>>5319962>>5319902>>5319800>>5319792>>5319778>>5319750>>5319703>>5319646>>5319615>>5319576>>5319385>>5319310>>5319257>>5319249>>5319243>>5319238>>5319219>>5319213>>5319210It’s a good speech. You KNOW it is. You’ve rehearsed it in your head a dozen times. But when you speak it aloud…
>1Silence. Deafening silence.
“T-to that end,” you continue, feeling your stomach drop a little, “I have… I have accepted TWO kobolds into my official retinue—two of YORU people! Ivno, Agno, you have proven yourselves! Rise, and join me.”
Both kobolds freeze in place, as if struck by instantaneous rigor mortis. Ivno gradually rises, and shuffles to your side…
But Agno does not.
“Can’t believe you,” he hisses.
“What?!” you growl.
“Not you,” he replies, but whirls on Ivno. “You! Draggonborn LEFT Ohle! He KILLED Hako! Sent Hapo to die! Collapsed mine! Stole treasures! Burned village WE took!”
“Enough,” you pronounce. “ENOUGH.”
“No!” comes a cry from the crowd. “It’s true! No true Dragon! You take the dragons eggs into a chamber, to feed to mate—a monster!”
Gasps and chattering ring out from the crowd, even as the wise and cautious elders of the clan try to calm the young.
“She bleeds blue! She chatter-chitters like… Like… Freak!”
You spy the Bastard pushing and shoving the crowd, barking instructions and orders, applying his weaker Presence as best he can to maintain order. It isn’t enough. The Translator is backing away from the increasingly-agitated mass of kobolds—some loyal others not, all startled by this outburst. The Novice is already gone, no doubt retreating to her laboratory to protect her research (and Glowie, by proxy) against what is beginning to feel like an impending riot.
“We toil-toil, fight-fight, DIE, for LONG, DEEP time, while these ‘Masters’ hide away… And now they come, take what WE earned-kept?!” Agno spits.
Sikdo watches in silence, neither speaking against nor advocating for the young, hot-blooded male. Tessu edges away—not necessarily out of moral disagreement, you feel, but out of fear for the retribution and conflict to come. Ivno, alone of the four on your raised pedestal, remains loyal—but not out of love, but greater fear and respect for your power.
