The first thing Lith and Solus did was go back to Lutia. Solus’s physical form was limited to the tower’s premises, but she loved the most rolling over the dew laden grass and feeling the warmth of the rising sun over her wisp form.
After being trapped for months inside her ring, even the most trivial of experiences, like hearing her own voice instead of just her thoughts, gave Solus endless bliss. They would walk around the tower, putting her new limits to the test, and change location the moment she started to feel like a hamster on its wheel.
“Are you sure you don’t want to bring Tista along?” Lith asked.
“Maybe later. Spending time with her made me understand how odd our relationship is in the eyes of a normal person. I’m sure she would ask me what I think about Kamila, but right now I really don’t want to talk about it.” Solus sighed.
“The only thing I want to do is sleep.” Another change which had occurred after she achieved a green mana core, was that now Solus was able to sleep while in her tower form independent of Lith.
In her normal condition, Solus was unable to rest. Her constantly being awake wore down her nerves over time, especially when Lith was asleep or she was forced to isolate herself from the outside world to give him some privacy.
Sleeping alleviated her stress and relieved her depression. While Solus rested, Lith used that time to study some of the tier five spells the Crown had awarded him with and to further experiment with light magic.
After seeing Manohar in action, Lith had realized he was just scratching the surface of light magic. His efforts and relentless practice improved his holograms even further, making them more realistic.
Unfortunately, they remained ethereal. Lith tried to at least add some color to them but without success. He forgemastered many more camellias, roses, orchids, and each one of them had the colors and nuances he remembered from his life on Earth.
‘Why can I achieve with Forgemastering what I’m unable to do without a magical focus?’ He pondered to no end nor improvement.
While his forgemastered creations could be easily infused with other elements, mixing light with other kind of magic that wasn’t darkness made the images crumble. Lith would have liked to forge an enchanted item capable of creating hard light constructs, but he had no idea how its pseudo core should be shaped.
Without something to use as a reference, it was just a waste of time. There were too many variables to hope for a stroke of luck.
Lith tried using more mana while shaping the light element, but it only made his holograms brighter, while adding focus made them more detailed but nothing else.
While Solus slept, he moved the tower back to Kogaluga and searched its ruins far and wide for any magical treasure that Life Vision could reveal now that no undead remained.
“Dammit. Either opening the rift consumed everything precious inside the city, or someone beat me to it centuries ago. This place is useless. The undead here have no soul or life force of their own, they are just extensions of the rift.”
Life Vision showed him that regardless of the source of the will driving the dark energies, it kept replicating itself. All the undead, no matter their starting form or the evolution process they would undergo, were all the same being.
Lith gave his report before going back to the tower and practicing more magic. Once Solus awoke, she felt reborn.
“Do we have plans for tonight?” She asked after noticing the Sun was already down.
“No. I’m open to suggestions.” He replied while patting her wisp form. After they had learned tier five light magic, Lith and Solus had discovered the reason why she was now able to experience physical sensations.
The wisp was only made of light, but the thing that had been growing over time inside of it was life force. Solus’s life force to be precise, and it was something completely different from that of the tower.
They had failed to notice it in the past because both Lith’s Life Vision and Solus’s senses could only distinguish one person’s energy signature from another’s, but failed to notice when the same person had more than one.
Only the tier five Scanner spell was able to do it. Just like Lith had a human and a hybrid life force, Solus had one as a tower and another in her wisp form. Lith was almost certain that, rather than a sphere of light, it was an embryo of the body she had shown right after they had fused for the second time.
They were both eager to test such a theory, but all of their past attempts to master the art of becoming one at will had failed. Solus had also tried to alter the shape and size of the light part of her wisp form, but she had to stop after discovering it was directly connected to her life force.
“Do you mind watching the stars together? I can’t remember the last time we shared a significant moment outside a life or death situation.”
Lith’s replied by Warping them above the tower’s roof, or to be more precise, above the ruins of the second floor. That night the sky was clear, allowing them to enjoy the many bright stars which lit the sky and Mogar’s silvery waning moon.
The chilly breeze made Solus shiver, but compared to the nothingness she usually experienced, even a slightly unpleasant feeling had the allure of novelty.
“Do you think we could ask the undead Courts for help?” She asked while snuggling in his arms. Cold had already lost most of its charm.
“It’s unlikely, at least on our terms. The Undead seem to be a tight-knit community that only play by their own rules. Kalla was accepted so easily only because she is already half undead.” Lith replied.
“We were naïve thinking that they wouldn’t try to exploit my nature of Awakened for their own ends. If not for Inxialot’s presence, they would have surely tried to take me prisoner.
“I don’t want to even think about what they would have done if you came with me. Our best shot is to approach the Council of the Awakened, but only after we understand how rare a magic tower is.
“Worst case scenario, we’ll need to be a lot stronger than we are now. They may not care about me, but I doubt someone like a Lich or a powerful mage would hesitate for a single second to kill me to get their hands on you.”
“There’s another way.” Solus pointed out. “We know that Marchioness Distar has an enchanted item that allows her to hide her core. If we can get our hands on a similar tool, we could develop our own version to shield both of us from detection.
“I’m tired of all those people that would only dissect us like guinea pigs. It’s time to stop reacting and take the initiative.”
“Excellent idea!” Lith nodded. He had almost forgotten about the Marchioness’ enchanted hairpin because it was the only one of its kind they had ever met.
“Our only problem is that I never even heard about something like that. If it’s as precious as I expect it to be, it could be a royal treasure. Stealing it is out of question and so is revealing we know about its powers.
“The former could make us an enemy of the state while the latter would arouse questions we have spent our whole lives avoiding.”
