"Also, remember never to reveal my or aunt Solus's secrets, or bad people like those who attacked you two will come for us." Lith said.
"Sorry, Uncle. I promise I'll be careful." Leria squeezed his hand, afraid that something might happen to Lith because of her big mouth.
The kids had spent so much time in the Desert that they had forgotten that it was the only place beside their home where they could talk freely about their odd family and friends.
Lith checked the road ahead with Life Vision, noticing how many things had changed in the last nineteen years. The constant passage of the carriages between his house and the village had smoothened the once rough path.
In the distance, he could see new buildings being built over abandoned unfertile lands. Sometimes, the silence was broken by the echo of a faint noise from Lutia that had been carried by the wind.
"Gods, I can still remember when our village was just a few dozen houses that you couldn't see from the road until you almost got there. Now I can see the grey mass of the buildings from here and even hear its noise." Lith sounded like an old man even to himself.
"Well, it's not all that bad." Rena said. "Now instead of mud we have paved roads and when you go out for a romantic walk at night it doesn't feel like a haunted village anymore. There are enough establishments and lights to not make you feel alone."
"Romantic?" Lith echoed with an amazed tone.
"We are married, not dead. My life may not be as adventurous as yours but we never get bored." Senton grunted. "Speaking of boredom, Dad often whines about you not allowing merchants to use your Gate.
"He says that otherwise Lutia would already be a middle-sized city."
"I won't sacrifice the safety and the privacy of my home in exchange of a few coins. Allowing people to come and go would endanger us all." Lith replied.
"I know. I'm just trying to warn you. Dad loves you, but when it comes to business, he can be really annoying." Now that Leria had relaxed enough to stop clutching Abominus' fur, Senton took her other hand, restoring his wounded fatherly pride.
***
Heavenly Plume tribe, at the same time.
Solus had no problem with the Desert's heat, but for Elina using an oven during the day was akin to torture. The chilly nights instead were the perfect moment to ask for a cooking lesson and have a chat.
Especially now that the children were away and wouldn't barge in at any moment demanding attention. Also, Lith's absence would make it easier for Solus to open up.
"Are you alright, dear?" Elina asked while arranging the ingredients for the cookies on the table. "You weren't as lively as usual during dinner and Raaz told me that you didn't assume your human form upon your return."
"I was just tired." Solus lied through her teeth. "I needed to rest a bit on the mana geyser to get my strength back."
"Was it that bad that you feel the need to hide it from me?" Elina said.
"I don't know what you are talking about." Solus became beet red in embarrassment.
"Solus, you may have learned many things by living with Lith over the years, but lying isn't among them. You wince every time you lie and the moment someone calls it out you act all awkward." Elina sighed.
"If you don't want to talk about it just say it but please don't treat me like a dumb kid. The gods know if I hadn't had enough of that from Lith in the past and I probably still have."
"I'm sorry." Solus turned around her head in shame and her eyes fell on the sugar bag. "Maybe this was a bad idea."
"No, it's not. You always wanted to learn how to cook and finally you have the time and the means to. It's really easy, just follow the recipe and everything will be alright." Elina said.
"That's what I'm worried about. If I learn how to make my favorite sweets, I'll become even fatter!"
"What are you talking about? You are not fat, you are a lovely young lady!"
Solus sat on a chair and told Elina everything that had happened in Zeska, from her being mistaken for pregnant to the wounds that she had failed to heal until her return on the mana geyser.
"That woman was very rude, but she was only concerned about you." Elina said while hugging Solus from behind. "I'm much more worried by the tower getting damaged. It holds your life force and without it, you would die.
"How could the tower get cracked by a few hits of an Awakened? I thought it was nigh-indestructible."
"Maybe in its full form, but right now the tower is just very sturdy. And that only as long as it's fueled by a mana geyser. Without it, the tower has to consume the energy it stores and becomes weaker with each second that I spend in human form.
"I couldn't heal because I'm not fully human, yet. This body is a product of the tower so once it loses too much energy, we both start to crumble. I'm just like a Horseman, but my power core needs much more energy than theirs to work. It's not fair!" Solus sighed.
"Life rarely is." Elina replied. "Look at the bright side. Now you know how it feels to be tired, hungry, and how fragile the life of a human is."
"You say it like it's a good thing, but aren't those flaws?" Solus replied.
"Yes, but they are also what makes a living being different from a statue. You have spent years worrying whether you were a person or an enchanted piece of stone and know you know. I say that it's worth celebrating instead of brooding." Elina said.
"Thanks, Mom." Solus stood up, returning Elina's embrace and melting her heart. "How do I prepare chocolate chip cookies?"
"You just need, flour, eggs, sugar, butter, and a pinch of salt." Elina put emphasis on the last word, remembering Solus' stone cookies. "The chocolate chips go last so we'll worry about them later.
"The trickiest part is the beginning since you can't taste the dough until you are done."
Solus followed her instructions, adding the butter and sugar to the flour and kneading them together before adding the eggs.
"By the way, Mom, I still don't have my period but-"
"You what?" Elina froze while looking at Solus' womb and counting in her head the days since Solus had gotten her human body back to see if the numbers added up.
'That woman in Zeska was right, yet it's not even been a full month. How can the bun already be in the oven? Maybe it happened when she fused with Lith and it remained in stasis along her body!' She inwardly promised never to underestimate a woman's intuition again.
"Okay, that came out wrong." Solus blushed up to her ears. "I meant that sooner or later I'll regain my period as well and I want to be prepared."
"Good gods, and here I thought that Lith was horrible with conversation starters. I need to sit down." Elina took a few deep breaths. "Don't worry, dear. A woman's period is nothing complicated.. We'll talk about it as soon as my heart starts beating again."
