"Their lack of intelligence and the massive amount of resources that Trouble and Raptor would require makes a mere golem unfit for the task. Isn't there any solution, Grandma?" Lith asked.
"There is, but I'm not going to share it with you unless you become part of my nest." She said with a huge smile on her face. "I'm lovely and generous, not stupid."
Salaark ruffled his hair before going back to her paperwork.
'What if she's referring to the memory function of the crystals?' Solus pondered. 'We have seen from the Orc shaman's crystal and the Spell Hoarding Cube that they can retain a certain degree of knowledge and even a shade of will.'
"Grandma, does studying this crystal help me in my project?" Lith made the Orc's violet gemstone appear in the middle of the room, showing the Guardian the Master's tracking device and all the notes they had collected up to that point.
"Gods, this Master fellow is truly outstanding.." She said after learning everything about the crystal in the space of a single breath of Mother Sun. "Since I'll use the knowledge that I've just acquired for my own golems, I can tell you that the answer to your question is yes."
"Thanks, Grandma." Lith hugged Salaark, feeling as if he had really found a kindred soul.
Sure, she had just benefitted from his months of hard work and had chosen to retain key elements of his research, but she had also saved Tista's life and bestowed upon him the possibility to upgrade all of his creations.
Now there was no time like the present for him. Lith had no need to wait to reach a powerful core for his craftings, allowing him to gain experience as no other Forgemaster ever could.
Yet he didn't feel like abandoning Tista. He and Solus wore Menadion's Eyes and researched the Orc Crystal again, trying to catch a glimpse of what the god of Forgemastering had already mastered.
***
Golden Griffon academy, at the same time.
Thrud Griffon had taken her time before Awakening. The Mad Queen's first priority had been to make sure that baby Valeron was alright and to do her best to make Jormun's stay comfortable.
The time that the Emerald Dragon had spent together with his father and his innate draconic mental fortitude had allowed Jormun to partially recover from the trauma of his enslavement.
Yet he was still far from okay. Jormun still looked at the academy in fear and at her with disgust, as if either of them could attack him at any time. The only moment when his tortured soul found peace was while he held the baby in his arms.
Also, he had demanded her to call him only with his real name instead of his slave name, Jakra. It was linked to his long captivity inside the Golden Griffon and to the time when she had unwittingly manipulated him like a puppet.
To give Jormun his space, Thrud had made their rooms communicating, keeping Valeron in the middle so that his father might visit him at any time without having to bear her presence.
Also, she had spent that time revising all of her notes about breathing techniques. By studying the dozens of bloodline legacies that she had stolen, Thrud had understood how each species had sought for the way that best suited their peculiar nature.
She might have used any of them to become an Awakened, but none would have been able to tap into her true potential. It was the reason why during the final months of her pregnancy she had worked hard to understand each breathing technique's underlying principles to come up with her own.
The hundreds of Awakened disciples she had gained and the brilliant mind of Sevenus Hystar, the cursed object that was the heart and the Headmaster of the Golden Griffon, had helped her in the endeavor.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Jormun asked while Thrud breastfed the baby.
Looking at the woman of her nightmares holding the newborn close to her bare chest while withstanding the nibbles that Valeron inflicted upon her by shapeshifting from time to time made a mess of his feelings.
Due to its nature as both a human and an Emperor Beast, the baby seemed to have trouble understanding that he was supposed to suck at his mother's breast instead of pecking it.
Jormun still couldn't forget everything that Thrud and the Golden Griffon had put him through. Those months of abuse were likely to haunt him for his entire life. Yet seeing her as a kind mother who took care of their baby melted his heart.
There was something in the scene in front of him that made him want to forget everything about the past, sit beside her instead of at a few meters of distance, and hug both mother and child.
Yet it lasted only for an instant before his body revolted at the idea and his mind quickly followed suit.
"Yes, I'm sure." Thrud nodded. "I'm finally certain that Valeron's life force is stable. He is in no danger and the Unwavering Array has made me immortal. I can't delay my Awakening any longer."
"Even though you can't die, you might still lose your mind!" Jormun replied. "You have a rainbow core like no one else ever had. The excess energy that will be released the moment your core is reduced to bright blue will tear you apart.
"If the process lasts long enough, you might go insane from the pain and just leave behind an empty shell!"
"At least mindless or not, my body will still produce milk for our baby." Thrud flinched as Valeron kept shapeshifting from one form to another in the attempt to feed more quickly.
She had the mass and the sturdy skin of a Griffon in human form, but it still hurt a lot.
"Gods, I wish we could teach him how to keep his human form. Between the beak and the claws, I feel like a pin cushion!" She lulled the baby, hoping to calm him down.
"Neither of our races is supposed to be breastfed since we are usually born from an egg." Jormun said. "On top of that, Valeron is the first of his own race and we have no idea how… By the way, how do we call it?"
"Bahamut." Thrud replied. The word derived from the draconization of Behemoth, one of the Griffon species.
"How Bahamuts behave. Gods, you put a lot of thought into it." Jormun felt his eyes veiling with tears at the care Thrud had put into making sure that the baby wouldn't forget about either of his roots.
His feelings for her and his fears of her ripped his heart to shreds every time they spent too much time together.
"I had a lot of time to think." She handed him the baby after covering herself. "Take good care of Valeron if I don't make it back. I want him to know that no matter how little time we had together, his mother loved him with all of her heart."
She took the Sword of Arthan and walked into the Headmaster's office, the core of the Golden Griffon.
