Chapter 11

Kat

That final week of preparation seemed to fly by. There didn't seem enough time to do everything that needed doing, but somehow, we managed it. Gear bags were packed, weapons prepared, armor secured.

The day dawned crisp and sharp. A hint of autumn was in the air, the sky a startling blue. The days were still warm, but at night the temperature dropped. It hadn't gotten below freezing yet, but it wouldn't be long until we saw generally lower temperatures consistently.

The group stood at attention in the courtyard, the Tagmatarches making his final inspection before releasing us.

We all eyed the air vehicle parked in the meadow outside the Legion quarters. Air travel was uncommon, usually reserved for high-ranking military, nobles, or the King himself. Leonardo DaVinci was the father of modern air flight, but it still took a quartet of highly trained Air Mageia to maneuver one of the beasts.

"Soldiers," the Tagmatarches said. "You have the honor of being the newest group of Hoplites to attempt the rank of Mageia. You will be airlifted to the center of the selected labyrinth and will be expected to work your way to a specified point on the enclosed maps.

"You will be competing against Hoplites from other Legions, but there are also a series of challenges you will be required to defeat to pass. Some of the rarest, most terrifying beasts in the known world have been collected and housed in this arena to test your skills. It is your objective to arrive at the designated safe zone with proof of no less than three kills each.

"Your kills can be a combination of beasts or other Hoplites. There are no teams in the Machi Thanatos. Make sure to collect your trophies."

He held his hand up. In it was a steel collar with a round medallion embossed with the Legion emblem dangling from it.

A row of Elusians, each with a Fire Mageia beside each them began moving down the aisles of Hoplites and sealed the collars around each of the waiting contestants' necks. The collars were not so tight that they would choke but were far too tight to remove. Unless your head had been separated from your body.

When they got to me, I felt the cold metal tighten around my neck and felt a wave of pain wash through me. I stifled a gasp and glared at the Elusian as the Suppression hovered over me.

Maalik grinned evilly. I had been so focused on the Tagmatarches I hadn't realized he was the one who was essentially collaring all of us. I felt the biting pain as he Suppressed my abilities.

"Perhaps I will ask the King to assign you to me as your Mentor, Kat," he whispered. "I believe you, Vlakas and I have some… unfinished business."

I felt bile hit the back of my throat as his fingers lingered on my neck. Fuck, I'd hoped he had died, but I should have known better. Hades would have spit him back out.

Damn it all, he could probably convince the King to assign us to his son. The King might even think that he was being merciful by assigning us to someone "familiar". Too familiar. I remembered his hands, slick with my blood. Slick with Vlakas' blood. And those fingers… they had… had…

I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing myself to breathe through my nose and resist the urge to vomit. Through the pain of the Suppression I felt the slight tremble of the earth beneath my feet. My eyes flew open to lock with Vlakas', who was watching me from the side. I could sense his magic trembling in the ground beneath me. I don't know how I knew it was his magic. I just knew. I gave him a minute shake of my head. Not here. Not now. There were too many Elusians here.

The pain fell away as Maalik continued down the line, Allard close behind him. I watched in fury as they approached Vlakas. I knew he would try the same shit, or worse, with the younger man. He was trying to antagonize us, get us to snap so he had grounds to punish us before the Machi Thanatos. A beating or whipping would weaken us and decrease our likelihood of survival.

I didn't think Vlakas had heard what Maalik had said to me, but his lips were pressed into a thin line, and I could see his hands trembling as Maalik grew closer. I would not let him touch Vlakas again.

I glanced around quickly, making sure no one was watching and weaved a tiny, almost invisible thread of Air. While most Mageia worked on making their magic work on a larger scale, Vlakas and I had been practicing using our magic like scalpels.

The Elusians were primarily focused on pulling as much power from us as they could, so most of the time the way they used our power was more heavy-handed. Like using thick rope versus a suture. This weave was like threading a needle. As Maalik approached Vlakas I twitched my fingers and yanked on the thread of Air.

Maalik stumbled as he reached toward Vlakas, his feet flying out from under him, and the collars went flying across the dirt as he landed on his face.

"You fucking cunt!" he swore, scrambling to his feet. He hauled his fist back to deliver a blow to the nearest Mageia, but it was caught in an iron grasp as Allard moved forward.

"Lord Maalik," he said, his tone bland. "Let me steady you. The ground here is rather—uneven."

Maalik jerked his hand from Allard's grasp.

"Fucking traitor," he growled at Allard.

"The King doesn't seem to think so," Allard whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear.

The Tagmatarches apparently hadn't heard the whole exchange. He had just seen Maalik fall on his face. Allard made it look like he was helping him to his feet as the Tagmatarches glowered at Maalik from his location on the stage, obviously annoyed at him for interrupting his speech. Maalik glanced at him, then at Allard.

