Chapter 81 – A not entirely incorrect assumption (Patreon)

A/N: Sorry it's late, between the holiday weekend and then being ill for a few days and going about 60 hours with only ~3 hours of sleep, I wasn't able to get much done. I've set aside tomorrow and Monday for writing, so barring unplanned interruptions I'll have more for you soon.

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Kori wanted nothing more than to crawl into her den and pass out, after taking off the armour at least, but like everything else that had happened that day, what actually occurred cared very little for her desires.

Wearily shambling into the brood chamber, she once again became the center of attention. Her siblings had been hearing wild rumours about an attack on the caravan and a fantastical new spell that had apparently been wielded by none other than their sister all day. A sister that was very vocal about her inability to use magic.

Seeing the sibling in question staggering her way in, dressed in training armour no less, was enough to give credence to the rumours and she quickly found herself swarmed. Her clutchmates were loudly speaking over each other, some asking questions about the attack and goblins, some proud she’d finally managed to cast a spell, or just glad that she’d shut up about it now, and others still wondering why she was wearing armour.

“Congratulations on learning magic”

“What happened in the attack?”

“Are goblins really as ugly as they say?”

“Why are you wearing training leathers?”

“Will you teach me your new spell?”

The last had obviously come from Plk, her only sibling to join the mages.

The cacophony of comments and questions left Kori in a state of shock and confusion. “What?” She responded, drawing a blank as to why they would think she’d cast anything. “Magic? Spell? Huh?”

“The spell you used on the goblins.” Plk tried to clarify. “The ash cloud one, it sounds awesome!”

It still took her several moments to connect what they were talking about to her flask. “But that wasn’t a spell…”

The majority of the other younglings looked confused, but one just laughed. After a few moments of laughter, Losq put on a smug grin and said what he’d been waiting to. “Told ya so!”

Kori couldn’t help but grin at her brother; if anyone was going to guess the truth of what she’d done, it was going to be him.

After the rest had grumbled for a bit, he finally asked what he wanted to know. “So, what’d you make?”

This was exactly the right thing to ask to perk up a flagging Kori and she dove right in to talking about her new concoctions. “Oh, it’s awesome, well… it’s terrible, but it’s awesome at being terrible!” The attempted explanation, which her brothers and sisters would also qualify as being terrible, just left the others even more confused.

“It’s like the big bad flask, you know the one that shut down Bolst’s lab?” She continued on, not seeing the puzzled looks. “But instead of making a boom, it makes a bang and a bright flare, and then a huge cloud of smoke” She punctuated this by flinging her arms wide mimicking the cloud, “that stings your eyes and makes skin really itchy, but not scales, cause scales just better.”

A few of her siblings managed to decipher a bit of what she meant, but not many.

“Slow down, Kori.” Losq admonished. “Can you tell us what the appraisal said?” Hoping that she’d be a little clearer in her explanation if she tried to repeat its description.

“Huh?” Her head tilted almost like she was about to ask her favourite question. “Okay, I guess I could do that.” She gave a quick nod and thought for a few seconds on how it was worded. “It’s called a ‘Basic Stinging Cloud Flask’ and it…” It took her a moment to remember the exact word that had described the explosion. “Erupts, think that’s what it said, in a cloud of smoke that stings the eyes and irritates the skin of those exposed. It’s a poison and may ignite if heated or exposed to air.” She nodded again as she finished, feeling proud of herself for having remembered the appraisal. Or at least the important parts of the appraisal.

 This of course, still meant little to the rest of her clutch, leaving Losq to try to rephrase her explanation. “So, you throw it and it explodes into a big cloud of smoke?” He asked.

“Yup!”

“And then if you get the smoke on your scales, it itches or in your eyes, it stings?” He continued going through it step by step.

“Nope, not scales, just skin like the humans or the goblins!” She corrected him. “Oh, and it blinds you, but not for very long” She left out the part about her having first hand knowledge of that bit.

“Blinds… wow, that does sound terrible.” Losq replied as the others murmured in the background.

“Told ya!”

One of the other siblings spoke up after Losq had finally gotten a clearer picture of what she’d used. “But that doesn’t seem very deadly… everyone’s saying you killed a dozen goblins.”

Kori looked shocked at the exaggerated rumour of her deeds. “Killed?! I didn’t kill anyone!” She exclaimed, “And it was only half a dozen… it only made them scream and roll around on the ground, Animist Zln killed them…” Her voice dropped a little lower every time she paused. “But I did get notifications that said I had slain them… and a title for it…” The fact that she was credited with their deaths still weighed heavily on her. She’d accepted that it was necessary and she’d done the right thing, but that didn’t help with the guilt.

