Last Lord of the Fey (Progression Fantasy)

B3 - Chapter 23: Getting along


Tristan rode Onyx back to the Queen's Wood. Oddly enough, his shoulders changed slightly, and he did not need a saddle as the perch was quite comfortable. And, it turned out, the slightly longer, thicker and more unkempt mane was because it provided more grip without harming them. After the swift return, Tristan headed over to the market area to find Felicity hard at work along with some other fairy dragons brewing up a storm.

"Oh, you're back!" she said as he walked over with Onyx right behind. "Pretty black unicorn."

"Thanks," Onyx replied.

"Never seen one before but I heard them described. I was always told they were white," Felicity added as she got up from the bench and handed a stirring spoon to another fairy dragon who was lazing next to her. "Your turn."

The other fairy dragon groaned and grabbed the spoon, stirring the mix. Onyx whinnied in an approximation of a laugh. "You've been traveling with me and my mare. Midnight, you remember."

Felicity looked between Onyx and Tristan, "Huh…did you change him?"

Tristan nodded, feeling quite proud of manifesting such changes to a living creature in the Realm, "Yes. He's now a unicorn." Tristan turned back to Onyx, "Go and ask for two more from the herd who are willing to travel in other Realms."

Onyx dipped his head and trotted away as Tristan walked to Felicity and gave her fur a small brush with his fingers, "How's the potion coming along?"

"Big batch, almost ready!" she replied with a smile. "Didn't you need to make more healing and essence elixirs, too?"

"I did," Tristan replied as he saw Bertram and Rory walking over. "Hey, you two. It'll be about an hour for me to get those elixirs. And I've got us some mounts."

Rory walked behind the bench and looked down at Felicity, "You're smaller," she stated.

Felicity grew in size, her body expanding until she had the bulk of a medium sized dog. "I can be bigger! It's just easier to work with herbs when you don't have big hands." She blew a raspberry at the woman before shrinking down and flying over to perch on Tristan's head, making her little paw-claw biscuits.

Bertram sighed and sat on a bench. "Those Nymphs…wow…they are wild, and drain your stamina."

Tristan chuckled as he walked over to the herb bushes for the healing and essence elixirs, casting Perfect Harvest to ensure that he was getting the optimal yield of each substance. "Do tell," Tristan called back to his brother as he collected up the herbs.

"Well," Bertram replied as Rory went over and sat on the bench next to him, "First we got taken to a hot spring with all of these gorgeous women. Massages, all over the body." He chuckled and wrapped an arm around Rory's shoulder. "Then we had some fun. You don't like talking about that stuff…given the way that lost conversation went. So suffice to say, we had a good time."

Rory added, "It was tiring but worth it. Definitely a treat for every once in a while."

Tristan got his haul of herbs and went to the work bench, beginning to prepare the mixtures, condensing down, and refining just as his grandfather had taught him. To his slight surprise, he heard Bertram walk up and snag a spare mortal and pestle and began grinding away at the herbs too. "Hand me that oil," he muttered.

Tristan smiled and slid the small tray of oil-filled berries over, "Here you go."

"That's not oil," Bertram replied.

Tristan grabbed one and popped it into his mortar, grinding it down as the substance mixed with the herbs. "I made the oil berry bushes."

"Huh," Bertram grabbed a few and popped them into the mortar and kept grinding away.

"I remember you used to just zone out during grandfather's potion lessons."

Bertram shrugged, "I was listening, just not watching. It's not hard to grind stuff to a paste. And I just had to learn what each herb looked like, the proportions-" he glanced sideways as Tristan added more hensbane, "-too much there."

"I can make supreme quality elixirs," Tristan replied.

"No shit? Like the stuff that can heal you from the brink?"

Tristan nodded, "Mhmm." He glanced up as Felicity's tail dropped down in front of his face. "Felicity, you mind?"

"Hän tuijottaa minua. En usko, että hän pitää minusta." (She is staring at me. I don't think she likes me). She replied.

Tristan sighed, "En olettaisi niin. Tuskin tunnemme häntä." (I wouldn't assume that. We barely know her).