"My apologies for my… clumsiness, Tagmatarches," he said, the fury in his eyes evident as he glared at the Mageia around him. I struggled to keep the smirk from my face as Maalik's face grew red with embarrassment. I must not have been successful because his eyes locked on me.

Allard stepped forward, breaking our staring contest and taking the collars from Maalik.

"Allow me to finish for you, my lord," he said, his voice bland. Maalik was obviously pissed but didn't have an excuse to argue with the senior soldier, so he just nodded curtly and took his place at the end of the aisle.

I watched out of the corner of my eye as Allard fastened the collar around Vlakas' neck and held the ends together for the Fire Mageia to seal. Once done, they made quick work of collaring the remaining Machi Thanatos participants.

"These medallions are your trophies. The Hoplite who returns with the most medallions will be named the winner of the event. To be promoted to full Mageia, you must bring back at least three medallions. Be warned, though, Hoplites," he paused. "The collars around your neck are spelled. They cannot be removed by their wearer. They are only able to be removed upon the death of the bearer. Any attempt at tampering…"

He gestured to the side where a slave had been dragged by a couple of guards. Around his neck was a collar and medallion just like the ones around our necks. With a gesture, the Tagmatarches pushed a button on a small metal device.

Even though I expected it, the explosion that followed made me jump as the body of the slave collapsed to the ground, his head just gone. Blood, brain, and bones spattered Mageia in the front rows. None of the Hoplites reacted. We had seen just as bad, if not worse, during our training. At least his death was quick.

My eyes briefly flickered over the assembled Hoplites. There were only twenty of us. If the Legions of Greece and Rome sent the same number, only a handful would be promoted.

"Several beasts have been released into the arena. Each of these beasts also carries a medallion on their bodies. These medallions count toward your totals."

The metal warmed around my neck. Good to know we counted right there with the animals to the Elusians.

"As a final test, a creature has been trapped within the Machi. Do not be fooled by its appearance: It may appear human, but it has killed--and eaten--Mageians during every Machi Thanatos in the last two years. Of the two-hundred and fifty Hoplites from the various Legions who have attempted the Machi Thanatos in the last two years, only eleven Mageians have returned to be promoted. This beast is dangerous."

I heard a few startled gasps from those around me. Of course, we all knew Mageia that had left to attempt the Machi Thanatos in the last few years. To hear that most or all had died was shocking. If you figured there were about sixty Hoplites from each Legion session who attempted the Machi Thanatos and there were four Legions, that was at least two-hundred and forty Mageians killed by this beast. Mageians had never been plentiful, so that was a significant percentage of active Mageians to lose. It was a major blow to Alexandria's firepower.

"We have determined that the beast has a magic of its own and is able to disguise itself as a human," the Tagmatarches continued. "We are depending on one of you to bring this beast's medallion in. It will be worth ten medallions all on its own."

I saw a few glances amongst the contestants. There was always a particular challenge in each Machi Thanatos that made it unique. I'd never heard of a shape changer being used before.

As the thought occurred to me, my mind went back to the conversation I'd had with the eunuch, Kyris. They had talked about Somatophylakes, and how they were able to take the form of beasts. Allard had told us that one of the beasts might not be our enemy. Could he mean the beast was an Illyrian?

Only one way to find out.

◆◆◆

The trip to the center of the Machi territory took longer than I had expected.

Mageia were never told the exact location of the Machi Thanatos so we couldn't plan. The original Arena had been created in Crete by the ancient artificer, Daedalus, to imprison the Minotaur. In his honor, engineers were known as Daedites.

As a child I had heard the Mageia instructors regaling each other with stories of their Machi Thanatos. Some had been in abandoned cities; others in wilderness areas. One had even been in the mountains and contained an area partially submerged by a glacial lake.

Young Mageia soaked up these stories from their elders to increase their own chances of surviving the Machi Thanatos. You never knew what tidbit of information could save your life someday.

We had been flying for several hours and I felt badly for some of the other Mageia, including Vlakas, who weren't enjoying the flight like I was. Several of them had been puking their guts up since we had started. Probably something to do with our different affinities, but being surrounded by so much air invigorated me where it weakened others.

After about nine hours, the vehicle began its descent, much to the relief of the four Air Mageia I saw managing the flight. They had powered the trip alone, and I knew they had to be exhausted. At least they'd get to rest nearby following their trip.

The vehicle landed, the back hatch opened, and we were ordered out. Each Hoplite was clothed in the same uniform. We wore gray and black camouflage tactical pants, a black t-shirt with the Alexandrian logo embroidered over the heart and a gray tac vest.

