Mending and Havoc by Soulwing98 | World Anvil Manuscripts | World Anvil

The Jack's Tantum

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So that would be the ivory jack ... I like him even less than I did tolerate that strange ambassador. But calm down, Denton. He only openly attacked a fellow Kobold proving he is full of shit. You got that. Be a good conversation partner and that hunk of a drake - stop fantasizing about him, I command you, you stupid horny kobold brain!

Denton gritted his teeth, trying to push away the thoughts of desire, attempting to concentrate on the ivory drake prone to drop out of the ceiling at any moment confronting them. He observed how Jack. his upper body still on the other side of the portal, the feet seemingly standing in the air, looked at the unknown kobold in his massive hand with a tired expression. Denton was only able to see small sections of his kin, with the rest covered by the 4-meter drake's giant fingers squeezing them tightly. One angry grunt later, the ivory drake got tired of threatening the mirrormage and flicked him effortlessly to some remote location on the other side of the portal, not even keeping eye contact until the poor bastard landed in something loud. He was now looking downwards at Denton's group with an angry expression distorting his handsome lizard face.

"So'teyo!? Did you dare to summon me to take a look at them? They are kobolds!? They are even hardly worth the time of our bronze kobold lover. Just look at that path-"

The words of Jack died out after he allowed himself a closer look at the siblings, and his anger got furious. However, a grain of curiosity got mixed into the bubbling cauldron of untamed emotions. The drake hovered down to the ground, and his massive legs connected softly with the floor not making any sound despite his massive stature. He crossed his arms and looked down at the bunch with newfound interest. He spared only a single pitying stare towards Denton, seemingly upset that another perfect albino breathed the same air as he did. But when his eyes met Bianca, his eyes widened in an expression of anger. Jack's focus snapped onto her halo, which was glimmering softly, and he let out a deep growl turning slowly into a peal of dangerous laughter.

"Orororo, that is rich! Where did you even find these clowns? In a dumpster? A splinter of my legacy and what!? That halo! A cleric!? How the heck am I not aware of a cleric amidst our rows? The army lacks new medics, we are losing countless brave soldiers, and this pathetic excuse of a lizardkin didn't follow the call of patriotism!?"

With a blinding fast move of his hand, Gâteau grabbed Bianca, squeezing her tightly, and moved her close to his face many meters above the ground letting her feel his hot breath streaming through her orange hair. Bianca was seemingly in pain or shock; Denton couldn't tell. But he was ready to fight if necessary to get his sister out of that giant's grasp. Thilarie, however, stepped beside him and grabbed his arm shaking her head. He realized that any wrong move could mean the end of their brief journey out of the slums, ending back in the slums or even worse. So he looked up stripped of his power, his hands tied, unable to aid his sister. With pain, he listened to Bianca's repressed scream, direly hoping it was only an expression of shock.

Bianca was not prepared when she got plucked from the ground like pest plants. She felt the burning despise in the fingers threatening to crush her small frame and she screamed up when she heard her shoulders snapping. Luckily it was nothing serious she realized. Nothing, besides her cramped-up shoulders getting forced hurtfully into a different position. But it was more than enough for her anger to burn up forgetting her respect for the Triumvirate. With tears in her eyes, she looked into the drake's giant eyes and spat out the following words like poison.

"Does the fact, how you treat me, answer why I didn't? I heard stories from veterans about how you treat your clerics. Used as cannon fodder after bewitching them with powerless ranks. Giving them so much to heal, they literally burn out overstraining their body. I heard of their halos being solid and graspable but their expression empty and lifeless having worked themselves to the point past total exhaustion. I didn't want to throw away my life that way, I wanted to serve my country differently. So be a good Jack and set me down, or else!"

Bianca felt the hand tightening up, making it hard to respire. She angered Jack, but her anger burned brighter after seeing what he did to the kobold from before. His eyes glowed up, his rage was perfect; Bianca felt how much the words of her penetrated his shell of pride:

"You dare to threaten me, worm? You should beg for my mercy, offering me gods and Prius to do everything possible to repay the insult of your existence to me. Kobolds like you are the worst! Are you aware that the blood of those you haven't saved on the battlefield is sticking to your paws? How can you even live with that shame? But you came here for something else you say. Something more valuable than countless lives. ... Now tell me, girl! Why exactly was I summoned? My patience is non-existent. But I feel generous and will grant you a single sentence to convince me. Make it count!"

Bianca let out a gurgling sound, which should have been answered by the ivory jack loosening up his grip, but he remained in his firm grasp not moving a muscle. She gasped for air, trying to gulp down any curses she wanted to throw at this barbaric excuse of a leader. She felt unable to comply with Jack's demands and continued to gurgle helplessly.

Denton's rage burned up, and he felt his mind snapping in half, witnessing his sister getting harmed without anybody interfering. He looked helplessly to the silver king and then to the bronze queen, but both met his angered face with an expression of deep regret trying to find a solution for the situation unravelling. Seeing them not moving a single muscle, Denton overpowered in a fit of rage Thilarie's grasp freeing his arm from her gentle grasp. His arcane essence, fueled by Khôra's shared desire for wrath, consumed him, and a purple aura appeared around his arms, solidifying in a thick mist covering his fist, reinforcing them with a touch to eradicate all living matter. He was about to degrade the jack's left foot with a few erasing punches into nothingness but got suddenly retrained by a silver tail coiling around him. The sharp sizzling shushes of the silver king got through to him in an attempt to alter his decision of attempted treason.

"Don't attempt anything you might regret, young kobold."

So'teyo looked up to the ivory Jack, commanding him with a cold voice to be able to freeze even hell. His silver body lighted up gleaming bright illuminating the whole hall in the silver radiance of a master of light successfully getting everybody's attention.

"Stop hurting her, Gâteau! You are making a major mistake, be reasonable ... for once."

"I was expecting our kobold lover to stop me, wanting to see her act up for once. Fine, I will loosen my grip around this traitorous harlot. But if she doesn't deliver anything worth even a second of my attention ... I will remeet her in the evening on trial, where she will pay for her decision to mock me. And you, you purple poison dwarf! Don't you dare raise your hands against me ever again, or I will squash you like the pathetic fly you are."

The grip loosened up only after Gâteau was done talking, and Bianca could breathe again. She started coughing, sending sparks of healing energy into her lungs to repair the bruises. When Bianca recovered enough to grasp reality once more, she felt the fatigue of overusing her ability hammering against her brain. She looked up at her tormentor gritting her teeth. The ivory jack was someone she admired now for the longest time despite actively living against his orders keeping a low profile. She felt hatred for this respectless and cruel giant but understood his anger on the given level at least. That, however, didn't excuse him from trying to strangle and crush her.

Collecting herself, she abandoned all emotions out of her voice, speaking up with an unfamiliar cold and iron voice pronouncing every voice as if it was her last.

"We ... have developed an arcane cure for cancer!" 

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