'Enough with this please.' Solus felt on the verge of tears. 'I've dreamed about meeting your family for years and if they were to treat me as aunt Loka did to you, I don't know if I could take it.

'Right now, the only thing I want is to split up and get some personal space. This situation is too awkward.' Solus studied her image in the mirror, wondering why she looked so similar to Lith's hybrid form yet so different.

'Awkward how? If that was true, our fusion would've already broken.' Lith said.

'Our emotions are tangled up in what I can only describe as a warm embrace. I can't get angry because you calm me down. I can't cry for what just happened because you make me happy. Yet it also feels akin to standing completely bare in front of you in both mind and body.' Solus replied.

'Same here.' Lith replied. He didn't feel like plotting contingency plans against Silverwing while being outraged from the umpteenth undeserved bump in his path because all he felt was peace. 'Do you want me to take out the big guns?'

'Yes, please.'

Lith took out his communication amulet and stared at Kamila's rune. Their vision blurred for a second and then they found themselves back into their respective body.

"Wait. First I want to check your life force and I want you to tell me how I look." Solus grabbed his hand to delay the call.

"I'm sorry. Maybe it's because we've got access only to a fraction of the mana geyser, but you're no different than usual." Lith shared his vision with her and all Solus could see was a face made of light.

"Well, at least I've got good news." Invigoration showed them that Lith's life forces had returned to their peak condition.

The cracks in the human side were exactly as they remembered them while the Abomination and Beast side seemed to have further merged, becoming more stable.

"It seems that just like it happens for our cores, becoming one enhances our life forces as well." Solus said.

"I may not look different, but I feel different. I think that the excess light energy that still bloated your Abomination side has been absorbed by the tower, enhancing my recovery."

Lith nodded and pressed the rune, anxious to understand how much of what he was still feeling was Solus and how much depended on himself. It was the middle of the night in Jiera and almost noon for Kamila.

She was swamped in reports that she had to read while cross-referencing suspicious activities with Archmage Deirus's known associates, in the hope of bringing him down once and for all.

Alas, Jirni seemed to have finally found a match for her skill. Deirus lacked her cunning and ingenuity, but he made up for it with long preparations and obsession. Jirni worked as an Archon, making Deirus just one of her cases whereas the Archmage poured his full focus on her.

"That bastard wasn't just bragging when he told me I wouldn't find anything against him. I've looked into his affairs back to when Yurial was still alive and I've yet to find anything incriminating." Jirni said to Kamila, treating the Royal Guards standing in the room with them as if they were statues.

"He's even obeying the Royal decree that orders him to cut ties with his associates until further notice, but this might actually work against him. Remember, when you can't touch a tree's bark nor its roots, you can still scorch the earth around it."

She referred to a Royal Constable's tactic to ignore their real target and investigate their business partners instead. People like Deirus were thorough and meticulous, but the same couldn't be said for his retainers.

Best case scenario, Jirni would find proof of their wrongdoings and force them to give her whatever evidence they held against Deirus to keep him from using them as scapegoats in the case things went south.

Worst case scenario, she would erode the foundations of his political power and deprive Deirus of his most loyal allies. Despite all of his magic, even an Archmage was just one man.

Her plan was to drive him into a corner and force him to do something stupid.

Jirni's eyes carefully studied the footnotes of the latest batch of documents she had confiscated while her hands marked any inconsistency that she found yet her mind pictured only the moment she would get her hands on Deirus.

She could almost smell and taste his blood gushing out of a broken body.

Almost.

Kamila's amulet broke both Jirni's daydream and focus, yet she didn't mind because she recognized the rune blinking on its surface.

"It's about time. I want to talk with him once you're done." Jirni had no idea Phloria was on the other side of the ocean so not hearing from her in the last few days had made her fear the worse.

"Is it a problem if I take a break? This might take a while." Kamila knew all about their trip and she was worried sick.

"Take all the time you need because I'll do the same." Jirni replied

'I don't really believe the "out of sight, out of mind" saying, but the fact that Lith is living with his ex while surrounded by gorgeous looking Emperor Beasts is driving me crazy. Also, I need to tell him about what happened during his absence.'

Kamila thought while a Royal Guard accompanied her to a secure room where she could have some privacy.

Meanwhile, Jirni called Professor Vastor, hoping to finally manage to get in touch with him. She didn't know about him being the Master nor the reason behind his prolonged absence.

'Manohar is a fickle ally at best whereas ever since Deirus started to mess with Phloria's life, Zogar has been her staunch defender. Without him, the White Griffon would have never picked our side in the Court.' She thought.

"Archon Ernas, it's nice to see you again." Vastor replied, putting Jirni's poker face to the test.

His hologram was exactly as she remembered it, that of a short man in his mid-sixties barely over 1.55 meters (5'1") tall. The top of his head was completely bald while the hair he had left on the sides was snow-white and so were his waxed handlebar mustaches.

After becoming interim Headmaster, he had slimmed down enough to not look like an egg anymore, but his physique together with his pure white robe, made him still resemble a real-life Humpty Dumpty.

If Humpty Dumpty had suddenly turned from the character of a nursery rhyme to that of a horror story.

Jirni knew that behind Vastor's well-fed appearance hid one of the most well-kept secrets of the Kingdom and the only Highmaster of their generation, yet she had a hard time recognizing her ally.

Even through the hologram, his figure exuded a power that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. On top of that, everything from his posture to the light behind his eyes didn't match how she remembered him.

There was no trace of his smoldering rage nor of his inferiority complex towards his colleagues. Vastor was dejected no more, brimming with self-confidence and moving with a vitality that not even Rejuvenation magic could grant.