"I missed you more, Solus. I'm sorry, but I needed and I still need to be alone. You can't ask me to forget about the loss of Lark and Mirim in a few days. Let alone a three years long relationship with a woman I might have married." Lith caressed and kissed the top of her head while sighing deeply.

"But, you never cut me out of your life like this before." She replied, hugging him more tightly.

"That's because you never had a body before. I need to sort out my feelings, not to make them even messier. We are both lonely and our emotional feedback is akin to my drinking alcohol with Faluel.

"I don't want to do something that we would both regret later." Lith said.

Solus had actually a lot to say, but she understood his feelings and respected his wishes.

"Okay. We have experienced only three breathing techniques for long enough to allow me to study them." She conjured three different body holograms to aid her explanation, but she didn't release him from her embrace, sitting on his lap instead.

"The first is Scarlett's Aura. From what I could perceive while she interrogated us, Scarlett is able to mix Spirit Magic with the world energy so that when she floods her target's body with it, she can do the next best thing to mind reading.

"The world energy allows her to get so deep in your head that when you answer a question she knows when you're lying. Also, by seeping deep inside the brain, Aura allows her to obtain an effect similar to the Soul Projection."

"Fascinating. What more?" Lith nodded.

"The second is Faluel's Lifestream which also is the technique we have experienced so many times that I know it best. Unlike Aura, Lifestream is more focused on the body than the mind, allowing Faluel to almost hijack the mana flow of others.

"She has demonstrated to be capable of not only manipulating someone's body akin to Body Sculpting, but also of making mana cores, flows, and even impurities visible to the naked eye." She said.

"If I managed to do the same, I could pass my breathing technique off as a spell and become the best healer in the Kingdom. Not even Manohar could compete with me then." Lith said.

"Yeah, and as the new god of healing, you would have to take his place. I'm sure Manohar would love it." Solus chuckled.

"The third one is Malyshka's Sun and Moon. Even though she used it on you for several minutes, I didn't get much. Based on her words, however, I'm betting that it's better than Aura and Lifestream combined."

"Well, Scarlett and even the Hydra bloodline are newborns compared to Baba Yaga. Her breathing technique must be capable of doing everything that any other technique can. What about our Invigoration?" Lith asked.

"It's the basic of the basics. If breathing techniques were houses, Invigoration would be a natural cave. If they were paintings, it would be a stick man. If-"

"I get it, Invigoration sucks! Now get to the point." He angrily cut Solus short, yet she chuckled as if he had made a funny joke.

"Faluel didn't exaggerate when she said that the deep violet is the best moment to start working on a better breathing technique." She replied. "At bright blue one has to compensate for the faulty vortexes and at violet, it would be too late.

"Invigoration just allows you to draw in the world energy, moving it throughout your body and into your core, but it doesn't make use of the auxiliary cores nor does it nurture them.

"First, we need to devise a way to make mana and auxiliary cores work together. That way, we'd draw in much more world energy with each breath and it would nurture all of them at the same time." Solus said.

"Agreed. If my hypothesis is correct, then obtaining the violet core is possible solely when the auxiliary cores divert the excess energy, creating a network that distributes the mana flow evenly without overloading the core like it happened to Quylla.

"To grow past the deep violet, not only the mana core, but also the auxiliary cores must grow in power and increase their mana capacity. Only after we find a way to refine all of my cores at the same time can we worry about developing breathing skills." Lith said.

"One more thing." Solus really enjoyed the physical contact now that she didn't feel guilty about it anymore. Lith was still heartbroken from the end of his relationship, but he was single nonetheless.

"Don't forget that we can practice the first step on our own, but to develop any breathing skill we need a test subject since you can already read my mind, and achieving Lifestream's effects on yourself is something that even Invigoration can do."

"We'll worry about that later. First things first." Lith pushed Solus gently away and sat cross-legged on the floor.

Then, he started to use the rhythm of Invigoration as he breathed, modifying it in the attempt to involve the auxiliary cores in the process.

Solus sighed and followed his lead. She had reached the cyan core for a while and thanks to their bond, she was capable of using her own breathing technique to affect Lith's body.

It allowed both of them to search for a way to make Accumulation also affect the auxiliary cores without interfering with each other's experiments.

***

Days of training turned into weeks and finally Lith's birthday arrived along with the start of winter. A thin layer of snow covered the fields outside the Verhen household when Elina burst Lith's door open.

"Happy 19th birthday, dear!" Elina threw her arms at his neck while he was already conjuring several spells and activating the house's arrays.

"Mom! What if I was naked? What if I wasn't alone? Knock before entering dammit!" Lith could hear his heart pounding so hard that he feared it would jump out of his chest.

"First, I've seen you naked countless of times…"

"As a baby!"

"Second, I wish!" Elina sighed, seeing only one side of the bed unmade as if it was still waiting for Kamila. "Sorry, dear, I just wanted to be the first to wish you a happy birthday before that annoying amulet beats me to the punch."

"Thanks, Mom." Lith hugged her, enjoying the warmth and the affection of her embrace before all hell broke loose.

"Happy birthday, Lith!" The rest of the family quickly followed and Solus was with them.

Now that her existence wasn't a mystery anymore, she had moved to Tista's room to avoid unpleasant misunderstandings. When her turn to congratulate him arrived, she slipped on his finger to regain the energy she had lost during their separation before their guests arrived.

Lith had been forced to spend the whole day at home with no hope of escape. Solus wouldn't move from there and Faluel was the guest of honor, leaving him no place where he could practice magic.

Lith had barely the time for a quick shower and breakfast before his contact amulet started to blink non-stop. The Royals asked him about his well-being and if he liked how the building of the Verhen Mansion progressed.

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