Chapter 10

Kat

They dumped us on the doorstep of the Legion House. I dimly recalled Allard's face, contorted in fury when he opened the door and saw us. That surprised me. Allard was an Elusian. That he would have even a shred of compassion for us was startling.

I don't remember anything else before waking up in the infirmary, pain burning through my chest every time I took a breath. The pain proved I was alive, at least.

V lay unmoving in the bed next to mine, his eyes closed. He was covered in bandages, an IV running in one arm, and was hooked up to a bunch of monitoring machines, but he was breathing. The same machines were attached to me.

"V," I whispered, but he didn't move.

The curtain surrounding us pulled back and a medic I recognized, Leonia, entered, clipboard in hand.

"Hey, Kat," she whispered. "How you doing?" She squeezed my wrist gently. It seemed odd, until I realized it was one of the least damaged places on my body.

"We gotta stop meeting like this," I rasped out.

Leonia had patched me up more times than I could count.

She smiled sadly.

"If you had only learned how to shield sooner, we would practically be strangers," she teased, looking down at her clipboard.

When I was first sent to the Legion I had refused to try and learn how to control my magic. My mind kept insisting it had to be some kind of mistake, and if I didn't use any powers again, they wouldn't keep me here and I could go back to my home.

The Legion would have nothing of it, and to force me to learn, the instructors started using me for target practice. Grounding and shielding were the first thing any Mageia learned and was the basis for many other spells. Day after day they inflicted cuts, gunshots, whippings, and burns. I stubbornly refused, insisting I wasn't Mageia.

By the time I had been here for three months, a senior Lochagos figured out a way to force me to learn.

I'd come to the training yard one day, mentally prepared for another day of target practice and saw a dozen kids, one as young as five, huddled in the corner of the training room. They were the children of the servants who managed the kitchens and maintained the grounds. I'd seen many of them in my time here and had developed a fondness for them as I tried to fill the void the loss of my twin and Luke in my life.

Lochagos Procopios stood in front of them. He was responsible for managing the training of all the Mageia, especially the Neos and Cadets. He was the one who gave the instructors the directive to start using me for target practice to try and provoke the use of my gift.

The kids were dirty and had tears running down their faces. They were obviously terrified. Several sported bruises on limbs and faces.

Procopios pulled one of the children away from the group, a little girl named Ella. She was the daughter of one of the landscapers. We had wandered through the gardens together as she taught me about all the different kinds of plants and flowers there. She couldn't have been more than eight.

The Lochagos held his weapon a few inches from her head.

"Cadet Kataramenos, have you learned to shield?" His voice was as calm as if he was asking if I had learned basket weaving.

"N-no, sir," I'd said, looking around wildly at the guards and other Elusians gathered around. Surely, he wouldn't hurt a child, especially a human one! None of them reacted.

The sharp retort of the gun firing rang through the small courtyard, and Ella's body dropped to the ground. The sound of her small form hitting the ground is one that would haunt me the rest of my life.

"No!" I screamed, running to where Ella lay. Her blond hair was matted with blood, skin torn away revealing blood and brain. Her body twitched a few times, then was still.

"Why?" I screamed at the Lochagos. "She didn't do anything! You should have punished me and not her!"

"Punishing you wasn't having the desired impact, Kataramenos," he said. "And a Mageia is more valuable to me than a human slave."

He pulled me up and turned me to face the remaining kids.

"Now learn to shield, or we will be doing this every day until you do," he said.

I'd learned to shield.

"How's Vlakas?" I asked, pulling myself out of the reverie and trying to sit up, but the pain in my body refused to let me do more than twitch.

Her smile dimmed.

"Not great, Kat, but you probably knew that, already," she said. One of the things I loved about Leonia was that she didn't sugarcoat anything. Unlike some of the other medics who'd say stupid things like you're fine or you'll be great! We weren't fine. We weren't great.

"He's lost a lot of blood. He's got a fractured arm and several broken ribs. They cracked his skull," she said. "He's in a coma, Kat."

I remembered the one vicious blow Maalik had landed before Vlakas had spat on him and my vision went red.

"I'm going to kill that son of a bitch," I said, shoving at the blankets, struggling to force my body upright.

