Sigh. If he sees the kobold he can try teleporting it even if that fucks up everything.

After another couple minutes, the guards go to check the stall the kobold is hiding in, and the kobold makes a break for it.

Literally everything about this situation is infuriating him and there is nothing at all he can fucking do -

The kobold is fast, but still bleeding badly, and visibly flagging. And the guards are fast, too, and coordinate well; soon they have them boxed in.

In a last, desperate bid for freedom, the kobold lunges for one of the guards, trying to bite him; the attack lands with the sound of crunching bone and a scream. Two of the guards immediately converge on them and grab the kobold by the scruff of the neck.

Oh, look, a still target. Teleport.

The guards are alarmed and then confused, trying to figure out why the kobold didn't just teleport away when they were first spotted. One of them starts helping his injured coworker go get his arm taken care of; the remaining ones debate for a few more seconds and then start searching the area in hopes of finding the kobold mage they're guessing is nearby.

"Kobolds don't have a teleportation spell," he says. "But Quendi do and our gods command us not to stand aside for the killing of prisoners."

The guards are not pleased about this. "Well, that's not how we do things here." Fucking worthless kobolds; fucking worthless kobold sympathizers.

"Yeah, I'd noticed. If it were how you did things here there'd have been no call to intervene. He's thousands of miles away, he won't encourage any of his friends to try it."

The leader of the guards is finally starting to calm down enough to put together that a) this is one of those Quendi he was told in no uncertain terms not to bother, and b) if he can in fact teleport, they're very, very outmatched. Being an undeclared mage and aiding a kobold may be a bridge too far on the first point, but even if that were his call to make, the second one still stands.

"With an injury like that it's probably dead anyway. C'mon, team, let's go report it."

He goes home.

Nidela's still asleep; Ila notices him come in and pads out to say hi.

"Hi."

She headbutts him affectionately. You seem stressed.

Just people being worthless idiots, nothing new.

Yeah.

It'd probably be okay to wake Nidela if you want someone to talk to.

I am pretty used to people being terrible, it's okay.

All right. She curls up carefully on the couch.

He goes upstairs and flops and scowls.

Ila checks in on him briefly after half an hour, but otherwise leaves him alone until Nidela wakes up, at which point she herds the elf up to his room. Hey, something happen?

People were being stupid. So, same thing as every fucking day.

Ah. She sits on the edge of the bed. Somebody in particular?

Well, firstly the stupid fucking kobold who thought sneaking into the city to steal things was a great idea - also injured one of the guards pretty badly, but I doubt they intended their robbery to also include grievous injury - and then the stupid fucking guards who refused to listen to any conclusions other than 'kill it'.

Oh no.

A note about bad things: freaking out about them doesn't help. But yep. Worthless idiots.