2681 Key to Power (Part 1) "You are a real gentleman, sweetie." Salaark ruffled Aran's hair. "Yes, I do have theories." Leegaain hated being interrupted but he also loved children so the two things cancelled each other. "The first and more obvious possibility is that Meln is behind the attempts. "Night is smart enough to spread the terms of our oath around and use idiots to put her theories to the test. "Sounds like something he would do, but there's a catch." Lith pondered. Everyone knew about Orpal's obsession with the women in Lith's life and his desire to destroy everything and everyone he loved. "He wasn't there on that day and Night never had informants in the Council. The Undead Courts have no way to know either and Baba Yaga's Firstborns already refused to help him." "I know." Leegaain nodded. "This brings us to the second and more disturbing theory: Elysia was never the target, just a distraction. The real goal of these kidnapping attempts is to lay the foundations for Kamila's murder once the baby is born." Everyone spat out their tea while Lith and Salaark dropped their cups. The silver-veined porcelain shattered, staining the hand-woven carpet below the chairs with the liquid it contained. "Murder her? Why?" Lith could feel his stomach churning in worry, the pain from the partial fusion of his life forces returning as both the Void and the Voidfeather went on a rampage. "Are you seriously asking me that?" Leegaain raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Okay, let me summarize it for you. You are a Magus. You have proven to have a great talent for Forgemastery that has further bloomed after receiving lessons from Salaark herself. "You are a self-Awakened who has achieved the violet core on his own. You carry the bloodline of two Guardians and are a Divine Beast yourself. You are the inventor of the Trains and the Tablets that soon will be widespread on both Jiera and Garlen. "You are the link with both the elves of the Fringe and monsters of Zelex so it's reasonable to assume that whoever has influence over you also has influence over the entire colonization process." "That's still about me! What does Kamila-" "Let me finish, dammit." Leegaain snarled. "Your offspring is now renowned for having the Guardians' protection and your bloodline has already proven to be quite potent. Kamila, if you please." Lith wanted to pose more questions but Leegaain looked royally pissed off and Lith didn't want to push his luck since even Salaark seemed to have no idea what he was talking about. "It was supposed to be a secret, but okay." Kamila cleared her throat in embarrassment. "After you returned from the Golden Griffon, I've decided to learn magic so that I'll be capable of following Elysia around as she grows up and avoid ending up like Threin. "Solus has been giving me secret lessons whenever we had the time and during her absence, Grandpa took her place." She gave him a bow. "No need to thank me, Em'hel (AN: daughter of mine in draconic). It's always a pleasure teaching to such a fascinating student." Lith tried to speak in confusion, but Leegaain's glare shut him up. "Please, show them what you can do." Kamila used a few tier one and two spells, which was unsurprising due to her deep yellow mana core. The tier three, however, were quite impressive, especially her flight spell. It was nothing special per se, but a deep yellow core showing the precision and control over the mana flow necessary to fly with the grace of a bird instead of the roughness of a tossed rock was rare. "I wanted to tell you all of this on our next date to surprise you." She blushed a little with pride. "To show you that I can fly on my own now. This instead, is really hard." Kamila waved her hands to better control her mana as she attempted the second exercise of the path necessary to master dimensional magic, Pilfer. The spell required to open two small gates at a variable distance. It also demanded the student to make them big and stable enough to let their hand through. The spell's name derived from being originally created by dimensional mages to steal or pickpocket from a distance. Lith recognized the dot of light and when it stretched into two black spheres that slowly distorted the space between them in the familiar funnel-like shape of an event horizon, his jaw dropped to the floor along with those of everyone else but Leegaain's. Kamila failed to stabilize the black spheres and no Gate appeared. The spell collapsed on itself with a crackle and a thud. "Sorry, it's really hard and I have only so much time to practice." Kamila panted, her stomach grumbling for a well-deserved recharge. "What was that?" Friya jumped up from her chair. "And don't you dare answer me literally! I know the spell. I mean how can she even do it?" "Oh, yeah, sorry. I forgot to tell you that I'm using what Solus calls the spoon-feeding method. I achieved none of this on my own, I just follow Solus' and Leegaain's instructions." Kamila shrugged. "Whenever I hit a wall, they tell me how to overcome it." "This just makes your performance way less amazing but it's still damn disturbing." Friya replied. "Spoon-fed or not, how can a deep yellow core do that? I've seen cyan cores struggling to hold the dimensional energies in place!" "I'm pregnant, duh!" Kamila said it like it explained everything and it did. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked after noticing that everyone was pale and shocked. "Because you've just proved my point." Leegaain sighed. "Elysia is already past the red core and I think she'll reach the bright red before even being born. Yet that's not enough to explain the amplification effect she has on her mother. "To do that, Elysia must have the same potency of a full Divine Beast like Shargein and also have passed onto Kamila her affinities." A snap of his fingers covered Kamila in black, red, and yellow scales. "Another affinity?" Lith was flabbergasted. "Now, do you still want to ask me why they want to kill her?" Leegaain asked. "Actually, yes." Rena said. "It still makes no sense to me." "Because, child, your brother is powerful, talented, influential, and monogamous. If you also take into account his known crippled life force and the fact that Kamila has Awakened, you now have a full picture." "They want to kill me to take my place?" Kamila said in horror. "Yes, it makes perfect sense." Salaark nodded. "It happened to all of us even before we became Guardians. Our partners would be targeted just so that we would return to the dating market. "I mean, think about it. The woman who hecomes I ith's wife will have the influence of a targeted just so that we would return to the dating market. "I mean, think about it. The woman who becomes Lith's wife will have the influence of a Magus, the standing on the Royal Court of a Baroness, and control over the colonization of Jiera. "If she's also an Awakened, imagine what she could do with another Elysia in her womb and the protection of three Guardians. A real mage with a violet core would be unstoppable. No offense, dear."