“Allow me to enlighten you.” Kamila replied while shedding literal light on the situation.
As Lith looked around, he found himself in an unknown bedroom whose walls and ceiling were comprised of an unknown type of wood. Lith used Life Vision and every centimeter of the room lit up to his mystical senses like a small sun.
“Where-” Many questions popped into his mind as he gazed upon scores after scores of unknown magical runes but all of them were silenced by the sheer awe of the marvel lying right below him.
Kamila was bare-chested and based on the reddened area at which Lith was staring, he had slept with his head between her breasts and his face was just a few centimeters away.
“Tits make you happy and after everything you’ve gone through, I thought you could use a bit of happiness.” Kamila took his stunned silence as a compliment and gently caressed his hair. “Was I wrong in my assumption?”
Lith would have liked to deny such allegations about his preferences but even a consummate liar like him would have found it impossible to come up with a believable retort.
“No, you are damn right.” He buried his head back into her softness and checked that everything about it was as he remembered. “Can we make a habit out of this?”
“Again? Sure.” She moaned. “Often? Unlikely. You are heavy, you know? Setting up the array so that you wouldn’t squash me like a bug required quite some effort and with my bright yellow mana core I’m not much of a mage.”
“I can set permanent arrays that would just take the flip of your shirt, I mean, of a switch.” Lith knew he had no time to waste but he was still very tired, and coming back from death had left a stifling coldness in his soul that Kamila’s warmth was slowly thawing.
“Fine by me, but you have to earn it.” She gently grabbed his face, lifting it up and forcing him to look her in the eyes. “You can start by answering my question. I’m still waiting.”
“No, I’ve never done anything like this with Solus.” He replied. “To be honest, I wasn’t even aware I was doing it with you until a moment ago.”
“Then why did you call her name?” Kamila didn’t feel like letting go of the matter. Her husband calling another woman’s name in their bed was a huge red flag. “Did you get another flash of the moment when Strider decapitated you?”
“No. Do you remember the song I dedicated to Solus years ago?” Lith asked.
“The Tumbling Stones’ one? Sure.” She nodded.
“I just woke up after listening to it on repeat for Newton knows how long so I thought about her by instinct.”
“It’s weird.” Kamila said.
‘But believable.’ She inwardly added. ‘With their bond broken and all the trauma from his days as Derek McCoy, there’s no telling what’s going on in his mind. I’ll cut him some slack. This time.’
“I know.” Lith shrugged. “I wonder what it means. By the way, where are Elysia and Valeron?”
Between his daze first and bliss after, it took his brain quite some time to notice they were sleeping alone for the first time after their last date night.
“With Elina and Raaz.” Kamila let him go back to rest between her arms. “You have no idea how hard it was to take them away from you. We had to wait until they bawled their eyes out and fell asleep from exhaustion.”
“Thank you. I can use a bit of alone time with you.” Lith sighed. “I bet that if Elysia was here, the mere sight of your chest would make her cry for food and I’m not in the mood to share.”
His stomach growled like a lion, demanding its due after days of a strict diet of mana and life force. Just the idea of a hot meal made Lith’s mouth water.
“Speaking of food, does this establishment offer room service as well? I’m hungry.”
“Again?” Kamila said in amazement. “Gods, you eat more often than the children.”
“What do you mean, again? Did you force-feed me in my sleep?”
“Of course.” She nodded. “You have the body of a Divine Beast and suffered many deep wounds. Quylla used her Injection spell to flood you with nutrient potions but they were all for humans.”
Kamila kissed his forehead and held him tight, feeling his breath on her skin to make sure he was really back and it wasn’t just a dream.
“It’s the reason we came to the Desert.”
“This is the Desert?” Lith sniffed the air, smelling none of the familiar scents of Salaark’s domain.
“Yes and no.” Kamila replied. “This is Baba Yaga’s hut. She has relocated to the Desert with us because, without your tower, this was the quickest way to help you regain your strength.”
Those words struck Lith like a punch to the gut. His bond with Solus had been broken days ago, but to him, it had just happened. Until that moment, he had been in a coma and the amnesiac Void controlling his body had no idea what he had lost.
Lith looked in the corner of his mind where Solus’s light usually was, finding it empty. He felt akin to waking up after an accident and discovering that one of his limbs had been amputated.
He closed his eyes, calling upon Solus like he had done countless times in the past. He could almost see her and hear her answer where the melody had resounded until a few minutes ago but it was just an illusion.
Lith’s mind struggled to accept the loss, the silence deafening. He then tried to access his pocket dimension and the realization he had lost everything he had accumulated in the past sixteen years made him feel naked.
“Solus is gone. She’s really gone.” He closed his eyes, suppressing the desire to scream and punch a hole in the wall. “I’ve lost my best friend, my tower, and everything I’ve worked on my entire life.”
“I know.” Kamila kept stroking his hair. “That’s why you need a break. Even if you get your strength and mana back, it would be pointless if your mind is in the gutter. You need to relax and calm down if you want to come up with a solid plan to rescue Solus.”
Between her gentle touch, soothing voice, and ample bosom surrounding him, Lith’s negative thoughts were washed away like dust under a heavy rain.
“Thank you.” Lith held her tight. “Thank you for rescuing me. For putting me first despite everything you must have gone through during my absence. Thank you for thinking about Solus even in a moment like this.”
He raised his eyes meeting Kamila’s loving gaze.
“Or should I be jealous?” He said with a straight face.
“Always.” She giggled. “Neglect me and you’ll become my side piece. I’m also married to Solus, remember?”
“Yeah.” It was supposed to be a running joke between the three of them, but Lith didn’t like it one bit when he was the butt of the joke. “Is there any bad news I should aware of?”
