“No, but it means that this is not a good moment to talk. He’s gone rogue. I need to establish a safe zone. I’ll call you back as soon as I can.” Lith replied.
‘Way ahead of you.’ Solus opened a Warp Steps leading to the nearest mana geyser. She took her tower form and activated all the cloaking and defensive mechanisms at her disposal.
Only after Lith was inside the tower and they were ready to tower Warp at a moment’s notice did he contact Kamila. Meanwhile, his words had shaken the control room and Commander Berion had ordered to pinpoint the traitorous Ranger.
“I’m sorry, sir. Ranger Acala is out of range. I can’t provide you with nothing but general information.” The young lieutenant Guyles had his mouth as dry as the desert.
A Ranger going rogue was hardly their handler’s fault, but depending on the gravity of the betrayal and the bad news he brought, Guyles was afraid the high command would demand someone to take the blame.
He was likely to be the prime candidate.
“What do you mean, out of range? Even if he crossed the borders, we can still locate one of our amulets inside the Empire or the Blood Desert.” Berion hated incompetence.
In his book, a handler was more than a paper pusher issuing orders from above. Their duty was to bond with their operative enough to provide them psychological support and catch wind of anything wrong with them.
“His log moves him from above the Snake Tongue mountains straight to Jiera.” Guyles said, making the entire control room become silent.
When Lith called, Berion took charge and demanded a full report. Lith had shapeshifted the tower so that the space around him looked like an underground cave. Seeing him holed up made Berion change Kamila’s request for a rescue team into a Spellbreaker unit.
Lith explained all that had happened since the last contact, lying solely about the ending. In his version of the story, he and Nalrond had run away in different directions after dealing a seemingly lethal blow to Dawn’s host.
At the first mention of the Bright Day, Berion ordered Lith to stop talking and moved the conversation to his personal office, bringing only Kamila with him. As Lith’s handler, she had to be aware of the contingency measures the army would prepare in the case the two met again.
“If several spawns are still alive why did you say that the threat has been dealt with?” Berion asked.
Lith cursed his bad luck, racking his brain for a believable lie. In the original version of the story he had prepared, Acala’s death had left Dawn weakened and forced her to reabsorb her minions, giving Lith and Nalrond the opportunity to escape.
Now, however, the only way Lith found to avoid his lies from being exposed was by adding another piece of truth to the mix.
“Because according to Nalrond, it takes time for the cursed object known as the Bright Day to choose and adapt to a new host. I assumed that after losing Acala and being her plan exposed, she would retreat along with what’s left of her undead force.
“Now I’m not so sure anymore.” He said.
“Don’t worry about it. The two of you must have taught the Horseman of Dawn quite a lesson if it ran off to Jiera.” Berion laughed merrily while thinking about the big promotion that he would surely be awarded with.
The appearance of the Bright Day was just another piece of bad news for the Griffon Kingdom, but it meant the world to him. It was only thanks to him ordering the two Rangers to work together that Dawn’s plan had been foiled.
While the upper echelons of the army led by General Meron Griffon wanted to remove Lith from duty after the events of Kulah, it had been Berion who had vetoed the adoption of any disciplinary measure against Lith.
That, plus the discovery of a new Odi ruin was bound to make Berion into a one-star general, maybe even two-star.
After finishing his report and reassuring Kamila about his well-being, Lith called Faluel to inform her of Dawn’s presence in the Kingdom. Lith couldn’t risk Acala catching her unprepared in the case the Bright Day decided to settle their score.
Dawn knew who he was and about Solus’s existence. Cursed objects seemed to consider her a traitor so in Lith’s mind, messing with his family was a twofer for the Horseman.
“I’m glad to hear you are alright, kid. I was going to save the bad news for later, but we need to talk.” The seven heads of the Hydra were focused on the amulet, which meant that the matter at hand was serious.
“Now might be impossible.” Lith pointed at his uniform.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing urgent. Your presence in the army will actually prevent most from bothering you, but I want you to be prepared. The moment when you’re not a Ranger anymore, before you become my disciple, you’ll be at your weakest.
“No one will have your back. Also, having a Horseman after you can change your life in a bad way. Come visit me as soon as you can. Not even this channel is safe.” She said.
“Wait. Is it because of Dawn, of the human Council, or because of the Awakened undead who backed Erlik?” Lith asked.
“Yes. Don’t worry about Nalrond. I’ll give Protector a hand with his accommodation.” Faluel ended the call while Lith was still showing off his extensive vocabulary of swear words.
“Frigging smartass! I wonder what else can go wrong.” Lith moved out and waited for the Spellbreaker unit. Everything was like he had left it, the makeshift Warp Gate, Dawn’s machinery with her prism still attached, and even the underground lab comprised of her light constructs.
The ancient Odi machine was the only thing still intact in there, whereas several books had been destroyed or damaged during the fight. It was a blessing in disguise for Lith, because no one noticed those he had taken and assumed they had been destroyed as well.
The only sour note was a message attached to the white prism, bearing a kiss mark and the words:
“Hope to see you soon, sister.”
Not even a blind, deaf, and dumb person could mistake Lith for a woman and the army was aware of the friendly competition between Baba Yaga’s children, so everyone just assumed that the Black Night was involved as well.
The result was the Kingdom raising the defense readiness condition for the Kellar region to the highest level and making Lith’s feat appear even more outstanding. Yet he knew that the message was addressed to Solus.
Whatever Dawn was planning, clearly it wasn’t over between the two sentient artifacts.
***
Dusk Court, right after the news about Acala’s betrayal spread.
The Red Sun, also known as the Horseman of Dusk and the Hushed King of the Dusk Court, wasn’t pleased by the current situation of the Garlen continent. He had only a few sources left in the royal army and he wasn’t going to put them to risk just to read about such a trifle matter like Dawn’s defeat.
Most of his information came from both the Royal and Undead Court gossip and from the bards’ tales that were sung annoyingly often during social events. If the corpse he inhabited had even a single vein still working left, it would have popped.
