"It was the Organization that located and acquired the Mouth of Menadion but it's only thanks to Bytra if they gifted it back to me once they were done studying the Mouth." Lith said.

"Bytra has risked her life to save Solus' several times already and she has proven herself once more today by revealing that she knew about the tower all along yet feigned ignorance to cover for us.

"When Solus and I first met you, Silverwing, you tried to kill me. When we first met Bytra, she offered her life as an apology for crimes she only remembers. She helped us whenever we needed her and found the Mouth and Ears for us.

"The best you could do, instead, was stay out of our way." Lith's words stabbed at the First Magus' pride but even with the dislike she harbored for him and the Fourth Ruler of the Flames, there was no denying the truth.

"I don't care if Bytra cracks the secret of the Ears. I trust her to do the right thing and not disclose anything she learns until Solus is saved. The only thing that matters to me is increasing my odds of success, even by a slight margin.

"The Ears are both my only bargaining chip and a powerful tool. I won't sacrifice it just to appease your grudge." Then Lith turned to the Raiju. "Do I have your word, Bytra?"

"Of course." She had a hard time keeping her voice from cracking.

Hearing someone speaking so highly of her despite her awful past gave the Fourth Ruler of the Flames hope that maybe one day the rest of Mogar too would forgive her.

"Whatever I learn, I'll keep it to myself until the end of the mission. Were I to understand how to make the Ears and one of my associates to learn about it, the Organization would pull away and your offer lose much of its luster."

"Thanks, Bytra." Lith gave her a small bow.

"If that's settled, then I'm going to be optimistic and tell everyone the Ears come unlocked." Valtak said. "Even if it's a lie, I count on the three greatest Forgemasters alive to turn it into truth before the raid."

Salaark stared at him for a while, her gaze stern.

"Present Guardian excluded, of course." The Elder Wyrm stood up and walked out of the War Room before taking his communicator out of his dimensional amulet.

"I have no way to find the Fringe and no children I can take into battle, but I know someone who might be interested in your offer, Lith. I'll be gone for a while but if you need me, you have my rune."

Sinmara left her seat right after Valtak and shapeshifted into her Phoenix form, disappearing on the horizon in the blink of an eye.

"Grandma?" Tista looked at the Overlord with a hopeful look.

"Yes, Featherling?"

"Can't you help us?" Kamila had already tried and failed but Tista hoped that the perspective of getting the Ears and the happiness from having Lith back would tip the scales of the Overlord's heart.

"I don't know where the new Tree resides and I'm not going to get involved." Salaark replied, making everyone groan. "If you want to ask me for the help of my Nest, the answer is no.

"I won't order my Phoenixes to fight a battle that doesn't involve the Desert but I won't stop them from helping you, if that's what they want to do."

Lith sighed, cursing his lack of social interaction with the Nest.

'Aside from Sinmara and Crevan's unit, I know no one. Heck, if not for Valtak, the only Dragons I know would be Zoreth and Gentor! I've spent too much time in my lab and too little out there.'

The room became silent as everyone racked their brains to find someone among the people they knew who might be strong and reliable enough to help and figure out a way to locate Solus' position.

"What about Aalejah?" Friya said. "She was an aspirant Chronicler and might have some useful clue about the new Tree's Fringe or at least information about their standard defenses."

"It's worth a shot." Lith tried and failed to access his pocket dimension where his communicator still was. "Fuck me sideways, I forgot I've lost all of my contacts!"

"Don't worry, I'll deal with it." Friya called Faluel who in turn contacted Athung, the human representative of the Distar region and current host of Aalejah Eventide.

"Dammit, I can't believe how useless I am without Solus." Lith said in frustration. "I've lost my amulet, all of my magical resources, and even if I conjure an entire army of Demons of Darkness, I don't have any equipment to give them.

"Valia's and Varegrave's corpses are lost as well and-"

"Excuse me for a moment." One of the runes on Zoreth's communicator was flashing and she recognized it as Tezka's. "You are on speaker."

"On speaker with who?" He asked.

"Lith, his family, and a few friends. We are in the Blood Desert right now." It was a polite way to tell him that while under Salaark's roof, there was no way to hide anything from her.

"Hi, young sparrow." Tezka said.

"Hi, old fox." Salaark replied. "Why did you call?"

"To report a mission accomplished." The Suneater said. "I've done what you asked, Xenagrosh."

"Have you located the World Tree?" She almost couldn't believe her ears.

Almost.

"No, but I've got the next best thing. I've captured a Chronicler and I'm bringing him back home." Tezka replied.

"How is that supposed to help? A Chronicler can't betray his master." Zoreth's enthusiasm faded with each word she spoke. "Roughening him up won't do us any good."

"That's where you are wrong." The Fylgja said. "How do you think I found the World Tree the last time? Every Chronicler shares a deep bond with the Yggdrasill. They are the Tree's eyes and ears which means that whatever they feel, the Tree feels it as well."

"If you inflict crippling pain to a Chronicler, the Yggdrasill suffers crippling pain as well. Keep at it long enough and the World Tree will be forced to send a kill team."

"Don't you mean a rescue team?" Zoreth asked.

"Only if the opponent is someone the Yggdrasill's forces can handle." Tezka replied. "Remember that the moment the Chronicler regains consciousness, the Tree will know where the elf is and who captured him.

"Rather than defeating me, killing the Chronicler is much easier. My to-go strategy to locate a Yggdrasill is to let the kill team complete their mission and then tail one of the Chroniclers after they part ways.

"Pun not intended. At that point, it's only a matter of time before they travel back to the Fringe and lead me to an access point. Once I know where the hidden dimensional passage is, going in and out is easy."

"It was a good plan in the past, but it's not going to work anymore." Lith sighed. "Until a while ago you were still an Eldritch and the previous World Trees probably underestimated you. After all, the gap in power between you was enormous and they had nothing to lose aside from a bit of wood.