"Solus? Are you alright?" Lith asked while poking at her with a finger.
Her pink skin was softer than her energy body had ever been and it was warm to the touch.
"I'm just tired." She replied while searching for a bedsheet to cover her eyes with and using her pillow once she failed. "I don't know why but I don't feel well even after sleeping the whole night. Can you please get out and let me sleep?"
Lith was so relieved and yet so shocked by seeing Solus back into her human body that he just stood there speechless. She turned the lights off with a snarl but he turned them on again and moved the pillow and her hair away to look at her face.
"I get that you can't Forgemaster without me, but we've worked our asses for days. I deserve some rest." She said with a groan.
After a few seconds with no reply and the cruel light still hurting her eyes, Solus decided that she had enough.
'Okay. Explain to me what's the matter before I Warp you in the middle of nowhere.' Only then did she notice that her mind was silent.
Usually, when they were so close, they would need sheer willpower to not hear each other's most private thoughts.
Their minds were fused to the point that Lith and Solus often wondered where one finished and the other started.
Or at least so it had been.
Solus opened her eyes wide in surprise and noticed the shocked expression on Lith's face. She activated her link with the tower to check both for threats and for the identity of the intruder, yet her telepathic command fell on deaf ears.
She then jumped off the bed, extending her arm to touch him and make sure that the thing in front of her was really Lith and not someone just wearing his face who had used a more powerful version of Clean Slate on her.
Yet instead of standing up and nailing the intruder against the wall, her momentum sent Solus sprawling on the floor. She tried to get up but after her mind, her body refused to obey as well.
Solus tried to float, but her mana was dry.
She screamed out of panic, resorting to first magic to defend herself from the doppelganger that had snuck into her room yet nothing happened. For the first time since she had memory, she couldn't feel the mana in her body nor activate any of her mystical senses.
"Are you hurt?" The thing that looked like Lith but couldn't possibly be him said with such tenderness in his voice that for a moment Solus thought to be still dreaming.
He gently lifted her from the floor in a princess carry but the feeling of his hands on her legs as the nightgown slipped towards her nethers creeped Solus out enough to snap her out of her shock.
Solus struggled and kicked with all the strength she could muster, sending the pervert crashing against a wall like a cannonball.
"Are you insane?" He said with a surprised voice. "I was trying to help."
"Yeah, to help yourself, though!" She replied. "You can't fool me, asshole. The moment Lith gets back he will kill you so slowly that you'll forget how not to be in pain feels and this time I'm going to help him!"
"I am Lith!" The jackass even shapeshifted into a pretty accurate imitation of a Tiamat while she crawled on the ground to get away from him. "I thought that having your body back so suddenly would have made you happy, not deranged!"
"What the fuck are you talking ab- By my Mom!" Solus looked at the pink skin of her arms, of her legs, and then she caressed her own hair in a daze.
"This must be a trick! If you really are Lith, then what happened to our mind link? The last time I assumed my human form our bond didn't break."
"That's why I asked you if you were alright earlier." Lith said. "Everything was fine when I woke up at dawn to practice Demon Grasp but when I realized it was time for breakfast, you weren't in my mind anymore."
Solus glared at the imposter that had yet to approach her again, trying to regain her cool.
"If you really are Lith, then tell me something that only he knows."
"I was first born on Earth as Derek McCoy. My brother Carl was killed and I was resurrected in an alien's body before possessing Lith as a Puppeteer Abomination." He replied in English.
"Good gods!" Solus froze for a second before sighing in relief. "It's really you. Sorry for the kick."
"Yeah, it's me." Lith replied with a scoff.
"The same guy who picked your pebble when he was four, that already saw your real appearance back in Kogaluga, and who now has several broken ribs. Can I put you on the bed now or do you prefer staying on the floor?"
"Bed, please." She felt relieved hearing his cranky voice that she would recognize among thousands. Only when Lith was really pissed did his Earth accent resurface again.
She extended her arms to him and when Lith knelt down, she embraced him with so much strength that he whined in pain.
"Please, my ribs are still healing and you are way heavier than you look, short stuff." He said while still sitting on the ground and returning her embrace.
"What color are my eyes?" She asked, afraid to hear the word golden.
"Light brown, but not as much as your hair."
"Can you feel it as well?" Solus moved his hand over her chest, where her heart was pounding hard.
"Yes. Your breast feels amazing, but it's also damn awkward-"
"I meant my heartbeat!" Solus became beet red as she pushed him away and sent him to slam against her bed.
"My head!" Lith whined while massaging the part that had crushed one of the bedposts. "If you don't want my help, just say so."
"You ruined this moment for me, jackass! You- Wait a second. Why are the lights still yellow and why I don't have any mana? What the heck happened to our mind link? None of this happened in Kogaluga."
Solus was so used to the tower changing according to her every thought that the shock reminded her of her current predicament.
"I have no idea." Lith said while healing his new injury as well. "Maybe it's because back then you had no tower. I mean, all the energy from the Forbidden Sun was channeled in your human body whereas now the mana geyser has also to sustain the tower.
"If this works akin to a breakthrough, then you are running on fumes. If I'm right, your mana core is still empty and needs time to recharge."
"It would explain everything." Solus pondered. "I can still operate the tower's basic functions because it's a part of me, but I'm in safe mode, so I'm cut off from our mind link and the lights to save energy."
"Do I have your permission to lift you up or do you want to kick my ass some more?" Lith asked.
