Goblin Progenitor

Lord Hamel began trying to calm down the table, He too had been shocked by what he had seen happen, when Calman had approached him he had shown him the crystal beforehand, and it had a woman's face.

"Gentlemen! ladies!... Shamus!! Please! Order! Order!" Lord Hamel used a minor fire blast from his hand to cause a flash in the room, people stopping from the sudden flash, only Shamus kept giggling, he was still causing incredible strain on the people here in the room.

"I am unsure what we are looking at, but! I can guarantee that this... Goblin... was not there earlier... Calman?" Lord Hamel explained himself, causing some of the anger to lower as he turned to look at Calman that had been silent and staring at the goblin in the crystal ever since it turned on.

"...Yes... Yes, Lord Hamel, I am afraid something horrible has happened to the chosen one... It was a woman after all... I am afraid that... That... The woman must have been captured by a goblin and... bred... Now... This goblin is the host..." Calman was looking at the crystal, he had made a hand gesture and cast a spell at the machine, as runes began to drift out along the machines spinning armatures and spinning cogs. Calman's eyes looking the runes over, some of the people at the table were also looking over the Runes, some of them were also gifted in the arts of magic.

"... Y.y.you cannot mean that..." Lord Hamel stuttered as he heard Calman speak and examine the machine.

"... I am afraid so... This goblin has a perfect connection with the Firespirit... I... I do not know how this is possible... It is like it was almost like the archmage himself..." Calman was staring at the runes, the machine he had kept running for years and that the family had used to read and detect their own bloodlines matches with the old archmage was showing perfect connections on all the vital points for the fire spirit. His mind was racing to try and understand how this could be..."

"So perhaps now it is finally time for the family to acknowledge what a hopeless cause it is to fight over the fire spirit, now that the fire spirit is mingled in with goblin blood... Once that one goblin mates with anything then the Fire spirit will never find its way back to our bloodline." Shamus suddenly interjected and sat with his hands in front of his face. Staring at Lord Hamel with an intense look in his eyes.

This caused the table once more to descend into a rabble most of them were now cursing at Shamus for his heresy, some were demanding Lord Hamel to find a solution, and then there were a few that went with Shamus and yelled back at the ones calling him a heretic.

"Calm down! Calm down!... Calman... This is clearly an issue... But is there something that can be done... Can we find this goblin...?" Lord Hamel raised his hands and raised his voice to quell the table from turning into a religious battle site.

"... It is possible... But it is a very vague search... If... If I was allowed to utilize pieces of the Ley Crystal I could create a portable search item... But... It would be incredibly hard to utilize and set up."

"You... Want to carve pieces of the Ley Crystal?? You will have to find another way! It is one of the Archmages greatest accomplishments!" Lord Hamel and a great deal of the members around the table were shocked.

An old woman sitting at the table, who also had been silent throughout the whole argument suddenly spoke out, the entire room of people stopped everything and turned to look at her. Her Name was Charlotte Firekeeper, she was one of the few people in the family that everyone respected. Her brother was the last person that had the fire spirit as a host, and she had guided her brother well back in the day. It was long past of course, but people still respected her since her tremendous work to gather wealth and fame for the family.

"Could we see the woman you saw in the picture one more time please?" Her voice was gentle and wizen, but everyone took special attention to hear her out.

"I ... Yes of course..." Calman adjusted some of the cogs on the machine, as it shut down. A new projection appeared to the side of the machine as he brought up a list of faces that were all connected in an incredible mesh of runes. He sifted through them until he came to the end of it. First, a picture of a young man with a smirk on his face, The old lady had a visible change on her face as she saw it, the face turning into a young woman.

The crowd murmured once more as they now looked at the girls face and the runes spinning around below her. Shamus himself was also quiet and looking with intent at the information.

"Her connection to the crystal is also perfect, it is extremely odd and it has also caused the way to identify her bloodline impossible via the runes as the normal tracking points are reverted to being that of the archmage... It is quite impossible... Since she does not look like a male at all..." Calman explained as he brought up the runes for people to examine, they all corresponded to the second set of runes perfectly.

"So you cannot see her connection to which of our families?" Lady Charlotte asked looking at the face and ignoring the runes.

"No Lady Charlotte... I am afraid not... " Calman bowed his head towards Lady Charlotte.

Charlotte looked with intense eyes at the face of the girl, taking in every detail. when she spoke.

"She reminds me of Lady Carlys... Her eyes and curly hair... The way her cheeks look..." Calman opened his eyes and lifted his head to look at the face. He put a hand to his chin and stared.

