Dragon Rider Play

Laienesiel turned away, her expression flickering.  
Tithenor frowned.  "Emmë? What is it?"
Laienesiel didn't answer, standing quietly as she looked out the window, skyward.  Finally, she turned back and faced Jeremiah.  "Please.  Allow me?" she asked, gesturing toward the necklace.

Jeremiah looked surprised, having just now realized the necklace was out. However, he nodded and took it off to hand to her. "It was my mother's. Micheal gave it to me." He told the elf woman.

"Do you understand significance of symbol?" she asked, tracing the symbol engraved on the back of the elegant, twining image.

Jeremiah shook his head. "What does it mean?"

"It is symbol of Kinsman Clan," she answered.
Tithenor came to attention.  "Emmë?  You are-"
"Certainty," she replied firmly.

Jeremiah looked lost still. "Uh, what does that mean, and what does it have to do with me?" He asked.

Laienesiel was about to answer but stopped, turning toward the door.  "Celebrenor comes. Take this.  Hide it."  She handed Jeremiah the necklace, her fingers barely brushing his palm.

Jeremiah nodded and shoved it in his pocket. The former assassin was still horribly confused. He very stiffly bowed as Celebrenor returned.

The elf lord swept inside and spoke to his wife as though the humans didn't exist.  It was clear he expected her to come with him.  Laienesiel fell in beside him quietly, back in her role as an elfin lady.  Celebrenor glanced at his son.  "/You still have this one here?  He is a pet to you?/" he asked, amused that his son kept this human by him.  This one wasn't even a figure of importance.  Just some street rat.
"He is as a brother to me.  I have claimed him as my honeg," Tithenor replied firmly, taking Jeremiah's arm before he could respond if he understood the fullness of his father's statement.
"Your honeg?  You desire to replace Ialdor?" Celebrenor repeated, anger glittering in his cold eyes.
"I will never replace Ialdor.  However, I chose to love again," Tithenor answered.
Celebrenor started to snarl something in Elvin as 53 walked in.  "What's going on here?"

Jeremiah said nothing and remained with his feet firmly planted. Tithenor indicated he remain there, and so he did. However, that didn't stop him from glaring coldly and defiantly at Celebrenor and resting a hand on on of his sword hilts. Jeremiah only spoke when 53 came in, his tone making the highest mountain peaks look tropical. "I think Tithenor's parents were about to see themselves out."

"You dare speak to me like that, human?" Celebrenor spat as his wife placed a hand on his chest, restraining him with the gentlest of pressures.
"If you will pardon me for saying this, but you're a little outnumbered as far as races go, and you just happen to be arguing with one of my patients in my ward," 53 pointed out, the only one remaining calm and in control as though oblivious to the fury in the elf lord's eyes.  "I don't allow such a thing.  Actually, I usually have my dragon show them out.  Of course, that would be completely undignified for an elf, wouldn't it?"
Celebrenor saw the knife's edge in the healer's smile and backed down.  Elf, human, dwarf, it was the same no matter the race.  you did not want to mess with the head healer in his ward.  Especially when it concerned one of his patients.  In the blink of an eye, Celebrenor was a icy elf once more.  "I apologize for my actions, sir.  Indeed, we shall be seeing ourselves out."  He turned and swept out with his wife.
Tithenor waited until they were out of the ward entirely to slump back in his pillows.

Once Tithenor's father was gone, Jeremiah's hand slipped off of his sword hilt. "I'm sorry, toriaun, but I don't like your father."

Under the chair, Erika hissed angrily.
Tithenor snorted.  "No one does anymore.  Never mind."
53 came forward, worried.  He insisted on looking over Tithenor, examining him closely, but Tithenor turned down the painkillers.  Instead, he reached for Mellon.

Mellon snuggled up beside Tithenor and licked his rider's hand. The dragon still thought he was the best thing to ever walk.

Jeremiah sat down and took the necklace out of his pocket. He examined it again. "What did your mum say? Kinsman Clan? What's that, and why did you two make it sound important?"

Tithenor calmed with his dragon in his arms, stroking Mellon and fussing with him.  "The Kinsman Clan?  It is not too important.  They are only the most powerful Drow clan currently in existence, and the only people to hold a medallion such as yours are direct descendants of the founders of the clan.  As I said... not that important."  He glanced at Jeremiah with a faint smirk.

Jeremiah frowned. "Are you suggesting what I think you are?"

"That depends on what you think I am suggesting," Tithenor said calmly.  His calm was a facade to hide his true feelings of shock.  Not just shock, if he was a "crass human," he would have said he was floored.  No freakin' way!!

Jeremiah picked up the wooden figurine and showed True. "This is what Micheal said Erika looked like, my mother, and seeing as the necklace was hers as well, and on top of that, I am her son..... are you saying I'm part drow elf?!"

"My guess would be a quarter," Tithenor said, examining the figurine.  "If your rendition is accurate, this woman is a half breed.  You likely take more after your father.  That is the way drow mixed bloods seem to go.  Males take after the father, females the mothers.  Genetics are odd, are they not?  In any case, she shows clear signs of Elvin heritage.  If I look for it, I see it in you, but I never thought to."  This had to be a shocker for Jeremiah as well.  Until this last century, Drow had only the reputation of being brutal, soulless killers.  During the last century, they had really turned things around, but everyone knew the stories, especially of the cities who still clung to the old ways of worshiping demons and creating chaos.

Jeremiah sighed deeply and sat with his head in his hands. "So that explains why your mum didn't want your dad seeing that necklace now. I'm guessing he prefers seeing drow as hacky slashy killers. And that also may help explain why even as a kid, I was good at fighting, as if it came naturally."

"No, she end want him to see it because iif he did he'd have to eat crow and start treating you like an equal," Tithenor corrected. "He is old fashioned in that, yes, he remembers howdrow were, but he also respects the Kinsman Clan and has worked out several beneficial arrangements with them."

Jeremiah laughed at that thought. "That would have been interesting, but he probably would have hated me more than he already does." He paused at a thought. "So... does that mean I am also Jeremiah Kinsman?"

"Through your mother, yes, although unlike most drow, the Kinsman track bloodlines through the father," Tithenor answered. "Seeing as you are orphaned, however, they would be happy to enfold you, if that was what you wanted."

Jeremiah ran his hands through his pale hair. "To be honest, I don't know how true that is. Micheal gave me away, and after that, I never saw him again. He may still be alive, but I don't know, and have hoped he's not." He paused. "And even if Erika knew that drow do that, why did she leave me with the medallion then?"

"There is more than one kind of orphan," Tithenor pointed out softly. "Beyond that, I have no answers. When our dragons can fly and we return to the surface, I will take you to the Kinsman. Perhaps there you will find answers."