While climbing the stairs, Lith didn’t know what to think of his current situation. Since he and Solus had fused, most of his usual rage and resentment seemed to have taken a rain check.
Solus could perceive his happiness for being reunited with her, which made her even happier. Because of the mind fusion, their feelings reinforced one another in a loop.
Not knowing when it would end, Lith fed Solus all of his favorite foods, letting her experience them first hand. The care and the attention she received plus all those new tastes sent her on cloud nine.
“By my maker! Everything is so good! Are you sure I can eat so much? You had lunch barely an hour ago.” She said worried for Lith’s stomach.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing we can’t cure. We should enjoy this ‘pink colored glasses’ moment until it lasts.”
The first floor was quite peculiar. The furniture was comprised of a few empty bookshelves, lots of mirrors, each one of different shapes and sizes, and a globe. It was similar to the one he had back on Earth, but this one represented Mogar and it was huge, with a radius of over half a meter (2′).
Unlike his childhood nightstand lamp, it didn’t show the whole world. Only the areas where Lith had been and the places he had visited were depicted.
He focused on the map of the region that was stored inside Soluspedia, recalling the names of cities and rivers, but the globe remained blank.
“So it’s not a matter of knowledge.” His voice was muffled by all the food Solus was stuffing herself with.
“It only matters where we have been. I wonder why. Any idea, Solus?”
“None. Hey, there’s even the academy. Both of them actually. Even the Lightning Griffon academy is marked.” The moment she made Lith’s finger touch the academy, the globe’s surface zoomed in, projecting a 3D hologram, precise down to the last detail.
The hologram was colored in shades of red, giving them a mild headache whenever they focused on a specific room they had visited during their short trip before Headmistress Linnea rejected Lith’s application.
Lith then touched the White Griffon, getting the same result.
“I’m feeling a pattern here.” Lith pondered. “Let’s try the mining town.”
The headache persisted. The holograms representing the known areas nearby the academy were all as red as detailed.
“Okay, now let’s give the Trawn woods a shot.” Lith had never been outside the White Griffon’s forest, since thanks to the Marchioness he had access to the Mage Association’s Warp Steps that brought him directly inside the academy.
He could have chosen the Lightning Griffon’s outskirts, from where he departed along Count Lark, but he clearly remembered how tightly patrolled was the area. So, he picked a closer and much more harmless location.
This time the hologram was blue and the headache was gone. Lith focused on the clearing in the woods where he used to train in the past. When he zoomed to a specific location, the hologram disappeared and Lith felt his attention drawn to the biggest mirror in the room.
It had a silver circular frame and it was so big to occupy most of the west wall. The surface of the mirror rippled and the image of the room it had reflected until a moment ago was replaced by the clearing’s spot Lith had been looking for.
“Could this be…?” Lith pressed his hand against the image, but nothing happened. He could feel the cold glass surface under his fingers.
“Maybe we should send mana into it.” Solus snapped Lith’s fingers, channeling the energy from the mana geyser through the tower and into the mirror. The mana quickly rotated along the frame’s edges, making it emits an orange glow.
The glass then turned into a silvery liquid that was drained by the frame, yet the image in front of Lith’s eyes didn’t change. He was now able to hear the familiar noises of the woods’ wildlife, to feel the chilly breeze blow on his face.
“A personal long distance Warp Steps!” Lith was amazed as much as confused.
He tried several locations he knew, even some very close to Derios, the capital of the Marquisate. They were hundreds of kilometers afar, yet they managed to open them effortlessly, without using a drop of their own mana.
“There are only two problems.” Solus pointed out.
“One, we can only pick deserted places. If someone looks through the Warp Steps, they could see inside the tower and that would get us into trouble. Two, how the heck do we come back? If the tower stays here, either we split or this thing is useless.”
Lith nodded, letting his arm across the dimensional Gate. An unpleasant sensation spread through his body. Both Lith and Solus felt their minds drifting apart, their connection became weaker and weaker, until he pulled his arm back into the tower.
“Guess our condition really is temporary. Probably we’ll revert back to normal as soon as we get outside the tower.”
They were still recovering from the surprise when the walls shook violently, cracking in multiple spots. The tremors were strong enough to make Lith almost lose his balance.
“What the heck was that?”
“Well, this room shouldn’t exist in the first place.” Solus ate a chocolate sprinkled biscuit.
“If for any reason our fusion gets broken, it’s likely everything will collapse on our heads. See?” She pointed at the cracks that were disappearing as quickly as they had formed.
“Okay, so the globe represents all the places we can Warp to. The headache probably means that a place is unavailable, at least at our current level. I prefer not to try forcing our way through the academies’ arrays.
“Not only do we risk getting detected, but we could also spend so much mana to get split. Let’s check the rest of the stuff first.”
“Yeah, too bad we don’t get to understand how we are supposed to return here.”
The second biggest mirror in the room had a gold rectangular frame. It reflected an image that left them both flabbergasted.
Lith had now a second pair of eyes, right above his eyebrows, and was shrouded in a golden aura.
“My aura has always been black and red. I suppose it’s yours, then.” Lith shrugged.
Solus winked at their reflection, making both left eyes close.
“Definitely mine. The question is: what the heck is this for.” Lith injected the mirror with mana, the edges of which started to emit a blue glow. Instead of spinning, this time the mana seeped into the mirror until it emitted a humming sound.
“Okay, let’s try visualizing stuff again.” Lith thought about the White Griffon academy, getting a splitting headache in return. Then it was Derios’ turn, but the result was the same.
“Lutia, then?” The mirror turned black for a second before showing him the village’s square. Lith discovered that he could move his perspective at will, watching and listening like he was actually there in person.
He could move to any place he had been at least once in the past. By looking through a window, he could also enter inside the houses of the villagers. Their talks had no significance to him, so he kept experimenting with the limits of his scrying device.
“This thing sucks!” Lith stamped his foot on the ground.
“I can’t even see the whole village. The range’s too short.”
“For now, at least.” Solus tried to console him, but she didn’t believe her own words either.
