“When the framework initialization message first appeared there was a widespread panic in the city. Some were viewing it as a message from the Eternal, some viewed it as a message from the Damned. The council met with leaders from every district and temple in the city and tried to come up with a plan. The King was silent in his palace.” Rhet began his tale.

“The initialization period was not a uniform time for everyone. Some received their classes right away like mine, Councilor. Some didn’t receive them until over a week later like Dlin, a Ratcatcher. This led some of our more unscrupulous citizens to perceive themselves as more worthy than others. They placed themselves on top of the new hierarchy and small fiefdoms appeared all over the city.”

“After everyone, so we think, received their classes we all got another message inviting us to interact with a guide for the tutorial. Every major building in the city had a guide of some sorts appear. A smithy would have a special anvil, a library a specific book, and so on. The guides only gave you information relevant to your personal interface and classes. Information about the world at large was fragmented and had to be pieced together.”

“We organized the best that we could, trying to collect as much information as possible. Classes like Scribes could write and share information at incredible speeds and we kept records of everything. There were classes like Holy Fathers that could inspire the masses through speeches about faith and love. Carpenters could single handedly build houses! Blacksmiths in training that had never successfully stoked a forge were now crafting fine swords!”

“It was madness but there was a beauty to it. We mobilized the town guard under anyone with an appropriate class for combat. Set up a watch system in the districts we could manage to patrol. We created a system of peace between the various self styled lords of Etes. It wasn’t a perfect system but it was working well enough.”

“The King stayed quiet at first. No one heard anything from him for a few days, the palace was completely sealed off. They later said it was for the security of the royal family but we think it was just to give them time to plan and consolidate resources. When he finally emerged from his palace and announced his class as King, everything changed. In Bearn’s mind, the framework had cemented his Eternal given right to rule as he saw fit.”

“He was no longer concerned with the rights of citizens he viewed as beneath him. The man I knew disappeared in front of my eyes and was replaced with a paranoid, power hungry madman. He began to round up anyone that dissented or disagreed with his policies. No one was safe, people disappearing in the night from their homes without warning. We don’t know where they were taken or why, still.”

“When the survival event that ended the tutorial came we were completely unprepared. The beasts destroyed the outlying farms and villages around Etes, killing everyone in their wake. The beast waves assaulted the walls nonstop but the King wouldn’t deploy the first army to the greater city, keeping it ringed around the palace and military district.”

“The council gathered again with the influential citizens of the city and demanded the first army be deployed to the walls. It seemed as if we had finally reached the King as he did as we asked. With the addition of the first army we were able to survive the event, losing almost forty percent of the city's population.”

“After the end of the survival event the King called for a gathering of the council and the influential citizens again. All of the cities district leaders, guild representatives and religious leaders gathered in the great amphitheater outside of the city hall. Thousands of citizens crowded the square around the amphitheater to listen to the King’s first speech since the framework. I was home with a broken leg earned during the beast waves and...” Rhet choked up and took a moment to gather himself.

“My wife, my love Sienna, wouldn’t let me go. Stay home, she said, there are plenty of egomaniacs there to make all the wrong decisions as usual.” Rhet smiled sadly to himself. His eyes turned angry and his voice turned cold. “The King marched his personal guard, the now infamous Kingsworn, around the crowd and cut off escape. He got up on the stage and condemned all gathered as treasoners, traitors to Eter.”

“He had every single one of them put to the sword before the gathered crowd. Everyone one who could rally the city to their side, everyone with a voice strong enough to rise above the madness. The King sat off to the side and watched impassively as if disinterested. The Royal Advisor Lautree held a faux trial, accusing all of them of treason. He asked them to deny the accusations and the people watched shocked as the accused did not. We later learned that Lautree has a different variation of the Silence skill that not only silences someone but leaves them unable to attempt to speak at all.”

“Lautree used their silence as evidence of their guilt and had them killed one by one in a grand show. The real shock came when the previous generals and commanders of the second and third army were also tried and executed. We couldn’t understand how the leaders of the first army could be complacent in the murder of their friends and colleagues.” Rhet took a deep breath and drank some water before continuing.

