Invitation

"Why do we have to go through the gate this way?"

"Because you look weird to everyone and you're part of an extinct race so people will notice you if you don't wear this. We've been over this already when you decided to take that form!"

"But you never mentioned that I would be wearing this."

Tomakin and Aella stood outside the walls of the city, and their attention was on a rather hideous mask. It resembled that of a demon, great fangs poking from the lolling mouth, with red eyes and brown skin. No one would wear such a thing whilst attempting to enter a city. Perhaps if there had been more time, a better disguise could have been procured, but options had been few, hence the mask.

There were certain clans of Beast kin who possessed horns and tails but Tomakin didn't resemble any of them. The closest that would match his description would be a Drakonid, but his face had no snout or scales save for on his jawline. Most of the public would be unaware of the physical traits of Dragonoids, but few would fail to recognize that he was of a race never seen before in the past century. The mask would have hidden the horns and scales, and the tail would have been easily hidden under his robes. But the mask made things far too suspicious, even if the horns and tail were hidden.

Tomakin grasped the skull on his shoulder and lifted it to his face. As it got closer, the skull shrank and smoothened as it became an ivory mask in the shape of a wolf with the fangs and eyes of a dragon. It inspired fear in those who beheld it whilst drawing them closer in fascination. The visage was gentle yet promised great harm if angered. It fastened onto his face and molded with his head so as to appear one with his horns. His robes turned a shining silver with bars and swirling patterns of black. After a quick spin, he wagged his tail and said, "The tail can stay since this looks much less frightening than your kabuki mask."

Nearly an hour later…

"Name?"

"Tomakin Wayfinder."

"Place of birth?"

"You call it Heaven or perhaps Purgatory would be closer."

"Stop playing games with me, boy."

"Fine then, Lrecrestis."

"Reason for visiting Polis?"

"My tour guide says this city has good 'seafood'."

"Race?"

"Dragonoid "

The guard glared at Tomakin from across the counter. He said, "You can't be a Dragonoid, they went extinct centuries ago! Either quit making jokes or you can forget entering the city." Tomakin glared back at him and retorted, "I can and I am." The guard looked dumbstruck for a moment, but then a bird made of steel flew in through the window and dropped a letter in his lap. The guard reluctantly picked up the letter and tore open the seal. As he read, his face grew pale and he suddenly bowed to Tomakin in a sign of apology. "Please forgive me for my attitude! I did not know that you were someone held in high regard by Lord Cedar! I beg of you! Please forgive me!" It was another thirty minutes before Aella managed to calm down the guard long enough to allow them into the city.

Presently, the two made their way down the center of the city's largest road while Aella gave a short history lesson. As befitting of the Elves' last line of defense, Polis was a fortress city. It was built with a war in mind, enormous walls and sloping streets to give defenders a constant high ground. The city was built by the progenitor and leader of the Elves, The Monarch, as a means to keep the Human nation from accessing Pikes Harbor and its convenient path to the Hadaras Ocean. As befitting of a nation built between water and the forest, Polis enjoyed a favorable relationship with both water and forest spirits, so as a result the Elves were naturally gifted with communing with spirits and more attuned with the manipulation of natural mana than any other race.

Tomakin watched as carriages and people of all races made their way past, and he shuddered as he considered how far mortals had come since the day of their creation. They lived and proliferated at unprecedented rates in the squalor of their realms, but they still continued to climb higher and higher. Suddenly, he found a small, fried aquatic creature impaled on a skewer presented before him. The mortal waved it back and forth teasingly as she watched his eyes follow it. Eventually, she began waving it over his head in an effort to get a rise out of him, that would have certainly gotten a reaction out of most gods, but not this one! He quickly reached up to grab the offending treat, only to find that his mortal form possessed a rather pitiful arm length, and his attempt was humiliatingly easy to avoid by the mortal lifting it only a little higher. Curse these short limbs! If there weren't so many other mortals around, he would have simply extended them, but apparently most mortals didn't have the ability to do so since he'd never seen anyone do it.

This little game continued until Tomakin swung his staff up and used the crook to grab her hand. Pulling it down to a comfortable level, he took the skewer and released the hand. He raised to eye level and inspected it. After a quick once-over, he took a bite, surprised at the nostalgic taste of salted flesh.

"Do you really like it that much?"

"What are you talking about? I'm merely inspecting this new means of satisfying my hunger."

"Then why is it already gone if you were merely inspecting it?"