"She talking shit about me?" Rory asked.

Tristan turned back to look at the Drakonid woman, and shook his head. "No. Nothing like that. She just thinks you don't like her."

"Tristan!" Felicity slapped her tail against his face, leaving a slight welt. "You're not supposed to tell her that I said that!"

Rory chuckled, "I'm just curious, is all. You're not a person in the normal sense."

Felicity grit her teeth and muttered, "I'm more of a woman than you are."

"What was that?" Rory asked.

"Nothing!" Felicity replied. She flapped off Tristan's head and shapeshifted into her Elfanoid form, and grew her feminine features to rival those of Rory. "See? I can be just as n-o-r-m-a-l of a person as you!"

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Rory chuckled, "You're a funny thing."

Tristan tried to push the woman's conversation out of his head and focused on finishing up his preparations of the elixirs. He made a few brief comments to Bertram about mixing for the higher potency varieties.

"Lord Tristan, it's ready," the fairy dragon stirring the truth elixir stated.

Tristan walked over and cast Infuse Elixir, converting the substance with a silvery glow. "Bottle that up and take it to Dorothy."

The fairy dragon saluted and began scooping doses with a ladle and placing them into small, clay containers that another fairy dragon tied off with a broad, flat leaf and some twine.

Bertram sighed, "I'd love to have my own group of servants like that."

Tristan shrugged, "They serve the Fey Realm. Not just me." He looked at his brother, "You should consider staying longer term."

"Nothing to fight in here," Bertram replied. "If grandfather is staying here – which he should, the man's as old as dirt – then Rory and I can stay at the Citadel, and visit whenever we want."

"Fair enough," Tristan replied.

"How long do you plan on sticking around there?" Bertram asked as he transferred the slurry to one of the pots on the stove.

"Not sure," Tristan replied. "I've got a ton of spell types in my Omnitome. Ideally, I want to fill the book up with spell books for every spell type, since theoretically, you and I have endless capacity to gain new ones."

"From dragons," Bertram clarified.

"From dragons," Tristan confirmed as he took his slurry, added it to Bertram's and began stirring the pot. "Grab the poppy and some of that blue jelly – it's called clearcool – and combine it."

Bertram did as he was instructed, grinding the jelly and the poppy seeds into a mush. "I haven't found a ton of dragons outside of the Elemental Realms. The exception is the Wild Realm, which is…weird. You could find any type of dragon there. But they aren't native is the thing. They mutated and became aberrations."

"Can we still drink their blood and consume their crucible?" Tristan asked.

"Oh yeah," Bertram replied with a chuckle. "But it's not always elementalism types. I've got a type called hexes. Never bothered learning any of those spells because cursing people is only good for scheming – and I'm not a schemer." He looked to Tristan out of the corner of his eye, "To be honest, I'm not one for essence-weaving really. I know a few spells – the dragonbane ones, of course…but I never had a good brain for memorization."

Tristan rapped a knuckle on his armored chest, "I have good memory, but I have more spells artificed into items now."

"Yeah, I saw that," Bertram muttered. "What's the odds on you getting some of that stuff for me and Rory?"

"I can have my smiths measure you both up and make armor that is similar to mine. Can Rory use spells?" Tristan asked.

"No. She's good with what she has." He looked back over his shoulder, "Isn't that right?"

Rory was sitting next to Felicity, and the two were in deep, hushed conversation. Rory spoke up louder as she replied, "Oh yeah. My gear is good. Ancestral arms and armor."

Tristan looked over toward one of the gnomes who was working at polishing some jewelry to be placed on a shelf for display. "Mind asking Dorni and some of the smiths to come over and measure up my brother?"

The gnome nodded and set the jewelry down before waddling off.

Tristan looked to Bertram, "I'll finish up the elixirs. Why don't you go with him and get your measurements?"

Bertram clapped him on the back, "Thanks, Tristan." He followed after the waddling gnome.