"No, you're not," she said with authority as she grabbed my arm. "You aren't in any better shape than he is, for all that you are conscious. You have enough wounds on your body that you look like a jigsaw puzzle. We placed almost one-hundred stitches on your skin, Kataramenos. You have four broken ribs," she said, pushing her face into my field of view, holding up her fingers. "Four. Move the wrong way, take a hit before they heal, hell, sneeze wrong, and you could pierce your lungs."

I froze. Four broken ribs. That explained why it hurt so much to move and breathe. And there were other, more humiliating sources of pain.

She continued inexorably. "And if you don't want to shit out of a hole in your gut for the rest of your relatively short life, you'll let us take proper care of you until you heal," she said. Then her tone softened. "We almost lost you twice, Kat. You lost so much blood, I'm not sure how you survived," she said.

"Spite," I whispered.

"That sounds like the Kat we know and love," she laughed.

"Maalik needs to die," I growled.

"Agreed," she whispered softly, glancing over at Vlakas. "But not today."

As much as it chafed, I followed the medic's directions, and slowly began to heal.

It was over a week before V finally woke from his coma. I was reading to him, since there really wasn't much else I could do. He had always loved adventure stories when he was a kid. After about the fifth time Leonia had tracked me down trying to find a way to escape the medical ward to kill Maalik, she gave me the book to read to keep me out of trouble.

I learned that Maalik had, unfortunately, survived, though it would be a long time before he made use of any pleasure house. The thought brought me a certain grim satisfaction.

The House of Eros refused to allow Maalik to punish us further because they blamed him for the event for not keeping me under Suppression.

I was reading out loud to V when I felt his hand twitch. I stopped, looking up at my brother's face. I was about to go back to reading, thinking I had imagined it, when his eyes fluttered open.

"V!" I exclaimed, jumping to my feet.

They had taken the bandage off his head a few days before, the stitches made a black line over his eyebrow, the bruises were turning orange and green across his body as he healed.

He blinked a few times, then his eyes seemed to focus on me.

"Kat?" he rasped out.

"Hey there, lazybones. About time you woke up!" I whispered, squeezing his fingers gently.

He winced and I released his hand.

"Sorry," I whispered.

He shook his head.

"Not your fault," he said, his voice croaked. "Can I have some water?"

I grabbed a cup from the table and poured him a cup.

"Here," I said, slipping the straw between his lips.

He sipped greedily for a few moments before pulling away.

"Enough?"

He nodded, looking around and taking in the room.

"Infirmary?" he asked, his voice starting to get stronger.

"Yeah."

"How long?"

"Almost ten days."

"Fuck," he sighed weakly.

"Pretty much," I agreed, nodding.

"You okay?" he asked, his gaze taking in the fading bruises and stitches on my own face.

"I'll live," I said. "Back on solid food now."

He winced, paled and looked away. I remembered the glass window and knew he must have seen at least some of the rape Maalik had committed. The bile surged in my throat, but I forced it down. I couldn't think about that right now.

"Do you remember what happened?" I asked.

He paused a moment, then whispered. "Maalik. The Calling."

I nodded. Shit, fuck, damn and hell. I'd hoped that he might have lost the memory. I'd heard it happened sometimes with a brain injury, and that would have been a mercy. I should have realized the gods didn't take mercy on Mageia.

"I'm so sorry, V," I whispered.

He looked at me, confusion apparent on his face.

"Why are you sorry? Maalik was the asshole," he said.

I felt tears spilling down my face as I whispered, "I promised I wouldn't let them take you there. But I…I couldn't stop them, adelfos. I couldn't stop them."

I gripped his hand and dropped my head, beginning to sob in earnest. I hadn't been able to save V. I hadn't been able to save Erix, or Mitera. I was truly cursed.

"Kat, it wasn't your fault. You saved my life," he said.

I shook my head, unable to look at him.

"If Maalik had… had done to me some of the things I saw him do to you…" I felt him shake his head and heard V swallow hard before continuing.

"The Calling was for three days," he said hoarsely. "I would not have survived three days with Maalik. I doubt anyone could have. If you hadn't taken the first half of the Calling, I'd be dead right now. I'm never forgetting you did that, either, you ass," he continued, a weak smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "No going behind my back to protect me. We protect each other. Got it?"

