Momentarily taken aback by Korse’s tone and words, Kori just looks between the two for a moment. Before either can interrupt again, she proceeds with what she had tried to say earlier. “Why? Why would she want hurt me like that?”
Responding in a grim tone, “Because she doesn’t care. Lowy sees you as nothing more than a stone to hang around my neck.”
“Lowy? The woman with you when I woke up from the rite?” Looking confused, having only met the unpleasant old Kobold just the twice.
“The same. She and I have… History…” Clear distaste of her in his tone. “Beyond simply her desire to control the Circle, she hates me enough she’d burn even it to the stones if it would singe my scales.”
“That… what did you call her? Slime sucker?” Kori tests the new insult out, finding she quite likes the sound of it.
“Oh scale…” Korse nearly face-palms as she echoes his insult. “Please do not repeat that term, while far better than what Ortik nearly said,” Tossing a glare in his direction, “It is not polite and I should not have said it.”
Ortik smiling as he listens to the lecture, “And you can’t even blame it on Blonc or Aldr this time around.” Laughing at his own remark.
Trying hard not to laugh, “It wasn’t as bad as anything you’d hear from those two…” Returning his attention to Kori, “Please at least don’t use it in front of your siblings… Once one starts, you’ll all be using it more than soap…” Pausing for a moment, before grumbling out a final remark, “Not that most of them use soap very often…”
“Why does she hate you so much?” Both of them wincing at the question, obviously hopeful that the little distraction had avoided the question.
Beginning slowly on what is clearly a sore subject, “My mate… May she serve the great dragons in the beyond… Was Lowy’s sister. They were inseparable from the moment they hatched. In an act I am certain she regrets to this day, she introduced us.”
“Wait, you had a mate?!” Considering for a moment. “And she was Lowy’s sister? But Lowy’s so old!”
“Of course I did… What, just because I’m the Chief and a shaman you thought I was celibate or something?” A little bit offended at her comment.
“I uhhh… Maybe?” Hesitantly she responds, still not quite getting the purpose of rhetorical questions.
Patently ignoring the loud guffaw from Korse, Ortik responds to the comment about his age, “And Lowy is two years my junior…” Unsure whether to be complimented that she thinks he’s the younger of the two, or to be insulted at being, indirectly, called old.
“She’s younger than you? How, she looks nearly as old as Matron Kles.”
Chuckling at her comparison, “Don’t let Lowy hear you say that.” Pausing for a moment, “Or do, I’d love to see her face actually. The higher your racial level, and even more so after each Racial Evolution, the slower you age. I turn fifty-four in about a month.”
“Really? Then since I’m leveling up fast will I live a really long time too? Everybody is always surprised when they find out I’m already level 7.” A gleam of pride as she gloats.
Korse, having not seen her level in some time, looks surprised when she reveals it, “Already? Your siblings are level 4, maybe 5. Most of them should be 5 by the end of their fourth year and only 11 by the time they unlock their Class.”
Trying not to call attention to her little secret, which Korse is well aware of even if he hadn’t considered its impact, she hesitantly replies, “I’m lucky? Not sure. Just kinda is what it is…” Looking back to Ortik, “Sorry, I guess I interrupted your story with questions.”
“I’ve grown used to it…” Amused by how true the statement is. Recalling where he left off, Ortik continues telling her of his former mate. “She passed years ago, long before your egg was even laid. We went to the surface town to negotiate something or other with one of the human’s nobles.” Taking a moment out to explain the foreign concept, “Nobles are something like a chief, but if your parents were nobles then you’re one too… It’s kind of strange, what if my kid were an idiot?” The last coupled with a dumbfounded expression. “We were attacked by adventurers, blathering something about ‘protecting the townsfolk from monsters’ like we were a bunch of barbaric goblins or something.” A disappointed shake of his head as long buried emotions surface and a tear threatens to form in the corner of his eye.
“Nor died in the attack. Lowy has always believed that the attack was on purpose. Though she’s never been able to give anything close to a reason that anyone would want to do so. In her pain she wanted me to send our fighters to raze the town of Whatzakt in retribution.” Anger leaking into his sorrow at the idea of starting a war.
“I wanted to…” His voice low and full of shame. “But instead, I worked with an organization on the surface. One that works outside of the local rulers, called the ‘Adventurer’s Guild’. They are supposed to manage the fools that go about ‘slaying beasts’ and ‘saving the weak’. Those who attacked us should have been their responsibility.” His disdain for the organization plain. “I had Ylst up there for weeks working with them to investigate. In the end as best we could tell, the group were simply fools. Believing that because some of the lesser Clans are warlike and aggressive, that we are all nothing more than the worst of us.” Pausing with a rueful laugh, “The same thing that pushed Lowy to demand what she did and drives her hate for me to this day.”
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After a deep breath and a pause to clear his thoughts of what was. “Enough about the past. I don’t expect you to forgive my actions, But I hope you might eventually, now that you understand why I did what I did. I will understand if you do not.” Taking another deep breath now that he has said his part, though with many detours along the way. “You will be expected to take another apprenticeship. I will let you decide where you would like to do so, I think you have earned at least that. But unless you manage to somehow acquire the Skills you are lacking, which I believe is solely [Spell Shaping], the path of a mage remains closed.”
