He watched Aran and Leria turn the sand into makeshift fortresses and use the water from the ocean to attack each other and make the opponent's walls crumble.

'I wish Carl and I could have done the same.' Lith kicked the sand which turned into a mosaic of his long-lost brother back when he was still a kid.

"Who is that? His smile kind of resembles yours." Kamila asked.

Lith didn't answer, kicking the sand a second time. He could feel the magic coursing through his leg like never before, but it didn't have any direction so nothing happened.

He tried a third and a fourth time, yet the more he focused the more the magic faded.

"Why did you do that?" She pointed at the ruined mosaic.

"I'm sorry, he was someone I knew a long time ago, and seeing him brings back painful memories." Lith said while leaning his head until it touched hers.

He let go of everything but the feeling of her warmth and the sound of the surf. Then, he kicked the sand again and instead of flying away, it took the form of a beautiful squared sandcastle with a spiral-shaped tower at each of its four corners and a keep at its center.

A small figurine dressed like a princess whose face resembled Kamila stood on the drawbridge, while a seven-eyed and four-winged dragon was coiled around the castle keep where another figurine depicting Solus was hidden.

"Is that us?" Kamila chuckled. "It's cute and creepy at the same time, just like you."

"You know what? You are right, this is fun." Lith said.

***

A few days later, Lith was taking a walk with Aran while Kamila bought some clothes for herself with Leria. She had discovered that the small girl would enjoy shopping if she considered it as a dress-up game with Kamila as her doll.

Lith had given the magical beasts the day off since between sleeping inside stables and having to endure hordes of adoring kids stressed them to no end. Lith noticed that Aran was quieter than usual and stared at the ground more than at the toys in the shop windows in front of him.

"What's wrong, little brother?" Aran was too young to have a crush on someone and he was as fit as a fiddle. Lith checked on the kids with Invigoration every day.

"Do you think I can be as good as Leria at magic?" Aran asked while clenching his little hand around Lith's in embarrassment.

"I beg your pardon?" The question didn't make sense. The kids were like twins and so were their cores. Lith had yet to notice any significant gap in talent between them.

"Leria has two streaks in her hair, like Abominus, while I only have one. Also, she told me that girls are more talented than boys.

"I mean, a lot of our aunts have magical powers whereas aside from you and uncle Nalrond, there are no male mages in Lutia."

"She was just making fun of you. You complain because you have one streak, but I have none. Does it make me a bad mage?" Lith asked.

"Of course not. You're an Archmage!" Aran was outraged as if someone had just badmouthed his brother.

"Aunt Friya has no streaks either, yet she has mastered all the elements and is one of the few dimensional mages of the Kingdom. Don't mind the streaks, they mark an affinity toward a specific element, but they are not related to talent."

"But Friya is a girl. Just like Tista and aunt Faluel." Aran replied.

"There are plenty of male mages around. Uncle Ryman, Professor Marth, Vastor, and Manohar, to name a few." Lith said.

"Uncle Ryman is a bad person." Aran shook his head. "He's away almost as often as you. Lilia and Leran cry a lot because of that. Vastor is old, fat, and bitter on the inside even more than he is on the outside. You must promise me to never become like either of them."

His response flabbergasted Lith. He had expected that Ryman's powerful body would look cool to a kid's eyes just like Vastor's gifts and his inexhaustible reserve of spectacular magical tricks would buy him a special place in Aran's heart.

"I promise." Lith looked at his little brother as if he saw him for the first time.

"I don't even remember this Marth guy. The only time Dad mentions him, he says that Marth will die as he lived. Buried in paperwork" Aran said. "As for Manohar, after he tried to turn me and several other kids into toasts subtle during a party…"

"You mean test subjects?" Lith facepalmed as he suddenly understood why the Mad Professor had been banned from most social events involving youths during Lith's absence.

"Yes. He gave us odd-looking candies and fruit juice, but aunt Jirni kicked him in the wee-wee before we could touch any of them. After that, Mom told me to never accept candies from strangers and to scream the moment I saw Manohar again.

"She called him many names that she forbade me to ever repeat. I don't think he's a good guy either."

"You have no idea." Lith sighed while searching his memory for another male role model but to no avail.

"Uncle Lith! Bad guys are harming people. You have to help them!" Aran tugged at his arm before pointing at a group of men outside a jewelry store.

They held heavy bags on their shoulders and an old man in a black suit, probably the store owner, hostage. When Aran had noticed them, the shop's silent alarm had already called the city guards, but the robbers needed but a wave of their hands to get rid of them with magic.

'Solus, analysis.' Lith said while checking the situation with Life Vision.

'The thugs have yellow mana cores of different levels, making them powerful magicos. Their leader, however, has a bright green core. They have yet to use a spell aside from first magic, so I've got no idea about their level.

'What I can tell you, is that they lack decent magical equipment. If their leader attended a magical academy, it must have been one of the minor schools.' She replied.

'Then they are excellent sparring partners for my vortexes.' Lith thought while putting Aran over his shoulders like Raaz did to let him watch at parades.

"Shouldn't I stay behind or something?" Aran asked. In the fairy tales that Lith told him, there was never blood nor people screamed like that.

His childish mind couldn't understand why the good guys were losing so badly despite they outnumbered the bad guys.

"Nonsense. If I leave you behind, you might get hit by a stray spell or someone might kidnap you. There's no place safer than where I stand." Lith said while Blinking close to the robbers.

"One more step and the old man is dead." A man with greasy red hair and a white left eye said. He was holding a razor-sharp ice blade against the shopkeeper's wrinkly throat strong enough to make it bleed.

"Surrender now and your pride will be the only thing getting hurt." Lith ignored those threats while pressing with his thumb over the tip of his middle finger, in an odd okay gesture.