"Does anyone else see a resemblance from that family line?" Calman asked the people at the table. The old people sitting around started to examine the face. But no one interjected new information... until one of the men raised his hand.

People were stunned. In the last decade, this man had not involved himself in any important family business... They were even surprised he was here today. But it was required whenever a fire spirit host was here for the leader of a house to arrive. People looked at the man whose hand was shaking slightly as he looked up with sad eyes at the face.

"... She looks like my sister Restral..."

"The traitor..." "Blood polluter" The man cringed as he heard some of the people around the table made remarks about his sister, she who had escaped with an elf she had fallen for. The family had sent out many groups to hunt her and her child down to bring it back to the fold...

The old woman looked at the face of the girl, she nodded and looked to Lord Hamel with intense eyes.

"How is the hunt for her going?..." She said in a cold tone, the room all turned its attention to Lord Hamel.

"Last known location was during the fight that claimed 10 of our men and the Elf that had stolen the girl from our family... The last guessed locations were the Kingdom of Sandalsong and the Kingdom of Astoria, and with what I have heard the kingdom of Astoria has just suffered a major attack from the Dark kingdom...Perhaps there is a chance she was captured during this event..."

People murmured once more.

"I believe we should once more refocus on sending out our search parties and goto the kingdom of Astoria and follow up on all goblin attacks... Until that time... I would suggest we wait with any involvement with the Crystal... This is the best way forward for our family..." Lady Charlotte said quietly.

Lord Hamel nodded.

"I agree, we will do this for now... Calman, continue to study for any other options and le..."

"This is absurd... I say let us stop this foolishness! This fire spirit is destroying our family as it is currently!" Shamus stood up from the table and slammed his hand into the table.

"No more! Give up on this foolish attempt at trying to usurp control of the family and gaining access to the treasures of the Archmage! Stop being trapped in your old ways!" He said and turned to look at Lady Charlotte.

"Even your brother died a horrible -pointless- death at trying to reclaim the treasure, in the end, did he not? It does not matter how much we try to -tailor- our bloodline to match with the archmage. None of us will be able to gai..."

"Silence Lord Shamus!." Lord Hamel yelled angrily. Causing Shamus to stop and face Hamel. Lady Charlotte's face was shocked and then saddened as Shamus reminded her of her brothers final moments.

"You are not the one giving the orders here, once you have the proper votes for the leadership you can voice your pathetically heretical ways... But as long as I am the current leader you will silence your mouth and not cause my grandmother distress!"

"I only tell the truth... This pointless way we try to claim leadership over some fire spirit... Then when we -feel- that the host is strong enough we send them to a pointless death in the Archmages tower to try and unlock its powers for us... Only to then see our loved ones burned to ash screaming and dying pointlessly..." Said calmly, as he looked to the Lady Charlotte as he described what her brother had experienced when he was the host.

The council would overview and ponder on the time it was the best for a host to try and unlock the archmages tower since it required mastery over the fire spirit to accomplish. But if one failed the tower would launch out its overpowering defenses and one's body would slowly and surely begin to burn as their spirit burned along with their body. Their last moments on the realm filled with anguish and suffering.

Lady Charlotte looked away from Shamus and the room was quiet as many of the old people of the room can remember the time when her brother had been brought back from the tower, his body cracked and hot, as if a fire was burning inside him causing only damage to him.

In the end, the brother killed himself to avoid suffering, but his body kept burning until nothing remained.

"We will not do it your heretical way! We will do our best to become like the great Archmage, once we are strong in will and filled with power can we guide our family forward for the ages! we need but to have patience, that we will one day have a strong candidate that matches well with the archmage!" Calman suddenly interjected, Shamus stared at him as he spoke, when his eyes opened wide at something Calman had just said. He put both his hands on the table.

"I say we do it this way then... Find that goblin... And use it to open the tower..." Shamus said turning to look at Lord Hamel who stood back in shock, as well as the table all began to contemplate what he had said causing him to exclaim out loudly in defense of the family's ways.

"You... You cannot mean you would give up on our heritage! Abandon our grand goal!" Calman exclaimed in horror at the suggestion.

"Oh do not give me that droll! We all know we are in it for the treasure and the power for the family! This nonsense with the fire spirit is just to make a key that can open a tower... Well, there we have the key. And even better we have an endless supply of potential hosts that could keep attempting to open that tower... So no one of our own should suffer that fate..." Shamus said coldly as he turned to look at Lady Charlotte once more who had met his gaze as his own softened when it met hers.

"This is the best way forward for our family..." Shamus said with a calm voice.