“Gods, why?” As he raised his hands to the sky in frustration, the spike blades on his arms went back under the bone spikes and then came out from the other side, slightly above the elbow.
“My guess is that your species is supposed to use them to impale anyone dumb enough to charge at you.” Lith pointed out.
“While in your more-human-than-beast form, the knee blades are useless.
“Yet in your other form, you are forced in a half-sitting position to sustain your massive upper body. I suppose the knee blades and tail make up for the impossibility of kicking.”
“Good to know!” Nalrond scoffed. “How do I retract them?”
“Practice. Lots of practice.” Friya patted his back, deciding it was safer to leave him alone until she could take a good look with her breathing technique to his new body.
***
The night went uneventful and by the next morning everyone had recovered and the Agni had gotten the hang of the retractable blades.
Nalrond felt confident enough to use his breathing technique, Firelife, discovering how much his life force had changed. The red bricks and the burning star were gone, replaced by a red flaming humanoid figure.
He had now one life force, neither human nor Emperor Beast. It took him a few tries to get his old appearance back with Body Sculpting.
“I’m sorry, it seems that I’m different from Lith and Tista. My original life essences have become so mixed up that I can’t separate them completely like they do. I can tune one down and focus on the other, but only up to a point.”
“It’s fine. You are still part human and so will I if I become a Harbinger. Right, Faluel?” Friya asked.
“I have no clue.” The Hydra shrugged. “I’ve never met a Harbinger and no one among the Lesser Divine Beast had one. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen to you because there’s no record of it.”
At those words, Friya swallowed a lump of saliva.
‘It’s fine.’ She thought. ‘There’s still over ninety years left before Faluel has to decide whether to make me her Harbinger or kill me. By then, I will have already lived a long and hopefully happy life.’
***
After everyone left the tower to get back to their respective lives, the days passed quiet and uneventful. Elisya kept growing healthy, Kamila was recovering from her depression thanks to her efforts and the help of her family, and Lith was teaching Void Magic again.
Even though he was still perfecting tier four and working on tier five, he found that going over the basics of Void Magic helped his creativity and deepened his understanding.
Teaching it to the kids and Kamila helped, but the six great academies were filled with youths of outstanding talent. Sometimes they asked him a question or proposed an explanation that would help him find a missing piece of the puzzle, improving his research by leaps and bounds.
He and Solus enjoyed their new routine, splitting their time between home and work.
By spending so much time with Elina and Zinya, Kamila had become a great cook. Maybe too much since Lith had found himself eating even when he wasn’t hungry and Solus had gained more weight.
Her diet had barely started when they received two unexpected calls.
The first was from Baba Yaga who had called on behalf on Dawn. The Horseman wanted to know if Nalrond was alright and if her suggestions had been helpful.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I can’t call Nalrond. I don’t want to upset him further nor do I want him to think this is an attempt at reconciliation. As I said, I consider us even.”
“Didn’t Kalla tell you?” Solus asked in puzzlement.
“I don’t talk to a wannabe-Lich and the wannabe-Lich returns the favor.” Dawn replied.
Sooner or later, the news of Friya’s future marriage would be public knowledge and by taking the Ernas name Nalrond was bound to receive a lot of attention. There was no point in hiding the truth.
“I see. Thanks Solus.” Dawn said after a brief and doctored recount of the procedure. “You have my and Acala’s thanks. If you ever need my help again, you only have to ask.”
The Horseman had followed Solus’ advice, using partial mind fusions to share her feelings and thoughts with Acala without burning his brain. It helped him to overcome his doubts about her sincerity and Dawn to understand how deeply her manipulations had hurt him.
“Will do. Bye.” Solus said, ending the call. “Man, that was weird.”
Even weirder was the second call that Lith received the following day.
“I’m contacting you as the current head of the Awakened Council, Verhen. This isn’t a courtesy call.” Raagu Drerian said. “One of our elders has recently been murdered in his own home and we need to bring his killer to justice.”
“Do I know the guy?” Lith asked, receiving a no in reply. “Then why are telling me about this and more importantly, why should I care?”
“You didn’t let me finish.” Raagu replied with a sigh.
She was annoyed by Lith’s attitude, but Lith played no part in the Council political plays and had no pending matters so she had no influence over him. If she wanted a favor, she to ask for it and do it nicely.
“The Council elder’s name was Sherk Limbell and with his 1046 years he was one of the oldest among us. Despite his age, he was a very powerful mage and an even more powerful Forgemaster.
“He was never close to the title of Ruler of the Flames but he was the next best thing for the Kingdom just like the late Lesalia was for the Desert. Now, only the Empire possess one such Forgemasters.”
Raagu hoped that due to the role Lith had played in the death of Lesalia, he would feel guilty and be more malleable.
“Who’s Lesalia?” Lith asked, oblivious of Raagu’s ploy and of the identity of the dead Forgemaster.
“The master of one of the apprentices who attacked you in Zantia.” Solus reminded him via their mind link and Raagu said through the amulet. “The guys who staged the Griever in order to use a Forbidden Array.”
“I still don’t see how this is my problem.” Lith shrugged.
“You don’t understand.” Raagu shook her head. “Limbell’s house was well protected. He spent there most of his time and after living for so long, it was supposed to be impregnable.
“Yet he was killed and his home ransacked. When his heir came back from a mission to fetch the ingredients Limbell had requested, he found his grandfather dead and most of his resources stolen.
“An Awakened is supposed to be invincible in their own house. The death of a single one of us is a red flag but I wouldn’t have contacted you if it was just an isolated accident. More people are dying and precious ingredients are going missing.”
She took a pause to let her words sink. The wounds from the War of the Griffons were too fresh for Lith to forget that the situation at hand was very similar to how Thrud had staged her uprising.
