The blacksmith helped us come up with a quick design for a series of ropes and metal rings that would allow the Formation to ride safely on my back. They could tie small tents and bedrolls onto my back so that they could rest in them. We got winter gear and thick furs they will need for the cold weather. I have worked on my cold immunity enough that I can maintain it even when I sleep. After we spent the whole day preparing and shopping, we regrouped in our room.

“I think that is everything then,” I said patting my bag of holding. Since I was the transportation we stored everything in my bag of holding. “I know I suggested Bysaes Tyl, but if that makes you uncomfortable Abaxis we don’t have to go.”

“It’s fine. I have been back several times since I started the adventuring life. It will be awkward but when I tell them I am going to Aeor for research on old magical creatures made during the Age of Arcanum my family will be pleased. I know a teleportation circle we can travel to. It will make travel not an issue,” Abaxis said.

“Okay. If you say so. Do I need to do or know anything when meeting your family?” I asked.

“You should be fine. They are not monsters. Lupine said they sent me to the Solstryce Academy but it was my idea. I wanted to learn at one of the best academies in the world. I also wanted to get away from my parents. Bysaes Tyl is big on cultural remembrance. It has only been 300 years since the city of Moleasmyr. We lost everything due to the collapse. That's why Bysaes tries to keep our culture alive. My parents wanted me to learn the tradition of blade singing. I didn’t want to. It led to a lot of fighting and me eventually leaving for the academy,” Abaxis said.

“I am sorry to hear that. How is your relationship now?” I asked.

“It is okay now. My mother will still bring up my failures at dinner time. I will either ignore them or it will lead to a fight. My father is happy I have found friends. My grandmother wants great-grandchildren she can spend time with. My great-grandparents are just happy I visit,” Abaxis said.

“Wow, you have a lot of family,” I said.

“Elves might only have children every 20 or so 30 years but we do live long lives. I have a friend that speaks with his great great grandparents. He also just had children himself so they will have great-great-great grandparents. It can be a bit hard to keep track of relatives since they live so long,” Abaxis said.

This was probably the most I had heard him talk. He must really care about his family. I understand that. I miss mine a lot right now. My mother would have not done well in this world. She was way too accustomed to the comforts of a modern life. I was barely able to adjust because I had prison time.

“Alright, enough of the gloomy family talk. Let's go do something fun,” Zenix said.

“We can’t. Abaxis has already called his parents. We are leaving tonight and having dinner there,” Devin said.

“Oh yeah. I guess some elven food won’t be that bad,” Zenix said.

“Your family has that super-aged wine I love. Also, make sure they don’t skimp on the cheeses,” Carmilla said.

“I will try Carmilla. Now everyone get your stuff together. I want to leave already and this chalk circle is not going to draw itself,” Abaxis said.

Most of us were already packed and we were waiting on Lupine and Carmilla. Those two laid about for most of the day so of course they weren’t ready. I spent some time practicing which organs worked best. It was easy to create some organs smaller like a kidney or a liver but a heart was difficult. Bones were even trickier but I was figuring it out slowly. One day I might make my skin out of billions of tiny dragon scales. I might need to kill a million dragons first, so I will stick with normal skin.

“All packed. Let's go,” Carmilla said.

“Good. Edsom, do you remember the rules of portals?” Abaxis asked.

“I have a short window to make it through. Don’t rush but don’t just stand around either,” I said.

“Good. Everyone get in line,” Abaxis said and started to draw.

With a swozzh sound, the portal opened and we moved through. The other side led to a beautiful chamber. This room was designed for the portal. We were standing on an elevated platform covered in blue lines and roots. There was a set of stairs and a sloped pathway that led do to doors. In front of those doors was a group of elves.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Abaxis dear. It's so good to have you home,” a woman said and came to hug him. Others came to crowd around the pair and servants took our bags. The thing with elves is that you can’t really tell their exact age. A child could be over 40 years old and a grandmother could be 200 but not look over 30. I looked to Zenix. She whispered Grandmother. That explains the warm welcome.

“Come little leaf we need to get you settled in. The rest of you, it is good to see you again dears. Wait. You have one more this time,” she said.

“This is Edsom. He is a young adventurer we met in Feolinn. He showed great skill then and has recently met up with us again to hunt in Eiselcross,” Abaxis said.

“Eiselcross? That is a dangerous place. I hope you can keep up with these 6,” she said.

“I believe I can mam. I was planning on heading there by myself before I met the Formation again,” I said.

“HA! You are rather confident. I am Amra Balleei. Abaxis’s grandmother,” she said.

Whoop, whoop. Red alert. I had spent a lot of time reading so I recognized a lot of names now.

“As in one of the Rings of Three, Amra Balleei,” I asked.

“Yes that is correct but please you are Abaxis’s guest. Call me Amra,” she said.

Amra Balleei, Allussus Dwanyne, and Gwey Yethneiros. These were the Rings of Three half of the leaders of Bysaes Tyl. The other half consisted of Empire appointees who would govern the city according to their laws. This arrangement is because when the Empire discovered an elven city being grown in secret within their borders they told the elves to join or die. The Rings of Three decided that it was better to save the lives of their people and so agreed to join the empire with some concessions. This includes the joint rule of the Three and a local Starosta appointed by the Empire.