The fact that she had gotten a Title for her efforts was instantly picked up by her siblings; it may have been her fifth, but none of the others had earned even a single one so far.

“Another Title? No fair!” Beys shouted. “That’s like your third one…”

“Uhhh… no, it’s my fi…” She nearly corrected her with the right number, before realizing that one of them was her hidden Emberscale Inheritor Title. “Fourth. It’s my fourth title.” Thankfully none of them called her on her near slip of the tongue, though Losq did arch a brow.

“Four? That’s even worse!” Beys complained. “At least you can’t be that far ahead of us in Racial Levels. We all get about the same experience there…” She grumbled.

Kori tried not to say anything, but her grimace conveyed how wrong that particular assumption was.

“Seriously?!” This time it was Wlde that called her out. “What level are you then? We’re all at five now.”

Kori couldn’t hide her shock when she heard how low her siblings were, she knew that she was getting more experience than them from her special Title, plus the one from Korse, and the boost she’d gotten from the scale brazier during her little spirit walk in the Circle, but to be so far ahead of the others when every level took more than the last was a complete shock to her.

“That much?” Wlde complained, assuming that her guilty look meant she was definitely further ahead, “Are you level seven already? Eight?”

Plk scoffed when she suggested eight, “No way, even if she is ahead, eight just isn’t possible.” He tried to sound sure of himself but a bit of doubt threaded its way into his voice.

Kori might not have always gotten along with her siblings, but she didn’t want such a gap between them that admitting the truth would bring, so instead she lied. “Uhh… yeah… seven.”

“See? Told ya. Like she’d be level eight already.” Plk scoffed.

Her siblings seemed to accept her statement, not because she lied convincingly, she hadn’t, but because no one wanted to accept just how much ahead their littlest sister had gotten. No one except for the largest of them of course, who again just raised a brow at her and shook his head slightly when he knew she’d seen him.

 Trying to change the subject and help dig her out of the hole that she was rapidly digging herself into, Losq brought them back to an earlier question. “You never answered why you were wearing armour.”

The subject change caught Kori off for a moment before she looked down and remembered that she did in fact still have the leathers on. “Oh… Elder Blonc was trying to teach me some armour Skill…” Unfortunately for Kori, this subject was also one fraught with inequity.

“Blonc? Aren’t you apprenticed to Har? What, did he boot you out too?” Itr remarked with a laugh, needling her just a little. Though his tone was less taunting and more teasing.

“He did not boot me!” Kori screamed, most of her siblings laughing at her reaction, then she continued and mumbled out, “But no… I’m not his apprentice anymore…”

“Wait, seriously?” Itr replied, all humour gone from his voice. “I’m sorry Kori, I didn’t think he’d actually ended your apprenticeship…” The rest of the clutch stopped laughing as it sunk in that she’d had yet another apprenticeship end. “But they put you with the fighters? Really?” He eyed her up and down, but knew well enough not to point out aloud the reason for his disbelief.

“Well… uhhh… no…” Kori stuttered, realizing that what she was about to say next sounded just as arrogant as the earlier discussion of levels. “I’m kind of… apprenticed to all of the Elder’s now.”

“All of…” Now it was Losq’s turn again it seemed, “What?”

“Well… after they all fought over who’d be my mentor.” Everyone just looked at her like she’d just said she was really a dragon, the idea of all of the Elders fighting over a youngling simply ridiculous. “Matron Kles got really angry about that actually, she called the Elders ‘dullscaled morons’…” And somehow the incredulity in their looks just deepened as they tried to imagine the fragile old kobold saying such a thing. “She told them I wasn’t going to be an apprentice to any one of them, since I wasn’t going to follow any of them in a role, but instead I’d be something new.”

“What do you mean, ‘new’? Losq questioned, just as confused as the rest of their siblings.

“Well… I don’t know…” Kori admitted. “None of them do either.” She hurriedly added. “That’s why it’s new. No one knows what type of class I’ll end up with.”

Everyone just stared at her confused again, not really following how any of that could lead to all of the Elders being her mentor.

Kori continued to amble on when the silence began to stretch. “So now they’re just all going to teach me a little bit, let me make my concoctions and see what happens…”

Plk was the first to catch on, though he interpreted it a bit differently than the reality. “So, you’re saying that you’ve failed so many apprenticeships that the Elders gave up and just said ‘go do your own thing and we’ll see what happens’?”

“What? No!” Kori protested. After she thought it over a bit, she was forced to admit he wasn’t entirely wrong. “Well… kind of…” She conceded with a pout. “Shut up…”

The laughing continued as she stomped off to her den grumbling about them being mean.