“Hey, Faluel. Is everything alright?” It was a weird hour for a call and he hadn’t heard from the Hydra since before his departure to Jiera.
“Hi, Lith. I’m fine, thank you. Just a bit annoyed with a friend of mine who disappears for long periods of time and never calls unless he wants something.” She replied with a playful tone.
“I’m sorry.” Lith sighed.
Isolating himself was an old bad habit of his that resurfaced every time he was engrossed in his work which happened very often.
“You’d better be.” The Hydra grunted. “You could have at least called me to tell me about the fight with the lost city and that everyone was alright. Instead, I had to find out from the interlink first and then get the details from Friya’s report.”
“I know, but with everything that happened, it slipped my mind.” Lith said. “Until the Warp Gate was finished, I was involved with the treaties between the merfolk and Grandma to create new cities in her Desert.
“Also, with the excuse to act as liaison with the local Awakened Council along with Raagu, I have spent most of my free time scouring their archives for hints about the Ears of Menadion.”
“It’s a nice excuse, but still an excuse.” Faluel nodded. “That said, do you have plans for tomorrow? I have something I want to show you.”
“I’m free tomorrow.” Lith replied.
“Perfect. Come to my lair first thing in the morning. See you. Faluel out.”
Lith put the amulet into his pocket and went back inside the room. Kamila and Solus were reading the story of the Ugly Sparrow, a bad-looking bird that turned out to be a mighty Phoenix and became the ruler of the forest.
‘This is not one of mine. I wonder if Grandma wrote it or if it’s just based on her.’ Lith thought.
The two women alternated reading, making the back and forth between the characters more vivid.
“Mind if I join?” He asked.
“Not at all.” Kamila moved to make space for him. “There are lots of birds in this story and I’m running out of voices. By the way, have you noticed that the only friend of our ugly sparrow is a finch? Coincidence?”
“I think not!” Lith and Solus replied in unison, making the three of them burst into a laughter at the inside joke from his memories.
***
The following day, Lith and Solus left the babies at home with Kamila and went to visit the Hydra.
The Beast Ruler of the Distar Marquisate had her home built inside the Black Scar, one of the rare mountains in the south of the Griffon Kingdom which took its name from the obsidian covering most of its rocky surface.
The volcano had been active until Fyrwal, Faluel’s mother had moved there. After becoming one of the four founding pillars of the Kingdom, the Hydra had grown weary of the intrigues of the Court and sought the solitude of her secret lab in the Black Scar.
She had diverted the magma flow of the mountain’s fiery core to form a pool that fueled her Forgemastering experiments and played a key role in smelting and purifying magical metals.
The mountain also had a steaming hot spring that along with the warm climate of the south made it the perfect place to live for creatures like the Hydras who were weak to cold.
After Valeron’s death, Fyrwal had no ties left with the Kingdom and gave her residence to Faluel as a coming-of-age gift.
Upon reaching the Hydra’s lair, the stone walls opened, letting Lith and Solus in and revealing an enormous cave decorated with enough riches to put even the most ancient noble households to shame.
Piles of gold and precious gemstones were mixed with small mounds of magic crystals. The more precious a pile, the nearer to Faluel’s living quarters it was.
The artifacts she had collected and Forgemastered over the centuries, instead, were carefully stored inside several crystal cases only she could open.
They formed the walls separating the different rooms of the lair, serving both as a testament to her guests of their host’s skills and a silent warning of what she could unleash upon them if provoked.
“Man, if it’s hot in here.” Lith looked at the metal tubes running from the hot spring that covered the inside of the mountain’s walls.
A complex system of arrays and magical stones spread and amplified the heat carried by the pipes, allowing the Hydra to regulate the temperature and humidity of her lair at will.
Ever since Lith had realized the air conditioning system for her as a thank you for saving Rena’s son, Falco, from the Strangler disease, Faluel had used only two settings.
Scorching summer day for when she was alone and warm summer day for when she had guests.
“Thank you, but I’m not interested in a married man.” Faluel said with a chuckle while she lowered the temperature.
She was in her human form, resembling a young woman in her mid-twenties, about 1.7 meters (5’7″) tall. Her face had an oval shape, with rainbow-colored eyes and long hair that framed her fine features.
She was wearing a short-sleeved red shirt and what Lith could swear was a jeans overall.
“Very funny, but before I forget about this for the umpteenth time, where did you get that cloth?” Lith asked.
“This?” She waved at her overall. “It’s just cotton woven according to an old Hydra tradition to make it more durable.”
“Can you teach me how to do it?” Lith felt a pang of nostalgia from his life on Earth whenever he saw Faluel wearing clothes like that.
“Sure, but if you sell it and it becomes a hit, I demand a huge cut. Now, to business.” A snap of her fingers Warped them away from her lair and to a much bigger place.
The ceiling was over 40 meters (132′) high, with no inner walls and so packed with lesser Dragons that Lith couldn’t see the confines of what he could only assume be an underground cave.
Seven-headed Hydras stomped left and right as they moved, their heads talking with other Hydras as much as between themselves. Pillars of light were visible at regular intervals that were formed by a series of arrays stacked together.
The distance between the different sets of magical formations ensured that the spells didn’t interact between themselves and that each pillar received enough world energy without hindering those nearby.
“What is this place?” Solus asked, feeling small and insignificant.
She could perceive with mana sense that every one of those present had a bright violet mana core and was at least 20 meters (66′) tall. Some, like Fyrwal, reached over 25 (82′) meters of height, something in-between a Lesser and a Divine Beast.
Anyone who surpassed the 20 meters was considered an individual blessed with a thicker amount of Guardian blood than average. To give credit to this belief there was the fact that such people were often also gifted with great talent.
Their towering bodies and overflowing mana cores were no different from those of the Dragons and the Phoenixes that Solus was used to hang around with.
