“I’m the freaking Guardian of Mana! There is no telling what I could learn from that thing. You have to let me come there and bring it to my lab!” Roghar said in outrage.
“First, that’s not a thing. It’s a person and my grandson at that.” Salaark stopped eating, looking at the Fenrir for the first time since the start of the conversation. “Second, I don’t have to do anything for you.”
She took a deep breath as her power blotted the sun of the Desert from the sky and made the shadows in Roghar’s own home flicker like angry flames.
“I despise you and your methods. During the last meeting, I clearly told you that if you dare to make a single step in Garlen, I’ll kick your ass. Now, as you can see, I’m pregnant and I won’t risk my baby for a lowlife like you.
“Yet I will not hesitate to throw every single spell I know at you from a safe distance while my boyfriend kicks your ass with the weapon that I’m going to provide him.”
“Are you seriously back with Leegaain again?” Roghar was astonished, not scared. “That lizard is the weakest among you and I’ve created more spells than you’ll ever learn. Think twice before making an enemy out of me.”
Salaark just hung up the call and relayed the conversation with the Fenrir to her two friends before picking up her Forgemastering hammer.
“Challenge accepted, jackass.”
***
Village of Lutia, at the same time.
Elina hadn’t stopped crying ever since the image of Orpal slandering her family and maiming Manohar’s corpse had disappeared from the sky above Lutia and her farm.
“Gods, what have we done?” She said while hugging her husband. “Our son killed our friends and even tried to kill his own brother. How could we raise such a monster? How could we even think of giving him a second chance?”
“We have done nothing wrong dear.” Raaz’s eyes were veiled with tears, but his voice was steady. “Our only mistake has been to love him with all of our hearts and let our feelings cloud our judgment.
“We didn’t turn him into a monster, he already was one at birth. Don’t you see how the rest of our children, even Trion, have grown into fine people? The problem has never been us, but Orpal’s incapacity to accept the consequences of his actions.”
“What can we do to make up for his crimes?” Elina asked amid sobs.
“Nothing, because those crimes belong only to him.” He held her tight and took the communication amulet. “Let’s call our children to make sure that they are alright. They need us, and they need us to be strong for them.”
***
Night’s secret lair, at the same time.
The Void covering Derios greatly alarmed the Royals. They believed it to be a ruse of the Undead Courts and dispatched the members of the Corpse to investigate the events.
Night and Orpal knew to have nothing to do with it, yet they also had plenty of reasons to worry about the phenomenon. Ever since the blackness had appeared, they had lost contact with the undead that they had dispatched there for the follow-up mission to Manohar’s death.
Then, their runes had disappeared from Night’s contact amulet. After a while, every single member of the Undead Courts living in Derios had suddenly died. It didn’t matter whether they took part in Orpal’s conspiracy or not, nor if they belonged to the Dawn, Dusk, or Night Court.
Their runes just faded away one after the other.
“What the fuck does this mean?” Orpal asked in outrage.
“I have no idea.” Night replied. “I can only guess that it’s one of your brother’s bloodline abilities. What worries me the most is how he found our associates so quickly.”
Unbeknownst to them and even to Lith, the Void fed off him and used the souls that he turned into Demons as amplifiers that transmitted his power and extended the Void’s area of effect.
Once they became Demons, the souls could affect the living and the undead alike to follow the impulse they received through their bond with Lith. A soul staying behind was a rare phenomenon, but undead lived until killed.
Most of them had more than one angry soul following the undead around that happily pointed them at the Demons, betraying their existence no matter how good their façade was or how many cloaking devices they wore.
The Void had surrounded Derios, filling the city with angry Demons that had plenty of invisible informers lying in wait. Once the blackness disappeared, both the Demons and the angry souls following the Undead Courts’ members moved on.
“This isn’t fair!” Orpal said with a whiny voice. “I trained hard, I learned Blade Spells, I have become a new race, the perfect merging of Dragon, human, Phoenix, and Vampire bloodline! Why does Leech have so many abilities while I have none?”
“Good gods, stop it with your tantrum!” Night snapped at him.
Orpal had improved by leaps and bounds, but whenever Lith was involved, he would quickly revert to his old obnoxious, narcissistic self that had gotten himself disowned by his parents.
“You have done squat, what you listed is my doing. You simply followed my instructions!”
“What do you mean?” Orpal reeled his ego in for her and actually paid attention.
“That’s better.” Night took control of their body and nodded. “It’s actually simple. Your brother probably Awakened from a very young age, which gave him plenty of time to develop his skills and grow accustomed to his potential.
“You, instead, have been forcefully trained in a quick way, with me explaining everything to you and spoon-feeding you knowledge down to the smallest detail. It helped you to grow in strength quickly, but it also makes your understanding of your abilities non-existent.
“Lith grows slowly, but with each day he learns something new, adding more and more to his foundations that at some point bloom into something like this blackness. Every power he gains is his own.
“You, however, add nothing to our union. I’m just turning you into a clone of myself. The techniques, the spells, the spearsmanship you use is identical to mine. Nothing you can do is actually yours, just a replica of what I already achieved.”
Orpal gritted his teeth at those words, managing to refuse them and accept their truth at the same time as only someone like him could.
“It’s not fair! I want to learn my bloodline abilities and they must be stronger than Leech’s! I won’t have it any other way!”
Night would have liked to tell him that whining wouldn’t change his bloodline abilities, but she had long since learned that rather than wasting her time trying to stop his tantrums it was much better to channel it into hard work.
***
Gorgon Empire, Regalia Plains, over a powerful mana geyser.
Baba Yaga paced around the big table of the dining room of her hut while waiting for her guests. She kept shapeshifting out of nervousness from the Maiden into the Mother and then into the Crone before starting all over again.
Sometimes her body split instead of shapeshifting. The three women moved each at her own pace and moved in a random direction so their paths ended up crossing after a while.
