"That's what all those children's clothes are about?" Dawn sat on Baba Yaga's lap. To regenerate Acala's body would take a lot of energy and she was too weak for that. Dawn made sure to preserve just enough of his tissues to not let her host die.
"Of course, dear." Baba Yaga smiled at the feeling of her daughter's warmth spreading through her womb. She now looked like a beautiful woman in her forties, with flaming red hair and emerald green eyes.
Her voice was calm and wise, her body had the reassuring aura typical of good mothers.
It was the incarnation of those who had reached half of their lifespan. She had as much past as future. The form of Dusk.
"Children are our future and the best material to work with." She tilted her head, pointing at the huge boiling cauldron on the fireplace, filled to the brim with meat paste and blood.
"Have you heard about that Lich? Veeza?" Baba Yaga's face was disfigured in a grimace of disgust while saying the word Lich.
"Yes. What about it?" Dawn asked.
"I'm really happy she failed. I hope the death of that imbecile and of all her followers brings my children back to the right path. How can someone be so stupid to want to rule?
"Why should a predator worry about the weak, spending their time to make sure that they thrive and prosper? Why so few of my children understand that the reason why so many Kings and Emperors look for immortality in their twilight years is that they realize that the throne sucked the life out of them?
"That they spent their whole lives amassing power and never really using it? I never intended for any of you to have a country of your own, to bind you with chains of duty. I just wanted my children to have a second chance at life, a better life.
"Why do they obsess themselves with the human way? What makes them so special? Among the five races, they are the most miserable." Baba Yaga angrily cut the thread hanging off the needle with her pearly white teeth.
"Because they have the greatest potential. For destruction." Dawn chuckled.
"Can't argue with that." Baba Yaga scanned the area surrounding her hut, finding no human life form for hundreds of kilometers. "Why are you here, darling, and what about your new flesh suit? Is this living host thing a new phase or did you just want to try something new?"
"Both." Dawn told her mother all about her imprisonment, her bonding with Acala, and all the doors that his petty mind had opened for her.
"What a charming fellow. I hope he treats you right." Baba Yaga wore a soft smile while listening to her daughter's plans. Dawn was one of the few to have never disappointed her.
"He sure does. Now comes the best part." Dawn told her about her encounter with Lith and Solus. About what she had discovered about them.
"Golden eyes, symbiotic, and capable of drawing power from mana geysers. Sorry, dear, it could be anyone. I have no idea who she is."
"No, Mom, it's not her the funny one, but the thing she is bonded with." Dawn had no intention to reveal Lith's true identity to the Griffon Kingdom nor to blackmail him.
The former would have only made him more interesting to whoever had a working brain, while she considered the latter a coward's weapon. She had other plans in mind for him and the Bright Day didn't want her gift to be ruined before it was ripe for the taking.
"Thing?" Baba Yaga had taught her children all she knew, so there were few things they couldn't define.
"A full-grown hybrid that can merge with members of our family, someone who can exert Dominance above at least five elements, and has an affinity for both the fire and darkness elements." Dawn explained.
"He could be the perfect Sword that little sister Night has always looked for."
"Interesting." Baba Yaga turned into a hunched crone with grey hair and stone-cold black eyes. Her nose and ears were long, her face full of wrinkles. Age spots covered her skin, making her look weak, but her voice was full of strength
It was the incarnation of those who had more past than future, holding the wisdom of age and the bitterness of regrets. The form of Night.
"If you are right, and that's a big if, I don't like the idea of Night being the first to get her Sword." Baba Yaga said. "Just like her Night Court, she's free and unrestrained like I always wanted for my children, but she's also as chaotic as them.
"She never has a plan, always going rage first and blood second. Not to mention the mess she makes with every one of her meals. The only undead species that have gone extinct were her blind followers and she's the only one who had me tussling with Guardians to save her sorry ass.
"Check upon him if you want, but share your findings only with me. Your little brother Dusk can't keep his mouth shut to save his life and I can't trust Night with that kind of power until I'm certain that she's worthy of it."
***
Meanwhile, inside the cave, the destruction of the arrays had left only the Odi machine to diminish the world energy that flowed through the mana geyser. Everything else was now under Solus's control.
The energy allowed the tower to grow to its full size, adding new mass to the body Lith and Solus shared. The hulking figure staring at the hole in the mountain had a wingspan that almost reached either side of the cave at the same time.
"It's convenient to go in and out, but it would be too hard to explain." Lith and Solus spoke in unison as if one was the countermelody of the other.
The creature raised their hand and channeled a fraction of the energy coursing through their body to make the hole in the mountain disappear.
Usually, a team of Wardens and several tier five arrays would have been necessary to restore the hundreds of tons of destroyed rocks, whereas all it took them was a thought.
Then, they cleared the two collapsed tunnels, creating a believable escape route for themselves. Acala's betrayal would already be hard to swallow for the army. Dawn was the perfect way to explain everything that had happened in the Snake Tongue mountain range, but the story had to be told properly.
What was left would earn him plenty of merits, money, and, unfortunately, glory. If the Kingdom had only half an idea what Dawn was capable of, Lith couldn't afford to claim to have sent her running without incurring more questions than he wanted to answer.
"The undead have Warped away as well." Solus's mana sense had now a range that covered the entirety of the underground complex, allowing them to keep an eye on everything and everyone that went in or out.
"Which begs the question, why are you still here?" They asked Nalrond who was sitting against a wall.
"Because I'm tired." After the end of the fight, Nalrond had reverted to his human form. "I'm tired of fighting, tired of running away. I've lost everything I held dear and one way or another, I've achieved my revenge.
