‘Aunt Loka didn’t call us here to intimidate us or show off, quite the contrary. She is putting herself in my hands as much as I’m in hers.’ Solus clenched her hand under the table, moved by the gesture.
“How are you liking your food, Elp- I mean Solus?” Silverwing asked.
“It’s delicious, thank you.” Solus gave Lochra the first honest smile since the day she had attacked Lith on his sickbed. “You are a great cook, Loka, but I’m afraid my taste has changed.”
“You have eaten Lith’s food until now so it’s normal.” The First Magus shrugged. “Any new memory?”
“Sadly, no. What’s for dessert?” The smell and taste of the food seemed familiar, yet aside a few short déjà vu, Solus’ mind was blank.
“Your favorite.” A snap of Silverwing’s fingers cleaned the plates and made a big slice of sponge cake frosted with whipped cream and powdered sugar appear.
“By my Mom! This is the cake that Dad always prepared for their anniversary and for special occasions.”
“Prepared is a strong word.” Silverwing chuckled. “More like bought. Did it just come to your mind or…”
“Sorry, no. I recovered those memories for a while now.” Solus took Lochra’s hand, using a mind link to share with her the fragments of her past life she had regained.
The First Magus’ eyes teared up as the images flashed in front of them. She went from crying in joy to crying in sadness without a break until the stream of consciousness ended.
“Gods. I miss Ripha and Threin so much. It seems like yesterday when we still ate together.” She blew her nose in a handkerchief, trying and failing to stop the hiccups.
“It’s one of the curses of longevity, child.” Baba Yaga said. “For the rest of Mogar, time never stops moving and takes away everything we love. Yet for us, time stands still and our pain lives on.”
“Enough with the creepy stuff.” Silverwing noticed how gloomy the mood in the room had become and regained her cool. “Do you like the cake?”
“It’s delicious. Can I have seconds?” Kamila asked.
“It’s good, but it can be improved.” Lith cut it in two, filling it with coffee cream and adding a bit of ice cream as a topping.
Then, he handed it to Silverwing along with a slice of Triple Threat.
“Gods, this is amazing. It’s no wonder that Elphyn has so much trouble getting into shape.”
“Hey! I thought you wanted to mend our relationship, not make it sourer.” Solus blushed in embarrassment.
If even white cores worried about her gluttony, it had to be a bad sign.
“Hey! I’m the one pregnant. Where’s my share?” Kamila shoved her already empty plate in front of him.
“A bit for Shargein, if you don’t mind.” Leegaain discretely activated Dragon Eyes to steal the recipe.
“Can he really eat so much sugar?” Lith asked in worry.
“He’s a Dragon! Look.” The Guardian offered the wyrmling a silver spoon that Shargein munched into bits.
Then, dull red Flames melted the silver scraps and the wyrmling gulped them down, licking his snout and asking for more.
“He can eat rocks and be fine.”
“Well, that’s convenient.” Kamila pondered about how reassuring had to be not having to worry that your baby might choke on something they picked from the floor. “Do you think my baby will be able to do the same?”
“It’s too soon to tell. We have to wait until she develops enough. Ask me again in a few months.” Leegaain replied.
After everyone ate a second serving of dessert, Silverwing showed them the rest of the fortress, including her private quarters. After visiting noble households, the Royal Palace, and Baba Yaga’s tower, it was far from impressive.
The First Magus had kept things simple, making the place no different from a regular home. The only places where she had invested all of her talent and effort were her magical labs.
Yet after visiting Leegaain’s research facility on the moon, the guests found the labs lackluster as well.
“I’ve saved the best for last.” Silverwing’s hand holding the doorknob trembled with excitement. “This is the gallery where I keep all the mementos from my past relationships, including your father’s paintings.
“Some are just copies I made from memory others are originals. You can take whatever you want.”?????e??ovel*???
Once she opened the door, the Gallery turned out to be a long corridor. On either side were lined up showcases made of wood and glass.
Each one bore a golden tag with the date the relationship had started and finished, the latter often coinciding with the death of her friends and lovers.
The showcases held one or more paintings of Silverwing’s loved ones and the gifts she had received from them. Contrary to Solus’ expectations, Menadion’s wasn’t the biggest.
The two Magi had known each other for a little over 350 years, a lapse of time irrelevant compared with millennium-long friendships like the one with Baba Yaga, Tyris, and other Awakened.
The gallery was quite long and every centimeter of the place was taken, proving that she had a busy social life and a few children throughout the centuries. No one dared ask her what had become of them to not ruin the mood again.
Menadion’s showcase contained several prototypes, some successful and some failures, a couple of old-looking Forgemastering hammers, and lots of paintings. Solus recognized Springtime and a few family portraits that she had already copied from Aerth the Blue Phoenix.
The rest were original pieces of which she had no recollection and that triggered no lost memory on sight. Aside from the family pictures, Menadion was the main subject of Threin’s works.
He had drawn her working, reading a book, taking care of baby Solus, and laying on her side on a couch, wearing nothing but a smile and a scarf to cover the important parts.
“Are all Awakened this bold or was Menadion a special case?” Kamila moved her gaze from the painting to Solus, amazed by the striking resemblance between the two women.
“Neither. This is a piece that Threin made for his public gallery and that Ripha entrusted to me as soon as she discovered its existence. She never posed for the portrait, Threin made it by memory and imagination.” Silverwing shook her head.
“I guess she wasn’t happy with it.” Lith asked.
“Of a picture of herself naked hung in the middle of the living room where their guest and Solus could see it? You bet. She gave Threin one of the biggest earfuls of his life and made him promise to never do that again.” The First Magus replied.
“Painting her naked?” Solus crossed her fingers, hoping that no more monstrosities like that existed.
“No, putting them on display. Your father had a whole collection in his private g-“
“Dad, why?” Solus whimpered at the idea of how many people could now look at her mother in her birthday suit and, in a way, at her as well.
“Hey, what’s that?” Her teary eyes fell into a dark corner of the exhibit, where there was a painting much smaller than the others.
It was painted in dark and red colors, with just enough light to distinguish that there were actually three subjects. Two of them were big shadows that reminded Solus of Abominations.
