Chapter 4356: New Deal (Part 4)

"Oh." Friya blushed in embarrassment before glowering at her friends. "Thanks, guys. If you ruined this for me, I would have never forgiven you."

"I’m sorry!" Solus bowed deeply in apology, foiling Lith’s attempt to deny Tezka’s claim. "I’m just that curious."

"Don’t worry, kid. I’m not angry." The Fylgja patted her head as if she were a small child. "Speaking about curiosity, what is your Divine Beast form called?"

Solus opened her mouth to answer, sifting through every book stored inside Soluspedia and Lith’s memory.

"Vritra." She replied. "I recently awakened my Vritra bloodline, but keep it a secret, please. I need the advantage of surprise for Meln’s next attack."

"Isn’t it too late for that?" Tezka asked. "Jorl will surely tell him about that."

"No, it’s not." Lith sighed. "Take my hand, or this will take a while to explain."

***

Lith shared everything about Jorl’s betrayal with Tezka except the part about the Black Throne. He didn’t lie to the Fylgja. He simply omitted every piece of information about the cursed tower, afraid of what Vastor might do with that information.

Tezka noticed the lapses in Lith’s memories but said nothing. He already knew about the Black Throne and guessed the rest by himself.

When Filia, Frey, and Zinya arrived at the Mansion, the Suneater took his leave and joined the kids in their winter games.

"Damn, I can’t believe we’ve been so lucky, Solus." Lith had a radiant, joyful smile that creeped everyone out but the babies.

"You can say that." Solus raised an eyebrow as she moved everyone to the Crucible. "If Friya hadn’t struck that deal with Tezka and Nalrond hadn’t carried the Summoner Stone on him, we’d be dead."

"That’s old history." He scoffed, brushing the argument away with a sweep of his hand. "I’m talking about the motherlode we hit today and the terms of our agreement with our mission partners!"

He played the hologram of the conversation they had the day before departing for Jiera, putting particular emphasis on the parts where everyone settled for a limited share of the loot and left the rest to Lith and Solus.

"If we shared the Adamant equally like usual, we would have incurred a major loss."

"And I would be much closer to settling my debt." Tista groaned, holding her head in desperation.

"That’s low, Lith. Even for you." Protector snorted. "We all risked our lives."

"Yeah, but Tezka did most of the job and killed Salanoth." Lith countered soberly. "He left his share of the loot to me, so you can’t complain."

"I can and I will." Morok grunted. "But a deal is a deal. Know that I blame Selia for our situation, Ryman."

"Why? What does my wife have to do with any of this? She wasn’t even part of the expedition." Protector was flabbergasted.

"Maybe, if she didn’t pull rip-off deals on Lith since he was a child, he wouldn’t have grown into such a... peculiar man."

"Dya bet! Dya bet!" Elysia had no idea what was happening, but she could taste the salty tears of the defeated and praised her father as the best.

"Thank you, sweetie." Lith peppered her face with kisses, making her giggle. "Look, my children. One day, all of this will be yours."

He weaved at the mass of shining metal gurling on the lava surface of the Crucible. The Adamant sparkled under the magical lights of the tower, producing many rainbows and dazzling the small children.

Valeron didn’t care much, but Lith looking at him as he spoke meant the world to the young boy.

"I’m sorry, guys, but now I can’t be angry at him." Quylla sighed. "Lith is not taking the metal to himself, but for his children. In his shoes, I’d do the same thing."

Many grumbles followed, but everyone shared Quylla’s sentiment.

"I’ll let you keep whatever equipment you Forgemaster with your share of Adamant in the Spark to make it up to you." Lith said. "I can be more generous with the Orichalcum, but that will take a while to turn into Adamant."

"Enchanted metal aside, we’ve gained a lot today." Protector said. "Meln and Jorl lost one of their key players, and Friya is bound to become much more powerful once she learns the crafting technique for dimensional crystals.

"We could even add them to our equipment the next time we upgrade it. Imagine Ragnarök with eight different elemental crystals. It would be something beyond even the Saefel Sword."

Thousands of kilometers away, the Royals felt a cold shiver running down their spine for no apparent reason.

***

Meanwhile, in the living room, Zinya discussed the latest news with Elina and Kamila.

"I was really surprised when Tezka left us all of a sudden and had Nelia replace him." She said. "Do you have any idea what business Lith had in Jiera, and why it was so urgent? I thought that things had been quiet after... the event."

Kamila’s sister was a regular guest and a friend of the family. She and her children had come to visit the Verhens as often as they could after the failed kidnapping attempt.

Filia and Frey were self-proclaimed professional kidnapping targets and wanted to support their friends by sharing their experience. Zinya, instead, wanted to be close to her sister and make up for Vastor’s absence.

There was always at least one Guardian at the Mansion, making even a social visit incredibly dangerous for the Master. He had no idea Mogar had asked the Guardians not to kill him, and the Guardians had never let him know he was off the hook.

"I have no idea." Elina poured her friend a cup of warm tea. "Lith is always busy with something, and I prefer to stay out of it. He ends up putting himself in danger way too often, and if I know too much, I spend my days worrying about him."

"I know what Lith was doing, but I can’t share it with you, Zin." Kamila sighed. "Magus Awakened husband-wife confidentiality. You know how much mages love to share their secrets on a need-to-know basis only."

"Tell me about it." Zinya sighed harder. ’Zogar too travels often, and he rarely tells me where or why.’

’I have to be like Elina, yet I’d love to be like Kami.’ She thought. ’I wish Zogar stopped treating me like a crystal vase that can shatter just by looking at it too hard. He can trust me with his secrets.

’I wouldn’t worry so much if at least I knew what his secret experiments are about. Maybe.’

"Cookie?" A Warp Steps brought the kids back to their mother, and Valeron the Second shuffled towards Zinya, offering her a chocolate cookie with both hands.

"Thanks, sweetie." She took the biscuit like a treasure and caressed the young boy’s head. "Gods, this is the best cookie ever."

Valeron beamed at those words and rushed to hand-pick a cookie for Elina and another for Kamila.

"Dinia!" Elysia didn’t like being outperformed by her brothers, but unlike Valeron, she was forbidden from getting close to the cookie tray.

She had been caught more than once trying to shove the sweets in her own mouth, so she could only display her growing vocabulary.

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