"Would you like some ice cream? I think I made a bit too much." Solus said.
"Yes, thank you." Lith sat on a sofa, taking a doggie bag from Haug's restaurant out of his pocket dimension.
Solus squealed with joy at the sweet scent of freshly baked chocolate-dipped cookies. She jumped on the sofa beside Lith, putting the bowl of ice cream on the tea table in front of them and the cookies on her side of the sofa.
"Those are my favorite. Thanks for remembering." She used the cookies as scoops, covering her mouth in cream and crumbles.
"Those are my favorites as well. Can I have some, please?"
Solus looked at the cookies she had conveniently left out of his reach, weighing her options.
"Sure, but eat with moderation or there won't be enough left for tomorrow's breakfast." She gave him two cookies, keeping the tray for herself.
"Hey, pot. My name is kettle and you are black!" Lith snarled at her stingy double standards.
"Guilty as charged." Solus used Body Sculpting to make her skin dark and snuggled up to him while continuing to eat.
"Smartass." Lith said with a chuckle, caressing her head.
"Speaking of smartasses, why do you think Faluel pranked you?" She asked.
"Either because of the kiss or just for the fun of it. After all, she sent me here. She probably wanted to mess with both of us." Lith replied.
"And she succeeded." Solus grumbled as if she had no part in it.
"Whatever the reason, it's not important." After finishing his two cookies, Lith decided to face the elephant in the room. "Based on what she told me, Salaark and everyone in the Council knows about my condition.
"I still have quite a long time to live, but it gets shorter every time I'm forced to go all-out. I know that you don't like it, but I'm thinking about experimenting with the body-swapping machine."
The sweet, still warm cookie turned sour like a lemon in her mouth, making Solus lose her appetite. She put the bitten biscuit back in the tray and cleaned her mouth to buy some time to think.
In Kulah, they had found the ancient blueprints of the machine that the Odi used to prolong their life by stealing the body of others. It was an old relic half magic and half technology that was impossible to recreate just with Earth's knowledge.
Lith and Solus had worked on it for months trying to understand its underlying principles in order to use modern magic to make up for the missing technology, but to no avail.
Blueprints and schematics of the various parts were pointless without knowing how to build them and what materials they were made of. Without such information, Lith was incapable of building another machine and solving his reincarnation problem.
Then, the Horseman of the Bright Day had lured Lith into a trap, to kill him and give her host, Ranger Acala, the glory they deserved. After meeting Nalrond and escaping her ambush, Lith had found Dawn's lab.
Built deep in the mountains, inside one of the old Odi settlements, the Horseman had combined the knowledge from their books with her own to alter the body-swapping machine.
Instead of snatching a body, Dawn's creation would allow the undead to rob their victims of their knowledge along with their life force, accomplishing the mission that the Red Mother had given her.
Lith had no use for the contraption, but he had rejoiced when, after studying it, he discovered that the Horsman had solved the issue for him, replacing most of the technology with arrays.
After defeating Dawn and stealing the ancient Odi books and her notes, Lith and Solus had managed to devise a body-swapping machine of their own. Yet it was still on paper because Solus didn't like the moral implications of its use and Lith had thought to have a lot of time left.
After he had become a Tiamat, they had assumed that his new life force had further extended his life span and had almost forgotten about it. Now, however, they knew that his clock might stop at any time.
"I already have a complete list of the materials we need. Once you procure them for me and I finish building it, we can start the experimentation." Solus said while taking several pieces of paper out of their pocket dimension and putting them inside Soluspedia.
"Thanks." Lith said, knowing how hard that step was for her.
"Are you really sure you want to do it?" Solus bit her lower lip, pacing around the room. "I mean, body-swapping means losing not only your body, but also your family and even your bloodline abilities.
"Before you were a human, but now you are a Tiamat. You are a unique existence that cannot be replaced. On top of that, even if your family condoned your use of forbidden magic, no one else will.
"Faluel, the Council, everyone will hunt you down. Except maybe for Vastor. If you really have to take that path, why don't we ask for his help?"
"For the same reason I don't ask Thrud's help. She is the greatest expert on Arthan's Madness, but just like with Vastor, her help would come with a price. Also, the Professor's expertise is focused on Abominations and I'm no longer one.
"Our only hope is Manohar, but even if he manages to find a way to heal my life force, it will take him months, if not years of research."
Lith didn't like the idea of losing his Tiamat body, throwing into the gutter all the efforts he had made to develop his breathing technique and discover his bloodline abilities, yet he had no choice.
Kolga had shown him that even using the Madness to pump new life force into his own was pointless unless he found a way to close the cracks. Getting an intact life force was his only option.
They stared at each other in silence, waiting for a sign or a brilliant idea that would solve all of their problems.
"Can we go home, now? I feel really tired." Solus said after minutes that seemed to last hours.
"Sure." Lith replied.
Solus stopped pacing and embraced him, fearing to lose him. Lith becoming a Tiamat, her meeting his family and regaining her body had been like a dream. Yet now she felt it slowly turning into a nightmare.
***
City of Valeron, Royal Castle, a few days later.
Receiving another summon from the Royals so soon after the mission in Zeska didn't surprise Lith. On the contrary, he was expecting it.
'I bet that the King will scold me for my "friend Tiamat" stealing Syrook's body and then he will pester me to get himself a few railguns.' Lith thought as the Royal Guards escorted him to the throne room.
'Can you blame him?' Solus said. 'With Thrud's shadow looming over the Kingdom, they need all the ingredients and the weapons they can get. I just hope that they don't assign you a new mission.'
"Hey, Lith. I'm sorry for dragging you into this but they left me no choice.." Seeing Manohar hogtied like a prime roast and wearing more chains than clothes was quite unexpected, instead.
