Larius is the only elven god that has two divine wives, Jailia and Talmara. Jailia was his first wife and for a time they did love one another. They were married for centuries but eventually her love for power and ire over her father denying her right as the firstborn to rule grew and their marriage grew cold. His marriage to Talmara started during that decade as she comforted him as his wife began to plot to overthrow her father. His marriage to Talmara soon soured as he found her incapable of staying loyal to the oaths of their marriage. Yet he still loves both of his wives, constantly forgiving Talmara of adultery and trying to guide Jailia to let go of her hate and anger. He is the god of Repentance, Healing and Redemption for he has suffered nigh all betrayals at the hands of his wives.

Tomas

After the man speaks the room sits in silence for several seconds. Everyone obeying whatever command they were given by the robed man. Then the black kitsune and him speak to each other for a short while before he turns to me and says, “the Jade Emperor wishes to extend an invitation of friendship to Adrian Ravnos. Would you be willing to introduce us and act as a translator if needed?”

What?

“I would like to know why. It depends on that.”

The kitsune frowns for a moment before answering, disliking having to treat me as something more than an animal. “The Ravnos are much more than you know. They created this plane and then stuffed most of the supernatural world of the time here for the sin of consorting with demons. The punishment is just but not all were guilty. We not our ancestors ever sided with fiends but we’re caught in their spell.

The Jade Emperor wishes for your friend to rescind the punishment for his people. To trade knowledge and aid with him, and to confirm if he truely is the kind of dragon you named.”

I stare for a few seconds before nodding, but what can I get out of this? I don’t mind helping my friend but if I could get something out of this. . .

“I would need to know more about your people to know what to say to him and your language to act as a translator. . .”

“Yes, those would be needed. Your education will the adjusted and accelerated before you and a few others leave to find the young Ravnos.”

Randy Ravnos

I stand holding my phone to my ear with one hand as I walk through the woods of one of the few werewolf reservations hidden from the public eye.

“. . . I’m telling you, this is a mistake. They have nothing to do with the disappearances” I say into the device scanning my surroundings for the creatures that roam these woods.

“You have your orders. The disappearances seem to happen near vampire and werewolf congregation points. More so where they overlap. They are likely recruiting to continue their wars.”

“Then where are the new thralls and yearlings? The weapons and stockpiling? No other signs point to this.”

“That’s why I dragged you away from the search for your son this weekend. You can make it look like an accident if we’re wrong and you need a break.”

I frown, wanting to teleport and end the entire leadership that knows of me and erase my existence but no. I need to use them later. They’ll be useful when I return home with my son.

“You know I’m only doing this for the money I need to keep searching and this is a mistake.”

“Your objection is noted and has been considered. Carry out your orders.”

With that the line hangs up. I look up at the full moon and howl out in a crude imitation of their instinctive language calling the alpha of the pack who prowls the surrounding woods and hill to me. This would not be the first time I have done so to speak with a leader of their kind and I doubt it will be the last.

I wait several minutes for the Savage will men to surround me before a young but larger than normal male breaks from the circle. He seems more intelligent than the others, a natural lycanthrope? Not uncommon for a pack leader but unexpected. This pack is supposed to be young a runaway from an older pack that has given the disease time to balance?

“Who are you to call my pack to you?” the beast barely manages to get out of it’s canine mouth. Definitely a third or higher generation natural then. One from a far older pack.

“I am an agent for the US government. I want to know if you’ve anything to do with the . . .”

“No and I will not. . .”

I sigh not bothering to follow the rest. I know what is next but it is what I wanted to avoid. An instant later I am in a tree far out of sight of the wolves. No one lives when in melee with an entire pack and while I have the answer I knew I was going to have, I pick up the rifle sitting in the branch with me.

A few shots, some teleporting then start a forest fire and get back to what matters. . .

My phone rings, normally I don’t answer at work but my angel hasn’t called since our boy vanished. I answer the phone, the very instant the connection opens my wife says, “come home now. I found . . .”

The world shifts, I don’t even bother masking my actions in my hurry to return to the basement I left my wife to continue scanning through Althrá on the devices I built for her to be able to help.

“. . .m. Randy, look . . .” her voice cuts off as our son taller and physically stronger than I remember but definitely him, walks out of some sort of stone building followed by two girls. One with three tails of red tipped gold and fox like ears and the other a tall woman with a powerful athletic figure in contrast to the more curved figure of the kitsune. Aside from her silver hair she looks completely human but her stance and bearing are giveaways to another heritage most would overlook.

She’s a natural lycanthrope, and a powerful one. Dangerous. . . What the?

My thoughts freeze for a moment as I see him do something he cannot possibly have the power, control and knowledge for. He shifts into a dragon, a young one but still larger than a Clydesdale before giving the two girls a ride somewhere. A crack of lightning making a blue tint that should not be in his hair obvious before it is lost in the shapeshift he should not know how to do.

“Let’s go. You can take us there, right?”

