Chapter One Hundred And Forty Five - Civil War

The state of the Kingdom was not that in which they left it.

Oswyn, Wulfgar, Lewin, Leif and Elyas, who had also brought along Saewulf, these six chose to return to the Kingdom to see to the man who had caused so much pain. They approached the mountain with caution, wary in case an expedition had emerged to deal with excess foliage. They were not expecting what they discovered. The plants had grown unruly, claiming much of the slope, though it had only been a little over a year and a half since Elyas' last expedition. The patch which he had burnt was mostly still black, but there were small signs of growth there. Generally, the foliage wrapped around the once smouldering grounds, rising slightly upwards, even diving into the mouth of the Kingdom's entrance.

Leif's magic kept the evergreen plants quiet and still, as did the flames burning in Elyas' hand. Much of the forest was sleeping through this the coldest of months. As they entered the extinct volcano, Elyas' magic lead them with its light. He lit any viable torches that he discovered on route as they made their way to towards the gates. Unsurprisingly, these were closed, but there were no guards in wait on this side of them, likely unneeded as the gates were locked from the inside. Wulfgar stepped forward and pulled the shadows around him to blink out of sight. The gates began to open for them and there came a cry from behind them;

"What the hell are you doing!?"

Quickly, the five entered to see a guard dangling by the neck as Wulfgar lifted him aloft by his throat. Other guards had drawn their swords and begun to circle the former assassin. Leif approached his husband and whispered into his ear; "Put him down, love." Wulfgar complied, gently placing the man on his feet, while Lewin and Elyas locked the gates behind them. Leif approached the wary guards. "Please excuse us for intruding, we won't be long and then we will be on our way."

"Where, for magic's sake, did you come from?" Asked one of the startled guards. The man looked fraught and anxious, stubble lining his face and deep circles beneath his eyes. In fact he was not alone in this appearance.

"Never mind that," Elyas said, keeping Saewulf close to him as he approached. "What is happening here?"

The guard hesitated confused. Surely the whole Kingdom knew of that which was occurring, how could these men not? One of the veteran guards hurried over, wheezing as the white haired old man expended his energies. "So the stories are true? There are people living freely upon the surface?" The old man said between panted breaths. The other guards looked at him and then the strangers, eyes widening. Surely that was a myth? No one could survive the barbaric world of the plants! "It was all that kept my grandmother going after her brother was Exiled, she told me stories..."

"It's true," Leif said finally, "but I cannot say that all Exiles survived the surface world. It is still dangerous, but one can survive so long as one has the luck, talent and mind for it. Even then, most of my people do not venture from the borders of the Village. If there are any other places out there with gatherings of survivors and their descendants, it is likely also true for them."

The old man looked somewhat torn for a moment. "The Kingdom is in the midst of civil war, I was hoping that some refugees..." he did not continue his sentence, merely revealed what was on his mind by showing them instead. Small tents, beds and other shelters had been formed beside the guards tower, there were even people on top of the roofs of the two dormitory buildings. They numbered into the hundreds, they looked dirty and tired with little children crying, likely of hunger and the cold. There were small campfires, but most simply boiled water.

"Please tell us what has happened," Lewin asked.

*****

It seemed as if a mess of smaller events had come together to create a fuse and that lone fuse simply required a burning ember to set off an explosion. Some of the events they knew of, were even a part of such as the mutating plant incident and the time when a massacre had been discovered within a mage tower, something that was not properly investigated, it seemed, just hushed up. Some events they were not aware of, such as the murder of a man as thieves raided his home and whose wife had gone missing, only to be rediscovered later, lost of spirit and voice. The commoners fumed that this was not investigated. Another woman, one who was unwed, fell pregnant and shortly after there was a petition to have her Exiled. No one knew what had occurred to her following that.

The spark had actually be one to burn slowly before the explosion of war. A village close to the city had suffered an unexpected outbreak of contamination within the soil and much of their crops had withered and died. Apparently, though, such a freak event was not enough to excuse them from taxes, the King and Council wanted the usual yield that the village supplied and when they could not provide it, the soldiers were sent to take alternatives. For whatever reason, this included women. Despite knowing that it would lead to their impending doom, the villagers fought back and was almost wiped clean of living people and animals, most falling to the sword. However the soldiers were not as unscathed as one would think. An unmarked child, seeing its mother pierced upon a sword, awoke to its powers and the ground itself became the army's enemy. Many soldiers were stabbed through by sudden spires of rock that burst from the ground. Others fell into chasms, some deep enough to end their lives. This destruction only ended with the life of said child.

