"I need to do it while Rena is asleep, but I can't kick her husband out without looking like a creep." Lith said.

"Why not asking Senton for help, then?" Kamila asked.

"Yeah right. Because Rena sure is incapable of telling when the man she spends most of her days with is anxious or is lying to her." Lith sneered.

"Point taken." Kamila nodded. "Don't worry too much. You're a great Healer and there's still time. I'll speak with Elina as soon as I can, but now I really need to take a nap. I'm still tired from last night and eating that much didn't help. Care to join me?"

"Sorry, I can't. I have yet to speak with Faluel about my apprenticeship. After fighting with the Horseman of Dawn, Faluel told me she had some important news to discuss.

"Now that Mom's lunch has knocked everyone out, it's the best moment to take a short leave without being skinned for neglecting my family again." He sighed.

"Is this Faluel a beautiful woman?" She asked.

"Yes, very." Lying was pointless. Kamila had become very good at sniffing blatant lies.

"Are you going to introduce her to me?"

"Yes. You'll probably meet her along with my family."

Kamila closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself. She wasn't the jealous type, but the fact that there were so many stunners around her boyfriend annoyed her to no end.

On top of that, the thought that Lith would soon spend most of his time working side by side with Faluel, probably more than what he would spend with her since it would be his new job, was giving Kamila a headache.

She already knew that Faluel was actually a Hydra, but Protector being an Emperor Beast hadn't stopped Selia from falling in love with him.

'I wonder how can Selia not feel threatened. I mean, we're not mages, we do not shapeshift, and we have no idea how does it feel watching at Mogar through the eyes of our partners, whereas Faluel does.

'We're so close and yet so different that it scares me. I guess the only thing I can do is believing in the bond of trust between us.' She thought.

"Are you really sure about leaving the army, then?" Kamila asked.

"Yes, my decision is final."

"Can I report it to my commanding officers or do you want to do it yourself?"

"I'm fine with both, as long as we do it after our leave ends." Lith shrugged.

"I'm not going to kick a hornet nest during my first vacation in months, silly." She said with a chuckle.

They returned to Lith's home and discovered that half the family was already asleep and the other half was about to. Between the food and the wine to celebrate the prodigal son's return, they could barely keep their eyes open.

Rena had no wine, but she was too exhausted just from all the emotion to even take a single step, so she took Tista's room on the ground floor.

"You have no idea how good it feels to have some privacy again, little brother. Damn the stairs and their inventor." She said while Lith helped her reaching the bed and tucked her in.

"What's this?" Rena felt a sudden discomfort under her back. She discovered it was caused by a piece of paper wrapped around a stone small enough to stay hidden under the sheets but big enough to be impossible to miss while lying down on the bed.

"To whoever found this note." Rena read out loud. "This is my room so no matter what reason has brought you to mess with my stuff, I expect you to treat it with the same respect you would use for me.

"If you have sex on my bed, have the decency to replace the mattress, burn the old one, and for the love of the gods, never let me know about it. With love, Tista. PS: Lith, if it's you, you're a dead man. Rena, keep Senton away from the last drawer of my dresser or you'll become a widow. Mom and Dad…

"I can't read the rest. It's like she had a seizure or something and tried to put it into words." Rena said.

"Well, you try imagining our parents having sex on your own bed." Lith had to fight the nausea and horror that just saying those words inspired.

"You monster. Now I can never unimagine that." Rena shuddered. "By the way, what's in Tista's last drawer?"

"Beats me. All I can tell you it's that there's an array protecting it." Lith noticed that Tista had taken precautions so that even Life Vision couldn't reveal the drawer's content.

"Bummer. I can't go through it by 'accident'." Rena laughed.

After giving a hug and kiss goodbye to his mother and sister, Lith went to Faluel's lair. Before that, however, he left Solus at a safe distance. Meeting Nalrond had confirmed to him that Living Legacies had a bad name.

He had too much on his plate already to waste time convincing his mentor that Solus was different from other cursed objects as much as he was from regular Awakened.

"I wasn't expecting you so soon." One of the Hydra's seven heads yawned, making the gold coins stuck between her scales fall to the ground in the most expensive rain ever.

Lesser Dragons liked to hoard treasures and use them as their bed as much as real Dragons did. Faluel's bunk was comprised only of gold and platinum coins that were covering most of her massive body, leaving only the nostrils of the six sleeping heads exposed.

"Visiting me on your very first day of leave shows quite the dedication." Another massive yawn exposed a row of deadly teeth and her snake tongue. Each one of her fangs was bigger than Lith.

"Sorry about that. I don't deal well with the cold. Scratch that, I hate winter." Faluel made a hot spring appear, drowning her body and tail in search of relief. "One of the reasons why I envy you Origin Flames users is that they always keep you warm."

"The last time I called, you told me we needed to talk. Here I am." Lith wasn't interested in rants. Faluel had mentioned the Council amulet not being safe and had avoided even mentioning the topics she wanted to discuss.

It was enough to keep him on edge.

"Relax, it's nothing dramatic. Otherwise I would have come to you myself. Also, even though I'm a huge fan of informal speech, I would like a bit more respect in your tone when you address your mentor, young man." She snorted.

"I'm sorry, Professor Faluel. I'm in a bit of a hurry because even when I'm on vacation, bad stuff keeps happening. Whatever is going to happen, I need to be prepared." Lith said.

"Professor? That's new." Faluel chuckled, tilting her head with curiosity.

"It's the best term to define our relationship if you're going to be my mentor. I have no master because I serve no one." Lith said.

His reply made the Hydra laugh harder, causing the coins that covered her body to jingle.

"Professor will do. Now, before we start our friendly talk, why don't you have your partner join us? I don't like beating around the bush and I think it's better if Solus can freely ask questions rather than rely solely on your wits." Faluel said.