Elthorn’s Arrival

  A large tare as tall as a streetlamp appeared on the dock. The familiar small blue imp walked through followed by a massive elf, if Mark had to guess he was at least three or four feet wide and easily eight feet tall. A large black pommel was attached to a red hilt sticking out from behind his massive left shoulder. He was dressed in ornate black and white heavy plate armor; Mark guessed the armor was painted until the armor shined oddly from the sun high above them. Mark watched the tea close behind the two arrivals and Elthorn locked eyes with him, in a blink Elthorn was a foot away from him.

  Elthorn looked Mark up and down, pointing at Mark, “Who is this, Alex? I could sense my bloodline before I got here and he looks a little like Silva.”

  Alexander walked up to the three of them and said, “Thank you, Anturil, for bringing Mr. Silk.” With a bow, Anturil disappeared. And thank you, Elthorn, for agreeing to come.”

  Elthorn grunted, “I thought it was odd that you sent your familiar to me instead of you coming yourself, so I thought there was going to be a fight.”

  “Ah, I see, that is why you are wearing your armor and weapon, it wasn't my intention to mislead you. As you can see, we have a new resident of the nexus that shares your bloodline, this is Mark Silk” He gestured towards Mark.

  Mar hesitantly held up a shaky hand in attempt to break the ice. “It is nice to meet you sir.

  Elthorn’s right brow raised slightly, he shook Marks hand. “Can you explain all this to me Alex.”

  Alexander flipped a coin to Elthorn, he caught it and turned it over. “This is Silva’s revival token, but it was modified with her blood.” He looked at Mark, and softly asked “How did you come in possession of this token?”

  Mark looked back into Elthorn’s watery eyes; he cleared his throat a little before speaking. Mark retold his story, Elthorn listened very intently, only interrupting a couple times to ask questions. Mark got to the end and Elthorn spoke.

  “I am not going to lie and tell you I am not pissed that she gave her token to you, but I understand and even agree with my daughter’s choice as it was her choice. It is clear that she loves you like a son and also wanted to repay your parents’ memory by giving you a new life. I am happy to hear that she is alive, and that pesky owl is still with her, speaking of Nova,” he looked to Alexander. “Alex, do you know how Silva’s two bonded summons are still with her? I thought they would have had to return to their plane after being in the void for so long and even more odd is that they can lend myst to her to alter the token.”

  “Yeah, I was thinking on that and the only conclusion I can come up with is that Silva’s bonded summons while being severely hampered by the void would still have access to a limited amount of myst from their own realm.”

  Mark looked at the two of them while they talked, not sure what to say. He wanted to apologize for using the token, he accepted this new life without really thinking about what this meant for Silva. When he was fifteen Silva told him about the truth about where she came from and how she ended up on earth. They talked a little about her family, though she never went into much detail about them. She did tell him that they were elves, but she never mentioned they were Primordial elves. It was hard to believe all the amazing things that she told him about, meeting her two bonded summons was eye opening and he immediately wanted to know more. She told him about some of her adventures with a couple of her close friends and going on a memorable trip with her dad to a world where almost the entire world was a massive city full of the best auction houses, theaters, shopping centers and also home to the most famous restaurant in the nexus the Oak-N-Hive. The most shocking but amazing thing she told him was that when he turned eighteen and finished school he would, if he wanted, be able to go to the Nexus. She warned up him thought that the token he would have to use would in fact kill him and he would be reborn in the nexus, and she was uncertain if he would ever see her or even be able to come back to earth again. It was indeed a lot to take in but by the time he finished school and after he visited the many different places, he wanted to visit on earth he decided to take Silva’s offer and use the token. He was excited to start his new life and go on quests and get stronger, but now after the realization that Silva might be trapped on earth because of his decision he had a knot of worry and doubt forming in his stomach. Mark looked up after noticing he didn't hear Alexander and Elthorn talking, both of them were staring at him.

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  Alexander spoke, “are you okay Mark? Elthorn tried to ask you a question.”

  Mark rubbed the back of his head, and looked to Elthorn, his nerves with everything going on making him anxious. “I, I apologize Elthorn, I was a bit lost in my own thoughts. Please go ahead and ask again.” Mark watched in puzzlement as Elthorn’s face went from frowning, to about to say something, to his booming laughter.

  Elthorn cleared his eyes with his massive hands, “Boy, I had my doubts even with all the proof before me, but that look on your face when you blanked out, for almost a solid two minutes reminded me of Silva. She used to do that same thing, get lost in her own head for hours and she had that same look, at that moment I could see a lot of similarities of her in your face. I miss her very much and any details you can give me would help in finding her and Alexander said you had a message for me.”

  “Yeah, sir I’d…”

  “Boy, stop with the sir, you are my daughter’s son regardless of how you came to be so, and I am your grandfather. As odd as that does sound, me a grandfather.” He laughed lightly at that. “My kids never seemed too interested in slowing down, especially Silva. While I am not going to ask you to call me Grandpa or even refer to me as such, but I would ask you to at least, please call me Elthorn until we get to know each other.”

  Mark nodded, “Yeah I can do that.” He never thought that they knew his actual family by blood, while it was very odd to refer to this man he barely knew as his grandfather, but in Silva’s case she raised him and while she never asked him to call her mom after some rough early teen years he grew to think of her as his mom. He was very young when his parents died and while he knew it wasn’t her fault that his parents died and when learning the truth he would be lying if he didn't at one point blame her and often lashed out at her for it, but that was a long time ago and he let that pain go. He let it go with her help, she was always there for him, and even though he wasn't her son, she never made him feel that way. He looked down at the wood planks to hide his watery eyes, clenched his hand into a fist, and swore that he would figure out a way to bring her back.

  “Great, now what was the message from my daughter?”

  “She said to tell you that she loved you and that she made a mistake when she was being followed, she said that she used nova’s skill, and they were not able to get any info and that was when she began to worry.”

  “That would make them at least B Grade.” said Elthorn. He paused for a second thinking, then continued, “Nova is an Echo Fae Owl, and the strongest summon Silva has, he is an incredibly old and powerful owl at B Grade, and it would take someone at least peak B to avoid his identify skill. That is indeed disturbing information, are family as you will soon see has plenty of friendly competition and even more enemies but to act directly against my daughter would be an attack against the head of the sect and risk having me show up to deal with them in person. I honestly can’t think of anyone who would risk that, like I said we have enemies and duels and sect battles to move up in power is common and encouraged but there are rules to these power plays. Breaking them is an act of full out war and the rule stopping A Grade cultivator to join these battles is nullified.” He nodded to Mark to continue.

  Mark just stared at Elthorn, there was a lot of information in what he said, and he needed a moment to organize his thoughts. He figured Elthorn was powerful and important by knowing Alexander and Nexus elder and Elthorn confirmed that by saying his family is the head of a sect. If Elthorn is at A Grade which if what Alexander said was right, and he had no reason to doubt him, that would put him up at the pinnacle of cultivators. Who would risk angering Elthorn by attacking his daughter? The other thing that he was having trouble grasping about was how did Silva a C Grade could have control over Nova her B grade bonded summon. He decided that these questions could wait for now and he continued to tell him the rest of Silva's message. “She said that she thought she could lose her followers by entering a C Grade world veil and that was when she ended up being teleport to earth in the void.”

  “I appreciate you giving me her message Mark, I am glad she is still alive and doing well. I will be going over our options to bring Silva home.