Months passed. The king had fallen severely ill and passed, and Prince Eli was now King Eli. Another unfortunate thing that happened was Queen Arya giving birth to another Beta, making it two Beta sons.
The kingdom was even more unstable at this point, and Lord Zealot's foothold was stronger since he could even control Eli more than he did the previous king. He was a powerful man with gold and armies, and it wasn't until his death that King Eli could fully be in control of them.
But Richard could see how worse Wilder had become. And as much as Lord Zealot felt he wielded enough power, he could never control Wilder, and he couldn't even use Eli to control him.
Wilder's anger seemed to have increased too, even killing people for the most insignificant of reasons.
However, Wilder had found a new hobby— finding the witches' hiding places.