The purple hue of dusk fell across the Iyr, bing the Iyr with a ess from the dawnval sun. The Iyr’s festival tinued, with the families enjoying the food of those who had chosen to cook, having cooked not just for their own shared family estate, but for hundreds of Iyrmen. The Iyrmen fought, the Iyrmen loved, the Iyrmen rexed.

  The one armed, one legged Iyrman sat in the er of his estate, speaking with some of the older Iyrmen. He hadn’t spoken to them in some time and the festival erfect time to catch up, for though the Iyr made no seo most of the world in many regards, in this regard they were perfectly normal, or so one might have thought.

  “I should have sin Korbyn,” one older Iyrman said, letting out a soft sigh.

  “You would have sin him if he had not run.”

  “If you ment on sying Korbyn, should I ment on sying Skulldrinker?”

  However, the group were soon stopped by the only beings who could dare to intrude in the versation of suonsters.

  “Babo,” Konarot called, her tail dragging behind her, her leaf shaped ears falling.

  “My Konarot,” the old Jarot called out, reag out a hand for the girl to take, hoisting her up onto his p. “What causes your lips to turn like the moon?”

  “I ot,” the girl said, pointing to the bird.

  “You ot?”

  “Bird is not talking, only teeting.”

  “Birds tweet,” Jarot firmed.

  “Is not talking?”

  Jarot groaned quietly, unsure of how to expin it to Konarot. “You are special, my Konarot. Now you ot speak to the bird, but iure, you try again.”

  Konarot pouted, bowing her head lightly, before Jarot lifted her head up so he could kiss her forehead. Kirot and Karot waited beside their greatfather, waiting for his affe. The old man showered each of the triplets in his affe, grinning wildly towards his panions.

  “It seems the Iyr has ged since I have been goarukan said, sipping the peach wihe Rot family adored.

  “You should have sin more for yreatniece,” Jarot stated, ruffling the girl’s hair.

  “…” Tarukan sipped his peach wine agaihought of his family’s words upoter of the six children, whose retionship was so firm with the Rot family, a so vague with the rest of the Iyr. The triplets, with their long silver hair which matched their eyes and their scales, with their tiny nubs which made up their horns, led against their greatfather, Mad Dog, the Mad Dog. “You are right.”

  “Will they grow up in the way of the Iyr?” Yizys asked, the older woman sipping her peach wine slowly, her eyes cautiously taking in the gaze of the Mad Dog.

  “They will grow up well within the Iyr,” Jarot replied, ruffling the children’s hair, before they spotted their grandmother and quickly rushed towards her. “Only my greatchildren dare to turn their backs to me so easily!”

  Yizys remained silent, feeling the awkward gres of the Mad Dog and Steel Strike, as well as the ure, who remained silent. Upon his forehead articur tattoo, that of the Kan family, except the colours were ied.

  “Should I speak with my cousin?” Shagek, Silver Sword of the Wastes, asked. Just like Yizys and Tarukan, he had returned retly, and though he was not as close as Taruka came to the children, he was closer than Yizys.

  “ I stop you from speaking with the Family Elder?” Jarot asked. There was another question he wao ask the three Iyrmen, but even he wasn’t wild enough to ask them why three great figures had returned simultaneously back to the Iyr. It could have been ce, but they hadn’t been the only three who had returned.

  In the same way the trio had more questions for Jarot, they each decided against speaking of the questions, for the only thing worse than an answer one didn’t want to hear was a vague answer, one which they did not wish to test.

  Shagek’s eyes fell to the twins. Though the half dragons held a special retionship in the Iyr, it was the twins which had worried him, even more so than the demon. For though he had only known these children for what was sidered a moment in his life, if the Mad Dog said they were his greatchildren, Shagek took that to mean they were his family too.

  “Hoi hoi hoi,” Jirot said, rubbiomach as she y beside her grandmother. “I eated so much!”

  “Did you enjoy your potatoes?”

  “Yes,” Jirot replied, uo deny her love for potatoes, daring not to even joke about such, all the while she nursed her stomach. “Nano spinkle soht and is so yummy.”

  Little Jarot tio slowly nibble on his potato, having en as much as his elder sister, but enough for him to feel like he’d regret another whole potato. He offered part of his potato to his sister, who hoisted herself with some difficulty, before brushing his hair, bringing the potato to his lips.

  “You must eat, smelly boy, and grow up big and strong.”

  “Yes,” the boy replied, flushing slightly as he began his skirmish with the potato, before the potato finally disappeared, soon to be gained as soils of war.

  ‘Are they goblins or are they Iyrmen?’ Shagek thought, an answer he didn’t want to firm the ao.

  While the children caused little trouble within the Iyr, it was many miles away that the calm before the storm approached the dining hall of the Princess.

  The walls of the hall reached up towards the heavens, the domed ceiling full of thousands upon thousands of tiny tiles which made up a pattern of hundreds of different colours, though to the eyes of the mermen, they formed thousands. The white marble bouhe light of the floating orbs into every crevice, and the warmth emanating from the floating orbs filled the entire room. Servants remaio one side, though some escorted the group towards their seats.

  Adam he statues made of some kind of metal within the room, each with waves of colour within from the metal itself. ‘What kind of materials do they have?’

  “Western faro oak,” Jurot said, eyeing up the rge wooden tables within the hall, while the main dining table, lohan any other, was a slightly different wood. Western faro oak was full of small little specks of white, while the eastern faro oak of the main dining table was adorned with tiny specks of bck. “Eastern faro oak…”

  “You’re such a wood nerd,” Adam said, elbowing his brently. “You could at least figure out what the metal is while you’re at it.”

