"Thanks, dear. It's good to see you, too. How did your trip to the Blood Desert go?" Jirni asked.
"Same old, same old." Manohar said with a sigh. "It's too hot, the people are too cranky, but at least the food is great and the kids love me."
"Were you a guest of Overlord Salaark as well?" Friya was too surprised by the revelation to care about the Mad Professor hijacking the conversation.
"In her dreams." He replied with the modesty of a male peacock during the mating season. "I go there for the same reason I go to any other place. Work. I have several side projects with both your father and Ily-"
A prompt kick from under the table stopped him before he could mention the god of death and Jirni's glare did the rest.
"Ilyana, a very nice Royal Forgemaster who's madly in love with me." Before someone could ask him any other question, Manohar stuffed his face with food.
"What were you saying, dear?" Orion moved the attention back on Friya and nudged the god of healing, praying that his big mouth wouldn't cost them a charge for high treason.
"The place was great. Salaark is an amazing host and as the Professor said, once you overcome the cultural shock, the food is amazing. I wouldn't mind living there." She said.
"I hope that Nalrond behaved like a gentleman." Jirni said while studying her daughter's reaction.
"He didn't come with us. Nalrond has too many sad memories of- Wait a minute how do you know about him?"
"Who's Nalrond?" Orion asked.
"The new guy our daughter is dating. Don't you know anything that happens inside your house, Lord Ernas?" Jirni felt a tinge of pleasure seeing her husband spit his food back into his plate as he became pale as a ghost.
Friya spitting her food as well and turning beet red was expected, but Phloria joining her not so much.
"Since when?" Phloria blurted out.
It took Quylla a quick mind link from her wand to explain what was happening before the situation spiraled out of control.
'I'm going to kill you for this!' Friya said.
'I'm sorry, but it was either this or Mom asking you if you were trying to catch Lith on the rebound.' Quylla said, making her sisters choke on the water they were using to wash their mouths after the incident.
"Good gods! Can I invite my mother for lunch tomorrow?" Manohar asked. "She always nags at me that I have no table manners but once she sees you, she'll understand how lucky she is to have a son like me."
"Friya, who is this man and why haven't I never heard about him before? Don't tell me that you have fallen for the charms of a lazy bum like Morok?" Orion said.
"He's not a lazy bum!" Quylla said in outrage.
"Oh, really? What does he do, exactly?"
She couldn't tell him about Morok's apprenticeship under Ajatar nor that he was still trying to avoid his father, Glemos. Friya, instead, knew that Jirni would spot any half-assed lie and kept her mouth shut.
"I knew it." Orion sighed, assuming that the silence of his daughters meant that he had struck a nerve. "You know what? I don't care. As long as you are happy, I am happy."
'None of their previous boyfriends stuck for long and with a bit of luck, those two won't be any different.' He actually thought.
The rest of the dinner passed awkwardly until everyone lost their appetite and they brought Friya up to speed.
"Damn, this is a hot mess. I came here to deal with our family's crap, not with the Kingdom's." She said. "Luckily for you, I'm great at tailing people and very few know my face."
Unlike her sisters, Friya had never been famous after graduating from the White Griffon academy.
Everyone knew Phloria for her trial that had lasted for over one year while Quylla was renowned for her contribution to foiling the return of the Odi during the disastrous expedition of Kulah.
"No offense, dear, but with a figure like yours and with dimensional magic sealed, it's hard for a woman like you to go unnoticed." Jirni said.
"Don't worry about that, Mom. As a mercenary, I've learned plenty of tricks to deal with situations like this." Friya couldn't tell them that by using Body Sculpting to shapeshift and Spirit Magic to move around, she had no such problem.
Orion and Jirni looked at her with worry but said nothing.
"When do we start?"
"Tomorrow." Manohar said. "We have already linked the arrays of the City Hall to a silent alarm that will alert us in the case someone gets in, but I doubt something will happen.
