“How dare you threaten me, you cow? Because of people like you, my whole village starved. A lot of people I know didn’t make it whereas you traitors keep breathing!” The young mage kept hurling bolts of lightning even after the Duchess fainted.
The injured farmer grabbed a metal tray and tried to bash the Healer in the head from behind, but the boy just had to cut the air with his hand to wound the farmer’s good foot. The man fell to the ground crying but no Healer stepped forward.
“Does your fracture still hurt? This is for the pain!” A bolt of frozen air struck the builder with an injured arm, sealing it inside a block of ice that stopped the pain but also almost killed the man of shock.
“You scum are entitled to nothing! You took the resources from my region and enjoyed the protection that the soldiers of the north ensure you, yet when asked to do your part you backed out!” The young mage said while he kept electrocuting the Duchess.
The light blue fabric of his uniform turned dark as it amplified the air element coursing through the student’s body. The cloudy sky it represented swirled into a storm and the yellow embroideries channeled the bolts of lightning, making sure that not an iota of elemental energy went to waste.
Every academy added visual effects to the enchanted fabric to remind everyone how dangerous even an apprentice mage was. The boy was using first magic and he was already exhausted, yet he could have killed everyone in the room by himself.
With the bolts of lightning coursing through his body, the wind blades surrounding him, and the chilly air at his fingertips, even a young man looked like a god of thunder.
“Enough.” Solus grabbed his wrist, squeezing it hard enough to stop the spells. “No matter how misguided and ungrateful these people are, they have every right to be angry.
“The Kingdom experienced two famines in a row. If you were in their shoes, seeing the food you had worked hard to grow being taken away to feed a bunch of strangers while you lived off rations, you would feel robbed as well.
“Look around. Their city has been destroyed first and now is invaded by strangers who follow their every move, treating them like criminals. Many of them have lost their house and winter is approaching. Can you really blame them?”
“No.” The student grunted in pain but he refused to let his spells fade. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m willing to let them treat me like their servant. I’m a mage!”
“No, you are a Healer and those are the people you have sworn to protect.” Solus locked her eyes into his, seeing a young Lith in him. Someone full of rage, pain, and proud of the chip on his shoulder.
“I don’t blame you for defending yourself but there’s a big difference between that and torture.” She pointed at the noblewoman who was having a heart attack. “If she dies, there will be a riot and then you’ll have to cure the injured from both factions.”
“Says who?” He snarled.
“Your Headmaster and if he doesn’t, the Royals will.” Solus kept her tone calm and let him go the moment he dispelled his attacks in shock. “Kid, I don’t blame you for resenting them, but you are acting like an idiot.
“Right now, they aren’t the enemy, you are.”
“What do you mean?” He asked in confusion.
“Easy, if there are riots, there will be no way to harvest. Heck, make people desperate enough and they’ll burn the crops rather than give them away. At that point, they will die, sure, but everybody else will starve as well. Are they worth it?” Solus replied.
“No.” The young mage plunged onto the nearest chair, suddenly feeling too tired even to be angry.
“As for you, who act all smug and prideful, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Solus turned toward the citizens of Zeska, pointing her finger at them. “Your greed is the root of the War of the Griffons.
“What you talk about as if it was a golden age is one of the darkest pages of the Kingdom’s history. The reason you had so much food even after feeding Thrud’s army is that she enslaved all those she deemed unworthy and sent them to die on the battlefield.
“The reason Zeska’s slums have been replaced by such a huge green area is that the Mad Queen got rid of the less fortunate. The food that filled your belly was seasoned with innocent blood and your riches came at the expense of countless lives.
“Even the Forgotten you remember so fondly were nothing but slaves. People who had been robbed of their free will and forced into servitude. Would you still approve of such a thing if you were the ones wearing a slave collar?
“What you did to them and the way you treat these Healers is no different from what the Empire did in the past. Is that what you want? To be slaughtered by mages sick and tired to be treated like cattle?” Solus took a pause to let her words sink.
The commoners went pale as they were forced to face reality. They had done their best to avert their gaze and not ask questions about the fate of those that Thrud’s Forgotten had arrested in broad daylight.
After all, beggars and petty thieves were a stain on Zeska and a threat to the safety of its honest citizens. Some of those missing were their less fortunate friends but until that moment, the citizens of Zeska had deluded themselves that Thrud had simply moved them away after giving them a new job in the conquered cities.
As for the nobles, it was much worse. They knew the truth from the start but the idea of ending up like the Empire and losing their noble titles was a destiny worse than death. It would destroy not only their lives but also those of their descendants.
“Believe it or not, we are all in the same boat.” Solus said. “No matter how little we like each other, the Kingdom won’t survive unless we set our grudges aside and make it whole again.
“Otherwise the War of the Griffons will never be over and the only change will be in the way it is fought.”
Solus hated giving speeches. She was no leader and she didn’t care for any of those people. Yet she couldn’t let that young mage turn into another Lith and blood his hands at such a young age.
She couldn’t just turn her back to the suffering of the people of Zeska. Some of them were jerks but most of them were just victims of Thrud and her propaganda.
‘I don’t want to be like my mother.’ She thought. ‘Mom had no care for the consequences of the knowledge she shared. My creations and my actions have shaped the lives of these people for the worse so it’s my responsibility to do everything I can to set things right.’
The rest of the shift passed peacefully, with the Healers keeping silent while the citizens of Zeska looked and asked around for their missing friends.
Once Solus was too tired to continue, she asked a guard for information.
