'Am I worried because I'm older than him or it's just my insecurity talking?' Kamila thought, a second before turning beet reed for apparently no reason. 'What's wrong with me? We have never even talked about marriage and I'm already worrying about how many children we should have?'
"Kami, are you feeling alright? You seem a bit off." Lith said, snapping her out of the chaos her mind had become.
"I'm perfectly fine, thanks. I'm just worried about Zinya." Happy to change the topic, Kamila told him all about the divorce and Fallmug's disappearance.
'I don't pay the bastard a visit since the mission started. I hope he doesn't get the wrong idea and thinks to be off the hook.' Lith thought. 'I really hope he tries something funny near my home. Between the arrays and the Queen's corps, they'll pick up his remains with a teaspoon.'
"I'm more worried about you. Being a civil servant, most of your information is public. Fallmug must know that the easiest way to get to Zinya is through you. Be on your guard, always." He said.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Kamila was both flattered and happy by how concerned he was about her safety. She was more than able to take care of herself, especially now that she was a Field Assistant, but being pampered a little after such a long separation felt nice.
"Belius has so many safety measures that even if Fallmug comes there, there's not much he can do. Besides, I've been staying at the Ernas Household for a while. I doubt even he would be so foolish to attack me there."
"What? Why?" Lith asked.
"Officially, for my training, so that Archon Ernas can teach me how to arrange the work from home when necessary and teach me everything I need about Constable's codes away from prying eyes. Off the record, the Ernas feel lonely with all their daughters away.
"I suppose they want some company or maybe they were hoping for something like this to happen. You know, you calling me so that they had the opportunity to speak with Phloria and Quylla. How are they?"
"Given the circumstances, I'd say they're doing fine. Quylla is the one struggling the most. She can't stand remaining on the sidelines, but she knows that she can't help us in a fight. As for Phloria, she has to make tough calls almost every day.
"Luckily for me, I'm just a Ranger. The Professors know they stuff but are too arrogant, they- Never mind. I can't talk about that. We would both end in trouble and I don't want to endanger your career." He said with a warm smile.
"Speaking of Rangers, how is he?" Kamila asked.
"Who are you talking about?"
"Ranger Eari, the beast-man."
"The what?"
"Beast-man. They call him like that because there was a year when he never took a single day leave and when he finally returned to civilization, he behaved more like a magical beast than a human."
"He is indeed odd." Lith replied, wondering if Morok was just a man rude enough to act like a beast or simply a beast shapeshifted into a man.
When they finished talking, Kamila gave the amulet to Jirni. By that time, the prisoner was already dead by more than half an hour. Jirni had taken care of piercing the corpse's heart and brain before beheading it.
There were rumors about necromancy techniques capable of extracting the memories from the recently deceased and Archon Ernas liked to err on the side of safety whenever state secrets were involved.
There were people who would pay a small fortune to get access even to a daily password.
"How are my girls? Spare me the niceties, I want the truth." Jirni asked as soon as Kamila left them alone after she activated a personal device that further ensured their privacy.
"They both almost died more than once. Quylla is putting up a tough act, but I think she feels guilty for failing to save our fallen comrades. Phloria, instead has a few problems with deciding who lives and who dies." Lith could openly talk with Jirni.
With her status and rank, he doubted that anything that passed through Berion's office didn't reach her ears in less than a minute.
"Good. This experience is bound to help them to understand the implications of their life choices. Sometimes I'm afraid that Orion has sheltered them too much. I'm glad that you're with them in their time of need.
"You protect mine and I'll keep protecting yours." She said.
"Do you mean that…" Lith could only call himself an idiot for having taken Kamila's naïve thinking seriously.
"That Kamila now lives in my home for her own safety. I took some information on this Fallmug. He's not a criminal, but he's acquainted with plenty of them. If he decides to, he can mess with Kamila. Zinya, on the contrary, is beyond his reach.
"Promise me that you'll bring my baby girls back home and you have my word that I'll keep your courtyard clear." Jirni said.
"I would have done it anyway. I resent you doubting my friendship." Lith's voice turned cold. He didn't like to receive ultimatums.
"So would have I, but you know as well as I do that common interests form a stronger bond than any pretty word can. Now that we have a deal, please put Phloria through. I hope that for once she will listen to me." Jirni sighed.
Lith was now in quite a pickle. The moment he left the amulet, the conversation would end. On top of that, he would have to explain how he had managed to establish a connection without external help.
He and Solus quickly arranged an array with the purple crystals Professor Neshal had gifted him to fuel the amulet.
'We're lucky we had this many big and powerful crystals at hand, otherwise such a makeshift formation would never work.' Solus thought.
Phloria was amazed by Lith bypassing the interference so easily, but she didn't ask him for explanations. Their cohabitation was starting to become awkward. Lith had opened up to her more in those last few days than in the two years they had been together.
That coupled with the words they had exchanged during Jirni's birthday were giving her a headache. To add insult to injury, her mother's smug grin told Phloria that she was well aware of that.
"I'm glad to see you're alright and in one piece, dear. I hope you can get back home soon." Jirni would always caress before landing a blow.
"Thanks, Mom. I can't wait for this mission to be over. The things I've seen here will give me nightmares for days, I'm sure of it." Phloria was used to the killing part of her job, to her life being constantly at risk.
Seeing the results of the Odi's work, facing the consequences of their experiments, however, was eating her from the inside. How could she hate the living fungus for killing so many innocent people when the creature itself as a victim?
Even the people forming the monster who had attacked them in the lobby weren't at fault. Killing innocents was chipping away the pride she took in her job, making her feel more like a murderer than a soldier.
The memory of the Teks in the tanks overlapped with that of Morok eating them as if they were just crabs, making her want to puke.
