2002 Alone Together (Part 2)
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"We are in this together and I want you to understand that I'll always be there for you. Cry on my shoulder, ask me to cook your favorite dishes or to be your sparring partner if you need to kick some ass.
"Anything is better than you giving me the silent treatment and forcing me to see you suffer from a distance." Lith embraced Solus, making her feel through his actions and emotions that there was no distance between them.
Some things had changed, but the depth of their bond and feelings was still the same.
"Anything?" She asked.
"Anything." He nodded.
"Then I want to take a long hot bath to get rid of the sweat and then take a nap together like old times." Solus buried her face in Lith's chest, ignoring the pungent smell he emitted.
"No problem, but for the bath part I have to ask Kami's permission."
"I don't need company for that, smartass!" Solus blushed, then she considered the possibility, and then blushed harder. "By the way, how come everyone is dead tired while you are fine?"
"There wasn't much to do at Salaark's beach home." Lith shrugged. "Whenever we got bored, we worked on my stamina."
"But Kami's a hum-" Solus flushed up to her ears and Warped to her room.
***
Lith arrived last at lunch. Kamila had insisted to join them and being between two beautiful women had made it hard for him to fall asleep. To make matters worse, he couldn't get up until four hours had passed.
After the meal, he met with the others in the Forge and showed them the Golems. Aside from the empty space in their chest, the preparatory phase was over.
"There's no memory crystal yet." Faluel said after checking the complex rune patterns and appreciating Lith's use of elemental crystals to fuel the Golems' abilities.
"That will come last." He replied. "A power core can exist on its own as long as it has a vessel to contain it and mana pathways to keep it stable. A memory crystal, instead, needs to have both a vessel and a power source.
"Without the former, the stored data can't be utilized while without the latter it soon reverts into a regular crystal."
"What about those that my mother used against Meln?" Phloria conjured a hologram of Jirni's crystal cards, emphasizing the cube etched at their center.
"The cube holds a complex power core without which the spells stored inside the crystals would fade." Lith replied.
"I've guessed that much, I meant what about the vessel? I don't see one."
"Jirni herself is the vessel. The proto cubes are just weapons." Lith said. "Now get ready. It's time to work on the power core."
Solus took out the Fury, giving one of its copies to each of her friends. Faluel wore the Hands of Menadion, Tista the Mouth, while Solus wore both in their still incomplete form.
Much to everyone's surprise, the artifact had shapeshifted to match its new master. The mask had turned from pristine white into bright red and the gems were now aligned vertically instead of horizontally, looking like a row of fangs instead of lips.
Yet even in its new form, the Mouth's power was unchanged, emitting an aura that blinded the Awakened's Life Vision.
"Where does that come from?" Friya pointed at Tista in surprise.
"It was Vastor's marriage present." Lith said. "We decided to give it to Tista to make up for her lack of body casting until she gets her violet core. Also, she's the weakest among us and her Forgemastery skills can use a boost."
"I'm not questioning your choice, just saying that's one heck of a gift." The Hydra said.
"Yeah, why didn't you tell us earlier?" Protector asked.
"When, exactly? The ceremony was yesterday and the celebrations didn't end until late at night. Did you expect me to barge into your rooms just to gloat?" Lith replied.
"Congratulations, Tista." Everyone said with half joy and half envy.
"Thanks. I promise you that I'll make the best of the Mouth. I'll gladly lend it to any of you guys whenever you need it." She replied with a huge smile that matched the artifact's.
"How did Xenagrosh persuade the Master to give up such a powerful tool?" Faluel looked at the Mouth in suspicion, using her Forgemastery spells to make sure that it was the real deal and that there was no foreign device.
The two pieces of Menadion's set started to resonate on contact, their energy signatures fused for a split second, becoming greater than the sum of the single parts. Then, the phenomenon stopped as quickly as it had started leaving everyone flabbergasted.
"She didn't." Solus touched the two artifacts with their tower counterparts, trying to understand what had just happened.
Unluckily for her, the tower didn't react to their presence. Whatever the effect she had just witnessed was, either it was exclusive to Menadion's set or the tower had yet to recover such ability.
"What do you mean?" Tista wore the Mouth again before borrowing the Hands from Faluel, but once again, nothing happened.
They took turns trying to clear the mystery and only after they gave up on it did Lith hand them the greeting card that he had found with the Mouth.
"Shit." Faluel said.
"You can say that." Lith nodded. "There's no telling how much stronger the Organization has become nor if their version of the Mouth will dwarf the original. The Master returned the Mouth to me solely as a sign of goodwill and because it's old ass. He knows that he can't update it while Grandma can."
"Do you think she would if I asked her to?" Tista asked.
"If you bend the knee, sure. Otherwise you'll have to butter her up a lot." Solus replied. "She fixed my Fury only because she had already promised Mom to do it."
"Yeah, I asked Salaark to update my Hands yesterday and she laughed in my face." Faluel sighed. "I wouldn't bet on her being more lenient with you just because you are family."
"I know." Tista nodded. "She didn't craft anything for Lith either. Not even as a wedding present."
"Enough chatting." Lith clapped his hands to get their attention. "Is everyone ready?"
"Not yet." Solus updated the documents in the Library so that everyone knew what array would be used for each step of the process.
At the same time, Lith handed Faluel and Friya respectively a piece of Syrook's heart and a chunk of the Black Dragon's lungs. They were the only people besides himself that Lith could entrust with such a powerful ingredient.
Quylla had a more powerful core, but Friya had started studying Forgemastery right after joining Lith in his apprenticeship. She was the only one in the group who had had an expert Forgemaster as a mentor and her skills were top-notch compared to a self-taught like Lith.
Orion had taught his daughters only the basics. Neither Quylla nor Phloria would receive the Ernas legacy unless they swore their allegiance to the family and contributed to its development.
The pieces of the Black Dragon that Lith had given to the Hydra and her apprentice were necessary to craft their partial core for the first Golem. They would start with Raptor and then move to Trouble.
