"Yes, but we would still like to celebrate your birthday." Raaz said.

"What's to celebrate? The day when you lost a son and gained a monster?" Lith shapeshifted for a split second, making the adults shudder and the kids ask for an encore.

"I understand your pain, Lith, but it's not a good reason to behave as if you're the only one grieving." Elina stood up from her chair and moved near to him.

She cupped his face, forcing Lith to look her in the eyes, in the hope to snap him out of that edgy self-loathing demeanor.

"I knew Trequill Lark before you were born and I spent more time with Mirim than you ever did. Every time there was a gala that I couldn't attend due to my lack of manners, I entrusted you to her.

"After your return, Mirim would spend hours telling me every single word of praise you received and how well you handled those who provoked you. They were good people and my friends. I miss them more than you can possibly imagine.

"Yet you are my son and you need me more than I need to cry. So please, don't you dare to call yourself a monster again because that's the only thing that I can't bear right now.

"No one in this house cares about how you look or how your children will. All that matters to us is that you know that this is your family and that everyone here loves you." She embraced him, soon joined by Raaz.

"Also, telling us why Kamila broke up with you would surely help us to understand your feelings." Rena said.

"Rena!" Her parents said in unison, bursting Lith's eardrums.

"What?"

"Too soon!"

"Not really." Rena shook her head. "I don't want him to relive everything, just to tell us what happened and maybe stop acting as if it's the end of the world. We can't help Lith if he doesn't open up to us."

"Rena is right." Lith sighed. "Let's finish our meal, put the kids to bed, and then I'll tell you everything."

Aside from the kids complaining about having to go to sleep early and their claims about being able to keep a secret, the room remained silent until the end of the dinner.

***

Blood Desert, Salaark's tent, inside one of the few bedrooms on Mogar capable of withstanding the passion of two Guardians, right now.

The Desert's Overlord had gone on her date after receiving Lith's report about the events of Lightkeep. Leegaain and Salaark had rekindled more than one kind of spark between them straight after dinner and they had just finished their business.

"Why did you want us to keep our human form? Wasn't it kind of awkward for you?" Leegaain said amid pants while dabbing a bit of sweat with the bedsheets.

"Are you kidding me? That felt amazing! It's true what they say. Practice really makes perfect and you clearly practiced a lot." She chuckled while hogging the sheets to make herself a makeshift dress while she took something out of a chest on the other side of the tent.

"Order and Chaos, you're the least romantic woman I've ever dated. You make even a compliment sound like a dirty joke." Leegaain said.

"Wait, was this a date? I thought you hated being associated with me." Salaark feigned ignorance.

"Not as much I hate booty calls or being considered the one-night stand guy of the god of Forgemastering." He replied with a scoff.

"We're not kids. If you want us to be together again just grow a spine and say it out loud." Salaark brought a couple of glasses of Red Dragon and offered one to Leegaain who blushed in embarrassment.

Not only because of her words, but because they both knew that he had created that liquor ages ago with the purpose of getting her drunk. She was the Red and he was the Dragon, making it an intimate inside joke between them.

"No, I'm not!" He replied too fast to be believable.

"Too bad, because I'd like to." Salaark lied down on the bed on her side in a sensual way while sipping her drink. "Maybe it's because seeing our baby Lith all grow up is stirring my maternal instincts, but I'm willing to give another try at mixing our bloodlines."

"Please, he is not our "baby". It must be one of Mogar's tricks, but only they know why they did it." Leegaain snarled.

"Well, if Mogar did it, then why can't we do it as well the old-fashioned way? Doesn't the idea pique your scientific curiosity?" She replied.

"Wait. Did you really call me here for old times' sake or did you plan on using me from the beginning?" He stood up, throwing a reproachful look at her.

"I don't see why I can't combine business and pleasure." She giggled. "If it works, we can make Mogar a better place. Also, if I do get pregnant, I could use the baby's help to craft a new masterpiece above the Guardian level."

Suddenly Leegaain understood why she had chosen the human form for their romantic encounter. He stared at her flat sensual womb like a pro gamer would at a cheater.

Even Guardians would receive a temporary and significant boost in power while pregnant. If the father was of comparable might with the mother, she would end up doubling both her physical and magical prowess.

It was one of the things Leegaain envied the most about Salaark and Tyris.

"Talking about mixing bloodlines, I think I know what Thrud is planning and how she managed to craft the Kingslayer armor. Being pregnant of a Dragon must have boosted her Griffon abilities to the point that there's no telling what level her Forgemastery has reached." He said.

"What do you mean? What Griffon powers. She's just a human." Salaark asked.

"Think about it. The prototypes belonged to the lesser Dragons, Phoenixes, Garudas, and Griffons. Don't you find it suspicious that no Leviathan nor Fenrir was involved?"

Salaark was about to object that one ocean of distance was a considerable obstacle, but the presence of Garudas made her reasoning crumble.

"Yes, very." She nodded while racking her brain for an answer.

"We know that she found a way to turn a Wyvern into a Dragon by refining the remains of my blood. Hence, it's safe to assume that rather than help Xedros out of the goodness of her heart, she did it to use him as a test subject without endangering her baby." Leegaain said.

"Phoenixes and Garudas were only meant to study respectively Origin Flames and Life Maelstrom. Thrud needed as many subjects as she could in the first phase of her research to find a way to safely trigger those powers.

"Then, she focused solely on Dragons and Griffons because that's what she really needed. Dragons for Xedros, Griffons for herself, and both for the baby!"

"Great Mother almighty!" All Guardians knew that Tyris was far from being omnipotent, but being the first of their kind she was the object of their admiration.

"Are you telling me that she might be carrying the Griffon version of Lith?"

"Maybe. Or maybe she just wants her child to get the best of both worlds no matter what life force they choose once the child becomes of age." Leegaain replied.