Jailia was once the firstborn of the King of Elvenhan and was wife to Larius before she turned against her father. She claims that it is she who was betrayed, first by her father who gave her to her husband in a political marriage rather than allowing her to rule as us the right of the firstborn. Then again by her husband when he took Talmara as his second wife. For this she swore to see the corruption of the Elvenhan destroyed, thus she turned to the forces once considered her enemies to usher her to her rightful place an heir to the throne of the Elvenhan rather than the unloved and scorned wife and daughter she saw herself to be.

Adrian

I smile as the lives of multiple relatively weak but odd lifeforces are snuffed out around my two girls in the echoes of Life Radar. There isn’t much else around that Analais, Alana and Kylana haven’t gotten to and even though I tracked them through the corridors I am not sure how they manage to move so quickly through the halls of this place. Still, they are still picking off the last few Althaen that are wandering the halls and so I have turned my attention to gathering what I can.

While I do not know where they keep the paper and parchment that holds the secrets I would be interested in knowing, I do know where a rather large cluster of gold and silver is from my earlier uses of Sense Metal. In front of the door to the treasury for this compound, I look over the metal door and smirk at the runes that have been carved into it, wards that I don’t understand but wards that could not account for what I can do. I can see the lock built into the door and have no idea where the key is but I don’t need one.

A few Translocation Grasps and dropping the pins from the hinges and the internals from the lock litter the floor around me. Now all I have to do is. . .

The door slams on the stone floor of the hall as I tip it to fall, knowing that it’d be blocked if it hit the chests on the other side. Stepping over the heavily enchanted but useless door into a room that is lined with chests full of expensive things.

I open the nearest chest and stop, staring at the glint of gold and silver from the torch light of the hall. It is so simple but also beautiful, I run my fingers over the top of the pile within the chest. For a moment I feel like I should dump it on the floor, put all that I own in a pile of glittering glory and lay upon it. To feel it with more than just my hand. . .

“Adrian” a voice says behind me drawing me from the gold and silver as I quickly turn around to see Ria and Kythia in the hall.

In Ria's arms are a large stack of books and papers which she holds out for me to grab. “What are these?” I ask as I take them from her without even looking at them while I drop them into Void Cache.

“No idea but they’re written in a language from Terra. I think they’re on the research being done here” she answers with a smile, tail wagging as I look at her.

I pull her into a quick hug before asking K, “have any fun?” knowing full well that Ria is doing something behind my back to mock her for not getting a token of affection while she herself did.

“Only in having to fight the fox's battles for her” she answers with a grin.

“Hey, I fought. You’re just better at it than me” Ria says from behind me.

I just smirk before saying, “I’m glad you had a good time. Anything interesting happen?”

“Not-Bryan came out to play and . . .”

“Not-Bryan?”

“His wolf” K clarifies for me before Ria continues “. . . he also decided that he wants to keep a pet cat, but we’re against it.”

A pet cat? Why would Bryan or his inner beast want one? Why is it even out so close to the new moon?

“Cat as in what exactly?” I ask.

“Some black furred anthropomorph that used some magic similar to something he did” Ria answers.

“Weird I didn’t think he was into that kind of thing.”

“Well?” K asks expecting me to say something else.

“If he takes care of it himself I don’t really care.”

“It? Thanks for accepting at least some of the lessons on other races the pack gave you” K says while pulling me into a hug. My arm wraps around her waist and I enjoy the firm yet also softness that is her ass for a second not wanting to say I only used that article because I wasn’t told the gender of this cat pet.

Ria jumps into our hug, but K stops blocks her and separates from me before I get to fully enjoy it. I do however smirk at their squabbling.

“Can the two of you help me with these chests?” I ask not wanting it to go on to the point where they ask my opinion on which of the two is right.

“Okay” Ria says loudly, her voice echoing off the stone walls before she tries and fails to drag one of the chests to me.

K shakes her head before saying, “he meant going through them to see what we should take.”

“But he wants to take all of it?”

K looks at me and I answer, “I do, but knowing what is here is most of the work.”

“You’re going to take everything and put it in that nothing space?”

“Of course, but it’s called Void Cache.”

“Make sure to separate some of it for the pack.”

“But’s it’s shiny” Ria complains mirroring my natural instincts.

Should I just lie and say I separa. . . No, K is more important. I glance at the coins and gems for a second, it would be so easy to just. . .

“Kythia, Ria could you bring me the . . .” I start while slowly separating myself from the valuables before I start pocketing some.

“Sure” Ria says interrupting me and with a glance at K she pulls me to the side.

K nods at Ria with some flash of understanding and for once smiles rather than glares at Ria when she thinks I’m not looking. That is until Ria decides now was the perfect time to give me a taste of her mouth.

For the next few seconds I just enjoy the feel of Ria in my lap not caring that I taste a bit of whatever breakfast was. Then she steps back and as K says “get over here and help fox.”

“I am helping. . .”

“Distracting Adrian isn’t the help I want from you.”

“But it’s more fun. . .” she complains while walking slowly to K.

