Khan didn"t know what to say. What Liiza labeled as free was nothing more than unreliable energy for humans. The amount of control that he had to develop during the twelve mental exercises served the purpose of preventing unwanted effects, which felt normal when it came to such an unstable power.
Still, Khan trusted Liiza and her knowledge about mana enough to probe her on the topic. "[How do Niqols handle the chaos element]?"
"[We don"t]," Liiza explained. "[None of us has it. We have mana since birth, so the Nak have only managed to cause monstrous mutations during their attack]."
"[How can you be sure that my approach is wrong then]?" Khan asked. "[I know for a fact that some humans have learnt to use spells with the chaos element]."
"[They are still only using a small part of its power]," Liiza rebuked. "[You should imitate the Nak instead of doing the exact opposite.. They don"t try to control their mana. They let it run free]."
That topic was a partial secret. The Niqols had to deal with the Nak in the past. Still, they had never revealed anything about those events to the humans.
Khan had learnt the truth about the matter from Liiza. Apparently, the younger generations had studied the events connected to the invasion. Yet, they couldn"t gain access to everything that their species had developed unless they became important inside their respective tribes.
The elders didn"t want the younger generation to rely too much on technology and lose familiarity with mana. They kept the intel a secret to let the students focus on their foundation, but they didn"t hold back from releasing tools and techniques that could improve their growth to the public.
The tall buildings in the cities came from that knowledge. The humans even believed that the Niqols had s.p.a.ceships hidden somewhere on Nitis. The aliens didn"t engage in interplanetary travels, but they knew what s.p.a.ce contained.
"[So what]?" Khan asked while spreading his arms. "[Should I just try to cast the spell without bothering to control my emotions]?"
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"[Well]," Liiza exclaimed before remaining silent for a few seconds to sort her thoughts. "[I can"t say for sure, but I think you aren"t ready to do it. Mana can feel you. It will sense your hesitation. You have even tried to suppress it until now, so it might decide to hurt you on purpose]."
"[You are talking about it as if it had feelings]," Khan scoffed as he started to approach the bed.
"[Mana is more than simple energy]," Liiza declared while crossing her legs to sit more comfortably on the bed, "[Especially in your case. I believe that even your dumb species has understood that the chaos element requires a different approach]."
Khan sighed before throwing himself on the bed. Liiza giggled and threw a pillow at him as soon as he started to turn toward her.
"[Don"t take my words lightly]!" Liiza laughed before picking the second pillow and wielding it in front of her like a shield. "[I"m trying to teach you how to use mana properly]."
"[Is the pillow part of the lesson]?" Khan joked as he put the first pillow under his head and turned to stare at the dark ceiling. "[I always pay attention to what you say, but I can"t risk my life to test your theory. My body might directly explode if I something goes wrong]."
"[I know]," Liiza sighed before reaching Khan and putting the second pillow next to him.
Liiza lay down and wore a warm smile. Khan couldn"t help but turn toward her and fall prey to her captivating expression.
"[What is it]?" Khan asked after the two remained next to each other in silence for a while.
"[It"s our first time in an actual bed]," Liiza explained while biting her lower lip, "[But our superiors might summon us in a few hours]."
Khan left his pillow to approach Liiza slowly. She smiled as she followed his movements with her eyes. Khan ended up above her, with his knees and palms pointed at her sides. He bent forward to kiss her head before whispering something to her ear. "[We might have time since I"m already naked]."
Liiza laughed and turned to face Khan. The latter had only worn the clean underwear since he didn"t want to stain his new robe with sweat, and Liiza didn"t miss that detail when she entered the room.
"[You"ll say anything to get between my legs]," Liiza whispered before lifting her legs and wrapping them around Khan"s waist. "[You are lucky you are cute]."
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"What has happened to you?" George almost shouted when he noticed the marks on Khan"s neck, but his eyes soon fell on the blushing Niqols who was holding his hand. "How can you be here?"
The azure symbols inside the rooms occupied by the humans had transformed into a simple message a few hours before lunchtime. Yeza had invited everyone to attend a formal meeting, so the recruits and the soldiers had quickly gathered in the hall.
No one could miss Liiza"s presence at that point. The girl had ended up remaining in Khan"s room since the two had lost track of the pa.s.sage of time, and she couldn"t bother to use the secret pa.s.sage. She had nothing to hide, so she had come out hand in hand with Khan. The only issue was that everyone could see the aftermath of their pa.s.sion.
