Supreme Magus

Chapter 3718: Perfect Kingdom (Part 1)

"Did you have to tell that poor boy all those bad things about his mother?" Elina grunted. "Hasn’t he suffered enough?"

"They are not bad, just the truth." The Guardian replied. "Now that the curtain on our charade has been ripped out, the more things we hide from Valeron, the more he’ll suffer in the future.

"At least this way, he gets an age-appropriate picture of the circumstances of his adoption. Or did you want me to stay silent and let Lith take all the blame? To let the wound between them bleed and fester?"

"No, Grandfather. You’re right." Elina sighed. "I know this might fix things with Lith and end his suffering, but I also don’t want to cause Valeron even more pain. This situation is tearing them both apart. It seems that no matter what string you pull, someone’s heart ends up unravelling."

"Well put, child." Leegaain nodded. "The problem is there’s no better solution. There has always been a chasm between Lith and Valeron. The lies bridged them, but never filled the gap, and their mutual affection only made the fall worse.

"Now that the bridge is gone, truth is the only cure. It may be painful and harsh, but the truth can at least stop the chasm from getting deeper and wider. Everything else is up to them."

"What more can Lith do?" Raaz asked in outrage. "He took in the son of the woman who made him kill Phloria! He treated Valeron like his own until Lith loved him as his own! We all did!

"My son almost died to protect Valeron, even when the boy wanted to have nothing to do with him! What do you want Lith to do next? To raise a new continent? To put a new moon in the sky?"

"That would be easy." Leegaain replied. "What Lith has to do is much harder. He has to forgive himself."

"What do you mean?" Raaz’s rage faded as he saw the compassion in the Guardian’s features. "How can self-forgiveness help Lith?"

"Babies are not as dumb as people think." Leegaain replied. "As long as Lith blames himself, Valeron will pick on that. The more Valeron trusts Lith, the more he will believe Lith when he says it’s all his fault.

"Think about what happened to Elphyn and Ripha Menadion. Their relationship was ruined because Ripha blamed herself for Threin’s death, and Elphyn believed her words. Love is a double-edged sword, child.

"It’s those we love who can cut us deeper, and that only because we allow them to. In this case, Lith’s self-loathing hurts both Valeron and himself. Because they allow it to."

"Should I go and tell him?" Raaz asked.

"Has telling someone ’It’s not your fault’ ever solved anything?" Leegaain asked in reply.

"No." Raaz slouched his shoulders and slumped on the nearest chair. "No matter how many times Lith hears it, it will be a waste of breath until he believes it."

***

Griffon Mountain Range, Griffon Nest Mountain, at the same time.

The members of the Griffon bloodline were scattered throughout Mogar, and only a few of them had chosen a permanent residence. The Griffon race had chosen to carry on with their mother’s endeavor to nurture life on Mogar, no matter the continent.

It was rare for them to assemble, and when they did, they always returned to the place where everything started. The place where Tyris had evolved from an Emperor Beast into a Griffon and started her first family.

Her first husband was long gone, and so were all the children she had with him. Their descendants still lived on, but their tether with her was thinner than most. So much time and so many generations separated the current Griffon bloodlines from Tyris that few of them had ever met her in person until that moment.

Back when she had achieved Guardianhood, Tyris had chosen a nameless mountain range as her home and named it after her new form. She had chosen the biggest and tallest mountain to build her nest.

There, she held the family reunions on the rare occasions there was a need for one. That was one of those occasions.

The Griffons had received her help to return to Garlen, shortening the travel time to mere minutes. There were so many Griffons assembled that the Griffon Nest Mountain wasn’t big enough to contain them all, even though they had shapeshifted into human form.

Tyris kept stretching the space with dimensional magic as more of her children arrived. She was proud and sad to see their numbers swell so much. Proud because the Griffon bloodline thrived, and sad because she had contributed little to it in the past thousand years.

All of her children with Valeron had chosen to follow their father’s footsteps and were long gone. After that, grief had stopped Tyris from looking for a new companion. Over seven hundred years had passed since Valeron’s death, and she still wore a widow’s dress.

The Griffons didn’t miss the detail and sighed inwardly. Yet they voiced and showed nothing of their disappointment. Griffons were more detached than Dragons while also being more passionate than Phoenixes.

Their feelings were much more intense than their flaming cousins’ and poured into very few things and people. A Griffon hated and loved deeply, remaining indifferent to everything else to the point of making Dragons look sentimental in comparison.

As for their foremother, Tyris’ love burned like the sun and left a void in the sky just as big when it died. The more she loved her current husband, the longer the mourning period after his death.

Her grief never lasted less than a few centuries and only ended when she met someone just as special. Someone who could break through the veil of darkness eclipsing her heart and make her smile.

Never before had she mourned someone for so long, yet it only spoke of how deep her love for Valeron and how hard finding his match was. No Griffon blamed Tyris for her prolonged mourning because they all knew pain and how hard it was to overcome it.

"Thank you for coming here on such short notice, my children." Tyris said when the last Warp Gate closed.

She stood on a raised platform so that everyone could look at her.

"I’m sorry to distract you from your endeavors, but a series of recent events has forced my hand. Nonetheless, you have my sincerest apologies." She gave them a bow so deep that her luscious golden hair reached the floor like a shiny waterfall.

Seeing their foremother humbling herself pained the Griffons, so they fell to one knee and lowered their gaze, refusing to accept the honor she was giving them.

"Please, stand up." She said, and the Griffons obeyed without hesitation. "We are all equal here. I know I’ve failed you, and I need to acknowledge my mistakes if I am to ask you to acknowledge yours. Those who don’t lead by example are no leaders at all."

A hubbub of murmurs erupted throughout the cave as the Griffons tried to make sense of her words.

"Is this about Jorl?" A Thunder Griffon asked, noticing the Storm Griffon’s absence. "Did he offend you again?"

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