Maikana
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Chapter 62 – Potentially pilfered pigment?
🕑 Added 2025-06-04 04:55:58 +0000 UTC“You still deny it?” Zln replied, a thread of mana joining into the spiritual energy swirling around her body, feeding it like fuel to a flame. “You’re not the only one with [Spiritual Sense] you know.” Her words still impassive and cold, but with a thread of sarcasm bleeding through. “I can see its spirit clinging to you as it cowers in my presence.”
Utterly baffled by the woman’s words, Kori turned her own senses upon herself, half expecting to see luminous spiritual energy drifting from her own scales. There was nothing of the sort, at least that she could see. Until her gaze drifted to the satchel hanging at her hip at least. Within, just barely visible through the thick leather of the bag, there was a flicker of spiritual energy, a candle compared to the blazing torch of the shaman confronting her.
The bits of the puzzle finally clicked together and, she hoped, she understood what the woman was so angry about; she thought that Kori had stolen the little inkwell, and the spirit that called it home, that Ortik had gifted her.
“Wait! You don’t mean my inkwell, do you?” Reaching into her satchel to retrieve the sturdy piece of crystal and present it to Zln. “I didn’t steal it!” Held aloft without the obstruction of the bag, the inkwell shone with an inner light, almost as if it were trying to stand up to the intimidating presence in front of it.
Revealing the little stoppered quartz inkwell seemed to finally satisfy the shaman, at least a little, as a slightly smug smirk flashed across her visage only to quickly be lost as the mask of indifference returned once again.
“And she finally shows her true colours.” Zln responded with a shake of her head and dispassionate disappointment. “You are not a member of the Circle. To take a spirit vessel after you have been dismissed is hubris and folly.”
The further the woman delved into whatever state she had entered, the less reserved her manner of speech seemed to become. She was beginning to seem like a completely different person compared to the taciturn bruiser she’d seemed earlier.
“But I didn’t! Ortik gave it to me.” Her words having little impact. “He said that the little spirit liked me…”
Zln scoffed at what she saw as a poor excuse and reached for the inkwell, clearly intending to confiscate the supposedly misappropriated object.
Where her aura made contact with that emanating from the crystal, sparks of energy surged between them. Visible even without relying on her Skill and a look of surprise shattered Zln’s calm momentarily as she pulled her hand back as though she had been burned.
“What?!” She yelped; the tables turned as she was now the one baffled. While the shaman had withdrawn her hand, the little spirit seemed to have been on the loosing end of the exchange, its light dimming and retreating back within the confines of the inkwell.
Kori pulled her hands back to her chest and hugged the crystal vessel close protectively. “Stop! You’re hurting it!” She screamed passionately. Seeing the dwindling light within, Kori tried to comfort the spirit, though she had no idea on how to go about doing so.
“It’s a feisty little thing, that’s for sure.” Zln mused, still staring at it intently. “While I cannot say it chooses to be in your possession, it obviously does not wish to be in mine…”
“I’m… I’m not even sure it knows I’m here… Ort… the Spiritcaller said my resonance was non-existent…” Kori admitted, recalling he had told her that the spirits within the Circle hadn’t even noticed her.
The admission surprised Zln even further, breaking her from whatever state she had been in as her focus broke. “Non-existent? That’s possible?” With the state gone, it seemed like most of her vocabulary had fled with it as she returned to the barest of sentences.
“Apparently…” Her response purposefully mimicking the woman’s manner of speech.
“No wonder you failed.” The shaman’s words cut deep into that particular old wound. With the spirit rejecting her presence, though it was clear that she still didn’t accept the excuse that she had been given, Zln finally seemed to relent on the matter. At least for now. “I will verify this. If you’ve lied, we will share more than just words.”
Kori found herself involuntarily swallowing at the sheer menace in her words, even without the spiritual presence. Or maybe it was the half-dozen or so humans in armour that were closing in on them from either direction. Both were definitely possibilities.
Kori couldn’t say she blamed the humans for calling for the guards. Zln was really scary and she’d have probably done the same. They were spread out across the street, leaving little avenue, and even less of a chance, for the kobolds to slip through
At least for the moment, none of them had drawn the weapons that hung from waists but hands certainly rested on hilts of long blades or hafts of heavy maces. As the groups neared, one of the guards coming up the street behind them pulled ahead of the rest before stopping a few meters away from them.
“Halt, you are wanted for questioning regarding a disturbance.” He bellowed in an aggressive and commanding tone.
Kori shared a look with the imposing shaman, before realizing that the woman looked a bit confused.
“You don’t speak Vorisian do you…” Kori whispered out, realizing as Zln shook her head that she was on her own in dealing with the humans.
Kori turned around to face the group of guards, leaving the second standing menacingly behind her. “Uhh… we were just having a bit of a misunderstanding…. uhhh… Sir…” She squeaked out, trying to sound meek and apologetic.
“There were reports of offensive magics being released within the town.” Most of the guards seemed to relaxing somewhat, their hands leaving weapons as Kori spoke and there didn’t seem to be any active threat ongoing at the time. Though most eyes were still on Zln, who was scowling and showing teeth. The lead guard looked at Zln as well before continuing. “Do you corroborate what this child has said?”
