While Lith healed his injuries, waiting for Solus to calm down before approaching her again.
'Dammit! I wear a nightgown solely to feel more human since my energy body was mostly featureless. I didn't expect to get the full package and lose all my powers at the same time!' She tried and failed to conjure some panties, blushing even harder than before.
"Before lifting me up, please go back into your human form."
"Why? Do my scales prick your sensitive skin?" Lith shapeshifted while kneeling down.
"No, because I can only keep watch on two eyes at a time." Solus said with an embarrassed whisper while keeping her nightgown in place with her hands.
"Going commando? Kinky!" His laugh only made her turn to a brighter shade of purple until she was able to sit properly on her bed. "Do you want to keep resting or do you want to share the good news with our family?"
"Definitely share." She nodded. "But I can't conjure any dress in this state nor can I walk on my own. I need help."
"Sure." Lith handed Solus her own Scalewalker armor.
"Not that. I want a real dress. I want to feel some real fabric, not go to war."
"You really are hard to please." Lith started rummaging through her wardrobe, picking for her the pair of linen pants and the sky-blue blouse that he knew were her favorite clothes.
"We are already late for breakfast so we got to be quick or Mom will kick my ass." Lith put his hands on the laces of her nightgown when she stopped him with an iron grip.
"I'm really happy that you freaked out as much as I did when our mind link disappeared and I'm flattered that you remember even my favorite outfit." Solus said with flushed cheeks that made her smile one of the sweetest things Lith had ever seen.
"Yet I'm not going to let you undress me. When I said that I need help I meant a woman's help."
"Good point." Lith blushed while taking his hand off quickly as if she was a live grenade.
He opened and stepped through a Warp Steps created with his own mana to not burden the tower, without letting it disappear.
"About time!" Solus heard everyone scolding Lith, but Friya was the loudest. "First you work me to the bone and now you starve me? You are the worst host ever!"
"Friya is right, dear." Elina said. "I was starting to get worried. Where is Solus?"
"It's easier to show than to tell. I'll be back in a jiffy" Lith said while dragging Tista through the Steps that had been placed so to show only the entrance of Solus's room.
"Since when is your room a pigsty? You have many flaws but laziness is not among them. And why are there so many women's clothes laying arou- Oh, gods!" Her shriek made Lith's family turn beet red in embarrassment.
Solus gestured Tista to lower her voice, only making her yell louder.
"What the heck happened in here? This looks like a battlefield." She said while pointing at the petite woman on the bed and then to the damages in the room.
"I'm so sorry." Raaz gave Salaark a deep bow, assuming the worst. "He usually doesn't drag Tista in his personal mess. It's just the quickest way to get rid of a clingy date."
"Dad!" Lith snarled from the other side of the steps.
"Don't worry, Raaz." The Overlord shook her head. "Lith is young and accidents happen. At least he's back in the game."
"Grandma!"
"She's right, you know?" Elina said with a sigh. "I was starting to worry that you would never get out of your lab and mope around-"
Lith had just managed to convince Tista that the person in front of her was Solus and only because his sister was one of the few people who had already seen her human form in the past. He jumped out of the Steps again, cutting Elina short.
"I don't mope nor am I so rude to have an orgy in Grandma's palace!"
"It wouldn't be rude. I gave you my blessing the day you arrived." Salaark shrugged. "Just use protection or be ready to bear the consequences for the next twenty years minimum."
"You are not helping!" Lith snarled as the embarrassment in the room became palpable. "Once you understand what's this all about, I expect an apology."
"I'm done here but I need your help." Tista's voice stopped the quarrel. "She's too heavy for me."
"Is she a Phoenix?" Senton asked.
"Please, tell me it's Faluel." Raaz said.
"I can't kill him because he's my father, but you-" Lith pointed angrily at his brother-in-law.
"He's the father of my four children." Rena cut him short and nudged Senton to keep him from adding fuel to the fire.
"Nice save." Lith glared at him, but Senton had long since grown numb to fear.
After everything he had witnessed after marrying Rena, he wouldn't flinch even if the sun suddenly disappeared.
When Lith returned, he was carrying in his arms a petite woman with a delicate oval face, kind eyes, and rainbow-colored hair so long that it almost brushed the floor.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you." She was still laughing at Lith's expense.
Making him so flustered and embarrassed was something that only his family could achieve.
"It's just me, Solus. I got my body back!" She expected them to rejoice with her and to hug her the moment Lith delicately put her down on her seat, yet an awkward silence filled the room instead.
"Congratulations." Raaz said with a flat voice, not knowing where to look.
"Indeed." Elina cleared her throat in embarrassment. "Welcome to the family."
Solus looked at Lith for an explanation but he was just as confused.
"For the gods' sake!" Tista said the moment she managed to stop laughing. "I dressed her, that's why Lith needed my help. The princess carry was just because Solus can't control her body just like in Kolga.
"He wasn't introducing his new girlfriend."
"Seriously?" Both of them became of a deep shade of purple while everyone else sighed in relief. "Did you really think that the first thing I'd do in this situation is sleep with her? What did you think I needed Tista for?"
After a few awkward coughs and mumbled explanations, Salaark spoke the words on everyone's mind.
"Well, you two have the same energy signature so you can't use darkness spells on each other."
"Why would I-" Lith choked on his words as Solus whimpered while trying and failing to hide her face behind her hands due to her lack of motor coordination.
Lith glared at the members of his family one at a time, who started to gobble the food in front of them to fill their mouths and have an excuse to put an end to that conversation.
'I don't know if they acted like that because they find the idea of us starting a relationship the moment that I became human again inappropriate or because they see me more like another of Lith's sisters.' Solus sighed sadly.
No one looked at her and they carefully avoided saying anything that might have started a conversation.. Without her mind link with Lith and with the awkward silence in the room, even though Solus was surrounded by the people she loved, she felt more alone than ever.