It was late afternoon, the sun beginning to cast shadows as it settled in the west. We had landed in a courtyard of what appeared to be some kind of abandoned city. Around us were buildings taller than any I had ever seen. They were taller even than the skyline of Alexandria, but they were dilapidated. Some had holes in them, some were skeletons of their original forms. Ivy grew up some of the walls and grass forced its way through broken concrete, the flora reclaiming the land. There was an air of desolation here. I could see a line of mountains in the distance, their peaks capped with white. Snow? My mind supplied the word, but I'd never seen snow before, so I was only guessing.

In the center of the courtyard lay a pile of black backpacks. We were each ordered to pick one up before we lined up in front of the air vehicle.

"Hoplites," the Tagmatarches bellowed. "Good luck! No retreat!"

"No surrender!" We responded in unison. He and the other Elusians filed back into the vehicle, and we watched as the craft levitated into the sky.

Everyone stood frozen for long moments after the vehicle departed, each of us eying each other cautiously. No one seemed to want to be the first person to move. It occurred to me that this was the first moment of freedom any of us had really experienced since we had joined the Legion.

We couldn't just stand there forever, though. I moved forward and grabbed Vlakas' arm.

"Let's go," I said quietly.

Before Vlakas could respond, the silence around us was broken with the hiss of an incoming fireball.

I threw an Air shield over our heads and felt the heatwave strike ahead of the explosion. Others weren't as fast, and I heard screams as the burning pyroclastic material took some unprepared. Trust a Fire Mageia to be impatient to start killing everyone. I saw Astor, a blond water Mageia become a human torch under the onslaught.

V stood, frozen, staring at Astor's burning body.

"C'mon!" I yelled at Vlakas, grabbing his arm, and dragging him away from the impact site.

We had begun planning our strategy almost from the moment Vlakas had been inducted. Separate from the pack. Find shelter. Find water. Find food. Neither of us had expected the other Mageia to turn on each other so quickly, though. So much for our plan of working with the others.

"There!" V said, gesturing toward a building we'd spied as we'd approached in the air vehicle. I nodded.

"That's a good one," I agreed.

I saw Mageia scatter, some heading towards the remnants of larger buildings to the east, some running parallel to us and others in different directions. I'd considered taking to the heights, but while it might be good to learn the lay of the land, our survival was going to depend on multiple factors, including finding food and water.

The building I led us to was low, nowhere near as tall as some of the skeletal forms surrounding us, but it looked like it was attached to some kind of culvert system. Fresh water would be vitally important to our survival in the upcoming days. More important even than food.

I felt my feet skid on a patch of ice that appeared out of nowhere under me. Since it was way too warm for frozen anything, it meant one thing: an attack. Vlakas grabbed me as I slid and threw up an earth shield between us and the Water Mageia who had been pacing us. The sound of ice shattering on his shield was ridiculously loud.

"Bastard," I muttered. "Thanks, V," I said, dodging between columns and skidding over low-lying brush.

We made it to the door of the building, but try as I might, I couldn't get the metal door to move. Damn the gods for making me tiny!

"Here, let me," Vlakas said. I stepped back and let him work, throwing up an Air shield around us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him place his hands over the door handle. The metal began to smoke and move under his touch. This was a power V hadn't shared with anyone but me. He could heat metal and stone, almost as if he could use both Fire and Earth at the same time. Of course, that was impossible, though memories of what Kyris had told me tickled in the back of my head.

After a moment I heard a screeching noise as he forced the door open, and we plunged forward into darkness.

We sealed the door behind us, Vlakas using his Earth powers to make the concrete almost melt around the door.

The room was dark, a few windows high along the walls let in a small amount of light, but they were too small and too high for anyone to easily enter. The whistling sound of fireballs, the crash of ice, and the dull thuds of earth projectiles faded behind us.

I looked around the room. There were huge piles of debris everywhere. Some seemed to be piles of metal and stone. Others looked like aging plastic. Many of the glass windows were shattered, greenery forcing its way through the openings into the room.

We made our way deeper into the building, picking our way through hallways, our flashlights the only thing driving back the gloom.

"Any idea where we are?"

"A building?" he deadpanned.

"Jerk," I said. "Seriously."

"Crete? I think," Vlakas answered.

"Really? The site of the original Labyrinth?" I asked.

Vlakas shook his head.

"I visited there with the King when I was a child," he said. "That's further inland. But I remember that mountain range. I think these are the ruins of Heraklion."

I tried to recall what we had been taught about Crete.

"Heraklion? Isn't that the city that was destroyed by fire in the Great War?" I asked.

The residents of Heraklion had resisted assimilation into the Greek territories. It had been the capital of the Region of Crete, a group of islands along the Adriatic and Sea of Crete.

"Yep. They didn't want to be a part of the Greek coalition," he said, nodding and shining his flashlight down the hall. "Greece didn't appreciate their reluctance."