Zln just continued to look on with her same confused scowl, not understanding a single word of what the man had asked of her.
“She doesn’t speak Low Vorisian, Sir.” Kori tried to explain. “Do you speak Creation by any chance?”
Kori didn’t quite get the words that followed from the guard, something like ‘damned scalekin’, but she wasn’t really sure what he meant by saying something about family of scales. She could at least make some assumptions that it wasn’t meant to be polite by the first word.
“I’ll take that as a no…” Answering her own question.
The guards slowly herded them near to one side of the street as they continued to speak, the foot traffic slowly resuming as the townsfolk realized that the guards had whatever the situation had been well under control. Though everyone seemed to be walking a bit slower to try to get a better look at whatever was going on.
In a less menacing tone, his words sounding well rehearsed and oft repeated, “Please explain exactly what had happened and what abilities or magics were employed. Should it be determined that any potentially damaging abilities were engaged you will be arrested and either imprisoned or fined and banned from returning to this town.”
Kori, not liking the sounds of those options quickly repeated the man’s words to Zln while trying to ascertain exactly how to describe what the woman had done.
“Well… Animist Zln believed I had taken something from home that I wasn’t supposed to, which I had not, and the discussion got… argumentative?” She tested out the word, not sure if she’d used the right one, before nodding to herself. “Her class is… odd…” She quickly conferred with Zln on how to explain what had happened, “when she got upset her abilities manifested as an intimidating presence.” Repeating what she had been told. “She did not activate any magics or use any abilities specifically.”
Kori noticed that as she was speaking, the guard wasn’t watching her but one of the other humans behind her. When she glanced at the woman standing closer than the others on the other side, she saw her nod as Kori ended her sentence. It seemed like the rest of the guards relaxed even further at seeing the nod, even the leader finally moving his hand away from his weapon.
In a much less authoritative tone, he proceeded to ask her some additional questions. “Please answer each of these questions with a simple yes or no response.” He ordered her. “Were any offensive or damaging actions taken by either of you.” Kori shook her head no, before he prompted her. “You must answer verbally.”
“Oh. No, we didn’t.” she replied.
“Again, simple yes or no.” He replied tiredly.
“No.”
“Very good.” He nodded. “Next, did either of you activate any magics.”
“No”
“Good.” Nodding again as he looked at the woman standing behind Kori. “Next, have either of you committed any crimes in Whatzakt.”
“Uhh… I don’t know?” Kori answered, unsure as to how to answer the question. “I don’t think so, but… well… I just met Animist Zln this morning.”
At her lacking answer the guard looked unhappy, glances and expressions exchanging between himself and his counterpart behind them looking like a whole conversation was taking place.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “that’s good enough I guess.” A curt gesture with his hand dismissing the majority of the other guards. “Keep any arguments to your part of the city from now on.” He made it clear that he wasn’t happy with the outcome, seeming that he’d have preferred to haul the pair in in chains. “A complaint will be filed with your representative and any fines levied will be communicated at that time.”
With the final admonition both teams of guards marched off in the directions they had approached from, the lead guard stomping off with a final glare at Kori and Zln.
Returning her attention to the shaman, Kori sighed and asked, “Can we try not to do that again?” trying to add a bit of levity back into their conversation that had been too serious for too long.
The only response she received from Zln was a snorted “Hmph.” before she resumed walking in the same direction they had been going originally.
Still not recognizing the route that they were taking from her prior trip, Kori tried to find out if they were still going where Har had directed them to originally, “Sooo… are we going to head back to the main road to get to the herbalist’s?”
“This is faster.” Was all the older woman replied before picking up her pace. She was back to her less verbose responses already, it didn’t seem like she would be getting any more information out of her.
The rest of their trek was much less exciting, or rather nerve wracking, than the beginning had been. Zln barely said another dozen words the rest of the way, and most of those were spent on variations of “walk faster” or “keep up”.
Kori did notice that they were attracting much more attention than she was used to, with people whispering and pointing as they passed and several guards eying them with a range of looks from suspicion to downright hostility. Similar to the caverns, news spread quickly in the town. And gossip travelled even faster.
When they finally arrived at the herbalists, Imelda was out in the yard tending to the various herbs and plants that were hung to dry. Baskets of fresh greenery were strewn about ready to be tied into bundles and hung, while others were slowly being filled with those already dried to be brought indoors.
She spared a moment to give the young kobold a welcoming wave and a quick “Good Morning, Kori” before returning to her task, a task that Kori eagerly offered to assist with before realizing that the lines the herbs were hanging from were well out of reach. She felt her scales flush and was certain that she had turned a lighter shade, especially after seeing Zln crack a smile, but thankfully it didn’t seem the human woman had noticed at least.
“Why don’t you take the baskets inside while I finish tying up the new bundles?” Imelda replied to her offer of aid gratefully.
While the work was being completed, Zln disappeared off to somewhere. Kori wasn’t really sure where or when she would be back as the shaman hadn’t actually said anything to her, she just wasn’t there anymore when she came back out to fetch the next basket.
I guess I’ll be here until she comes back… or I’ll have to find my way home later…
