true target of the assassination and the motive of the killer.
"Because if my sources are right, his window of opportunity to act against us will close after the Gala. The moment Phloria is acquitted, Deirus will turn from the leader of a powerful faction to a lone father stricken by grief.
"He has to make his move before that happens. Otherwise, once he loses his accomplices, every deal he makes with the Undead Courts and every underhanded scheme against us will lead directly to him.
"It's the reason why I forbid my children to stay in the open and to move to any place that doesn't have a Warp Gate. No matter how good my daughters are, an ambush would kill them.
"This way, instead, by moving from one place protected by arrays to another through Warp Gates, not even a small army can harm a single hair on their heads." A snap of Jirni's fingers revealed so many magical formations in the tea room that even a Dragon would have been reduced to meat on a slab.
"Doesn't that mean that the girls will be forced to quit their apprenticeship?" Lith asked.
"Not at all. I already contacted Faluel about that. Once the Warp Gate to your household is completed, the only thing she has to do is to pick them up and bring them back at every lesson." Jirni shook her head.
"The what to my what now?" Lith said after picking his jaw from the floor. "A place like Lutia has no good reason to have a Gate, not to mention that just the maintenance of such an artifact is incredibly expensive."
Lith had spent his years as a Ranger in the north, hearing the Lords of medium-sized cities complain countless times about their fief being isolated during winter due to the lack of a Gate. It happened even to a few cities that played a vital role in commercial routes.
Lutia had barely been promoted from a little to a medium-sized village after Lith's fame and fortune had expanded its business, bringing the number of its inhabitants to less than one thousand.
"So what? All it takes to build one is money and influence. I happen to have plenty of both and no reason to hold back. If Deirus thinks that I will let his pathetic schemes hinder the path of the Ernas family, he's sorely mistaken." Jirni said with a sneer.
"Yet this doesn't mean that any of you can lower their guard. All the preparation on Mogar is pointless without caution and there are a few things that don't add up." She said.
"Like what?" Phloria asked.
"The tags on the cards don't fit Balkor's MO nor Deirus's revenge." Jirni tapped on the chessboard, drawing all eyes on it.
"If I were Deirus and I had even just the information available to the general public, I would have sent the Future card to the Ernas and the Present to the Verhens."
Aside from Orion, everyone else was too young to follow her reasoning so they stared dumbly at Jirni, waiting for an explanation.
"Past means the total extermination of a bloodline, like Balkor did to those involved in the death of his family." Orion explained
"Present, instead, is only aimed to the upper echelons of the Kingdom, those that Balkor considered responsible for not preventing the tragedy that befell him. Which meant the heads of the army, the Mage Association, and the Royals.
"You've lived the Future card and it involved the murder of the heirs of the magical bloodlines. Each card marks a precise target, everyone else is just collateral damage."
"Exactly." Jirni nodded. "If Lith really was the King of this play, then exterminating the Lark and Distar bloodlines makes sense, but we should have received Future to let us know that our daughters were the target, not us."
