Two Sides

Leaving the bar Xilo headed to the next location with Xelfia right beside him. With that first round of encounters some of his previous worries had faded already. With everything that was happening lately he was worried that all the mercenaries would be taken by Landel by now. He knew about their efforts to expand their army as much as possible as well. So they were essentially fighting for bodies that could fight for them. "They seemed interested." The two that he had talked two had heard him out and agreed to meet at the location he gave them later for further details.

"I didn't tell them everything just yet."

It was a bit of a lie to them yet that was fine with Xilo, if they wanted to leave after he wouldn't force them. He also gave them a small advance payment to ensure they would be willing to come and not get stolen by Landel. "To the next place." Running around the City, Xilo and Xelfia visited a few more places and got anyone they could grab the attention of. A few from each place slowly started to add up until they reached a decent number. Even though it wasn't the exact amount XIlo was looking for, it was still good. "No silly fights as well." That was something Xilo was thankful for, he really didn't want to fight over something stupid.

"All of my strength needs to be saved for when we fight Landel."

Heading home Xilo met up with Lexia on the way and went alongside her as they walked home. They both gave each other reports on how they had done as they walked to the front of his house. A lot of their meetings and planning was done there everyday as they came up with ideas. It was a central point where they could all meet and Lexia had even begun sleeping in one of the guest rooms there the past couple days. "More denial's." Reading over the list of clans that had denied Lexia's request Xilo sighed. "More on her side, not joining as well." It was looking a bit rough for the both of them.

"Well, let's keep recruiting for now. It's all we can do until Katrin's troops arrive fully. She's been sending over some slowly recently that we need to take care of. Once they're all here we can finally do something."

"Yeah, getting their sleeping quarters set up and hiding them has been a bit of pain but we managed. How much longer until you think they all arrive?"

"I give it a week at most, I'm sure by the end of this we'll be ready to go."

"I hope you're right, we really don't have the time to spare."

"I know."

Heading on inside they rested for the night as they waited to do the same thing tomorrow. Everyone was busy with last minute training to get stronger or finding people actually willing to join them. The City was slowly turning into a dead one as all the people disappeared from its sights. Tension was growing higher as word of the war was beginning to spread like wildfire. Apparently Cestrin's troops had recently taken over the front lines of Tidal and we're slowly making their way here. Along with other rumours of people splitting into two factions, one for the Queen and another for the King. It was turning it into a mini warzone within their own home.

Just waiting for the match that set this entire place on fire. No one could escape, forced to pick a side or be left behind and forgotten. Landel made sure of that as he secretly slaughtered anyone caught leaving the City walls. Even with that open secret though people still sided with him in large. It was nowhere near a clean divide between them and that only widened the gap more for most people. Landel was growing even more power hungry by the day and more frustrated with Lexia's actions.

"So she wants to fight back and join Cestrin does she?"

Biting his fingers, Landel wasn't thinking straight anymore. Ever since he had kicked Lexia out of the Castle he had been growing more insane by the day. "I will beat them both." Training had doubled and their preparations for war had been sped up by months. Everyone was overworking themselves at Landel's orders with zero exceptions. If anyone was caught slacking off, then they were killed without question. At first people had thought it was just a joke until Landel proved them wrong. He had killed a couple people already just for having a small break that he happened across. Feeling blood drip through his hands, he kicked aside a corpse beneath him of the person he just killed.

"Get to work!"

Shouting that he had completely forgotten the reason he had even killed the person. Locked in fear everyone quickly got back to whatever they were doing without looking at Landel again. Too afraid to make him angry just by looking at him. He had become their number one fear nowadays even though it should have been Cestrin that they were scared of. Soldiers lined up as they got back to fighting each other and others ran around the place looking for something in a panic. Landel hung his head low as he headed for his place of peace. Whenever he wasn't giving people orders he had been there lately.

"...I must go."

The stress, fear and anxiety we're tearing him apart as Cestrin closed in on him.

"I must...kill him and her."

A dragon and an older woman came to his mind as he pushed open the door to his graveyard.

"They must die and then everything will be set right again. I will be finally free from all of this and then...even I could fade away and meet them again. In another life, we could be together once more...isn't that right?"

Staring at the three graves in front of him, Landel sat down.