The Prince looked at the sea of people below him, although his mentor, Father Castor, would most likely pester him with the fact that the “sea” isn’t very much so a “sea”; and more like a young Water Mage’s first use of their power—so a puddle. The Prince then imagined how his mentor would go on and on how he and his parents need to appeal more to the public, with his old, frail hands waving in the air, and that it’s necessary to be hailed not only by the upperclassmen, but also the lower ranked mages, in order to prevent an uprising, though he would never speak of the magic-less.

The Prince took a quick glance to his parents standing next to him. His mother and father were both Fire Mages, their demonic red eyes looked out into the small crowd. If there was any hint of worry about the low turnout, you could not tell on their faces. “Astric”, the Prince heard a voice hiss. Astric looked behind him to see Father Castor pointing at the hand he held in front of his chest. “Wave.” He said in a quick breath. The Prince then looked at his parents once more to see that their hands were cupped and up in the air, waving, and the boy rose his hand as well.

The people in front of them were mostly made up of Rankers, a group of well-off folk who support the King and Queen’s choice of separating the low ranked Mental Mages—and the capped, from the inner city. Astric stood with a smile on his face, though he was disgusted by the people who cheered in front of him. Most likely, these Mages took place in the countless murders and assaults against the capped. The Prince could not wait until he is to be crowned KIng and arrest them for their wrongdoing.

His eyes scanned the group for any commoner, anyone who didn’t look like a General, a Soldier, anyone who wasn’t married to one, but no one came up. The Prince wish he could scold his parents for the fact that they are the most disliked people in all of Oeth, hopefully with his mentor in his corner, but he couldn’t. Not now, not ever, not even when he becomes King. He cared to much about what his parents thought of him, and ‘that was to be his death sentence’, as Father Castor always said.

The boy lowered his hand and ran it through his sandy blond hair, waiting for his parents speech began. The crowds voices hushed slowly, the King and Queen lower their hands, and the Prince’s mother opened her mouth.

“My wonderful Subjects, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to this month’s Devine Comandment speech. To begin, I wish to inform you all of the recent terror attacks that have occurred on our great nation. Three weeks ago, one of our top generals, General Mikela Phipps, was reported missing.”

 A woman cried out from the crowd, most likely Mikela’s wife.

“We regret to inform you that she still has not been recovered; a group of our highest ranking mental mages our working on finding her as I speak. We have reason to believe that this kidnapping is related to the death of fourth in command Sir Isaac Nashiel. My Husband and I will be holding a mass in his honor, and we invite you all to come. We our doing our best to capture the scum behind these attacks, but for now we will be doubling our guard in the inner city. In order to do so, a draft is soon to be released. Our investigators believe that these attacks were conducted by a group of terrorists who name themselves the Alined. This group is to be made up of demonic Mages and” -the Queen paused-“and the Capped”

The crowd murmured, not out of fear, or surprise that the Capped are part of what the Queen spoke of, but out of disgust.

“In order to isolate this threat, we will be conducting a Cleansing. Soon, the Capped will not dirty our streets, murder our friends, rape our children. Soon, Oeth will be free, released, from the abuse the Gods have given us. Soon, my friends”, the Queen red lips smiled,”the Capps will be gone, and so will the attacks.”

The Queen continued to speak, although her voice was muffled by the ringing in the Princes ears.

The crowd cheered—except for one, a thin, hollowed cheek brown girl. She stood, wide eyed, her sight focused on the Prince, who stared open-mouthed at his parents.