"By the Great Mother! This is a Dimensional Mage's life dream. You bent and stretched space, creating matter out of nothing! Can you teach me? Pretty please with a cherry on top?" Friya said.
"You are right about the space distortion part, but I didn't create anything. I just reshaped the tower according to my memories. Everything you see it's just a copy made out of stones after I adjusted their density and composition.
"As for the teaching, sorry but I can't. I didn't create those enchantments, I just manage the place. All my memories about master Menadion are lost and we found no records nor even lore about how she made this tower." Solus said.
The Ernas spent quite some time customizing their own rooms and after that, Solus gave everyone a tour of the tower after making them take an oath of secrecy.
"Oh gods, you have your own crystal mines?" Friya said. "I thought you only recently gained these new floors. Are you really capable of growing purple crystals this fast?"
"I wish. The crystals you see are either spoils of war or bought. This way we skip the gemstones' condensation phase energy and focus the world to enhance already formed crystals.
"As you can see, only the weaker yellow crystals show already some green vein, whereas the purple crystal grew new branches but remained of the same quality. I wonder if it will ever turn white and how long the process will take."
Lith's pessimism had rubbed off Solus who saw the glass half full, but to everyone else the mines were beyond their wildest dreams.
"Girls, shouldn't you contact your father? Orion must be worried sick. He's the reason we came to your rescue in the first place." Solus said once the tour was over. "Friya, shouldn't you reassure your guild members as well?"
"Oh, gods, Dad! I almost forgot." The Ernas said in unison.
"Can you bring me back home, please? Right now Selia is all alone with three kids and I'm worried that if we wait any longer, I'll find my house in shambles." Protector said.
Quylla and Friya had no idea what he was talking about until they felt a low rumble. Suddenly, the scenery outside the tower changed to the familiar Trawn woods.
"It's been a pleasure meeting you all, but I can't wait eight hours for those guys to wake up. On top of that, I bet you have a lot of personal questions for Solus." Nalrond shook their hands before throwing a kiss at Tista. "Bye, darling."
"Call me!" Tista replied.
"I'm now Lith's neighbor. Feel free to visit me anytime you want. Selia loves company and the kids love roughing up new people." Protector and Nalrond left before the Ernas could recover from the shock.
"Are you two really dating?" The two women were beyond speechless.
Tista was even more gorgeous than Friya which made her life even harder. The idea that she had found someone before them despite her looks and her brother's looming menace made the Ernas sisters sick with envy to the point that they temporarily forgot about the marvel of the tower warp.
"No. It's just a joke between us, like yours with Lith, Friya. Nalrond had to act as my boyfriend for over a week during our stay in Jambel so that I could enjoy the vacation as well." Tista replied. "Why? Are you jealous?"
"Of you, a freaking goddess among mortals with the Lord of Destruction as your brother? Sure thing. As for Nalrond, I don't know him enough to care." Friya said.
"Dad! We must call dad." Quylla pulled her sleeve as Friya snapped out of it.
"Oh right." Solus warped them back at the mines. "Orion has put a tracker in your amulets and if you call him from Lutia he would get suspicious."
Friya and Quylla first called together their parents one at a time, reassuring them of their own wellbeing and Phloria's.
"Thank the gods you're alright. What the heck happened there and where is Lith? I want to thank him properly." Orion felt as if the sun had returned and he could finally breathe again.
"He's resting as well. He and Phloria took quite a beating. Sorry, Dad, we only know that the Undead Courts attacked the camp with the help of traitors in the army. Maybe one of my guild members knows more. I'll call you back." Friya left Orion talking with Quylla and checked her amulet.
Half of the members of the Crystal Shield guild were dead and their contact runes had disappeared from her amulet. She grieved them for a moment before calling Wyra.
'I'll mourn later. Now I need to know what happened and if they need healing.' She thought.
The conversation lasted long, but mostly because all the guild members wanted to speak with their god and make sure she was all right. Wyra told Friya everything she knew, which even though she didn't see much, it was still a lot to take in.
"Everyone but Kortus turned traitor and Kallion was involved?" Orion's shock quickly turned into anger. "That little piece of shit, bastard son of a bastard! I'm going to kill him! No, better, I'll give him to your mother. Where is he now?"
"Dead. He had a bad case of the Lith." Friya said.
"What about Captain Lotta and Prospector Ormann?"
"No one knows." She lied through her teeth. "Maybe they are on the run or the Undead Courts hide them."
Lith's allies had rescued people only until he had cast his first Nova spell. For an Archmage, it was a believable feat. After that, he had killed everyone to keep his real strength a secret. The survivors only knew that mysterious mages had saved them.
Only those inside Solus's and Baba Yaga's mage tower had witnessed the fate of the human and the undead battalions. The survivors believed the traitors had simply escaped, afraid of the consequences their betrayal would have once exposed.
Before Friya's call, no one had dared to call the army. The survivors couldn't trust anyone and they knew that revealing their position to one of the traitors hidden among the army's ranks would speel their doom.
"I swear that as soon as I get back home, I'll leave no stone unturned to find and punish those responsible for the attempt on your lives. Keep your amulets on and never forget that Dad loves you." Orion said before ending the call.
Quylla and Friya had a lot to ask and even more to do. Yet now that they were finally able to relax, all the revelations, the fights, and the emotional roller coaster they had endured took their toll.
They went to their respective rooms and fell asleep the moment their heads touched the pillow.
"I think we should follow their example." Tista said.
"Energy body or not, I can see how tired you are, Solus. You gave your all and some more today. You deserve some rest. Besides, once Phloria wakes up, we'll need all of our strength to answer the many questions she's bound to have."
Solus nodded and went to sleep as well, but only after activating all the tower's defensive devices and warping again to Lutia. The Ernas had put their amulets in their pocket dimensions to not get disturbed and Solus had no idea if Baba Yaga might be still watching them.
