To make matters worse, he had returned the Professors' bodies to the army, but he still had to deliver Yondra's final message to her family.

'Solus, do you want in or do you prefer that I leave you in Lutia? I'm sure you'd like to spend some time in your body with Tista and Nyka.' Lith thought.

'Until you have a proper weapon again, I'm not going anywhere.' Solus replied. 'Just have her pick something easy.'

"I can agree with your idea with the following conditions. First, we make camp somewhere near a Gate, so if bad luck follows our tail we can always ask for reinforcements.

"Second, let's do something fun rather than dangerous. Third, and I mean no offense, but I'm not single. I'd really like to spend some time with my girlfriend, especially after risking my life on a daily basis for a month. So nothing too long."

"Oh, my! You groomed mister 'mean eyes' into a true gentleman, dear sister." Friya chuckled. "I'll accept all of your conditions and raise your ante. You can have Kamila join us for dinner once she is done with work.

"With a Gate, it will take her a step to reach us and a Warp for us to bring her to our restaurant. Yet, four women and one man seems a bit inappropriate. What if we invite the other Ranger as well? Judging by your stories, he seems like a funny guy…."

"Absolutely not!" The three veterans from Kulah replied in unison.

"He's obnoxious, even by my standards." Lith said.

"He's d.a.m.n rude." Phloria said. "It took him a week to believe that I'm a woman."

"Plus, he hits on everything that breathes. Ranger Eari made so many pa.s.ses at me that if I hear his voice one more time I might snap. I don't even dare imagine how he would react if he sees you." Quylla said with a bit of envy.

She was pretty, but Friya's hourgla.s.s figure was a stunner.

Phloria agreed as well. Because of her relentless rise among the army's ranks and her sisters' full-time jobs, she hadn't seen them for more than an hour at lunch for years. Also, she could feel Quylla's eyes staring at her from time to time.

Lith's secret wasn't a heavy burden but it wasn't small either.

'It was much easier for me to accept his nature. Back then, we were still together and I think I was in love with him like a teenage girl can be. After seeing so many people die during Nalear's attack, after losing Yurial, I would have accepted Lith even if he was a five-headed dragon.

'As long as he was fine and by my side, nothing else mattered.'

At that point, Quylla was forced to agree. She really wanted to spend some time with Friya, and Phloria was the only one that could help her unravel the tangle of thoughts in her head.

Friya then started to tell them about how she had spent the last few months. As she had told Lith the last time they had met, she had completely changed her guild's hierarchy.

She had kicked out all the mages from the great academies in favor of those from smaller academies after obtaining the right to teach her own specializations to the most talented members of the Crystal s.h.i.+eld guild from the Mage a.s.sociation.

It had made things quite compet.i.tive, but now there was more motivation than envy, and everyone now wors.h.i.+pped her like a G.o.ddess. Since most of her lessons would find practical application during their work, usually talent and survival rate went hand in hand.

"This way those with little talent quit after having a taste of their own limits, while those who stick with me are either really talented or motivated. I was able to apply for harder jobs and successfully complete them.

"Now that I have people who I can actually trust, I'm finally starting to make some real money!" She dropped a bag full of gold onto the table, gloating.

It was more than a Captain or even a Professor would make in a year. Lith would have liked to point out to her how such a sum was less than what he could make by selling a single Orichalc.u.m Skinwalker armor, but preferred not to ruin her moment.

After all, he wouldn't make many of them since he liked to keep his advantage. After chatting a bit more, Lith gave Friya her own Skinwalker armor before returning to the library.

After talking with Solus about his plans for the future, he had decided to take a look at her past. Orion could really teach a thing or two to most libraries in the Kingdom. Not only were the tomes in the Ernas's library divided based on their topic and arranged in alphabetical order, but also each section was linked to a holographic pad.

By inputting specific keywords, each pad would notify its user what tomes they had to consult. First, Lith tried to input the name "Menadion", but without much luck. After all, for such a research method to work, the pad would have been able to contain a digital copy of all the tomes, which was still beyond the capabilities of magic.

Then, he tried with "Ruler of the Flames", getting several hits. In all the other libraries he had access to, he had to explain why he was researching such a specific topic which proved to be quite a difficult feat to Lith since he had no idea who Menadion was.

Saying: "It's for a friend" would only get him a sneer and more questions than he was willing to answer. After checking that the system had no internal memory and that there was no surveillance system in the library, Lith put all the tomes inside Soluspedia.

He and Solus could immediately search for any information related to her master, discovering an appalling lack of details. The t.i.tle's meaning seemed to be obscure since many Forgemasters had used it in the past, but never bothered to explain its origin.

As for Menadion, it turned out that Solus's memories were correct. It was the name of a woman, one of the best Forgemasters of her era who had lived almost 700 years before and was considered to be one of Lochra Silverwing's closest friends.

According to Orion's books, Menadion had left behind several powerful artifacts which together formed a set. The picture of the Eyes of Menadion reminded Lith of Scarlett's pince-nez, making him curse when the book just described it as a "peerless treasure".

There were also depicted a helm as the Ears of Menadion, a set of gloves as the Hands of Menadion, a mask as the Mouth of Menadion, and a hammer as the Fury of Menadion.

Little was known about her personal life, aside from the fact that she had been born in the Griffon Kingdom and that even though she had raised many apprentices, none of them seemed to have inherited her talent nor her t.i.tle.

There was no mention of her having a tower or working on forbidden magic. Menadion seemed to have lived in Silverwing's shadow for most of her life. Her friend's achievements were so great that the few historians who mentioned her did it only because the two ancient mages were really close.