"Now, however, after losing part of my humanity, I decided that instead of giving you bits of truth it was time to let you know everything so that you could make up your mind one last time.

"This is it, Kamila. There are no more secrets between us. This is how I look and how my children will if I ever decide to have any. As for Solus, she's more than an artifact. She's my partner and my best true friend.

​​

"If we want to keep moving forward together, you must be ready to honestly accept Solus because I will never give up on her." Lith said.

"So you're ready to give up on me but not on her?" Kamila asked.

"It's different. You are not a part of me but someone I want to be part of my life. I can't and I won't force you to do anything, I'm just giving you a choice." Lith replied.

"What point does my choice have when you've already made yours?" Kamila said with a snarl, unwilling to hear one more word of that sick joke any longer.

She opened the door of the tower and then turned toward Lith one last time.

"How could you do this to me? How could you lie like that and keep a straight face for three whole years? I loved you, Lith Verhen." She slammed the door behind and ran toward the Verhen Household under Tista's watchful eye.

She had followed them only to make sure that, if the worst happened, Kamila would get home safe without anyone bothering her.

"I love you too, Kamila Yehval." Lith whispered to the closed door without moving for several minutes while he checked on Kamila via the tower's Sentries.

Yet he didn't say it out loud to her because it would have been nothing but a cheap low blow.

'The word love isn't enough to justify my actions. Kamila has every reason to be shocked and indignant. Maybe this is what Baba Yaga meant when she explained to me about love. If I really care for her, I must let Kamila go.' Lith thought.

'This is different from when Phloria broke up with me. This time I'm not giving up on her so much as giving Kamila the time and space that she needs to make her decision.

'If I tell Kamila that I love her and propose to her now, she might give me an emotional answer that would last only until she calms down. Then, she might regret her decision and change her mind, bringing us back to square one.'

The moment Kamila crossed the Warp Gate in the barn, Lith's knees buckled up.

'Then why, gods? Why even though I know that I'm doing the right thing doesn't my heart hurt one bit less?' He started to cry, unable to hold himself together any longer.

***

Kamila arrived at Belius in such a state that she was stopped by the Desk Sergeant. It took her some effort to convince the soldier that she hadn't been the victim of any crime and that she just wanted to go home.

Once Kamila finally reassured the woman enough to let her go, she reached her apartment and slammed the door behind

"Lucky clothes my ass!" She said while taking them out of the Scalewalker's dimensional space and throwing them in the trash bin.

Then, her eyes fell on the mystical glow of the Camellia that she always carried on her.

Kamila stared at the magical flower in hatred, seeing it as the embodiment of the pain and deception that Lith had put her through during the last three years.

"It will be a pleasure watching you wither, little fucker!" She took it out of her breast pocket and clenched it with all of her strength, before realizing that she had imprinted it out of habit.

Kamila wanted to throw the Camellia in the bin as well, but her hand refused to open. The magical flower held many precious memories, some of which belonged to the happiest moments of her life.

Kamila thought back at Lith making her fly through the sky, giving Zinya sight, life, and helping her to get divorced. Kamila remembered all the hours that she and Lith had spent together in their home.

Kamila realized that she wouldn't hear his voice ever again, that his steps wouldn't echo through the house anymore, that they would never make breakfast for each other again.

Suddenly, it wasn't just the lights being still off that made the house dark so much as the thought that, from that moment onward, all of those things that had lighted up her heart during the last three years were lost forever.

Kamila kept clenching and imprinting the Camellia, crying her eyes out as she felt as if she was a stranger in her own home.

***

Neither Lith nor Kamila made a secret of their break up so Tista's worst-case scenario came to be in all of its unpleasantness.

Both the Yehval and the Verhen family couldn't understand what might have ruined their relationship so abruptly, yet they couldn't ask their respective relative for an explanation to not make them feel even worse

After confirming that neither of them knew what the heck had happened, Elina and Zinya had to avoid each other for a while, being forced to assume that their respective loved one was the real victim.

Only the children went on with their lives like usual since their parents found it stupid to involve them in their problems.

They had to cancel all the plans for the marriage and wait for the moment when one of the two former lovers felt like opening up to them.

While the two families tried to make head or tails of the situation, the news that Lith was single again spread like wildfire throughout the Kingdom and beyond its borders.

Noble dames invited him to their houses and the Royals found the most implausible excuses to arrange a date for Lith with the princesses, hoping that at least one of them could make love spark.

Emperor Beasts were much more straightforward. Many women of powerful species from the Council contacted him to know if he was interested in mixing his bloodline with their own.

If Lith really was a new species born from Leegaain's and Salaark's blood, then it should've been possible to add another Guardian to the mix.

To have some privacy, Lith moved from his house to the tower. His parents believed that he was actually living with Faluel, and Raaz secretly hoped that by living together the Hydra would catch him on the rebound.

Lith, however, would leave the tower only for the meals, spending the rest of the time experimenting with his new body to bury himself in work and don't think about Kamila.

Too much.

'I know that I owe my parents an explanation and that they have the right to know about Solus as well but I don't have the strength to go through another emotional roller coaster.

'At least this way I can avoid all those stupid suitors and allow Solus to feed on the full power of my deep violet core. Two birds with one stone.' He thought.

As for the Hydra, she didn't take Sedra's death well.