Chapter 80 – Have you tried taking it off and putting it on again?

By the time the meeting had ended, a rough plan had been made. Kori would be something akin to an apprentice to all of the Elders and none of them at the same time. Ortik would govern her duties and schedule, while each of the others would ensure that she reached the potential she herself had laid claim to.

If she wanted all of it, then she was going to get all of it. From herbalism with Ortik, or a member of the Circle if he was busy, to toxins and lab safety with Bolst, to mana training with Ylst and so, so much more.

Even Blonc was getting in on the fun, promising to continue her training with a staff, unless she wanted a ‘real’ weapon Skill that was, and getting her comfortable in armour; plus, he was certain that the thrown weapon Skill they usually trained for javelins would be applicable to her vials. He was supremely disappointed in most of her physical Ability Scores, Kori just knew she wasn’t going to enjoy whatever it was that he had in store for here there.

The only Elders that weren’t on the list were Aldr and Korse; one because he didn’t think he had anything left to teach her after she swept through his lessons in just a few weeks and the other because they just couldn’t find any Skills that seemed transferable.

His reluctance had nothing at all to do with the idea of having Kori caring for and, more importantly, teaching the new hatchlings, absolutely terrifying Korse. He could just imagine a dozen little Kori’s escaping their dens and tugging his tail with questions. He loved her, like he did all of his chosen, but he was still glad that her many questions had been mostly redirected this past year.

In the end, the list was a fairly straight forward, if lengthy, one. Each elder would take a few days with her a month to impart their wisdom and she would have time between to work on her own to fulfil the needs of the clan. One of the first rules that was insisted on, to the grumblings of several Elders, was that training days were not to be used for production, anything that they wanted made for their people would be managed by Ortik, and he would divide up her creations by need.

She would also need to attend a meeting with the Elders once a week to go over progress, plans, and any changes as well as to keep in check with everything going on so she could know where to focus in her experiments. A day that over the next few months, became the busiest day for the Elders. They didn’t realize it at first but many of the petitioners slowly began waiting for her to be there each week, mostly because things just went faster when someone actually organized the line and kept things moving along.

Unfortunately for Kori, it was unanimously decided that the first to have a crack at her was probably the most likely to result in something actually cracking. Blonc. And not only that, but he’d get an extra day every week too, for physical training.

Is this revenge because I made them do so much extra work? It’s gotta be revenge… right?

Sure, my Vitality is low… and my Endurance… and my Might… okay, basically all of my physical abilities are low except for Agility, but I don’t need to be strong if I’m just gonna make stuff all day…

The Elder’s had tried to explain it to her that with her scores so much lower than they should be for her level, which to be fair most younglings didn’t reach a Racial Level of 9 until they were nearing their Class Day, and that she would need to raise them at least some just to be safe, she really didn’t accept the explanation until Bolst made his point.

“How many times do you think somethings exploded in my face or poisoned me over the years?” He asked, trying to ignore the snickers in the background and somebody whispering the forsaken word, ‘Oleander’, which caused a wince. “At least a couple of those were caused by an untimely yawn when I was tired…” He admitted, “Plus, you are definitely going to need more Finesse if you want to master precise work. ‘A steady hand makes steady work’ after all.” The way he quoted the saying, getting nods from a few of the others, made it stand out as being more than a simple platitude.

When the meeting finally adjourned, and with a smug grin like he was saying, ‘See, I told you she was coming with me.’, Blonc strode to the door and repeated the same thing he had said earlier. “Well, come along youngling!”

Worst part was, this time everyone had already agreed to it. Though not quite to the extent he had tried to get away with originally. Kori was stuck with him now.

Why’d I have to open my big mouth… ‘all of them’… seriously, Kori? Couldn’t I have added in an ‘except him’? And what’s the big idea making him first…

They’re not even letting me set up my lab before handing me off to the brute… It’s all right there in the waystation, just waiting for me to unpack and arrange it and get everything ready to go…

The trip over to the training grounds was a short one and it wasn’t until she was already there that she realized she’d been tricked. The day was nearly spent after their morning of traveling and all the arguing, her schedule didn’t even officially begin until the next day. Her attempt to bring up this point was simply met with a ‘why wait?’ and another grin.

Once they were there he pointed off to a side, “Go see Lhka, he’ll get you fitted with some training leathers.” He eyed her up and down with a critical gaze, “You’re still a bit scrawny, so first year apprentice stuff should fit.”

At the word ‘scrawny’, Kori’s gaze hardened and she scowled at the Elder. “Scrawny?! I am not scrawny… I’m… petite…” She used a word that Maribel had taught her, it didn’t translate quite the same between the languages though and the closest she could find in Creation came out more as ‘little and adorable’, but more in the way you would speak of a pet than a person.

