Elina's expression was of utter confusion, her face a whirlwind of shifting emotions. On the one hand, the Guardians' aura was back to being soothing and protective, making her feel at ease.
On the other hand, her brain kept flashing images of Leegaain's and Salaark's fury in front of her eyes and her body trembled in fear at the horror that such visions evoked.
"Exactly. This is my room and I'm inviting you in." Elina said.
She was still scared but, while surrounded by her family, she had the strength to fight the fear.
"I'm very sorry for what happened earlier. I shouldn't have let you see us like that." Leegaain gave her a deep bow.
"You can say that." Elina nodded, feeling the need to sit down on her bed. "But I'm grateful to the three, no four of you for protecting . Let this be a lesson. For of how scary you actually are and for you of caring more for people like ."
"It has been a humbling lesson. I assure you of that." Salaark gave her a bow as well, the sha for her foolishness an irredeemable stain on her honor.
"Can you please tell what those two guys wanted from ? Was it about ln again?" Elina asked.
The Guardians shared their information with her and answered all her questions.
"Let get this straight." Elina said. "ln isn't involved and, without your intervention, I would have been kidnapped and Lith forced to follow the orders of those criminals.
"Even worse, their success would have galvanized others to follow their example, endangering all the non-Awakened in my family."
"Yes." Leegaain nodded. "The precedent would have probably spurred those who have no will or ans to pay for Ripha's work into action."
"So you didn't save just today." Elina said, feeling sowhat relieved to have spared the others from suffering such a fate. "You've saved my entire family."
"In your shoes, I wouldn't give us so much credit but one thing I can tell you for sure." Salaark's tone beca stern. "We know the nas of the other Awakened involved in this ploy and you can rest assured we won't stop until they are all…"
She looked at the kids and said: "Captured."
***
Gorgon Empire, Galian Region, in the middle of nowhere, right after Elina's attempted kidnapping.
"What do you think that was all about?" Ilac the Redcap nervously peered through the blinders of his host's luxurious mansion.
"You an the light coming from the Kingdom?" Thassel the Drake asked while pouring herself a tall glass of wine. "Whatever it was, it's of no relevance to us."
"How can you say that?" Ilac walked around the room before looking out the window again. "Today Garvi and Janya were supposed to kidnap Verhen's mother. How do we know sothing didn't go wrong?"
"Easy." Lukah Basaj replied. "Their contact runes are still available, there is no news about the kidnapping in the Kingdom's Web, and most of all, those bastards aren't responding to our calls."
"How is that a good sign?" Ilac grunted.
"Again, easy." Thassel sighed, frustrated by the Redcap's restlessness. "Had Janya and Garvi failed, they would have contacted us to whine about it or tell us to run. Their silence ans they succeeded.
"In their shoes, I would keep my amulet stored in my dinsional amulet to avoid being tracked as well. Not only because of Verhen, but also to avoid people like us swooping in and taking his mother for themselves. Isn't that right, Lukah?"
"Tell about it." He snorted. "I've planted a small fortune in trackers on those jerks but they managed to find and get rid of them all. If only you helped a bit, Thass, Gavi and Janya would have taken all the risks and we would have reaped all the benefits."
"Patience, my friends." Thassel tutted. "Verhen is a dangerous, unpredictable bastard. The early bird is more likely to sprung a hidden trap than catching the worm. Those two idiots are going to be our test subjects. If anything goes wrong before or after Garvi and Janya get their ransom, we'll learn from their mistakes."
"Yeah, sure, but what about that light?" Like a dog on a bone, Ilac refused to let go. "What if those two succeed and Verhen is the one who learns from his mistakes."
"Dammit, Ilac, calm down! You are making nervous!" Lukah said. "If not even the Council knows what that light was, then nobody does." He showed the unblinking communication amulet.
"As for Garvi and Janya, if the bar becos too high, we can always kill them and take their nadion equipnt. After all, they are just my and Thassel's size."
"What about ?" Ilac asked. "There's three of us and only two sets of equipnt."
"Since you are a major pain in the ass, we'll take your part as compensation for our damage." Thassel said, making Lukah laugh.
"Very funny." The Redcap clicked his tongue and checked the window for the umpteenth ti. "Then you can go fetch your compensation by yourselves."
"Will you relax, Ilac?" Thassel poured another glass of wine, spiked it with Red Dragon, and offered it to her accomplice to calm him down. "We are in the middle of nowhere and no one else knows the location of my secret lab.
"Even if sothing went wrong, and I'm not saying it did, Garvi and Janya only know our energy signatures. We used fake nas and appearances. There's no way soone can track the information leak in the Kingdom's Gate Network back to us."
"Really?" Ilac asked in disbelief. "Then why is there a fury of Phoenixes out there?"
He pointed at the colossal flaming birds slowly descending to the ground after sealing the area with all kinds of arrays.
"Ladies and gentlen, as much as I hate to remind you, we have our orders." Crevan spat the next words out like they were poison. "We need to take our marks alive."
"Alive?" Lenanna echoed as her beak twisted in a cruel smile. "Just alive, correct?"
"No, not just alive." Crevan's reply made the other Phoenixes groan. "Barely alive is more than enough. As long as they're not dead, everything goes."
The groans turned into excited war cries and the luxurious mansion into a pile of ashes.
***
The Awakened Council knew what had happened but Leegaain used his authority as a representative to issue an information blackout until he was done dealing with the problem.
Inxialot had already resud his experints and had no idea what he wasn't supposed to talk about. As for the human, plant, and beast representatives, they had no intention of putting themselves between the angry parents and their prey.
The Dragons were still mourning Valtak's loss and took the news of the attempt on Shargein's life as a personal affront.
"How dare those vermin attack a Hatchling barely past one year of age?" There was not a single patriarch who wasn't literally burning with rage. "It seems we've been quiet for too long, brothers and sisters.
"Mogar has forgotten why no one should touch a Dragon's egg. It's ti we remind all little mice out there not to ss with us."
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