Chapter 4043: Child of Fire (Part 2) ’Discipline didn’t work either. Any punishment would only make him angrier. What if he tried again? Even worse, what if the next time he succeeded? And even if he didn’t, with what face could I have looked my other children in the eyes? ’Rena, Lith, and Tista would have felt unsafe in their own home.’ As Raaz was lost in thought, the small and battered figure of Lith from almost sixteen years ago flashed in front of Raaz’s eyes. He was covered in blood, with bruises all over his small face. He had lost several milk teeth that day, giving him an even more wretched appearance. Then, Lith’s bloody figure was replaced by Raaz’s own. He saw himself, chained to a wooden table in the Hogum Mansion, with bloody stumps where his arms and legs were supposed to be. A cold sweat covered Raaz’s skin, and he needed sheer willpower to keep himself rooted in the present. ’I did the right thing.’ He clenched his teeth, pushing back the memories of Orpal’s tortures. ’I don’t know what went wrong with him, but Meln was rotten from the start. I didn’t turn him into the Dead King, nor did Night. ’It was always inside of Meln, and if I didn’t kick him out, someone would have gotten hurt. At that point, I would have been as responsible as he for refusing to face reality. ’As for Night, she enabled Meln. She gave him everything he needed to escape the consequences of his cruelty, bringing his true nature to the surface. There was nothing Elina and I could do, and Trion is proof of it. ’He envied Lith all his life and resented us for disowning his beloved big brother, but he never hurt anyone. He became a drill sergeant. A reliable older brother for his cadets and a brother-in-arms to his comrades. ’And when Night came for him, he turned her down.’ Raaz turned to look at his son, who was having dinner with the rest of the family. ’She killed him. Night killed my boy, and Meln still dared bond with her.’ That was the last straw that silenced Raaz’s conscience. Not the suffering or mutilations that Meln had inflicted upon him, but Meln’s indifference to the fate of the only sibling he had always claimed to love. "Are you alright, Dad?" Trion returned Raaz’s gaze and noticed how pale his father had become. "Yes, son. Thank you." Raaz cleared his throat, trying to sound normal. "I’m just shaken from what happened to Lutia." "About that, I noticed that many among Big Brother Lith’s friends have similar-sounding names." Aran pointed out. "I mean, Valtak, Erghak, Ghirslak, they all end in -ak, just like Ral." "Because the -ak suffix means ’of Dragon’ in Dragontongue, and adding it is considered auspicious when choosing a name for a baby." Leegaain explained. "But Ghirslak is a Wyvern." Leria furrowed her brows. "Indeed, but they still carry my blood. Also, their greatest ambition is to become Dragons." Leegaain replied, avoiding mentioning the inferiority complex that plagued the Wyvern bloodline and its common arrogance. "What about Auntie Zoreth?" Aran asked. "Why didn’t you name her Zorak?" "Just because something is auspicious, it doesn’t mean that everyone should use it. Otherwise, my children would all have names so similar that distinguishing them would be nigh impossible." Leegaain replied. "Also, there is more than one auspicious suffix in Dragontongue. "I named your Auntie Zoreth, which means ’Scion of fire’, to honor both her bloodlines and not make her feel forced to embrace mine over her mother’s." ’Yet she discarded my blood and became an Abomination.’ The Guardian inwardly sighed. ’And now that I think about it, the same happened to Azith. Maybe Aran is right, and I should have called her Zorak.’ "Wait, are you telling me that ’-th’ means ’of fire’?" Leria asked, and Leegaain nodded in reply. "Like Uncle Lith?" The Guardian choked on his food at the realization and started to cough wildly. ’Maybe I should ban the "-th" suffix.’ Leegaain thought, needing several glasses of water to calm down. ’Three out of three dealing in Abomination powers is more than a coincidence. It’s a curse.’ "No, sweetie. That’s not what Lith means." Elina was glad of the silly question that distracted her from her worries. "The name we had originally chosen for your uncle was ’Strata’, which means ’brave and strong’. "Yet after he was born, Nana claimed that he was blessed by the light, so we changed his name in Lith, which means ’child of light’." Elina avoided mentioning the complications at birth, not wanting to scare the kids. "Child of light?" Lith echoed as he almost choked on his food as well. "Why have I never heard about this before?" "Because aside from a parent, no one really cares about the meaning of a name." Elina chuckled. "Do you know what my name means? Or that of anyone else in the family, for that matter?" "Actually, no." Lith rubbed his chin. "Before Kami got pregnant with Elysia, I never really cared about names. Even mine." "I rest my case." Elina nodded, taking her victory with grace. "Grandpa?" Aran looked at Leegaain. "Is Mom right?" 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺 "Yes and no." The Guardian cleaned his mouth with a napkin and put the fork down. "Yes, Lith means child of light in Tyris’ universal language. No, because Auntie Tyris took a few words from my Dragontongue. "Lith actually means ’child of fire’. She slightly altered its meaning to remove the part about the potentially destructive nature of fire and emphasize its aspects as a source of warmth and radiance." Everyone turned to look at Tyris, who just said: "He’s right." "This isn’t fair! Why is Big Brother the only one with a Dragon name?" Aran pouted. "Can I change my name in Arakh? Please?" "If you want to be known as ’Meal of Dragon’, sure." Leegaain nodded. "Mom, how could you call me like that?" Aran’s eyes misted with tears as he stared at his mother as if she had betrayed him. "That’s not what it means!" Elina became beet red in embarrassment. "Aran means heavens’ blessing!" "Which is how we Dragons call our favorite dishes." Leegaain replied. "What about me?" Leria asked, too afraid of hearing an even more ridiculous meaning for her own name to mock Aran’s. "What does Leriakh mean?" "Leria of Dragon." Leegaain shrugged. "As I said, Tyris picked a few words from Dragontongue, not the entire vocabulary. Leria is not among them." "Mom!" Leria pouted. "How could you be so mean to me?" "How was I supposed to know Dragontongue?" Rena tried to defend herself. "Also, why are you blaming me? What about your father?" "Well said, baby girl. Know that it’s all your mother’s fault." Senton didn’t hesitate one second to throw Rena under the bus. "You’ll pay for this." She muttered under her breath. "You wound my heart, Featherlings." Salaark sighed. "You all care for your names in old lizard-tongue and didn’t even bother to ask about Phoenixtongue." "Does it exist?" The room went into an uproar. "What does my name mean?" The children raised their voices louder and louder, trying to speak over the others and get their answer.