"PS: tell your sisters Dove and Nice to stay away from my lab. I have Salaark on the speed dial and a favor to call in."

Then, Zolgrish had forgotten about the purpose of the letter and had written a long rant about Ratpack bothering him for being forgetful. Dusk skipped that part because it was irrelevant and full of vulgar words.

"Are all the replies like that one?" Night was flabbergasted.

"No, I picked it because it's one of the politest. Long story short, any attempt to conscript even one Lich would end in a mass defection to the enemy side and give them a common goal: our extinction." Dusk replied.

"I'm deeply honored by your invitation, Master Dusk, but I share this Zolgrish's opinion." Vladion Zegroff, the Vampire Firstborn, said despite the sour aftertaste such words left on his tongue.

Humans called Vampires the undead nobles and thought of Liches as undead royalty. He hated seeing the Courts sharing such a view and he hated even more having to agree with a filthy Lich.

"I came here from Jiera looking for peace and a new home, not for more pointless struggle. On top of that, as an Awakened, I've nothing to gain and everything to lose from making an enemy out of the Council.

"They gave me and my children food and shelter whereas all you have to offer me is a battlefield. If I join your cause, I'm afraid that, with the excuse of the war, sooner or later someone will try to extort the secret of Awakening from my youngest once they are away from the protection of the Council."

"Are you telling me that the first Vampire of Mogar, the man that Baba Yaga herself turned into an undead, is incapable of protecting his own?" Night's voice oozed contempt for what she perceived as betrayal.

If the other Hors.e.m.e.n were her siblings, then Firstborns were her little cousins and nieces. She considered them as a part of her family since, unlike their descendants, the Firstborns carried a spark of Baba Yaga's life force.

"That's easy for you to say." Vladion stood up and many Firstborns followed his lead. "You care for nothing but yourself and treat even your host like a disposable tool. You may call those who receive your prisms Chosen, but I call them slaves.

"Even though I'll never thank the Red Mother enough for giving me a second chance at life, I question her choice of giving birth to three beings that can't have an offspring, don't care for anything but themselves, and who can't live without robbing someone else of their body."

"Your words are as cruel as they are unfair." Dusk said. "We can and we will have an offspring once we find the perfect host. Until that moment, anything else would be a waste of time and effort. It's the same reason why my sisters have yet to forge their Davross equipment.

"What we lack is the means to establish our own bloodline, not the will."

"Really? I could believe it if it came from Dawn or Night, but what about you? You have forged your equipment and you inhabit that body for centuries. What stopped you for so long?" Vladion's mantle wrapped around his master as he prepared to leave.

"I've yet to fulfill my purpose and find a way to allow all the undead species to use the light element." The Red Sun replied.

"Let me guess, once you fulfill your purpose, you'll postpone again to help your siblings with their own. You speak a lot, but all I hear are excuses to not live the life you were given. Farewell. We shall not meet again."

Vladion fused with the shadows and reappeared in a dark alley. The sun was still high but it ceased to bother him the moment his fully red blood core turned into a mana core, restoring his mortality.

His physical prowess was gone and his mana core was blood red, but now he could appreciate the scent of the pretty women of the desert as a man instead of a predator and there were plenty of different things that could sate his hunger.

Vladion looked exactly like when he was still alive. A handsome man in his early thirties about 1.87 meters (6'2") tall, with short black hair and icy blue eyes that were filled with the warm passion of youth.

He had the bearing of a general but the build of a soldier. One look was enough to understand that he had earned his stripes in battle, not by pushing papers and l.i.c.k.i.n.g boots.

His charms would make it easy for him to find a lady willing to overlook his light olive skin, too pale for the standards of the people of the desert, and keep him company, just like his gold would allow him to try the local delicacies to his heart content.

Yet he remained there, waiting for his siblings to discuss their next course of action.

"Are you sure this is the right choice?" Dusk asked Ilthin Demere, the Firstborn Banshee.

"Time will tell if it's right, the only thing I know is that it's the best choice for my people." The elf Lady had hair of gold, eyes of silver, and a heart still scarred by the man who had ripped it out of her c.h.e.s.t in the search for immortality after swearing his eternal love to her.

"We are your people." Dawn said.

"Your deeds don't match your words. In the past, you never hesitated to sacrifice my children in the name of your research and you gave me no reason to think that this time it will be any different." Ilthin disappeared, and in the blink of an eye, only the Hors.e.m.e.n and their lapdogs from the Undead Courts remained.

"That went well." Dusk sighed.

"I never thought the day would come that I would even consider that my host is right." Night g.r.o.a.n.e.d under the burden of her responsibilities that now she had no hope to delegate to someone else.

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked, open to any suggestion that might turn the tide of the battle.

"He says that we should grow a spine and ask Mom to give us our steeds. Hors.e.m.e.n are meant to ride." Night said, making an awkward silence befall the room.

***

Village of Lutia, Faluel's lair.

"What do you mean, they went on vacation?" Leegaain was flabbergasted.

"Lith took the children someplace to teach them magic and his parents went to enjoy the first true vacation of their lives. As simple as that." Faluel shrugged.

"I know that he left, it's exactly the reason why I'm here. Otherwise who knows what ungodly price would he ask me for some blood, especially after the Kolga incident."

"You mean when you sent Lith to Jiera to force him to have a world tribulation, endangering both his life and Solus's?" Faluel said with a sneer.

"That's one cynical way to put it. I like to think about it like giving a gentle push to a promising youth and observing how the tribulations affect his other half." Leegaain said with an indignant look on his face.