"For example, I know that even though you broke your word a few times during your life, you have yet to cheat on Lith."
Kamila swallowed a lump of saliva at those words, remembering how she still felt terrible for abandoning Zinya at the beginning of her military career despite her promise of always taking care of her.
Kamila knew that during a boot camp all contacts with the outside world were forbidden and that, after having been disowned by their family, she didn't have the means to stay close to her sister.
'How does she know that I still regret letting Zinya down? Joining the army was the most difficult decision I've ever had to make because it also meant disappearing from my sister's life until I could afford to visit her.
'Only officers can freely use Gates while soldiers have to pay for it like anyone else.' She thought.
"What do you mean, I didn't cheat on him?" Kamila actually said. "We broke up for months now. Even if I dated other men, it wouldn't be cheating."
"That's where you are wrong." Ilthin shook her head. "Just like breaking a vow you took because it was forced on you doesn't count, separation isn't enough to break a true bond.
"It's not cheating only if the vow has lost significance for your heart. If the feelings you had while taking your oath have disappeared. Breaking up doesn't matter, only the fact that you feel something for him or not does.
"As long as you do, dating others would be cheating whereas if you had already moved on, I would perceive you as a blank slate."
"How do I know that you are telling me the truth?" Kamila asked, torn between hope and doubt.
"Grow up, child." The Banshee rolled her eyes. "I have no reason to lie to you nor to back Lith's story. Mogar doesn't revolve around you two, it barely registers your existence.
"Back when I met Lith, he had never betrayed his heart. I can swear it on my very name. Also, considering the fact that the both of you are still single after three months, that he kept my card just to give it to you, and that you had the guts to badger me about him, I'd say you two are far from done.
"That doesn't mean that you have to get back together, just that you need closure. How you do that is none of my business." Ilthin hung up the call and fixed the mess that her make-up was.
Kamila kept staring at the amulet for a while, pondering everything she had heard. Then, she went into her bedroom to take a few more clothes to bring to Zinya's home along with the Camellia.
***
Free country of Lamarth, in the Headquarters of the Master.
After bringing Lith to visit Sinmara, Xenagrosh had found her desk filled with so much paperwork that the late Mirim Distar would have died of old age before being done with it.
Luckily for Xenagrosh, Abominations had little social life and no need to rest, only to feed.
Vastor was too busy taking care of the new monster-Abomination hybrids, keeping the appearances with the Kingdom, and making time for Zinya to oversee the Organization's operations in the entirety of Garlen.
That was her job.
The Master had long since found a way to determine which monster core was better suited to become the counterpart of one of the Eldritchs at his service, yet the number of Eldritch-monster hybrids was still stuck at nine.
Vastor had learned from Bytra's case that the Original Abomination couldn't always be trusted with such power. Insane creatures would only grow crazier and betray him the moment they had gotten what they wanted.
Xenagrosh's case, instead, had shown him that younger didn't mean also better. Just like Tezka, her younger self was too conceited and deranged to be of any use for his plan. For that reason, once he created a new clone, he would keep it a secret.
The Master would take his time to watch them from afar and determine whether they were better, worse, or just the same as their Original before letting them merge.
In Vareen's case, after confirming that both the clone and the original were as dangerous as a live grenade, Vastor had the clone suppressed. Vareen's betrayal was no surprise, but it still caused a lot of frictions with the Council that he had to deal with.
In the end, however, Vareen's death had been a relief. His pocket dimension had become available for the taking and with it the legacy that the Plaguespreader had stored within.
The Master had found it for a while thanks to Life Vision, but the many protections surrounding the artifact made it impossible to get close to the source of the pocket dimension without Vareen noticing.
To make matters worse, there was no way to remove his imprint or to keep him from retrieving it with a thought no matter the distance thanks to the link with his life force.
Once Vareen had died, however, the protections had lost most of their power and there was no one who could respond to their call when triggered.
Xenagrosh had split the legacy between the hybrids, to make sure that each one of them would deepen their understanding of their respective fields. The Shadow Dragon found Vareen's research about Chaos Magic very interesting.
Bytra wasn't as talented or skilled as Aylen the Lich, but she knew about the existence of the six cursed elements. Her tier five Chaos spell, World Severance, allowed her to create them all at the same time, but not to freely manipulate them.
She hoped that by studying the Plaguespreader's work she might find a way to employ Mirror Magic the way that Lith had described it to her, increasing her chances of victory in the case she had to fight a white cored Awakened if not even a Guardian.
As for Bytra, she had paired up with Nandi the Minotaur Eldritch and together they were getting closer and closer to the secret of tower crafting. Each Eldritch-monster hybrid was already a force of nature, but if they also got a tower, they would become unstoppable.
On top of that, the appearance of the Horsemen's steeds during the war between the Griffon Kingdom and the undead had shown the Fourth Ruler of the Flames that towers could actually move along with their owners.
Until that moment, Baba Yaga's hut had been considered a unique piece born out of the genius of the oldest white cored Awakened on Mogar and of some kind of Forbidden magic ritual akin to the one that had spawned the Horsemen.
The ancient tower had chicken legs that allowed it to move around and was capable of shapeshifting into any form that suited its master, making it look like a living being. Yet based on the Kingdom's reports about the Horsemen's steeds, they were just inanimated pieces of crystal.
"If there is no Forbidden Magic involved, then crafting towers akin to that of Baba Yaga or at least to those of her Horsemen should be feasible. Or so I would say if I had a single clue about what I'm doing wrong, dammit!" Bytra threw her Forgemastering hammer against the ground in outrage.
