“You’ll miss part of our day together and you won’t be able to enjoy a single moment of it. First because of the stress of the impending meeting Bytra and then for its aftermath.” Kamila said.

“I know, but if I wait any longer, I’ll run away in fear.” Solus sighed. “Can I stay here today, instead? I want to be at the top of my game when I face Bytra.”

While Lith called Xenagrosh back and set up the meeting, Solus looked up to Kamila with the big eyes of a scared puppy. She was so small, cute, and trembling that Kamila’s mouth moved faster than her brain.

“Of course you can.” She hugged Solus who returned the embrace, sniffling.

‘Above a mana geyser, Solus can recover her strength in a matter of minutes and she knows it.’ Kamila thought while caressing her head until Solus stopped quivering.

‘What she really needs is the self-confidence she gains by feeling a part of the family and the calm that the mind link with Lith gives her. Gods, this really feels like I’ve somehow gotten a daughter my own age.’ Kamila sighed.

Despite Solus’s brave front, she spent a sleepless night. Even with the bond with Lith soothing her mind, the image of Bytra slaughtering Menadion’s apprentices flashed in front of her the moment Solus closed her eyes.

The following morning, Solus was pale as a ghost and ate a single serving of pancakes before her churning stomach forced her to stop.

“We’ll be back soon.” She said while squeezing Lith’s hand to feel reassured. “I don’t want to spend one second longer than necessary with Bytra.”

“Are you going to tower Warp?” Kamila asked. “I think you should keep it as a hidden card.”

“No. I’ve picked for the meeting one of the places where Grandma sent us to train Blade Spells. We can Warp there normally and set up the tower underground without anyone noticing.”

Kamila wished them both good luck and watched them disappear through a dimensional corridor.

“Gods, I hate my weakness! Why is waiting the only thing I can do?” She said to no one once she was alone.

They hadn’t told anyone but Salaark of the meeting to not make them worry. Not knowing what to do, Kamila resumed her work as a clerk.

Reading the reports of hideous crimes and murder scenes made her worry even more. Yet the thought of helping the families of the victims to find some peace, of giving justice to people like Solus who had suffered a cruel fate, gave her strength.

***

Above a mana geyser hundreds of kilometers away from both the beach and Salaark’s palace.

Lith and Solus arrived early at the meeting spot. The clothes they wore were actually their best armor and the tower was safe underground, absorbing the power from the mana geyser and channeling it through their bodies.

This way, there would be less world energy for the Abominations to feed upon and Solus could use all of the powers of the tower if push came to the shove.

Even with Lith holding her hand and the Fury in the other, Solus was sweating bullets. Her throat felt parched and the acrid taste of bile that rose up from her guts from time to time only made matters worse.

Bytra and Xenagrosh walked out a Chaos Steps a few minutes later, but to Solus, they felt like hours. The sun of the Desert was nothing to a deep blue Awakened like her, but Solus felt fainting from the heat waves that burned her skin.

The two Abomination hybrids came unarmed, wearing regular desert clothes, yet Solus felt the need to hide behind Lith as they closed in.

‘Beware! This might as well be a trap. Xenagrosh has a pocket dimension as well. She can take the equipment out at any moment.’ Solus warned him.

‘If that was the case, they wouldn’t meet us on Grandma’s turf. On top of that, they would have attacked us on the spot and obliterated us before we could react.’ Lith replied. ‘Their strength doesn’t scare me, it reassures me.

‘If they had ill intentions, they wouldn’t hide them.’

Solus realized how irrational her fears were and stepped forward, her back as stiff as a stick.

“Hi, Lith. A darker skin looks good on you and I can feel how much your power has grown since our last meeting. Thank you for accepting to see us, Solus. I promise you won’t regret it.” Zoreth said while shaking their hands in turn.

Solus’ was cold and sweaty.

“Thanks, Zoreth.” Lith kept his eyes on Bytra, who kept her distance for a while before stepping forward.

“Hi, Elphyn. Do you mind if-” She had just taken one step when Solus rushed back behind Lith.

She could almost feel the Raiju’s horn pierce through her heart. Smell the blood that flooded her nostrils and taste it as it gurgled in her mouth while life slipped away from her body.

“Stay away from me!” The voice came from Lith’s mouth and his eyes turned golden.

Solus was cowering on the ground, burying her face in her own knees, yet her swirling emotions still found a way out.

“Good gods, Elphyn. What happened to you?” Bytra moved her eyes from one to the other, trying to figure out their relationship.

Back at Vastor’s home, she had thought they were romantically involved, but after hearing about Lith’s wedding, Bytra had assumed they simply had a business partnership.

Yet hearing Lith speak with Elphyn’s voice and seeing his body emit both a violet and a deep blue aura made Bytra open her eyes wide in surprise.

“That’s rich! Are you really asking what happened to me? You happened! You killed me!” Lith/Solus roared, taking a combat stance and becoming covered in black scales.

“Did you think that some merciful god descended from the sky and saved me like in a bard’s tale? Breaking news, Bytra, it didn’t. My mother sacrificed a lot of her life force to bind me to this ring!” Lith raised his right hand, showing the round piece of stone at his finger that now brimmed with blue energy.

“That’s why you managed to kill her as well. Menadion was already half dead when she faced you. You took her away from me, leaving me trapped in here for centuries.” Lith slowly shapeshifted into Tiamat, his size growing by the second.

“Because of you, I’m banished from death. You have doomed me to an eternal life of servitude, forced to follow the whims of whoever found the ring. For seven hundred years, I couldn’t die because of you.

“Yet I could still experience hunger, fear, loneliness, and madness! I lost my memory, I lost my powers, and everyone I knew died while I was trapped in a cursed object.”

“I’m so sorry.” Bytra fell onto her knees, sobbing.

Now everything made sense. Menadion’s weakness, Elphin’s memory loss, the regression of her core, and even how she had managed to survive for that long.

“You’re sorry?” The roar created a sandstorm as the power of the tower made the dunes crumble and form. “Will any of your words make up for what you did? Will saying that you are sorry bring Mom back?”

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