As soon as the carriage reached the palace, Elenara ushered Ty into her room to prepare her for the meeting with the queen. While she picked out dresses for each of them, Elenara coached Ty on proper etiquette.
"In the court, it's customary for men to bow to the queen, while women are expected to curtsy," Elenara explained "While the queen will likely be able to tell you are not truly female, the customs apply to your outward appearance, so you would be expected to curtsy. I'll try to coach you as best I can, but my mother shouldn't take too much insult if you get it wrong, since you do not know what you're doing. You will be expected to address all royalty as either 'Your Highness', or 'My lord' or 'My lady' depending on how they're presenting. It's usually safest to start with 'Your Highness' and then figure out from what others say how to address them if you're not sure. Mom will probably want to examine you with magic. Nothing invasive, just some revealing spells to see if you're telling the truth, and what your true form is. The more you relax, the more comfortable the process will be for you."
"Anything else?" Ty asked, a little nervous as he stepped into the low heels she had laid out for him.
"I'll try to do most of the talking," Elenara said "Just be polite, and answer honestly if she asks you any questions. She can always tell when someone is lying."
Ty nodded.
"Now, we have about half an hour before the audience. Let me see you walk in those heels, you may need a little coaching," Elenara said
Ty nervously began walking around the room, with Elenara watching him with a critical eye, making minor suggestions.
"You seem to have inherited some of my ability to walk in heels from the transformation," Elenara said "You should be fine. Are you ready to go?"
"I am, Your Highness," Ty said, curtsying as best he could.
"It'll do for now," said Elenara "I don't have practice in curtsying, so that's probably why you haven't picked that up."
She opened the door for Ty, and the two of them exited the room, and towards the staircase that would take them to the audience chambers.
The audience chambers of the elven palace was a room with the roof open to the sky. The trees that the palace was built into twisted into the sky above the roof, but they snaked outwards, allowing the rising moon's light to illuminate the room. White gems throughout the room glowed with captive moonlight, lightning the room as well as if it had been the middle of the day.
Ty nervously curtseyed.
"Thank you for allowing me to come here, Your Highness," he said "Even though I'm not your blood."
"Ty was the victim of a transformation curse placed on one of my outfits," Elenara said "A modified Gemini, or Twinning curse if I'm not mistaken. He seems to have adopted some of my mannerisms, but his mind and memories are his own."
"He?" the queen noted "Yes, I see. A human, yes?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Ty said
"We will see what we can do about getting you back to normal, but from what I can see, the curse has dug itself in pretty heavily," said the queen "We'll see what we can do about halting it's progression, too."
"Progression?" Ty asked
The queen nodded "The curse is still working on you. If it doesn't stop, eventually, you will think, act and believe you are Princess Elenara."
"There was something else I wanted to ask, Mom," said Elenara "Ty doesn't have anyone. No family, no place in the world. We've developed a connection, and she did save my life on the road, and I wanted to make her family."
The queen raised her eyebrow. "You want me to adopt her? Into the royal family?"
"Yes," Elenara said, looking uncertain "I definitely do. And from talking to Ty, she wants that, too. She's expressed a desire to become male again if that's possible, but she'd like to be my sibling."