"I spent the last few months studying Lilia's and Leran's hybrid forms to see if I can at least reach their stage, but even if I did, I had no idea what to do next.
"Lith is now a perfect being whereas you are still at the stage that a hybrid needs to undergo to make their essences merge instead of discarding one of them." Nalrond said.
"What do you want me to do?" Tista asked.
"Nothing much. Just shapeshift along with me after I cast the Body Sculpting diagnostic spell, Scanner, on the both of us. That way, I can study the difference between our hybrid life forces." He replied.
Tista needed to get used to her new abilities and she had no reason to refuse. They shapeshifted in unison until the Rezar ran out of focus. Studying the process down to the finest detail took a huge toll on his mind.
"Thanks a lot." He said while massaging his temples to fight a massive headache. "We might have to do this again in the future, but for now I have everything I need."
"No, you don't." Only after switching from one form to another several times did Tista start to understand what Lith meant when he said that he felt more than human yet less.
Somehow, all of her senses seemed to have gotten sharper, yet her mind had also grown more detached as if most of her usual worries were now beneath her.
"If you don't want to screw things up halfway through, you better study Morok's life force as well." She said.
"Why? Protector or Faluel are Emperor Beasts too and much less annoying at that." He asked.
"Because they are Emperor Beasts from birth whereas Morok was a hybrid until a few years ago." Tista replied. "From what I understood, you want to become like Lith, correct?"
"Correct." Nalrond nodded. "After living for so long with my two bodies, losing either of them would be akin to be maimed for life."
"Then your plan is to make your life forces become like those of Protector's children first, then like mine, and lastly like Lith's." She said.
"Correct again."
"Yet if you are not careful, you might mess up and become like Morok instead. By studying his life force, you might be able to gain insight about what went wrong with him once he reached the twenty years of age." Tista said.
"Excellent idea." Nalrond hugged her in one of his rare affectionate moments, creeping her out in surprise. "Having to deal with Morok will be a hassle, but still better than failing. How do I contact him?"
"No need for that, he'll come to Faluel's lair today. The news that Quylla is alive has spread and he's dying to meet her again. You can use the opportunity to get Quylla's contact rune again." She got free from the embrace before gently but firmly sending him away.
***
Later that same day, at Faluel's lair, the Tyrant jumped with so much joy and held Quylla while shedding so many tears that she couldn't bring herself to push him away to regain a shred of personal space.
"I still can't believe you're alive. Please, kick me in the nuts so that I know it's not just a dream." He said while squeezing the air out of her lungs.
"I beg your pardon?" The insane request flabbergasted her.
"It's how we first bonded so I find it kind of romantic." A powerful slap by an Adamant-covered hand gave Morok plenty of assurance that he was wide awake.
"I take that back. Thank you for sparing my baby-makers. Now can someone explain to me how are you still alive? I've checked my communication amulet, sneaked inside the morgue, and saw your body-"
Quylla's glare cut him short, making him rephrase his statement while protecting his gonads with his hands.
"I mean, I saw the body. The smell, the height, even the hair were identical to yours. Did you have a twin or what?"
"Or what." She then explained Jirni's plan to him.
"Your mother is a bitch! I want a divorce!" The Tyrant said in outrage.
"First, you can't divorce from someone you're not married to. Second, my father, embarrassing as it is, said those same words. None in the family can condone her manipulations. We told her that either she left the house or we would." Quylla said.
"I'm sorry, I meant that I don't want to see her ever again." Morok raised his hands in an apologetic gesture. "Now that she's gone, we can finally marry. I don't want to risk losing you again."
Morok bent the knee, but before he could open a small box he had taken out of his dimensional item, Quylla stopped him.
"Slow down. I'm happy to be alive as well, but I'm not going to marry someone I dated once." She said, turning his smile upside down. "But now that Deirus is gone and I'm at house arrest no longer, we can have our second date."
At those words, Morok jumped in joy, hugging Quylla again before kissing her passionately and receiving the kick in the nuts he had requested a few minutes back. He curled up on the floor, cradling himself while light fusion healed the damage.
"As much as I'd love to keep listening to you lovebirds, we've got important matters at hand." Faluel said while listening to the Tyrant's falsetto yelps of pain with a huge smile on her face.
"I've just received word from the Council about the discovery of some ancient ruins at the borders between the Griffon Kingdom and the Blood Desert."
'That's how Grandma knew about it!' Lith thought. 'The Council couldn't arrange for the expedition without her consent.'
'Yeah, but I find it creepy how quickly you've come to call Salaark grandma, and yet you still consider Leegaain as nothing more than a life force donor.' Solus pointed out via their mind link.
'That's because she's done all she could to become part of my life, she protected my family, backed me in front of the Council, and-'
"Enough with the mind link!" A snap of Faluel's fingers broke their connection. "In the Awakened community, what you so casually did is considered as one of the rudest and most disrespectful acts towards your peers.
"Awakened can see mind links so using one in front of them is the same as telling them that you don't trust them or that you're talking behind their backs."
"I'm sorry, Professor." Solus said while giving everyone a bow. "We just didn't want to interrupt you and we're used to commenting things between us-"
"And that's wrong as well." The Hydra said. "You are two different people yet if you keep acting like that, you are going to cut everyone else off your life since you mostly talk among yourselves."
Lith apologized as well, yet Faluel scolded him for a while before talking about the expedition again.
"As I was saying, the ruins have been dated to over three thousand years back thanks to Salaark glancing at it and recognizing the inscriptions. They belonged to the Urgamakka, a civilization comprised solely of Awakened.
"It was one of the first and most striking failures at making the four races coexist while also Awakening every one of its members."