“I was told Abaxis was nobility but not that his family was one of the rulers of the only elven city in the Empire," I said.

"The Starosta also has his say," she said politely.

Uther Prent. A man with a deep prejudice against elves. He was the Empire-appointed leader of the city. He and his counsel made up the other half of the rulership of Bysaes Tyl. Together with the Ring of Three, they governed the city. We began to walk through this home to a sitting room. It had a bathroom connected to it that we were told to use to freshen up for dinner. Then we were left alone.

"Which of you decide it would be funnier to not tell me he was that level of elven nobility," I said to the group.

"We wanted to see how long it would go. We didn't expect you to recognize the name immediately," Lupine said.

"I read a lot, plus I read even faster now with all the extra brains," I said.

With that, we all changed out of our armors and dressed in fine elven party attire. We were led to a dining room with a large circular table. I saw about 30 chairs wrapped around the table. Other than the 7 of us the rest soon filled out with elves. They ranged from the gracefully aging to the young who looked and acted like children. I knew better though and I still might be the youngest person in the room. Abaxis sat in the middle of us. With Devin and Zenix at the ends of our group. I guess they can be trusted to not embarrass us. With the whole table now gathered and chatting, Amra tapped her spoon on a glass to get everyone’s attention.

“I am glad we have so many for tonight's family dinner. It is good to see you all here and it is good to see Abaxis again. He has taken a break from adventuring to come and visit his family,” she said.

Abaxis stood from his seat and spoke,” I am happy to be back for dinner. We are stopping for the night so we can rest and relax before the real danger begins.”

A young elf girl spoke up, “What are you doing cousin Bax?”

“We are journeying to Eiselcross,” Abaxis said.

There were a lot of murmurs and several people tried to speak at once but Amra silenced them by tapping her glass again. “You will have time to learn of his journey later. For now, enjoy this wonderful meal,” Amra said.

Plates floated in from the kitchen with a wonderful display. An ability I had acquired from the Chuul that I didn’t get to use much yet was the ability to sense magic. I was still practicing but I could tell this was a form of conjuration. I believe it to be invisible servant. Many castings of the spell to have these plates floating. They brought us a whole roasted pig. The seven of us picked it to pieces.

Several family members poked Abaxis for information about Eiselcross. Others asked him about his magical studies and when he was going to come home to learn about some secret elven word I didn’t understand. They sometimes talked in an elven language I didn’t understand but seemed to do that only for conversations about their magic and home. Any other time they spoke in common. Once Abaxis told the full story, his family began to probe me for information. I spoke of the Aeorian crash site and some of the creatures within. I wanted to see if I could copy their abilities and study them. They were very shocked at my use of strange transformative magics. Several of them invited me to their homes so they could study my abilities. I declined as I was too busy and I didn't trust them yet.

Abaxis had a conversation in elven with his mother. I think gauged from body language that it was not a pleasant conversation for Abaxis. Zenix was surprisingly noble this evening. She seemed to excel in any field as long as it was about making friends. Carmilla spoke only about how much she was in love with the elven wine. The others were mostly silent and simply enjoyed the meal. The dinner ended and we left the large dining room.

"They didn't seem that bad. I take it could have gone a lot worse?" I asked.

"My first dinner home with the group involved a lot of yelling and name-calling. We often fight but don't hold a grudge about things said, only the actions we do. When you live for over 500 years you learn to not make grudges,” he said.

Abaxis left us for his own room and we were divided into two separate guest rooms. I couldn’t sleep. I was worried about being followed to Eiselcross. When someone scrys on a person or location they create an invisible eye that can only be seen with a see invisibility spell. I was trying to recreate the effect with my detect magic eyes but was having no luck. It was difficult to move the feeling of seeing magic. I looked at myself in a mirror to see what was happening around me. I could see the golden transmutative power of the Changelings Armament. It was a divine artifact that had been serving me well. I shaped it into three claws. I saw how the gold energy moved through the vestige and grew into claws before the bone did. It showed what effect it wanted and the bone created it.

I had managed to separate the cold energy from Temprus's blood and scales and created a well of cold energy. It sat centered on my chest above my heart. To make my entire body immune to the cold I pulled it across my entire body. Once I had done this, I would be immune to all cold effects and damage for a full day. The well then felt empty but refilled over an hour. This process reminded me of a mana pool. That didn’t exist here in Exandria. Instead, once a creature had completed a rest of 8 hours their pool of spells would be refilled. Mine seemed to refill on its own without rest.

Taking what I learned from the Arsenal I decided to try a spell. Ray of Frost is a cantrip that does exactly what you would think. I went to the balcony of our room then pulled a sliver of energy from the well and held it on my finger. I made a finger gun and thought of the effect I desired. I pointed to the sky and said bang. A small sputter of frost and some snow came out of my finger. Not a ray of frost but it was progress. It was a start.

I hung my head over the railing. The homes of the elves of Bysaes Tyl were built into trees. There druids shaped them into massive buildings connected to each other. I looked down to enjoy the boreal forests below when I looked at a hooded figure in the eye. He was walking up the tree and there was a dagger in his hand.