Farg was shocked by the news of the attack, but managed to hold her curiosity. If Lady Tyris was angry, her patience would be very limited. The questions at her disposal were already down by one.
Farg told her everything she had noticed about Lith from her observations during the fight with the Clackers and the academy’s lessons. Tyris listened in silence, nodding from time to time.
“Do you have any questions?” Farg’s report did nothing but confirm what she already knew. Tyris always allowed some questions because often humans needed help realizing details that they had seen but not noticed.
“Many.” Farg replied honestly. She was honored to be allowed to sit while her host was pacing around and listening to her report.
“The kid is barely thirteen years old, yet I saw him go toe to toe with evolved monsters and magical beasts. How is that possible? The members of the Corpse are faster and stronger than normal humans, but not like that. We need enchanted equipment to make up for the difference in physical prowess.”
“Quite the contrary.” Tyris shook her head.
‘During our brief encounter, I was only interested in his mana core and neglected to check his body. This is another important piece of the puzzle. It seems humans aren’t the only ones to be slow on the uptake, sometimes.’ She thought.
“It is possible. Your Queen, your King, and the veterans of the Corpse are all like that. It may seem incredible to you now, but only because we have just started your refinement process. In time, you’ll become like that too. If you live that long, of course.”
“What?” Farg was stunned, the words escaped her mouth before she could realize to have wasted another question.
“Doesn’t that mean that the kid is a veteran too? Isn’t he too young?”
Tyris smiled at her, happy to see the rookie catching up on her own.
“Yes to both. There are only a few possible explanations. Either he is an Awakened from the birth and that would be as incredible as terrifying, or he is a weak Abomination that possessed the body of an infant. That would be even worse.
“The former scenario would mean a natural talent like I have never seen before and hopefully will never see again. Beings Awakened from birth are incredibly rare, almost a myth even to us Guardians.
“I have never met one alive because when they are born from humankind, they start abusing their powers and get killed by their own kin before they can become a real threat.
“On the contrary, true magic comes natural to beasts, but being too much reliant on their instincts, they lack the wisdom and awareness about the risks the refinement process implies, so they die young too.
“The latter scenario would mean that albeit being incredibly weak, an Abomination managed to evolve into a Puppeteer and then stumbled into a highly compatible body that still lacked any sense of self or distinguishing feature.
“It makes it the perfect match. The body grows alongside the user’s power, making the rejection of the new soul almost impossible. It would give birth to a Puppeteer that can hide in plain sight and without the need of switching bodies.
Needless to say, such a thing is almost impossible”
“It doesn’t make sense!” Farg blurted out again.
“His mana flow is blue, not black. I checked more than once with Life Vision. Yet I saw with my own eyes black tendrils reattach his severed arm. That’s something only Abominations can do.
“Also, I think the kid is utterly insane. One moment he puts his life on the line for his companions, the following he treats them like garbage.”
“Excellent point.” Tyris sat on her throne.
“That’s why I suspect him being a hybrid, rather than a pure Abomination. A hybrid is born when something goes wrong during the body’s assimilation process. If the Abomination is weaker than the host’s body, it gets assimilated instead. It loses its nature and remains trapped inside it.
“It would explain the wisdom beyond his age, but not why he has helped the Kingdom time and time again.
“As for the madness, if he is as strong as you describe him to be, then it’s normal. If he is a hybrid, his human and Abomination impulses are constantly at odds. It surprises me he has showed so much self restraint.
“If he is an Awakened from birth, instead, there is the possibility that he is afraid of harming them, hence he tries to keep them at a distance. When you get so powerful while still being so young, many have problems controlling their strength.
Consider that for him normal humans are made of paper. All he needs to do is use a little strength to crush them.
“Whatever is his nature, the attachment towards other humans is a good sign for us, because it means he cares for them. If he does, then if the necessity arises they can be used to shackle him.”
“My Lady, why not kill him? His corpse may answer all of your questions and he would no longer pose a threat. Two birds with one stone.”
“Killing another living being only because I don’t understand them? Who do you take me for? A human?” Tyris scoffed.
“If he was another wannabe tyrant or a monster sucking everything dry on its path, your suggestion would make sense. Yet so far he poses no threat to his kind nor to the beasts, who consider him as one of their own. Even the world has recognized his worth, subjecting him to its cruel tribulations.
“If he fails, he’ll die. If he succeeds the balance will have a new Guardian and I another potential mate. It’s a win-win situation for me.
“Thanks for your hard work, Amyla. You’ll resume your surveillance when the academy reopens. Until then, you’ll continue your normal activities as a member of the Corpse.
“Do not tell anyone about Lith being a natural Awakened, not even to the Royals. They are past their prime and surrounded by strife. It would be easy for them being tempted to coerce him into turning them in real Awakened.
The Kingdom wouldn’t survive if I was forced to have both of them suddenly pass away in an ‘accident’.”
