"Can you spare a moment for me, please?" The Firstborn Banshee touched Lith's arm to get his attention, giving him a bittersweet feeling and making Solus worry even through her drowsiness.
She had seen the longing in Ilthin's eyes too many times to not recognize it. At first, she had mistaken it for that she usually saw in Kamila's eyes, Phloria's, and sometimes even her own, but now she knew better.
That was how Lith looked at a juicy fillet steak after a long session of training.
"Sure thing." Lith said, wondering what the sparks he felt running under his skin were. Baba Yaga and Scarlett had stopped talking about the Eyes and moved on to theories about the Emperor Beasts that he failed to understand.
'I have no need to stay here anymore. They will dumb their discoveries down for me later.' He thought while following the elf to the privacy of another room.
"First of all, allow me to thank you. You're everything Sylla told me about and more." Ilthin gave him a bow that made her look even lovelier, making Lith doubt his senses and circulate fusion magic to purge the sparks from his body.
"Thank me for what?" Now she looked to him like any other pretty woman but Kamila would. Easy on the eyes, but indifferent on his heart.
"I'm not hard-headed like Vladion nor do I consider you guilty for slaughtering our kind. On the contrary, I'm grateful for that." Ilthin sat on a gold-painted cherry wood sofa padded with red silk, patting on the cushion next to her in a come-hither sign.
"Okay, now you lost me." Lith said while sitting on an armchair instead.
"You and this war are showing to many members of the Undead Courts the errors of their ways. On top of that, you've exposed how Dawn doesn't hesitate to use her alleged subjects as lab rats for her sick experiments." If the elf was disappointed, it didn't show.
"Thanks to that, many of my brethren and even more of my children have abandoned the Courts. Dozens of them reach the Eclipsed Lands in search of asylum. Sylla Ekna is among them and she sends you her regards."
'Who?' Lith racked his brain, trying to associate a face to the name.
'The first Banshee we met.' Solus chimed in. 'The woman who ruler Othre's Dawn Court branch, remember?'
'Not a clue.' Lith thought, failing to recognize her until Solus projected a quick recap of their meeting in his brain.
"Wait a second. Are you telling me that the Undead Courts and the Eclipsed Lands aren't just two sides of the same coin?" Lith now could understand what had happened earlier and steeled his mind with Spirit Magic.
"They couldn't be more different." The Firstborn said with a smile that would have made flowers bloom during a new ice age. "The members of the Undead Courts are Baba Yaga's unruly children.
"She never meant for us to seek and dominate the outside world, only to live happily. In a way, they are an aberration not inferior to Liches.
"I'm sure you've noticed how undead beasts and plants are a minority in the Courts, but that's not because they are few so much as because most of them live in the Eclipsed Lands.
"After you slaughtered the army assembled in front of the Feymar mines and defeated Night, many of my children came to their senses. I couldn't tell you any of this in front of Vladion without angering him, that's why I brought you here." Ilthin said.
"If you're so grateful to me, then why did you attempt to manipulate me earlier?" Lith's voice was stone-cold.
"I did?" She sounded genuinely surprised.
"I'm not an idiot and I know a Banshee's favorite food. You tried to Mesmerize me so that I would cheat on my girlfriend with you. Or were those sparks in my arms just due to us being soulmates?" Every single one of his words oozed sarcasm.
"I'm truly sorry. I didn't mean any of that." She blushed in embarrassment.
"Why should I believe you? I bet that if I sat beside you as you wanted, you'd have doubled the load and s.u.c.k.e.d the life out of me." Realizing how flirty she had been, Ilthin turned to a bright shade of purple up to her long ears.
"Because Mesmerize if for Vampires while a Banshee Charms. If I used it intentionally, you wouldn't have felt just sparks." She said. "I know that apologizing any further is pointless so allow me to warn you instead.
"Always be on your guard against both me and my children. Someone like you, who have reached the a.d.u.l.t life without ever breaking a vow is the rarest and tastiest delicacy to those of my kin."
"I'm pretty sure I defied my oath as a Ranger and as a member of the Mage Association several times. What the heck are you talking about?" Lith asked.
"A vow taken because mandatory for your job or that's forced on you doesn't count. A real vow, what defines a cheater from a faithful person to those like me, is something that comes from the heart.
"Words in which you believed the moment you spoke them but that temptation, boredom, or time turn into hot air the moment you stop upholding them. I can tell you that you've never been unfaithful." Ilthin said, looking at him with admiration.
"Never?" Lith echoed, wondering how his bond with Solus affected his relationship with Kamila.
"Never."
"Well, so far I've kept a big secret from my girlfriend. I might call you to vouch for me once I break it to her." Lith sighed in relief. The certainty of not being any kind of two-timing sc.u.m lifted a burden from his heart.
"I'm certain that it won't be necessary." The Firstborn chuckled, glad to not have ruined everything off the bat. "In the case I'm wrong and you need my help or you two break up, this is my contact rune."
She left a runed business card in Lith's hand before walking out the room, swaying her h.i.p.s in a way that Solus believed should have been listed among tier two Forbidden Magic.
'I hope you realize that thing isn't a rune card so much as a meal ticket.' Solus said with an edge in her voice that might have cut down mountains.
'I know. Yet I don't remember you being so grumpy when Xenagrosh gave me one of those.' Lith chuckled.
'Because she considered you like her cute little brother, while Ilthin would like to have you for dinner with a side of roasted potatoes and accompanied by a good red wine!'
Lith teased Solus, pissing her off big time until Baba Yaga walked through the door.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Her Mother form wore a warm smile that reminded him of Elina.
"Just the quarreling of the two sides of my brain. A Banshee's Charm is quite persistent." Lith said, pretending that he had yet to get rid of Ilthin's influence.
"My daughter can have that effect on men. And on women. And on anything in between." Baba Yaga sat down on an armchair right in front of Lith, taking a few deep breaths while she searched for the best possible opening line.
