Chapter 3854: Breach of Trust (Part 1)

Zoreth’s tears were just a physical reaction born out of the searing pain ravaging her body, not the expression of her emotions.

She had no emotions anymore, her personality prisoner in a corner of her mind where no light or hope could reach her.

***

Verhen Mansion, at the same time.

It had taken Bytra a warm blanket, many cups of tea spiked with Red Dragon, and several minutes to stop shivering.

"Can you speak now?" Solus asked.

"Yes, thank you." Bytra gulped her tea, keeping her Eldritch side at bay to let the powerful alcohol soothe her nerves.

Lith and Menadion sat on armchairs at either side of the Raiju, while Solus preferred to sit on the couch across Bytra’s and keep her distance.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Lith filled her cup again and handed her a plate of chocolate biscuits covered in sugar to fight the shock.

"There isn’t much to say." Bytra clenched her blanket in frustration. "Zor and I were going back home after completing a mission when something attacked us."

The Master’s mining operations in Jiera progressed smoothly, but that also meant that the warehouses filled up with tons of enchanted metals and magic crystals every few days, and someone had to go collect them.

The mining towns were surrounded by dimensional sealing arrays set in place to avoid thefts and the hassle of finding new prospectors and Crystalsmiths to replace the dead ones. Xenagrosh had volunteered for the job because of her omni pocket and Dragonspeed.

Even with the dimensional arrays, she could easily move hundreds of crates inside her pocket dimension by expending but a spark of her life force and then return home in a matter of hours.

Tezka would have been even faster, but the Master preferred to keep the Suneater always within reach in case of emergencies.

"Something?" Solus echoed. "Was it a living legacy or an unknown creature?"

"I wish I knew." Bytra sighed. "It moved too fast to take a good look at him, her, whatever. We were flying at high altitude and full Dragonspeed when it knocked us out of the sky by ramming into Zor’s side.

"We pinpointed it only thanks to..." Bytra stopped for a second, struggling between her loyalty to the Organization and her desire to make amends to Solus and Menadion.

’This is not just a matter of risking opening old wounds.’ She thought. ’If I’m not honest with them, they’ll help me, but that creature would catch Lith unprepared like it did us. This is for Zoreth’s sake.’

"The Skull of Bytra. Zor and I have one each, and so do our fellow hybrids." Bytra handed a helmet with white crystals on either side to Solus. It had a striking resemblance to the Ears of Menadion.

Aside from a few aesthetic details and the modern runes used during the Forgemastering process, there was one major difference with the original.

"By you, Mom, this is what the Ears would look like if you made it today and from Yggdrasill wood instead of plain stone!" Solus’ mind refused to accept reality, but reality kept reaffirming itself as she studied the Skull from different angles.

"I always knew you were talented, Bytra, but this goes beyond my most enthusiastic assessment of your abilities. I never expected you could replicate the Ears after studying it for a few days." Menadion extended her hand to Solus, and she passed the Skull to her.

"Let me guess. The Yggdrasill wood mitigates the sensory overload while away from a mana geyser and unravels complex mana flows while standing upon one. Brilliant solution. I wanted to do the same, but I had no access to a World Tree."

"It’s all thanks to Solus’ rescue mission." Bytra refused the compliments. "I had Baba Yaga’s and Silverwing’s help while we looked for the Ears’ unlock code. As for the Yggdrasill wood..."

"Yes, we can imagine the rest." Lith nodded. "Also, this is kind of a breach of trust that needs to be addressed, but we’d rather deal with this after we save Zoreth. We need her alive to kick her ass."

"Thank the gods." Bytra sighed in relief. "I was afraid you and Solus would be angry with me and refuse to help."

"Make no mistake. We are angry." Solus replied. "You kept the Skull hidden from us, and we probably wouldn’t have learned about it if you didn’t need us."

She stared at the Raiju, taking a brief pause to let her words sink in.

"Yet you gained the means and knowledge to craft the Skull because you helped me save Solus." Lith continued. "For that, you have my gratitude. Also, it would be unreasonable of us to demand that you refrain from putting to use the hard-earned rewards for your work.

"On top of that, you came clean to us. Late, but you did. You put our survival first, and that counts for something. Had you tried to deceive us, our next conversation would have involved blades and spells instead of words. Please, continue your story."

"Thanks." Bytra gave her hosts a deep bow. "As I was saying, we noticed the creature only thanks to the Skull and responded by firing our Chaos Annihilations from our Maws, but the bastard dodged the anti-Guardian spells like it was nothing.

"I stepped off Zor’s back to let her use her Origin Flames freely and give the bastard a taste of my speed when that thing hit me so hard that I immediately lost consciousness. I woke up in a deep crater in the ground a few minutes later.

"There was no trace of Zor or of our unknown assailant. All I know is that the bastard overpowered us as if we were dumb toddlers and didn’t even bother finishing me off." She clenched her cup in frustration so hard that it shattered, spilling the hot tea all over the blanket.

"Gods, Lith, I’m so sorry. I’ll pay you back. I swear-"

"Don’t worry about that." Lith grabbed Bytra’s hand and stopped her from picking the pieces of the broken cup off the carpet. "It’s just a cup, and you should know me well enough to know that everything in this room can self-clean and repair."

"You’re right. I almost forgot you are the Miser Magus." Bytra smiled, the trembling in her hands lessening a bit.

"Now, can you show us what you remember? For Zor?" Lith asked.

The mind link would force Bytra to relive those moments, to experience the shock from the ambush and the pain of Xenagrosh’s disappearance all over again. Lith would have avoided renewing her pain, but there were too many details that words couldn’t convey.

"I don’t think I can." Just the thought made her teeth rattle. "Can you bring Elysia here, please?"

"Sure." Solus Warped to the nursery for one second and returned with the baby girl in her arms.

"Biba! Biba!" Elysia giggled, happy to show off her new word.

"Gods, you’re so smart!" Solus handed the baby girl to Bytra, and the tremors stopped instantly. "Is it me, or has she grown bigger since my last visit?"

"It’s not you, Elysia grows as strong as a Dragon." Lith sai,d and the baby girl puffed smoke out of her nostrils to prove her father’s point.

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