"Nice place you got here." Orpal said while actually looking in contempt at the bare stone pillars and the lack of high-end furniture of the throne room. "Yet your men made a sloppy job hiding their movements. Following them here wasn't that hard."
"Meln Narchat. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Thrud didn't flinch at his words whereas the mention of the name that had been forced upon him after being disowned made him angry.
"My name is Orpal and how do you know who I am?" He said with anger.
"In this place, I give the orders." A speck of white light flicked in Thrud's eyes, sending a powerful wave of killing intent and Spirit Magic that pushed her unruly guest down.
Orpal used every ounce of his considerable power and will to resist, yet he found himself kneeling and with his forehead against the ground just a couple of seconds later.
'That bitch! She used her own power instead of the academy's arrays just to humiliate me.' He thought.
'Thrud is just trying to get under your skin to not make you think clearly and get the upper hand in our negotiations. Guess what? She succeeded because you are a hot-headed idiot.' Night said with a sneer.
'She has no idea why we are here!'
'Really? I guess it's just a coincidence that she knows your name and that she has yet to try to kill us despite your charming introduction. Sit back and learn.'
Orpal's body shapeshifted as the Horseman took the wheel.
Night looked like a young woman in her mid-twenties, about 1.70 meters (5'7") tall, with ebony skin that seemed to devour all light and sensual full lips. She had silver waist-long hair and round eyes without pupils that shone like moons with effort as she slowly raised her head.
"Finally the person I wanted to talk to." Thrud released the pressure, allowing Night to stand up.
"I guess that what they say about the power of the white core is true." The Horseman gave the Mad Queen a deep bow but refused to kneel. "I'm Night, Queen of the Undead Courts and I've come here to offer you an alliance, Your Majesty."
"State your terms." Thrud didn't like someone else calling themselves Queen, but arranging that meeting had cost her too much effort to let such a petty thought interfere with her plan.
She had sent a few of her Emperor Beasts to trade gold for information in the establishments of the Dawn Court spread in the region.
Every time the undead tried to follow them they would disappear with Spirit Magic, but a smart person could guess the general position of the academy based on the details that they had 'let slip' during their stay in the cities and from the questions they asked.
"As you know, the Undead Courts are at war with the three great countries, and things aren't going well for me. My siblings have disappeared and our recent failure in taking down the Griffon Kingdom cost the lives of too many undead, leaving my forces crippled." Night said.
"You are not doing a good job at selling yourself." Thrud said. "I already know of your foolish attempts to conquer Garlen and how your ploys have been foiled time and time again.
"By coming here alone, you are just proving that you are too arrogant and stupid to be of any value to me."
"Quite the contrary, my Queen." Night shook her head, making her silver hair dance like moonlight on a waterfall. "I've shown you how resourceful I am by coming here. I just admitted my faults, proving to you that I've learned from my mistakes.
"Last, but not least, I'm not really here."
Thrud sent her breathing technique, Regal Flow, through the ground, discovering that the thing in front of her wasn't the real Night, just one of her Chosen whose appearance and powers had been altered by the prism in their chest.
"Continue." Feeling reassured not to be dealing with an idiot, Thrud smiled.
"As I was saying, it will take time for the Undead Courts to regain their strength, but we still have more than enough to help you in your endeavor. For the right price, of course." Night said.
"Help me how?"
"I know that you have infiltrated some of your people in the cities of the neighboring regions, but once the real conflict begins, they will not be enough. You carry the stigma of your father's madness and the people of the Kingdom will fight you to the bitter end." Night said.
"On top of that, even if you win, how do you plan on running your domain? Brute force can only bring you so far. What you need is a way to increase your reputation and capable administrators, and I can offer them both.
"Undead are universally despised and by becoming our sworn enemy and saving people you can become a hero in the eyes of your subjects. Also, the Undead Courts are deeply rooted in the nobility.
