“Without my plan, the monsters would have attacked us on sight. They had no reason to trust a bunch of strangers and would have tried to kill us to keep Zelex’s position hidden. There would have been no dialogue because they would have refused to listen.
“You may not like my methods, but you can’t argue with my results.”
Kamila opened her mouth to talk, but nothing came out.
She was aware of how many people the monsters had killed during the raids. That their corpses would be eaten like cattle that very night, without leaving anything behind for the families to bury and denying them closure.
As a Constable, she knew that letting the monsters go out of pity would have been an act of treason that would cost even more lives in the future. That the Undead Courts couldn’t be allowed to get their hands on the Harmonizers.
The most important cities of the Kingdom were built upon mana geysers, making them easy prey to the undead once the artifact made their blood cores perfect.
She knew all that yet her heart ached anyway for the hapless creatures that Lith had slaughtered in order to turn the survivors into pawns that would take their place on his board willingly.
Lith and Kamila remained silent for several minutes while she raked her brain for a different, humane way to start the negotiations with the monsters. Yet like the others before her, she found none.
Every possible scenario she could think of ended up the same way: with the complete extermination of the children of Glemos.
The only differences between the various outcomes were the number of casualties among the human cities and whether or not once cornered the monsters decided to trigger Zelex’s self-destruction arrays.
Without Lith’s ruse to gain Syrah’s trust, the Tyrant’s bloodline legacy would have been lost forever and Garrik would have probably starved to death while waiting for his mother to return.
No one would have rescued him simply because no one would have known of his existence.
“You are right, this is exactly like the mission with the warg in Maekosh but this time, you found a solution.” Kamila said after a while, her lips slowly curling up in a thin smile.
“You have indeed changed, and I’m proud to see how much. You’ve gone a long way from the broken man who landed on Mogar and wasn’t capable of forgetting about his brother’s death.
“I’m glad to see how you haven’t let your new wounds fester, learning from them and finding a way to keep the warg massacre from happening again.
“The fact that you empathize so much with Morok’s feelings for Garrik proves that you’re not avenging Carl’s death anymore. You are honoring his life. Yet…” She fell silent, afraid that speaking the next words would make them true.
“Yet what?” Lith asked.
“Yet you can’t deny that after seeing the pain and misery of Zelex’s people, you didn’t feel compassion for them, you only saw a weakness to exploit. You fell into your old habits to find your answer and became that broken man again.
“Even now, your lack of remorse makes me worry that one day you’ll plunge so deep into the abyss that even if you come back to me alive, the person I love will be dead anyway.” She caressed his face, her eyes full of worry.
“Don’t worry, I haven’t fallen back.” He grabbed her hand, holding it tenderly. “I feel the weight of the lives I’ve taken and I understand the consequences of my actions. That’s why I’m telling you all these things.
“I need you to ground me and remind me that I don’t fight because I hate those in front of me anymore. I fight because I love those who stand behind me and it’s for them that I’m willing to take such a burden.
“To me, this is no different from back when I had to hurt civilians during the War of the Griffons in my failed attempt to save Phloria’s life. It’s not something that I regret, but I didn’t take those lives lightly either.”
Kamila nodded, remembering how the death of their friend had almost crushed Lith with grief and guilt. The pain from Phloria’s loss and the realization of having killed hundreds, if not thousands, for nothing, were a burden that he was still carrying.
A burden that Kamila was doing everything she could to help him deal with. She knew that a war was a bloody business and that only a fool would think that what the chronicles depicted as heroic acts weren’t actually bloody battles.
To her, those deaths were justified because the fallen were enemies and because Lith had fought to rescue a precious friend from the torture of Arthan’s slave array. Killing the children of Glemos, instead, had felt plain cruel.
Sure, they had gone on a murder spree during the raids, but after listening to their story they looked like ignorant child soldiers who fought only because they didn’t know what else to do to not starve.
“I believe you. Thank you for telling me the truth and for opening up to me. If there’s anything I can do to help you, you just have to ask.” Kamila kissed his hand.
“There is one thing.” Lith sighed, his gaze wandering around the room over the items they had already prepared for Elysia in order to find the strength he needed. “I don’t know how things might get if the monsters have seen through our ruse.
“Even if they didn’t, there’s no guarantee that the negotiations won’t break down and at that point, we’d be forced to slaughter everyone to keep the Undead Courts from getting their hands on the Harmonizers.
“If it comes to that, Syrah might choose death and trigger the self-destruct mechanism in order to take down with her as many enemies as she can.”
“So what do you want me to do?” Kamila asked. “To come with you guys to exploit the Guardians’ protection? Or to speak to Syrah from one mother to another?”
“The Guardians won’t let you come and even if they did, they would just protect you.” Lith shook his head. “They made it clear multiple times that you are not a weapon. They won’t let you put Elysia in danger on purpose to exploit their vow.
“Also, if a talk between mothers was enough, I think Faluel has a bit more experience than you.” He chuckled. “I want to ask your permission to reveal to Morok about the tower’s existence.”
“Why would you do that right now and why do you need my permission?” Kamila tilted her head in confusion.
“Because this way he can signal Ryla to bring Garrik out and then I can Warp everyone to another geyser safely in case things go south.” Lith replied. “The tower is the only hope Garrik has of achieving a perfect life force.
“If he steps away from a mana geyser even for one minute, everything Ryla has done so far, every one of her sacrifices will be for naught. The space compression array doesn’t work on the tower because its Warp is akin to fusion magic.”
