Lith immediately took out his communication amulet, checking on both Kamila and Zinya, sighing in relief when he noticed that their runes were still there.
"What the heck happened here and why didn't you assign at least one Phoenix as a bodyguard for Aran and Leria?" Lith said after finding the corpses of Brionac and Volgun, the magical beasts of Zinya's children, and that of Captain Locrias among the fallen.
"Because they leave the Desert for less than two hours per day, in an area protected by powerful arrays and with a Warp Gate always available thanks to my influence. No seal can shut down the passage to the Desert." Salaark replied.
"On top of that, I know about Tezka's presence and relied on his protection. I don't know whether to be more shocked by him giving priority to the Yehval children or by an enemy capable of holding their ground against him for more than one second."
"You and me both." The Fylgja said after Warping between them. "For the record, I didn't give priority to Frey and Filia. The enemy just used Aran and Leria as a diversion, they never needed my help."
The Abomination hybrid was panting in exhaustion. Using so many powerful spells while also controlling two bodies at the same time had taken a huge toll on his body. Unlike a pure Eldritch, a hybrid needed food to heal from the injuries and energy to replenish his cores.
"What do you mean?" Lith had a hard time containing the fury that ravaged his mind.
'Taking it out on Tezka would be both pointless and stupid.' He thought. 'First, I need to understand what happened here. Then, I must find who's responsible and make them pay.'
"It was another of the Balkor copycat's ploys." The Fylgja said, shocking his audience, Queen's Corps included.
"He staged the attack on the kids knowing that the army and your magical beasts would worry too much about Aran and Leria to care about Frey and Filia. While everyone was distracted near your barn, he came to Zinya's house, wearing Fallmug's face."
"What? All of this was just a diversion?" Lith was shocked.
Fallmug was yesterday news and was dead for almost two years. Zinya's abusive ex-husband had played a very small role in Lith's life and only a few people knew about the event.
"Are you telling me that the copycat not only is capable of shapeshifting, but they also have targeted the Yehvals on purpose?" He asked.
"Exactly." Tezka nodded. "According to his words, if he really is a man, it took him quite a lot of effort to learn enough about Fallmug to play the part and terrorize Zinya, but she saw through the disguise. The copycat and Fallmug seem to have never actually met."
"That's interesting, but right now I couldn't care less. I want to know where Zinya is now and why that bastard went to such lengths to attack her. She didn't receive one of his damn cards!" Lith said with a snarl.
"She's at your professor's house now. As for the rest, that's not up to me to explain. He's waiting for you there." The Fylgja pointed at the crater where once stood the Yehval house and a short round man searched through the debris.
Salaark hated riddles even more than Lith did, so she used her breathing technique, Mother Sun, to study Tezka from a distance and read his mind.
Yet the Fylgja noticed her attempt and vanished the moment Salaark took a deep breath. He wasn't an Awakened anymore, but he remembered well the feeling of foreign mana trying to slip under his skin.
"Dammit!" She replied to Lith's questioning gaze. "I hoped to get a sneak peek at Tezka's new body, maybe even to understand how to help you to get a grip on your Tiamat bloodline's skill. I don't like those who try and keep secrets from me."
"That makes the two of us." Lith nodded while looking at the ruins that his father's cultivated fields had become.
Raaz would lose almost one fifth of his next harvest, but it was nothing that money and magic couldn't fix. What really pained Lith was another invasion of the place that he considered his castle, where he was supposed to be safe.
He felt akin to a man whose house had been burglarized. Things could be bought again or fixed, but the experience of having his turf violated despite his best efforts made his stomach churn.
"Grandma, please go back to the Desert and take care of the kids. I'll deal with the rest here." Lith Warped near Vastor, using Leria and Aran as an excuse to keep the Overlord away from the Master.
He didn't need two of his best allies to start bickering, he needed answers. Also, in the case Vastor didn't give him the answers Lith wanted, it would just take him a call to unleash the Overlord.
Salaark liked taking orders even less than she liked secrets, but she could sense the very essence of the Griffon Kingdom rejecting her. She was on Tyris's turf without her permission which limited her powers greatly.
'I could force my way in, but there's no reason to squabble. There's nothing that I can learn from here and my Featherlings need me. Also, in the case Lith doesn't get an answer, it only takes him a call to give me a reason to kick some asses here.' She thought while returning to the Desert.
"What the heck happened here? Why did the Balkor copycat attack Zinya?" Lith didn't waste time with greetings or niceties. He had already guessed everything, he just wanted to confirm his suspicions.
"For the what, you just need to look around." Vastor waved his hands at the ruins surrounding them, at the once luscious fields turned withered and at the mountain of corpses around what was left of the house.
"As for the why, I owe you an explanation." The Master told Lith about how months back he had found the Future card under Zinya's door and how he had taken it away without telling anyone.
"Are you insane? You have endangered the lives of Zinya, the children, and even of Kamila!" Lith's voice rose in intensity with each name he spoke, making the last also the loudest.
"We may not be together anymore, but she still means a lot to me. How could you do that to me? How could you do that to Zinya? I thought that you cared for her."
"I do care for her and more than you can possibly imagine. Why do you think that I left Tezka here all this time?" Vastor's voice turned from sad to cold, not liking one bit the allegation in Lith's words.
"You should have told me! You should have told the Kingdom. That way, we could have protected them to the best of our abilities!" Lith's eyes burned with violet mana and rage.
"Stop speaking out of your ass and think, Lith! I know that you are better than this!" The black-violet light erupting from Vastor's eyes and his genuine outrage matched the Tiamat's, making the air around the two men crackle with power and brewing a storm above their heads.
