Kaldalis pushed his way through the crowd to emerge at the back of the courtyard, towards the sleeping tents. It wasn’t easy. Folks were starting to press in as Ikzoz started giving some sort of speech about the nobility and bravery and whatever of the Adventurers League. But Kaldalis didn’t want any part of that, and started to stomp his way towards his tent. Even if it meant he had to aggressively push his way through the crowd.

As he neared his destination, someone caught his arm.

He whirled on them.

Kaldalis wasn’t sure who to expect, but he managed to stop his other arm from cocking up for a punch. Just barely.

At first, he didn’t recognize them. It wasn’t Balrim or Myrin or even Haldir.

They were a Talsar, but with lighter brown scales. Familiar, but not someone on the forefront of his mind. It took Kaldalis a long, awkward moment to recognize her. He didn’t know her name, but she was one of the League crafters. One of the alchemists who worked under Sardol to manufacture the incense for the censers.

“Kaldalis,” she said with a thin smile. “I was just looking for you before the vote. The incense is finally finished. With the materials you and your friends provided, we have two censers worth.”

“Great, but why tell me?” He pointed back towards the head of the crowd, where Garyung was waving his hands, trying to quiet the crowd before giving whatever victory speech he was going to give. “There’s your leader.”

“What?” she blinked her slit-pupiled eyes at him. “But you’re-”

“I’m nobody,” he grumbled. “Apparently.”

She tried to say something, but he stormed off before she could do more than flick her tail in irritation. If he stuck around, he was going to unload all his emotions on her, and while there were plenty of people he felt he could empty his baggage all over, she wasn’t one of them. Her concern was with the censers, and he wasn’t a part of that anymore. The people had spoken, and apparently only six people wanted him to be in charge of anything.

He wondered who those six votes were. Balrim and Myrin, at least. Bangen had promised her vote to him as well, and she was trustworthy enough to stick to that promise. But then who were the other three? He might never know. He could ask Ikzoz, but he was a smart enough administrator that he’d keep his lips sealed. Then again, that also depended on the quest even identifying the individual voters instead of just presenting the tally at the end. He might never know who the other three were unless they outed themselves.

He found himself hoping that Heluna had changed her mind after they’d spoken. He didn’t know why she’d popped into his head first - and not Haldir or Dalgaard or even Ikzoz. But she was who he thought of, after those who had already promised him their vote. She’d been determined not to vote for him for his own good. He supposed he’d have to start looking for the good in this situation, and hope that it was enough to thank her for it.

Then again, he hadn’t lost by a one-vote swing. He’d only gotten six votes. Barely more than five percent of the votes of those present. He couldn’t even go to Ikzoz and ask for an extension, so the votes of those who hadn’t made it to the vote could tip the scales. Garyung had won by an absolute landslide, and Kaldalis wasn’t even the distant second who could grump and ask for a recount. Even if they re-ran the vote with just Garyung and one other competitor, Garyung had easily taken more than half the votes. No one was touching him.

“Balrim was right the whole time,” he muttered to himself. “It’s all just a popularity contest. Nobody cares about fitness to lead. Just who they feel is their friend.”

He tried not to remind himself that he had probably displayed about as much fitness to lead as Garyung had. There hadn’t exactly been a proper campaign trail. It wasn’t like they’d presented their personal philosophies to the voters.

That made it worse, not better. Kaldalis didn’t even have the chance to explain himself. The voters hadn’t simply chosen Garyung’s stance over Kaldalis’s. They’d chosen Garyung over Kaldalis on name recognition alone. Of course he didn’t have a chance.

He got back to his tent before he realised how fast he was walking, and threw the flap aside to storm in. He stomped back and forth angrily in the small space, punching the pillow on his cot every time he walked by it. The physical catharsis of every punch was satisfying, but it didn’t really feel like he was making progress.

“Just calm down,” Kaldalis said to himself. “I just need to calm down enough to sleep. A good night’s sleep and then another full day of fishing, and I’ll be right as rain.”