Rory stood up and walked next to Tristan, looking down at the potion supplies. "I never learned this stuff," she stated. "But it would be good to learn. A bit."

"I can teach you the basics," Tristan stated as he began showing her how to properly prepare the potions. Felicity walked over and watched as well, and Tristan was able to get the full process finished. The resulting product was then turned into elixirs. "Five supreme healing elixirs, and five of the essence variety."

"Interesting," Rory said. "I would like one of each for Bertram, I'll take a healing elixir, and then Felicity should hold the rest since she can keep them safe in her little storage dimension."

"Yup!" Felicity said with pride as she opened up the aforementioned pocket plane and placed the leftovers in it.

I've got the three of each type on my bandolier still, Tristan thought. And Felicity isn't going to be up front fighting things with us, so having her invisible and able to feed us potions is as close to a support essence-weaver as we can get.

Bertram came back and Rory shoved the two elixirs to him, "There you go. One of each."

"Aww, you treat me the best," he said as he leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek. He then turned to face Tristan, "Are we heading out then?"

"Yup!" Felicity replied. She shifted to her fairy dragon form and perched atop Tristan's head. "Let's get going!"

Tristan left the market area with the two in tow, and spotted Onyx along with two white Unicorns standing in the dirt circle, waiting to depart. "Everyone get together," Tristan said as he activated his ring and teleported the whole group back to the Citadel. As soon as they arrived, he glanced up at Felicity, "Go get Eloise please."

She popped out of existence, and a few moments later came back flapping next to the Demonkin whose red eyes pierced Tristan's soul with their gaze. "You have…Unicorns?!" she said the last with excitement that was barely constrained.

"Yes," Onyx replied. "We are real."

Eloise dropped all pretenses of being a studious, curt instructor and reverted into a childish horse girl as she came over, "Can I pet your mane? Touch your horn? Can you give me a ride? I heard that Unicorns are the fastest terrestrial equine!"

"I don't mind," Onyx replied. "If Lord Tristan allows."

"Well, Eloise, I actually needed you to help transport all of us – Unicorns included – to the inter-Realm market. We were going to head to the Wild Realm and try to hunt down some of these weird dragons." And, just to make sure I'm safe. He spun his essence crucible and poured the power into the Anorox Family Crest dangling from his neck, activating Disguise Form as he took on his Bhant Human appearance.

"Yeah, sure. As long as I get to go on a Unicorn ride!" She tapped her staff and in the blink of an eye the group was on one of the platforms leading to the market. "We'll just do a few laps around the market, okay?" She said excitedly.

Tristan cupped his hands and helped her up onto Onyx. He leaned in and whispered, "Make sure she has fun."

"You got it," Onyx replied as he jumped off the platform and began galloping around the exterior of the market, and the inside portions of the island-continent fully contained within the Citadel's enormous walls.

Bertram chuckled, "Horse girls," he said. "Remember when Gisele was like that?"

"Oh yeah," Tristan replied with a chuckle as he remembered when she spent every possible moment in the stables, brushing her pony's mane and neglecting her sword practice. "Too bad she grew up to be a bitch."

"True," Bertram replied. "Come on, let's go to the Wild Realm rift." He led the way through the market, to the rifts at the farthest end of the market where Onyx re-joined them and a thoroughly exhausted but excited Eloise dismounted.

"What a rush!" She turned and bowed to Onyx, "Thanks. That was…well, a privilege I never thought I'd experience."

Onyx barely seemed winded and he just dipped his head, "Happy to do it."

Eloise turned back to Tristan, "Now…Wild Realm? Mutated, aberration dragons?" He nodded, and she rolled her eyes, "Well, I hope you don't get yourself killed."

"I won't," Tristan replied. He walked over to Onyx and mounted up. Felicity flapped to sit just in front of him, and Bertram and Rory mounted their white Unicorns. "We'll be gone for a while. I'm sure you have a means to contact me if you need to."

"Yes," Eloise replied. "And someone who can come fetch you in a pinch. Good luck hunting your dragons."

Tristan nudged Onyx, and the Unicorn took him through the portal.

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