"She has no reason to." The matter-of-fact tone of Urhen’s voice stung at Zoreth’s pride. "I’m only doing this as a favor to Lord Verhen."

She gave Lith a dazzling smile that made her intentions clear and Solus crush a chocolate puff with her hand.

’How can you still be eating?’ Kamila was as angry at Urhen as she was flabbergasted at Solus. ’It’s no wonder you don’t lose weight.’

’Tell her, dammit!’ Menadion snorted from Solus’ shadow.

Urhen ignored the external and internal commotion of his hosts, focusing on the task at hand.

"There’s no reaction from shoulder to elbow." She shook her head. "The forearms kind of resonate, but that’s because of the matching elemental energy we both possess."

"In other words, I’m fu-" Zoreth looked at Elysia, who waved her hand and said:

"Auie Sot!"

"I’m fudge without sugar."

"What’s fu-" Urhen brushed over Zoreth’s hands to be thorough, but she had little expectations.

The Arke’s skin was dull blue and showed no sign of the power of the elements. Yet when the Balor’s feathers touched Zoreth’s nails, they both felt a jolt.

"What was that?" Zoreth asked.

"A clue, I hope." The Balor repeated the process for the remaining three hands, switching the elemental energy stored in her wings accordingly.

Each time, there was no reaction until the Urhen’s pinions reached Zoreth’s fingertips. Then, they experienced something too uncomfortable to be called resonance.

"Weird. I feel something, but I see nothing." Urhen studied the Shadow Dragon’s palm, fingers, and knuckles, but to no avail.

"Maybe it’s because I’m doing nothing, just like you asked." Zoreth replied.

"That’s actually a great point. Please, resume whatever you were doing before I interrupted you." The Balor nodded, depowering her wings.

Zoreth tried to stir the darkness element again in the hope that her natural affinity towards it as a Shadow Dragon and an Eldritch would provide Urhen with more clues.

"I’m sorry for wasting your time. It’s a bust." Zoreth generated small ripples in the world energy, but no bigger than those produced by her other elemental arms.

"No, it’s not!" Urhen said, her wings fluttering in excitement. "Look, look, look!"

Zoreth followed the Balor’s finger to the tip of her own, where the nails of her thumb and index finger had turned pitch black from the inside.

"You are right." Zoreth brought her hand to her eyes’ level to study the phenomenon. "We didn’t notice earlier because the change in my body is not as flashy as a Balor’s, but the problem remains. How do I make this work?"

"We have to move our wings to manipulate the world energy. Maybe you have to move your fingers to shape the flow of the world energy around you." Tista said, and Zoreth followed her suggestion.

The ripples instantly turned into black lines, and Zoreth’s darkness forearm lit up. Her movements started awkward and clumsy, but now that she had her own way to check on her progress, Zoreth soon found her rhythm.

"The nail on my middle finger just turned black as well!" She said in excitement.

"Cool, but never do it again." Lith pointed at Elysia and Valeron, who had joined Zoreth in flipping the class off.

"Oh, gods! I’m so sorry." Zoreth raised the other two fingers as well in a desperate maneuver. "Look, Ely. Three!"

"Tee!" The baby girl said, proudly showing off her ability to count.

"Three!" Valeron followed suit as well, and everyone prayed to the gods that the children wouldn’t start counting from the middle finger in the future.

"I won’t say much, but as Elysia’s godmother, you’re not doing a good job today, Zoreth." Kamila had enough repressed rage to murder the entire Lustria County, but she clenched her hands and never stopped smiling.

"About that, have you already chosen a godparent for Raldarak?" Ryla asked.

"No, but we definitely have ruled a few people out today." Kamila’s words made Zoreth whimper inside.

By the end of the lesson, no one had managed to fill to the brim their nails or wings with the power of the elements, but Lith had gotten very close. As for Zoreth, three fingernails were her current limit for the darkness element, and she managed to light up two nails for the other elements.

"You all did great. I am proud of you." Ryla said. "Before dismissing the class, I want to show you the offensive use of Swirling Wind."

She turned her wings blue as she drew in increasing amounts of water element. This time, however, instead of spreading the water element around her, she condensed it in the form of a shield.

"An ice construct isn’t that big of a thing." Morok shrugged. "Anyone can do it."

"Can you attack me, please?" Ryla replied.

The Tyrant called his enchanted hammers, Grimnir, to his hands, but the moment he stepped forward, Garrik stared at him with so much fear that Morok froze in place.

"He’s not going to hurt me, sweetie." Ryla smiled, caressing Garrik’s head. "We are just sparring."

"What is sparring, Mom?" Garrik asked.

"It’s like one of those games you play with your friends, but for grown-ups only." Ryla replied. "We pretend to fight with each other and learn how to defend ourselves from bad people. It’s no different from practicing your spells after you study them.

"Theory can take you only so far. To truly learn, you need practical experience."

"Okay, Mom." Garrik nodded. "Please, be careful, Big Bro."

"Sure." Morok swallowed hard. "Are you ready?"

"Anytime." Ryla replied. "Feel free to add a few spells while you are at it."

Morok threw his hammer with so little force that it looked like he was passing it to Ryla rather than attacking her. The moment Grimnir left his hand, he also cast three tier one spells that wouldn’t have severely hurt an adult man, let alone a Fomor.

Nonetheless, Garrik stared at each of them as though it were a Silverwing’s Annihilation, making Ryla’s heart tighten.

’I’m sorry, sweetie, but don’t worry. You have nothing to fear.’ The Balor channeled the golden lightning inside her body, swatting the hammer away like a fly and moving fast enough to charge at the spells from the side.

Grimnir plummeted to the ground covered in ice, while the tier one spells faded into nothingness.

"Did you just use two bloodline abilities?" Morok asked when he tried to recall the hammer, and the enchantment bled his mana in the air.

"Not really." She shook her head. "I used Vital Storm only after projecting Raging Severance inside the Swirling Wind’s physical form."

"Does it work for all your abilities?" Lith asked.

"I’m still mastering Umbral Shift and Lightforged, but I think so." She nodded.

"What are you talking about, Mom?" Garrik said. "I’ve never heard those names."

"I’m saying I kept my promise, sweetie." Ryla acted all high and dramatic for her child.

"You really did it?" The young Fomor lit up with a smile that could have powered a city.

"Yes, dear. Your mother did it." She nodded. "I found the names for our bloodline abilities."

"That’s..." Zoreth’s expression added the words "ridiculous" and "underwhelming" without saying them, but a firing squad of glares stopped her. "Amazing!"