  “It’s some kind of coral steel, but the armour has beeed in a specific way using fmes and magic,” Jaygak said, her eyes taking in the sight of the armour. “They are magical statues.”

  “Magical statues? It’s not like we’re armed…” Adam gowards Morkarai, who had taken his full height, roughly three times as tall as the half elf, and dozens of times heavier. ‘I didn’t realise you were so scary, Prince.’

  At the entrance, several guards waited, each adorned ipte of scales, watg the figures as they took their pce at the tables, with the Priaking his seat two pces down from the head of the table, while the others were led to a nearby table, which was already full of light snacks.

  Luhaled deeply, but she couldn’t show too munoya being shirked. ‘What am I going to do? Demand they show me respect since I’m a Demon Lord?’

  Mara held her annoyan too, not liking the way her liege was being ignored like this, but her eyes so her four panions who had e with them.

  “These clothes are pretty nice, aren’t they?” Adam asked, rubbing along the soft silk of his attire, a shiny e. “Not a fan e, would have preferred blue or pink, but they only brought a blue and e.”

  “Why didn’t you pick blue?” Lucy asked.

  “I ’t go around in blue when my wife’s in e,” Adam replied proudly. “If I ’t do this muy wife, I even be a husband?”

  “You repced being ge as a father with being ge as a husband.”

  “Have I repced it?”

  “You’re right,” Lucy replied, rubbing the side of her head gently, almost rubbing against her rge horns. “Just because you know you’re ge, it doesn’t make it aer.”

  “I won’t be that ge in front of the Princess…” Adam felt the gazes of all of his panions upon him. “What?”

  “Why?” Jaygak asked.

  “I ’t show up Prince Morkarai in front of his betrothed, now I?”

  “Is this the wisdom of a married man?” Jaygak joked. “Shouldn’t you behave for your wife too?”

  Adam flushed slightly. “Do you think I think clearly when I’m o my wife? Isn’t it her fault for being so pretty that I want to show off? It’s not my fault that I show off like an idiot.”

  “Of course, it’s your wife’s fault.”

  “What are you saying, obviously it’s my fault, Jaygak,” Adam stated, inhaling a sharp breath, threatenio say otherwise.

  Jaygak smirked, reag out to the food, taking a bite of the local cuisine. She ignored Kitool’s look, uanding the food was a trap to make them look like savages, but what did she care of some uer people thinking she was a savage?

  “Ha!” called a voice from the entrance, with the rge half dragon noting the appearance of the fire giant in his full height. She shifted her height with every step, until she was also about three Adam’s tall, except a hair’s breadth taller, before she dropped down opposite the Prince, ign the gazes of all the guards. “Yes?”

  “Nothing,” Morkarai replied, certain she’d cause trouble if he asked her to leave him aloh his betrothed at the table. Being a dragon allowed her to sit at the table, though he would have preferred to speak with his betrothed alone.

  The pair, though massive pared to their panions, were only slightly te for the table, whereas their panions sat at tables which made them look like dwarves. The food was swiftly brought out for the smaller tables, that of cms and fish.

  “This feels a little weird,” Adam said, looking down at the fresh food.

  “Why?”

  “Well… you know…” Adam flushed slightly. ‘Hold on… isn’t that kinda racist?’ As Jaygak smirked towards him, Adam reached over for the ft bread, which was more like a cracker which could bend slightly.

  The soldiers smmed their tridents onto the floor, before letting out a shout, speaking in aongue as a tall woman, about two and a half Adam’s tall, stepped into the dining hall, adorned in sea silk, wearing bits of scale armour to cover her shoulders and her upper torso, as well as her waist and thighs, like a skirt. She carried a bde at her side which dwarfed even the rgest bdes of the Kan family, though the bde was barely sidered a longsword at the woman’s side. Her skin was the colour of the o, with small gills around her neck, her fingers slender and webbed, with long hair. curly, like silver kelp.

  Several soldiers, each at least twice as tall as Adam, apanied her, adorned in their scaled breastpte, wielding long spears in hand, wielding no shields.

  “I ’t believe Prince Morkarai has betrayed us like this,” Adam whispered. “He’s smart, handsome, skillful, and has a beautiful wife. Even I only have three of those.”

  “You also have something he does not,” Jurot said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Adorable children.”

  Adam smiled. “I also have su adorable brother too.” Adam reached out for a fist bump, and Jurot returhe fist bump, not necessarily because he agreed, but because he liked the sensation of fist bumping.

  Morkarai stood, though Karza remained sitting. He bowed his head and held out his hand. “Princess Miza.”

  “Prince Morkarai,” the woman replied, allowing the fire giant to take her hand, holding it for a moment, before she went to sit at the head of the table, with the Priting a moment ter. “If I had known of your arrival, I would have prepared a greater feast, and greater guests.”

  “I had thought of sending word, but I had other matters to deal with,” Morkarai said, uo admit the petty reason he had made it difficult to her. “Once I reveal my gift, I am certain you will five me.”

  “Stop with the flirting and bring out the food,” Karza snarled, grittieeth slightly in annoyance.

  “I did not expect the majesty of a Drunda,” Princess Miza admitted, her eyes catg the dragon’s eyes.

  “Who did you expect? A Raith? A Wing? You’re lucky it wasn’t a-,”

  “Karza,” Morkarai warned, uanding which figure she was about to invoke. ‘Are y to get yourself killed?’

  Jaygak let out a sigh, p herself a drink, raising the drink, taking a moment to look towards Morkarai, before sipping it. She uood the pain that was to be a troublemaker with an idiot of a friend. ‘The Divine bless you, Prince Morkarai.’

  Wait a minute.

  What?

  That's crazy!

  I introduced royalty and Adam didn't start a fight?

  Is this progress?