“Why not add something about the white core, your world tribulations, or Creation Magic?” Quylla asked. “There’s no point in wasting a question slot. Even if the answer doesn’t make sense, it could still point you in the right direction.”
“That’s exactly the problem.” Lith took a few deep breaths while studying his own body weight, the feeling of his tensing muscles, and the flow of mana through his body.
Just like Solus, he still thought of himself as a human and always keeping his original form didn’t help. He wanted to carry his mass inside the Mindscape so as to have a shot at fighting the apparitions.
“Tell me, Quylla. If you were in Mogar’s shoes and I asked you to teach me the secrets of dimensional magic with a single hologram, how would you do it?”
The question surprised her and it took her a while to ponder it long enough to find a decent answer.
“That would be impossible.” She replied. “There are too many factors to control and the energy in play is equally complex. The best I could do if you were to know squat about dimensional magic is show you a basic spell like Loop and hope that you’d understand the rest on your own.”
“My point exactly.” He nodded. “And that’s if you wanted to teach me something in the first place whereas we know that Mogar doesn’t operate that way. Her answer is always something vague that points to the solution but it’s useless by itself.
“My bet is that if I ask for Creation Magic, I’ll get either Grandma or Baba Yaga since they are the only teachers I could get. Too bad they are both out of my league and would kick my ass in an instant.”
“Damn, I’m afraid you are right.” Quylla tormented her lower lip while racking her brain for another valuable question.
“As for the white core, I have no idea where to start since I’ve never researched it. Heck, I don’t even have the bright violet so I’m pretty sure that even a friendly advice would go over my head, let alone some confusing riddle.
“Lastly, asking about my world tribulations is a terrible idea. From what I understood by talking with Grandma and the others who underwent them like Scarlett, knowing the answer is likely to sabotage the test altogether.
“Mogar was pretty clear to Solus when they said that they don’t allow cheating.”
“I agree, but then why don’t you ask her about Void Magic?” Quylla asked.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because if Mogar shows you an image, you can learn from it. If they summon your own echo, instead, you can match it for sure. I mean, you are the creator of Void Magic. Grappling against yourself shouldn’t be an impossible task.” She replied.
“You are a damn genius, Little One.” Lith ruffled her hair, drawing many curses from her for both the moniker and treating her like a child.
“I’m taller than Solus, dammit!” She pouted while pointing at her still-laughing friend.
“I’m tall inside and he knows it.” Solus chuckled.
Lith stepped inside the heart of the magical formation and sat cross-legged in the middle of the final circle before powering it up with a drop of his blood. He closed his eyes, feeling himself being dragged toward the light in a way eerily similar to the two times he had died.
The main differences were that this time he was answering a call instead of being dragged like a leaf in the wind and that there was no inner peace or emotional clarity in the whiteness surrounding him.
He was still Lith Verhen/Derek McCoy, with all of his traumas, hopes, and worries.
The first thing he did was look down at himself, curious to see which one of the human forms he had assumed.
“Judging from the size of my hands and by the fact that I’m wearing the Voidwalker armor, I’m still Lith. I guess that after almost twenty years I’ve gotten used to my new face.” He said out loud, knowing that thinking was pointless.
“Hello, Mogar. How are you? Is there something you need?” He shamelessly asked the moment he recovered from the transition to the Mindscape.
“Nice try.” A familiar voice giggled from behind him. “Am I supposed to pretend not to know that you and Solus talk? How many times do I have to say no cheating?”
“That’s not-” Lith turned around, finding himself in front of the spitting image of his mother who shut him up by putting her forefinger on his lips.
It was a familiar gesture that Elina always did when he was little and asked lots of questions in a row in order to fill in the blanks in his understanding of the Mogarian language.
It almost kept him from noticing that her hair and eyes were of the wrong color, but missing the big red membranous wings on her back was really impossible.
“Shush, child.” Even her words were the same, sending a warm familiar sensation spreading through his body. “I was joking. I told her those things for a reason. Even though your courtesy is cynical, I still appreciate the thought.
“Welcome back home, Lith.” Mogar using a similar expression to when he had reached the violet baffled him, but he remained quiet. “I’m fine, thank you, and yes, I need help but you are not ready. Yet.”
“You mean that you hope I’ll be ready in the future or that you know I’ll be ready?” He asked.
“What do you think?” No energy sphere appeared so Lith assumed they were still making conversation.
“I believe that you expect me to be ready based on current events.” He replied. “I’ve long wondered what the heck the vision I received as a kid was and how could it change in real-time as soon as a part of the traitors’ plan failed.
“I don’t believe in nonsense like destiny. Life is too complicated to be predetermined. I think that the vision was just your projection based on the data you had at the time. As you said to Solus, you know everything that everyone does and think at any time.
“By watching the events unfold on both sides of the conflict, it wasn’t hard for you to predict who was going to win. The visions you showed me weren’t the future so much as Lukart’s plans that you heard from his own mouth and knew would succeed due to his sleeper agents wearing a slave ring.
“All you had to do was to keep me updated as the various pieces of the puzzle fell into place or apart and I had the best next thing to clairvoyance. Insider trading.”
“Brilliant.” Mogar-Elina chuckled. “I admit it, you are right. There is no such thing as destiny. I just cheated.”
“Can I ask you about those wings or would it be part of our business meeting?”
“Oh, these silly things?” She flapped them happily like a chick trying to learn how to fly before wrapping them around her shoulders and baby bump. “That’s all on you, child. You are such a mama’s boy that you wish your mother would Awaken her bloodline.”