I mean, I'd feel pretty awful about hoarding food when other people need it.

Taking care of yourself is important too, though. 

There's a saying about setting yourself on fire to keep others warm but given her history he probably shouldn't mention it.

...yes.

Yeah, that's why I didn't just give them everything but what we immediately needed. Chief's work, but I've had to get used to that.

Seems like you have the skills for it.

Mmhmm. Not sure I told you - I would probably have ended up chief of my tribe if I hadn't been a Speaker. I think they were even considering me for it after we knew I'd be one - wouldn't've been the best idea, to try to have one person doing both of those, but the only other chief's-kin kobold wasn't very well suited for the job either. Anyway, I got a bit of the early training, the basic logistics and stuff. Came in handy, when I was exiled - I think I did really well, going from having literally my hands and my magic to being prepared enough to have a comfortable winter within six months.

You did amazingly.

Well, the magic helped a lot.

The magic's a tool; it didn't make any decisions, did it?

No, but it made it possible to do a lot of things I wouldn't've been able to do without it. Being able to teleport right out to where I left off the previous day with gathering, so I didn't have to waste time walking through areas I'd already looked at, and just teleport things back with a touch instead of having to carry them - it really isn't comparable at all to what most people would've had to do.

And the Eldar need less food and can carry more of it, but still I'd be proud of someone who was cast out alone and figured it all out.

That, yeah.

It does feel weird to be doing chief's work when there are other people around like this, but I think given the situation I'm right to ignore that.

We wouldn't feel comfortable making the sort of decisions you've been making on your behalf, no.

I mean, deciding where I go and who I help and how isn't chief's work, not by kobold cultural standards. This particular situation is pretty far outside what you'd ever see among kobolds, but that definitely is the kind of thing that'd be personal decisions outside of an actual emergency situation - and even then I'm not exactly a member of either of these groups. Chief's work is more the logistics, big-picture stuff that affects everybody, that kind of thing.

Okay. We have lots of people thinking on that but you can think of things they don't.

...that's not really what I meant? Kobolds don't like one person having too much power, I'm already a Speaker and a mage, I kind of keep expecting someone to get upset at me for overstepping what's appropriate. Even though I know Eldar don't think about it like that.

They'll let you know if they think you're using it badly, don't worry.

Good. Grin.

I'm going to start heading out toward the elves, today, and I really ought to have a plan for who gets to learn the magic before I get out there. Anything I should be taking into consideration with that?

All of our people are trustworthy and will follow your guidance in this.

...I don't actually want to encourage that. I mean, some, yeah, I'm coming from a culture that's used to dealing with this and how we do it might be useful information, but I don't know what'll work best for you, you shouldn't just listen to me because I happen to be the one with the magic.

The one with the magic and lots of common sense in considerations in deploying it, so far. It's better to be conservative with this kind of thing.

That I definitely agree with. I'm not sure how, though, and still have things work out okay.

I might need to just wait until the political situation is more worked out, that's part of what has me worried.

It might be that coordinating among the Noldor doesn't matter as much now.

...maybe. Hadn't thought of that.

It might be that this war is going to be over in two weeks, I am somewhat hesitant to commit my people against their will for the war's sake if it's not going to be won that way anyway.

I don't think it's going to be quite that fast, but you're right.

And then how bad of a problem do we have if only one side has mages? Or a mage, but anyone with magic can share it.