Chapter 2728.2: Inside Jokes (Part 2)
2728 Inside Jokes (Part 2)
"See? It wasn't that hard?" Whenever that happened, they called Lith who solved everything with Dragon scales for Elysia and a diagnostic spell for Surin.
Both women were deeply grateful and resentful for his cheat abilities at the same time.
"If you need help with magic, you just need to ask." Tista said. She had already offered multiple times to coach Kamila and help her get accustomed to her reduced magical prowess.
"We can help you, Sis Kami!" Aran said and for once, Leria supported him wholeheartedly. "We are like you and we've been taught by big brother."
The child hated the long-winded sister-in-law and called Kamila sister for short.
"Thank you, guys." Kamila sniffled, moved by both their feelings and pathetic acting performance.
She could see how hard they were trying to pretend ignorance to spare her feelings and that meant the world to her. It broke the bubble of isolation and helped her to breathe again.
"By the way, the tower has finally finished rebuilding itself." Solus triumphantly said. "You are in for a treat. You'll be the first person on Mogar to witness the magnificence of the new four floors!"
"Why can't we-"Aran was about to whine about the unfair privilege when Leria kicked him from under the table.
He turned around to glare at her, meeting Onyx's snout instead. She didn't speak, but her eyes were scolding him. When his niece and best friend agreed on something, Aran always assumed to be in the wrong and so he didn't push the matter further.
Tm sorry, guys." Solus said. "I'll give you a tour later along with Grandma, Grandpa, Tyris, and the rest of our friends"
"Thank you." The three Guardians said in unison from a different corner of the table.
Tyris was there because it was her shift, Leegaain to keep teaching the baby girls Dragontongue, and Salaark to keep him from teaching them the wrong words.
"There are things that only the three of us share. Please, respect our bond and privacy." Solus gave an apologetic bow but her words made Lith spit out his coffee.
Everyone was looking at him in a funny way. They wondered if Elysia's six streaks and the fact that Kamila herself had asked Solus to join her in mothering the baby had to do with Solus somehow taking part in the conception.
"It's not what you think!" Lith said in outrage.
"I'm not the father!" Salaark said in a perfect imitation of Leegaain's voice back when he had denied his involvement in Lith's existence.
Kamila laughed her ass off while the Father of All Dragons and the Father of All Tiamats blushed like schoolgirls.
"I can vouch for that." She said after wiping her tears of hilarity. "Solus and I have a deep bond, but not that deep."
"Sure." Raaz said.
"Right." Senton nodded.
"I don't believe you!" Morok said, receiving countless slaps on the head and questions about his presence. "I mean, look at the child's head. Somehow they made it into the perfect threesome."
"What's a tree sum?" Leria asked.
"A technique Rangers use to navigate thick woods." Lith glared at the Tyrant along with enough powerful beings that the collective mean looks could almost kill for real.
Almost.
"Yeah, right. Woods filled with bushes and infested by beavers." Morok said with a scoff while the Guardians politely dragged him to another room and beat the crap out of him.
"Are beavers that dangerous? I thought they were fuzzy and cute animals." Aran asked.
They are magnificent but complicated creatures." Lith replied, telling the truth under the cover of a family-friendly lie.
After breakfast was over but before Morok could regain consciousness, Solus brought Kamila and Lith to the tower. It had gained two more floors above the ground and two below, yet the other floors had expanded as well.
The building was now 30 meters (100 feet) high and almost 13 meters (42 feet) across.
The grey of the stones that comprised the tower was now veined with white streaks as the tower core regained more and more data about the atomic structure of the gold-veined white marble it was originally made of.
"Wow!" Kamila said. "Thank the gods Lith had the foresight to have the keep built much taller than the tower at the time. There's still a lot of space to spare."
"Guys, please, stop pretending nothing happened." Solus could tell that the atmosphere between them was awkward. "What did I say to make everyone react like that and Kami laugh? Was I inappropriate?"
"Solus, remember when you told me that we had to get in and make Mom pregnant?" Lith asked.
"How could I forg-" Solus blushed in embarrassment at the memory first and then at the realization of the unintended innuendo. "Gods! How could I say that? Why do I sound like a closeted pervert?"
"She went so deep in the closet that I'm confident one day she'll save Marmia." Lith said, making Kamila giggle at the Earth's pop culture reference and Solus blush harder.
"See? That's what I was talking about." Solus pouted, "Only the three of us know about Lith's past on Earth. I named some of the rooms with inside jokes that only we can understand.
"That's why I wanted to come here with just Kami. Not because she and I share her fetish for the Tiamat tongue or we both enjoy the tail-"
"Solus!" Lith and Kamila said in unison, incapable of looking each other in the eyes.
Whenever Lith and Solus fused, she learned everything about him and his life. Everything.
"Oh, gods! I did it again!" Just follow me, please.
The ground floor of the tower was now split in two and they were arranged as Lith's dream house. It was based on Baron Wyalon's mansion in Jambel, Lith's home in Lutia, and Kamila's house in Belius but rearranged in a unique, harmonious way.
Lith, Solus, and Kamila had given to every room their own touch, adding stuff like the Forgemastering hammers, the Camellia, and the Tuner as furniture.
The resulting place was cozy and lived-in, filled with warm and joyous memories that quickly dispelled the awkwardness between the trio.
"My baby!" Lith said the moment the tower cut Elysia's presence off his senses.
A quick Warp, brought her to his arms, where he held her like they had just rescued Elysia from murderous kidnappers.
"It's okay, baby girl. Daddy is here. No one will hurt you." He said to a giggling Elysia.
"Don't mind him. Dragon stuff. Solus said to a flabbergasted Kamila. "Also, Derek stuff. Between the Dragon's greed and Derek's abandonment issues, you can't take Elysia off Lith's sight without a literal fight."
"Believe me, I know." Kamila grunted.
"From where do you want to start? Up or down?" Solus asked Kamila since Lith couldn't care less, lost in Elysia's eyes.
"Down, like usual. Let's go to the bottom and walk our way up. I want to see how every floor has changed." Kamila replied.
The bottom floor was still the Crucible, where metals were molten, purified, and flooded with world energy, turning them into their magical version. Scraps would turn into silver, silver into Orichalcum, Orichalcum into Adamant, and Adamant into Davross.