Tristan ducked into the passage leading to his quarters. Spinning his essence crucible, he activated the amulet around his neck and took on an appearance of a brown-skinned, black-haired, and brown-eyed Human with just a trace of Orc heritage with the accompaniment of small tusks that jutted up from his lower jaw.

Felicity made a disgusted noise, "Bleh. Tusks? So weird."

"It'll help me blend in," Tristan replied. "Most people outside of Bhant have more expression of their non-Human side. The world is full of half-breeds."

She shook her head, "Too true. It got b-o-r-i-n-g when I was in Bhant for two years. Except our chase, that is!" She flew over and landed on his head as he emerged from the compartments and onto the deck of the ship. Crew members gave him an odd look, but the fairy dragon atop his head left no doubt as to who he was, so they just resumed their duties.

The ship was brought into the harbor by the deft hand of Admiral Yokain. He put down the anchor, and the crew began drawing straws for who would take the first turn in the port. Felicity turned invisible, and Tristan clambered down the rope ladder tossed over the ship to join the first lucky crewmates who would be going on shore leave.

He had planned for a week. Five days. He would have to pop out of the Fey Realm each morning to check in with Yokain and Obadai, as they might leave early if their goods sold faster than anticipated. Thankfully, the admiral had contacts who would act as middlemen, selling the goods on his behalf for a sliver of profit – always accompanied by one of the crew. The man assured Tristan that his contacts were men of repute.

Not that Tristan was concerned. He had goals in mind. Step one, set up a routine. I'm not going to sleep. I'll use the essence of the Realm to keep myself awake and alert. Every morning, meditation. Afternoon and midday, I'll spar with The Matriarch. Evening will be inner world training. At night, I study new spells and practice them until I've got all of the Second Order spells memorized that I can get my hands on. Then, as dawn approaches, artificing for the spells that I will want to use repeatedly on a consistent basis.

Felicity patted him on the head, pulling him out of his thoughts as they got to the docks. Tristan hoisted himself up onto the docks via the slimy rigging, wiping his hands off on the pylon and heading into the bustling markets of the city. The entire dock area along with its dozens of warehouses was constructed of wood covered with clay. The sun beat down from above, despite the cooler time of year, making Tristan truly feel that this was a single place of civilization in a desert – the same desert environment he had been told was up past the cliffs.

Tristan brushed his hand against the maul hanging from the loop on his armor's back, activating Lucky Instinct. He also subtly whispered, "Katsokaa kasvojani ja ihastukaa viehätysvoimaani." (Look upon my countenance and find yourself enamored with my charm), activating Persuasive Charm with the spell gesture of holding his index and middle fingers next to his eye.

Obadai split off from the group with Shandra, the two heading towards the massive edifice towering over the city with a gold-capped temple at the peak. Tristan followed them for a short distance, but split off at the market to look for a few items. The first was some type of book seller who might have spell books.

I've got one for dragonbane with grandfather's notebook up to Twentieth Order, ice elementalism up to Third, illusion with no real limit thanks to The Matriarch's knowledge, flora up to Sixth, imbuement up to Third, artifice up to Third as well. Enchantment is the same as illusion, thanks to The Matriarch. I've got water and earth elementalism even though I cannot use those. He made a quick note to himself to look for vials of dragon's blood while he was in the market. Communication, protection, and rejuvenation up to Sixth, and hexes up to Second.

He took mental inventory of his current spell types, cross referencing with the spell books he already had. I am missing fortune, fire, and smoke elementalism. If I can find it, lightning, wind, poison, shadow, light, sound, lava, metal, and any other forms of elementalism I can get my hands on. Future proof a bit. And if I cannot find any spell tomes here, then I am sure the Citadel of Essence in Yustat will have plenty of books that they would part with in exchange for artificer services.

That thought had crossed his mind during the voyage and seemed like a great way to build a good reputation at the school of essence-weaving. Offer his services to prepare objects for stored spells, and then let the essence-weavers there store their desired effects. He could probably trade for knowledge instead of currency as well, building up his own spell book.

Ultimately, it would be very nice to find an Omnitome. An extremely valuable type of book that could "suck up" any other book pressed to the cover, storing the knowledge in a single source. Odds of someone splitting with theirs is slim, though.

He was able to find several books sellers, and unfortunately none of them had spell books. An Omnitome was out of the question as well; the few merchants he did ask about it just shook their heads, with one commenting, "You should go to the Citadel of Essence. They might have one they would part with. But it will cost a fortune!" That same merchant tried to push a travel guide to Klaktol on Tristan, at which point he just turned and left.

Stolen story; please report.

But there was one merchant he had not expected to find. He had heard of them before. A splinter group of Pathfinders, who left the Company to start up their own unique brand of an adventuring guild. Butcher's Bounties was the name they used, and their sign was the image of an overflowing bag of trophies and creature parts. Renowned monster slayers.

Tristan had read about monsters in his grandfather's manuals – the term was generally used to describe species in the Beast category, those originating in The Mortal Realm, that were warped and distorted by any manner. Whether made through essence-weaving, such as Buggorfs like the one he encountered in that Delve, or by sheer happenstance such as being too close to an Incursion or Rift to another Realm opening which could result in horrific combinations like the dreaded chimera – the term "monster" grouped them all together.