Khan had many hickeys on his neck, but they were healing quickly due to his status as a first-level warrior. His back was a different matter, but he didn"t worry about it since no one could see the deep marks that Liiza had left there.
Liiza"s skin also carried many marks, but they were on her thighs, chest, and b.u.t.t. Her robe didn"t allow anyone to see them, but her blush had already revealed enough.
"Maybe don"t shout that next time," Khan sighed before glancing at his superiors.
The soldiers showed different reactions that went from disappointment to approval, but Captain Erbair didn"t let that situation continue for too long. She heaved a helpless sigh before clearing her throat to claim everyone"s attention and lead the group across the corridor.
"[Why didn"t you bring Havaa with you]?" George whispered as the group followed behind Captain Erbair, but Veronica promptly slapped the back of his head.
"Don"t bother them," Veronica scolded.
"She wouldn"t have been able to find you since you don"t have a cube," Khan explained.
The soldiers in front of the recruits glared at them, but they quickly turned again. They were ready to scold their underlings, but Liiza"s presence made everything too awkward, so they let the matter go.
Liiza kept a straight face, but Khan knew that she wasn"t exactly fine. They didn"t sleep at all, and Yeza"s message had even interrupted them. Her thoughts were still on the messy bed, but she remained silent to hide her aroused voice. She and Khan talked only through short lines whispered to each other"s ears.
Yeza, many students, and other Niqols were waiting for the humans in the main hall on the first floor. A series of polite bows happened after Captain Erbair"s group descended the staircase, and many glances toward Khan and Liiza inevitably followed that event.
Khan showed an awkward smile to Ilman, Doku, and Azni before approaching them when Yeza led everyone in another part of the palace. George and Helen did the same with their respective partners, but similar scenes happened among the group. The recruits and the students had become friends after spending weeks in the wild.
"[You really can"t stay away from each other, can you]?" Doku commented at the sight of the couple.
"[I told you that it wasn"t a problem for us to sleep together]," Azni snorted.
"[That"s how true Niqols should behave]!" Ilman laughed.
"[We are in the same palace as our superiors]," Doku complained. "[We should focus on the crisis]."
"[You should have let Azni sleep with you]," Liiza scolded. "[The sunlight might still kill us all]."
"[We slept together, but that"s the issue]," Azni voice another annoyed statement.
Ilman shot a confused glance toward Khan, and the latter cleared his throat before using the best words he could find to describe what happened. "[They only slept]."
Azni highlighted his explanation with another snort, and Ilman oohed to express his understanding. The Niqols who overheard that conversation chuckled, but they turned their heads when Liiza glared at them. The matter involved Azni, and she didn"t want anyone to laugh about her problems.
Yeza led the group into a large hall on the first floor. The area was quite big and seemed able to contain even a hundred people. Many rectangular tables encircled by chairs occupied the floor, and bottles full of familiar drinks stood on them. They even had multiple cups around them that only waited for the Niqols and humans to pick them.
Khan and his friends instinctively occupied a table. Doku and Ilman opened the bottles and started pouring drinks, and no one dared to refuse them. The soldiers tried to glare at Khan and George, but they gave up on the matter when they saw that all the other recruits decided to drink without showing any hesitation.
"I"ll try to be short so that everyone can go back to a well-deserved rest," Yeza announced without translating her line in the Niqols language.
Yeza had taken a seat at a table next to a wall. She had stood up to make her announcement, and she didn"t return to her chair when her line ended. Instead, she placed her cube on one of the azure symbols and made a map spread on every surface of the hall.
A map appeared on the walls, tables, floor, and ceiling. The humans and Niqols in the hall could choose the surface that they found more comfortable to inspect the picture, but most of them ended up lifting the bottles to use their tables.
The map was quite vague. It depicted an area that covered many regions, but it started to zoom in on two mountains when Yeza began to speak.
"Many monsters will go through the second round of mutations during this period," Yeza explained as the mountains began to fill the entirety of the map. "We could wait for this moment to pa.s.s in the safety of this palace before resuming the hunts. Yet, some Niqols have decided to betray their species. These rebels have even occupied important structures, and we won"t let them settle inside them."
The mountains became closer and revealed a muddy valley between their bases. Scarce trees and a small river occupied the area, but a tall structure eventually appeared as the images went deeper into the swamp.
