The cold outside the walls of Rosa had retreated and the morning sun had greeted the denizens of the small community with its warmth.
At the edge of the community, Xaryus and Zadius sat at the set of broken wooden steps that laid at the front of their home. They looked on at the small cohort of men that were escorting their deceased mother wrapped in a dirty cloth.
Their expressions were bleak; it was ironic that their mother was escorted out of her home by the persons that were responsible for exiling them out of the community. At the behest of another man's order of course, everyone answered to someone.
In the growing community near Rosa, everyone answered to Andrew.
The group of men were adorned in simple leather clothing, each with a single longsword attached to their hips. They were some of the many enforcers that patrolled the slums under Andrew's command.
His power stemmed from his status as the only sorcerer present within the slums.
Andrew stood a few metres back, overseeing that the men properly escorted the woman's body.
He was a seasoned man with a slender but strong build in his late thirties, short curly brown hair and a scratchy beard. He always wore a long coat that stretched down to his knees.
Excluding Xaryus and Zadius' late father, he was the most capable person in the community.
Usually, corpses would be sent into the city or buried in the communal graveyard. But on that day, Andrew felt charitable.
He had commanded the men to bury the woman under a large tree she often spent her time reading, a skill many of the people in the community did not possess.
The cohort followed his orders and began moving the body towards a dense forest a good few metres away from the home. Whilst they gained some distance, Andrew's attention shifted towards the brothers.
He stared at them for an awkwardly long amount of time, taking in all their features from head to toe. After realizing that he was making the two young boys uncomfortable he finally spoke.
"It's a shame that she took her own life… A rather selfish decision actually."
"But now she's gone, and you have no one to take care of you, so what do you think will happen now?" He asked.
Xaryus averted his gaze from Andrew's, looking down to the ground and keeping himself close to Zadius.
"I think you would either kill us or make us do labour for the sake of our survival…" Zadius said calmly.
Andrew was taken aback, not because of the absurdity of Zadius' words but because the young boy was spot on, "He's aware of how the world works already… Good." He thought.
"You're very smart, Zadius, I expected nothing less from you. Your father has always complimented your sharp mind." He continued, this time when he mentioned Zadius' father a smile that could be mistakenly seen as sincere sat across his face.
But Zadius wasn't deceived, that was the smile of a sinister monster that knew no morals.
"You two will be alright." Andrew continued as he came down to his knees in front of the two brothers.
He saw that the Xaryus' gaze had eventually moved in the direction of his mother's body being carried into the thick forest. With a heavy sigh, Andrew gently turned Xaryus' face towards himself.
"You both will keep to yourselves, you are only allowed to stay at the outskirts around this shitty place you call home." Andrew commanded as his demeanour intensified similarly to his grip on Xaryus' face.
At a loss for words, neither brother could reply.
"I will provide you with rations every week, you two will have to survive on your own. And know this, if you try and call for help or disobey anything I have just laid before you, you'd wish yourselves a similar fate to your mother."
As Andrew spoke, his body emitted a soft white glow. But the presence that his body exuded was not soft in any way, it was almost suffocating.
Zadius felt the shift, at that moment Andrew felt more like a predatory beast than anything else. "... P-Please release him, we understand." Zadius struggled to speak through the intense pressure.
"Good." Andrew's intensity vanished as an almost genuine smile appeared on his face. After releasing Xaryus, he made his way inside the shack instructing the two to stay outside.
"Don't move." Andrew's predatory gaze emerged once again, only for a moment.
A few minutes had passed before he exited the shack with a disappointed look on his face, he pondered for a moment before glancing down at the two siblings.
"...I'm not one to go against my threats." Andrew added in a serious tone before leaving the area.
***
Some time had passed since Andrew left and the two brothers still sat at the steps in front of their home. There was no reason to go back inside, both persons that offered them protection, love and safety were now gone.
Life seemed so futile to them, what did they have to live for? Shouldn't they just have given up just like their mother?
Negative thoughts that no child should bear began to fester in their minds, their expressions slowly growing darker with each passing moment.
That negativity began to eat away at Xaryus but for Zadius, it slowly developed into regret and then into anger, "This is all Andrew's fault isn't it, he didn't even tell mommy the reason for kicking us out of the community. Now everyone else looks at us funny…"
"Wouldn't it all go away if we just ran away? Yeah, I can take Xaryus into the city and we can find a way to survive." Zadius thought for a moment.
But his thoughts were cut short, the small cohort of enforcers had returned from the patch of forest near their home. As they approached, Zadius could hear them bickering and laughing amongst themselves.
When they got closer however, all the attention had shifted unto Xaryus and Zadius. The one man who seemed to be their leader gave Zadius a long passive look before flashing an arrogant smile filled with deranged glee.
He pointed back to the forest whilst the others laughed amongst themselves.
Zadius' heart sank and his eyes widened. His breath slowly became heavier and heavier as he watched the group of men slowly return to the community. The man's sudden expression filled him with anxiety.
"They wouldn't…" Xaryus sounded, his voice full of doubt and terror.
Zadius glanced back to his younger brother, almost looking past him, "No, they wouldn't. We did nothing wrong…"
But that never mattered in this world.
Zadius pushed himself off the broken steps, breaking more in the process. Quickly, Xaryus followed behind him, and they both ran as fast as they could towards the tree where their mother had spent her days.