Supreme Magus novel Chapter 2236

'Aunt Loka didn't call us here to intimidate us or show off, quite the contrary. She is putting herself in my hands as much as I'm in hers.' Solus clenched her hand under the table, moved by the gesture.

"How are you liking your food, Elp- I mean Solus?" Silverwing asked.

"It's delicious, thank you." Solus gave Lochra the first honest smile since the day she had attacked Lith on his sickbed. "You are a great cook, Loka, but I'm afraid my taste has changed."

"You have eaten Lith's food until now so it's normal." The First Magus shrugged. "Any new memory?"

"Sadly, no. What's for dessert?" The smell and taste of the food seemed familiar, yet aside a few short déjà vu, Solus' mind was blank.

"Your favorite." A snap of Silverwing's fingers cleaned the plates and made a big slice of sponge cake frosted with whipped cream and powdered sugar appear.

"By my Mom! This is the cake that Dad always prepared for their anniversary and for special occasions."

"Prepared is a strong word." Silverwing chuckled. "More like bought. Did it just come to your mind or…"

"Sorry, no. I recovered those memories for a while now." Solus took Lochra's hand, using a mind link to share with her the fragments of her past life she had regained.

The First Magus' eyes teared up as the images flashed in front of them. She went from crying in joy to crying in sadness without a break until the stream of consciousness ended.

"Gods. I miss Ripha and Threin so much. It seems like yesterday when we still ate together." She blew her nose in a handkerchief, trying and failing to stop the hiccups.

"It's one of the curses of longevity, child." Baba Yaga said. "For the rest of Mogar, time never stops moving and takes away everything we love. Yet for us, time stands still and our pain lives on."

"Enough with the creepy stuff." Silverwing noticed how gloomy the mood in the room had become and regained her cool. "Do you like the cake?"

"It's delicious. Can I have seconds?" Kamila asked.

"It's good, but it can be improved." Lith cut it in two, filling it with coffee cream and adding a bit of ice cream as a topping.

Then, he handed it to Silverwing along with a slice of Triple Threat.

"Gods, this is amazing. It's no wonder that Elphyn has so much trouble getting into shape."

"Hey! I thought you wanted to mend our relationship, not make it sourer." Solus blushed in embarrassment.

If even white cores worried about her gluttony, it had to be a bad sign.

"Hey! I'm the one pregnant. Where's my share?" Kamila shoved her already empty plate in front of him.

"A bit for Shargein, if you don't mind." Leegaain discretely activated Dragon Eyes to steal the recipe.

"Can he really eat so much sugar?" Lith asked in worry.

"He's a Dragon! Look." The Guardian offered the wyrmling a silver spoon that Shargein munched into bits.

Then, dull red Flames melted the silver scraps and the wyrmling gulped them down, licking his snout and asking for more.

"He can eat rocks and be fine."

Menadion's showcase contained several prototypes, some successful and some failures, a couple of old-looking Forgemastering hammers, and lots of paintings. Solus recognized Springtime and a few family portraits that she had already copied from Aerth the Blue Phoenix.

The rest were original pieces of which she had no recollection and that triggered no lost memory on sight. Aside from the family pictures, Menadion was the main subject of Threin's works.

He had drawn her working, reading a book, taking care of baby Solus, and laying on her side on a couch, wearing nothing but a smile and a scarf to cover the important parts.

"Are all Awakened this bold or was Menadion a special case?" Kamila moved her gaze from the painting to Solus, amazed by the striking resemblance between the two women.

"Neither. This is a piece that Threin made for his public gallery and that Ripha entrusted to me as soon as she discovered its existence. She never posed for the portrait, Threin made it by memory and imagination." Silverwing shook her head.

"I guess she wasn't happy with it." Lith asked.

"Of a picture of herself naked hung in the middle of the living room where their guest and Solus could see it? You bet. She gave Threin one of the biggest earfuls of his life and made him promise to never do that again." The First Magus replied.

"Painting her naked?" Solus crossed her fingers, hoping that no more monstrosities like that existed.

"No, putting them on display. Your father had a whole collection in his private g-"

"Dad, why?" Solus whimpered at the idea of how many people could now look at her mother in her birthday suit and, in a way, at her as well.

"Hey, what's that?" Her teary eyes fell into a dark corner of the exhibit, where there was a painting much smaller than the others.

It was painted in dark and red colors, with just enough light to distinguish that there were actually three subjects. Two of them were big shadows that reminded Solus of Abominations.