The baby boy had never realized that it was Protheus the Doppelganger who came to visit him from time to time, impersonating Thrud and Jormun thanks to his bloodline abilities and the biological samples he had assimilated.
Lith felt honored whenever the baby boy called him dad. He was grateful for the trust that Valeron put in him and how much the baby boy cared about being considered a part of the Verhen family.
Yet those feelings only made things much harder for Lith.
If he added the third Camellia blossom, Valeron would have either understood that his parents were dead or assumed they had abandoned him for good. That Kamila and Lith were replacing Thrud and Jormun.
If he didn't, however, Valeron would have thought that his adoptive parents didn't return his love. That for them, he was just a guest, someone the Verhens had to take care of only because of duty, if not pity.
