Chapter 3099 Haunting Past (Part 1)

The wooden house disappeared, replaced by the underground rock cave. Lith stood where Threin had been until a second ago and Erslan was in Ripha's place.

"Are you alright?" Ryka asked, seeing Solus' pained expression turn into unbridled rage.

To her distressed mind, the Dawn King was tainting the memory of her mother. Lith was someone Solus loved, his presence fit her present just like her past whereas Erslan was little more than a potential ally.

Solus gritted her teeth, her eyes burning with mana evaporated the tears still streaming down her cheeks.

"Are you alright?" Lith patted her shoulder, breaking what was left of the fading images and restoring her grip on reality.

"Yes, sorry." She said, clearing her voice after realizing how squeaky it was. "I'm just a huge fan of Menadion. I'd never thought the day would come when I'd see her authentic signature in person."

Anyone could tell that either Solus was Menadion's biggest fan ever or that somehow the page had triggered some past trauma. Only Lith knew that both things were actually correct.

"Uhm, I don't know what that page says." Cathras cleared her throat as well to get Solus' attention. "My father told me that it's up to me to decipher the dedication of his grimoire and then use it with the rest of the grimoire to deepen my knowledge so I can't give it to you. Yet I can do this."

She took out what looked like a wide communication amulet with a fissure large enough to accommodate a standard-sized page. She had the amulet scan the grimoire's preface and then fed it a blank piece of paper.

What came out was a perfect replica of Menadion's signature, just with fresh ink.

"A *copy machine*?" Lith was flabbergasted [AN: spoken in English since Tyris' universal language lacks the proper term.]

"A what?" Asked those present, no matter if young, old, or ancient.

"It's just a term I made up for one of my works in project." Lith lied with the same ease he breathed. "I was so surprised because I've been trying to craft something just like that. How do you call it?"

"Page to page replicator." Cathras said, making him cringe.

"If you can make your own page to page replicator, call it whatever you like." She scoffed. "I'm not sharing my device."

"Mine is called printer." He used the Mogarian term for taking the mold of something, like a hand or a key. "Because my goal was to let one page leave its print on the blank one and then mirror the words."

"If you can make your own page to page replicator, call it whatever you like." She scoffed. "I'm not sharing my device."

"Will do." Lith replied, his pride as a Forgemaster and his business of ripping off Earth's technology on the line.

"Thank you so much!" Solus checked that the ink was dry before storing the page in her dimensional pocket and hugging Cathras. "It means a lot to me."

"You are welcome, child." She replied, unaware that Solus was old enough to be her great-great-grandmother.

"Well, that's too bad." Erslan shrugged. "Yet there's more. A couple of weeks ago, some of my agents heard a drunken Awakened babbling about finding a grimoire belonging to Menadion.

"The idiot claimed it was going to make him very powerful and very rich."

"And?" Lith didn't actually care, but he had to carry on the façade to keep the real motive of his investigation under wraps.

"And according to what the locals said, the guy is an idiot and a braggart so my men paid him no heed. The reason something so insignificant drew my attention and I'm now telling you about it is that later the guy disappeared.

"He left without telling anyone and took even his dirty laundry with him. Maybe he's the one you are looking for or, more likely, he knew the one you are looking for and has been killed because he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut."

"I'll look into it, thanks." Lith was about to inwardly roll his eyes when he felt a tug on his consciousness.

'Please, Lith.' Solus shared with him the memory she had just regained. 'I don't care if it's just a grocery list. I want to own something that my mother wrote. If we're lucky, it might be a piece Dad and I also signed.

'She had us do it on the grimoires she wrote after we signed our pact until my father died.'

'No need for an explanation, Solus. You just needed to ask.' Lith replied. 'Also, I can't wait to tell our family that you wanted to marry your dad.'

'I was five!' Solus blushed. 'I thought that marriage meant loving someone and taking care of them, like my parents did with me.'

'I know. I was just joking.' Lith chuckled. 'But you should have seen Mom's face when Tista was six and said she wanted to marry me once we grew up.'

'Seriously?' Solus had a hard time repressing a chuckle.

'Yeah, with the baths and all, you have no idea how relieved Mom was when I moved out of my sisters' room and had one built for myself.'

After working out the final details of the Council's truce with the Undead Courts, the Dawn King opened a Blood Steps leading straight to the surface.

"Do you want me to look for the book guy?" Strider asked as soon as they were at a safe distance. "I know the bounty for the grimoire is just a ruse, but we must make people keep believing that's the reason you are looking for stolen goods."

"Yes, thanks." Lith nodded. "If the man Erslan talked about really is an Awakened, you are the best suited between us to look for him without arousing suspicions. Call me the moment you find a lead and I'll do the rest. I need something from which to get a sample of his energy signature."

"No problem. Just do me a favor. When we find that helm, craft something for me too."

"I'll see what I can do." The Zouwu and the Titania shook his and Solus' hands before leaving.

***

From there it took Lith and Solus minutes to get back home.

Lith waited until he was under the combined safety of the arrays of the Mansion and the tower to call Dawn and warn her.

"Thanks for the heads up, but I suspected I would be next on Poopie's list. I guess now I have a good reason to get back in contact with my Court." The Horseman sighed.

"Poopie?" Lith echoed. "Is the nickname catching on?"

"You have no idea. If you want, I'll share the details with Solus the next time we meet for her lessons. Dawn out."

'If she comes out of her room. 'Lith sealed the amulet inside his pocket dimension. 'I haven't seen her since we arrived at the Mansion. Solus left it to me to share the details of our mission with the rest of the family and even the memory of the contract with Threin.

'Yet what really got me worried was when she told me not to wait for her for dinner.'

Every time Solus remembered something about her past, she would be shaken for a few days but never miss a meal with her family.