“He’s not mine and you know it. Now let them pass. We had enough of your yapping.” Leegaain didn’t lose his composure and stepped away from the Gate first.
The Leviathan didn’t like how the Dragon had easily brushed off his words, yet he cleared the way as well.
“Do communication amulets work from a continent away?” Lith said.
“Regular amulets don’t cover such distances unless you boost them with enough mana. On the other hand, your Council’s amulet has a white crystal that makes it powerful enough to work in every corner of Mogar.” Tyris said.
“The people you leave here will keep seeing your rune unavailable for all the duration of your stay in Jiera.”
The group felt disheartened at the thought of being unable to talk with their respective families until they remembered about Solus’s tower warp. They had no idea if it had limits, but they were eager to find out.
“How long do I have to stay there?” Lith asked.
“Until you feel there’s nothing more you can learn. This is a matter of wisdom, Lith. You can’t schedule things, you just have to let them happen. Remember what I told you about the violet core and stay on your guard.
“There are plenty of Xedros going around.” Faluel said while thinking about her stupid son and the news that Scarlett had brought her.
The Hydra feared that Sedra’s poor judgment had sealed his fate and she wanted to keep Lith from making the same mistakes.
The group stepped through the dimensional tunnel, feeling as if they had entered a different world. Everything from the smell of the air to the ground below their feet felt alien.
‘This is akin to when I went back to Lutia from the extreme north of the Kingdom, just one hundred times worse.’ Lith thought.
On the other side of Mogar, there were a handsome man and a frail, old-looking woman waiting for them.
“Which one of you is Lith?” The man asked while moving his gaze from Tista to Lith. Recognizing someone Awakened from an early age was easy, yet the gap in beauty and power between them made it hard to understand which one of them was the master.
“I’m Lith Verhen, hybrid and member of Garlen’s Beast Council. Nice to meet you.” Lith used only titles that would make sense in every corner of Mogar and gave the stranger a small bow to keep Solus from being discovered by a breathing technique.
“I’m Aren Dolm the Jǫrmungrandr, lesser Leviathan, and leader of Jiera’s Beasts Council.” He looked like a man in his early thirties, about 1.88 meters (6’3″) tall, with light-blonde hair streaked of green, yellow, and blue all over.
He had clear green eyes and a cleft chin that emphasized his gentle features. Together with his muscular body and charming smile, there was enough to make most women turn their heads at his passage.
He wore a plain white shirt and a pair of brown linen pants over leather shoes that made him look like a farmer rather than one of the strongest beings of Jiera. Aren returned the bow while looking at Lith’s companions.
Luckily, Faluel’s lessons included Council’s etiquette and it didn’t change according to the continent. Awakened lived long enough and had enough resources to travel across the ocean if they wanted.
They had established common rules ages ago and a protocol to help those who wanted to move to or just visit a foreign land.
“These are my Woken. Tista Verhen, my sister, and Phloria Erna, a good friend of mine.” Lith said, referring to them with the term that the Council used to define people whose life belonged to their master for one hundred years.
“Nice to meet you, sir.” The girls said in turn while giving him a deep bow.
After a brief exchange of greetings, Lith turned toward the human woman, discovering that she had fallen asleep while leaning against the wall.
“Oh, gods. I’m so sorry.” She said with a big yawn after Aren woke her up gently.
“It’s just that I don’t take a break in months and the Leviathan’s squabble with the Dragon was soothing compared with the constant yelling of hundreds of voices that haunts my office every single day.
“I’m Gyrwin Isaar, human representative of the Council.” She gave them a small smile, revealing to be much younger than she looked like.
Gyrwin wasn’t old so much as exhausted and too thin. She had bags under her eyes and lots of wrinkles were due to exhaustion making her fall asleep over her paper-filled desk more often than on her bed.
Lith estimated that in better times Gyrwin would look like a woman in her late forties, but in that moment, she seemed to be at least twenty years older. She was about 1.75 meters (5’9″) tall, with dirty white hair streaked blue, yellow, and orange all over.
Gyrwin wore a blue robe with an elaborate design that after stress had made her lose too much weight was now so large that it made her look like a beggar wearing second-hand clothes rather than a powerful mage.
“Is the situation in human cities that bad?” Lith asked, unable to contain his curiosity after noticing how differently the two Council leaders seemed to fare.
“It’s worse.” Gyrwin sighed. “People are never satisfied by nature and I never planned of becoming a feudal lord. Giving orders to powerful mages is easy, instructing grown-ups that behave like small children, it’s not.
“Do you know why my hair looks like this?” She pointed at the grey mop on her head.
“This is what happens when you suffer from mana abuse for too long. The same happened to my body. I just need a few days of rest to recover but it’s nigh impossible.
“Those bastards want to be treated like adults, but they expect others to take care of their problems, just like my teenage children!”
“I’m sorry, but why didn’t you just ignore them?” Phloria asked.
“We tried that at the beginning and the result was the death of one-tenth of the survivors. Half died in riots for food, the other half committed suicide thinking that we abandoned them.” Gyrwin clawed her hand in her hair, resisting the urge to pull them out.
“We didn’t get to choose who would survive, child. Most of the remaining humans are those who were naturally immune to the disease. Only a few survived because an Awakened saved them.
“Humans of Jiera have lost everything. They are prone to violence and depression. There are countless things that we could try if we were dealing with rational people yet our subjects are all but.
“There are not enough Awakened to repopulate the Jiera continent and with each person we lose, humans get closer to extinction.”
“Why do you say it as if it’s a bad thing?” Aren laughed. “Worst case scenario, you are going to migrate to Garlen.”
“And leave everything to you beasts and plant folk?” Fury lit Gyrwin’s eyes, restoring part of her youth. “I would lose my home, my finely tuned labs, and worst of all, I would need to start from scratch in the other Council.”
“Again, it sounds good to me.” Aren’s feral grin told Lith that the Jiera’s Council wasn’t any better than Garlen’s.