What to focus on, though? His head kept coming around to the people he’d spoken to. Aurigeant practically campaigned right to him about Garyung’s virtues. Sivima told him about how big a help he was around the camp. Heluna described how he was perfect for the job - and that Kaldalis wasn’t.

That one still hurt the worst. At least Aurigeant and Sivima had described why they were voting for Garyung. Heluna’s reasons were almost entirely on why she wasn’t voting for Kaldalis.

He found himself wanting to talk to her. She had all the answers for why the expedition leader position was wrong for him, right? Maybe she could tell him how. Convince him that this was for the best. But the last thing he wanted to do was storm off and look for her. He was afraid that the first thing he’d do was start yelling. Ask her if she wanted to rub it in his face. Celebrate his humiliating defeat. As much as he wanted to blow off steam, she didn’t deserve his anger.

Instead, he flopped down on his cot and tried to think about what she’d told him. Heluna had warned that he would be saddled with responsibility, and that much was true. Onirioago had barely spent any time outside of the encampment despite her lust for glory. If he was tied up in meetings and administrative tasks, he wouldn’t be able to do anything fun, either. Then again, Onirioago apparently never delegated a task in her life, micromanaging everything. Perhaps he could schedule meetings with Forturns to give him an excuse to go fishing. Appoint Heluna as liaison between the League and the sailors, as an excuse to meet up with her to hang out. Schedule meetings with Balrim, Myrin, and Haldir to go out on adventures.

But that would all be - technically - abuses of power. Ways to make the job fit into his current lifestyle. It wouldn’t deal with the new tasks that would be thrust upon him. He would have to deal with the responsibilities that Garyung was now saddled with.

Thinking of that reminded Kaldalis that he didn’t know what should be done with Onirioago. He hadn’t given it any thought to his own plans beyond keeping her away from him. But now it was Garyung’s problem. As much as he was grateful for that, Garyung wasn’t on Onirioago’s shit list. He might go easy on her - or her associates - since his ass wasn’t on the line. In fact, he might be taken in by her side of the story. They might team up and-

“That’s crazy,” Kaldalis said to himself suddenly. “As much as he’s not my favorite person right now, he’s a good guy.” He shook the thought of Garyung’s hypothetical betrayal out of his head. “At best, he’s my rival. Not my enemy.”

With a heavy sigh, Kaldalis flopped down into his cot, staring at the ceiling of his tent. At the end of the day, Heluna was right. He never wanted to be tied down to the government. He didn’t want dealing with Onirioago to be his job.

But he did want to be recognized.

He wanted to be remembered.

Kaldalis wanted more than six people to know that he was helping the camp. It didn’t seem too much to ask that - after all he’d done - he wasn’t nearly tied for last place in a vote.

He had the sudden mad urge to send a message to Nakala. To ask her if it was okay that a PC was in a position of authority over the encampment. The menus and options that Garyung was getting access to might be unfinished, and the devs might want an NPC in charge instead for a while yet until the game was ready to go from beta into live.

The desire was unfounded, and he pushed it aside. If the devs wanted to do anything, they would. It wasn’t like the whole vote wasn’t streamed by a hundred different people. He wouldn’t be a tattletale telling them something they already knew. Kaldalis knew he was being a sore enough loser already. He didn’t need to be spamming report on someone because things went their way instead of his.

It wasn’t like he was a twelve-year-old MOBA player.

That thought reminded him suddenly that there were people watching through his eyes right now. As much as he rushed off the scene to hide his temper tantrum from the crowd, anyone watching his stream had seen him storming around the tent.

“Bad day,” he announced aloud for the benefit of the stream. “Just a couple bad nights making me too grumpy for this shit. I’ve been skating the line on sleep requirements, and it’s hurting me.” He took a deep breath. “If the people want Garyung, they’ve got him. It’s not my business anymore.

“I’m not a sore loser,” he lied as he got undressed for bed. “I’m just tired.”

He stewed silently in his own frustration until he fell asleep.