When he mentions the Skill, Kori grimaces, her many attempts to learn it on her own resulting in little to show for it. “I have not… I learned my other magic skills doing things different than normal… Are there any ways to do that with [Spell Shaping]?”
“None. Learning the Skill to shape spells, requires you to, quite obviously, shape spells. I can show you other basic spells than what you’re using, I assume [Lantern]?” He’d observed many of her attempts, but given they’d barely moved on from the ‘blob of mana’ stage, he wasn’t exactly certain which spell she was actually trying to form. Once she nods her confirmation he offers, “I could show you [Ward], it has its own complexities but the base shape is a bit easier than [Lantern].” Holding his hand out and moving his mana, Kori can’t even see what happens before there’s a small disc of translucent mana hovering in front of his hand.
Staring hard at the casual display of spell work, unable to make out what exactly had been done, before looking back to Ortik. “Can you go a bit slower? It looked almost like the spell just activated; no forming happened…”
“That was slow…” Grumbling as he continues, “Trying to slow down such a simple spell is harder than casting the thing in the first place…” Thinking on the problem for a moment, and seeing Kori’s eyes light up at the simple little defensive spell, “That might work. Try to follow it all along and we’ll see what you can catch. I’ll need to concentrate though, so not a word.” Standing up and taking a few steps back before he begins.
Kori leans hard into her sensing skill as mana begins to gather around Ortik, not the trivial amounts that had accompanied his previous casting, but torrents of the nebulous energy. The more she tries to take in, the more she’s certain that she’s barely seeing the edges of what’s actually happening. Thick and ornate shields of opaque mana, in the actual proper shape of the large shields she’d seen the warriors training with, begin to appear around Ortik. One after another form and hover in the air surrounding him, after the first six a look of strain appears on Ortik’s face. At ten his brow is furrowed and fists clenched, the speed at which new shields appear slows to a crawl. At twelve he finally stops, his eyes shut tightly and entire body tensed.
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His voice sounding as though he were lifting a great weight as he strains to hold the many constructs of mana in place, each word sounding as though forced from him with great effort. “Look close…ly, Kori… I can… Only do… This… Once…” Raising his hand and slowly unfurling it from its clenched state, Kori can see drips of blood on his claws from where they burrowed into his palms as his fingers open. Slowly, slower than even Kori’s own attempts, mana forms in his open hand before being spun into a vertical ring at a glacial pace. Just before the spell is cast, she sees a film of mana spread like soap across the gap, meeting in the middle the same moment the spell activates and the plain disk of nearly transparent mana forms. He holds the spell for mere seconds before the entirety of the shields fall away at the same time. The little disk disappears like it never existed, while the mana slowly fades from the larger shields, the spell holding its form for a few moments before evaporating into the air around them.
Huffing like he’d run laps around the training hall for hours, he takes several moments to compose himself. “Thirteen… A new record for me… And a level in [Advanced Multi-Casting].” Before he can wipe away the blood on his hand, he feels Kori reach over, having already pulled the pot of ointment from her satchel, and begin smearing the substance across his palm. “Thank you. Were you able to discern the pattern for [Ward]?”
“That was awesome!” Her words blending one into the next as she asks questions as fast as she can manage. “What spell was that? Did you say the Skill was multi-casting? How do you learn that one?” Only stopping because she needed to breath. “You said thirteen was a new record? Can you do more if you cast small spells like [Ward]?” Her eyes nearly the size of the final defensive spell that he’d just used, her prior foul mood washed away by the working of magic just demonstrated.
Both older Kobolds laughing at Kori’s sudden shift. Ortik begins to answer some of her queries, “That was [Aegis], a higher tier version of the basic defensive spell [Ward]. Yes, multi-casting, it’s one of the advancement options available once you’ve raised [Spell Shaping] to the pinnacle of the third tier. You can either continue as is, or specialize it and reset the Skill to the first tier as [Basic Multi-Casting] or [Basic Flash-Casting], which allows for near instantaneous spell formation, but makes holding multiple spell patterns much more difficult.” His tone and cadence returning to a semblance of normal as the strain of pushing his Skills to their limit passes. “Now, were you able to observe the formation?”
“I was, kinda like a ring with a soap bubble?”
“Correct.” Giving her a nod.
Korse clears his throat, trying to reign in the discussion that had gone quite far afield. “I believe we were discussing what to do about young Kori’s apprenticeship.” A deep frown on his face and his tone anything but approving, “At least before you decided to give a demonstration in fourth tier spellcasting to get her hopes up once again.”
“Ah… Sorry. Yes, you will need to begin a new apprenticeship and without attaining your missing Skill, the way will remain barred for you to return to the path of a mage.” Laying the hint on a little thickly as he speaks. “Now, we find ourselves in a bit of an unusual situation. By the rules, new apprentices are taken on only at the beginning of the year, or at the six-month mark when an apprentice fails to proceed.” Korse begins to say something, opening his mouth to speak until he sees Ortik giving him a harsh glare, clearly communicating for him to keep his muzzle firmly shut.
“So, I am afraid we will not have a position for you for another two months, Kori.” A self-satisfied grin replacing the look he’d given Korse. “Now you could wallow away your time in the brood chambers, should you desire. But I’m certain you can find worthwhile to occupy your time over the coming weeks.”
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