"Aunt Scar?" A sad expression set on the Sekht's face as she looked at the young Vampire, as if she was contemplating the painting of a late friend instead of celebrating the reunion with a lost one. "Is everything okay?"
"Not really, but it will be."
"What's with your hair, this tent, and the village? Are you being punished?" Nyka asked.
"No, I'm not. Don't worry, child." Scarlett chuckled, a spark of her old self appeared and disappeared just as quickly. "I've cut and altered my hair for my mourning period. Before you ask, no one died. I'm mourning my old life." She said with a heavy sigh.
"The tent, instead, was my first task after receiving Salaark's Forgemastery lessons. I had to use my newfound powers and what she taught to craft living quarters befitting of my size and treasures.
"It's a basic necessity for a Guardian. In the future, no place will be big enough to accommodate my real form and contain everything I'll possess. Unless I conquer a small state and kick out everyone else, of course." The Sekht laughed at her own joke.
"The only thing I don't understand is what you have against the village. I think it's lovely."
"It's small, Auntie. I have been to the Desert as Solus' guest and I've never seen a tribe with so few tents." Nyka didn't miss how the eyes of the Scorpicore beca colder at the ntion of her friend.
"Again, you can't look past the surface of things. You focus too much on how things are instead of how they will beco. What if I told you that this village had barely twenty tents and no magical beast when Balkor was just a citizen of the Desert?
"That the number doubled once he beca a Feather and then doubled again after he shared part of his legacy with the Overlord and received the title of Blood Magus? I've been assigned to the Forgotten Plu village to witness its growth and assist its people to the best of my abilities.
"Over thirty new tents have been raised since my arrival. Balkor teaches magic to his subjects and I help him with his duties. In turn, I'm learning about myself and the balance. About how to let people of different races grow fast enough to thrive but slow enough not to devour themselves."
"And why do you need to learn this?" Nyka asked.
"Because of the voices, child. Guardians hear them all the ti, even when no one is calling our nas. When soone invokes one of us in particular, we can't cut them out even if we want to." Scarlett replied.
"At first, I was tempted to grant every gods-damned wish just to make the voices shut up, but it would have brought chaos and death. People only care about themselves and when they dream big, they have no care for the consequences.
"A single wish could destroy society as you know it while if conflicting wishes were to be fulfilled, the mayhem they cause would be incalculable. Not to ntion that Guardians aren't supposed to be like the genies from fairy tales.
"We hear the voices not to be told what to do, but to find those who need us and follow our ambitions. Consider this village like a scaled-down version of Mogar. I can influence its developnt as witness the ripples of my actions in an acceptable tiline."
"Okay." Nyka now had a much better understanding of Scarlett's assignnt to the Forgotten Plu tribe but was also worried to the bone.
She could barely recognize the loving and playful Scorpicore in the person standing in front of her and only because the Sekht's voice was unchanged.
"Aunt Scar, there's only one thing I don't understand. Why are you grieving your old life? The forest is still thriving and so is Sentar and all the friends you've left there. I'm still undead and kicking ass in the Eclipsed Lands.
"Mom and Nok live there with and would love to see you. Nothing has been lost during the past two years."
"Nothing but , child." The Sekht replied. "I've been reborn into a Guardian and to be reborn, you have to die first. It took a long while and many a discussion with four of the six original Guardians to understand there is no place for in my old life.
"Going back to the forest, or to you, would be too painful. All the people I know, all the places I love, I would watch them wither and die in what for is now a heartbeat. Even Awakened are a fleeting existence to .
"Rather than suffer helplessly, I prefer to mourn their death already and never co back. I'll make new friends and mories but, this ti, I'll avoid getting attached. There is no point to that."
"There is a point!" Nyka jumped up from her seat. "You can't just hide until everyone is gone and let them think you've abandoned them. That would be petty and cruel. Also, I'm not going to die.
"Mom, may the gods damn her stubbornness, might beco a Lich and live forever as well. Vladion is one of the oldest creatures on Mogar yet he has not given up on anything. You are not grieving, you are just avoiding pain."
"You are being foolish, child." Scarlett stood up slowly. "Vampires are eternally young, but they die every day. What Liches have is no life. It's just a prison of their own making whose walls are made of toil and whose bars are crafted by dentia.
"Vladion is an even worse fool than you, child. He has bound himself to weak insects that will drag him down. He will surely Awaken his wife first, and when she starts becoming old, he'll offer her undeath.
"Whatever she chooses, Vladion will lose his wife. Either to death or to the side effects of his condition. He has endured them for so long that he considers them normal but they are not.
"Lysa will be crushed by the many limits of undeath, and even if she cos to accept her new form, it will take her centuries. By then, she won't be the sa person anymore. The sa will happen to Radusk, Vladion's beloved son.
"As for you, child, you are the closest thing to Baba Yaga's dream I've ever seen. You haven't been scarred by life because you've never endured it. We both know that as soon as you gain the full red blood core, you'll beco human.
"You will give birth to yourself and regain your powers over ti, since you are already Awakened. I wish you a long and happy life. A loving partner and as many children as you want. But I won't stand there and watch you die."
Scarlett's body tensed. She clenched her fists and her eyes turned watery.
"What about the other Guardians? They have plenty of friends, children-"
"Enough!" A wave of the Sekht's hand banished Nyka. "Bring Verhen here, Crevan. Tell him to be quick. My patience is short and I have no wish to play his stupid gas."
***
"…and lovers! They don't mope- Farm you, Aunt Scar, and find yourself a good healer to take the stick out of your alps!" Nyka appeared right beside Lith and Salaark, triggering Elysia's auto-correct.
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