“You are the only one among us who receives Quylla’s treatments and now this. Today, your race has taken another step forward while the rest of Zelex is still where Glemos left us.”

“If you are envious, how do you think I feel, Syrah?” Carana, the Traughen senator, snarled. “Your son, Xagra, is perfectly stable since he wore the King’s Harmonizer, and you’ve found that Protector guy to help you. The ogres have the Dryads, and the orcs have the elves.

“All of you just have to wait for your turn, while my people are going to be left behind. Unless we find someone with a life force similar to a perfect Odi, Traughen and trolls have little hope to undo their fallen state.

“Quylla will study us last because she has no confidence that it won’t be a waste of her time!”

The Red Mother grimaced at those words.

On one hand, she hated everything that reminded her of her people, the Odi. Millennia had passed since their fall, but Baba Yaga’s spite burned as strong as the day she had escaped the clutches of the Odi’s tyrannical regime.

On the other hand, the Red Mother had experienced a tinge of pride when trolls and Traughen had selflessly shielded their comrades with their own bodies. Baba Yaga had admired their willingness to cooperate with the ’inferior races’ instead of lording over them.