Nalrond extended his hand toward the silvery barrier that separated the dimensional space from the rest of Mogar, feeling the familiar stream of consciousness inside the barrier flooding inside of him.

Countless voices, experiences, and feelings that didn't belong to him coursed through his mind. The Rezar used his own name as an anchor against the stream and as a fortress against the psychic onslaught but this time it wasn't enough.

Not because learning about the possible existence of his other half had made his sense of self falter. On the contrary, the idea of having finally found the missing piece of his life that his forefathers had searched for generations, had given Nalrond a purpose.

Yet he had underestimated the burden that meeting a being as powerful as Mogar inside the Mindscape had put on both his body and focus. Even with the protection from the magic circles, the mind link had made so much world energy course through his body that he experienced the effects of mana abuse.

Nalrond felt as if his human form was about to break, forcing him to cut off the contact with the barrier.

"Dammit, I'll need to rest a bit before making another attempt." Nalrond said a second before so many short arrows pierced his back that he seemed to have turned into a porcupine.

"Leaving without even saying goodbye? After everything we did for you, it's time you return our kindness, dear Nalrond." Kimo's voice emerged from a Warp Steps along with several Dewans armed to the teeth.

"We offered you a home. We offered you to marry one of our women. We offered you even the sacred knowledge that our ancestors left us about the Fringe, yet every single time you threw our generosity back into our face."

Friya thanked her paranoia for having allowed her to keep many spells at the ready. Yet the reason why she didn't shut Kimo's mouth with a well-placed fireball was that she knew something was off.

Only when more and more people started to come out from both Warp Steps and the barrier did she understand why Kimo had wasted time talking. The arrows weren't meant to kill, so much as to incapacitate Nalrond and make it impossible for him to survive a trip through the barrier.

To make matters worse, only a small number of those who came from the Steps belonged to the Dewans tribe. The others all had slender bodies and long pointy ears like she had never seen before.

***

Jiera Continent, City of Reghia.

Lith spent the time his body needed to heal by studying the Odi books that he had collected in Kulah and in Dawn's lab, trying to replace the old technology with Runesmithing.

It was a tedious work that he could only perform when alone since the use of Forbidden Magic was frowned upon by every single mage Lith knew, Solus included. Luckily, Tista and Phloria spent most of the day outside, performing their respective tasks and leaving him all the time he needed.

On the other hand, not being able to even use chore magic made him completely dependent on Solus. He tried writing down his findings, but his penmanship was so horrible that when he compared his notes with books, he had an easier time deciphering the Odi language than his own.

"I guess I got too spoiled using water magic all the time." He sighed while Solus manipulated the ink to turn what looked like the scribbles of a madman into human language.

"Look, I'm not saying that we shouldn't look into body-swapping. Not after all it happened to you while fighting that Puppeteer." Solus touched his cheek to use Invigoration for the tenth time in as many minutes and make sure there was nothing wrong with him.

"There's plenty of awful people in this world that I wouldn't feel bad experimenting upon, but after now that we learned about Guardianhood and white cores, wouldn't it be better to focus on safer methods to prolong your life?

"I mean, making sure that the machine works will need both a lot of trial-and-error experimentation and getting to know our victims enough to determine if the body-swapping succeeded. We can check the status of mana cores and life forces, but we have no way to make sure that the mind is intact as well."

Solus sighed in relief seeing that the Abomination side of Lith's life force was almost back to normal. "Gods, I can't wait for you to be able to shapeshift again. I miss your face and voice."

"Welcome to the club." Lith said with his hybrid voice which always sounded as if a gust of wind howling through an abyss somehow uttered human words. "Mom almost cries every time she sees me and Rena is worried sick.

"As for the machine, I know it's a longshot, but I'd rather have a solid contingency plan than blindly rely on what-ifs. Guardianhood is more a death sentence than a path to immortality, otherwise there wouldn't be so few Guardians."

"White cores are more promising since after meeting them in person, we know thanks to your mana sense that both Baba Yaga and Silverwing achieved it. Yet the fact that even the Council considers it a myth speaks volumes about how hard it is to evolve past the violet core.

"I wouldn't care about body-swapping only if Silverwing offered me her help instead of trying to kill me. She is a genius mage blessed by all the elements whereas I'm no genius and I'm not going to live as long as a normal Awakened." Lith said.

It wasn't the answer Solus had hoped for but there was nothing she could say to refute his words so she got back to work.

"Thanks for your help and understanding." Lith looked at the sea of pages they had written, wondering if any of his ideas would work once put into practice.

"Heisenberg's beard, I wish I could use this time to practice Forgemastery or Light Mastery instead of sleeping, studying, and cooking all day. This is driving me crazy."

After employing the stick of depriving of their citizens' rights the humans who refused to learn the universal language, Phloria had used a tasty carrot to make it worth their while.

All those who actively participated in the lessons would receive a full course meal prepared by a certain Wyrmling chef. At first, only those who had been moved by Phloria's speech had joined the classes, but that all changed after the first lunch break.

Living in Reghia had made the humans used to simple food prepared only with basic ingredients and even those who had the magical skills to cook had no access to salt, sugar, or spices.

Eating properly seasoned hot food, tasty bread, and sweets for the first time in over a year brought most of Phloria's students to tears. Between the delicious smell and the happy faces of their neighbors, more people joined the lessons by the day.

Lith had been forced to turn the entire Alchemical lab into a huge kitchen to prepare enough food for everyone and even that wouldn't have been possible without Solus's help.

Alchemical tools were designed to mass-produce potions and tools, not food so repurposing them required quite a bit of work on her side.