Supreme Magus

"Maybe you could even teach advanced light magic to Quylla. Her healing abilities with fake magic are almost on par with Invigoration and I'm afraid that soon she'll hit a wall." Lith scratched his head in embarrassment.

He hated asking for favors, but he lacked the time and the necessary knowledge to help anyone to step up their game. Tista and the Kings of the Trawn woods were far from the skill bottleneck Lith and Quylla were facing.

They only needed a few lessons and Lith's notes about true magic to keep improving themselves by leaps and bounds.

'Faluel has seven heads, so she should be able to freely teach to seven people. Worst case scenario, there's me, Tista, Protector, Solus, Phloria, and Quylla. Faluel would even have a head to spare for her own work.' Lith thought.

He didn't include Friya not because she was the only one in the dark about his secrets, but because as long as she had her adventurer guild, Friya could never afford to take the necessary time off to take lessons from the Hydra's.

Both Faluel and Solus looked at him with eyes wide open, as if they saw him for the first time.

"Are you really willing to introduce them to me?" Solus asked with eyes brimming with joy.

"Are you really willing to put your life at stake again for the sake of others?" Faluel said almost at the same time.

"You've already bound your fate to the three Kings and your sister. Every person you Awaken is your responsibility for the next century. Humans are not like beasts. We age like wine, whereas they age like milk, becoming spoiled and sour."

"Yes to both of you." Lith nodded.

"Solus, you know that I never planned to keep you hidden forever nor I'm ashamed of our bond. If you weren't a girl, and a pretty one at that, I would've already brought Kamila to the tower to meet you."

His words would have made Solus blush if stone had blood.

"As for Phloria, she's saved me many times, both from my enemies and from myself. I'm not willing to lose her forever. She's worth every risk."

"I'm proud of you." Faluel stood on her tiptoes to pinch his cheeks. "A gazillion points for that. I'll think about this Phloria, but for the other human girl, the answer is no. Quylla's mana core is too powerful for Awakening, she'd surely die."

"I never meant to Awaken…" Lith tried to say, but Faluel cut him short.

"On top of that, she's a fake mage, hence competition. You can't possibly know about it because until now you've been a lone wolf, but Awakened and fake mages are at odds for decades.

"The magical progress of fake mages is outstanding. With their numbers and teamwork, they are slowly closing the gap between us and them. People like Tyris, Salaark, or the Magic Empress, who, after defeating an Awakened, share with their subjects their spoils of war don't help our cause.

"Just like you sharing your Skinwalker armor with that Orion, for that matter."

"I thought he would get nothing out of it and that he would end up destroying the armor." Lith said.

"Yeah, you're not the first to make that mistake and definitely you won't be the last. Did you get paid for it at least?" Faluel asked.

Lith took War out of his pocket dimension, having care to not take it out of the scabbard.

"By the Great Mother!" Faluel jumped back at the sight of the bastard sword.

She never attempted to even come closer, using Life Vision and her Forgemastering spells from a distance.

"You made an excellent bargain. That's a masterpiece like I've rarely seen from a fake mage. Take it out in the presence of my godchildren and I'll kill you." None of her words sounded like a joke.

"You know what's wrong with it?" Lith was flabbergasted.

"Magical metals are different from those a smith normally uses. They almost have a core of their own, which almost gives them life." Faluel nodded. "Have you ever heard the saying about artisans putting their soul in their creations? That's true, especially for Forgemasters.

"The longer one of us works on a mystic metal, the more it takes from us. It's our energy that composes their pseudo cores, so you might compare them to a Necromancer's work.

"Just like there are lesser and greater undead, there are lesser and greater artifacts. Your sword is one of the latter."

"Is it alive?" Lith could feel War humming with power as if it was trying to communicate with him.

"No. The comparison between the two arts doesn't go that far. Without a brain or life force, there can't be life, but there can be will. Whenever you craft something, you only strive for perfection because you can't allow any distraction.

"Exceptional Forgemasters, however, sometimes manage to imbue their willpower into the pseudo core, just like any good mage does with tier five spells. The difference is that spells are fleeting whereas artifacts are forever." Faluel said.

"Meaning?"

"It means that this sword carries two wills, or in your case, maybe even three if Solus can handle it. Whenever it strikes or it employs its skills, the lingering willpower of its maker will fight alongside you. War will both teach you and learn from you."

Faluel remained silent for a while, giving Lith the time to understand how complex War's existence actually was.

"Now go. I'll call you as soon as I'm done with my preparations. I'll teach you and Solus the same things, but I will not teach them the same way. Winter left me swamped and I'm afraid that soon the human Council will make its move, so be prepared."

***

Kellar Region, city of Jambel, a couple of days later.

As an Archmage, Lith had received countless invitations from feudal lords from all over the Griffon Kingdom. He had politely but firmly turned them down because he had no desire to be involved in any kind of politics.

Lith only accepted that of Baron Eiros Wyalon because the Baron was one of the few nobles he had met as a Ranger that he respected and he had used the opportunity to bring his family along.

Jambel was the only city where he had been treated with respect from the moment of his arrival and its inhabitants had aided him at the best of their abilities not afraid to risk their lives.

Also, the Baron wasn't a politician but an honest man, and Zolgrish the Lich's silver mines were ripe for the taking. With spring making the climate pleasantly chill and his family wanting to see the places where Lith had lived during the past two years he could take many birds with one stone.

Jambel was a medium-sized fortress city, entirely built of stone.

It was too far from the commercial routes to depend on merchants, so it was designed to be self-sufficient all year round. Jambel was built near two big lakes, which provided fish and freshwater, while cultivated fields surrounded the city walls up to the nearby woods.

They were the main source of game and wood, so the inhabitants of Jambel treated them with great respect. They planted two trees for each one they cut down and used turnover to give them time to grow.

Unlike most cities, Jambel had no slums. Even the poorest houses were made of stone and the only wooden buildings were tool sheds.

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