"I have my own means, don't worry about me. Also, I'm not drunk nor has pain turned me into an idiot. I've already lost Lark and Mirim. Jirni can't use them and my Professors have their own means to defend themselves.
"You're the only Awakened I know that has received the Present card and I trust you enough to know that you won't abuse the Hands nor ask me questions I'm not ready to answer." Lith said.
"I'm giving them to you because if the bastard who killed my friends decides to stick close to Lutia, you're their next mark. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you even though I could have prevented it."
"I'm speechless." Faluel said while imprinting the Hands and testing their powers.
The Hydra now only needed a flick of her fingers to conjure all kinds of Forgemastering circles and keep them stable for a long time like only a mage tower could.
"I need a mana geyser to tap into their full power but they are an amazing tool as they are already." Faluel put them away before taking Lith's hands into her own.
"Thanks for the beautiful gift. I can see what Kamila sees in you and why she stuck with you for so long."
"Saw." Lith corrected her.
"Sees." Faluel insisted. "As someone older than you who has gone through a lot of breakups and failed relationships, let me give you an unsolicited piece of advice. No matter your race, death is part of the cruel game that life is.
"Lark, Mirim, and Sedra are dead but Kamila is not. I'm not telling you to wait for her nor to forget about her. Only time will tell whether your goodbye will last for a while or forever.
"Just don't give up on your feelings solely because they bring you pain. Otherwise, all that will be left of you is a Lich who remembers nothing but the nature of his work." Faluel took a pause to let Lith ponder her words.
"One more thing." She said once his deep meditative state brought Lith to snoring. "Now that you've reached the violet core, it's the perfect time to develop a more complex breathing technique.
"There's nothing wrong in those you used until now, but once you start practicing Accumulation again to further promote your mana core, you'll discover it incapable of tapping into the auxiliary cores' full potential.
"Invigoration will suffer from the same problem, turning out to be subpar especially during battle. The Mother of all Hydras invented Lifestream after achieving the violet core as well, and all of us work to improve it once we reach your current level.
"Our breathing technique is so powerful thanks to the collective work that Awakened Hydras share among them for centuries, keeping us from being forced to rediscover the same principles over and over again." Faluel said.
"Wait a second. I remember that Scarlett had a unique breathing technique even when she was still bright blue. Was she a genius or what?" Lith asked, fighting against his drowsiness.
"Neither, she was just way older than you. Scarlett remained stuck at bright blue for centuries and even though vortexes don't work as well as auxiliary cores, with enough time, talent, and effort, one can research a powerful breathing technique like her Aura even at the bright blue core." Faluel replied.
"Now, before you go back to your secret hideout to sleep, can I have some more, please?"
She held an empty bowl of ice cream like a beggar asking for spare change.
"I thought you hated the cold and it's almost winter. My birthday is around the corner." Lith raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"I do, but your heating system brings spring every day into my cave, so a bit of chill in my mouth doesn't bother me." Faluel shoved the bowl in his face over and over.
"I don't bring a cartload of ice cream on me during late fall. This is the recipe." Lith handed her a very small piece of paper.
"And you make it like this." Lith mixed the milk, sugar, eggs, cream, powdered chocolate and vanilla together with magic.
Spirit kept the ingredients apart when necessary while water magic cooled them down. After less than five minutes, Faluel's bowl was now half-filled with vanilla and the other half with chocolate ice cream.
"Thank you for your generosity, oh Miser Magus." Faluel chuckled while giving him a small bow.
Then, she took a massive amount of ingredients from her dimensional amulet and prepared a Hydra-sized serving.
"Bye!" She kicked him out, to enjoy a bit of privacy while she ate like no lady would in presence of a witness that wasn't her companion.
'Fuck me sideways, that Red Dragon is really something. I must buy some for myself and keep it away from humans or they'll die of alcohol poisoning.' Lith barely managed to go back to the tower and ask Solus to wake him up for dinner before falling asleep.
"How did it go with Faluel?" She asked him, obtaining snoring in reply.
Solus sighed deeply, worried about both Lith and their relationship.
'My nourishment has improved greatly since he got the violet core and by spending almost all of our time together in the tower, my power core grows stronger by the day. Yet everything else is at an impasse.
'We both have yet to recover from Mirim's death but Lith is still devastated by losing part of his humanity and Kamila in less than one day. I waited for so long for him to be single, but making my move now would be really a cheap blow.
'On top of that, trying to build anything on top of this emotional swamp would have paper-thin foundations. All I can do is bide my time and stay close to him like I always did.' She sighed again, laying on the bed beside Lith, holding him in a hug.
The third floor of the tower was nearly complete. Solus hoped that with it, her human body would return as well.
***
Later, that evening, Lith dined with his family after rest and a touch of Invigoration had taken care of the hangover.
The mood was as heavy as always and everyone walked on eggshells around him. They had no idea how to ask for what reason Kamila and him had so abruptly ended their relationship.
"What are your plans for the future, dear?" Elina kept vague so that Lith could open up to her or dodge the question with the same ease.
"First I need to learn Gravity Fusion. Setting up an array every time I have to sit somewhere is getting really annoying. Then, I have to work on a new breathing technique." Lith replied, eating his serving of stew with a grave face as if the fate of the world depended on it.
"I think your mother was talking about your birthday, son." Raaz said. "The social event can be easily avoided using the same reasons that made the gala get postponed again-"
"Do you mean the death of my friends? Agreed." Lith cut his father short. He hated when people believed that just not mentioning death would make him feel better.
Actually, he hated a lot of things of late.
