Despite Professor Marth intervention, the situation degenerated as soon Raaz and Linjos managed to recover from the vicious verbal beating they just endured. "Who is that raving lunatic and why is he allowed to have any contact with the students? He has no shame nor regard for the feelings of others!" Normally Raaz would have been humble and submissive. For someone that had never left the small village of Lutia in over thirty years, the White Griffon academy was intimidating. Raaz was well aware that even a single brick of the castle was worth more money than he could earn in his whole life. Raaz still couldn’t believe one of his children had managed to get admitted in a place like that. He suspected that behind all his brave talk, Lith was actually having a hard life, surrounded by rich, spoiled kids. In any other circumstance, he would have never stepped inside, fearing that his presence alone was enough to put Lith in embarrassment. But now after his son had been severely hurt because of the incompetence of the so called ’Professors’, not only he had been forced to listen to Linjos’ rants about the academy’s prestige, but also had to suffer a young, handsome dandy trying to seduce his wife in front of his eyes. That was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. He didn’t care anymore if the man in front of him was the Headmaster or the King himself, Raaz was determined to give him a piece of his mind. On the other hand, Linjos wanted nothing more than join him and tear Manohar apart limb from limb. That man had always been a nightmare for the public relationships, either avoiding social events or making a mess the rare times he deigned to attend them. And now, in less than a day Linjos had been assaulted and humiliated by him twice, both times in front of students and staff alike, destroying whatever pride and dignity his role was supposed to have. - "I wish I could tell him that if the previous Headmistress that recruited Manohar wasn’t already dead, I would kill her myself. Right after throwing Manohar from the academy’s highest tower. But when I accepted this job, I knew there was an elephant in the room." – "Despite his many, many flaws, I can assure you that Professor Manohar is that kind of genius that appears only once in one hundred years. He is an invaluable asset for the academy and the Kingdom, whom has already saved countless lives, probably even your son’s." Raaz wasn’t satisfied by the answer, but Elina squeezed his hand tight, stopping him in his tracks. "Are you in much pain, dear?" She asked Lith, ruffling his hair. "No, mom. On the contrary, I feel groggy but relaxed." He replied, quite surprised to have hair again. He had yet to have an occasion to look at himself in a mirror. "That’s because we injected you with several potions to help you sleep and recover." Linjos explained. Marth returned, bringing along five members of the medical staff and Lith’s missing arm. Usually for such a simple case a single Professor was enough, but they wanted to show to both Lith and his parents how much they cared. The arm was completely wrapped in pure white linen gauze, not leaving even the fingertips exposed. Being detached from a living body, it couldn’t be healed, so it was bound to be bloody and burned. Lith imagined that covering it was another form of courtesy towards his parents, since no healer would have blinked at the sight of it. The moment the arm was within five meters (16 feet) from him, Lith felt that something odd was happening. His mana core started stirring inside of him, trying to release mana. Lith was too tired to put up a fight without a good reason, so he stopped resisting. - "Solus, can you describe to me what’s happening? I can’t activate Life Vision without flooding my eyes with mana." "Tendrils of energy are going out of your body and connecting to the arm. It is... alive?" – When Lith felt the itchy pain from the burns, he was so surprised to unintentionally wriggle his left hand’s fingers. Luckily Marth was still walking, so the sudden movement went unnoticed. - "Now the mana is replacing the blood, reactivating the lingering light fusion from before it was severed. By my maker, it’s healing on its own!" – Solus was free to express her shock, but Lith had to keep his calm demeanour, acting like everything was normal instead of panicking. Just to be certain it wasn’t all a crazy dream, Lith attempted to bend the left little finger. It moved at will. Lith extended his remaining hand to Elina. "Mom, I’m a little scared now." Lith tried to convey his real feelings without arising suspicions, at the same time drawing all the attention on himself. While focusing on his mother’s warmth, he tried to call back the energies from the arm, but to no avail. The closer it got, the stronger the connection. The reattaching process went without a hitch, immediately followed by the healing one. Lith had to carefully remain still the whole time, a single spasm would betray his new and untimely secret. **** The night before the sabotage in the dimensional magic’s training hall, a few hundred kilometres south from the border of the Griffon Kingdom, the High Council of the desert tribes had gathered, trying to plea their case to the Benefactor. The Blood Desert was the biggest out of the three Great Countries in the Garlen continent, the other two being the Griffon Kingdom and the Gorgon Empire. According to many, it was also the strongest and the most dangerous. The reason was that despite its harsh climate, the Blood Desert was the richest one in terms of mystic treasures and natural resources. While in other places to find magic crystals, one had to dig through mountains or explore vast forests, in the Blood Desert it was enough to find an oasis. The geysers of world energy that everywhere else were hidden, and could be found only by sheer luck or resorting to powerful artifacts like Solus or the Scorpicore’s pince-nez, there would manifest themselves in the form of water, vegetation and life. Among its dunes, it was possible to find rock formations rich in a rare metal, the Davross, that after being smelt and forged it would change its colour from silver to black, according to how it was exposed to light, but most importantly was capable of cutting through iron like it was just wood. Davross was the strongest material known to man. Despite its name, the Blood Desert’s sands weren’t red, but yellow gold. It derived from the countless lives lost during the past wars, when the different desert tribes would fight among themselves or against the foreigners trying to rob them of their land. War had been a constant in the desert, because no amount of mana crystals or Davross could turn the weather humid, quench the thirst of humans and cattle or make the land fertile. Despite all the riches it held, food and water had always been the only currency that held any real value in the desert. In the past, the tribes would fight for the control of the oasis, either by their own will or manipulated by the people of the plains, wishing to exploit their needs to pursue the monopoly of resources. But not anymore. After the Benefactor’s arrival, the desert had been unified and the word competition had been replaced by the stranger sounding "cooperation." Oasis were now shared, and each tribe would periodically rotate from one zone of the desert to another, allowing everyone to cyclically enjoy everything their Country had to offer. Each of the tribe leaders, now simply called Feathers, would receive wisdom and power, becoming strong in the ways of magic regardless of the talent they were born with. But what now could seem a divine country, came with a price. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂 The Benefactor’s laws were the only laws, and the lightest punishment for breaking them was death. The Feathers would rule above their people, but any change, small or big had to receive the Benefactor’s approval. Even the High Council had been reduced to a mere formality, only one will really mattered. That was the reason it was now held only after the sunset, when the Benefactor had a less fiery temperament. That night, the convened Feathers, were trying to persuade the Benefactor about the many advantages the desert tribes would reap from invading a weakened Griffon Kingdom.