2 Responsibilities and Other Surprises

As of this point I have yet to successfully project to the astral realm that mirrors earth. And now I'm standing face to face with an elf who takes a short step back after seeing me. "you weren't kidding about him" she said to Seraphina who smiled happily. This early on in my magical practices I struggled with keeping my wings and tail stowed away so that I looked normal. So there I was two pairs of wings one pair feathered and hot white like super heated steel. the other coal black dragon like wings that matched the scales on my tail. I also had ivory black horns on my head that pointed backwards. My eyes had also begun to shift to a burning orange color. The truly odd features that were nether phoenix or dragon were the golden furred cat ears on my head. So as you can imagine I was somewhat of a freak show. this seemed to intrigue the elf as she walked around me while we talked. "I'm afraid I don't know your name, I am snow, apprentice mage" I said as she looked me over. "I'm Xevaltha (Ze-val-tha), nice to finally meet you" she said poking my cat ear. "So how did you know how to teach Seraphina to shift? I asked. "I'm a princes of house Ardnanthil, I have access to quite a lot of resources about magic" she giggled". I looked at her sideways "what kind of magic?" I asked. "Mostly healing and nature magic. but I do know how to create tethers" she explained as she attempted to pull one of my wings which I promptly folded up and stowed.

"Tethers?" I asked not quite sure what she meant. "Like this" she said and performed the spell to create the tether. "Now we can always know where each other are and we can communicate telepathically even when we are nowhere near each other." I looked at the silver thread that wrapped around my waist while the other end wrapped around her's. "That seems like something you aren't supposed to do on a whim" I said looking at her and she just shrugged. A few hours later I tested the telepathic link. "What are you doing?" I asked genuinely curious what elves did and wanting to see if the tether actually worked. I was taking my time going over some screws and other hardware that the paint had worn off of and removing any rust I could find and treating it to protect it against the salt water spray till we could repaint. "having dinner with my family" she responded almost instantly. "I'll let you be then" I said dropping the conversation. "No wait I can talk it's a telepathic lin.. Who is that" a stronger female voice cut into the link. "I apologise, I did not mean to interrupt" I said attempting to return my focus to my work. In that instant I experienced the most intense sense of vertigo and a splitting headache. one half of my consciousness kept my body from falling of the top of the helicopter. while the other half as well as my astral body was sitting at a long table occupied by a number of elves who were intently staring at me.

I had let myself return to having my wings, tail, horns, and ears back out. I currently didn't have any weapons pointed at me and I didn't want any pointed at me so I slowly retracted my "bonus features" as I looked around the table. I was met with a mix of curiosity, disdain, anger, and surprise. "A human?! That's unexpected of you Xevaltha" the voice was the same the had cut into the telepathy. It belonged to a middle aged elf at the head of the table who I had to assume was the matron of the house and Xevaltha's mother. "You human, what is your name?" she asked turning to me. I placed my hands on my knees and bowed in her direction while remaining seated "my name is Snow, lady Ardnanthil". as I raised my head and sat up straight again I could see the surprise on everyone's faces except the matron's who smiled slightly leaning back in her chair. There was a slight swosh as Seraphina jumped into the the dimension. "Snow!" she yelled as she flew and landed on my shoulder. This caught some of them off guard and they ducked. I stood up "I should probably be going" I said and began to focus on rejoining my consciousness and bodies together. "Wait" the matron said and looked at me intently and asked "what is your opinion of my daughter?" I looked at Xevaltha who was looking at the table to embarrassed to look up. I looked back to the matron "I think she could temper her enthusiasm with caution. If she can achieve that she will be fine. She has good looks, a positive attitude and is intelligent." After I finished speaking Xevaltha was looking at me and her mother sat down smiling in a way that made me uncomfortable.

After that Xevaltha would show up randomly and watch me work while having conversations with Seraphina but would block me out so I couldn't hear. I told my instructor about the events and he began laughing but refused to tell me what the hell was going on even though I had a guess. I had also noticed that the elven guards who had been standing by when I was there had been wearing armor. I asked him about this and he said it would also benefit me to have my own if I was going to be visiting other planes of existence. I began working on a set of armor, something light that would blend in. I settled on a chainmail lined long coat as this gave me some practice working with metal as a subset of earth magic. once you understand the concept and structure of atoms you can manipulate them with magic turning air into steel or rubber to gold. But of course this is limited to the metaphysical as the physical is mostly cut off from magic and the influences are minor at best. Though things like removing impurities from gold with magic on the physical plane is very possible. lifting small objects with telekinesis is possible with enough work and practice. Consciously increasing my healing speed is my specialty considering I get a decent amount of practice, as a mechanic I am constantly cutting myself while working.

As like in games there you have a pool of energy to draw from and this can be increased with practice. There is also external energies that can be drawn on when performing magic. my magic pool was growing steadily and I was getting the hang of using external energies as well. but I was starting to encounter creatures that I did not want to. Naimly, demons, thus I practiced wards and concealments and I thought I had a fairly solid one in place so I showed my instructor and he was pleasantly surprised. "It's basic but effective for anyone looking for you but your energy signature is still present. Here try adding this to your matrix" he says showing me a section of spell code. after integrating it into my matrix my energy bleed was refocused back to me rendering me magically invisible to anyone I did not allow to see me.

