"ln never lived in the Desert. If he's going to aim for a country, he'll set his sights on the Griffon Kingdom." Lith pointed out.
"My thoughts exactly." Salaark replied. "Yet that doesn't an he won't ss with . All he needs is to place a few thralls in a few key locations to deal a devastating blow to my Blood Desert."
"How?" Solus was flabbergasted.
"Think about it, Solus. An outlaw tribe attacks one of my Feathers, and two, maybe three of them, are Upyr thralls." Salaark said. "One sneak attack from soone with the mass of a Divine Beast is enough to kill a fake Awakened.
"My soldiers would slaughter the tribe, but my Feather would still be dead. ln would exchange a pawn he created with a few drops of his blood for a mage it took decades to nurture and train."
"By my Mom!" Solus' eyes widened in shock.
"Agreed. It would be a terrible trade for ." The Overlord nodded. "In the sa way, the thralls could stall the mbers of my Nest during a crisis. Not one engineered by ln, he lacks the resources for that, but by my enemies.
"ln doesn't need to fund any plan against because the outlaw tribes are already backed by the free countries that surround the Desert and work with them. Once the outlaw chieftains ensure that I can't track their moves and get used to their powers, they'll beco bolder.
"At that point, the outlaws and the free countries could stage a coordinated strike at my tribes to destabilize my country."
"I can see that happening, but I still can't find a reason for ln to do all this." Lith nodded.
"I can see a few, instead, Featherling. We are dealing with the Horseman of Chaos, and she doesn't plan ahead as you and I do. Such a strategy could be intended to punish for helping you in the past, or to keep busy in the mont of your need.
"After all, ln is not committing any of his Upyrs or resources to this. He's just giving others the ans to challenge my authority. He doesn't care about their victory or defeat, only about inflicting as much damage as possible."
"Surprise attacks, eliminating key figures, and letting others do his dirty work for him fit ln's pattern. It's what he did in the Kingdom during his first campaign against ." Lith pondered. "How are you going to reply to his challenge, Grandma?"
"The only way I know." She replied. "Swiftly, decisively, and striking his forces before they do, Featherling. As I told you, I know the position of most outlaw tribes in the Blood Desert.
"Even if ln has tuned a few chieftains into his thralls, I can still detect everyone else. That and the need for an oasis for survival limits the places where my enemies can hide. I'm going to sweep the Desert, locate all the outlaw tribes, and check them for Upyrs.
"I need to determine their numbers and position to understand how much ln has spread his Upyr plague and stop whatever he is plotting before it's too late. I plan to destroy the Upyr thralls one by one, but only after thoroughly interrogating them in person.
"Only ln can create new Upyrs, and he might have let sothing slip during one of the many conversations he had with the chieftains. The odds I discover sothing about his plans for you are slim, Featherling, but if ln is using a similar strategy in the Kingdom, you'll know what to expect."
"It sounds like an excellent plan, Grandma." Lith nodded. "Every one of ln's defeats is my victory, no matter how small-"
"Thank you, but I didn't call you here because I wanted your opinion." Salaark raised her hand, asking for silence. "I'm warning you that my Nest and I are going to be very busy until this threat has been neutralized."
"I still have my tower, and we stand above a mana geyser." Lith shrugged. "I'll wait here until your return and make sure no one takes a single step outside my protective arrays."
"That's what I wanted to hear." Salaark nodded. "There is sothing fishy about this, and I need you to keep your eyes open, Featherling, all seven of them. I can't help but get the feeling I'm playing a ga that not only has already started but of which I also don't know the rules."
Lith put aside the excitent about the new arrays and ruining Orpal's plans, pondering her words with care.
"It is indeed fishy." He said after a while. "ln gave away just enough of his blood to make weak thralls, true, but what he got in exchange is still not worth the effort. He asked generic questions about the Desert and didn't exchange communication runes.
"Visiting the chieftain in person and sending his Upyrs for the follow-ups adds two more layers of security, but at the sa ti, this way he can only obtain outdated information.
"Without the communication runes, he won't even know the Yellow Tribe is gone until he sends a ssenger and discovers they have been wiped out."
"My point exactly." Salaark drumd her fingers on her desk. "ln didn't ask for tributes and didn't learn anything that could be remotely considered as intel. I can't understand his endga, and that's the scariest move an opponent can make."
***
The following day, Lith called everyone at the tower and explained to them the situation at hand as soon as Salaark departed from the Starry Lagoon village.
"I'm sorry, kids. I don't an to scare you, but until Grandma returns, no swimming and no running anywhere close to the borders of the oasis." He said. "If any one of us gets kidnapped, we'd have to face it alone."
"Don't worry about my son and ." Ryla grabbed Garrik. "We won't set foot outside the house until the matter is resolved."
"But, Mom-"
"No buts, Garrik!" The young Fomor had never seen his mother angry, and that scared him. "If you leave the mana geyser for any reason, your life force will be forever compromised.
"Your Harmonizer won't care about why it receives no more world energy, nor will it accept any excuse. It will just stop working, and everything I've done since the day you were born, all the hardships we've endured so far, will be for nothing.
"Do you understand?" She asked, and Garrik was too stunned to reply. "Answer !"
"I understand." Garrik said as he burst into tears. "I'm sorry, Mom. I promise I won't go outside. Just don't be mad at ."
The young Fomor had lived as a prisoner in his ho for years, and the idea of being once again confined between four walls scared him. Yet it was nothing compared to what he felt seeing the stern look on his mother's face.
Ryla had suffered much, but had done everything in her power to give her son the closest thing to a normal childhood he could have. Never before had she yelled at him or spoken to him with anything but love.
Truth be told, young Fomor had yet to see his mother angry.
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