"The weapons always get stolen and returned during a social event, when the nobles can give each other an alibi and the security around the city is laxer because the guards are focused on maintaining the order in the streets."
"Giving parties during a famine is like slapping the poor people in the face. It's no wonder they riot." Friya's upper lips curled up in disgust.
"Or maybe it's just a brilliant ruse of our shapeshifter to have everyone look in the wrong direction while they enact their plan." Jirni said.
***
Over a mana geyser at the borders of the Nestrar Region, Golden Griffon academy.
Thrud Griffon, the Mad Queen, was still busy collecting and taking inventory of the spoils from the cities her men had infiltrated and from Syrook's lair when Sevenus alerted her of the presence of an intruder that had managed to slip past her guards.
The Headmaster of the lost academy was also its living core. Every piece of stone and glass of the academy was his eyes and ears, making it impossible for anyone to escape his detection the moment they stepped inside the Golden Griffon.
"Just one?" Thrud was more curious than worried.
She had scouts watching all the nearby cities to be prepared to move the moment an unusual number of troops was mobilized and her men had yet to report anything.
"Yes, my liege." Sevenus said. "I've already checked the premises of the academy and sent more scouts without finding any trace of an army waiting in ambush."
"Good." She replied, leaving him flabbergasted.
Their position was supposed to be a secret and even killing the intruder might not be enough to keep the news from spreading.
"Make a straight corridor so that they can reach my throne room quickly."
The Headmaster had no idea what she was planning, but obeyed nonetheless.
The intruder turned out to be a man in his mid-twenties, 1.82 (6') tall, with the muscular build of an athlete, black hair, and brown eyes. He wore a full suit of armor made of black crystals that left only his face exposed.
His features were handsome, but the cruel light in his eyes and the arrogance of his gait as he walked along the corridors like a conqueror taking a look at his newly acquired possessions made the members of Thrud's court dislike him at first sight.
He even dared to give the Mad Queen a simple nod of the head as a greeting, treating her like a peer instead of the master of the Golden Griffon.
"Shouldn't you leave some for the others?" Elina asked.
"Nah, they are still too hard. It's better to erase the evidence of this disaster and prepare a second batch later." Solus replied.
"Isn't it too much right after dinner?" Elina said.
"I promise that I won't touch them, Mom." Solus finished the cookies and stood up. "I'm going to my room if anyone looks for me."
She Warped away, leaving Elina alone and sighing.
"She could have at least walked. It's no wonder that Solus gains weight if she doesn't take a single step after eating a mountain of food."
Solus Warped the tower to Lutia long enough to check that no one had left messages for her before moving to the borders of the Gorgon Empire and calling Nyka.
'Ever since we came to the Desert, I've been too busy to call her. On top of that, regular amulets don't work from this distance so we could only talk through Council amulets when Lith and Kalla were both available.
'I wonder how she's doing.' Solus thought, unaware of Elina's worries.
"Who the heck are you and how did you get your hands on my friend's amulet?" Nyka's joy at the sight of Solus's rune blinking turned into rage when she didn't recognize the person projected in the hologram.
The Vampire had been risen by Kalla with Necromancy just seven years ago, yet her body and mind were those of an adult.
Nyka looked like a young woman in her mid-twenties, around 1.7 meters (5'7") tall with emerald green eyes emphasized by her rosy skin. A vampire was pale only when unable to properly feed and that wasn't her case.
Her raven-black hair looked almost blue and after her Awakening, Nyka had gained yellow and pitch-black streaks typical of the elemental affinities of her species.
She wasn't a stunning beauty, but undeath gave her smooth, delicate features and kept her body lithe. Yet now it also twisted her face with fury as she bared her fangs and he eyes burned like embers.
Nyka was so enraged that her slender fingers grew longer and her red-painted nails became sharp claws.
"I am Solus and this is my amulet, dummy!"
