"Anything." Kamila held him tight, those words making her feel like she could breathe again.

Lith compressed the space around them, Hushed the room, and obscured it with a darkness spell. Salaark's palace was supposed to be safe, but after reading Jirni's suspects list he couldn't take risks.

Then, he conjured a mind link via physical touch to share his plan with Kamila and once he was done, her shoulders slouched again.

***

Blood Desert, the following day, a few hours before dawn.

Lith left the bedroom while Kamila and the babies were still asleep, his steps light like a breeze.

'They are still very tired from all the emotions from yesterday. I'll say our goodbye at the last moment possible.' He thought.

Lith used the domestic Gate network to reach the War Room where Tezka, Gentor, Jirni, Quylla, Friya, and Aleeah waited for him. Tezka's prisoner was there as well, still trapped inside a thick linen bag and ready to be knocked out again the moment he was about to regain his senses.

By the time Lith arrived, Jirni was still studying Aalejah's anatomy with Invigoration and the elf was making small talk to keep her mind from wondering how that knowledge would be used.

"That's the cloth the Yggdrasill grants their aspirant Chroniclers to give them privacy." Aalejah said after taking a good look at the bag. "It's an enchantment only the World Tree is supposed to know and they never hand more than enough to wrap a single staff.

"How did you find something of that size?" The bag was big enough to hold the elf and his weapon with space to spare.

"I didn't." Tezka replied with a proud smile on his snout. "You left your cloth in the ruins of Urgamakka years ago, remember?"

"More like I lost it in the chaos ensuing the attack of Vareen the Plaguespreader." She shrugged. "I didn't bother looking for the cloth because I didn't need it anymore after abandoning the idea of becoming a C-"

The elf's eyes went wide.

"You stole my cloth!"

"No, I picked your abandoned cloth up for you." Tezka took a piece of runed fabric the size of a small carpet out of his pocket dimension and handed it to Aalejah.

"Wait, what?" The elf had used it for so long that she recognized the cloth at first glance. "Where does that come from, then?"

She asked while pointing out at the moaning sack.

"I might have given it to Bytra to study while looking for its owner." Tezka scratched his chin. "That girl's real strength lies in the Forge. She is the Fourth Ruler of the Flames and there's little she can't do once she puts her mind to it.

"Too bad her combat strength is nothing special."

Lith had seen Bytra fight a few times and he had always been shocked by her ability to conjure massive amounts of raw power and then focus them into laser-precise attacks.

'I guess that if Tezka uses his own strength as the benchmark, Bytra is indeed nothing special. Which begs the question: where do I stand in Tezka's power scale?'

"Sorry for making you wait. Is everyone ready?" Lith asked.

Everyone turned toward him, noticing that something was different about him.

Just a few hours had passed since the last time Jirni had seen him, yet Lith looked a head and shoulders taller, fiercer, and he seemed to have overcome the shock from turning into an Abomination and Solus' kidnapping.

Jirni could tell that something had happened. Something that had steeled Lith's resolve to the point that he made her feel small.

"Whoever was interested in helping you has arrived by now." Gentor nodded. "The troops are well fed and rested. We only need your command and a destination."

"Good." Lith nodded. "Grandma?"

"Yes, Featherling?" Salaark Warped into the room through a hair-thin dimensional opening.

"I don't want to waste Tezka's strength before the mission and I need a space-sealed room to contain the prisoner." He said. "A place where I can make the elf regain consciousness without the risk he alerts the Yggdrasill of our intentions until I decide otherwise.

"Do you have a cell that fits such requirements?"

"You want to lift the dimensional seal during the interrogation?" Salaark furrowed her brows. "What's going to stop the elf from escaping then?"

"Friya." Lith replied.

"Fine. Crevan."

"Yes, my Liege?" The Phoenix answered her summon, his head already bowed and his knee bent.

"Bring Lith and his friends to the palace dungeon and give them full control over the array system of a max security cell."

"Them?" Crevan echoed.

"Yes, not just to Lith." Salaark nodded.

"As you command." Crevan stood up and led the way to the dungeon wing.

Only Gentor didn't follow the Phoenix, returning outside to update the others. His presence was neither needed nor required.

Salaark's palace was a huge tent so everything was at the ground level. There were no upper or lower floors yet it extended no less than the Kingdom's Royal Palace or the Empire's floating fortress of Manaron.

If not for dimensional magic stretching and expanding the space inside the palace, Salaark's tent would have been bigger than Lutia.

"Here we are." Crevan said, pointing at a small room with no windows and a single entrance that required a precise sequence of mana pulses to open. "Walls and ceiling are enchanted to Davross level.

"No one gets in or out without the code." He gave it to Lith via a mind link. "The cell has a space-compressing array strong enough to stop the long-distance mind link between the Chronicler and the Yggdrasill.

"There is also has a Silverwing's Hexagram to keep prisoners from using elemental magic. Yet there is no way to block regular Spirit Spells or breathing techniques so you need to be careful. Once your prisoner wakes up, he will be trapped but he can still attack you."

"This won't do, Crevan." Lith shook his head. "I'm okay with the dimensional sealing array but everything else has to go. We need light magic to keep the prisoner alive."

"And I'm not okay with the dimensional seal, hatchling." Tezka needed but a wave of his hand to make the array visible and study its runes. "This is just a variation on one of the young sparrow's favorite spells.

"The World Tree probably knows its weak points and the elf can probably bypass it."

Crevan's pride as a member of the Nest was wounded by those words but he had never faced an enemy of the caliber of Tezka or the World Tree. He swallowed a rude retort and contacted the Overlord.

"My Liege agrees with you." The Phoenix handed a key-shaped mana gemstone to the Suneater. "This crystal will bestow you temporary control over the prison's arrays."

"Thanks." Tezka shut the defensive system down and used the key to replace Salaark's array with one of his own. "Done. Aside from physical attacks, you weaklings have nothing to fear." He said while looking at Quylla, Friya, Aalejah, and Jirni.

The girls glared at him while their mother gave him the best curtsy her state allowed her. All while never breaking contact with the elf.

"Do you mind telling me what you are doing?" Aalejah asked as she felt Jirni's mana washing over every nook and cranny of her body.