2566 Poisoned Chalices (Part 4) "The Hydra, even assuming that she really works with the Council and not just for herself, will keep those of us with a Harmonizer here on Garlen, instead. It's a perfect setup to either enslave us just like Glemos did. To use us as hostages to force our brethren to take part in the war and us to undergo their experiments. "You are asking us to take a massive leap of faith based on your delusion about Glemos' grandeur and your clear infatuation with his offspring." "Everything you've said is true, my Queen." Ryla's voice held no spite or taunt. "What I'm proposing is indeed a great gamble that might doom us all." The court was as flabbergasted as Syrah, having a hard time believing their own ears while listening to a meek Warlord caving across the board. "But what's the alternative? Either we stay here and wait for our death, or we follow the undead and put ourselves in equally unreliable hands. To make matters worse, doing that would require us to kill all of our elders and force our children to become adults before moving out of Zelex." Any monster past their prime was considered dead weight while younglings would require constant attention. Both were a liability that the monsters couldn't afford while moving to a hostile environment. Yet while the children could be turned into adults, elders would only get older and weaker. The monsters couldn't afford to waste food on unproductive members of their society nor waste what little time they had taken care of them. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖 The elders knew it as well and that was the reason they had volunteered for the raids as soon as food had become scarce. Those who had survived the mission had already volunteered to be the first to be culled. "There's no safe choice." Ryla continued after her words sunk in. "Only bets that will make us shed blood in different ways. Yet if I have to choose between being afraid of the undead, constantly looking over our shoulder, and the hope for a definitive peace, I choose hope. At a snap of her fingers, the doors of the chamber opened, letting in the children of the members of the court that the Warlord had recalled from the Gardens of Time. Only a few hours had passed after the rites of passage so they hadn't aged much. "Mom!" The younglings screamed as they ran to their respective mothers. The members of the court embraced them without a care of the Warlord's blatant breach of the law. That day had yet to end but lots of blood had already been spilled twice and more would soon be shed based on the court's soon-to-be taken decision. Both parents and children burst into tears, knowing that the joy of the reunion would be fleeting. Lyra stared at them in envy, wishing that Garrik was there with her, but his safety took priority over her feelings. "Remember that if we accept Morok's offer, our kids won't be forced to sacrifice their youth. Unlike the undead, the Council can use dimensional magic and bring us to our destination without the need to travel on foot to another mana geyser. "Also, I'm hopeful, not dumb. There's one last card that we can play with the Council that has no weight for the undead. Let me explain and then make up your mind." *** City of Lutia, Lith's house, at the same time. Morok had left the book about the Harmonizers with Ajatar to decipher it. The Drake had asked the Hydra for help and she had reluctantly accepted. Her plan was to borrow the book and then move to the tower. There, by combining the effects of the Armory to share the effects of the Yggdrasill wood of the Sage Staff, the Eyes of Menadion, and her seven heads, she was certain that cracking the code would take days instead of weeks, if not months. Alas, Lith begged to differ. The moment I proposed to him to do that, he gave me such a glare that I thought he was about to bite my head off. Faluel inwardly sighed. I've forgotten that with Elysia on her way, keeping Lith away from his family is not an option.' Protector had run home as well, eager to check on Selia's condition and if the sharing of his newfound bloodline ability had any kind of side effect on her or the children. Morok felt like shit and despite the success of the plan, he couldn't even bear to look at Lith. The slaughter he had perpetrated and the complete lack of guilt he showed were nothing new, but this time Lith had done it for Morok and this weighed heavily on the Tyrant's conscience. He had gone home with Quylla, the only silver lining was the idea that by coming clean with the children of Glemos and succeeding in giving them a better life, maybe he would be capable of looking at himself in the mirror again. Maybe. "We're home!" Lith opened the door of his house, receiving a warm welcome from all the members of his family despite the late hour. "We bring big news. And when I say big, I mean both in a literal and figurative sense." He pointed with his thumb at Tista who slapped him on the shoulder with such strength that it made him stumble. Raaz and Elina noticed it, but they thought it was just Lith keeping his act as usual and pretending to weigh like a regular human instead of like a Divine Beast. "That's not funny!" Tista flushed in embarrassment. "Those are not comments that a sister wants to hear from her own brother about her body." "I was talking about your weight." Lith pointed at the deep footprints she had left outside and at the creaking of the wooden floor due to her poor control over gravity fusion. "Why are you so flustered?" "I thought you were talking about my b-"The memory of the incident with the scales showing him and Ajatar way more than Tista was comfortable with made her blush harder. Then, she realized that her family had no need to know about her blunder and quickly changed the topic. "I mean, that's still not funny! You shouldn't make fun of a lady's weight." "What about your weight?" Raaz scratched his head in confusion. "You look the same as when you left this morning, maybe even thinner. It wasn't true, but he had learned from experience that a compliment would ease whatever was troubling his daughter. "Thanks, Dad." She chuckled. "But it's quite the opposite. I finally solved my problems with my life forces." "Do you mean that you guys succeeded in putting your hands on a Harmonizer?" Elina looked at Tista's neck, inwardly sighing in relief when she noticed there was nothing. 'My children are already been unfairly treated due to their beast nature. Getting a metal collar like a dog is the last thing my daughter needs. She actually thought. "No. I let my three sides fuse into one and now I am a... What am I, exactly?" She turned toward Lith, at a loss for words.