Sure, to a skilled eye, they had various subtypes – but Tristan focused mostly on studying dragons, since that was the whole point of his grandfather's bloodline being developed by the man. The reason Tristan walked over to their stall was two-fold. The first, because he saw several prominently displayed vials of liquids. And the second, because he saw another fairy dragon. A plastered fairy dragon, sipping wine and watching the shopkeep.

The fairy dragon was sparkling, invisible to all except Elves and other fairy dragons, and behind the fair dragon, manning the stall, was a half-breed Springthaw Elf. A tall man, taller than Tristan by a few inches at least, with slightly pointed ears and deep, brown eyes. His hair had little traces of green running throughout. He was dressed in a plain jerkin and pants with custom, well-cobbled boots; but there was equipment on a barrel behind him, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice. Studded leather armor, a huge spear that collapsed into different sections, and a short sword.

And when the shopkeep turned to look at Tristan, he had a quizzical look on his face. "I…uhm…do you know you have a…y'know…on your head?" His accent was slightly staggered and jagged. Harsh and grating in a way compared to the eloquence Tristan was familiar with.

"Yes, I know. I see you have one, too."

"But…you aren't…umm…sorry, I shouldn't assume based on appearance."

Felicity flew over to the other fairy dragon and snatched the bottle from him. She hissed out, "Show some respect! The last Winterbloom Elf stands before you!"

The fatter fairy dragon that was just a little smaller than Felicity hiccupped, then looked at Tristan. "He doesn't look like some Winterbloom. Piss off."

Felicity grunted and shook him with her paw-claws gripping his little shoulders. "You haven't been to the Fey Realm in a while, have you?"

"Nope…too busy being here with Perry."

The half-breed elf waved, "That's me. Perry. Good to meet you mister…"

"Just call me Lord Winterbloom," Tristan replied. "And my fairy dragon here is correct; I am the lord of the Fey Realm."

Perry blinked a few times, "I don't know where that is."

Felicity went back to shaking the fatter fairy dragon, "You didn't even tell him about his ancestral homeland?!"

"'Course not. Don't want some uppity Elves going to our home after we kicked them out."

Odd, Tristan thought, The Matriarch said that Elves left the Realm because they were draining it dry of essence. That mural showed as much…this fat dragon could be lying…but fairy dragons are tricky, so maybe The Matriarch didn't tell the truth? He didn't feel good, not knowing the truth, but ultimately it did not change the present. Tristan cleared his throat, "Felicity, dimensional storage please."

Felicity grumbled something under her breath and flew over to Tristan's head. "In your pocket like usual."

Tristan looked at each vial of liquid, "I am looking for dragon blood. Any of that?"

Perry nodded, "Our local branch just hunted down an earth dragon. A big one."

"Wyrm?" Tristan asked, feeling excited at the prospect of drinking the strongest type of blood possible for the Elemental Realm classification.

"No. Adult."

"Tsk. Fine. I'll take it. What else do you have that you harvested from it?"

"The scales, some bones…are you just interested in dragon parts? I've got plenty of other monster parts."

Tristan nodded, "Run down your list."

Perry spent the next several minutes going over the list of different harvested materials. He had all sorts of interesting items, and by the end Tristan had settled on just the dragon parts. The vial of blood, the scales, the bones, teeth, and claws. "That comes to seven-hundred-fifty gold, two-hundred electrum, three-hundred silver, and twenty copper."

Tristan nodded and began to reach into his pocket, but Felicity leaned down and whispered in his ear, "You should test out your command over other Elves thing. See if it works."

"I don't want him getting in trouble," Tristan muttered. "But…I'll try something innocuous." He raised his voice as he began pulling out the money from his pocket and Felicity's extradimensional storage space inside said pocket. As he set the coins down on the counter, he looked at Perry. "Jump."

Perry looked at him quizzically for a moment before he did a little hop. "Weird request, but okay."

"Tell me your deepest secret."

Again, a quizzical look, but then Perry replied, "I'm madly in love with my branch's leader. She has the most amazing smile." He frowned and looked at Tristan, "Not sure why I told you that when you asked. Don't tell anyone."

Seems like that scroll was right. But my orders didn't really work on Shandra…so maybe it only works if they have a neutral or positive opinion of me? Tristan kept counting out the coins and once the man had verified the coins, he grabbed several burlap sacks and began filling them up. Tristan snagged the vial of blood and put it into his pocket, into Felicity's storage space.

He took the sacks and nodded to Perry, "Good luck to you."

"And you," the man replied.

Felicity looked back at the fat, merrily drunk fairy dragon, blew a raspberry at him, and then turned back to face the front.

Tristan headed toward the outskirts of town. The marketplace ended, and there was still some smoothed stone leading towards the exterior cliffs that were the homes and residences of the people who lived in Plinth; carved into the edifices. Following that cliff, he made his way along the edge of the rocky coast and found a nice, sheltered alcove.

Going over to it, he activated his Fey Realm Ring that he had been pouring essence into the whole time, and he transported to his ancestral homeland.

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