"If you win, my thralls will help you during the transition from the old to the new regime and teach your loyalists the ropes. On top of that, the presence of my undead will keep your people on their toes.
"If we continue our "hostilities" even after you take the throne, your subjects will be too busy defending from us and too reliant on your protection to think about rebelling."
"Yours is a nice offer, but you have yet to state your price." Thrud nodded.
She had lured Night there not only to test her wits, but also to make a few experiments. As they spoke, the Unwavering Loyalty array of the Golden Griffon was attacking the life force of the Chosen non-stop.
"My services don't come cheap." Night said. "I want a place in your Court once this is done. I want the help of your men to conduct my business during daylight. I want the secret of the white core and I want Lith Verhen dead!"
"The first two requests are reasonable." Thrud replied. "The third is unacceptable and the fourth just proves that you need a new host. You have nothing valuable to offer me in exchange for the white core and Verhen is not worth the effort that killing him requires.
"He's aligned with the Kingdom and has strong backers in the Beast Council. Taking him down would take an unknown amount of resources away from more important targets and might have dire consequences once his allies seek revenge."
To Thrud, Lith was a powerful and resourceful pawn of her enemies, but a pawn nonetheless. She had no idea of the role he had played in Othre and by helping Scarlett to kill Xedros, Lith had actually helped Thrud.
To her eyes, his only achievement was to have beaten Jormun's ass despite the huge gap in experience and equipment.
"I'm sorry, but you are wrong again." Night replied. "I can offer you to study my steed, Moonlight. Can you imagine the power that your army would wield if all of your generals had their own portable mage tower?"
At those words, Thrud's eyes opened wide.. If she managed to mass-produce the Horsemen's steeds, then her plan to conquer the entire Garlen continent wouldn't be just a pipe dream anymore.
Solus Warped the tower back to the Desert where it was still the middle of the night, giving her all the time she needed to catch up with Nyka.
They came out of the tower and walked towards the Verhen's living quarters.
"Oh my! Is it hot in here or is it just you, babe?" Nok said to Tista who was still forced to keep her Wyrmling Red Demon form.
"Who is this creep?" She said while trying to push away the Byk who kept rubbing his snout on her feathered body.
"This is my brother, Nok. My name is Nyka, nice to meet you. Any friend of Solus is a friend of mine." She gave Tista a deep bow.
"I have no words to describe how beautiful you are." Nok's hormones ravaged his brain as he smelled the closest thing to a magical beast that he encountered in months.
"You are everything that I've dreamed to find in a mate, thick, strong and-"
"Get your paws off me!" Tista shapeshifted back into her human form. "Nyka, it's me."
"First Solus and now you, too? Why does no one ever tell me anything?"
"A human?" Nok half roared in outrage and half cried in desperation. "I finally found someone who is in heat as much as I am and it's just a human woman?"
"I'm not in heat!" Tista turned to a bright shade of purple as she hit the Byk's head with all of her considerable strength, making him whimper more loudly.
Truth to be told, Nok was wrong, her biology was still that of a woman. Yet he was also right since she felt very lonely.
"What is all this ruckus?" Elina walked inside the tent, drawn by the noise and boredom.
There was little she could do at night while waiting for the return of Raaz and the kids.
"Mom, these are my friends Nyka, Nok, and-"
"An undead has infiltrated the palace! Guards!" Elina yelled at the top of her lungs, cutting Solus short.
She grabbed the first thing at hand, a chair, and used it to hit Kalla on the head until it broke.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Kalla, Nyka's mother." The Wight was used to misunderstandings so she introduced herself without defending herself from the blows.
"Silly me." Elina dropped the chair and took a step back. "A chair can't hurt an undead."
"I beg to differ." Kalla shook her head, falling into her old pedantic habits. "That piece of furniture was heavily enchanted and every hit was quite painful-"
"But this can!" Elina took a spiked mace out of her dimensional item, crafted by Lith to be as light as a feather and yet to hit as hard as a wrecking ball.