"This palace has been a crucial strategical location during many wars," Yeza continued. "Its defenses are incredible, but the rebels don"t know how to activate all of them, not yet at least. We must act quickly and reclaim this structure before our enemies turn it into one of the main a.s.sets of their rebellion."
Yeza"s wasn"t trying to explain anything during that meeting. She was only announcing that the group would soon take part in a siege, but the actual battle tactic had yet to take form.
"Someone will bring food now," Yeza announced. "You can inspect the map as much as you want while you enjoy today"s lunch. I"m eager to hear your suggestions about the imminent attack."
Yeza approached her table and picked her cup, but she didn"t sit. She walked directly toward the exit while voicing a last surprising statement. "[Khan, come with me]."
Khan rolled his eyes and left his cup on the table before standing up. Everyone was looking at him, but those gazes soon fell on Liiza since she didn"t remain in her seat.
Khan didn"t even try to talk. He knew how Liiza was when it came to her mother, so he didn"t try to make her remain in the hall. The girl didn"t give him time to think either. She took his hand and moved toward the exit.
The couple found Yeza right outside the hall, but the latter quickly shook her head before speaking in a warm tone. "[I"m sorry, Liiza. I"m afraid I need to talk with him alone]."
"[What"s this about]?" Liiza asked.
"[I need to threaten him properly]," Yeza explained while showing an innocent smile. "[It"s my job as your mother to make sure that he is too scared to hurt you]."
Khan and Liiza remained speechless, but they couldn"t really say anything there. Liiza had to go through that speech yesterday, and Khan"s turn had arrived.
"[I"ll find you when we are done]," Khan rea.s.sured, and Liiza kissed him softly before returning inside the hall.
Khan found Yeza smiling at him when he turned toward her, but she quickly pointed at one of the doors in that corridor. The duo approached it after a few steps, and a small room unfolded in their vision when they crossed it.
The room had the same furniture as every other environment inside the palace. Khan saw a small table, bottles at its center, three chairs around it, and a series of artworks on the walls.
"[I can speak my language, right]?" Yeza asked while sitting on one chair. "[Liiza has told me that you have worked hard to learn it]."
"[She helped me a lot with that]," Khan revealed before sitting on the chair on the other side of the table.
Yeza sighed as she stared at her cup in silence. Khan noticed how she appeared slightly off. She didn"t reveal anything strange inside the hall, but she had stopped using her captivating arts now that they had reached that small room.
Yeza didn"t lose a single ounce of her beauty. The Niqols was wearing a normal robe, and she wasn"t using her s.e.xy gestures, but she remained stunning. Khan only felt that she had stopped trying to claim his attention on purpose.
"[I already told you that you resemble Liiza"s father]," Yeza eventually broke the silence. "[You and Liiza have a difficult path ahead. I also still believe your relationship to be toxic, but that shouldn"t stop me from telling you my story and hope that you can learn from it]."
Khan immediately nodded. Truth be told, he had been quite curious about Yeza"s version of the story. He had only heard about Deni from Liiza, so he never managed to get a complete picture.
"[Liiza"s father, Deni, was as driven and in love as you]," Yeza explained. "[I had feelings for him, but they never reached the same intensity. Moreover, I knew my true nature, so I have always refused him to avoid hurting him]."
Yeza took a long sip from her cup before placing it on the table. She stretched her hand to reach the bottle, but she eventually retracted it without refilling her drink.
"[I like controlling men with my beauty]," Yeza continued. "[I even like controlling them in bed, but my species has always been my priority. I have never minded mixing my job with my pleasure, but Deni"s love wasn"t something that time could suppress].
"[His feelings were so strong that I"ve eventually decided to accept them. Of course, he knew about my character, and he had even promised me not to care about my affairs as long as they remained political. I believed him, and love eventually blossomed inside me too]."
Khan remained speechless. Messy thoughts filled his mind, but he suppressed them. He wanted to hear the end of the story before evaluating the matter properly.
"[It turned out that his love couldn"t survive my character]," Yeza stated. "[He broke his promise and started growing jealous. He eventually had to leave since I couldn"t and didn"t want to give up on my position]."
"[Did you ever tell this to Liiza]?" Khan asked.
"[What"s the point]?" Yeza scoffed. "[Her father made me hope that someone like me could enjoy love, but he ended up betraying that feeling. I"m already hurt, so I don"t mind taking Liiza"s hatred as long as I can preserve her good memories. I don"t want her to feel as the daughter of the wh.o.r.e and the liar]."
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