2153 Chains of the Past (Part 1)

The Void would have thought of having been brought to Jambel but the landscape wasn't that of any city in the north he knew. From the windows, he could see trees and grass as far as the eye could see.

The house was near a lake where squirrels, deer, and many small critters drank or rested with no care for the seven-eyed flabbergasted stranger.

A sudden knock on the door made him turn around, conjuring his magic again.

"Lith, can I come in and talk?" Kamila asked through the solid and enchanted wood.

It took the Void a couple of seconds to realize that he actually was in the tower and two more to use the security system. Only after the Sentries reported him that he, Kamila, and Solus were the only people for kilometers did he open the door.

"Where are we? What is this place?" Fear and fury still painted his seven eyes white, but his voice was calm.

Even in his frenzied state, the Void didn't want to scare Kamila. Now that there was no enemy to fight, he just needed a few answers to be able to relax.

"Atop the closest mana geyser to the Flying Griffon resort, on the Rekar mountain range." Solus replied. "We picked it as our next vacation spot since you enjoyed your stay in the hotel with Kami, but you also wanted to be free to Warp away if something bad happened remember?"

"As for your second question, this is a surprise that we've been preparing for a while." Kamila said. "You always said that you like Baron Wyalon's house and that if you ever built one for us, you want to use it as a blueprint.

"Since you never had the time and I know how stingy you are, I asked Solus to help me. She can shapeshift the space inside the tower at will and I can make all the changes to the original I see fit without spending a dime."

Her words rang more than one bell. With the baby incoming, Lith wanted a place where he could be with the people he loved the most without being disturbed. The house in Lutia was always crowded and the Verhen Mansion was too ostentatious.

On top of that, once he hired the necessary house staff, he would have little privacy there. It was the reason he and Solus had started looking for a secluded mana geyser near Lochra Mountain.

It was a place surrounded by natural beauty where he had planned to build his dream house. Away from duty and enemies but just a Tower Warp from home.

Derek turned around, noticing that the room was indeed different from how he remembered it. It was a mix between Wyalon's guest house, his own bedroom in Lutia, the apartment from Belius, and even his private quarters in the tower.

The room had his desk and magic books to work on, Kamila's colorful drapes and her favorite landscape paintings, and all of his good memories depicted in holograms framed along the walls.

"Do you like it?" Kamila asked.

"Very. Why did you bring me here?" The Void toured the house, being surprised from how well she had remembered all of his ideas about how to alter the Baron's house.

There were even the first two Orichalcum hammers he had crafted with Solus, crossed and hung above the fireplace with their first dimensional pebble between them.

"Because you needed to calm down and we need to talk." Kamila had rarely said those words before and they never bode well.

"There's nothing to talk about. Whatever bullshit the Royals want from me, they can shove it back where it came from. It's none of my business."

"How can you say that breaking your oath a second time is none of your business? What about the deal with the Royals? What about your status as the Supreme Magus?" Kamila asked.

"None of it matters." The Void replied. "The only thing I care about is keeping you and Solus safe. I'm not going to lose someone I love again."

"I know how much you cared about Lark and Mirim. Manohar was your friend and-" Kamila noticed the shadows of his face curling up in disgust at those words, his gaze turning colder instead of sad at the mention of those names.

She turned to Solus for help, but her face was twisted with worry and her eyes pitch-black. It meant that they were having a parallel conversation via their mind link behind Kamila's back.

"Who are you talking about and why have you yet to shapeshift?" She asked as doubts crept into her mind.

"Believe me, you don't want to know." The Void said with a sigh before giving Lith the wheel.

His stark-naked human form collapsed to the ground, the switch too fast to regain control of his body before he hit the floor.

"Thank Newton I didn't kill anyone." He said while shaking his head to clear his vision. "Whatever the Royals want from me, it will have to wait until I learn how to control my Abomination side."

"Who is Newton and what were you talking about before shapeshifting?" Kamila returned him the Voidfeather armor and the rest of his equipment while she helped him to stand up, but she refused to drop the matter.

"No one. It's just an idiom I learned during my travels. As for the rest, Chaos was messing with my mind." Lith said, hoping that the distress he still felt could cover his blatant lies.

She cupped his face between her hands forcing him to look her in the eyes.

"Do you know why I brought you here instead of the Blood Desert's beach or any other place where we have shared happy moments together?" She asked, receiving a no for a reply.

"It's because of the conversation we had back at the Flying Griffon when you opened up to me about Death Vision and how it affected your relationships. Do you remember what I told you?"

"That you were okay with waiting for me to willingly share my secrets with you and that I shouldn't treat you like an idiot because that's something you can't bear." Lith replied, that day still vivid in his memory.

"After you revealed Solus' existence to me, you told me that's was the last big secret you kept from me, but it's not the last secret, isn't it?" Kamila didn't wait for his answer and resumed speaking.

"While we were on that beach with Aran and Leria, during their magical boot camp, you drew the picture of a boy with your magic and refused to tell me who he was. After Lark's death, when you hurt me by accident, you claimed to have become like your father, hurting someone you loved just to feel better about yourself.

"When you learned I was pregnant, you were terrified. Not of fatherhood, but at the idea of passing something to our child. Lastly, I know how your shapeshifting works. You didn't pick your Voidfeather Dragon's appearance more than you choose your Abomination's.

"Under these horns and eyes, there's a man who's not you who resembles the boy in the sand. None of these things makes sense."