To say that people treated the Sapients differently after The Black Death’s arrival would be an understatement. Some learned to get along better with it. Others learned to hate their inhuman neighbor even more. Either way, the human populace had to adapt to prevent the culling that it spread.
Enchanted rings helped to focus Avean on what he should do next. In this case, Moonstone was the one to truly turn his open mind into a straight line. Fire would be a fool’s errand within a log house, and while this act of resisting arrest did give him leeway to start some property damage, it wouldn’t be the heroic thing to do. So instead of using the opportunity to burn it down, rather it was time to blow them away.
“Gale-Volley! ”
From his extended fingers, Avean fired shots of wind at his attacks, a streak of what seemed to be clouds came from the bullets and landed dead center in the horde of workers running at him. The Foreman didn’t flinch as the few men behind him who weren’t hit by the blast rushed toward Avean.
“Arbor Echo!”
The sound of creaking wood grew louder as the men still standing yelled out their transformation. Their limbs grew thicker as parts of them grew branches and bark upon them. Two of them swung wildly at the bejeweled hero, missing his head and stomach by a country mile.
“Woah, aren’t you a bit too old to be ganging up on me?” The swipes of tree bark were easily avoided as the wind pushed and pulled Avean away from their assault. While dealing with glorified bar fighters wasn’t much of an issue, it was still concerning how willing they were to aim for his more vulnerable areas.
“Oh, come on! I’m sure you can do better than that.”
“Million Splinters!”
From behind the two men, another had started shooting spiked wood chips. A young man, no more than 21 shooting at him. Around his age too. A sad sight for him to be working with these people.
With an outstretched hand, he pushed both the needles and his assailants back. The three of them fell in a heap to Maddock’s feet.
“Noticed you didn’t join in the fun of hitting me. Seems a tad dishonorable to let your lackeys do all the work.”
As he spoke, Avean couldn’t help but notice the difference in Maddock’s appearance. The body of the leading man had become more tree than man. His arm had become a log strapped upon a man’s body, his fingers growing into claws of Redwood.
“Ah. Spell building. Shit.” Avean rolled his neck and stretched his limbs. “Look man, this seems like way too much for a log house. You people are seriously willing to kill me to keep this heap? Enslave people to keep it running?”
“Living trees and Sprites. Forest vermin and beasts of burden who get in the way of business.” The false wood upon Maddock had reached the rest of his body, overtaking his skin until he looked to be a humanoid tree himself. “ You think I want anything to do with them? Only one reason why I put up with the damn thing.” The young man who attacked Avean before had already found his footing and rushed at him once more.
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“So it's money then?” Avean barely dodged a swipe from another worker as their arm landed with a solid crack against the wall, where his head would’ve been and his body about a foot away.
“Aren’t people like you supposed to be happy to get new jobs? New opportunities? Is taking advantage of people really the way to provide? Why would you give it all up to fall into such barbaric tradition?” As Avean ducked another swipe, he fell face-first into a knee by the woodsman. On the way up, however, he put an arm underneath his opponent’s knee and with the power of the wind with his free hand, twisted him onto the floor in a screw-like maneuver.
“ We provide for our families by any means necessary. Once we could assure any military man, any willing human that they would have a job here. Yet every kid wants to be the one to kill Morias, families gone cause the men died fighting off the Black Death. Humankind has been on the backfoot for too long.” The wooden arm of Maddock seemed to harden with each word. “Even with the Death gone and Morias off his rocker, the world ain’t the same. It's either us or them, and if they aren’t gonna help us, worship that damned horror as some sort of God!” A wicked smirk came on his face. “Well, even without the mayor involved, it was an easy choice.”
As Avean stepped forward to confront the man, the boy grabbed onto the sleeve of his robe. A bit of annoyance crossed his face as he looked into the eyes of someone who was fighting for such a man. The loyalty. The begging. For a man like him. A simple lift with the wind to send the boy up and a foot positioned like he was a simple step sent the boy straight down on his head, leaving his blood to pool on the cold floor.
“Well, you’d think loose lips sink ships, huh Mr. Haus.”
The smirk remained as strong as it was before. “We’re both just tools, kid. So come and get hammered!”
Between the two of them, there was nothing left to say. Only one thing left to do.
“Gale Force Hammer!”
“Trunk Wrecker!”
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“Go on. Unlock them.”
The Mayor was pushed toward his former servants. A “Living Tree.” Giant beasts born of the elemental energies found within nature. With bark for flesh and leaves for fur, they stood twice as tall as the normal man. Yet these were a bit shorter, their branches ruthlessly cut off and sent for processing. Another group, Nature Sprites were creatures of moss in the Kingdom, no taller than 5 feet at most. Nonverbal and mostly harmless, they were still on par with any human when put to the test. From Avean’s eyes, they were lovely creatures that looked as though they were wearing coats of moss with a hat to spare. From Lucia’s, they were ok but seemed to be the type of creatures that blended in too well with the darkness and were a midnight window visit away from being fixtures in her nightmares. While unlocking their chains was more a matter of avoiding the piercing nothing in their eyes, the Living Trees were rowdy as soon as the chains of their feet were taken. The Mayor could only scramble away into the hands of the authorities who would arrest him properly, a crowd looking on the whole time, murmuring to themselves.
“Another successful day, huh Lu?” Avean patted his sister on the back, only to see that she had no satisfaction on her face. “Something wrong?”
“This doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t? Evil guy exploits races for free labor, that’s all there is to it.”
“No. Why would the Mayor risk himself like that? The penalties for this stuff are way beyond whatever profit they would get from cutting a few paychecks. Hell, even when we asked, no one would flip on the foreman either. Everyone was getting paid and paid well.”
A small smile graced Avean’s face as he began to walk back towards the horses. “Well, we aren’t here to interrogate, Lucia. We’re heroes! It isn’t really our job to figure these things out. That’s the Kingdom’s place. Besides, greed doesn’t have to be consistent, right? Let’s just hang back and let everything take care of itself. We brought justice physically, so now their actions will be decided properly.”
Avean walked away. The murmuring behind her was getting louder. Discussion of the wife and kids, of the young man lost to the authorities. Rumors of the Black Death were dispatched by the Queen. Lucia could only stare at them, as they avoided her gaze leaving her uneasy about the future.