“Close, I can get us close. Grab the bags” I answer her staring as another flash of lightning shows an odd dragon gliding over a forest.

The precision on these instruments isn’t enough to get me directly in front of Adrian but I can get within miles without risking stepping into the void. The return trip may be more difficult, the planar coordinates aren’t stable and fluctuate too randomly to prepare a return trip before leaving but that doesn’t matter to us.

As soon as Katherine returns with the two bags-that-are-bigger-on-the-inside to use her own wording I finish making what few changes needed to set the destination on the archway I’ve already prepared as a focus. It glows, and we walk through, flashes of light as if we were streaking past stars at relativistic speed fills our vision. An illusion caused by the energies of the void crashing against my temporary tunnel through it. A beautiful reminder of the promise of certain death should I have made even the slightest mistake during travel and not just on arrival should something be where we land.

Seconds pass before the tunnel is replaced with what seems to be a small army camp built around a stone fort the acrid smoke of burnt flesh hangs in the air. My wife throws up as I look around and touch the Tellurian to feel the raw and pure form of all that surrounds me.

The storm isn’t natural, perhaps it originally was but not anymore it was twisted to be stronger and if all the damage around me is anything to go by it was also directed to lay waste to whatever this place once was. But not all of the supernatural effects are manipulations of the Tellurian, most of the destruction is but not all. I also can’t feel any remnants of biological manipulation on the pattern. Could he have manipulated his form with something other than the Tellurian? He must have since he clearly is not trying to hide or conceal his manipulation of reality in any way as far as I can tell.

“Where is. . .?”

“Close, but the remnants of whatever happened here make it difficult. . .”

“Mr. and Mrs. Ravnos, what are you doing here?” a voice I recognize says from behind me.

We both turn, and I see a youth standing in the door, a girl slightly shorter than him with black hair, she has feline traits, but I ignore those as the youth looks exactly like my son’s friend save for his hair is far darker than it should be, and he feels different than he did last time I saw him.

“Bryan?” Kathrine asks and the boy nods.

“How did you get here?” he asks at the same time I ask, “where is Adrian and what’s happened to you?”

We both pause for a moment, before Bryan is the first to answer as both Kathrine and I stare at him.

“He probably already went back to camp. I can show you the way.”

The woman behind him says something to Bryan in a tongue I have only ever heard once before, the language of shadows. Something he should never have known yet he answers her in the same language.

“Please do” I say, and he begins to walk off towards the woods as he says, “there’s a few things you should probably know. . .”

Adrian

I land at the campsite to find Abagail where we left her along with almost everyone else save for Bryan and his new pet I was told about. As soon as K and Ria descend from my back I return to human form.

“Find what we were looking for?” Kylana asks as I sit down near the fire.

“I think so but it’s in a language I don’t know” I answer her.

“We still got rid of those that were chasing you down, so it isn’t a total loss” Analais says while checking the food we left Abagail to make.

He passes me a bowl of the stew, one that is far better than the stew that I refused to eat this morning.

“Is there at least some fruit we could have?” Lysan mutters as she looks into the bowl in her grasp.

Elves and their silly aversion to meat.

Rolling my eyes, I pull the last of the fruit from Void Cache and toss an apple to her and an orange to Talia.

“That’s all the fruit I have, unless you’ll settle for canned goods” I answer as they give me a weird look.

“Canned?” Lysan asks.

“Bottled up and stored in a manner to keep it edible.”

“Adrian, I have a question” Ria whispers in my ear.

“What?”

“Can you do that partial transformation thing. . .”

“Fox, I told you no! We are not asking about that” K interrupts.

“Ask about what?”

K glares at Ria as she answers “well you see a dragon’s tongue is longer than. . .”

“No fox. We are not. . .”

“Oh, is someone else embarrassing my daughter without me?” Kylana asks as she walks over to us.

“Yes. She doesn’t want to try something that I . . .”

“Oh, what? If it sounds. . .”

“Kylana, if you’re going to get ideas out of Ria could you do it when I can’t overhear?” I ask.

“Oh, fine but first. . .” she answers before whispering something in K’s ear quiet enough that I don’t catch it. K does look at her like whatever it was that she is crazy.

After a moment I lean over to Ria and whisper, “when you’re asking that kind of question, can you do it in private? You can still get the same rise out of Kythia with just the two of us.”

Ria nods as she moves into my lap, happy to let me wrap my arms around her waist as I find her far more appealing than my half-finished stew. Kythia moves to my side and pushes Ria half-way off my lap to make room for herself as she pushes a bowl to my chest.

I glance between the two of them, just knowing this is going to end up some sort of competition between the two of them. I grab the bowl, wondering just how to handle this for a moment.

“Well, if you’re going to spoil your pet fox you have to spoil me the same” K says.

Oh, she was jealous about that the last few days. Well, it’ll nice and give me time to think about why Ria would want to use my longer draconic tongue for. . .

It's probably something perverted . . . In what situation would a dragon's tongue . . .