Chapter 78 – Sheer avarice (Patreon)

Kles’ inflammatory statement rippled through the Elders, many stunned into silence with their jaws hung open, but the pair who’d been the subject of her verbal slap looked more like it had been a physical one.

Har’s jaw opened and closed like he was trying to say something but no sound escaped his maw.

While the one ineffectively attempted to protest, the others rage finally boiled over. Blonc could only be pushed so far, even when the one doing so was the matron.

“Dull…scaled…” He grumbled angrily, “How dare you!” his voice rising with every word. “I put up with a lot from you, you ancient lizard, but I won’t stand for that!” His scales flushing, his clawed hands grasping and releasing as his volume rose to a shout.

His outburst elicited gasps from those assembled, no one had spoken to the woman that way in literal decades. Though its target reacted in an unexpected manner.

“Finally proving those horns aren’t just for show, are we?” The old woman cackled. “And you?” pointing over at Har, “What, salamander got your tongue?”

Har’s teeth clacked shut with a harumph as he saw the mischievous spark lit in the woman’s eyes as she prodded him yet again. “You might be venerated for your hand in teaching half of us, but you’ve gone too far this time.” Unlike the quick to anger Blonc, Har’s tone was one of disappointment.

“No, I’m quite sure I’ve gone just far enough.” Kles replied with a grin, “You lot needed a good kick in the tail and I’m just the one to give it.” Her self-satisfied grin sending the Martial over the edge once again.

Ortik stepped forward, inserting himself between the two, “Blonc that’s eno…”

“Is this a game to you?” He bellowed, completely ignoring Ortik as he tried to calm him down, “We’re facing possible war with those green skinned bastards and you’re here making a mockery of me?”

Kles leveled her gaze at the enraged warrior and she scoffed, “No, it most definitely is not a game, and yes, I am making a mockery of you.” The levity that she had been making her previous remarks with was all but gone from her tone. “And you.” She pointed at Har. “And the rest of you too.” She let her words sink in before bowing her head slightly towards Ortik and adding, “Well, maybe not you, Chieftain.”

The Spiritcaller just laughed at her small act of respect. “Kles, we’ve known each other since before most of the Elder’s even hatched, I know full well you’d love nothing more than to knock me on my tail same as the rest of em.” He just shook his head, still grinning at her. “I assume you’re not just having a laugh and have a point to make, yes?”

“Can’t get anything by you, you old coot.” She chuckled. With the moment gone, the chatter from the other Elders returned to the background, some of the previously too stunned to speak expressing their confusion to what exactly was going on, other expressing disbelief the audacity of the matron’s statements.

Kori was still curled up with her head upon Kles’ lap, the comforting presence having pulled her out of the spiral that Blonc had sent her into once again.

The matron’s remark towards Ortik confused her though, enough that she didn’t even laugh at the idea of her calling him an ‘old coot’. The chief wasn’t much older than any of the others. Or at least he didn’t look older. But here was an absolutely ancient kobold talking like he was the same as she was.

And what was that about knowing her since before the others had even hatched? Sure a few of them are young, but the rest are pretty old, right?

Her musing didn’t last long, since the discussion was still going on around her. It nearly erupted into a ‘why?’ before she stopped herself from interrupting.

“And yes, of course I have a point to make. I’m not just ranting cause I like to.” Kori thought there might have been a little extra emphasis when the Elder said ‘just’, giving her the impression that no matter her words, she was in fact enjoying her rant. “We’ve done the same things for the last five centuries and in all that time there’s been just two new roles that we’ve welcomed into the clan.” She looked between Har and Aldr as she spoke, reminding everyone of her earlier words. “Each of those times changed us.”

Placing her hand on top of the youngling’s head and gently patting her, “And she will too.” She said softly. “You’re all here fighting over whether you’ll use her for war, for profit, or for whatever else your specific role within the clan provides, but has a single one of you stopped to think what her role in the clan might be? What it might become? Or what it might turn us into?”

Kles stared at each and every one of the other Elders, speaking as she looked at a few of them in particular. When she looked at Har she said, “Will she bring prosperity?”, at Aldr, “Joy?”, at Bolst, “Security?”, at Blonc, “Conquest?”, at Korse, “Well-being?”, and finally stopping at Ortik, “Or will she lead?”