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“Then we found out about the King’s compulsion. When the King gives an order, it is almost impossible to disobey. It puts you in a state of paralysis and lowers your health to critical. The more degrees of separation between you and the King the less the restrictions. We believe that is how he was able to command the first army and his guard to commit such atrocities. It must have been what he was doing those first few days, building his power base and directly commanding key officers.”

“It got even worse after that, the King had always had a small personal guard of fifty or so members. Usually retired middle ranking soldiers of note from the first army, skilled but older. The King has an ability to create the class now called Kingsworn. It gives them enhanced stats and combat abilities, makes them more formidable even compared to the other combat classes of the framework.”

“Any citizen with a powerful class or set of skills has disappeared or been turned to the Kingsworn. There are enough of them with Identification skills that it’s almost impossible to hide your class and level. Anyone the Kingsworn stops and Identifys over level 20 is sent to the military district and not seen again unless they join. Same goes for priestly or holy classes, any kind of mana user or mage.”

“He has been expanding the Kingsworn, we believe the total numbers are greater than three hundred now. They roam the streets enforcing his new laws and curfew. We also have heard reports that they are active outside of the city despite the beasts.” He said the last part with some finality, as if outside of the city was swarming with beasts.

“And that is all just the wrongs of the King. The criminals have been more active since the tutorial ended and you now receive experience from murdering people. The bounties on the top one hundred have sent some of them into a frenzy trying to find them. Our latest reports put eleven of the Kingsworn on the top one hundred. Although none are close to your level. The King himself is only rumored to receive experience based on the actions of his subordinates and the actions of his Kingdom as a whole.”

“We have received little communication from the outside world. The status of the rest of the second and third army is unknown, the other cities of Eter have gone silent with us. The King may be able to communicate with them but we can’t. If you have any knowledge to share regarding that it would be greatly appreciated. We are fighting in the dark for the most part.” Rhet finished and fell silent.

I nodded to him and gave myself time to think over what he had said. There were around twenty people gathered in the room as more had streamed in to listen to Rhet tell the story. The men and women of the rebellion looked worn and beaten. It was surprising to me that they had managed to find anywhere to hide at all.

“I have a few questions for you first and then I will tell you my story and what I know.” I told him. He nodded in response and waited for me to ask.

“You said the Kingsworn was active outside the city despite the beasts, what did you mean about the beasts?” I asked.

“The beasts outside of the city have made it too dangerous to leave the walls. No one who has ventured out apart from the army has returned. You are the first person I have met that has traveled here alone as far as I know. Between the temperature and the beasts it's too dangerous.” He answered.

“The temperature?” I asked, confusion clear on my face.

“You must have a resistance to the cold or incredible stamina to not have noticed. The temperature, especially with the wind chill is so cold now it’s almost fatal to lower leveled citizens. The walls surrounding the city keep the worst of the wind out. The King has rebought some favor among the people by providing firewood and keeping district halls warmed with fire mages.” He answered.

I began by telling him a shortened version of what had happened to me and my squad during the initiation of the framework. I told him of the Old Mining Camp and about the mayor in Burch, as well as the citizens that fled to the mine. The battle with the first army and Nadia’s arrival. I told him of Nadia’s plan to rally the citizens of Eter to march on Etes with the support of the defectors from the first army, and of what had happened to her when she renounced Eter.

“There are no swarms of beasts outside the walls of Eter Rhet. I saw precious few on my journey here, the only time I was attacked was by a group of Kingsworn harassing a village. I can’t say about the temperature difference on lower staminas but it wasn’t as cold in the forest.” I said after finishing my story.

“As far as the rest of the world, I can tell you that the Norx emperor is a necromancer of great power. He has conquered his country and every citizen he murders he raises as a new soldier of his army of the damned. He has begun setting his sights on border countries now and it is only a matter of time before he marches them south. Without a coordinated defense from Etes, the Kingdom is doomed.”

I left out the parts about my dreams and offer of alliance from Om’rock. Still not sure how much I could trust any of the people here. As I was speaking of the world outside Etes, more people had funneled in and were outraged. They had believed they were trapped here with no escape. The murmuring was beginning to get loud and I worried that we would be overhead by the King’s forces.

“What can you tell me about my mother or the King’s prisoners?” I asked before the situation could get out of hand.