Kaelan gritted his teeth while inwardly cursing at Manohar's untimely appearance. It had rendered the information he was forced to share due to the Foul Moon ritual useless. Luckily, he had another ace up his sleeve.

"Yes, but the place is heavily protected. You can't go in through the front door..."

"I can see that by myself." Lith cut him short. Life Vision showed him an energy dome around the outpost so strong that it would take hours to destroy it from the outside.

"Let me take another guess. I can get inside by using the Warping array hidden in the old temple of the god of healing."

"Correct again." Kaelan snarled, revealing his fangs in annoyance. "I hope to never see you again."

"Not so fast." Inxialot stopped the vampire in his tracks. "The deal was for information, so far you have provided nothing. Are you saying that you have just wasted my tim… I mean, that you are willing to break a sacred oath?"

The Lich King had been itching to kill someone for hours for dragging him out of his lab. Finally the rules of the competition gave him a reasonable excuse to vent his anger.

"I would never do such a thing!" The vampire rushed to say as his fingers were turning to ashes.

"I can still tell him the name of his enemy!"

"Oh." Despite most of his flesh being gone, the Lich's face still managed to express every bit of disappointment that he was feeling.

"You are going to face Thrud Griffon." Kaelan had a solemn expression while uttering her accursed name.

"Gods, Thrud Griffon! I never thought the day would come that I would hear that name." Inxialot said with a shocked voice.

"Do you know her?" Lith was underwhelmed by the revelation. Griffon was a very common last name.

"Not at all." The Lich replied. "It's just one of the most horrible names I have ever heard"

"Am I free to go?" Kaelan had no idea what Inxialot had done to his hands, but regenerating them caused him a great deal of pain.

Another snap of the Lich's fingers Blinked everyone present back to their respective apartments, even though all three of them were supposed to be warded against dimensional magic.

Kaelan and Sylla were both quaking in their boots, swearing on their undeath to never meddle with the Council of the Awakened again, no matter the reason.

Lith was so pissed off for having gone through all that danger for nothing but a stupid name, that he almost ripped the door of his hotel room off its hinges before taking flight to reach the Mage Association.

'Damn Manohar! One more hour and I could have gotten actually useful information and some rest. I have nothing to offer the Crown except for a name that might well be a pseudonym or just a moniker.' He couldn't delay his return.

The Mad Professor's hologram was perfectly visible even from Othre. Once the Queen learned about it, she might order a full scale attack on the outpost. Lith couldn't let Tista, Jirni, or Kamila go anywhere near the Carpenters' nest.

The array surrounding it would either kill them or slow them long enough to make their contribution to the fight irrelevant. He had never witnessed Manohar's battle prowess and being paranoid, he assumed the worst.

'I can only count on myself. Too bad that right now I'm too weakened to face even one Carpenter on my own. The only silver lining is that with every breath I take I can feel my body healing and my power growing.'

Only when the clerk at the reception of Othre's Mage Association branch refused to let him in did Lith realize that he was still dressed like a dandy.

'The good news is that it was just a spare uniform. The Kingdom will hardly miss it. The even better news is that I kept the clothes without even asking for them.' He and his wallet both inwardly smiled.

Luckily, even a desk clerk of the Association had access to their database. It only took her a few seconds and a call to Dorian to verify his identity.

"Where have you been?" Jirni had the Gatekeeper with her.

"Are you all right?" Kamila threw her arms around him checking for injuries.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Since the others had beaten her to the punch, Tista decided to clear that small mystery while handing Solus and his Skinwalker armor back to him.

Solus had perceived his arrival the moment Lith was back in their mind link's range. She didn't contact him because of the conflicting emotions caused by their separation.

She was happy to see that Lith was fine, yet it also exacerbated her feeling of helplessness. Solus was afraid that she would discover that Lith hadn't missed her as much as she did him. Afraid that he had no use for her anymore, inside or outside the battlefield.

During the last few hours, Solus had been surrounded by people, yet had never felt so alone. While others could speak, hold hands in search of comfort, or just take a walk to calm their nerves, she had been stuck in Tista's hand.

Comparing her life with that of others made Solus scream and cry, yet no one could notice.

'I finally understand what Lith means when he says he is a shadow in a world of lights. We are both too different from normal people. Gods, I wish we could leave Othre and find a mana geyser.

'I don't care if it's just my wisp form, I want to move around, hear my voice without using magic, feel the touch of another person. I want to be normal.' She sobbed. Without Lith, Mogar looked brighter, but it only made her feel worse.

It was a cold light that emphasized everything she never had despite having it just a few centimeters from her. Having the objects of her desires so close and yet being unable to reach them was just torture.

The moment Solus's ring slipped onto Lith's finger, their experiences flooded into each other's mind. Lith had willingly shared his memories to bring her up to speed, whereas Solus was so overcome with grief that she forgot to hide her feelings.

'What's this bullshit about you being useless?' Lith gave her the telepathic equivalent of a hug. 'Have you seen what happened to me? How much I missed you? How much I needed you? Not for your abilities, but for who you are. This life is mine as much as yours, I…'

Their mind link was fast, but it still took time. Seeing Lith in a daze, his companions repeated their questions with a worried expression.

'Dammit, I promise you that as soon as we are done here we'll find a mana geyser even if I have to delay finishing my rounds.' He thought before focusing on the outside world.

"Please, I'm dead tired." Lith raised his hands to ask them to let him talk.

"I know that Professor Manohar is in danger but I need to sit down for a second and tell you what I learned while dealing with the Dawn Court."

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