Tyris’s eyes shone with silver light, sending a shiver down Farg’s spine. She understood how Lady Tyris was not only testing her loyalty, but also burdening her with the fate of the Griffon Kingdom.
She still had many questions, but now Farg was scared by the answers so she preferred to leave after giving Tyris a deep bow.
Once alone again, the Guardian let her mind ponder about what she had omitted to say to Farg.
‘I don’t know what this Lith is, but for certain he is no kid. I watched all the recordings available of him, including his exams. His words, actions, and spells do not match a kid. Even geniuses like Manohar couldn’t pull the thundercloud spell at that age.
‘Not when coming from an uneducated family. At this point, even using a member of the Corpse as middle man has little value. The only way I have to find out the truth is to speak with him in person.’ Tyris sighed.
‘Too bad that with all that it’s happening, this matter is of low priority. First I need to upgrade all the arrays of the castle to prevent further attacks. Then I have to find out how the enemies managed to get down here. As of now, the Griffon Kingdom is a giant with clay feet.
‘The noble households are still able to trigger a civil war, we have lost two of the six great academies at once, and most of my attention has to be directed at the Abomination threat.
‘I have no idea what this Lith is or wants, but so far he has proved to be harmless to me. His parents are still alive, his village still standing, and he even joined an academy. None of this makes sense, either if he was an Abomination or an Awakened at birth.
‘Maybe Salaark is right, the only way to rule humans is with an iron fist. I gave the Griffon Kingdom everything I could without directly intervening. Power, wisdom, inspiration.
‘Yet it has stooped so low that now it needs only a gentle push to fall into ruins.’
***
In the two weeks following the events in the forest, Solus had managed to speak with Lith only once. For eight wonderful years they shared everything. Solus missed all the little things they did together in their daily routine, from their morning walks to choosing what to have for breakfast.
Yet he still refused to talk to her. No matter if it was a serious matter like talking to Linjos about the rankings or something trivial like inviting his friends. Lith kept her confined in the stone marble, making her feel as alone as useless.
Since their mind link was broken, Solus had realized that, despite during the past years she had greatly suffered from all the limitations her stone form had, it was only thanks to their bond that she had been able to keep her own sanity in check.
Even with their mind link shut down, Solus still retained all of her senses.
She could hear and see the world around her, perceive the mana flow of everyone that came in contact with them or the alterations in their emotional spectrum. Yet without Lith, without access to his body, she couldn’t feel anything outside her own thoughts.
It was like being locked up inside a panic room, having access to the outside world only through cameras and monitors.
She still received all the nourishment she needed to keep restoring her power, but her life had turned into nothing more than a cage. Solus felt desperate and lonely, but she did her best to not let those feelings transpire.
Their bond was strong enough that they needed the mind link only to talk. If they wanted to avoid sharing a strong emotion or a recurring thought from the other, they had to be careful.
Lith wasn’t as good as her, so Solus could feel his yearning for her voice, the desire to contact her along with the sense of betrayal preventing him from opening their mind link.
It would have been easy for her to contact him first and play with his feelings to get what she wanted, but Solus never even considered doing it. The only thing she wanted was for him to accept her as a person just as she did for him.
‘Lith didn’t even contact me to share the ranking results. We worked so hard for that, spending so many nights awake and yet he still cut me off like that. Like I am nothing.
‘I just did to him once what he does to everyone else on a daily basis.
‘What I did was wrong, but so is Lith’s constantly shutting everyone out every time he has a problem. He needed to realize how his lies can affect his loved ones. Piling lies upon lies, only because it’s more convenient than opening himself to others, even a little.
‘I understand why he can’t talk about his past lives or being an Awakened one, but hiding all the bad things that happen to him and always acting behind the others’ backs with the excuse that he does it to “protect them” is bullsh*t.
‘Lith never shared with his parents the ostracism he suffered from the other students, the mean words Professors like Rudd addressed him with or the difficulties he faced during the exams.
‘By sugar-coating every aspect of his life, maybe he doesn’t make his family worry about him, but for sure he ends up alone, incapable of sharing any of his burdens and to rely on his loved ones.
‘Lith can’t hope for others to help him in times of need. They never know what he is going through, simply because he hides from them even what he had for breakfast! The only good thing that came out of my lie is that at least he opened up with his family.
It did him some good, making him realize that they never wanted anything from him except being happy.’
From the moment their mind link had been severed, Solus’s condition kept getting worse by the day. She was a prisoner of her own body, without anyone to talk to or anything she could do. Life around her was a cruel reminder of how the lack of a body made her little more than a slave to whoever was her host.
Solus knew her future was grim, yet she soldiered up and waited patiently.
The bond she shared with Lith was symbiotic, it couldn’t be broken unless one of them died. Her only options were for Lith to forgive her or spend the time they had left together as a mindless tool.
Either that or go completely insane. The prolonged isolation and the constant status of fear of being abandoned, losing her life companion, were slowly eating her from the inside.
It was only a matter of time before her condition deteriorated beyond saving, scarring her mind permanently.