I raised my head and looked at him, this brother I knew I didn't deserve.

"I promise you," he continued, "We will make them pay. Someday, somehow, we will overturn this fucked up system."

I took a deep breath. Tall order for two really fucked up Mageia, but it was a goal.

"No surrender," I said.

"No retreat," he responded and squeezed my hand.

◆◆◆

Weeks passed, and eventually Vlakas and I were released from medical and returned to our cell and to our training.

The first couple of days were rough. Figuring out what worked and what didn't around our injuries made us feel almost as helpless as kittens, but in a way, they made us become even more creative in using our powers to support our weakened bodies. It took weeks for us to return to something close to our former physical condition. Eventually, all that remained outwardly were the scars. The mental damage was far worse.

Vlakas and I both began having nightmares. They'd happened before, occasionally. Now, they were a nightly occurrence. We didn't really talk about it, but we took turns waking each other from them. One night I woke to the sound of the earth groaning, something vibrating deep in the ground. Plaster and dust began raining down on my face, and I saw a crack appear in the ceiling above me. In the bed next to mine I heard Vlakas moaning; light from the hallway shining through the door and across his bed. He was tossing and turning, his face was contorted in a rictus of pain and rage. Fuck. This was the first time one of the nightmares had caused him to use his powers.

"V. V!" I whispered urgently, moving to his bed and trying to shake him awake. The last thing we needed was one of the Elusians on duty deciding to punish him.

Finally in desperation I whispered "Luke!"

He twisted in my grip before suddenly opening his eyes. For a moment he stared right through me, then slowly seemed to focus on my face.

"K-kat?" he asked, looking around, confusion evident on his face.

"It's alright. You were having a nightmare," I reassured him.

"Shit, I'm sorry," he whispered, he said, sitting up. "What—" he started to ask, seeing the plaster dust on my face, then looking up at the ceiling over my bed.

"Fuck. Did I do that?" he asked, his eyes wide as he nodded towards the crack in the ceiling as he sat up.

I nodded. "I think so."

"I— I've never done anything like that before," He let out a breath then said, "Lucky the Elusians didn't realize."

"Well, we do sometimes get earthquakes in this area. It's not like most Earth Mageia could cause one," I said.

He nodded, but his face held a touch of fear as well.

We both knew we were two of the most powerful Mageia in the Legion. The most powerful of each of our respective elements. Even though we hadn't completed the Machi Thanatos, we were far more powerful than our teachers, who were all full-fledged Mageia. We worked actively to hide how strong we were, to make our enemies underestimate us, but without someone to really tell us what to do with all the power we had, we'd taken to practicing on our own as much as possible.

Elusians couldn't sense our power: they had to actively witness us doing something with our power to know to Suppress us. That meant we spent a lot of time learning how to use our powers in small, unseen ways. We didn't advertise our strength because we didn't want the Elusians to know. What they didn't know, they couldn't use against us.

"Get some sleep, ligo adelfos," I said. Little brother.

His face lit up at the endearment and he grinned at me. "You haven't called me that before," he said.

"That's because ‘asshole' has fewer syllables," I grumbled.

He laughed and drifted back into sleep. I stared at the crack in the ceiling for a long time before falling asleep myself. Fuck, he was powerful.

◆◆◆

The crack of dawn found us in the training arena preparing for another wonderful day in the Legion. Sarcasm definitely intended.

We stood in lines of five across, twenty or more deep. Everyone stood at attention, hands grasping wrists as the Lochagos stood at the front of the room to give us assignments. We were divided first by status: Cadets in front, Hoplites behind. Then by specialty: Earth, Air, Fire or Water.

The eldest in each group was posted on the front of the line nearest the inside aisle. We were responsible for the younger Mageia in our sphere, whether we wanted to be or not.

Depending on the day we could find ourselves in a classroom studying anything from math to ancient history, military strategy to psychology. Or we could find ourselves practicing physical or magical workouts in the courtyard under the sharp eye of Elusian instructors.

The Lochagos stood in front, holding a sheaf of papers.

"Cadets, you are assigned to classrooms today," he said. A small groan from one of the kids was quickly silenced as his gaze narrowed.

