"How is this possible? You can't have updated the tapestry before my arrival. Even my attire is identical to that depicted and you had no idea I would shapeshift my uniform into my lucky clothes." Kamila asked.
"Kamila Yehval, this is Solus. She's both my partner and the mind behind this tower. Solus, this is Kamila Yehval." Lith waved at the door of Solus's room that slowly opened, letting a being made of light out.
Solus looked like a short woman, about 1.54 meters (5'1") tall, made of golden energy, and with long golden hair that floated in the air as if she floated underwater. She wore a simple day dress that covered her from the neck to the ankles.
Solus had chosen loose clothes of a dark blue color that didn't emphasize anything of her proportions to not appear as a threat to their relationship in the slightest.
"What do you mean, your partner?" Kamila's brain felt like someone had dropped it into tar and then frozen it.
"It's just as you see in the carpet. I found Solus back when I was a kid and she was just a rock. We grew together, helping each other through thick and thin. She never left my side nor I did hers.
"If not for her, I would have died hundreds of times. She's the reason why I'm so successful, why I could save Zinya from Fallmug, and why I can craft artifacts like no other mage can." Lith said.
"Okay, now you're scaring me. Tell me what the heck is going on and do it in a way that actually makes sense, please." What scared Kamila the most wasn't just the surprise so much as the mutual affection she could feel between them.
On top of that, if half of what Lith had just said was true, then her relationship with him was bound to be shallow and short-lived compared to that they shared.
"Explaining this with words would take a long time and it would be impossible for you to not misunderstand everything. It's easier if I show it to you." Lith extended his hand to her while Solus mirrored his movements.
Kamila usually would trust him with her life, but the more she remembered how many times she had seen the stone ring, the more she could feel her certainties falter.
Kamila hesitated for a second before taking Lith's right hand and Solus's left while they held their free hand together, forming a full circle.
Kamila knew his life by heart so Lith only projected into her mind the parts about Solus that she wasn't aware of. It allowed him to give her a perfect understanding of his relationship with Solus without the risk of ambiguities or of poisoning Kamila's mana core.
Kamila watched at Lith saving the cracked stone from the Ry's maw, Solus helping Lith to just hide his game at first and soon becoming his moral compass.
Seeing how they had supported each other, going through things that would have broken most people, Kamila considered their bond to be marvelous, sweet, and utterly unbearable.
"Really? She was there during our first dates and even when we spent our first night together?" Kamila said in outrage.
"Yes, but I've shown you that Solus knows how to give us privacy. Also, after a while, she stopped coming with me when-"
"Oh, yeah! Great! She magically covers her eyes and ears and I'm supposed to feel better? Were at least you the one who decided to leave her behind while dating me or was even that her idea?"
Kamila cut him short, unable to distinguish what part in their relationship had been Lith and what was just Solus's influence.
"We decided it together." Lith said, stabbing Kamila's heart once more. "I wanted to understand how deep my feelings for you were and Solus didn't want to play third wheel."
"That's rich! She felt like a third wheel?" Kamila said while clenching her hands so hard that she made them bleed. "I was the third wheel in this sick play of yours all along. Tell me one thing. Was I some kind of replacement for the body she doesn't have?
"Who were you thinking about while we slept together?"
"You've never been anyone else but Kamila to me and you were my first and last thought every time we spent the night together, not Solus." Lith held her by the shoulders while looking at Kamila straight in the eyes.
The good thing about having spent three years together was that she was now able to tell at a first glance when Lith spewed a blatant lie. Kamila inwardly sighed in relief at his honesty.
The bad thing, however, was that in the end, it didn't make her feel any better. Kamila had given Lith three years of her life and all the love she was capable of, only to discover that there had always been another woman in his life.
A woman closer to him than she could ever hope to be.
Betrayal, rage, and envy ravaged her heart making every possible answer that Lith could give to her hurt just the same.
"Three years. Why did you wait for so long before telling me something so important? Were you playing with me or were you just waiting for Solus to have her body back before breaking up with me?" Kamila asked.
"I didn't tell you for obvious reasons. Solus is a mage tower. I own a mage tower. Something that's supposed to exist only in the legends. How could I share such a dangerous secret with a woman I barely knew?
"We met in the army and you knew everything about cursed objects. If I told you that I had bonded with a woman that lived in my head, not only would you have never dated me, you would also report me to the military.
"I would have become a test subject in some secret compound and everything I worked so hard for would have been ruined." Lith replied.
"You are right." She nodded, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm down.
'If our position were reversed, I wouldn't have told him anything either. A mage tower is something big enough to trigger a war between the three Great Countries.
'On top of that, after seeing how the military treats the lost cities, after seeing what Dawn did to Acala, it's only normal that Lith didn't trust me with the truth.
'Being together for less than one year and with all the bumps we had in our relationship, it would have scared the crap out of me. I would have begged him to ask the Royals for help and probably even exposed him if he refused to be split from his artifact.
'Without knowing what I know now, without all the incredible things that I've witnessed and learned during these three years, my prejudices would have gotten the better of me.' Kamila thought.
'Then why, gods? Why even though I know that he's right doesn't my heart hurt one bit less?' She started to cry, unable to hold herself together any longer.
"You've kept this secret for so long. Why are you telling me now?" She asked amid tears.
"Because the more time we spent together, the more keeping Solus a secret from you weighed on my conscience until it became unbearable. Yet I didn't tell you because I was a coward and I was afraid of losing you."
