"Because back then I already had my suspicions." Menadion replied. "Not that he had discovered a Garden of Mogar, mind you, or I would have forced the truth out of him with any means necessary." "Mom!" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦 "Solus!" Ripha mirrored her tone and intonation. "Now that we have established our identities, let me continue. As I was saying, I had my suspicions. Pharek was a talented mage, or I would never have taken him in as my apprentice, yet once I gifted him the Ears, he became good with them quickly. "Too good and too quickly. He was a brilliant mage, but not that brilliant. He learned in weeks what had taken me years to grasp before I fused the Ears with the tower. He even taught me a couple of useful tricks." "I'm sorry, but what's so special about this place?" Solus asked, and when meeting Menadion's disapproving gaze, rushed to add: "I mean, besides the obvious." "Put on the Ears, dear, and you'll see it." Ripha offered Solus the artifact,t and she wore it. The tower fueled the full power of the Ears, triggering its synesthesia effect and avoiding the sensory overload. Yet Solus was assailed by a feeling of dizziness as if countless people were talking in her ears at the same time, and the scenery changed so fast that her eyes didn't have time to focus on a single detail. "Relax and take a deep breath." Menadion said. "Don't try to take in everything at once. Do it like with the Eyes. Filter everything out and focus solely on me." Solus followed Ripha's instructions and cut off all energy signatures but hers. Solus knew Menadion's mana flow like the back of her hand, and the fact that it stood still in one place helped her greatly. "Now open up just a bit." Menadion said. "Expand your senses to include solely the nearest and strongest current that you can feel brushing against your skin." "What now?" Solus needed just a bit of effort to succeed. "Now follow the current as it moves away from us. Keep ignoring everything else and use the Ears to ride the world energy to the farthest corners of the Garden. Keep at it until the current comes back here and then jump off." The experience lasted less than five minutes but by the end of it, Solus was drenched with sweat and panting heavily. "Gods, that was insane." She wheezed. "There is no fixed path. The world energy kept moving around like a frenzied snake, changing its course abruptly whenever it bumped into another stream of world energy. "Keeping my focus and not getting drowned in all the information storming around me took everything I got." "My point exactly." Menadion nodded. "Now, imagine doing this until you can follow one current with ease. Then, two, three, and so on until the entire Garden is in the palm of your hand." "By my Mom!" Solus exclaimed. "Thank you, dear." Menadion chuckled. "This is what I meant before. This place is perfect to train in the use of the Ears. Every wild current of world energy is akin to the mana flow of an enchantment gone awry. "If you master the Garden, there will be no spell you can't bring to heel with the Ears, no matter how complex. This is how Pharek beat me at my own game. Fancy another attempt?" "No." Solus grunted, sending the Ears of Menadion back to the tower. "We're here to spend some time together and enjoy ourselves. Not to work ourselves to the bone." "Ba!" Elysia landed on Solus' shoulder and joined her in rebuking the First Ruler of the Flames. "Ba! Ba!" "Thanks, sweetie." Solus appreciated both the support and the fruits the baby carried with her as gifts. "As for you, Mom, I can't believe how fixated you are on work. Now I understand why Aunt Loka crafted the legendary seventh piece of the set, the Chains of Menadion." "Those contraptions have never been part of the set!" Ripha grunted. "On top of that, Lochra crafted them, so you should call them the Chains of Silverwing." Solus referred to the set of mystical chains the First Magus had Forgemastered on Threin's request. Ripha had the bad habit of rushing to her lab whenever she had a sudden spark of inspiration, which happened very often. It didn't matter if Ripha was on a date with her husband, at the dinner table with her family, or breastfeeding her daughter. If left unchecked, Ripha would bolt away and not return until the spark was gone. The chains solved the problem by locking her in place until Threin freed her with his imprint. "Aunt Loka may have Forgemastered the chains, but it's you who made them a legend." Solus chuckled, picturing her mother locked to the table like a maximum security inmate. "Also, Chains of Menadion has a better ring to it." "That, I can't deny." Ripha sighed. "I literally make everything better. It's a gift and a curse." "You're incredible, Mom." Solus laughed harder. "You manage to brag even about your flaws. Jokes aside, why are you so fixated on work even now? You should enjoy this moment of peace, Mom. They are rarer than you think." "I am enjoying this moment, dear." Menadion scratched her head in embarrassment. "Or rather, I would, if this little imp stopped calling me bad!" "Ba!" Elysia pouted. "Baba!" "What a rascal! So now I'm very bad?" Ripha pouted back. "I'm Grandma Ripha. You can call me Gama, Riri, Gari, but not Baba." "Baba." The baby girl stood defiant in Solus' arms. "Suit yourself." Ripha grunted. "About your first question, sweetie, I'm fixated on work because I want to protect this peace. Mastering the Ears in their complete form is no easy feat, let alone as they are now. "Without the proper training, instead of complementing the other pieces of the set and bringing out each other's full potential, there's the risk the Ears might drag you down during a fight. "That once assembled together, the pieces of the set might be less than the sum of the single parts." "What do you mean, Mom?" Solus asked. "Even though all pieces of my set are equally powerful, there's no denying that the Ears and the Eyes are the most complex." Ripha replied. "Unlike the Mouth, Fury, and Hands that just assist a Forgemaster in their job, the Eyes and Ears also take a toll on them. "The flow of information they both provide can be overwhelming, and while the worst that can happen in the safety of your lab is getting a headache, during a fight that can easily mean… bad stuff." "I know." Solus nodded. "Sensory overload is a real issue. That's how we 'subdued' Maergron." "My point exactly." Ripha sighed. "Cutting the flow of world energy was enough to paralyze him. And that even though he was the rightful heir of the Ears, he knew how to lock and unlock them, and had trained in their use for years. "Imagine what might happen to you and Lith if that were to happen to you while wearing both the Ears and Eyes." "I'd rather not." Solus shuddered at the imaginary pain. "Is it always going to be like that? Even after the tower becomes whole again?" "That depends." Ripha shrugged. "Depends on what?"