’We are not attempting to undo the Fall of our monster halves and guide them toward the right path. We want them Fallen just like our black cores, so that once they fuse, for the first time in Mogar’s history, two wrongs will make a right.

’The Warg’s curse is their ability to change, multiply, and share. I won’t suppress any of that. I will nurture those abilities and bring them under my heel. Watch and learn!’ Tezka said.

The emerald tendrils connecting the stars and the black hole to the Spirit star became thicker and brighter by the second, while the Warg comet now orbited around the emerald dwarf like a moon.

The proximity allowed the Spirit star to share part of the nourishment it received from the rest of the quasar with the Warg aspect, so that the two became stronger and bigger in unison.

Yet at the same time, those same emerald tendrils put the Warg comet in contact with the other elemental stars. As Tezka regained his strength and the new shape of his life force stabilized, each elemental star gained its own moon.

The black hole came last. The fragment of the Warg aspect was the smallest of all and had to give the Chaos energy a wide orbit, but it was there nonetheless. The Warg comet was now split into seven moons, allowing the monster side to absorb all seven elemental energies at the same time.

The Warg moons exchanged the power they received from their respective elemental stars, relieving each other’s burden and growing like a single entity despite the distance that separated them.

’As I said, don’t try to remove the curse that comes with your Fallen state.’ Tezka explained. ’Turn it into a blessing by making the curse work not as Mogar intended, but as you do.’

The Spirit Tail resumed its growth once more. It was still atrophied compared to the other nine and didn’t reach one-tenth of their length. Yet instead of stopping after a few centimeters, it had doubled its original size.

’Soon.’ The Suneater said as the silvery star of the light element grew faster than the others in a silent promise to match their size. ’Soon.’

***

Verhen Mansion, at the same time.

Solus instinctively knew the moment when the tower stopped growing, yet she waited until the next day to share the good news with everyone.

’Right now, the tower is just like an Awakened core after a breakthrough. Exhausted and in dire need of rest.’ She thought. ’I’ll give it a good night’s rest to recover and stabilize its condition.’

Solus was thrilled at the idea of showing the changes in her artifact half and the new floors to the members of her family, but she had to wait a bit longer. The Ernas and the Verhens had breakfast together, and there was no way to rush things without even Lucky understanding that something was off with her.

Solus’ knees trembled under the table the whole time, and in her impatience, she didn’t even savor her waffles.

Only after Orion and Jirni left to conduct their training schedule for the day could Solus finally sigh in relief.

"It’s done, guys! The tower is ready to receive guests again." She said in one breath.

"I know." Lith grunted. "You didn’t stop talking about it via our link for one minute."

"Yeah, you have to work on your poker face, Solus." Kamila said. "You were fidgeting so much that I was wondering whether you were holding in a big news or just a really loud fart."

"Kami." Solus blushed in embarrassment.

A look around the table revealed that the rest of the family shared Kamila’s opinion.

"Mama Solo fat?" Elysia pointed her tiny finger at Solus.

"Kami, I swear on my tower, if you just taught Ely to associate the forbidden word with me, I will never forgive you!" Solus went pale in horror and shame.

"Not fat, Ely." Valeron noticed the tension at the table and chimed in.

Actually, the grownups weren’t tense. They were just repressing their laughter so hard that they quivered from the effort.

"Fart." Valeron produced a squeaky noise as he passed gas, associating the word with the action.

"Oh!" Elysia nodded in understanding. "Fat!"

"She’s still pointing her finger at me." Solus hiccupped.

"That’s just because Ely has trouble pronouncing the R." Lith tried to console her. "What were you saying, Solus?"

"That the tower is done rebuilding itself for now, and that I couldn’t wait to show it to you. After this nice gift, however, I don’t care about it anymore. See you later."

"Don’t be like that, sweetie." Menadion said. "It’s always like that with young children. At least you can explain the situation to Ely with the Dragon Scales. I wish I were so lucky back when you were her age."

"Why?" Solus wiped her tears and blew her nose. "What did I do?"

"You weren’t as precocious as Ely, of course, but you were a fast learner." Menadion replied.

"And how is that a problem?" Solus asked.

"Imagine this. Your young daughter has a passion for ducks, has learned their name, but has trouble spelling the U."

"Oh, gods." Solus burst out laughing, and so did the rest of her family. "Are you serious?"

"Sadly, yes." Menadion had a sad smile at the memory. "I still remember you pointing your tiny hand around and calling everyone a duck. You had us kicked out of many establishments."

Every parent in the room knew they shouldn’t have laughed at the misfortunes of a fellow victim of baby babble, but they couldn’t help themselves. The laughter’s volume intensified.

"The worst part, however, was when you asked Threin for a pet duck." Menadion sighed before making her best baby Solus impression. "Daddy, duck! Duck, daddy, duck!"

She had no speech impediment, of course, but her audience had enough imagination to paint a hilarious picture of the spiteful gazes addressed at the poor Threin and his desperate efforts to explain himself.

"Gods, I don’t remember the last time I laughed so much." Raaz wiped the tears of hilarity, gasping for air.

"I put you through a lot, Mom." Solus chuckled. "Since I’m not innocent either, I forgive you, Ely, but don’t use that word on me anymore, okay?"

A brief touch of Dragon Scales ensured that the baby girl understood the issue.

"’Ay." Elysia said.

"I forgive you, Kami. This time." Solus paused to let her words sink in. "Do something like this again, and I’ll ’accidentally’ leave you behind whenever we Warp around."

"How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?" Kamila asked.

"One would have been enough, but you didn’t!" A snap of Solus’ fingers brought everyone in the Mansion’s keep, right before the tower.

The top of the building was still in ruins due to the missing floors, but it had reached a height of 50 meters (164’), and that was just the part above the ground. Half of the tower was hidden below, for a total of at least 100 meters (330’).

Its walls were pristine white with golden veins that ran along the tower’s entire length. The two colors didn’t look like someone had spilled buckets of paint anymore.