2025 Domestic Affairs (Part 1)

"Follow me. I want to introduce you to the rest of my team. We are split into groups of seven because we are going to employ a tactic similar to the one that was used against you in Verendi." Faluel said.

"Wait! Don't you know how to haggle?" Crank jumped off the wooden bench, trotting to catch up with them. "What about holograms? You teach me the basics and I'll learn the rest on my own."

"That's better, but it's still too much." The Hydra said. "I have no idea of what you can do or how useful you might be in real combat. We'll resume this conversation after the battle, but only if you've done something worthwhile for me."

"This is not haggling! This is straight blackmail. You are coercing me to follow you around the battlefield and cover your back." The Hyperion was flabbergasted.

"Correction. Our backs." Faluel pointed at herself and Lith. "He's the only one who can teach you and I'm the only one who can give him the permission to. He's my apprentice and has to do as I say."

Actually, Faluel was restricted by his promise to Nalrond from teaching anyone Light Mastery, including holograms. Lith, however, had mastered them on his own and was free to share his knowledge with whomever he wanted.

Also, Lith had already graduated from his apprenticeship, but Crank had no way to know it. Based on the Council's standard procedure, he had at least 80 more years of servitude ahead of him.

"Fine." The Hyperion jumped on the nearest chair and resume his binge eating, this time out of stress.

'Nice move.' Lith said Faluel via a mind link. The physical contact between them allowed him to establish a telepathic connection that Life Vision couldn't notice.

'Thanks, but it's no big deal.' She replied. 'People from Verendi love to haggle to the point that it's considered rude not to. I knew that he didn't expect me to actually agree with those ridiculous terms.

'I feigned ignorance of his customs and walked away to force him to make me an acceptable deal, saving us a lot of time.'

Lith inwardly nodded and followed her. He had no idea why Faluel wanted him to meet her companions but he trusted her judgment and knew that the Hydra had to have a good reason for it.

"Guys, this is Lith the Tiamat. Lith, these are Cenn the Oberon, Lix the Firebird, Loman Weiss, Khrill Arat, Hala the Treant, and Esgor the Behemoth. Lith is going to fight with us but he belongs to no unit.

"Which means that if something happens to any of us or we need to Invigorate ourselves, he can fill in one of the spots of our formation." Cenn nodded, moving his wheat blonde hair enough to reveal his slightly pointed ears.

"Excellent thinking, Faluel. Do you already know how to cast Silverwing's Annihilation and Bastion, kid?"

"Of course he does." The Hydra replied for Lith. "I taught him as soon as he returned from his honeymoon, after I learned that the Kingdom and the Council would fight together.

"The problem is that he has never actually used either spell or has any experience with how to coordinate with others while casting them. I brought him here so that we can all give him tips and a practical demonstration."

The seven violet cored Awakened formed a circle with Lith at its center, establishing a mind link that connected them all. Lith experienced how each Awakened dealt their own way with a different element while also keeping their mana flow ins sinch with the others'.

They performed the Annihilation first and the Bastion second, weaving the runes without conjuring the actual spell in order to save their strength for the incoming battle.

'This is very interesting.' Solus thought. 'In a way, it's similar to the Hexagram, but both the variants also require the use of Spirit Magic. Having seven members in the group shortens the cast time and mana expenditure but it also requires to fine-tune the seven different mana flows.'

'Yeah. Without this practice, we wouldn't have known the patterns of our partners, and casting any of Silverwing's spells would have been either slow or with a reduced effectiveness.' Lith replied.

'It's not only that.' Solus said. 'Faluel wanted both of us to practice them because she knows that I can cover for one more Awakened on my own thanks to the Hands. On top of that, if we use the Mouth as well, we can split the mana cost and cast another 1/7 of the spells.'

Lith doubted that with her blue core Solus had the necessary mana for such a burdensome task. Silverwing's spells required a bright violet core and even he would need to squeeze every drop of his mana just to cast them once.

Yet he said nothing in respect for her determination.

'Agreed. It's the perfect occasion to test the Mouth. Since it can hold two spells, I'd go with the Bastion and the Annihilation.' Lith replied.

'I don't think it's a good idea.' Solus pondered. 'We'll start the battle away from the others so locking useless spells would be a waste of our resources. Let's set up something useful in a one against many scenario.'

'As soon as you consume one, I'll replace it with Silverwing's spells.'

'Don't space out, kid.' Khrill snapped them out of their private conversation. 'Focus on how I deal with the fire element. As you can see, Silverwing's spells are a hepta-elemental Spirit Spell that requires each member of the group to conjure all elements but control only one.

'The rest of the energy is channeled in the magical formation controlled by the seventh member and passed onto the others. Thanks to this method, you have to deal with seven times the elemental energy you are used to.

'Each member of the formation also serves as an amplification point, but this happens only at the moment the spell gets unleashed, otherwise even seven Awakened wouldn't be enough to deal with such firepower.

'Last, but not least, the person at the center of the spell is in charge of harnessing and harmonizing our different life forces. Any mistake on their part and our different energy signatures clash will between them, causing the spell to implode.

'Study what each of us does because there's no telling which spot you are going to fill and if you get the center role, you'll have no margin for error.'

Lith nodded and focused solely on studying the energy flow of Silverwing's spells with the Eyes of Menadion. He and Solus noticed that the First Magus specialized in what appeared to be a hybrid between arrays and spells.

Her legacy was comprised of an odd kind of magic that combined the explosive power of tier five spells with the complex functions that only arrays could have.

After cycling between the elements a few times, the members of Faluel's group suddenly stopped chanting one at a time. Lith had to take their place in the formation while being quick enough to stabilize it before it collapsed and also matching with their rhythm.

At first, he failed miserably every time he was entrusted with an element that wasn't fire or darkness.