Family Business Interlude: Sylas 1

Family  Business

Interlude: Sylas 1

-VB-

“Brothers and sisters,” he spoke out loud, raising his arms and showing them the chains and cuffs that had once held him. “This is Demacia,” he said as he shook the chains.

The crowd before him, magicians, their understanding families, and those who resented Demacia, listened and stared intently.

“No matter what they tell you, this is Demacia!” he repeated. “I was once a servant of Demacia. I used my magic to find those who used their magic to wrong others!” He shook his chains again. “This is the reward they gave me!” He paused and lowered his voice a little, making himself sound conspiratory as he spoke his next words. “What would they do to you, who aren’t working for them directly?”

It made a few of them worried.

“We cannot run from Demacia because this is our home! This is where our ancestors lived, where our families live, where we live! Why must we, who have been loyal, be cast out?!”

His words resonated with the crowd. Oh, he saw a few who didn’t agree with him, but when everyone was shouting and yelling in agreement with him, they didn’t say anything.

But they could report to Demacian authorities in fear of what he might bring, which was justified.

So he had to pressure their friends and families. Make this not a rebellion against the crown but a war for survival just as he said.

"You may think that once they catch me and a few other active magicians, they will execute us and everything will return to normality. If you think that, then you are delusional.

"From the west, Noxus closes in on Demacia each day! From the north, Frejord comes ever closer to unifying their disparate tribes into a powerful nation that has no choice but to seek new lands for their people! Demacia is cornered!"

His words made them wary. Not all of them were well connected or well educated. They only had his words to go by.

"What happens when magic attacks from the outside?! What happens when war comes with magicians in enemy lines?!"

He pointed at them.

"They will seek shadows where there is none. They will look for evidence of wrongdoing that never happened. They will hunt down you and all that you hold dear for how you were born. They will strike you down because they fear you! They will kill your children because they too can spawn more like you! They will kill your relatives because you came from one of them! They will burn your villages and towns because they will believe spies that do not exist are there! The lords and king you seek protection from will slay you where you stand when war comes!"

He could see it.

Fear.

"What will you do then?"

He paused. Let them think. Let them stew in their fears.

"If you are lucky, then you will be imprisoned like me, a loyal servant of the crown. Maybe you have unrelated friends who can vouch for your integrity and loyalty, but then they will use that to turn you against your family. If you're really unlucky… well, to some of the soldiers who arrested me, I wasn't even human. I was a beast. At the very least, I was a strong beast. But you? Most of you? What can you do when soldiers break down your doors and see you and your family? When they see your young niece, young mother, young daughter? You are animals to them!"

They stared up at him, captivated, their hearts slowly being handed over.

"If you are lucky, then they will kill you quickly. A mercy, they will say. You're no different from a rabid dog. Kill it quickly, they will say.

"But what happens if you are unlucky?"

He didn't say anything. Let their minds give them their worst nightmares.

"But you can prevent it all," he spoke loudly but almost as if to whisper. "You can stop it all from happening by doing something that is innately in us: unite.

"You don't have to pick up a sword or a stave or a wand or a spear! You can merely stand together and unite to form a front against the enemies who hate you for being born!

"They think us a beast? Well, then let us all become a beast they cannot touch! Let us become a monster they cannot put down! And if they attack us, then we will have all of the evidence to see that Demacia holds nothing for us! We will be the beasts who choose our own destiny! We will survive this ordeal and come out it… STRONGER!"

The crowd shot up. They cheered his name.

A cheer that soon turned into a chant.

"Sy-las!"

"Sy-las!"

"Sy-las!"

He had them. This was the start of something greater than one mere person.

"Sy-las!"

"Sy-las!"

"Sy-las!"

This would be the start of a better Demacia. A truer Demacia.

"Sy-las!"

"Sy-las!"

"Sy-las!"

His Demacia.

"Sy-las!"