"I own this place and even if I didn't, the moment you used the ID I gave you, it raised a flag in the security." Tyris replied. "Do you mind if I join you?"
Elina had just straightened herself and was about to nod when a waiter brought another chair in a hurry.
"I knew that, but I hoped you wouldn't bother to come here." Leegaain said.
"Normally, I wouldn't. Yet after Kolga I can't afford to underestimate your machinations, old lizard. You have to work hard if you want to regain my trust." Tyris sat down and looked straight in Elina's eyes.
"Don't worry too much. As long as it's not something that Lith brings on himself, I'll protect him against any foreign threat. He already has plenty of enemies in the Kingdom and I have great expectations for him."
"Like you protected Phloria?" Raaz said with a sneer. Aside from a brief stupor, his feelings for his wife made him immune to the First Queen's charm.
"That was different." Tyris replied with an apologetic tone. "I was ready to stop any reprimand from the army, but I couldn't stand in the way of almost half the nobility and the magical community without turning the Kingdom into a tyranny.
"On top of that, I firmly believe that if I keep my children from making important decisions, even when I know they are wrong, my people will never learn from their mistakes."
Even though he didn't like it, Raaz nodded in agreement.
As a father, he knew that sometimes the only way to make a kid understand the dangers of playing with fire was to let them burn their finger. As a citizen, he knew that stopping Deirus, his allies, and five out of six academies by force would have caused a civil war.
"Thank you both for taking so good care of my son." Raaz said. He knew about Tyris making sure that Lith would take credit for Kogaluga to repay his sufferings and appreciated her offer for protection.
As for Faluel, she had helped the entire Verhen family so often that they had no way to repay her with their limited means.
"I hope that you will keep an eye on him in the future as well. No matter your race, a father couldn't ask for a better wife for his son." At those words, everyone choked on their food.
"Dear, what are you saying? They are much older than him." Elina said in surprise.
"Age is relative when both partners are hundreds of years old." He shook his head.
"Lith has Kamila now and if she decides to become an Awakened-"
"She would die after less than one thousand years due to a late Awakening." Raaz cut Elina short. "Lith might live three times as much if he becomes like Faluel or ten times as much if he really is a Dragon.
"If he really becomes a Guardian, then he might live forever and I don't want him to remain alone. Especially after all of us die and he becomes heartbroken. So forgive me if I exploit my only chance to speak alone with such good women to give them my blessing while I still can."
Elina looked at her husband with new eyes, admiring him for seeing so far in the future.
'If I'm so grief-stricken after losing Trion, I can't even imagine how Lith will feel when everyone he knows is dead. Still, Raaz should have been more tactful.' Elina thought and changed the topic to lift the awkward silence.
"Speaking about Dragons, why do people think Lith is one of yours? My husband and I are normal humans and as far as I know, once a hybrid picks their life force, there is no way back."
"That's correct, but even after our children become fully human, they still carry or blood." Leegaain had no way to explain genetics to farmers so he had to dumb it down for them.
"All the members of the Royal Family share Tyris's silver eyes because of it. A Guardian's heritage can't be erased by something as trivial as time. It's a very rare occurrence, but when one of our descendants mates-"
Hearing Leegaain speaking like that made Elina's hands itch and her glare cut him short.
"I mean when they have a child with another descendant of a powerful bloodline, it's possible for them to be born hybrids even though both parents have human bodies. That's the reason why I need your blood.
"It's the only way I have to prove that I'm not related to either of you." He said.
"Do you promise that if we comply with your request, you'll leave our family alone and that your enemies will not be a threat to us?" Elina couldn't wait for all of them to leave.
Between Leegaain's smug face whenever he talked and all that talking about death, her mood had gone sour.
"You have my word." Leegaain offered his hand which Lith's parents promptly shook.
"Then do it quickly and ruin our vacation no more." Elina said.
She didn't even feel a sting when the Father of all Dragons touched her right arm with his thumb and her blood started to drip from his little finger. Faluel collected it in a small vial that she switched with an empty one once it was Raaz's turn.
"Thank you very much!" The moment he had what he wanted, Leegaain stood up and dragged Tyris and Faluel away with him. "Sorry for bothering you and have a nice meal. My treat."
"This better be important. I was restructuring the oases irrigation system while amending a few outdated laws and writing a new textbook to teach magic more easily to the children." Salaark said without looking away from the dozens of pieces of papers she was writing at the same time with water magic.
A Guardian could make the work of an entire government on their own, but it still took time and focus.
"It's very important. I can finally prove that I'm not Lith's father!" His triumphant shout was welcomed by endless groans and sighs of relief when those present realized there was no world-ending threat at hand except for the possibility of Leegaain's pride blotting out the sun forever.
"I have Faluel, the Lord of the Distar region and even Tyris as my witnesses. The blood was collected in their presence and they kept it the whole time." The Father of all Dragons gave his flabbergasted granddaughter a third vial full of a red liquid.
"This is Lith's blood! How did you get it?" She asked.
"It's not that hard. The guy fights to the death more often than I eat. I had Milea collect it in Laruel to study the anomaly he represents, but I never expected to use it for any other purpose." Leegaain shrugged.
A hybrid's blood was lesser than the sum of its part due to the unstable nature of a body with more than one life force. Both the Master's hybrids and Lith needed a perfect balance to exist whereas pure blooded creatures had an inferior evolutionary potential but they possessed greater powers.
