Chapter 1897 Necessary Adjustments (Part 1) "How did it go?" Selia asked, biting her lower lip in excitement. "Did you take a ride on the Dragon or…" "No, yesterday was the Tiamat's turn. The Dragon is not human enough for my taste and the Abomination lacks the fun parts." Kamila replied, making Lith inwardly scream. "Excellent choice. Always starts from what you are familiar with and then go with the flow." Selia said. "I envy you so much. One husband, four bodies. You are not going to get bored any soon, that's for sure." "You think?" Kamila asked. "I speak from experience. At first, you keep things as human-like as you can, then you start exploring. After a while, in for a penny, in for a pounding I say [AN: freely translated from kinky Mogarian]." "You can always change your mind about the Dragon. As for the Abomination, I wouldn't worry too much. There's still the bright violet. Maybe it just needs-" Lith's scream turned from internal to external as he ran out of the house and away until he couldn't hear them talking anymore. "By the Great Mother." He said while splashing some cold water on his face to calm down. "If I ever had a shred of innocence left, today is the day I lost it for good." *** Griffon Kingdom, at the same time. The news of Lith's escape to the Blood Desert had spread like wildfire throughout the Kingdom and more kept coming every day. Rumors had that the Divine Beast Archmage had become even stronger. That a woman had defected the Kingdom to marry him. That Salaark had recognized him as her son and wanted to share the throne of the Desert with him if Lith had an heir. The Royals and everyone else had a hard time discerning the truth from exaggeration, but knowing Salaark, all of the above was quite possible. After receiving the package announcing Lith's wedding, the ambassadors and even Jirni had their access to the Desert revoked. There was no way to confirm or deny any of those rumors and asking their spies to investigate gossip would have been a waste of resources. Something they couldn't afford with the current state of the War of the Griffons. The Council had resolved to help the Royals in battle and things were going much better, but Thrud kept advancing. Her troops were immortal and fought until turned into shreds whereas the Awakened cared a lot about their lives and preferred to retreat to fight another day than die. "We need to take out the Golden Griffon or this war will never end." Meron said to Raagu. The Council and the Royal Court were assembled in Valeron's War Room to plan their next course of action. The good thing about their new allies was that thanks to the Awakened's help, the Royals had uprooted all the Thralls in the palace, leaving Orpal no spies. "Yeah, that's why it was a terrible move to drive Verhen away." The human representative snarled. "It takes the whole Council to take down a single lost city and he destroyed two by himself. "On top of that, the Golden Griffon is nothing like the other lost cities. It moves, defends itself, and is heavily guarded." "Verhen's banishment wasn't part of our plan!" Sylpha snarled. "More importantly, why didn't you ask him how he destroys lost cities? Didn't Verhen share his secrets with you?" "Why would he do that?" Every mage in the room looked at the Queen like a madwoman. "Point taken." She sighed. "Can't you at least contact him? Ask him for suggestions?" "No." Feela replied. "Salaark has cut off all communications. She says she doesn't want to be bothered and neither does her family. Worst case scenario, we have to hold out for a month." *** Griffon Kingdom, city of Othre, Orpal's underground palace. "This wasn't part of the plan!" The Dead King screamed over and over every time he read one of the outrageous reports he received from the Desert. Raaz had survived, his family now lived in the Supreme Palace, Lith was happily married, and he would soon rule the Desert. On top of that, the Kingdom still refused to put on auction the Verhen's home and Mansion. As for the silver mines, Lith had a partner in the business. This Zolgrish not only had claimed full ownership, defending his property from the Kingdom with a battalion of lawyers, but he had also somehow gotten rid of the assassins that Orpal had sent to kill him. Little did the Dead King know that Inxialot had included his apprentice's mines in the deal with the Royals and that there was no person in the Undead Courts, not even his Chosen, who could take on a Lich in his own lab. Zolgrish welcomed the assassins like a hungry dog with a camion of cheeseburgers. He had no idea why someone was so kind to keep sending him fresh batches of specimens. He could have easily investigated the phenomenon, but he forgot about the matter as he forgot about anything else. "I didn't stop him from marrying a two-bits princess to make him an Overlord!" Orpal tossed and trashed the high-end furniture of his room in his frenzy. "He was supposed to be at the lowest point of his life. "To know nothing but despair like I did for over ten years! Not to have the time of his life!" Night couldn't answer him since Baba Yaga's seal kept her from hurting Lith even in an indirect way. She couldn't calm Orpal down, couldn't help him with his plans nor their execution. "Let's see how many people are left on the list." He took out a piece of paper with the names of those he had sent a Balkor card to. "Marth never gets out of the academy. Maybe I could target his wife and his half-breed son. "Wanemyre is single and she doesn't come out either. Vastor-" At that name, a fear so intense coursed through Night's crystal that Orpal's mouth dried. The Horseman still remembered their two previous encounters and how badly the Master had beaten her. Sure, back then Orpal was much weaker and she hadn't used her steed. Yet she knew that Zogar Vastor had held back as well. She had replayed the fight countless times with her eidetic memory and the result was always the same. The Master had played with Night the whole time. Like an athlete facing an insignificant opponent, he had just bided his time to put up a show for the audience and not reveal his true power. The Horseman knew of Vastor's Abomination powers since the day of the failed attack on Zinya and they scared her to death. Tezka would have killed her one hundred times if only he had known about the crystal, their only weak point. Now that the identity of the copycat had been revealed, both Tezka and Vastor knew where to strike. One Chaos spell and her eternal life would end. "Vastor is not a worthy opponent. He is just a pathetic, fat, old man." Orpal said, hiding his fear behind spite. "The Ernas sisters I want them alive. Orion is always surrounded by guards…" While drumming his fingers on the table, Jirni's business card caught his attention.