Nyka reacted by impulse, baring her fangs as she grabbed Elina's wrist to keep her from hurting her mother. The Vampire also released invisible tendrils of mana that wrapped around Elina, freezing her in place.
Yet Elina replied with a mean left hook to Nyka's jaw followed by a sweep of her right leg that sent the Vampire sprawling on the floor. No woman would survive becoming the Spring Maiden of Lutia without learning a thing or two about self-defense.
On top of that, her clothes were actually a body-enhancing full suit of purified Orichalcum armor that made its wearer immune to tier zero Spirit Magic and turned the fists of a 60-kilograms (134 pounds) woman into war hammers.
"Guards! We are being overrun by the undead!"
"Mom, stop! She is my friend!" Solus stopped the mace.
"Mom, since when are you such a badass?" Tista blurted out.
Several soldiers armed to the teeth emerged from as many Warp Steps, led by three Phoenixes that were in a hybrid form that resembled a feathered humanoid.
Only after they apprehended and hogtied the intruders like prime roast did Elina feel safe enough to answer her daughter's question.
"Ever since I was left only with Arana and your father, I've had a lot of free time. After the first attack on our home, as soon as the members of the Queen's corps came for lunch I asked Locrias to teach me the basics of combat."
"Lady Verhen, are you sure that's the way you want to treat your guests?" A young soldier said.
"What guests and why did it take you so long?" Elina clenched the grip of her mace to contain her fury.
"Your Ladyship, this is the Overlord's palace. Except for your private quarters every room is under surveillance 24/7. We were immediately notified of the arrival of intruders but we didn't react because they are Lord Verhen's friends."
"They are?" Elina was flabbergasted.
"That's what I have been saying from the beginning!" Solus tried and failed to untie her guests. "If you knew they were harmless, why did you do this?"
"To calm Lady Elina and end the conflict." One of the Phoenixes said with a male voice. "Can we free them and take our leave or do you want us to stay?"
"Oh, dear." Elina looked at Kalla who had not moved a muscle for the entire time and felt deeply ashamed of herself.
Nok's whimpering and whining made her feel even worse, thinking that the guards had beaten Solus's guests into submission. She had no idea that he was just in pain from Tista's blow to the head.
Elina helped to untie the Vampire, the Wight, and the Byk, and then apologized repeatedly, giving them deep bows.
"Now that I take a good look at you, I recognize you from my son's holograms. You must be Kalla, Nyka, and Nok." She said, receiving a nod in reply. "Why did no one of you ever tell me they are undead?"
"Actually, only Nyka is an undead." Tista said. "Also, we didn't mention it because it didn't seem relevant. We have friends of all races."
"I'm very sorry for my unreasonable reaction." Elina nodded and gave Kalla one last bow.
"Please, don't worry Elina. As a hybrid, I'm used to much worse and as a mother, I can understand the ferocity with which you defended your cubs from what you perceived as a threat. In your shoes, I would have done the same." The Wight said.
"I'm a bit confused, though." Elina hoped that her questions wouldn't overstep her boundaries. "If you are a bear…"
"Wight."
"And your son is another bear…"
"Byk." Kalla corrected Elina again.
"Why is Nyka the only one in human form? Can't you all shapeshift?" Elina asked.
"That's because Nyka is a human Vampire that I raised from the dead with Necromancy after killing her in order to torture her more." Kalla's calm voice coupled with her eerie appearance made her words sound utterly terrifying.
"You did what?" Elina dragged Nyka behind her, to protect the youth from her insane parent.
"Don't worry, Elina. Mom did the right thing. Back then I was a ruthless killer for hire." Nyka said, trying to clear the misunderstanding.
"Guards!" Elina pushed Nyka away and stood in front of Solus and Tista who facepalmed in unison.
"I'm under the impression that our family's history is upsetting your mother, Solus.." Kalla kept mulling over what she had just said, finding nothing wrong with it.