Tomas

After Damû left me wherever it is that here is, the appeal of being in an oriental quickly vanished. The vast majority of the people here look at me as if I was a beast to them. An animal that was dropped off to be domesticated and trained. Somehow it bothers me more than the uncaring apathy Damû displayed to my actions.

He saw me as a person even if he was using me as a tool in whatever his plans are but these people me as nothing more than an animal. Pointing and saying commands in a language of which I have only managed to pick a few words up and physically forcing me to do what they want if I do not immediately begin what they want or if it done differently than expectations that are never told me.

The only person that will talk to me is a servant who can barely speak enough Althaen to get an idea across. I’ve also been getting hungry but feeding on anyone here will certainly get me killed. Maybe if I. . .

No, but. . .

“[email protected] thing, come h3£R” my caretaker shouts at me and I rush swiftly to him without breaking into a run.

I do not want to be taught a lesson again. Even with my growing hunger the threat of death and the pain those crystal blades cause is too much for me to risk.

Walking up to the wolf like man that called meet I see a half dead orc bound and being dragged in by several men taking great care not to touch the creature. Several others that display more animalistic traits or strange colorations are looking from the balcony that overlooking the courtyard.

The men drop the orc and the canine man says some word I have never heard before. When I look at him in confusion some of the looks of distain that a few are not even trying to hide grow before the canine says just two words, “eat it.”

I swallow, not believing that I just heard him right, but I don’t wait. Before I know it, I’ve taken several steps forward and am now in front of the single captive orc. My hand shakes as I stretch it out. I don’t know what is going on, but those words slowly break through what little hold I’ve been able to keep on the hunger.

The orc screams much as that bar wench did as I tear what little life remains in it. It ages rapidly for a few seconds before falling from my grasp. It’s tainted life force flowing through my veins as whatever Damû did to me metabolizes it. I’ve long since gotten used to the sick feeling of the demonic taint after being forced to feed so much on tainted and fully demonic creatures but after not feeding for weeks it is sweet to what taste I have now.

Those watching do not seem to care and I honestly am glad to get something to eat even if it is nowhere near enough. The canine who told me to do it stands and watches me for a few seconds as do the men in full armor and crystalline blades before the canine says, “follow” and walks of towards a building of black stone I have not been inside during my entire time here, the one that Damû went to during his short stay before leaving me here.

A chill runs through my body as I cross the threshold of the building, a shiver unlike any other I’ve felt before. As if something touched the very essence of what I was for an instant and let it go. I follow the canine down several halls for nearly an hour before I am both completely lost, and we arrive at a large door twice as tall as I am that opens to a hall of emerald stones. Continuing to follow the canine, after another hour we come to what seems to be a courtroom of some sort.

The emerald green stone that fills the walls is the same as the blades I fear and covered in golden and silver. A human male sits on a throne of similar crystal with the black furred kitsune I saw on my first day kneeling to the man sitting on the crystal throne. The others in the room are primarily animal kin though I do recognize some of them as humans though with strange hair and eye colors. The canine that guided me here, taps the back of my left knee with his blade. The burning sting of the green crystal against my skin causes me to kneel just before he does himself.

“[email protected], K3393R of the N01# Flame. Speak to the thing for me” the man commands and that single person stands and turns to me.

“[email protected]!n3 it to the @[email protected]” the man in the crystal throne says and while I can hear his disgust at having to speak in the Althaen tongue the kitsune does so.

“The Emperor wishes to confirm the whisperings of the void. Before you were with the Blood Elf who were you traveling with?”

Why is this important?

“Bryan Grace, Abagail Clark and Adrian Ravnos.”

A cacophony of whispers fill the room when I finish Adrian’s name. The black kitsune and the man, emperor?, in the crystal those seems unfazed as if they already knew.

The black kitsune turns to the emperor and they have a short conversation in a language similar to the one I’ve managed to pick up some words of before the kitsune once more asks me a question “was it the Blood Elf who separated you from this Ravnos and what is your relation to him?”

“I think so but he might not have had anything to do with the undead that killed me. Adrian is my friend but could you tell me why you’re asking these questions?”

The kitsune does not answer me until after speaking with the emperor for nearly a minute.

“What do you know of the Ravnos?”

“That they’re wizards and have a lot of family only activities on the weekend?”

The kitsune frowns as he continues “then what do you know of this Adrian Ravnos?”

“Uh, he likes reading and studying, games. . .”

“About what he is and can do” the kitsune interrupts.

“Why do you want to know?”

“The Jade Emperor needs that information to determine if extending an invitation of friendship is in order.”

I look at him for a moment, I’m not good at reading people but I think he doesn’t mean any harm to my friend. And if he does well, he did leave me to rot where I fell.

“Well, he isn’t much of a fighter, but he seems skilled in magic. I’ve seen him command fire and call lightning from the sky. I saw some of the slate the Althaen use to interact with the Architect’s System and it had two weird things on it. Doppelganger, saying there was another him somewhere and that he was some weird kind of dragon. I don’t know what a void dragon is but. . .”

The rest of my sentence is drowned out by everyone talking even to my own ears and thoughts before the Jade Emperor speaks a single word that echoes over the other voices in the room despite being quieter.