Whenever they bumped into each other, Baba Yaga's three bodies would fuse until nervousness split them again.
"If you don't calm down, mage tower or not, you'll open a hole in the ground." Of the eight chairs around the table, only one was taken.
Leegaain was in his human form, looking like a lean albino man in his mid-thirties, 1,75 meters (5'9") tall, with snow-white hair and skin. His eyes were ocean green with vertical pupils. He was wearing a lab coat over a set of pitch-black clothes.
"I know, but this is big." The Crone said. "I'm not used to inviting people here, especially those who have hunted me my whole life."
"Then why did you do this?" He asked.
"Because this time Night went too far disobeying my orders." Baba Yaga replied. "Not only is she still planning to kill Lith, but she is also going to do the same with Elphyn and that's not going to happen on my watch."
The Crone took a few deep breaths to calm down before managing to merge all of her forms into one and sit down.
"Thanks for your help, Leegaain. Without you, I would have never had the chance to safely invite here the Council. Giving them the location of my tower would have been like asking for an ambush." She looked at her former mentor and friend with eyes full of gratitude.
"Don't worry. As long as you are in my turf, I'll make sure that they behave." The Guardian nodded. "Is it me or have you renovated the place?"
"I did. After meeting Elphyn and after what has just happened, my tower needed more weapons and fewer playgrounds-"
The door of the hut opened and four humanoids walked in. Feela the Behemoth, Lotho the Treant, Raagu the human, and Inxialot the Lich King all looked around the tower, using any means at their disposal to understand its secrets.
"You took your sweet time staring at my hut from the outside. I know that you arrived over half an hour ago." Baba Yaga said with a sneer. "Believe me, you are not going to have better luck from the inside. Sit down."
"You can't blame a man for trying." Inxialot shrugged, producing a dust cloud from his clothes that made the other Awakened cough.
"By the way Leegaain, when are you going back? Things are boring up there without you and I miss our games of chess."
The Lich pointed at the moon high in the sky, without any one of those present but the Father of all Dragons understanding his words.
"I've been busy, but I plan on returning as soon as I've collected everything I need for my experiments. It's the best place to get some peace, quiet, and resources." Leegaain replied. "The Empire is too chaotic and it's only going to get worse."
"Agreed. Let's hope that the snake stays away. He's good with research, but not even up there there's enough space for his ego." Inxialot said.
"Yeah, Fenagar is a pompous asshole." The Guardian nodded.
"Why are we here?" Now that her best attempt had failed to study the power core of the mage tower, Raagu had already lost interest in the meeting, and hearing that nonsense only made it worse.
"Because I'm issuing a kill order for Night and you are going to help me." Baba Yaga said. "Every one of my children who is loyal to me is currently hunting her down with the purpose of destroying her.
"It would be in the Council's best interest to join them."
"We have no responsibility for the actions of your crazy daughter, Crone. Why should we care?" In his human form, Lotho looked like a muscular man with brown skin and a shaved head.
"Because of this." A flick of Baba Yaga's hand made appear a hologram listing the bullet points of Thrud's plans.
The Council leaders chuckled at most of it until they reached the part about their annihilation and turning anyone who swore their loyalty to the Mad Queen into an Awakened.
"Night and Thrud are working hand in hand to conquer the Garlen continent, starting from the Griffon Kingdom. If you stay there without doing anything, Thrud will have an army of Awakened with steeds like my children and Night will learn the secret of the white core.
"Neither of them cares about your precious secrets and politics. They are going to take all the magical resources for themselves and kill whoever stands in their path, Awakened or not.
"The Council is powerful, but it has no regular army and you are divided. Your legacies won't be enough to protect you from my daughter, let alone from the Mad Queen's army. We have to act now, before it's too late." The Crone said while shapeshifted into the Mother.
"This is bullshit!" Lotho jumped from his chair.
"No, it's not." Feela said. "It matches what Faluel learned from the undead that invaded her mines. I planned to search for more evidence before submitting the issue to the Council but that's not necessary anymore.
"Yet this arouses a question. How did you get your hands on that list and yet failed to discover Night's position?"
"Thanks to me." The door to the hallway opened and the slender figure of a young woman walked through it.
She looked like a woman of untold age, about 1.78 meters (5'10") tall with golden eyes without pupils. Her skin was whiter than an albino's while her waist-long hair was pitch-black.
She wore a sleeveless yellow day dress that left her slender arms and delicate shoulders exposed.
"I still have loyalists inside the Dawn Court. They are too scared to betray Night but they keep me posted." The Bright Day sat at her mother's side, ignoring the Awakened weaving their best spells in a hurry.
"Calm down, you idiots." Baba Yaga said. "My daughter isn't a threat. She's here to help me answer your questions."
"Let's say we believe you. How can we possibly destroy Night? As long as she rides that mage tower you gave her, even we are no match for her." Raagu said while Inxialot conjured from his staff a hologram of the battle between Manohar and the Horseman.
"She can use Tower and Blade Magic. That combined with her insane regenerative abilities make her nigh-impossible to kill." The Lich King said.
"That's why I invited you and why I am broadcasting this meeting to all of my Firstborns." The Mother said.
Ilthin the Banshee, Nandi the Minotaur-Abomination, and even Dusk were all watching at the scene taking place in the kitchen as if they were there.
The Red Mother projected a detailed image of Night's crystal, followed by the schematics of the weak points of the artifact. It wasn't enough to understand the workings of a Horseman and produce another, but the hologram contained all the information needed to destroy her.
At the sight of those images, Dawn's eyes lost their light out of fear while the Awakened looked at her like a quarry.
"Don't worry, dear. Each one of you works in an entirely different way. Nothing I'm revealing them can help the Council against you.." Baba Yaga said, making Dawn and the Awakened respectively sigh in relief and groan.
