2715 Just a Word (Part 1)
"Even Elina?" Raaz was flabbergasted.
"No, but your baby does." Salaark pointed at Elina's swollen belly from which the light originated.
This Tiamat Dance, for lack of a better term, is magnificent.'Kamila thought while looking at the members of the Verhen family. 'Yet I can't help but feel left out.
Even Raaz and Zoreth were glowing, one bound to Lith by his Phoenix blood while the other from her Dragon and Eldritch side whereas Kamila was just human. Since Elysia had been taken away from her, Kamila felt more than weak.
She felt isolated.
The world was cold and distant now that she had lost access to the Dragon scales. They had connected her to her daughter and husband, making Kamila certain of their feelings for her whereas now she could only believe those feelings were still there.
She had always been aware that knowing and believing were two different things but only then did she understand how much.
At the same time, in a far, far corner of Jiera, where Meln Narchat was fighting monster hordes to polish his skill, the effects of Lith's breakthrough washed over him, leaving him unaffected in every aspect.
He could feel it like anyone else on Mogar but that was it.
"No, no, no!" Meln wailed like a child on a tantrum, letting the creatures hit him since there was no wound that Night couldn't heal. "This isn't fair! Why has Lith reached the bright violet already and why I'm cut off from this power?"
"You wanted to be different from your brother and I granted your wish." The Black Night replied. "Now shut up and fight. You are no Demon. You are a Vurdalak. Make it count or I swear on my mother that I'll drop you here to die and go back to Baba Yaga to beg for her forgiveness."
Meln gritted his teeth, his relationship with Night was turning sourer by the day.
The Horseman hated him for making the secret of her weakness exposed. In one night, she had gone from apex predator to easy prey of whoever had learned Baba Yaga's destruction spell.
Night was angry and she had no qualms about making Meln pay for it.
He knew the price of defiance and obeyed, swearing to one day take his vengeance against the Red Mother and all of her children. Night included.
***
Back in the Verhen House, Lith was far from done.
His body has completed the refinement but he refused to let the world energy go.
He kept roaring his challenge at Mogar, afraid that someone might try and take Elysia away from him. In his fury, he unleashed the Call of the Void.
It covered Lutia and then the Lustria County. The blackness kept spreading and soon it reached the capital, Valeron.
"Okay, unless you want the birth of your baby to be remembered as a massacre, you have to stop him." Tyris said to Kamila.
"Me? What am I supposed to do? I'm just human." She replied, slouching her shoulders.
"You are the only one who can." Tyris tried to enter the pillar but the silver-black light rejected her. "I can force my way in, but I don't want to hurt Lith and Elysia."
Solus punched on the pillar, but she was cut out of it as well.
"Enough with the moping and get in! I still have to hold the baby." Solus was greatly pissed off by the pillar rejecting her as well and the fact that she had yet to touch Elysia. "Get in!"
Solus pushed Kamila forward and she effortlessly passed through the wall of light.
'Well, at least this is something only I can do!' She inwardly sighed.
"Lith Tiamat Verhen, I'm really happy for your breakthrough, but that isn't reason enough to act like a jerk!" Hearing her angry voice and his middle name, Lith lowered his head, knowing he was in trouble.
"I don't care if you can cover the entirety of Mogar with the Void now and honestly, I don't care, Get down. Now!"
"Baby! Protect! Enemies!" His brain was still a puddle, having trouble making a full sentence.
"That's right. Our baby. My baby." Kamila yelled even though now there was no need to. Lith had stopped roaring and was listening. "I'm tired and hungry. I've pissed and shat myself in front of the whole family.
"The last thing I need right now is everyone blaming Elysia for all the people who'll die of heart attack because of you. Recall the Void and the Demons."
Lith growled, tilting his head to a side while trying to find a witty retort when he realized that she was right. Any more and Elysia's birthday would become something infamous like the Day of the Black Sun.
The black dome disappeared and thousands of people were spared from the scare of their lives. Countless Demons of the Darkness had been spawned by the combined power of father and daughter, but they had no direction.
They had just rejoiced and celebrated in the darkness of the Void, their howls scary but their presence hard to notice since they had no interest in coming close to the living.
"Good. Now shrink and hand me Elysia." Kamila tapped her foot, making her annoyance clear even to a 30 meters (100') tall oaf.
"But it's my baby." He whined, holding Elysia to his chest and wrapping her between his wings while cupping both hands around her.
"No! Our baby. You had one night of fun and I nine months of work, to be precise. Not to mention that you watched while *I* gave birth. Do you really want a measuring contest?" She grunted and Lith shrunk to his human size.
"Sorry." He said, feeling like an idiot.
"Don't be." Kamila hugged him, making sure to not squeeze Elysia between them. "What you did was both amazing and moving. I had to play bad Constable only to protect both of you. And because I won't let you hog our baby."
She chuckled, gently taking Elysia off his hands, even apologizing since she could see how the separation hurt him.
"Solus, meet Elysia. It's our daughter and after all I went through, you have to pull a lot of weight if you want to even come close to match my efforts." Much to Elina's, Zoreth's, and the Guardians' dismay, Kamila went to Solus first.
'I have no idea what Lith has just gone through, but whatever it was, it changed him.'Kamila said via a mind link. 'You are a part of him and a part of this family as much as the two of us. Please, help him. Please, help our daughter.
Solus was so moved by Kamila's gesture and her words that she teared up the moment she held Elysia.
'I have no clue what happened to him either.
Our mind link was- Gods, she's so beautiful!' Solus couldn't feel with Elysia the same connection she shared with Lith yet she loved the baby no less than him.
Elysia instinctively shapeshifted into her human form the moment she touched Solus' skin. She had big, dark-brown eyes that sparkled with intelligence as she looked around the room.