He was Almost Absorbed by the System

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.