Maikana
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Chapter 49 – Lets get this apprenticeship started.
🕑 Added 2025-04-10 02:38:56 +0000 UTCTheir conversation continued onwards, debating everything from where the youngling’s work would take place, which ended up being ‘as far away from the clan’s caverns as could be considered practical’, and how they would acquire supplies and determine what projects were safe to work on. That last topic took up the bulk of the conversation. The closest they could come to an agreement was that no matter what, she had to test it with a very, very, small batch.
Many of the Elders departed long before the conversation ended, most of them not having a lot to add and having many other things they had to attend to for the day. Though for several of them, the first item on their list was a nap. Har, Ortik, Ylst, and surprisingly Blonc all stuck around to hammer out the details, of course, Blonc mostly wanted to push for supplies for his warriors.
As the bulk of the details were decided and the conversation wound down, there was one last thing that Ylst wanted to address. “So, what was all that about teaching your brother your imbue Skill, Kori?” She began. “I still can’t believe you taught a brewer to sense mana in a month…”
Kori glanced between the assembled Elders, all of whom were looking on curiously, as she tried to figure out how to respond. “Well… He was asking me about my titles and if I could help him try to make something like I had…” The others all looked at her slightly aghast as they thought of them trying to recreate her success. “No! Not like that, something safe!”
Her vehement denial brought chuckles from the Elders as they thought about what she had said. “And what exactly were you planning on attempting to create?” Ortik asked with a raised brow and a questioning smirk.
“We uhhh… We figured we’d start with imbued mead and see where it went from there?” She admitted.
Har nearly salivated at the concept, the idea of adding magical booze to his wares clearly piquing his sense for profits. It wasn’t Har who spoke up first though, well he may have spoken first, but Blonc spoke much louder and wasn’t one to be ignored.
“Imbued booze?” He marvelled. “Not sure what that would do, but I’ll volunteer to be the first to try it!” His grin at the idea of it plastered across his face.
Ortik glared at the drunkard of a martial, a man who drank significantly more than any other, with a disapproving look and shake of his head. “Of course you would, Blonc…” Sighing heavily. Turning his attention back to Kori, “I am not certain and I don’t think it will be quite so simple as you’re making it seem.”
“Oh, we didn’t really think it would.” She agreed. “But it’s where we figured we’d start.” She said with a shrug. “Then we’d just keep trying whatever we could think of until something worked.”
Har thought about her response for a moment before he gave her a shrug of his own in return, “Not a terrible plan I guess?”
“It’s better than trying make poisons or bombs or something I suppose…” Ylst concurred.
With a defeated sigh as his head drooped closer to the table in front of him, Ortik caved and gave his approval. “Fine… Okay… But only in as small a batch as possible and only if Aldr agrees…”
With his approval secured Ylst was beginning to look excited at what might come out of the experimentation, “I’ll need to borrow this youngling, Losq was it?” She asked. “It’s a miracle you managed to help him with sense, I’d like to see where he’s at on control and correct any mistakes in his training you may have made so far.” She mused, mostly talking to herself by the end.
Kori’s visage quickly took on a worried appearance as Ylst spoke, “But you can’t!” She exclaimed. “He can’t learn control until he adds mana to a concoction like I did.” She stated adamantly.
Both Har and Blonc looked on in confusion as the discussion turned to one of magical Skills and practices before it became heated between the master mage and four-year-old. One with decades of experience and centuries of tradition behind her training methods, the other with a rough theory and barely a year to back up her own, but said with the confidence of a child who was certain they were correct. Each side argued against the others methods, clearly thinking their own was the route to take with Losq’s training.
“Kori, that’s just not how it works. Sure, you learned that way, but your experience was not exactly… Typical.” Ortik tried to mediate between them.
Turning her attention to the chief the youngling continued to stubbornly hold her stance on the matter, “Your ‘Circle’ hasn’t been able to learn the skill yet, have they?” She questioned. Pointing back to Ylst she leveled the same accusation, “And neither have any of your inscriptionists or mages.” Said as a statement of fact rather than posing it as a question.
“No, not yet.”
“Correct…”
“And both of you are using the same methods that you tried to teach me with, right?” She continued, receiving a nod in response from each. “Then why are you insisting that your way is best?” She asked, trying to keep the hint of smugness out of her voice. As per usual, an attempt she failed at.
Ylst opened her mouth to reply, paused, started again, before closing her mouth and turning to look at Ortik.
The chieftain looked between the former master and apprentice mages and sighed again, “We’ve taught the magically gifted this way for centuries. It works, Kori.” He said exasperatedly.
The little hint of smugness grew a size or two at his response. “It works to make a mage or a shaman. Losq doesn’t want to be one of those.” She stated with certainty. “It hasn’t worked yet to make… Uhh…” She stopped mid sentence, realizing that in all of this conversation she now has no idea what Class she may end up with. “Is this a bad time to ask if anyone has any idea what Class I might end up as?”
The sudden shift from confident defiance to childish uncertainty nearly floored the Elders, at least those paying attention. Blonc was still mostly just daydreaming of magical booze and not having to drink half a cask to feel anything. Ylst, Har, and Ortik were each thrown off their guard, quickly changing from the tone of an annoyed adult trying to explain something to a stubborn child into a pensive one. Sharing questioning looks between themselves before shaking their heads in denial towards each other.
When none of the others speak up, Ortik realized that it would fall to him to answer her and responded, “I am afraid not, Kori.” He told her, “We expect it will be centered around your imbuement Skill. Har asked around several months ago when you first created the ointment and closest we could find was that it may be some kind of mix between the herbalist and potion maker professions.” He explained.
