Amelex Tellis, Drax’s sister, POV

I was having a lot of trouble reconciling my brothers’ animated stories of the last several days with the hulking human sitting on our porch. He was the largest human I had ever seen, and there was just something … otherworldly about him. It was more than his eyes, not that those weren’t plenty. They were like an abyss of blue-black flame, but they added to his presence. He had a strong face, and reminded me of one of the generals of the Imperial army. A face that seemed like it had seen and endured things that mortals were not meant to see and experience. And that voice that he used earlier! It was a voice like none I had ever heard before, powerful and merciless. I have met dragons that did not speak with that much power.

My father has the bad habit of using first meetings to test strangers. He acts like a buffoon in order to plumb their character and see how they react to arrogance. It is usually an easy way to weed out those that have a weak will, or hard heads, but this time it backfired. Drax warned us not to play games with his new friend, but father always thinks he knows best. Oh no, my face must had showed my thoughts, because the human is looking at me with those eerie flaming eyes.

“Is everything alright, milady?” He asks in a much milder tone of voice than he used earlier.

I cough and manage a smile.

“I am fine, thank you for asking. I was just reflecting on my father’s poor choice of gauging your character.”

As I spoke, my father groaned and put his head in his hands.

“Really Ama, there is no need to give away all my secrets, and I already apologized. Drax was right, and I should not have played games with the young man.”

Back to normal POV

Toric chuckled and smirked at Drax.

“You warned them about me? Am I so scary as to need others to be warned not to play with me?”

Drax snorted and nodded his head in the affirmative.

“Yes!”

Toric laughed aloud and slugged Drax on the shoulder, gently. He knew that his strength had advanced far beyond what a friendly punch should be. But even though he held back most of his strength, Drax still grabbed his shoulder and made a big deal out the supposed pain. The friendly back and forth teasing was apparently not obvious enough to the Lady Conithia though. After Toric punched Drax and he pretended to be hurt, she jumped to her feet and cast a spell of binding on Toric.

Or, she attempted to bind him. The enchantments in his armor shrugged off the intermediate level spell, and his voice thundered out immediately toward the Legionnaires.

“Hold!”

The two mages stopped their casting at once and reabsorbed the power of their spells. Toric then turned back to the Lady Conithia and spoke gently.

“Drax is not actually hurt, Lady. We were just joking around, and I am sorry if you misunderstood us.”

The elf glared at Toric in anger.

“It doesn’t matter if it was a joke or not, Drax is a prince, heir to a powerful House, and an elf besides. No human, no matter their position, should ever strike him. Such is the agreement between the Empire and the Elven nation. We elves are above human law.”

Toric’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head in disagreement, waving back Drax when he tried to interject and speaking in a carefully modulated tone.

“The agreement between the Elven Nation and the Empire is that elves, no matter their creed or sub-race, will be held to the laws of the Elven Nation. They are not above Imperial Law, they are outside of it, and that is simply Imperial Law, not all human law. The agreement is in fact very similar to the agreement between the Legion and the Empire. The difference being that the Elven Nation is part of the Empire, while the Legion is simply an ally. As Princeps of the Legion, my rank is much higher than Drax’s. But none of that matters to me, he is my friend and I will do my best to be a good friend to him. Among friends and family there is no reason to be ruled by protocol, however I will keep in mind that you seem to wish for things to be bound by propriety at all times. Since that is the case, I will give you this warning just once, if you attack me or attempt to bind me again; I will not stop the response of my bodyguards.”

Toric’s words flowed out of him, his tone in the beginning was like that of a teacher to an unruly student, but by the time he had finished his words were icy and full of promised pain.

Lady Conithia Havor POV

With each word the human spoke I felt my face flush hotter and hotter. Never before in my life had I felt such anger toward one of the lesser mortal races. I am forty-seven years old and by the reckoning of the elves I would be a full adult in a little less than three years. I have trained in pure mana manipulation magic for thirty years and was considered a prodigy by the Elven Nation. Most elves use Elemental Magics, focusing on one of the eight paths: fire, water, air, earth, light, shadow, nature, and void. But I can produce any element by crafting mana into the correct form. It costs nearly triple the amount of mana as a specialist would spend, but I have a massive mana pool to draw from and so I can afford to spend it. Ever since my mother and father retired from public life I have been the head of House Trolbane and one of the rising stars of the Elven Magi, and never in my entire life have I been so disrespected to my face. This boy dares to say he is above me!? Above all elves!? It cannot be allowed, and as he finishes speaking I decide to show him what the truth of the matter is.

