He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter One Hundred And Twenty Nine - Crushing The Hope of Children

The Kingdom was not as grand in size as it's name would indicate.  The chasm inside the ancient volcano was only so large, the light in which it could bask minimal.  The main city lie in the abundance of the beaming light.  It was a fortress partially embedded in the volcanic wall, surrounded by high walls and supported by columns that also seconded as small housing.  The highest points of the city was where the King's castle could be found, many of the Lord's stone mansions a step below it and all shadowed by the mage towers, home to the most prominent of magi.

In the depths of the city lie the common folk, remnants of natural light could just about seep into their alleys and upper windows, while the merchants could be found living and working in the buildings in between the common and the elite.  The slums were formed of caves in the natural rock, either side of the common areas, with a tunnel and black market formed in the darkness between them.

The city formed at least half of what could be called the Kingdom, the latter half were small villages, a couple able to see a little daylight, but most growing stable crops in the dark and knowing only fire and magelight, if they were fortunate. 

From one of these villages came two boys, one a few years older than the other.  Unlike the distant city, which was home to most of the Kingdom's mages, this village only had two.  These were the parents of the smaller boy.  They were responsible for purifying the water in the village and keeping the mage lights aflame.  But they felt as if they were worth more than this and sorely wished to return to the city.  Their hopes for this lie in their son.

As the magi of the village, once every five years, they would gather every unmarked child who was five or older and take them to the city.  There, an elder would place their marking on their wrist.  After a few days, the marking would blossom and develop, revealing their magical talent and affiliation.

The older boy was an orphan, considered just another mouth to feed.  With sons of their own, the farmers did not wish to share with him their land, so spoke to the two magicians and said should he be of no use to the village, that the boy should be left for the city to deal with.

The two magi took the children on the long journey with just a couple of men for added protection and arrived at the city gates some three days later.  There were many children waiting outside the Mage Halls, most of which were just five as the city would have their children marked every year rather than wait like the villages who could not attend the ceremony so often.  The magi child was also five, whereas the orphan boy was nine.

With much anticipation did the magi parents watch as their son's wrist formed a bracelet mark and then... nothing.  No patterns to form his affiliation, no extensive trails to prove his power.  He became worthless before their eyes, mere trash.  The fact that none of the children from the village showed much potential, developing no more than five centimetres length of arm, bothered them little.  They took all of these children back to the village.  The orphan boy and their own child were abandoned at an orphanage.

The boy cried for his parents, comforted only by the orphan, who had a little more understanding about what had happened to them.  The older child promised that he would protect the small boy, that they would not be parted.

As it happened, a particular man had decided to perform... a small experiment, interested in the nature of humans as he was and became a part of a group of merchants who worked only in the darkest shadows.  He collected the abandoned children and the children with no hope of adoption as well as several homeless beggar children from the street and threw all of these little ones together into a cell and slowly destroyed any hope they once might have had for their future.

There was much blood on his hands as one by one these children died, either by the mouths of beasts from which they could not escape or at his own hand as he cut the wounded open to explain to the rest how the human body worked and where all the vital points could be found.  He watched with glee as the light was sucked from the eyes of the children, shivered in delight as some of the soulless went straight into the awaiting jaws of the beasts as they no longer wished to live.  Only a few with cold will and the ability to bury the remnants of their humanity survived.

The others working with him then turned these ones into their weapons.  However, the experiment was not perfect.  Three had to be put down as he failed his mission when he had felt compassion for the little girl who was his target.  Nine's life ended when she had fallen in love, that commoner boy would never know what she had felt for him.  There had been some concern regarding the protectiveness that Five had for Seven, but as it never affected their work, it was let alone.  In fact, when they were sent as a team to perform an assassination, they were even more formidable and deadly.

Seven was considered an anomaly in his own right.  The boy who had once wept pitifully as he watched the other children die had long since stopped crying.  His face had become as expressionless as One, yet for reasons that could not be fathomed, he always retained the face of an innocent five year old, as if his mind had retreated to before his parents had abandoned him and as if the poisons he created and used, were mere mud pies formed in play.  He delighted the mad man the most.

It was Seven that they decided to use for the mission and thus he was summoned from his cell.  Five naturally followed, he could not be contained easily if he did not wish to be, but Seven was always obedient and returned and Five was never far behind.

"This is the Client," the boy was told.  The child, who would be about fifteen had he been able to count his birthdays, glanced with unchanging eyes at the fat noble man.  His name was not given.  It was enough that they knew he was the Client.  The man flushed as the boy stared at him, before returning to look at the merchant handler.  "Your task is to kill this man."  The Sun Mage that stood in the corner projected an image onto the wall.

Sun arts were not as feared as Plant arts, but as their magics could mutate plants, they were not respected either.  This mage had been the one to 'rescue' Eight, who both worshiped and hated him for it.  He had become her handler as she would not react to anyone else.  Five watched dispassionately.  All seven of them were warped and beyond repair, he felt.  He looked at the image of the man.  He did not wonder what he had done, it was enough that someone wanted him dead.

In fact the man had done nothing.  He was a soldier, just an average one, who happened to work the walls, patrol the volcano's chasm and be sent on odd occasions to the surface to protect the magi.  He also just happened to have a very beautiful, young wife, who adored him.  The Lord before them simply wanted her.  Her husband was in the way.  He could not tempt a happily married woman with his riches or his earnest pursuit, so he would remove her ability to deny him, so that she would have no choice.  And if she pleased him, he would give her some money to relocate that his own wife never discover his deceit.  He was admittedly tempted by this boy, but the child came with his own large shadow as well as other hidden guardians.  The price would likely be more than even he could afford.  Still, he might later enquire whether the child's body was purchasable.

Seven did not acknowledge his mission, just simply walked out of the office once he was told where he might find the soldier.  Five wandered after him, their handlers pursued them, but only so far as the door to the building.  Seven blinked once as the height of the dismal daylight poured over the city.  Then without seeing if his Guardian was following, he walked casually towards the city gates.