Kamila didn't like to act behind her husband's back but she knew how much Lith was still hurting from the end of the war.
Jormun the Emerald Dragon had entrusted his son to Lith, but he could barely stand the presence of the child for a few minutes before the images of Phloria's death flashed in front of his eyes.
"Don't be silly." Salaark pinched Kamila's cheek. "I can use some help and so do you. It takes two to make a child and a village to raise him."
Valeron the Second was upset by the sudden change of his environment and started shapeshifting from his human to his Bahamut form non-stop. As she always did during her visits, Kamila shapeshifted her hands and cheeks, covering them in black scales.
The moment they touched Valeron's white scales, the affinity between the Dragon bloodlines allowed them to share their deepest emotions. The baby perceived Kamila's care and affection while she experienced his distress.
Valeron had no clear memory of his parents but he felt like there was something important missing in his life. He desperately sniffed the air looking for Jormun's and Thrud's smell.
He searched for his mother's heartbeat every time someone held him. He had no words to express his feelings, just a few jumbled thoughts, yet Kamila knew what it was.
Valeron missed his parents dearly and called for them in every way he could.
"Gods, this is so cruel." Kamila sniffled, warm tears streaking down her eyes. "How can someone so young already experience grief?"
"It's the curse of being a Divine Beast." Tyris joined them, taking the baby from Kamila. The Madness had made Thrud's smell almost identical to the Guardian's and her presence calmed him down.
"Our brains develop fast in order to keep our bloodline abilities in check. It makes us smarter and quick learners, but not all of life's lessons are pleasant."
"What about Elysia?" Kamila asked. "Does she already understand human language? Does he know what's happening around her at all times?"
"No, she doesn't understand human language." Leegaain appeared right beside her caressing Valeron's head first and then her belly. "Isn't that right, Em'har? You experience the world only through your mother so if she is happy, you are happy, and so on."
"What did you call her?"
"I didn't call her anything." Leegaain replied with a smug grin. "That was just the draconic word for 'my love'."
"Okay, and what are you three doing here?" Kamila asked while looking at the Phoenix honor guard taking care of the chores while also standing guard around the house and conjuring a living array.
"How could we miss the opportunity to take care of you while the grouch is away?" The Father of all Dragons replied. "I can finally spend a bit of time with my nieces and nephew."
"Nieces?" Kamila echoed while noticing that the honor guard also took care of Elina like she was Royalty.
"Your work is very stressful, dear, so we are going to make sure that nothing upsets you." Tyris said, handing Valeron back to Kamila now that he was relaxed.
"We?" She swallowed a lump of saliva as the Guardians' clothes shapeshifted into Constables' uniforms.
Suddenly she missed Lith with all of her heart and couldn't wait for him to be back.
***
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in front of the Fringe.
"Do you guys know how to get in?" Nalrond asked obtaining a series of nos in replies while Morok went in and out of the dimensional barrier like it was a revolving door.
"Gods if I hate him when he does that." Friya clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"Yeah, the worst part is that he isn't even trying to brag." Quylla needed sheer willpower to not experience her first eye-roll at her husband.
The Rezar gave everyone a brief explanation of how the access to a Fringe worked and what they had to expect while getting inside, no matter if by themselves or with some help.
"It does feel cold here." Despite the heat of the Desert, Solus was shivering.
The dimensional fissure that protected the Fringe was imbued with the will of Mogar. It flowed through her multi colored hair, carrying the memories, thoughts, and feelings of people long gone whose existence had been recorded by the planet.
"Same here." Lith kept his eyes shut, trying to focus on the voices and gain access by himself like Morok but unlike the Tyrant, his personality was too inflexible and his will too adamant to abandon itself to the flow.
He was like a sturdy rock in the ocean that water could smooth over time but not break or carry over.
"Fascinating." Ajatar the Drake had come as well as both back up in case of trouble and scholar.
Accessing to a Fringe was a rare event and he couldn't miss the opportunity nor could his apprentice deny it to him.
"The good news is that at least on this side there's no barrier, trap, or alarm left from your previous adventure. The bad news is that I have no idea how to get in. I tried the whole Spellbook of my bloodline and I got squat."
"Bring in Solus first." Faluel said, experiencing both the cold from her elemental affinities and the unsettling feeling of the dimensional distortion, like reality itself was wrong. "Then Ajatar, the girls, and me. Keep Lith for last."
"Sure thing." Nalrond knew that away from a mana geyser Solus was bleeding energy by the second so he carried her over without losing time with questions.
He closed his eyes, becoming one with the flow of the world energy while also retaining his individuality. Half of his body appeared inside the Fringe while the other offered Solus his hand.
The moment she touched him, she felt a deafening choir of voices invading her mind, flooding her vision with experiences that didn't belong to her and forcing her to relive the lives of countless people from birth to death.
Some lived long, most lived shortly, but all of them had much more pain than joy in their life. After the initial shock, Solus withstood the raging river of foreign memories with ease.
She had experienced something similar every time Lith conjured one of his Demons and they were forced to share with the lost soul the pain that kept them from moving on and the source of their obsession.
Yet after stepping on the other side, things went much worse. As she got rid of what didn't belong to her, her past and present lives assaulted her senses. She could hear Threin tell her a bedtime story.
She witnessed him exploding in front of her eyes and heard his agonizing wails after what was left of his overloaded core reformed into a newborn Abomination.
She saw Menadion cry for her husband's loss, blaming herself while the young Elphyn piled up on her, telling things that no little girl should say to anyone, let alone her grieving mother.
Solus saw her old, entitled self dismissing Bytra as a fraud, widening the rift between the Rulers of the Flames and fueling the flames of the Raiju's envy.
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