The soldiers did not feel a victory nor proud of their actions, though the King praised them with empty words and let loose word that this should be a warning to all who dared oppose his will. This was not the only word to spread amongst the villages and city. The mage halls were mourning the loss of yet another powerful mage, that small child would have become great in their hands and they were still reeling from the deaths of some minor magic users and missing students. The villagers, who lost children every generation realised that the mark was not needed to awaken talent, so why send them away anymore to never be seen again? This upset the mage halls more, who forwarded more protests to the King and Council.

The soldiers were sent out again, to rip the children from their parents embrace to be forcefully marked. Any who showed talent would be given to the magi, the others... the King did not care less either way. Many within the army acted out their orders, telling themselves that the villagers were to blame for their own situation, but the soldiers who had been at the centre of the village bloodbath decided to ignore their orders. Instead, they formed a rebellion group and protected the village that they were assigned to. They attracted strong willed people to join their cause, which actually included several mages, who were disgusted or miserable with their lot in life, other soldiers and some city bred commoners.

The King ordered the city to be locked down, all who wished to leave required a permit, though none came to be issued. He ordered that magi be added to the army and that those regiments move to crush the rebellion. The mage halls protested, this was not what they wanted! Their magic was not meant for harming people, it was meant to protect people and make their lives easier! When the army came to subscript the students, the mage halls were sealed to prevent them. The Council sent their lap dog magi to deal with the halls and the surrounding area became a no man's land. As it was also part of the merchant section of the city, naturally more protests flooded in. The chaos led to a rise in crimes and tensions between people, so soldiers were sent to police the streets, causing a fresh wave of difficulties.

The refugees were ones who had escaped the village massacre, the ordered snatching of children and numbers of commoners from the city, who paid unscrupulous people to smuggle them out at the risk of their lives.

"It is no wonder that the wealthy and elite act as they do if there own King and Council cannot restrain their greed and lust for power," Leif shook his head and sighed.

"They have become far too comfortable in their own castles, far removed from the lives of the common people," Lewin sighed. "The threats of the real world do not touch them, so why should they concern themselves? Better to get fat and drown in their own needs."

"Surely, though," Elyas mentioned, already far too aware what happens beneath the rule of a scum leader such as this. "They must be now suffering as well. There cannot be much food reaching their lofty realm."

"Indeed," The old guard sighed. "But it never occurs to them to wonder where the food upon their plates actually comes from. They simply assume that there will always be more for them." He glanced over the refugees. "The rebels sometimes funnel food here, but it is not really sufficient. The numbers of refugees grows by the day. There were some thoughts of seeking food upon the surface, but our fear is still greater than our hunger. It is only a matter of time until this changes."

"That would be unwise," Leif replied. "Some of the fruit and vegetables that the forest grows are poisonous. Others are traps in order to sink their seedlings into flesh and nutrients to grow. You would be dead before your hunger was sated." The old man sighed and nodded. He suspected as much.

"This is not why we came," Oswyn said coldly. He personally could not care less for the lives of the commoners nor that of the nobles. His parents had been nobles, who had abandoned him when his magic proved to be lacking and his element far from useful to them. The orphanage had been run by commoners and they had failed to protect him and many others like him. He felt that he owed the Kingdom as a whole nothing.

"Still, we had to know the situation within the city," Elyas advised him. "We will be able to make plans on what to do once we return there."

"You are going to the city?" A woman in a threadbare dress asked, her skin was grey, though not with age, her body clearly fraught with disease. She had happened to be passing with fresh water a child had conjured for the people she was with. They were all women, they were bartering with a few men in exchange for food the only resource that they had. On receiving their silence, she continued; "Please, if you happen to be going there, could you find them, our children! They went missing shortly before the war began. We tried everything to find them, but no one would help us. I originally wished to ask one of the rebel soldiers, but could not find anyone to take me to their village. Please, they were mostly five and six years of age, just babies!"

The assassins froze upon hearing this, considering the timing, they could not help but wonder if he was up to no good once more. Wulfgar nodded his consent. It would not be too difficult to look into this if he was responsible for it. He did not want for more children to end up dead whilst being 'trained' or end up as broken as Sae or any of them.