"Then bring your son with us." The Horde shrugged. "We'll protect you both."
"Ral is under the Guardians' protection. He's already safe. Yet-"
"Yet it doesn't an we allow Lith to put our grandchild in danger." Leegaain said, and Salaark nodded. "We won't let Ral step into a battlefield and be turned into a weapon."
"And if I can't carry Ral with , I can't co with you." Lith said.
"There is nothing you can do?" Loma's orange mist twisted in grief and worry. "We can't lose another Horde. The next one might not be born for dozens of millennia!"
"I can point you to the only tracker on Mogar I recognize as my equal in skill." Lith pointed at Kalla.
Everyone turned to look at the Wight, while Kalla looked over her shoulder to see who Lith was pointing at.
"She doesn't possess my bloodline abilities, but Kalla here is the owner of the legendary Eyes of nadion and the current wielder of the Ears as well." Lith continued, making the Wight's jaw hit the floor.
"With the combined powers of those artifacts, I doubt there's anyone she can't find."
"Maybe." Kalla said in an attempt to cool off everyone's enthusiasm. "But why should I do it? I don't owe the Hordes anything, and I'm a busy Wight."
"Because I'm asking you, Kalla." Lith said. "Please, I owe Loma and his people a lot. I would help them myself if only I could. Can't you do this one favor?"
"Well, when you put it that way, it sure sounds like I should." The Wight looked left and right, searching for a way out of her predicant.
"It doesn't sound like that, Mom, you have to do it." Nyka said. "Lith helped us every ti we needed him in the past, and it's only thanks to him that you now hold two pieces of the nadion Set.
"Also, have you forgotten how we enjoyed his hospitality and magical facilities since we left the Eclipsed Lands?"
"Technically…" Kalla was about to retort that Scarlett had left the Eyes to her, and Lith had simply delivered the artifact.
As for the deal with the Fire Dragons, Kalla was quite sure she could have handled it herself, if only she could rember the details.
"There isn't anything technical about this." Scarlett the Sekht joined the other two Guardians. "A child's life is in danger, and as your friend and Guardian of the Children, I'm asking you to help that poor kid, Kalla. Can you do this for ?"
"No! I don't want to!" The Wight started to cry. "Please, don't make do it. I swear that I'll be good. I'll eat well, exercise regularly, and even go to the bathroom at least three tis a day.
"I'll do anything you want, as long as it doesn't require leaving my lab for the next six months!"
"That's the last concession I've ever heard." Scarlett clicked her tongue.
"And it's not because of your recent Guardianhood." Leegaain nodded. "I'm the second oldest Guardian, and I've heard half-mad Eldritches co up with better promises."
"Please, Kalla." Solus patted the Wight's head as fat tears of darkness fell off her snout, lting the snow. "Lith and I are indebted to the Hordes, and your help would an a lot to us. Also, it shouldn't take you long.
"You just need to find the young fungus folk, and the Hordes will do the rest. If it makes you feel better, I'll accompany you." Solus' heart bled at the idea of leaving Raldarak's side, but unlike Lith, her pain was not physical.
"If we work together, we'll be done in a few days at worst-"
"Days?" Kalla sobbed harder in shock and despair. "Not hours?"
"Verendi is big, Lady Kalla, and all we have are rumors." Loma had no trust in the crazy Wight, but Lith recomnded her, and they had no other option. She had to do. "Rest assured, we'll waste no ti. The competition is going to be fierce and-"
"I knew it!" Kalla inwardly cursed the gods for their unfairness, and the gods glowered at her from one ter away. "Just find the fungus folk my fleshless buttocks! We are going to fight, and I'm going to die.
"My poor research, I an, babies! Who'll look after them if sothing happens to ?" Kalla whined.
"You are right only about one thing, Mom, and that's Solus jinxing the mission." Nyka said. "I'll co with you. No offense, mister Horde, but I don't know you, and I have no reason to trust your people."
"None taken." Loma replied. "I have nothing against Baba Yaga's children, but I can't let you co along. Undead can't move during the day, and we have no ti to waste."
"Don't worry, I have that covered." A quick call to Baba Yaga, and Dawn walked through the door of the tea room. "Dawn, can you please make one of your Chosen for a few days? Solus and I must help this fellow with sothing."
"A Horde?" The Bright Day studied Loma for a few seconds. "No problem, but rember that the power my prism holds is not infinite. If the mission lasts for too long, you'll need to recharge it."
As Dawn turned Nyka into a Chosen, Solus silently thanked the Horseman for giving her a good reason to return to Lutia regularly.
"Don't worry about , Mom. I'll stay here with Fluffy and Lith." Nok said.
"Fine." Kalla sighed. "You got real good. Let's go."
"Wait a second." Loma was relatively young, but not stupid.
He knew that such an unwilling helper was prone to mistakes simply because she didn't care whether the mission succeeded or failed.
"Judging from that white crystal at your neck, you want to beco a Lich, right?"
"Yes, why?" The Wight caressed the gemstone like a baby. "Are you a fellow researcher of true immortality?"
"No, but my older comrades often told about people like you looking for us Hordes. They are interested in this." Loma made the spores that ford his mist body resonate until their minuscule cores channeled and amplified each other's mana.
"That's exactly the effect I need to reproduce!" Kalla jumped up in excitent, using the Eyes and Ears to study the phenonon. "My crystal and mana core must beco like your spores, capable of exchanging energy even from a considerable distance."
"Glad to hear." Loma nodded as he stopped the resonance. "If you help to find my friend, I promise I will let you take all the notes you want."
"Damn!" Kalla cursed when the resonance between the spores stopped, and the Eyes' scan ended. "I an, sure. We have a deal. When do we leave?"
***
Verendi continent, Phytrik region, in the middle of nowhere, at the sa ti.
"Explain it to again. Why are we here?" Theseus, the Bastet-neos hybrid, asked.
"Because, according to our human associates in Verendi's black market, sothing that resembles a fungus folk has been spotted in this region." Xenagrosh replied as she sniffed the air for clues.
"None of us can Awaken yet, let alone reach the white core, but Hordes are mythical and elusive creatures. There's a lot that the Master can learn from studying them, and since no one ever succeeded in capturing a Horde, a fungus folk will have to do."
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