Eh? Was it? The fried creature was indeed now more than half gone, its flesh even now disappearing through his teeth. He explained, "It has been some thousand millennials since I have had something to consume with my teeth. The last such morsel would probably have been the War God Yulis and his armies." Aella froze at the mention of the name but she purchased another skewer and passed it to him. Suddenly, she gasped and doubled over as her emerald eye glowed and blazed. She said, "I-I see lines! There are lines coming from everyone!"

Tomakin explained as he tore into the stomach of a small sea bass, "What you see are the paths of destiny. These paths are the means by which gods such as I guide travelers such as you to your greatest destination in order to fulfill some great mission. You would call it kismet of some heavenly life planning. The only reason you can see them is that you possess one of my eyes. If read correctly, these paths can and will ordain the paths of everything. They present limitless possibilities to magicians such as you who can only manipulate the life force of your own realm." Suddenly, he turned to look over his shoulder and the crowd shuddered under his gaze, "The young thing hiding in the crowd behind us. Either come out or be dragged out."

For a brief moment, there were no unusual movements from the crowd, but a young man laughed as he strolled out from the rest. He was a lean, young man in his twenties, dressed in a fine black cloak edged with gold and a handsome suit. Blue eyes, golden hair, and a handsome face made him the picture of the perfect nobleman. Tomakin met his cheery grin calmly and watched him approach. The nobleman said, "Well, well this is a surprise. There isn't a person or creature in this city or forest aside from the Forest Guardians who can pierce my camouflaging spells so easily. I spotted some interesting new visitors so I decided to investigate a little. Ah, excuse my rudeness. I have yet to introduce myself. I am Etzanda Orm of the Merchant house of Diell. Pleased to make your acquaintance, venerable member of the Dragonoid race." At the introduction, the young man made a quick, cheeky bow with a grin on his face. Tomakin stared up at him and considered him for a moment before replying, "As I am pleased to make yours, young elf. Surely such an esteemed member of this city would not trouble yourself to greet two travelers? You must obviously have known that we would come here and were waiting for us by the gate. Lord Cedar's favour is truly a formidable weapon in this war."

Etzanda grinned, "The fabled wisdom of the Dragonoids does not fail to impress! Indeed, I am here to invite the two of you to a ball hosted by my father, The Lord Diell. He desires to have the opportunity to once again meet a member of the Dragonoids after all these centuries. I hope you will find the time to attend."

———————

The house of Diell was the richest of the merchant houses with roots stretching back to the very dawn of the elf kind, and the past heads of the house had done their utmost to refine and improve the beauty of the estate. It had been built into the middle of ten enormous trees with the walls linking and connecting seamlessly with the living pillars. Hundreds of species of birds flocked in the tree tops and their singing constantly filled the air. Elegant gardens swirled around the house in a circular pattern, and several servant golems moved silently through the leaves as they tended to every plant's needs. But all of this seemed meaningless to Etzanda as he made his way into the house and past the main hall.

Servant golems were carefully adjusting a shield bearing the family crest under the direction of one of the butlers, so he stopped to watch and cool off a bit. The crest was that of a god with two faces with a gold coin in one hand and a snake eating its own tail in the other. Janus they called him, a god from another world, and it was said that the founder has taken a liking to the god's strange image. One face for the future and honesty and the other for the past and deceit.

Etzanda nearly strolled into his father's chamber, but he stopped short at the door and yelled, "Father! I have delivered the message!" Lord Diell, a tall, massively built man, looked up from his paper work with a frown. In his youth, Lord Diell had been a soldier first and a merchant second, and his sturdy frame and handsome, albeit scarred, face. As father and son, they resembled each other save for the scars and their builds. He yelled back, "I can hear you perfectly fine from over here! You don't need to yell! Did those two accept the invitation?" Etzanda frowned, "They both did. The woman was easy enough to read, they obviously haven't been traveling long enough. But it was the Dragonoid who puzzles me. He didn't show anything that I could use. No real reactions and all I got was acting. His companion is going to walk around the town. She's nothing special but I can tell she's hiding something. I can sense something circling that one but it's faint, almost barely there" Lord Diell nodded in satisfaction "Not much to work on but you did your best. We need to ascertain what faction he belongs to because he could potentially ruin everything I have done so far." Etzanda looked at him questioningly but Lord Diell merely continued speaking, "We need to watch for the rat in the slums. That one is getting too big for his boots. Make sure he does not interfere."