"Lies! She lives in the Kingdom and no regular amulet can reach my position. Also, she looks nothing like you." Nyka replied.
"Tower Warp, remember? I know a lot of mana geysers from the time when Lith worked as a Ranger." Solus suddenly understood how Lith must have felt back when she had failed to recognize him.
Right after she had regained her body, between the shock of the sudden change and the temporary disappearance of their mind link, it had taken him quite some effort to calm her down.
"Okay, you know about the tower and about the Warp, but how do you explain the rest?" Nyka still didn't believe her.
"What rest? I'm finally human again and I wanted to share the good news with you." Solus cursed at her own stupidity, turning into a wisp, then into her energy body, and then into a human again.
"This is amazing! I waited so long for this moment that I'm having a hard time believing it even though I'm seeing you with my own eyes." Nyka lost her feral features, jumping with joy like a child.
"You have no idea how scared I was back when it happened. I had lost all of my powers and I couldn't control-"
"What do you mean, back when it happened? How long have you had your body back?" Nyka cut her short.
"A bit less than a month ago." Solus lowered her gaze in embarrassment.
"And you are telling me just now? What kind of friend does that?" Nyka replied. "That's it, I invoke my right to kick your ass. Give me your coordinates right now!"
"I'm really far away and undead are not very good with dimensional-" Solus attempted to say, but Nyka hung up the call the moment she learned the tower's position.
"At least at this longitude, it's still night." She sighed. "There's no risk Nyka gets harmed by sunlight."
Solus released the Sentries to check the surroundings of the tower before lowering the cloaking array that made it invisible to the naked eye. She had just moved to the Mirror Hall when she heard someone knocking.
"Solus!" Nyka expected her to be floating in mid-air like usual so her arms were a few dozen centimeters too high and hugged only air.
"That's the oddest kick-ass attempt I have ever seen." Solus embraced her friend. "I missed you and our talks a lot."
"I couldn't stay mad at you. I just wanted to see you in person." Nyka tried and failed to lift Solus to take a better look at her. "Nice rack, shortie."
"How did you get here so quick?" Solus effortlessly lifted Nyka, spinning her around as if she was just a little girl.
"I had help."
"Long time no see, Solus." Kalla the Wight had to shapeshift to pass through the door.
Even though she looked like an undead, she was actually an Emperor Beast whose body had mutated to accept the massive amounts of darkness element that now replaced part of her flesh.
Her height at the withers was over 2.5 two meters (8'3") and her body was as big as a small house. Her skeleton still resembled that of a bear and the white bones glimpsed from time to time under the living shadow that made her skin.
The red light that burned in her eyes could easily be mistaken for that of undead and she wore a pure white crystal the size of an apple on her neck.
"Please, tell me that you've not turned yourself into a Lich." Solus let go of Nyka from the surprise while she was still spinning.
The Vampire managed to avoid crashing against the wall only thanks to her agility, landing on her feet with a backflip.
"I wish." The Wight sighed. "I have a long way to the bright blue and then I have to find a way to reach the violet."
"Then why the crystal?" Solus asked.
"I discovered that by making my phylactery attuned with my life force, I can increase the chances of achieving Lichhood." Kalla replied.
"And I'm stuck. A little help here." The brown Byk following them was incapable of shapeshifting and passing through the door even though his size was way smaller than his mother.
"What are you doing here, Nok?" Solus asked while enlarging the entrance. "No offense but you are the one I least expected to see."
"None taken." The Byk replied. "I just couldn't miss the opportunity to get some fresh air after months spent in a stinky cave."
"The Eclipsed Lands don't stink!" Nyka rebuked him.
"Are you kidding me? Do you know what it means to live surrounded by the smell of blood and of dead flesh when you are on a strict diet? I couldn't get the food out of my head because it was constantly in front of my eyes." Nok snorted.
The word diet stung Solus, making her eager to change the topic.
"It's wonderful to have you all here.. I can finally introduce you to my family."