I guess this is where I should give a small lesson. Most spells are centered around a pentagram for humans as that's what we attribute with magic. however there is the seven point "elf star" and the thirteen point star that are also used. With more points to the star you can create more complex spells but anything. These can also be stacked with their same like, so a pentagram can have four more pentagrams stacked to create a spell matrix. My personal matix I use now only works for me, it is an eight pointed star made of two squares with two spirals that pass through all lines brining the energy of the spell the the circle in the center where it is focused. This can be stacked to the eighth power. Because of certain persons I know and abilities I have gained this works but as a mathematical formula it would be 8^8. That means I have 23,847 nodes in which I can insert runes to accomplish the desired effect. There is also the principle of channeling energy with absolute wilpower to gain the desired effect.

So now that I was invisible and had armor I was feeling fairly confident and began fine tuning my magic. Practicing keeping my wings and other thing concealed was a challenge which I ended up needing my instructor's help to fully accomplish. Halfway through shift later that week Seraphina brought me a small fleck of something metallic. I integrated it into my armor and like something alive it fundamentally altered the composition of my armor. Now it would shift and change into anything I wanted but had the same protective capability as if the area it covered was heavy plate armor. After discussing this development with my instructor he told me it was called Moon Shadow Silk and it is extremely rare and expensive. "Oh you're probably going to need one of those" he said to himself as we walked through the p-way of the ship up towards the smoke pit. "What's your choice of sword?" he asked as he pulled out his cigarettes. "double edged, three foot straight sword without a crossguard and a ring at the hilt, fast and light" I replied. He chuckled "I figured, crystal blade so you can cast magic though it?" he asked. I nodded and he held his hands out in front of him palms facing each other. I tried to see what he was doing on the metaphysical plane but had to look away instantly because it felt like I was staring into a blazing forge. A few minutes later he handed me a flawless sword and scabbard. Designed to be worn across the back at the hips, it was perfectly concealed under my long coat.

It had been a week passed from the first time I met Xevaltha's family and she would pop in and out talking to Seraphina and I. She would ask me questions about my past and helped me practice magic and in general we had a good time. I could tell she was hiding something and Seraphina knew what it was but they refused to tell me. I'm getting finished with one of my inspections and Seraphina says "hey come with me we have a surprise". "Okay give me a second to put these up" I say putting my tools away.

Once I was done I had some down time and sat in one of the folding chairs we had in the hangar bay. where I slipped into the dual conscience state and allowed Seraphina to pull me to the other world where I was greeted by Xevaltha's older brother and cousin. who finally explained what was going on and my hunch was right. they had set up a wedding between me and Xevaltha. They noticed I had some reservations and began explaining that having multiple wives was not uncommon in their realm and due to the lack of overlap between worlds the likelihood of my wife on earth having an issue with things was extremely slim. Regardless of how I felt I had to go out and face everyone and give my answer yes or no the marriage. We walked out a side door of the large building we were in. They then pointed me to a tent for me to change out of my armor. I handed my sword to the cousin saying "don't lose this please" and stepped inside where I shifted my armor to the traditional navy dress blue uniform.

After I stepped out I was shown around the large building to a lawn in the back where everyone was already celebrating and gathered around a horseshoe of tables. There were a few cheers and everyone got excited as I walked over. I was pointed to a raised platform at the open end of the horseshoe where the matron of house Ardnanthil and xevaltha's mother Ulisia stood wearing a ceremonial gown. And of course Seraphina was the flower girl. Things started to quiet down as I stood in front of Ulisia. To my left a curtain was pulled away from the door of a small building at the very back of the yard and Xevaltha walked out escorted by her father. She was wearing a simple pale green strapless dress that fit her athletic curves perfectly.

Once she was standing next to me Ulisia smiled at us and began speaking. "We have gathered here to celebrate the union between these two from different worlds. That they might find happiness in each other and a bright future.do any object to this union"? "Yes I object" a younger elf stood up. "I won't allow this human to come here and think he is worthy of our name". he drew a rapier and rushed at me. I stepped in front of Xevaltha and created a magic shield blocking is sword. Xevaltha backed away and as I blocked another attack. I could sense magic on him that was causing the outburst so I didn't want to hurt him. I wasn't sure how dispel the magic, I was also unarmed and a guest. I decided my best option was go on the defensive and used my Wild Form ability to change into a large scorpion. giving me more eyes and able to sue my large claws as shields till the guards were able to subdue him. I was also forced to cast a large shield above myself as a rain of magic arrows rained on me from somewhere else. why I chose a scorpion I don't know but at the time it felt like the right form.

As the guards incapacitated my assailant Ulisia walked over asking if I was alright. I noticed her energy at that point and looked at her "you cast that spell on him to do that and you are responsible for that rain of arrows." She clapped happily "very good indeed. You first prioritized protection my daughter while also combatting two simultaneous threats and were able to trace the magic amidst the chaos". "So it was a test" I adjusted my jacket. "indeed I can't just go marrying off my daughter to any random human". "I told you he was incredible" Xevaltha said as she walked back up smiling from ear to ear. "Indeed" Ulisia said taking her place again. "Now join hands that you might be bound". We faced each other and placed our left hands with palms together and Ulisia wrapped a silver ribbon around our hands in an intricate pattern. "Now, Xevaltha, do you take the human Snow to be your husband bound through all till the day he shall die?" Ulisia asked. Xevaltha answered without hesitating "yes I do". this was the final push I needed to agree to this as I couldn't dream of disappointing her now that she was so committed. so when asked I also responded with yes. at which point the ribbon glowed and ran like water wrapping around our ring fingers before solidifying into bright silver rings. "let it be know from this day forward you are Snow, price of Ardnanthil" Ulisia said and there was a cheer from everyone present.