That plus holding a peerless artifact like the Ears of Menadion in her hands had brought Aalejah this close to having an aneurysm out of joy. She talked so fast that most of what came out of her mouth was gibberish.
Her hands and feet moved restlessly above and below the table, giving the impression she was having the most controlled seizure in Mogar’s history.
“Has any of you ever fought the other? When did it happen? How long did the battle last? Who won? How are you still alive? How does the Ears work? Where did you find it? Was Menadion’s tower really that good?” Questions stormed out of her mouth one after the other, without giving anyone the time to answer.
“I’m sorry for making you wait.” Jirni cleared her throat to announce her presence and put an end to the elf’s verbal deluge. “Am I the last one or are we still waiting for someone?”
The guards helped her to a chair and gave her plenty of refreshments before leaving.
She thanked them both and for once in her life Jirni was honest. Her feet were killing her, sitting and standing up was a hurdle even with her Awakened body, and she was so hungry that she could eat a whole roasted Phoenix.
“I’m the last one.” A baritone voice said from behind, making her turn around. “I couldn’t leave the Forgotten Plume tribe until my replacement arrived. We are about to move to another oasis and with all the valuables of the village packed up on the carriages, it’s the ideal moment for a bandit raid.”
Ilyum Balkor, Blood Magus of the Desert and tribal chief, walked through the curtain separating the War Room from the rest of the palace. He looked around the table, recognizing many familiar faces.
Some he knew, most were strangers, and a few he had only seen in illustrated books as a child. If he was curious or impressed, it was impossible to tell. Balkor gave the Overlord a short bow before taking his place at the table.
‘I don’t know what the stakes are nor do I care.’ He thought. ‘Salaark loves the kid and if I help him, she’ll owe me a favor.’
“Magus Verhen.” Balkor nodded at Lith. “Nice robe.”
“Magus Balkor.” Lith returned the gesture, and noticed that while the Kingdom’s Magus robe was violet with golden finitures, the one the god of death wore was red with silver finitures.
As for Balkor himself, Lith didn’t miss the expanding grey hair and age lines around the eyes that weren’t there during their last encounter.
‘It’s been just two years. A drop in the ocean for an Awakened.’ Lith thought. ‘I guess the rumors about Balkor being forced to give up on his revenge because he has too little life force left to continue are true.’
Knowing that his own life force had suffered some serious damage through the years as well, Lith instinctively looked at his reflection in a silver tray. He searched for any sign that death was catching up with him but found nothing.
“Now, since I’d love to go back home as soon as possible, can someone explain to me why I am here?” Balkor asked.
“Sure.” To not waste time talking, Lith extended an emerald tendril of Spirit Magic that split into four ends in order to bring the newcomers up to speed with a mind link.
Balkor and Aalejah emitted a tendril of their own to connect with Lith’s and avoid direct contact that would allow him to examine their bodies. Much to his surprise, so did Jirni. Only Tezka was forced to wait for the tendril to reach him.
With no way to ask her questions without the others connected by the mind link to hear the answers as well, Lith could only throw a side glance at Quylla and Friya who shrugged in reply.
‘They’ve kept my secrets from their parents for years. I guess it’s only fair our roles are now reversed.’ He thought as the stream of information made Aalejah turn pale, Balkor’s expression turn stern, and had no visible effect on Tezka and Jirni.
“I’m sorry for you, Lith. I really am.” Jirni’s temper flared up, the parallel between Solus’ and Phloria’s fate was too close not to stir the grief with which Jirni was still battling. Especially with a child in her womb.
Yet none of it transpired on the outside as she gave Lith a compassionate motherly look.
“I know better than anyone else how you must feel and that’s why I’m going to help you to the best of my abilities whether you accept my terms or not. I’m not going to let you suffer like I did after I failed to rescue my Little Flower.”
“Thank you, Jirni.” Lith would have been moved by her words, if not for the gut feeling that it was a manipulation attempt coated just with enough empathy to make it look genuine.
“You have a real challenge in front of you, boy.” Balkor said. “This makes my revenge against the Kingdom look like a child’s play. Your opponent is stronger, better equipped, and, unlike me, you can’t take a year to recon and collect data.”
“Not to mention that storming a Fringe is dangerous.” Aalejah’s hands still trembled but not out of excitement anymore. “Gods above and below, even invading the Fringe of a newborn Yggdrasill is suicidal!
“They carry over all the knowledge they had as a World Sapling, their resources, and gain those inherited by all the Yggdrasills who preceded them. There is no way you can challenge the most ancient bloodline legacy on Mogar and come out victorious.
“Sure, there’s only one World Tree, but they have acquired countless other bloodline legacies through the ages. They have a private army of thousands of elves with which they have shared their knowledge.
“You can’t solve this by violence. You need a diplomatic approach.” She tried to drink some water to calm down but ended up spilling most of it.
“Sure. How could I have not thought about that on my own?” Lith’s voice oozed sarcasm. “I can sure bargain with someone who kidnapped my partner and tried to have me killed twice!”
He replayed Strider’s betrayal and then the Chroniclers’ murder attempt with a hologram.
“This doesn’t make sense.” Aalejah wanted to puke. “Why would the Yggdrasill go to such lengths for an omni pocket? There must have been a misunderstanding. I’m sure you can solve everything by talking.”
She had already seen those images during the mind link but the second time hit her as hard as the first. Witnessing her fellow elves dying gruesome deaths made her sick to her stomach but Aalejah had to endure.
She knew Lith as well as she did the new Yggdrasill and judging by the allies he had already assembled, their battle would be bloody.
If Lith won, the World Tree would die and with them an untold number of elves. If the Tree won, instead, Lith’s death would bring the Tiamat bloodline near to extinction and trigger a grudge of untold proportions.
Were something to happen to Baba Yaga, none of her children would rest until she was avenged. The same thing would happen for Valtak, Surtr, and Rethia.
