[center][h1]THE KINGDOM OF VYISSLAND[/h1][/center]
[hr]
[hr]

Holtism was a plague. At least, that was what officer Oak Williamson thought. It seemed that every damn day there was another one standing up and waving about a red flag, and every time it happened it just lead to more suffering and misery. The guild system worked, it had been tried and tested, and look how well it provided for the average man and woman on the street. He carried a guild-made revolver at his hip, wore a guild-made uniform and walked about with guild-made boots. Holtism wished to throw all of that to the wind, and that was why Holtists had no place in Vyissland. Well, that, and their insistence in overthrowing the monarchy. Just expressing Holtist beliefs wasn’t a crime in and of itself, but speaking of overthrowing the monarchy? Now, that was conspiracy to commit treason, and there was only one way that traitors ended up in Vyissland.

[i]Snap.[/i] The noose behind the officer went taut, and by turning back to the hooded figure, he could tell that it hadn’t been the rope that had just made that snap. The executioner turned down to the officer, before offering a small shrug. The broad-shouldered figure would stomp across the gallows and loosen it, the body falling through the trapdoor and hitting the ground with a muffled thump. Not many had turned out to see this execution, which was to be expected, it wasn’t a very ‘juicy’ one. The crowds didn’t get riled up unless there was someone seriously heinous up on the gallows. Like that woman, what had her name been? Mary Barrow? Something like that. Murdered her husband and her three kids, then had taken an axe to the head of the police officer who had investigated the noise. Nasty piece of work she had been, and the crowds had been baying for her blood. No quick snap for her either- that had been long, drawn out and nasty. 

He may have seen a lot of executions in his time, but that didn’t make them particularly easy when the poor sod on the other end squirmed and kicked, ragged breaths upon ragged breaths until finally they stilled. Sometimes he wanted to just pull the silly bugger’s legs himself, end it, but the crowd always got riled up when that happened, and he normally had his hands full. 
Bah, what had the world come to. Anarchists and traitors, the Zengrav up in arms and shooting each other like they hadn’t done before, Belzarov was up in arms… It was far too crazy for a normal man to live his life, and here these fellows were that wanted to ruin the prosperity that they had in Vyissland just so the workers didn’t have to work. Madness.

[hr]

One of the many duties that Crown Prince Marshal had was to periodically make a showing at the Bridge Cities- which one wasn’t entirely important as long as he went to one of them. Here, he was to spend a day walking about, inspecting the soldiers and machines that guarded the bridge between Vyiss and Bravsaara, shake the hands of a few generals and officers and have his picture taken so that the newspapers could have their daily dose of gossip about the royal family. Although normally he would have taken his wife with him, she had decided quite suddenly that she was feeling unwell, and that the rocking and bouncing of the train as it made its way towards the western coast was quite unbefitting of her and would only exacerbate her maladies. 

In a way, it was a blessing, as it meant that he could have a proper meeting with a new guild leader… And if what he had heard was right, one of the youngest as well. Quite a figure too- where Marshal was broad-shouldered and had a respectably-grown beard, this new guild leader was slimmer, shorter and only had a set of still-growing sideburns. Nonetheless, it was not the appearance that made the man, and already Marshal had realised that Leon’s intelligence was quite beyond what his appearance would suggest.
“I must admit, when I learned that the guild of mechanised engineers had gotten themselves a new leader, I had expected almost everything [i]but[/i] you.” The prince kept one hand on the table between them to keep himself grounded as the train rattled across a sweeping field. “But, I cannot say that I disagree, now that I have had the chance to talk with you. I believe that you’ll bring us great things, Mr Leon. Great things indeed.”