Nandi had preferred to side with the old witch over the Master's offer to join the Organization that Tezka had delivered to him because Baba Yaga proposed a one-time deal, whereas the Master required long lasting fealty for some crazy-ass plan.
Now, however, the difference between the two was getting thinner by the second.
"That's only half your job, Nandi." Nana said. "Right now, you and Phloria are two peas in a pod. Both of you have unstable bodies that only the powerful mana flow coming from the crystals keeps stable.
"The other half is to be my blueprint. I'll use you to replicate the Master's handiwork, to know where and how to place my blood core inside Phloria's body.
"This will allow me to succeed on the first try. I can't afford a trial-and-error process to understand how to make two different cores coexists. It would require many specimens whereas Phloria's condition is almost unique.
"Only once I'm sure that the procedure is complete will I Awaken Phloria and fix your problem." Nana said.
"Wait, I thought you were the reason why my sister feels better. Are you saying it's only thanks to the crystal veins?" Friya's anger turned into fear.
"No one, not even the Guardians can keep an Awakening from happening once it starts, yet I am the reason why your sister is still alive. I spread the gemstones for Belin to find. I sent Nandi to save you when you were doomed.
"I made sure that once Phloria's constant use of magic triggered her Awakening, she was inside the mines instead of dying an excruciating death." Baba Yaga wore a cold smile as she revealed how everyone had danced on the palm of her hand until that moment.
"I don't believe you. If it wasn't for your crazy scheme, the moment my sister felt unwell, we would have called someone who knows how to help her." Quylla remembered how Lith had saved even Protector.
She firmly believed that if he really was an Awakened, he would know what to do, if not even already have several of his crazy contingency plans at the ready.
"Someone who? The Blackest Knight?" Baba Yaga chuckled. "The runt is powerful indeed, but someone who has yet to live his first century lacks both the means and the knowledge to help Phloria. No, child. I'm her only hope."
A long, fearful silence fell into the room. Be they humans, Emperor Beasts, or Returners Abominations, they all felt like prisoners waiting for their own execution.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm no monster." Baba Yaga heard the children on their way back for dinner and was now sure that her guests had uncovered her real identity so she turned into her Mother form.
She now looked like a beautiful woman in her forties, with flaming red hair and emerald green eyes. Her voice was warm and her body exuded a reassuring aura that made her hosts feel homesick, longing to reconnect with their respective parents, even those who had long lost them or never known them.
"I'm Baba Yaga, the Red Mother, and I can be your parent as well. Quylla, Friya, once I'm done with Phloria, I can do the same for you. There is a great power slumbering inside all of you, but you need my help to become so strong that no one will ever be able to threaten your happiness.
"Nandi, even after you are cured, there are countless things that I can learn from you and you can teach to your brethren. Stay with me, help me to give birth to my children, and I promise you that I'll make everything I can to make so that your two natures merge into one, making you whole again.
"Hybrids are just the first steps towards new races, a necessary compromise until I find a way to harmonize different kinds of life forces.
"Morok, you're a hybrid no longer, but by studying the changes your life force has undergone, I can better understand the process that leads a hybrid's natures to clash and why they have to willingly choose between them instead of the strongest bloodline simply prevailing.
"Together, we can make Mogar better. We can be a family." Baba Yaga's voice was sweeter than honey and filled with promises of happiness.
Her guests could feel that she wasn't lying. Such a powerful being could trap them with ease and use them as her guinea pigs whenever she wanted. No one paid attention to Eari's secret being revealed, not even Morok himself.
They were all too busy considering her offer to care about the small stuff.
"Thanks, but no thanks." Morok replied first, snapping the others out of their reverie.
"If you succeed, I'll live forever and that's really a long time for someone without a goal like me. I honestly don't care about Mogar, being powerful, or having a long life.
"Otherwise instead of becoming a Ranger, I would have focused on finding someone to Awaken me. All I ever wanted was to be happy. I've seen the death and misery your children cause.
"I prefer a short, unhappy life to an eternity at your service. The only thing you have offered me is more time to be miserable. I'll take your offer for shelter, but once the storm is gone, I'm out of here."
Nandi considered his words as well, but to him, Baba Yaga was still the best shot at a normal life. He was already immortal, and while the Master was but a human, the Red Mother was eternal.
If there was someone who could really find a way to merge his two cores into one, that was her.
Phloria didn't know what to say. She didn't want to die so young, yet the idea of spending centuries leeching off the life force of others terrified her.
'Friya and Quylla can leave anytime they want, but the moment I step out of the mines, I'll die. I can feel my body being torn apart even while we speak. Maybe Quylla is right and Lith might be able to save me, but at what cost?
'His life force is already crippled and I couldn't live knowing that he died to save me.' She thought.
Quylla and Friya had no desire to live forever. Their lives were already messed up as they were and just as Morok had said, they had nothing to live for.
The idea of seeing Jirni and Orion die, of being forced to fake their own death and leave the Ernas household forever to keep others from noticing their unnatural longevity was a thought scarier than death.
Yet they didn't want to abandon their sister. If they left, she would be all alone, forever. The first and the only one of her kind to know how it felt to be truly alive while all the others would be born already half dead.
Phloria would survive, but it was a meager consolation since she would also lose everything in the process.
The hybrid children returned to the room and with a wave of her hand, Baba Yaga set the table for everyone.
"Have you washed your hands properly?" She asked while a flick of her wrist filled the plates with a delicious vegetable cream.
The kids raised their hands in the air and Baba Yaga checked them before turning to her guests.