"Earth and Air Hoplites, you have magical workouts in the arena. Fire and Water Hoplites, you will be assisting with the quarterly sewage clean out."

I didn't need to hear any groans to know how well that would go over. Alexandria had a decent sewage system, but no one wanted to be crawling around in the tunnels beneath the city, first burning any flotsam to ash, then washing it clean with torrents of water. It was a dirty, disgusting job, and I'd been involved enough times to know how gross it was. Just another job no Alexandrian human was willing to take on.

"Before you are dismissed for your assignments, I have some welcome news. The following Hoplites shall report to the Tachmatarges: Astor, Actimos, Castor, Delilah, Delli, Kataramenos, Mori, Sestus, Skyla, Vlakas, …"

His voice droned on, but I knew what this was. We all moved to the front of the assembly, in order as called. I saw V's dark head to the left of me. Some of the names I knew well, some only enough to put a face to the name.

"Hoplites. Your time of training is over. You are required to participate in the Machi Thanatos, where you will test your knowledge, skills, and power against all opponents. Should you triumph, you will receive the title ‘Mageia', an annual living allowance and assignment to a Mentor."

"Mentor" was the euphemism the Elusians used instead of owner. It was slavery tied up with a pretty bow, but it was still slavery.

"Should you fail…" his voice trailed off. We knew what that meant: death, most likely. Or enslavement to a brothel or tradesman.

"We will be holding the Machi Thanatos one week from today. Attendees, you are excused from normal drills and expected to spend all available time practicing. Do us proud. No retreat," he said.

"No Surrender!" thundered the response from my fellow Mageians. This was it.

I caught up with Vlakas once we were dismissed.

"You okay?"

Vlakas was close to being back to normal, physically, but I knew the Calling had taken a toll on us both.

"Yeah, of course," he said, but I could hear the nervous edge to his voice. We headed to the training grounds. One of the advantages of having the Machi Thanatos scheduled was that we would be excused from all other duties.

We headed to an area apart from the rest of the contenders. Some of them were already focusing on physical or magical workouts.

"Have you heard anything about what we might be facing?" Vlakas asked.

I shook my head. "They don't usually tell us anything about our opponents until the day of the event. At the opening ceremonies we'll be given some clues as to what the opponents might be, but we have to figure it out for ourselves."

Vlakas looked confused. "You don't find out until the day of? How are we supposed to prepare?"

"I think that's the point," I said. "They want us to prepare for anything. It's a shitty deal that you have so little training under your belt, and they're sending you in."

He shrugged.

"Fairness was never my Fa—" he stumbled, glancing around. "I mean, the King's strong suit," he said. Vlakas had his own share of scars for refusing to answer to his new name. Referring to the King as his father had earned him far more.

King Cyrius Alexus had ruled Alexandria for the last thirty years. He had inherited war on multiple fronts from his own father, but Cyrius had a much better tactical mind. Under his rule, we were facing fewer war fronts.

Sometimes I enjoyed the irony that Cyrius had lost three children to the Legion now. He despised Mageians. Davidus had not been at the Legion when I was brought here, so I could only assume that he had been sent to one of the other cities for training.

"Do… do you really think we have a chance at the Machi, Kat?" Vlakas asked, his voice low.

"Absolutely," I responded, without hesitation. "We're the strongest Air and Earth mages in the Legion - from what I can tell from the records, the strongest in at least fifty years. Maybe longer. Fire and water may be flashier, but we hold the real power of the elements." I answered. "Plus, we are way cuter than the Fire and Water Mages," I said, winking at him.

Vlakas' face lost some of the worried scowl it had held since we had been dismissed, which was what I had been shooting for. He grinned at me.

"Yes, we are, aren't we?" he said, bumping my shoulder with his own.

"Fucking omofylofilos," I heard sneer at us from behind. "Think you can win the Machi by sucking up to an ex-prince? I heard his family wants him dead even more than yours does, Kataramenos."

I turned to glare at the man approaching us.

"Oh wait!" he said, feigning surprise. "That's right! You don't have any family left, right Kat?" he sniped. "Disowned by your father. Dead Mother, dead brother. I'm starting to sense a pattern…"

I narrowed my eyes at him, Vlakas reaching a hand out to grab my arm but I shook him off. We had succeeded in keeping our familial relationship relatively quiet, so not everyone knew we were half-brothers.

