Supreme Magus

All the members of the family were happy to see Lith and Solus again and asked them the details of the mission.

"I'm so glad nothing bad happened." Elina checked them both for injuries before hugging them. "Take the uniform off, dear. You are upsetting the guards."

Salaark's servants were used to seeing Lith in his Tiamat form while he wore desert clothes. Seeing a pale man dressed in the colors of the Kingdom made them nervous.

During dinner, Lith told them everything that had happened in Zeska. When he arrived at Solus's brilliant ruse to reach the City Hall, she kindly stomped his foot as a friendly reminder to not mention the fake pregnancy.

"What was that?" Rena asked after seeing a ripple in her wine and the chandeliers swinging.

"I don't know. There are no quakes in this part of the desert." Salaark had a hard time repressing a chuckle. "Please, go on."

At the part of the fight, Lith took a pause, asking the Guardian to send the servants away.

"You don't have to worry. They are all loyal and trustworthy." She said.

"Not to me." Lith replied "I want to keep this conversation as private as possible, Grandma."

"Fine. Everyone out." Lith had used the magic word, making Salaark's heart and feathers flutter.

A pair of wings popped out of her back, flapping with enthusiasm.

"Do you want me to leave as well?" Friya asked while putting her cutlery on the plate.

"You can stay." Lith shook his head. "I trust both you and Faluel. On top of that, if you really want to become her Harbinger, you need to hear the rest of the story."

Only once Salaark sealed every entrance with her magic did he tell them about the Void Flames, Captain Locrias, and about Quaron's abilities.

"I knew it!" The Overlord jumped from her seat and hugged him tight while kissing his head repeatedly. "You are not a lesser anything and this proves it."

The rest of the family didn't share her enthusiasm.

Based on what they knew, everything related to Chaos magic was bad news and they found the idea of Locrias' restless soul to be still with them beyond creepy.

"Can you show me?" Salaark had noticed that her feelings about his newfound powers didn't match Lith's family's, she just didn't care.

"Right here and now?" Lith was flabbergasted.

"Don't play coy with me, kid. You told me only because you have no idea how your bloodline abilities work and you want my advice." She replied with a sneer.

"Guilty as charged." Lith said under the reproachful looks of his family. "But I won't call upon Locrias. Disturbing his slumber for no reason would be plain cruel. Dead or not, he's still a person, not a tool."

"Fine." While the others softened their gazes, finding Lith's care noble, Salaark deemed it annoying.

She placed her hand on Lith's shoulder and activated her breathing technique, Mother Sun, to study the phenomenon to the best of her abilities.

Lith turned into his Tiamat form while retaining his human height, yet when he tried to breathe Void Flames, nothing happened. Moving the blackness that surrounded his life force into the stars that comprised it turned out to be quite difficult.

To make matters worse, he had never practiced shrinking his Voidfeather Dragon form so Salaark had to enlarge the tent. The kids loved Lith's new body, tugging at his feathers and scales while begging for a ride.

The rest of the family, not so much.

Ever since Lith had become a Tiamat, they had felt him becoming more distant as if he hadn't only lost his human body but part of his humanity as well. The Voidfeather Dragon had nothing human about it, making his family worry if the transformation would affect his mind even more.

"I'll try and keep it small, but I can't make any promise." His voice was now more guttural and deep, sounding like he was speaking from deep within a cave and the echo carried the words outside.

Salaark used Spirit Magic to move everyone on his back.

"The safest place from a Dragon's flames is not behind them but on them." She replied to their silent question.

Lith breathed a small burst of Void Flames on the ground that hit the protection of the palace, sizzling for a few seconds before disappearing.

"Interesting." Salaark said. "They work similarly to Origin Flames yet they are completely different."

"What do you mean?" Lith turned his long neck behind, allowing the kids to pat his snout, to play with his fangs, and then teaching them Simon says by having Aran and Leria remember the order with which he lit his seven eyes.

"Void Flames have no other ability aside from destruction. They are faster but they can't purify anything." She replied.

"I've seen Sinmara and Xenagrosh produce Origin Flames, but never something like this. Yet they have mastered respectively Darkness and Chaos. Why am I different?" Lith asked.

"Because Sinmara is still a Phoenix. We can use darkness magic like nobody else but it's not part of our life force. As for Xenagrosh, she's an Abomination and her life force is flawed.

"Every time she uses Origin Flames, she has to purge the Chaos out of her life force or it would destroy the balance in the world energy. You, instead, can keep it stable by coating the spark of Chaos with your human life force." Salaark said.

"I what?" Lith turned toward her, focusing his full attention.

"You heard me. The trick isn't injecting Chaos. It would suck the light element out of the world energy and corrupt the darkness, making it turn against the remaining elements instead of the enemy." Salaark caressed her womb, now certain that the baby would never be a Demon.

It didn't lack only the Abomination side, but also the human.

"To produce Void Flames, you have your human side coat all the elemental aspects that comprise the world energy. This way, the beast side lights the world energy, the Abomination turns the darkness component into Chaos while the human keeps the Chaos from affecting the other elements."

"That's why I failed before." Lith pondered. "In my Tiamat form I solely called upon the void of my life force while I should have also used the red threads."

"Correct." She nodded. "Now turn back and let me study your feathered wing."

Salaark studied the runed feather with her breathing technique, but there was little she could understand without Lith activating his ability.

"I'm sorry, I have no clue." She said after a while. "You can try and ask your grandfather. The Empire is beautiful this time of the year."

Aran and Leria approved the idea, suggesting they could all go there riding Lith's back. They were eager to meet Leegaain again and demand all the gifts they had missed during the years.

Despite the distance, a cold shiver ran down the Father of all Dragon's spine and one of his tools suddenly cracked for no reason.

'If I were a lesser and superstitious man, I'd think this is a bad omen.' He shrugged and resumed his experiment.

After dinner, the family split.

Solus asked Elina to teach her how to cook, while the others went back to Lutia.. Friya would just stop by Faluel's lair before going back to her house.