Miriam was surprised that the guard had actually sent a herald to inform them of the entry scanning. Never having been in Reinsteel herself this was new for her as well, just like her daughter. She glanced at her husband. Mixed emotions accompanied the face she had loved for so long. He had been here before, had known about what the most likely destination for Kent would be, and informed the village chief of all they could detect.

Luckily, as far as she knew, his plants hadn’t spotted her boy. It could mean two-fold. He could already be in the town, or…

Now just like the many people before them that had successfully passed the procedure. They were approaching the gate and its masters.

“Next!” yelled a guard from several paces over.

Miriam Larsson [Level 34] [81%]

Pools:

Health: 186

Stamina: 74

Mana: 1002

Stats:

Vitality: 44

Toughness: 10

Endurance: 12

Strength: 12

Agility: 13

Senses: 36

Mind: 11

Magic: 167

Willpower: 171

Regeneration: 13

Trait: 106

Trait:

Fungal Resistance

“Please state your Name, Level, and whether you are a combatant or not, as well as affiliation,” said one of the guards at the gate closest to her as their family approached.

Each of hers approached a guard telling them their details. There was no need for extra gadgets, enchanted coins, or contracts. The guards were good at their jobs. Each having the capability of telling truth from lies by the power of their skills.

“Miriam Larsson, Level 34, not a combatant. I’ve lived in Issar my whole life and do not care for any other kingdom, or organization besides my own village and the friends I’ve made there.”

“You may take part in city life for the duration of your refuge. If you can offer useful services to crafters, or producers please do so. Wait with the rest of your people inside the gates and a guard will bring you to a shelter you can use for the near future.”

“Next!”, she was dismissed.

When she saw her daughter getting dismissed, he reached for her hand and together they moved further into the city to wait with the rest.

Miriam noticed the pained expression of her daughter; she knew what it was about, and she felt much the same. Yet there were rules that had to be adhered to, that had guided growth of humanity for millennia, had allowed them to prevail against the endless hordes of dungeons, and monsters. But she would have very much liked her husband to have taken a firmer stance for her son.

She clenched her daughter's hand a little harder, hopefully, she would understand it as the gesture it was.

“Sarah, it’ll be fine.

“You don’t get it, mom. He just threw him away like he was nothing because he is a bit different from us. Heck, even Arryn with his mutated trait was only ignored for a day, and it is not like he chose it either,” her daughter responded.

This conversation was going into a very different direction than what she had anticipated moments before.

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Miriam leaned closer to her daughter’s ear and whispered as quietly as she could.

“Don’t go saying stuff like that here.”

“You started it… Oh, I’m sure Kent is still kicking it somewhere out there. He is just going to have a very bad time of things. Like no one escorted him outside, so he might as well still be in the zone somewhere and trying to hide from soldiers or something. Which actually sounds kind of fun.”

She had spotted Arryn, her other son, and his soon to be wife with a few of their friends a bit to the side and waved at them. He noticed her quickly and approached them.

“Mom, Sarah, we have two more spaces were the guard is leading us, do you want to come?”

It seemed as though even her oldest son was, still mad at their father, that didn’t bode well for the future of their family. He tended to be the kindest of the bunch. Kent could easily get absorbed in whatever he was currently working on. Sarah was rather free spirited, inquisitively exploring the world but mostly plants around her. Arryn liked harmony, he strove for it, yet he was still struggling in discord.

She was mad at him too.

“Yes, we do. Let’s get going.”

“The guard will want to speak with you for just a moment no doubt. We are getting good treatment it seems. I didn’t know that Reinsteel was so keen on aspect separation for housing and work,” her son asked as they approached the group.

“Most larger town have similar arrangements from what your uncle has told me, but apparently the flickers burned down half a district when we were younger.”

There is no surprise in his eyes, she noticed, and why would there. Flickers were the bane of humanity. Focused on destroying what others had lovingly raised. For what, warmth for a single night. Maybe a few extra points of damage.

The guard met them halfway, no doubt to formalize something or other before they were heading off.

“Are you all nature attuned? We are going into the gardening district; any potential conflicting traits may not join. Everyone in this group who is found to not match that is bound to be exiled on the first conflict that occurs. You have been warned.”

Sarah and Miriam nodded, affirming that they indeed were nature aligned.

“That’s good. Let’s go, we are going through the earthen aligned, is that going to be a problem for anyone? It’s the fastest way. We can use the path if you would prefer not to interact with other alignments.”

Miriam was surprised. She wouldn’t have expected a lowly guard to be this careful when leading a few refugees around. Maybe they had bad experiences in the past. Maybe he was good with people.

They turned their eyes from the large colorful decorated townhouses that throned over the city further in, looking at hovels and hills that looked so mundane that they would even be ignored in the wilderness. She liked earth-aligned people. They tended to get along well with nature, incorporating her into their structures while giving a life a foundation to flourish under.

Arryn and Sarah, but also the others in their group looked appreciatingly around at the different buildings. She would have found it fine to live here, she thought. Maybe even liked it.

They passed another larger dwelling before turning to their right, slightly to the city center. She was suitably impressed, this one was more structured, the bottom half was like a rugged cliff, made from carved stone and seemed to be topped by a hill.

Then from one moment to the next situation devolved.

Her sons expression contorted and a few of the other people in their group seemed to become agitated.

Moments later she saws a person with legs shrouded in fire turn a corner.

She could almost feel the rage of her children, their trait, which was fairly close to their fathers granted an intimate bond with the plants around them. She had struggled for a long time, properly understanding it, yet Soul of Nature and Familiar Nature had a high conflict potential with more contrary elements. Fire was on top of that list.

Her son felt - the word too weak to properly show the strength of his connection - the plants around him. It didn’t quite make sense to her. Even as someone plant aligned, she couldn’t understand his deep-rooted understanding with the plants, lacking something akin herself. Soul of Nature was as strong as a trait as they could get, allowing him to make plants sentient. Arryn liked plants and plants liked him. It was what he had inherited from his father.

Her daughter was of a similar type, Familiar Nature was as much about understanding the plants around them as her brothers, yet there was only a one-sided connection, from her to the plants. She felt their needs and could even satiate some of them just through a simple flex of her will, others required mana.

It gave her children a terrifyingly good synergy.

And that was a problem, because the newcomer had killed just about every plant in his path.