The asshole's name was Actos. He was a Fire Mageia, originally from Greece. He had been shipped to our Legion a couple of years after I had arrived. If one city didn't have enough space or enough instructors, it was common for Dokimos and Hoplites to be shuffled around.

Actos was slightly taller than me at around six foot-one. Okay, he was a lot taller than me, and his body was whipcord thin. He was one of those magic users who seemed as if the fire he weaved might be burning him up from the inside out.

When he had first arrived, I had done my level best to befriend him. He had been five foot nothing back then, even shorter than me at the time. Skinny to the point of starvation, bright orange hair shaved close to his head. Discovering he was Mageian had been an improvement for his life, if you could believe that. His mother had been an aging whore who didn't work in a House. No one knew who his father was. They had struggled to survive on the streets, both selling their bodies until Actos' power manifested.

He had the most beautiful green eyes I'd ever seen on a man. I must have admired them one too many times, though. Apparently, his years selling himself on the streets to survive made him think that anyone who was attracted to their own sex was a monster. When he found out I was omofylofilos, our friendship had ended. Explosively.

"What, jealous Act?" I teased, relaxing my glare into a seductive smile. Might as well poke the bear.

His face turned almost as red as his hair and he began to advance on me, hands out and flames forming.

"Pervert! I will fucking ki—" he started toward me.

"You will do nothing, Hoplite," I heard a voice bark at him. I turned toward the voice, only to see Lochagos Allard approaching us.

We all dropped to our knees; hands crossed in front of us at his approach. Allard didn't have to use Suppression to receive obedience. He was one of the few Elusians that were halfway decent to Mageians.

"Hoplite Actos, you need to find somewhere else to be. Now." He said, his voice was stern and brooked no opposition. I watched Actos jump to his feet and hurry off, casting a single dark glance at me over his shoulder.

Allard stopped in front of us.

"Oh, get up, you two," he growled, waving us to our feet. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. I still can't believe they scheduled your Machi Thanatos so close to your Calling."

"We're fine, sir," Vlakas said slowly. I could hear the confusion in his voice. No one cared if Mageians lived or died. But Allard seemed different.

Allard was new here. He had transferred to Alexandria from Greece about two years previously, where he had taken part in the war effort. Scuttlebutt said that he had been a high-ranking officer but had killed a fellow officer during the war and busted in rank. Talk was cheap, though, and no one knew the real story.

"I'm sorry, men. I tried to talk the Tagmatarches out of assigning you so soon, but…" he sighed and shrugged. "A piece of advice for you, soldiers," he said, glancing around, his voice dropping to a whisper. "If I were you, I would highly suggest you make friends with the beast you will be facing during the Machi."

Vlakas and I looked at each other. Beast? What kind of beast?

"Why tell us?" I demanded, instantly suspiciously. "…sir." I added belatedly.

Since the Calling I had been having an increasingly difficult time yielding to the Elusians. Elusians certainly didn't help Mageia out of the goodness of their hearts. It was probably a trap.

Allard didn't respond at first, staring into the distance and avoiding my gaze. After a few moments he turned, and his gaze locked mine.

"Do you know the story about Pythagoras and the dog?" he asked.

I shook my head and glanced at V. V nodded. Of course my brother would know.

"Pythagoras was on his way to the market one day when he saw a man beating a dog. The dog was thin and covered with scars. It was obvious the man beat him constantly. Pythagoras rebuked the man and forced him to stop hitting the dog. When the man asked why he cared, Pythagoras replied, "That's a friend of mine-I knew him by his voice," V responded.

"Some people think Pythagoras was making fun of the idea that souls could reincarnate. Others think he was empathizing with the beaten animal. You may not believe this, soldier, but not everyone agrees with how Mageians are treated in Alexandria," he said.

Allard reached out his hand and gripped my shoulder, his eyes boring into mine as he whispered. "I know your voice."

Without another word he turned away and headed back to the courtyard.

Vlakas and I looked at each other.

"What the hell did that mean?" Vlakas asked.

I shook my head, having no clue.