What had worried nadion was the fact that Lith hadn’t been honest with anyone but Solus.
Nobody, not even his parents, had ever suspected the truth. Only Solus, Kalla, and her weird offspring knew about his past life on Earth until Lith had been forced to co clean with Kamila.
Solus knew about it and was perfectly fine with it. Useless to say, it made her relationship with Lith much, much more unsettling for nadion’s taste.
"Really?" Silverwing snorted. "You didn’t think like that the last ti we t. When did things change and how?"
"A few days ago." Not wanting to waste ti with a long speech, nadion shared her mories of the fight against the fourteen Awakened with the white cores via a mind link.
They watched the entire battle unfold from start to finish through nadion’s eyes and perceived the shift in her feelings as the events progressed. The First Ruler of the Flas also showed her friends her following conversation with Solus and her plans for the future.
"Have you gone insane, Ripha?" Silverwing’s eyes widened in shock. "You can’t trust Vehren. Maybe you can’t even trust yourself. How can you be sure that what you are feeling right now isn’t just sothing he forced onto you through his black chains?"
"Don’t be silly, Lochra." nadion snorted. "You know how Demons work. Lith only has as much control over as I allow him to. He didn’t force to co back. I wanted to. I rescued Epphy because she’s my daughter.
"I inhabited one of his Void Sigils because I can’t abandon her again. I haven’t taught him anything that I wouldn’t have taught Epphy as part of her legacy. If I wanted to, I could move on right now, and there’s nothing he can do to stop .
"Gods, Lith hasn’t made Forgemaster stuff to sell or tried to force to upgrade the pieces of the Apprentice Set in his friends’ possession."
"Because you can’t." Silverwing countered pointedly. "You are still catching up with modern magic, and your skills are limited."
"Nonsense." nadion denied the allegations with a sweep of her hand. "Anything is better than seven hundred years old junk, and between Sally’s and Yaga’s Creation Magic, he wouldn’t waste a single coin in the process."
"Fine." Silverwing begrudgingly conceded the point. "I still think you’re making a big mistake. I know Epphy likes him and is entangled in this weird three-person relationship, but how do you know she isn’t forced into it?
"How do you know years ago he hasn’t planted so order in her mind via the mind link you couldn’t hear? There are too many things we don’t know and won’t learn until Epphy is free from him."
"You’re wrong, Lochra." nadion replied. "All you have are mistrust and doubts, whereas I have certainties. If Lith were such a pervert, then why didn’t he use Epphy to spy on girls when he was a horny teenager?
"Why didn’t he send her to listen to the conversations of the won he liked to get what he wanted without putting in much effort? Why hasn’t he touched Epphy once, not even when she was at her most vulnerable or he was single?
"I’ve seen him turn down countless suitors before and after he beca a Ranger. As his status and rank grew, won threw themselves at his feet, and he ignored them. If you were right, Lochra, Lith would have had many flings and forced Epphy to silence.
"And don’t get started on everything he could have done during those months he and Epphy were alone in the north and nobody knew about her existence. Back then, Lith knew him as Solus, not Elphyn nadion.
"He had no idea he would et you two or that I would return. There was no legacy to get, no white core to fear, just a lonely girl with amnesia. He could have had an on-and-off relationship according to his needs, since she couldn’t back out.
"Instead, he gave Epphy space and kept her safe, even from himself. He even asked Dawn to teach Epphy how to protect herself from her host. From him. Lith knows that as long as they are bonded, a break-up is impossible and has done everything he can to keep their relationship from souring."
"Except for marrying another woman and having children with her." Silverwing grunted.
"What did you expect?" nadion grunted back. "That a young, healthy man with a cracked life force would spend his years like a monk on a maybe? There’s no telling if a relationship between them as equals would work.
"The only certainty is that a relationship between them as they are won’t. Epphy needs to be her own person first. Anything before that is dood to fail. And just for your information, Kamila is no consolation prize.
"You don’t know half the things they went through together. Of the secrets he unloaded onto her. Yet she’s always been there for him. She chose to remain even after learning about Epphy and... stuff."
nadion still rembered the discussion between Solus and Kamila after the revelation that Lith wasn’t of Mogar. Solus was bound to him since she had mory, and considered Lith’s condition normal.
nadion was a wandering soul like him, so she had no problem accepting it. Kamila, however, was a regular human woman.
The revelation has shocked her to the bone, and nadion had no idea what she would have done in Kamila’s shoes if she weren’t an undead as well. nadion had co to admire and respect Kamila for choosing to stay when walking away would have been much easier.
"Fine." Lochra conceded again, but still seed unconvinced. "Explain this, though. Verhen has fought countless tis in front of you. Many of them to save your beloved daughter. What’s so special about this one that made you change your mind?"
"Now you’re just being obtuse for the sake of it." nadion rolled her eyes, and Baba Yaga followed suit. "I know what you are thinking, Lochra, because it’s what I thought until a few days ago.
"Yes, Lith has fought countless tis, but always because he was paid for it, he had no choice, or to protect soone he loved. Many tis I’ve watched him disregard the lives of strangers, considering them nothing but collateral damage.
"He only put in real effort when it was about *his* life, *his*friends, *his* family, *his* people. Let’s be real, he’s an asshole. As for Epphy, I bet you think he saved her because she was linked to the tower and losing her would have cost him lots of priceless things."
"And you’d win the bet." Silverwing nodded.
"Yet look at this fight." nadion projected it with Light Mastery. "He had no reason to put everything on the line for Valeron. He’s known the boy for less than one year, and Valeron is the son of the woman who killed his first love.
"There is no bloodline legacy to gain from defending the baby boy. No artifact Valeron can gift him. Quite the contrary, Lith had everything to lose. His wife, his children, Epphy, my tower, everything!
"This was the first ti I’ve seen Lith fight a selfless fight."
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