"How do you think I can possibly be?" Trion stood up abruptly, flipping his chair. "This isn’t my house anymore! You got rid of my room as if it was trash yet you kept Lith’s intact. Everything here stinks of him. Your rings, your clothes, even him!" He said while pointing at Aran, making him cry. "We didn’t get rid of anything. Our room and Tista’s are on the second floor, just like yours. What’s wrong with this house? With your brother Aran? This is a good place where we have a good life." Elina said, her heart hurt by Trion’s words. "Of course the trash goes on the second floor, where it can’t offend his majesty’s eyes! I’ll tell you what’s wrong. You cut me out of your lives to the point that I had to learn from a stranger that I had a brother!" "I never stopped writing to you, but my letters were always returned. According to the army, there was no Trion nor Trion Verhen..." "And there never will be!" Trion yelled, cutting Elina short. "I’m Trion Proudstar now. It’s clear that as long as you have your precious Lith, you have no need for a failure of a son like me. I better be off before I waste more of your time." He walked towards the door, but Raaz grabbed him by the shoulder. "Son, what’s this madness? Why do you always talk about Lith? What did he ever do to you? We don’t love Rena any less just because she’s not a mage. If you are trash, then what about her? What about us?" "Easy. You’re worse than trash and I don’t need you anymore. Don’t bother teaching the runt my name. If I’m not a member of this family, I might as well be disowned too. Even better, I’ll disown you, so at least I’ll spare you the inconvenience to kick me out." He said before storming out of the house *** Lith’s house. Present day. After Raaz finished telling him the whole story, Lith took a deep breath before saying: "I’m sorry it ended up that way." Yet he was sorry for his parents, not for Trion. He had always considered his older brother a lost cause. "Me too, dear." Elina sighed. "Do you want me to go talk to him?" Lith asked. "No, it would only make things worse. Thanks, though." Raaz said. "I think it’s partly our fault. After what happened with Orpal, we have been so overprotective towards Tista that we failed to notice the hole that losing his big brother opened in Trion’s heart. "Maybe if instead of just trying to forget about our lost son we spent more time with him, trying to explain Trion why Orpal had to go, things would have gone differently." "No offense, Dad, but I call bullshit. After Orpal was disowned, you did the best you could and so did everyone else, even me." Lith said. "Why do you say that, dear? You’ve always been a perfect brother." Elina said. "No, I wasn’t. I never liked my brothers and you know it. They couldn’t miss how everyone in the family improved their looks after receiving my treatments and they knew I wouldn’t do the same for them. "By forcing you to keep such an open secret, I created a divide between you and them that further fueled their jealousy. Yet their actions are still inexcusable. Neither Orpal nor Trion ever apologized. Trion has been loved, well fed, and dressed his whole life. "I didn’t love them, but you and Rena did. They had everything they needed yet it was never enough. I never bullied nor humiliated them by showing off my powers. I always minded my own business asking the same from them. "Their problem has always been that their abilities didn’t match their expectations. Even after all these years, the only person Trion worries about is Trion. "He didn’t ask about Rena or Tista, right?" Both of his parents shook their heads. "Always a self centered a... apple." Lith corrected himself while looking at Aran. "Mom, Dad, you’ve been two wonderful parents and whoever says otherwise is a liar, stupid, or both." He stood up and hugged them both, hoping to better convey his feelings. "Maybe you’re right, son, but it’s a parent’s job to take care of their children, even when they are lost." Raaz said. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖 Lith went back to Solus’s tower to use its empowering effects to learn more about the methods his most successful colleagues had used in the past. Creating the optic nerve from scratch was simple. Lith only had to use Kamila as a blueprint and Zinya’s flesh and blood as materials. Them being sisters made their physiology similar enough that what worked for Kamila was supposed to work for Zinya too. The problem was that the new tissues and nerve endings would occupy an already taken place, so the problem was twofold. Connecting the optic nerve to both eyes and brain without harming either and make space for them without mutilating the patient. Lith tried different approaches, working on his holograms while keeping active both Scanner and Chisel for hours. His success rate improved dramatically with practice and observation, but in the end, they were just simulations. Lith had never manipulated life force to that extent. He kept revising all the material Quylla had sent to him and spent the rest of the time studying the life force of his own optic nerve. ’Dammit. Even if I kidnap Fallmug and experiment on him, it would be pointless. He’s a healthy subject, whereas I’d need one with Zinya’s condition.’ He thought. ’We can only hope that Vastor has an ace in the hole. Otherwise it might be better to let him operate while we watch.’ Solus proposed. ’It’s a good idea, but I’d feel more comfortable with him making space for the optic nerve and then connecting it to the rest, while I do everything else. Vastor is an outstanding mage, but a fake mage nonetheless. ’If something goes wrong, I can fix it faster and better than...’ Lith’s thoughts were interrupted by his communication amulet. A single, long beep warned him that shit had just hit the fan. *** City of Xylita, a few minutes ago. Fallmug Sarta was fuming with rage like he hadn’t been in months. The day before he had noticed that something was wrong, but he had paid it no heed. His stupid servants were always jumpy around him for no reason and that stupid wench of Vylna was just an attention whore. Only after noticing that even his neighbors threw odd glances at him had Fallmug decided it was time to get some answers. It didn’t take him long to learn about Kamila’s second visit. The house staff was much more terrified of losing their job than of a random mage. Lith was gone, whereas they had to live there. Their families depended on their job and getting fired without receiving good references would have meant having no future. "Why you didn’t send her away? Have you forgotten what I have instructed you to tell that cunt?" Fallmug’s face was centimeters away from Vylna’s, his lips curled in outrage. "I wanted to, but there was a Great Mage with her." "Who cares about a Mage! That was an abuse of authority, you should have called the guards!" Fallmug hated Kamila’s guts. Not only did the little wench always reject him, but also now that she had her new boyfriend, she was the only thing his family would talk about.