“I’m really sorry, little brother, but I’m sure that the other Divine Beasts will soon understand that you are not responsible for Jormun’s death. You were just doing your job to put an end to the war.” Rena said.
“The same could be said about Jormun.” Lith sighed. “Do you mind if we talk about something else?”
“Sure.” Rena nodded. “Do you think that Quylla and Friya will really marry or will they defy their parents’ orders?”
The two women had refused to not have any saying in their own personal lives and had stood their ground to Jirni which had led the Archon to raise the ante. When the party had reached its climax, she had publicly announced the marriage of both her daughters, nailing them to the wall.
Jirni had set no date, but being officially engaged was a big deal, especially for Quylla. Nalrond had dropped his glass at the announcement and had done his best to get out of there unnoticed.
Alas, Jirni had a silver spotlight pointed at him and his unwitting fiancée while a golden spotlight marked Quylla and Morok. Nalrond had gotten trapped in a web of handshakes and pats on the shoulders by a swarm of strangers who wanted to know everything about him.
The Tyrant, instead, had taken the spotlight as his cue to don his deep green Great Mage robe that matched Quylla’s, walk to her, and kiss her in front of everyone. The room had burst with cheers and applauses while everyone looked at Nalrond, expecting him to do the same.
After that, Morok had greeted the guests while dragging Quylla along, introducing himself as Morok Eari-Ernas. He moved with such swagger and talked with so much confidence that everyone in the Kingdom now considered the deal closed.
Quylla wanted to beat him to a pulp, but as the Royal Healer and in front of her peers and family members she had a reputation to uphold. Long story short, she had dug her own hole deeper with every forced smile she made and congratulation she accepted.
“Friya can still make it out of the engagement if she plays her cards right. The only way out Quylla has left, instead, is to defect the Kingdom and seek asylum in a foreign nation.” Lith replied.
“Good to know.” Salaark nodded, sending her personal invitation to the youngest of the Ernas to move to the Desert at the earliest convenience.
“Grandma!” He said in outrage while everyone else laughed. “Quylla is my friend and my country is still a hot mess. Cruel much?”
“You mean generous. I get a new mage and she gets what she wants. Everybody wins.” The Overlord shrugged, not deigning him even of playing the pregnancy card.
Meanwhile, Kamila looked at the family scene from one of the tower’s windows, feeling as alien to them as her husband was to Mogar.
To accommodate the entire Verhen family, Lith’s parents and older sister lived in the cottage while Tista, Kamila, Solus, and Lith stayed in the tower.
Usually, Kamila didn’t like sleeping there because of Lith’s bond with Solus. While they were so close and inside the tower, they had barely any privacy which now had become a good thing.
It allowed Kamila to stay close enough to him to sort her feelings while also avoiding intimacy and romance.
“What are you doing here, Kami?” Solus took her by surprise, making her flinch. “You should be on the beach with the others instead of sulking in the shadows. That’s Lith’s thing.”
Neither of them smiled at the joke, making the failure of Solus’ attempt to lighten the mood.
“Don’t you mean Derek?” Kamila replied. “Besides, I could ask you the same thing.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that they are one and the same?” Solus replied with a sigh. “Are you sure you don’t want me to revert the tower to its old appearance?”
She pointed at the new rooms and furniture that had been shaped according to their blueprints for Lith’s dream house. It was based on the small mansion of Baron Wyalon in Jambel, a two-storey building made of wood and stone.
“I’m sure.” Kamila nodded. “Until we made these changes, I never realized how the tower and Protector’s house being identical to Lith’s home in Lutia made things damn confusing.
“Every place looked the same so even when we moved around, I had the impression of always being in Lutia.”
“True that.” Solus nodded.
“By the way don’t think I haven’t noticed how you dodged my question.”
“I could say the same thing about you.” Solus repeated Kamila’s words hoping to avoid the matter.
“Fine, I’ll start.” Kamila sat on the bed and patted the spot nearby to invite Solus to join her. “I can’t wrap my head around the idea of living with an alien from another planet. My marriage is based on a lie and it makes my whole life feel unreal.
“I’m sure I still have feelings for Lith, Derek, or whoever he actually is, but every time I touch him, fear takes over. Ever since that day, I feel like I’m living with a stranger.
“I know nothing about the man whose child I’m carrying and it scares the crap out of me.”
“Let me get this straight.” Solus sat right in front of Kamila, looking her in the eyes. “You were okay with dating a mysterious hybrid. You had no problems after learning that he was an Awakened first and an Abomination later.
“Even after Lith lost his humanity, the dealbreaker was my existence, not him turning into a 20 meters (66 feet) tall Tiamat. Correct?”
“Yes.” She nodded.
“How in my mother’s name can the birthplace of the Abomination that you had already accepted change anything?” Solus was flabbergasted.
“Because he’s not the person I believed to know!” Kamila replied. “I mean, he comes from another world, he is older than he appears, and everything that everyone thinks to know about him is a lie. His birthplace changes everything.”
“For that matter, I, Salaark, and every Awakened on Mogar are older than we appear.” Solus said. “I admit that the other world thing is a bit unsettling, but living on a sentient planet where undead walk among us and Guardians determine the fate of entire continents, not so much.”
“True.” Kamila nodded. She usually kept things like the existence of Fringes, Abominations, undead, white cores, and Mogar’s consciousness in a corner of her mind, away from her rationality.
It was her subconscious’ way to protect her from going crazy at the idea of how insignificant the life of the average human was. Now that Solus forced them in the spotlight, they made Kamila turn pale and covered her in a cold sweat.
At the same time, however, they helped her to put things in perspective.
“That said, Lith’s birthplace changes nothing.” Solus said. “He’s still the same person who saved my life. Who worked his ass off to give his family food and warm clothes during winter.
“He’s still the same guy who risked his life over and over for me, you, your sister and everyone he loved. The fact that he was born somewhere else in another time doesn’t make him someone different, it just makes his struggle to live longer and more painful.
.