'I guess that after going all out on me Verhen is running on fumes.' Quaron thought. 'His aura is barely visible behind that of his artifacts. I'm starting to think that he isn't a Harbinger and not even an Awakened.'
The traitorous Ranger took control of the Skeletal Knights again, getting rid of all the Demons and the soldiers closest to Solus before making his move. Then, he cast a flight spell and bolted at her.
Solus didn't waste mana trying to hit him. She already had to lean on the Sage Staff to stand and had to make every ounce of strength she had left count.
Quaron moved past her while breathing another burst of Origin Flames. Invigoration had given him barely half of his strength back and he couldn't waste mana as well.
Solus had worked with Origin Flames long enough to know that aside from their low speed and short range they had no weak point. To neutralize them she would need to spend as much energy as they contained, but it would leave her drained.
She used Domination again, replacing Quaron's energy signature with her own to take control of the Flames. Yet the Ranger was already back, breathing a new attack.
The two conflicting Flames detonated with Solus in the middle, leaving her no way to avoid taking the full brunt of the blast. She was sent tumbling on the ground while the Scalewalker, the Sage Staff, and even War took fire.
She tried to roll to put out the flames but Quaron returned for the third time and unleashed another burst of Origin Flames.
Solus had plenty of strategies left and several moves she wanted to try. Yet her body was too weak to obey her commands and there was no time to cast a spell with the little mana she had left.
When she saw Quaron returning for the fourth time, with his glaive aimed at her heart she started to panic.
'Blink would just buy me time, a construct would never hold such a blow, and he can move around any wall that I might conjure. What can I do?' Yet there was no answer.
Solus kept her eyes open, racking her brain for any solution that had a ghost of a chance. She found none.
Metal clashed against metal until the weak bent to the strong. The enchanted blade pierced deep into the flesh, sending burning waves of pain throughout Quaron's body.
One of the Demons of the Fallen had pushed the tip of the glaive away, altering its trajectory away from Solus. Then, with a flick of the wrist, it had turned the parry into a lunge, making short work of Quaron's depowered enchanted armor.
It was a life-or-death situation, yet Solus froze for a second in shock.
The Demon had four eyes, a set of horns on its head, and wings on its back, but his face was as human as it was familiar.
"Captain Locrias?" She asked, forgetting to hide her voice from the surprise.
"You took your sweet time conjuring me. I had to follow you for over a month for this moment!" Locrias may have been dead, but that wasn't enough to make his loyalty to the Kingdom falter.
He was a member of the Queen's corps, sworn to protect those kids and the Kingdom from every threat. He didn't care what form he took as long as he could do his job.
Syrook felt Quaron's pain as his own and stopped chasing the Tiamat to take a good look at the battleground. His undead army had lost half of its numbers to the Demons and the mages, but the Skeletal Knights were still winning.
His Harbinger was in a pitiful situation and needed help. If Quaron died, the shock from the loss of the life force that the Black Dragon had infused into him would cripple Syrook's strength for months.
He doubted that Lith would let the opening slip and make Syrook's pain last more than a second, but that was hardly a comforting thought.
"Taking a break mid-fight? Don't mind if I follow your lead." The Tiamat said while taking a deep breath.
"Please, we returned to our peak strength at the beginning of this game of tag, why should I care if you rest?" The Black Dragon could see with Life Vision the world energy entering Lith's body, yet his aura didn't change.
Knowing that no one would be so stupid to waste one use of Invigoration without a good reason, Syrook looked back at the battlefield. Suddenly his Skeletal Knights were being pushed back like chumps.
The Demons grew in strength with each passing second and they were now capable of casting tier five spells of all elements whereas the lesser undead grew weaker and could only use the low tiers of darkness magic.
"How?" He blurted out. "Even though my bloodline ability can rise an unlimited number of undead, I still need to be close to them to feed more energy to them because of the darkness element's limitations.
"How can you just use Invigoration on yours?"
"I guess that my bloodline is better." Lith replied with a mocking laughter that stung at the prideful Dragon, making him crazy with fury just like Lith wanted.
"We'll see who's better!" The tier five Spirit Spell, Primordial Roar, carried Syrook's words and struck at Lith with such strength that it sent him plummeting to the ground like a meteor.
'Fuck me sideways, I had completely forgotten about the Dragon Eyes. I was studying him while he was studying me and learning all of my spells. This wasn't part of the plan!' Also, Lith had no idea how dangerous it was to anger a Dragon.
Rage didn't make them stupid, it simply made them stop underestimating their opponents and go all-out.
Syrook dived to follow his prey, flapping his wings to gain more and more speed until the Tiamat was within breathing range.
Lith countered the Origin Flames with his own and exploited the explosion to put some distance between them again. Unfortunately for him, the Black Dragon's violet flames had won the clash and what was left of them struck his back.
"Do you still believe to be better than me?" Syrook activated his bloodline ability, Dreadwing, to turn the Origin Flames into darkness magic that entered Lith's body.
He was about to neutralize the threat with Domination when the darkness turned back into Origin Flames, burning him from the inside.
"Do you?" Syrook said while Lith screamed in pain and lost control of his flight, crashing against the ground.
"Do you?" The Black Dragon landed on Lith's back with both feet, making his spine pop and the crater that his landing had created deeper.
Syrook kicked the fallen Tiamat with all of his strength, but Lith used the momentum from the first hit to roll away.
"I bet that you are so dirt poor that you don't even have a proper weapon!" Metal gloves made of Adamant appeared over the Black Dragon's hands while he walked towards his still dizzy enemy.
Syrook slashed the air in front of him and the enchanted gloves, Sunder, boosted his strength to the point of generating wind blades that cut five deep pits into the ground as they approached Lith.
