2221 To the Moon and Back (Part 1)

Each one of the shelves was filled with ingredients that went from rare to unique. Some of them Lith had only seen in the illustrated children's books he read Aran and Leria.

He had always considered them the McGuffin bards used to justify unplausible twists, but now he was staring at them and they stared back.

"What even is this stuff?" Kamila asked Salaark who was the only one as unimpressed as she was.

Lith and Solus, instead, behaved like children in a toy shop.

"Work stuff. Boring stuff." The Overlord rolled her eyes in annoyance. "If this is what you wanted to share with me, you could have just sent me a picture."

"I know that my lab is nothing special by your standards but-"

"How did you do that?" Lith had just discovered that Leegaain's PC didn't need a mouse.

All he had to do was touch the mana crystal and think about what he wanted to search and browse for it to comply. It had simple programs for writing, drawing, several games, and even an internal library.

"This is exactly what I planned of sharing with the Kingdom, just 1,000 times better. It requires no amulet nor anything."

"Memory crystals are a complex tool that if properly mastered, can be taught how to learn and self-upgrade." The Father of All Dragons puffed his chest out in pride. Like all artists, he loved answering the questions of his fans.

"How is it possible?" Solus asked. "I know about mana crystals, but there's only so much space in their lattice to store information. How did you solve such an issue?"

"Easy." Leegaain replied with a smug grin on his face. "The trick is to not cut the crystals and leave them in their natural state as the Orcs do. By doing this and providing them with a sufficient flow of world energy, the raw crystals can keep growing indefinitely.

"This way, the expanding lattice can store the newly acquired information as it develops, saving you the hassle to input the data manually. Always remember, only idiots cut the crystals early, and with them, they cut their own legs."

"You are a genius, Grampa."  Solus ran from one terminal to another, checking them with her breathing technique and discovering that the Guardian was telling the truth.

"How did you acquire such a vigorous and steady flow of world energy? Keeping up a whole network of growing memory crystals that communicate with each other, sharing their discoveries in a lattice-mind requires insane amounts of powers." 

"Thank you, sweetie." Leegaain patted her head, snapping his fingers again to raise a cloaking field that closed the Eyes of Menadion shut. "No peeking, though."

"Grandma! He's being mean!" Solus grabbed Salaark's skirt, pointing at Leegaain in a way that reminded the Guardians of Aran and Leria.

"There, there." The Overlord caressed Solus' hair. "Grampa has every right to preserve his secrets just like you guys yours. If you join his brood, though, I'm certain he'll help you."

"Thanks, but no thanks." Lith and Solus said in unison.

"Now, to answer Grumpy's objection and Solus' question, please, follow me." Leegaain opened the door ushering them out of the lab.

"I'm not grumpy!" Salaark objected. "Scratch that, I am. Not only do you have yet to let me hold my son, you also dragged me- Great Mother almighty!"

She took the words out of the minds of everyone as they stared through the windows of the magnificent mansion and found themselves staring at Mogar. From space, the planet looked like a blue jewel with brown and green spots.

"Is this the moon?" Lith asked.

"Yes." Leegaain nodded.

"How can there possibly be an atmosphere here?" Solus asked.

"Look around. There's plenty of vegetation." Leegaain pointed at the silvery grass and silvery foiled trees that covered the land as far as the eye could see. "Mogar isn't like other planets out there.

"The moon is just a part of it and shares its mystical properties. Even here there is a powerful flow of world energy that makes life bloom and gravity strong enough to keep air and water in."

"Why is everything silvery?" Salaark's eyes dazzled like stars at the scenery, feeling Mogar's joyous song in her bones while also being finally free from all the voices in her head.

She had no need to hold them back or to spend focus keeping them in a separate space of her consciousness. The voices were just gone.

"My hypothesis is that the moon uses Life Maelstrom to keep its gravity field which in turn gives the vegetation its peculiar silvery color." Leegaain replied.

"I have only one question." Kamila hugged the Father of All Dragons, moved to tears from the stark contrast between the emptiness of space and the brilliance of the sun and Mogar. "How could you be such a jerk to hide all this from your wife until now?"

"Well said, darling. How could you?" Salaark snapped out of it, glaring at Leegaain along with Kamila and Solus.

"First, she's not my wife." Leegaain shrugged everything off with a confidence that made Lith envious. "Second, a man without a secret is a boring man. Am I right?" He said with a wink and this time, Lith winked back.

"Okay, what made you change your mind, then?" Salaark asked, nodding in approval.

"As I said back on Mogar, I wanted to share this with Shargein and with you." Leegaain handed her the whelp who shapeshifted into a chick and then into a baby upon touching Salaark's skin.

"Our son can use a breath of fresh air enriched with world energy and you deserved a break from your daily worries. I know that even though you always act though, your burden is far greater than mine and Tyris', especially now that we have a child."

Away from her duties, her Desert, and without the voices of an entire planet filling her head, the Overlord felt at peace like it hadn't happened ever since she had become a Guardian.

Between the cooing of Shargein wanting her attention and the breathtaking view, love was the only emotion she could feel.

"I swear that if you do or say something this romantic again, we are going to get married." She said with a sniffle, her eyes veiled by tears.

"Don't you mean that you are going to propose first?" Kamila asked.

"His compliance is optional." Salaark blew her nose in a handkerchief, managing to sound as creepy as the moment was tender.

"Not to ruin this moment, but why did you bring us here if you don't want to share your knowledge with us?" Lith asked Leegaain who was now hiding behind him and had lost his respect.

"Because Inxialot's house is that way and Fenagar's is that way." The Guardian pointed at the horizon. "We are the only inhabitants of the moon and have set our respective labs so to be as far away as possible from each other."

"Are you insane? You should have told us! What if either of them spotted me? My existence is a secret and I want to keep things that way." Solus said.

"Oh, please." Leegaain replied with a snort.