2540 No I in Funeral (Part 2)



"Good idea and amazing work, Lith." Ajatar said while studying the arrays protecting Zelex and its access points. "I've already spotted the access from the surface to the south entrance and discovered how to deactivate the cave's protections.

"We can all enter from there without wasting time and energy with Domination and dimensional magic. We have everything we need for an extermination raid but I'm not confident that a peaceful resolution can be reached that easily."

"What do you mean?" Faluel asked.

"Put yourself in their shoes. After everything they've just gone through, comes a young Tyrant who's much weaker than Glemos and doesn't even look like him." The Drake pointed at Morok's multi-colored scales.

"Sure, the smell works in our favor, but what about everything else? They are bound to ask him a lot of questions like what happened to Glemos, why they have never heard about Morok, and why he didn't come to their rescue sooner.

"To make matters worse, he's going to ask them to throw all their sacrifices into the gutter and follow a complete stranger to an unknown location where he claims they will be safe. It just smells fishy."

"I think you are right." Faluel nodded. "They are grief-stricken and have no reason to trust Morok. If we send him to Zelex without a foolproof plan, the monsters will treat him as a scapegoat instead of a savior.

"They'll take their pent-up aggression against Glemos on Morok and kill him on the spot."

"Even worse, if the Queen is as smart as she sounded, she might exploit the rage of her people and kill Morok just to disprove Glemos' divinity." Lith pointed out. "This way, she could finally disclose the truth and free her son and the rest of the senate from following Glemos' cruel dogmas."

"Then what do we do?" Quylla asked. "Morok is still our best shot. The monsters are never going to trust any of us. Faluel and Ajatar are as strong as Glemos but even if they shapeshift into Tyrants, their smell and life forces will give out their real identity.

"Also, they know nothing about Glemos' cult so they will never manage to pass for his reincarnation or something. If he has taught them a secret phrase or gesture to recognize him however appearance he took and we fail the test, we won't get a second chance."

"Let me get this straight." Friya said. "We need a surefire way to earn their trust and gain free access to what they consider holy ground: Glemos' lab. If we fail at any point, we'll have to run away and call the Council.

"At that point, the monsters will all die, the Harmonizers will be lost forever, and if we are unlucky, they'll set off the self-destruction mechanism and Morok's legacy will be destroyed as well."

"Correct, but that's assuming that the Council doesn't deem Glemos' legacy not worth the hassle and triggers the self-destruction spell just to end things quickly without a fight." Faluel paced around, thinking about a way to solve things without involving the Council.

"What if…" Tista's idea was briefly considered and rejected. The same happened for every scenario they could think of.

No matter how rational and well-thought a plan was, at some point, there was always a critical flaw that would cause the negotiations to fail. The children of Glemos were a highly superstitious group of grief-stricken people who were in a desperate situation and had no reason to trust strangers.

Telling them the truth was out of the question while using a convenient lie would arise questions that in turn would need more lies to make sense once questioned, creating what Faluel called the Hydra effect.

"For every piece of bullshit you spout, you need to come out with two more or everything falls apart. We can't send Morok either because he's not that good a liar and wouldn't be capable of keeping track of everything he says.

"Everyone else would be attacked on sight, especially Lith due to his appearance. Which is a shame since he is our resident expert in straight-faced lies."

"What if I bring him along and he suggests to me what to say?" Morok said. "If he shapeshifts into a Tyrant, he can keep six eyes out of seven and fool them."

"It's too dangerous." Ajatar shook his head. "If for any reason you two get separated, you'd be in hot water. Even a small distance would be enough to reveal the mind link and screw everything over.

"Besides, if they inspect your life forces, they'd discover the ruse in an instant."

"Lith?" Protector asked after noticing that his friend was staring at the ground with an expression that he knew all too well.

It was the face that Lith assumed as a kid while calculating if the bounty of a wanted man was worth the hassle of chasing him. He was so focused that Protector needed to tap his shoulder to gain his attention.

It was then that Lith said something no one would have ever considered possible: "I think that Morok is right. We can do it, but only if he and I work as a team."

"If your plan is to throw me to the wolves while you reach the vault and rob them blind, count me out. There's no I in team but no I in funeral either." The Tyrant said after noticing that Lith was measuring him up with Invigoration.

"You read my mind." Lith patted Morok's shoulders as if the Tyrant had just enthusiastically agreed. "I think I have a plan but to make it work, I need to know everything about the monsters' lore regarding their fall, Ajatar."

"You can count on me. It's one of my many fields of expertise." The Drake nodded.

"Also, before wasting my and your time with a pointless lecture, let me share my plan. I'm pretty sure you guys are going to hate it, but if it's to the point that you don't want to put it into practice, just let me know.

"Of course, I any of you has a better idea, I'm open to suggestions."

***

Underground city of Zelex, Queen Syrah's apartments, about one hour after Lith and Solus had left the senate palace.

The rites of passage hadn't lasted long. Each member of the senate had barely taken one minute to entrust their last words to their loved ones and say their goodbyes. Any longer and their determination would have faltered.

Syrah would have liked to have days to recover from the trauma of losing her husband of robbing her own child of his childhood on the same day. Sadly, time and food were two resources that the inhabitants of Zelex had in short supply even before Glemos' disappearance.

After the ceremony had ended, the Queen had gone to snap the Hati of their grieving and informed them that now it was her they had to supply with their mana and life force until Xagra became an adult.

She could have done it via the hive mind that the members of the warg race shared, but Syrah preferred to do it in person and lead by example. She couldn't let them mourn and weep more than she could let herself.