This of course led to a bout of raucous, knee slapping, laughter from Blonc, who she somehow knew was picturing her as a little salamander standing on its hind legs and begging for food, turning her scowl into more of a pout as she marched over to the quartermaster she’d been directed to.

She tried not to take her anger out on Lhka, but it didn’t work all that well. “He wanted you to get me a set of training leathers.” She said brusquely, leaving out the comment about her size.

Kori wasn’t used to people not knowing who she was to some extent, she’d become somewhat famous, or infamous really, as the failed apprentice after being shuffled around more than a keg on festival day, so when Lhka gave her a look up and down and said, “You’re a month late, what’d ya do, fail out of your first apprenticeship already?” She was a bit surprised. And a bit insulted, he thought she was a three year old.

His tone was joking, but it still stung a bit with everything that had happened. Not wanting to explain things she just mumbled out, “Something like that…” and went back to scowling.

He eyed her up and down, “Well, I hear a fights brewin with them gobs, so guess we’ll take all kinds.” He hemmed and hawed a bit as he looked her over before shuffling off to a side chamber without saying anything.

Kori waited there for several minutes with sounds of shifting objects and grumblings of “Now where’d I put that…” coming from the opening before she saw the old warrior shuffling back out with a bundle of aged leather tucked under an arm.

“Here ya are.” He said, while casually tossing the bundle towards her. “Smallest I could find, might be a bit loose fer now, but you’ll grow into it soon enough.”

The bundle of leather, which it turned out was a padded tunic and britches, nearly bowled her over as she less caught them and more was impacted by them. They smelled musty and had more stains covering their surface then there was unmarred leather and in colours that made it difficult to determine if they were caused by blood, drool, or other bodily fluids.

“Don’t worry, they’re clean, well clean enough.” He grinned, “You’ll be addin new stains all your own before yer done with em I’m sure.” Lhka laughed before returning to what he was doing before she’d arrived, taking a spear out of the barrel on his left before beginning to sharpen its tip, which she assumed would then go to the other barrel of spears sitting on his right when he was done.

When she didn’t leave right away, the quartermaster just looked up, “Well, what ya waiting on? You’ve got weeks of catchin up to do, so unless you need something else, off with ya.”

After she was more or less dismissed by the grumpy old quartermaster, and with a few choice words said under her breath, she returned to Blonc. He just laughed when he saw the rather decrepit set of training armour she’d been given. “Heh, old Lhka really wasn’t in a generous mood today, was he.” Shaking his head. “Well, they’ll do. Tug the pants on over your own and tuck in your tunic, I’ll help you with the jerkin.”

She did as instructed, a bit worried that leaving her clothing on under the armour was going to damage it but not in the mood to strip down where she was in the middle of the training area.  The pants fit decently, with the extra layer underneath actually helping some.

Blonc checked her over critically, checking places where the britches had been patched or where the leather was wearing a bit thin. “Good enough. These’ll probably be scrapped once you’re done with em though.” He moved on to the jerkin, a click of his tongue communicating exactly what he thought about its state. He began undoing ties and buckles with a practiced hand, “Watch close, I’ll help you for now but the rest of your night is literally just putting this on and takin it off until you can do it blindfolded.” Her chuckle at his comment was met with a blank stare, “That wasn’t a joke.”

True to his word, Kori spent the rest of the evening putting on and taking off her new, at least to her, armour. At first he helped her, corrected her when she laced it incorrectly or didn’t tighten something enough, before slowly pulling back and just giving grunts of disapproval when she had a strap wrong or button out of place and letting her figure out the problem.

The blindfold even came out eventually. At the same time her much overdue dinner was sitting waiting for her. “You can eat it as soon as you’re properly armoured. One mistake and you start over though.”

The worst part of the exercise was that he didn’t tell her when she did something wrong, only when she thought she was done did he say ‘Start over’. Repeatedly. Again, and again. And he didn’t even let her take off the blindfold to look at what she’d done wrong. By the time she got it right and ate the disappointingly cold steamed fish and moss, she didn’t even want it anymore. She still ate it, there was no way she was not going to after all of that, but barely tasted any of it. That might have also just been the overall blandness of it after all the surface food too.

As soon as she was done Blonc dismissed her to return to her den, with the leather still on, and made it clear that she was to arrive first thing in the morning, wearing it perfectly. Before she could leave, he also warned her, “And don’t try sleeping in it to keep from having to put it back on in the morning. It’s miserable until you’re comfortable in armour and I need you rested for training!”

She tried to deny that she would do that, but it had totally crossed her mind before his warning. The idea of just getting back to her den in the brood chamber and collapsing onto her mat was still a tempting one.

As she left, she heard in a low voice from behind her, “Everybody’s always going on about how fast she learns… really thought she’d pick up armour mastery with the blindfold trick…”