Reaching into the right pocket of my robe I crush the one of the Call-Stones resting there and smirk at the arrogant prick as an Elven Academy response team teleports in to surround us. I chose the Call-Stone very specifically, as it is the one that also sends a call for the Academy’s Arch-Mage. The Elder High-Elf appears only moments after the response team’s appearance. But the boy seems to have admirable reflexes and has already vaulted off the porch and taken position next to his bodyguards.

My eyes widen in shock and anger as the entire Tellis family swiftly abandons me. Drax moves to put himself between the response team and the humans, while the others simply retreat to a corner of the yard quietly, their own House Guards moving forward to shield them from any potential violence. All in all only about six seconds have passed since I crushed the Call-Stone. Before I can get a word out, the Arch-Mage speaks harshly.

Back to normal POV

Toric’s eyes widen just a bit as he feels the ripple spread out through the aether when the bitch of an elf crushes the Call-Stone. He begins to act even before the summoned guards appear, and a short application of pure power to his body lets him move the thirty yards to his guardsmen in the blink of an eye. He glances back at them and uses Legion hand signals to tell them to follow his lead. Then he turns back to face the Lady Conithia and the thirty elves that appear around her. Before he can speak another ripple spreads through the aether as an extremely powerful Elven Elder appears.

Toric’s eyes can see the bonfire of magical potential contained within this Elder’s soul and he unconsciously taps into the still recovering pool of Veil-Walker power within his own soul. Drax appears in between him and the other elves, and he sees the Tellis family moving away from the rapidly devolving situation. Toric sighs as he considers that for once maybe he shouldn’t have corrected the elf. Sighing once more, Toric pulls on the power residing in his center and lets the Veil-Walker Fire flow into his body, causing flickers of bluish black flame to dance across his armor. Suddenly he hears a voice calling out in alarm.

“Wait! Walker, whatever is going on here, please just wait, I guarantee your safety and that of your men. Please, let none of us do anything hasty.”

The Elven Arch-Mage spoke in a panicked tone. His name was Viktor Munadarlaus, Arch-Mage of Void, Headmaster of the Elven Academy, Sixth Elder of the Elven Council, and Lord of House Orfano. He was the third oldest elf alive, and had seen six millennia pass on this world. In all that time he had learned a few facts that were absolute, but the main one that seemed to occur over and over was that nothing was ever as it seemed. That one was echoing in his mind right now as he responded to a call from one of his students, only to arrive at the House of Loquain and see his student and an Elven Academy Response Team about to actually attack a Veil-Walker. There are very few existences among the mortal races that could scare him, but Walkers were one of them. They lived brutal and unforgiving lives, battling things that most of the world barely understood, let alone could fight, and this made them incredibly dangerous. He had thought they were all extinct, but the eyes of a Walker are unmistakable, and judging by this one’s eyes, he was a Veil-Fire user. Veil-Fire was … terrifying, and in all his years and research, he had never met a being - Greater, Lesser, or Mortal - that could wield it. And so, he spoke quickly, and relaxed a bit as the Walker toned down his connection to the First Flames.

Turning to glance at his student, he saw that she was furious. Her fists were clenched and she was in the middle of a chant that constructed a seventh-tier spell of subjugation. Her intent was clearly focused on the Walker, and with a sigh he gestured at her form and cut her connection to her mana. The spell fizzled out and his senses showed him that once it was gone, the Walker let the Veil-Fire slip completely back into the aether.

Breathing out in relief he looked around at the gathering of elves and humans to try and make sense of things. A few things immediately stood out. The Walker was wearing the armor that was restricted to either the Legion Commander or the Princeps, and he knew that the Walker was not the Commander. This must be Devyn’s son, which made him a dracuman. The Legionnaires behind him reinforced this fact. Also, young Drax was standing in between the Walker and the EART, so whatever was occurring, Drax thought that Conithia was in the wrong. Which wasn’t really much of a clue, because he was fairly certain that Drax could not stand Conithia. She had been trying to arrange a marriage between herself and the young master of House Loquain since his birth, but his parents had repeatedly informed her that the only person that would choose who Drax would marry would be Drax himself. Lastly, he saw that the rest of the Tellis family was off to one side of the yard with a double handful of guards in the process of erecting a protection circle to keep them safe.

Turning to face Drax, Viktor spoke clearly.

“Young master Tellis, kindly explain to me just what is going on here? Conithia seems to be far too furious to give me a coherent explanation.”

As he spoke, his peripheral vision saw the further whitening of Conithia’s face and he had to fight mightily to keep from snickering at her. Though as Drax explained the situation, his humor evaporated like water upon the sands of the Great Desert and a flash of cold fury rippled through him.