Memory

Part 6

“Of course, they will,” Niko assured Kro. I looked up from my needle work to focus on their conversation.

“I don’t believe so,” Kro said, sounding very uncertain. “They’ve never looked kindly on those who can imprint.”

Niko put a hand on his shoulder. “But they’ve always had high opinions of you as a commander. You’re the best there is, and they know it. You just have to go in there and simply ask.”

Kro scoffed. “Simply ask. Nothing is ever simple with the elders. They’ve always got to make things complicated.”

“Well, they’ve also never been military,” Niko agreed. He glanced at me, noticing that I was listening. “What do you think?”

I started, surprised. Niko had never really acknowledged me before, much less asked me my opinion. At first, I didn’t know what to say, but then decided that it wasn’t possible to sugarcoat how you felt about something.

“Well,” I started, uncertain. “Kro is the best there is, you’re right about that, but he’s the best at more than just military things. He also understands things the way others wouldn’t be able to, and the value of peoples’ work. He’d probably be a better general than he is a commander.”

“High praise,” he responded with a nod. “See? Things like that are what get said about you. If the elders have any sense, you’ll be promoted.”

“No one said they had sense.”

 

Of course, they must have had some sense, or Niko said a lot of positive things before he went to them, because Kro was promoted to the rank of a general. A lot of people agreed with that decision, and those that didn’t had no grounds on which to say he shouldn’t have been.

Everyone loved Kro, and if not, they respected him. We’d very quickly moved on from the tribe to the large vampire cities when I was much younger, and now we were moving on from cities to the capital.