There was a quiet hesitance to her last question. Of all those present, only Korse knew the reason behind that last possibility. The pair were the only two who knew of what was hidden upon the youngling’s Status.

None of them spoke. All of their gazes had lowered towards the youth that sheltered upon the matron’s lap. The fire that had been lit within Blonc seemed to have finally been snuffed out, even he sat quietly and pondered.

It was Ortik that finally spoke up, “I don’t know… none of us do…”

A smile bloomed on Kles’ face at his words, “And isn’t that exciting?”

The matron’s words sparked something in Kori’s mind, it was exciting. Each and every one of the possibilities she had given was something she could do. She could provide for the clan by selling her creations, tend their happiness with healing or other discoveries, aid Bolst to create traps that held back their foes, provide Blonc and Ylst with the means to fortify their warriors and mages, maybe someday she could even make something to protect the hatchlings from the culling. She had no desire to lead, but the rest of what she had said, those might all be within her means, eventually.

I can do any of it… They all do just the one thing. Why should I settle for one, when instead I can help them do all of theirs better?

The more she thought of it, the more each and every one of her concoctions began to seem like just a single piece of the larger puzzle that was Clan Emberscale. Every way she turned one of those pieces, it revealed a different place that it could fit, a different way the clan could be better for it.

She once again fell into a spiral of her thoughts, though instead of into the depths of anxiety and despair, she lost herself in the myriad possibilities that the future might hold for her. The idea of new concoctions to help each of the Elders. That she might spend her entire life experimenting, learning, and discovering new and wonderous things that would improve the lives of her fellow kobolds in ways she couldn’t even begin to fathom yet.

She didn’t even notice that she had risen from her curled position to sit alongside the matron, a wide grin splitting her face as she dreamt of a future unfettered by the expectations of the past.

The discussion had of course moved on while Kori was within her own little world. The Elders still bickered about what to do with her, who should train her, and of course, who should benefit from her works. More or less the same things that had been said before. At least now it was a less heated and almost everyone had returned to their seats at the three long tables.

Only Kles remained where she was, sitting on the floor watching the youngling next to her. Ortik did much the same after he returned to his place, his thoughts on the youngling in disarray. He knew that she was different, he’d thought their months together taught him just how different, but now he was questioning everything about her.

The matron’s words about Kori leading them stuck with him. The chief was frequently a member of the Circle, but there was no rule that they had to be. But what would cause the matron to even consider that a possibility?

They remained in the same stalemate as before, now with a full half of the Elder’s attempting to claim her as an apprentice. Each of them pointing to how the possibilities that Kles had spoken of would benefit the clan the most in either the short term or long run.

Exhausted of the bickering, Ortik finally put a stop to the discussion. “Quiet!”, his word echoing through the chamber, “We’re going in circles now. Each of you has a valid argument. Even I could make a claim, either for the Circle as a healer or as chieftain, since we all know how much help she had provided as my aide.” He received several nods in acknowledgement, they all missed having the help.

“There’s just one person we haven’t heard from that you all seem to be forgetting about.” He got a few quizzical looks and gazes panned around the room trying to see if someone wasn’t participating.

Their lack of awareness brought his hand up to massage the bridge of his muzzle in frustration. “Seriously?” He muttered exhaustedly and turned his attention to the youngling in their presence. “Kori, you’ve heard all their arguments, what is it that you want to do?”

It took her a moment, and a prod in the side from Kles, to realize that she was being addressed, they had spent so much time talking about her that she wasn’t ready for them to actually talk to her.

“Huh?” she mumbled. “What do I want?” repeating his question with a bit of confusion.

“Yes, if you could choose right here and now, what would it be?” Ortik affirmed his question while the room watched on, trying to guess what direction the youngling would choose.

Har looked on smugly, anticipating his victory, while Blonc appeared disappointed, knowing she would never choose to be a fighter.

None of them were prepared for the greed that shone in her eyes as she answered. For the simple, and utterly outrageous, answer that would leave them with their jaws hung slack.

“All of them!”