TBATE: Art and Tess's Second Chance

Chapter 5: The Diviner and Assimilations

Arthur Leywin's POV:

We made our way to the dinning hall to eat dinner as the long conversation we had took us well into the afternoon. I however, was far more worried about what comes after. I was sweating buckets thinking about my future that was no doubt filled with tar and cacti. "I'm sure grandpa was joking Art, so calm down." Tess tried to console me, which did not help.

"Who said I was joking little one?" Gramps said with an evil grin plastered on his old but refined face. Tess just sighed and patted my back in submission that this was how her loved one was going to die.

We all sat down at the dinner table, and once again Tess sat to my right. This time instead of being met with glares we were shown genuine smiles from Tess's parents and a teasing smile from Gramps. I was filled with hope that I was possibly saved from my fate.

"So Tess honey, why did your appearance change so much? We just saw you not even a week ago." Merial asked Tess as we waited for the food to come out to us. I took a glance at Tess who gave me her best 'please take this one for me, I don't want to be the one to tell them look.' I was very tempted to tell her to bite me after she left me at Gramp's mercy.

'You're lucky that you are far to cute to say no to. You know that right?' I sighed in defeat at her adorable red puppy dog eyes. 'Those are practically a demon's eyes but on her it's just not fair.' Regis added and I mentally nodded at his statement.

"That is also my fault your highness." I said sheepishly as I was afraid they would be angry with me. They instead looked at me and motioned me to continue. "Well I'm not sure how to explain this where it will make sense to you guys, but when we arrived back here I decided to make Tess even stronger than she already was. I gave her a stronger body like mine that was compatible with aether which changed her appearance. Then I forged an aether core like mine for her as well." I finished hoping that was simple enough for them to grasp.

"Well you skipped over the whole new body and aether crap part in your story earlier but I'm guessing it was the new power you talked about gaining." Alduin suprisingly answered showing me they understood. "Yes, it is the power I previously mentioned. I wanted Tess to be equal in strength with me so when we need to pressure the Asuras they might believe I can make aether cores at will." I responded, providing my reasoning for my choice.

Of course I also did it so she would have my ridiculous healing factor as well. Call me overprotective all you want but I refuse to watch the one I love die. At this point our food was approaching down the hall, my draconic body had an amazing sense of smell so I knew it was coming. Right now though it was torture as the seconds it took for the food to arrive felt like an eternity. The the smell of various meats, soups, and various types of bread assaulted my nostrils.

Oh course me, Regis, Sylv, and now even Tess didn't 'need' to eat, but that didn't mean we would pass up this chance. One look at Tess who was drooling and I knew she thought the same thing as she had been living off of dried rations for a long while. When the food was finally sat in front of us we probably looked like starved beasts but we didn't care. It was also very nostalgic for us as we hadn't had elven cuisine in a long time.

After we ate we talked about various things that amounted to nothing. We took this moment to get away from the heavy topics of war and death to simply have some time together as a family. I was actually rather surprised at how Tess's family already treated me as a part of their family. I guess when their daughter told them we married in the pervious timeline they just accepted that I was family.

Once we finished eating we made our way to their lavish front door. We were about to make our way to Rinia to have a talk about her looking into the future. Once way or another we were going to make her stop this path of self destruction. 'This time around she can trust me to save everyone.' I thought to myself.