Har picked up where the chief left off and began telling her what he had found. “There is a potion shop in Whatzakt, I showed the proprietor one of your ointments and they scoffed at it. Claimed that it was ‘Some worthless herbal remedy’ and to go bother the herbalists.” He described, making it clear the condescending tone that the vendor had used. “Except when I showed it to an herbalist, they looked at me like I had grown a second tail… Apparently they don’t make anything with mana in it.”
“Um… What’s a potion?” Kori asked, confused by the unknown term.
The Elders all gave her deadpan stares in response to her question, having once again forgotten that they were still dealing with a four-year-old and not a much older and knowledgeable kobold.
While none of the others joined him, Har had a hearty laugh at her confusion. “See, this is why I’m the best choice. You’ve had her for a whole year and she doesn’t know what a potion is…” Shaking his head at the idea of it. “What other gaps have you left in her knowledge, huh?” Poking Ortik as he asked. “I bet she’s never even seen a coin, have ya?” Directing his attention back to Kori.
“A… Coin?” Her befuddlement growing further with yet another unknown.
Planting his face into his hands and letting out a response that could only be described as what happens when you attempt to both sigh and laugh at the same time, “This is going to be more work than I thought…”
“It’s not like she’s a trader; she’s no need to understand currency and we only keep a few potions around for emergencies.” Ortik said, trying to excuse her lack of knowledge. “We mostly just use draughts, drafts, and poultices to supplement the Circle’s magical healing.”
“And none of you considered that maybe she could make them with that Skill of hers?” Har responded, displeased with the others failure to see the potential right in front of them.
“I… No. Alright, no. I didn’t consider that Har.” Ortik admitted.
With a wink towards his newest pupil, “And that, is how you win a negotiation the other side doesn’t even know they’ve entered into.” Grinning at his apparent victory, though Kori couldn’t for the life of her fathom what he had won or why.
Attempting to return to their derailed conversation about the training of Losq, neither Ylst nor Ortik could really argue against Kori’s logic, their own attempts to teach others her Skill had failed. Kori’s desire to keep her own efforts separate made some sense, even if it didn’t work, they’d learn from it. Ylst still wanted to observe and to monitor the young man’s progress, but she reluctantly agreed to refrain from providing any tutelage. Though Kori still extended an offer for her to assist.
“How about after you meet with Losq, you give me pointers on how I could help him.” She offered, “We can make the teaching plan together so I don’t miss anything important?”
After a few moments to consider the offered solution, Ylst gave a nod. “That could work.” She agreed.
“Don’t forget that he’s still Aldr’s apprentice, he needs to agree first.” Ortik interjected, trying to keep them from getting ahead of themselves. Once he’d received nods and murmurs of acceptance from the pair, he decided that it was long past time that the meeting had ended, near everything that could be settled had been. “Is there anything else we need to discuss now, or can I finally go have something to eat?”
“We’re not quite done yet, chief. There’s still the matter of supplying this little venture of ours.” He said with a grin, looking forward to what he knew came next. “I have an order for Bolst of some more replacement glassware that I can divert towards setting up a work space.” A mischievous grin on his face at the prospect. “We’ll use the old quarry like we’d discussed earlier.” Turning his attention to Blonc, “Can your warriors sweep it for any unwelcome occupants tomorrow? The pit itself is flooded but the storage chambers up top should be fine.”
Blonc gave the trader a quick nod before agreeing, “We’ll make quick work of anything that we find down there.” Followed by an excited smile. Even Kori realized that he was hoping something had moved in for him to evict.
He turned next to Ylst, “Can your mages reinforce a room or two and block them off from the wider space?”
“Sure. Once He’s,” Pointing to the martial, “Done his bit, I’ll get the earth mages down there.” She agreed.
“Great, then we’ll just need some odds and ends and ingredients.” He handed Kori a piece of paper, “Write down what you’ll need to get started, everything from containers to tools to stools and tables.” Pushing a quill and inkwell over as well. “I’ll see what I can get.” Looking back to Ortik while Kori started to write down a list of beakers, grinders, burners, runes, and anything else she could think of, as the list grew, Kori skipped down the page and drew a line across before titling the top as ‘Needs’ and the bottom as ‘Wants’. The distinction garnering her a nod of approval and a grin from her new mentor.
“Now, chief. The big question.” He started, a tone of solemnity entering his voice. Ortik frowned at him, gently tapping his claws on the table. Just as everyone is able to tell when Kori is about to ask her infamous ‘why?’, it is well known to the chieftain what comes next when Har talks in that particular manner. “What’s my budget?”
“Ten gold.” Ortik replied, attempting to sound firm in his declaration.
“Ten?” Har replied with a ton of mock outrage, as though the offer were a pittance. Which to be fair, as far as Kori knew, it was. “That’s barely enough to cover Bolst’s glassware. I’ll need at least thirty to set her up properly.” He responded, a glint in his eye showing how much he was enjoying himself. Their negotiation went back and forth for several rounds, Har giving ground slowly as he worked Ortik upwards. Whether it was in the name of safety, efficiency, or expediency, there was always some reason to persuade Ortik just a bit higher than he wanted to go.
In the end he managed to talk him up to twenty-two gold and was clearly proud of himself over it. His attention returned to his new charge, “Well apprentice, I do hope you were paying attention. Not often you get to watch a master demonstrate their skills.”
As he said the word ‘master’, Kori heard the chieftain scoff and mumble ‘master, my tail.’ to himself.
