He awoke in a dark room, a mat under his body separated him from the cold stone floor. He looked to his left and right and saw a few who entered with him. Solith and one of the other warriors slept on his right, Atas or Atras, whatever his name was, he could never get into the naming sense though he tried no respect the culture. Meanwhile Kitsi was sitting on his left looking at him.
"How was it?" she asked.
"Better than you described," He replied, somehow he couldn't remember much of what happened in the abyss. He could remember speaking with someone or at least attempting to, but all her features were blurred and the sounds were muffled.
"Oh," She replied, he had come out the longest which usually meant that he went through some of the worst things in there according to everyone else. Maybe it was just a thing men needed to do to cover for how they actually feel by faking masculinity she thought as she didn't question him. "Well either way, it's the middle of the night period... you should get some rest... even if you think you've been sleeping since entering the abyss, you weren't... and it takes a big toll on the body as if you've moved for a very long time"
"Mm" He nodded.
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In another place, a girl woke up suddenly and sat up, she wore a uniform of a red shirt and skirt that was patterned with black lines, a large cap on her head.
She rubbed under it, combing through her hair with her sleek fingers and pulled her hat off allowing snow white hair to cascade down just past her shoulder.
"Zhao Wei..." she muttered under her breath.
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Knock! knock!.
Zhao Wei woke up much later. The day before although he didn't really didn't have a sense of time in the abyss, outside apparently two days had passed. Even as the knocking woke him up, his eyes were still heavy and had several crusts around it.
The night before he'd found out that Eyisha came almost a day earlier and had the workers prepare for the others arrival. They were still near the village entrance waiting for another day for anyone to go through it. Beyond that it was considered a lost cause.
He tried really asking this time and they were more open about what they knew since they had already brought him inside anyway. And the result... More ghost stories of survivors and an approximate of the latest body count, apparently nobody really knew. From a departure of 22 people, those who returned numbered a total of 5.
Walking out of his room, surprisingly it was Solith who came to visit him. According to him, Eyisha and Kitsi had to deal with the rest of the elders and nobles of the village.
As he looked out, he was certain that the Dracarian people didn't understand the term village. It was quaint, looking like a middle eastern set in any of the old world movies, several buildings were missing floors and obviously some color it had in the past, vestiges of a former glory.
But it was bigger than any village he ever saw or could ever consider a village, it was a whole thriving civilization. Even though certain things didn't work anymore after the change such as an aqueduct attached to the buildings and several windmills that had stopped it's use.
As they walked pass, Solith told stories of the Dracas of old, people would be dancing in the streets every few days. Children under a certain age had their own form of soccer in which they could only play with a woven ball with the tip of their tails.
Once they reached a certain age, every child was allowed to choose a craftsman which they would like to follow unless their own parent was a craftsman themselves. These craftsman would teach one or two new apprentices and left their legacy in the younger generations hands once they proved themselves.
Each craft group have a guild to which they report to, they regulated work that needed to be done and make sure none of the craftsmen run out of jobs to do.
The rest would join the guards and warriors in training. It wasn't like that was the throw away job, in fact the warriors received more glory and fame than most of the craftsmen. It was just that no parents would hope for such a dangerous job for their children.
There were no farmers in here, before the shift they lived in swamp-lands, the environment brought them a lot of meat and mysterious fruits, there was never a need to farm. But now, they were shifted here. The exact location was uncertain, but they were on a flat plot of land somewhere in the center of the rock formation.
It was underwhelming living in such a place as it looked like they were living inside a bowl. The only exit was through the abyss and they couldn't risk losing so many people to move. Besides, as much as it was their prison it was also their protection.
As he walked the streets, the further he got the more he realized that less bricks were used in the houses. There were more wooden based houses that were coated on the outside to give it a similar hue. It was actually more traditional, they always made things with wood.
Only at some point were bricks and cement were introduced when they interacted with the humans. Here the brick houses were definitely housing nobles or elders and they were also nearer to castle.
It was clear that there was a divide in the people's lifestyle. For nobles, Solith described them in a very verbally 'descriptive' way. They were split into two groups, bloodline nobles and titled nobles. Their ranks went from Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess, Dukes and then the Royal bloodlines.
The bloodline nobles come from a time when the Naga were split into many villages in the swamps, each of these villages consisted of a village chiefs who were powerful in their own right. The head of the Dracas tribe at the time had collected these villages, but he needed to appease the chiefs in some way to bring them under reins. So he promised that their descendants would always be reserved a nobility title of at least a viscount even if they never contributed a single thing in their lives.
On the other hand, there were titled nobles. These were descendants of people who contributed greatly in wars after the formation of the Dracas tribe. Their titles were similarly hereditary but only until the third generation unless the family line continued to contribute greatly.
However, there hadn't been a war except right before the change happened. All the strong and brave nobles had left for the war. Everyone left here were those that were weak-willed and conniving, at least while the stronger members were gone, they thought they could run amok suppressed for awhile.
As for elders, Solith seemed to have a high respect for them. They were either the chiefs of craftsmen guilds or retired generals. Needless to say that to reach either position, there was a lot of process to go through and many qualifications that were needed. Compared to Nobles who were mostly just figureheads, they held real power of influence.
If any of the craftsmen guild were offended, they could refuse any trade with any power and basically embargo them until they were powerless, and other craftsmen guilds always stood with the craftsmen guild in any fight so their opponent would be blocked out from all sides.
On the other hand, any of the retired generals held such a high position in the people's hearts, that if they rallied them, all the people even down to the children would go into battle in their stead. They had the power of the people in their hands and couldn't be shrugged off so easily.
Currently, these three powers were holding a meeting to determine the fate if the kingdom left in their hands.