Chapter 1438 - Family Time (Part 2)
"Excellent!" Lith snapped his fingers, Warping everyone in the woods.
Winter had yet to arrive, but the late fall's weather was way too chilly and windy for the light clothes that the Verhens wore in the comfort of their home.
"Lith Verhen!" Elina said. "Do you realize that not everyone here is an Awakened and that if it weren't for the armor we wear we'd be freezing out here?"
"First, I made those armor. Second, we're not going to stay." Lith shrugged while Solus dived in the ground as if it was water, making the tower appear.
"By my Mom, Elina, you made me eat too much. I feel like I'm going to burst at any moment." Her energy body opened the door to them, holding her belly.
"I'm sorry, dear, but every time I see that small stone body of yours, I can't help but treat you like a growing child." She chuckled.
"You're much prettier this way. Why don't you always look like this, aunt Solus?" Leria asked.
"I'd love to, but I can't." She said while the young girl played at catching Solus's floating hair one lock at a time.
Lith made his family get in and then gave them a full tour of the tower. It didn't take much since none of them really understood magic and Tista was at home already, but they really liked Solus making a room for each one of them and decorating them to their heart's content.
The children made an ugly, tacky room for themselves. It was filled with heavy armor, weapons, and magical books before realizing that the conjured metal was dull and conveniently too heavy for them to use.
As for the books, once one flipped the flashy cover, they were actually full solely of fairy tales.
After everyone was done with their respective room, Lith used the Tower Warp to show them all the places where he had been in the past. The north of the Kingdom was already covered in snow, giving everyone the opportunity to build a snowman.
Making the classic three big balls of snow and piling them took the Verhens effort and helped them digest. Once the snowman was done, the kids used water magic to turn the snow into ice, making it look like a crystal sculpture that loosely resembled Raaz.
"Isn't it magnificent? We look like twins." Raaz said while hugging the creature with buttons for eyes and a big round pebble for a nose.
"It's cute." Lith replied. He had been forbidden to participate in the team effort along with Tista and Solus.
With their strength, they would have ruined the game, and Lith's habit of cheating with magic would have only made things worse.
"Seriously? Did you really have to?" Elina wiped off the sweat from her forehead while the children stared in awe at the ice dragon the size of a house that Lith had made with magic.
His reply came in the form of a blue flame that came out of the Dragon's maw, tickling those it touched instead of burning them. Light Mastery's constructs could take any shape and color, even resemble fire.
"Cool! Can we ride it?" The kids asked.
"Of course." Lith put them on the back of the statue while Solus fused with it to make the Dragon move and gave them a ride around the tower.
"What are you doing?" Rena asked while Lith pointed his Council amulet at the screaming children atop the trotting Dragon.
"Saving this moment." Lith replied while showing her a hologram of what he had just filmed, including the Verhens building the snowman. "I'll make a Remember from this and give one copy of the hologram to each one of you."
"Thanks, son." His parents hugged him, thanking the gods for blessing their lives with such happiness even during their darkest hour.
"What is this place?" Tista asked, staring at the main building of a mansion that was in no way inferior to the Lark household.
It lacked furniture, but the walls had been already painted with white and gold. The floor and the ceiling had been made of precious marble that made her magical lights shine like gemstones on their surface.
There were so many rooms and corridors that it was easy to get lost, forcing the group to never stray too far. When Lith brought them to the living room, their jaws hit the floor.
The room had been already perfectly furnished with padded cherrywood chairs and tables. It had also been decorated with vases, paintings, and small statues of famous magicians of the past like Lochra Silverwing.
On top of that, the room alone was bigger than the first floor of their house in Lutia.
"Welcome to the Verhen Mansion." Lith said, using a light spell to make the room as clear as day. "It's far from being completed, but if you agree with it, I was thinking about hosting my birthday here.
"We'd have all the space we need and, thanks to the geyser, Solus can stay in her humanoid form the whole time."
"She's prettier this way, but not much taller." Aran used a hard-light measuring tape to show how she was closer to the kids than to Lith and Tista.
"I'm not short, it's the two of them who are beanpoles!"
"Sure, dear." Elina c.a.r.e.s.sed her head with love, but due to the over 10 centimeters (4.5 inches) of height gap between them, Solus really felt like a child.
To make matters worse, Elina was the shortest in the family.
"You're so soft, just like Dad. In your doll form, you are as hard as uncle Lith." Leria shamefully poked at Solus's soft belly, making both she and Senton blush in embarrassment.
"I must put you on a diet." Rena mumbled.
"I'm working out already, I swear."
"Well, what do you think?" Lith ignored the love handles issue and waved at the room.
"Thanks, but no thanks." Raaz dismissed it with a wave of his hand.
"No way." Solus shook her head.
"Can I at least know why?" Lith asked after his family unanimously turned down his offer.
"Because no matter how beautiful this place is, it's not our home. I have no fond memories here, making it cold and distant. Our home, instead, is where I lived my whole life and raised my beloved children." Elina said.
"I wouldn't give up on it for the world."
"Same here." Solus nodded. "I don't care what form I take as long as we are together and I can be an active part of your life."
Lith had held her hand the whole time to help Solus retain her humanoid form despite the distance from the tower, making his family a bit confused about their relationship and Solus as happy as a clam.
***
Later, that night, after putting the rest of the family to bed Lith and Solus went back to the tower to finally experiment on a new breathing technique.
"Kowalski, analysis." He said.
"You are still acting like a pompous jackass, but at least you've stopped pitying yourself and moping around." Solus replied.
"I was asking you for a recap of the advanced breathing techniques we know, smartass!" Lith said with a snarl.
"I know. It's just that I love being able to mess with you without making you really angry. I missed you a lot." Solus hugged him while sniffling a bit, making Lith feel like a monster for the second time in just a few hours.