Kamila knew that the blow wouldn’t be physical but her body acted on instinct, reading for the fight.
The mind link lasted for just a few minutes, but she lived every second of the battle for the three cities. She felt the weight of War and of the Fury in her hands, the resistance that the flesh of the enemy offered to the weapons as well as their death throes.
Kamila shared the same pain that Lith experienced every time he conjured the Demons, reliving their lives and deaths. She also shared the inner conflict that Solus struggled against every time she planned their next move.
Her goal was to inflict the most damage with the minimum risk for her and Lith, but efficiency came with a price tag that was paid in human lives. Solus was aware of the weight of her decisions and so was now Kamila.
On one scale, there were the lives of the people they saved, and on the other, those of the people they sacrificed to do it. Lith and Solus experienced the burden of both the general and the soldier, sitting on thrones of bones built over a river formed by the blood of their victims.
Lith and Solus were close yet far, their respective thrones separated by the river.
The feeling of isolation only made their guilt deeper and their pain more intense.
Then, a third throne appeared between them, taking bones away from the other two and draining the river. Kamila sat there, her burden was inferior to theirs so her throne was smaller and there was less blood on her clothes.
Yet she was close enough to reach them both and break their isolation.
When the three of them opened their eyes, they found themselves hugging in a tight embrace. Solus and Kamila were crying while Lith was too happy to have them in his life to think about anything else.
“Gods, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe you had to shoulder such a thing alone.” Kamila said amid sobs, using their warmth to keep the dreadful cold from those images at bay.
“Thanks for witnessing the memories of both of us, Kami.” Hiccups broke Solus’ voice, making it nigh-incomprehensible. “You have no idea what this means to me.”
“I’m sorry for dragging you both into my mess. I didn’t realize how bad making such decisions made you feel, Solus.” Lith said, receiving a punch on either side.
“Shut up and hug, asshole.” Kamila sniffled.
“What she said.” Solus half cried and half chuckled. “Pecking order.”
“Not you too!” Lith groaned, making them both laugh.
They stayed like that for a long while, appreciating each other’s warmth as well as that brought by sunlight.
They were still worried about Phloria and afraid of the toll that fighting in the War of the Griffons might take on them, but Mogar seemed to have turned one shade brighter.
***
“I’m telling you, I’m not tired!” Lith sounded like a petulant child and he knew it.
“And I believe you.” Kamila said with a warm smile, yet her words couldn’t fool anyone unless they were blind, deaf, and dumb. “Just do me a favor and close your eyes for a second.”
After sharing their minds, she had forced him into bed. Kamila had just witnessed how great a toll the previous day had taken on him and knew how little he had slept during the night.
Even though Lith had only gotten up for a while, reliving those memories had piled up more mental fatigue on top of the physical exhaustion from which he had yet to recover.
“I’ve been awake for not even two hours. This is as dumb as…” Solus closed the curtains while Kamila never stopped caressing his hair until the words died out.
‘I guess we’ll never know how dumb this is.’ Solus said via the mind link as Lith’s voice was replaced by peaceful snoring.
‘You can say that.’ Kamila replied with a chuckle while giving him one last caress before slowly closing the door.
“We can speak now. The room is soundproof and equipped with a baby monitor.” Solus made a small walkie-talkie appear in her hand.
They could hear Lith’s breathing becoming slow and regular as he fell into a deep sleep.
“More interesting stuff from Earth.” Kamila said while studying the baby monitor. “Do you plan on selling it?”
“Gods, you see a marvel of magic and the first thing you think about is making money out of it? No wonder you two are married.” Solus replied with mock indignance. “Seriously, though, you have no idea how happy I am that we can speak freely about things like this.”
“Me too.” Kamila nodded. “I was thinking about learning English. This way we’d have our secret language and we can teach it to our baby girl.”
“Yes! Yes to all!” Solus jumped in excitement. “Please, marry me.”
“Too late, sweetheart, I already own your ass. I married Lith when he was on promotion. Two for the price of one.” Kamila said with a laugh as she pointed at his betrothal gift to prove her point.
“By the way, are you sure you don’t need to sleep as well? I’m only fine thanks to the baby.
“She pumps me with so much energy that I barely need any sleep to recover. I swear to the gods that sometimes I think she’s using a breathing technique in my womb and I get the side effects.”
It was meant as a joke but neither of them laughed.
If the baby girl was anything like her father, being a hard worker would be hardly a surprise. The two women stared at Kamila’s belly for a while before the thought started to creep them out.
“I’m fine, thanks.” Solus sighed. “I stuffed myself with warm milk and cookies before bed. That and Malyshka’s company made me sleep like a log.”
“That’s great.” Kamila nodded. “While we wait for the sleeping beauty, I have a favor to ask you.”
“Anything for my wife and master.” Solus gave her a mocking bow.
“Please don’t say that. It’s funny when people call me Lith master because he’s much more powerful than me yet I’m free to boss him around. With your condition, instead, being called your master makes me feel like a jerk.” Kamila replied.
“Point taken.” Solus nodded. “What can I do for you?”
“I’d like to learn more about magic.” Kamila produced a burst of bright orange aura with specks of yellow all over.
“Already?” Solus was flabbergasted.
“Well, we are always above a geyser. The baby keeps growing and so does her strength. I’m afraid that in a while I could achieve the deep yellow and I can’t get Silverwing’s plea out of my head.” Kamila said.
The First Magus had begged Kamila to take care of Lith and Solus and to never forget to practice magic. The mana core growing faster than the body was the cause of death of many Awakened, Solus’ father included.
“Sure thing. Any preference?” Solus asked.
“Not really. I’m proficient in tier zero due to my job, but I suck at Spirit Magic. I know nothing about the rest. My core was too weak even for tier one magic.” Kamila said.