I snorted. Why couldn't people in this world just live and let live?

We came to the end of a hall, a series of doors branching off to either side. I'd been keeping an ear out behind us, but no sounds warned of anyone trying to follow us in the building.

I opened the door cautiously, only to find a decaying stairwell into darkness.

I nodded at Vlakas. "Can you see if the stairs are safe?" I asked.

He stretched his hand out to touch the concrete floor.

"It's a little dodgy going up, but if we're heading down, we should be okay. Just stay away from the outside edge if you can," he responded after a moment.

He moved ahead of me down the stairs to another landing. I closed the door behind us and knelt.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Giving us a heads up if someone follows us in," I answered.

Using my Air powers, I did another one of those finely tuned weaves we had practiced and stretched an invisible line of Air across the doorway. I manifested an Air alarm spell and attached it to the tripwire. If someone opened the door behind us, the alarm would sound, giving us at least some warning. It wouldn't last forever, but a day or so should be plenty of time.

We moved cautiously down the stairs and reached the bottom of the stairwell. A door opened into another hall where we found a room with only one entrance. It seemed like it would be a pretty good place to take stock of our supplies.

"Turn off the flashlight," I told Vlakas. "We need to conserve the batteries."

Vlakas flipped his light off, and the darkness grew heavier around us with only the single light shining. We quickly inventoried the contents of the backpacks: two maps, rations for about two days, two flashlights, two knives, one coil of heavy-duty rope, a sheet of plastic that was about six feet square, a thermal blanket, an empty square plastic jug with a lid, some extra carabiners, a couple of flares, and a magnifying glass. Supplies were provided at random in the backpacks, making it so contestants had no idea what they would end up with. We were fortunate to have gotten two with food. Since we were underground, we'd have to figure out fuel for a fire if we wanted to cook anything.

The maps drew my attention next. They appeared to be topographical maps judging from what I saw. We'd been taught map reading, of course. We seemed to be inside of a roughly square area of the city if the maps could be trusted. It was bounded on three sides by a river and the fourth side by what looked like the mountain range edge.

"What do we do now?" Vlakas asked, his voice trembling only a little.

"We need to find food, fresh water, and a more defensible location. Too many people saw us enter this building, so we can't stay here for long," I answered.

"I think I can help with the safe location part," Vlakas answered. "I picked this building because there are some kind of tunnels running beneath us. They extend just about everywhere under the city. Or at least as far as I can sense, anyway."

"Any idea how deep?" I asked.

"Deep. Feels like fifty feet down from this level, or more," he answered.

"Okay, I want you to figure out where we can access those tunnels. I'm going to see if I can find where the water I sensed earlier was coming from."

We both settled onto the floor. It was dangerous for both of us to work sensing magic at the same time, but I was confident that if anyone was following us, the Air alarm I had set would give us plenty of notice.

I saw V close his eyes and felt the deep thrum of his power spreading out through the ground below. I had never asked him if he could sense my power the same way. I sent my own power out through the air and find the source of the moisture I had sensed earlier.

Earth and Air were great to use for mapping, or so our teachers said. I closed my eyes, and it was as if the room around us was covered in what the ancients might have called fairy fire. I couldn't sense the walls, floors, or ceilings directly, but I could sense the absence of air in the materials that made up those items. I knew from speaking to him that Vlakas would see the reverse in his head: He would see the walls and other solid objects, but not the presence of air or water. Fire was the least useful for mapping.

Sending out my awareness I began mapping the building with my magic.

The building was much bigger than it appeared on the surface. Maybe it had been some kind of infrastructure headquarters? It had at least five floors below ground, and we had gone down four. The fifth must have access somewhere else. My powers helped me locate the water I had sensed earlier: a spring of some kind had broken through a wall about three hundred yards to the north. The air there was humid but didn't taste of salt as it would if it were sea water.

I opened my eyes and realized V was still concentrating. I waited a few more minutes before touching his shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked at me, a little dazed.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I just haven't seen anything quite like this before," he shook his head, bewildered.

"What did you find?" I asked.

"I can feel tunnels running under almost everything," he said, sketching a rough square in the dust on the ground. "They had to have been part of the city sewer system. They connect to just about every building. They extend as far west as the mountain range we saw. They may even go further than that, but I kinda got lost following them," he ended sheepishly.

Vlakas had to be more careful. I kept forgetting he was still so new to his powers. If he didn't watch himself, he could get fascinated by the earth around him and forget about his body.

"You did good, V," I said. "I found us some fresh water. We can fill up the water bottles and then see what we can do about food."

We quickly repacked everything then headed out.

I led us through a maze of tunnels until we reached the tiny spring I'd found earlier. We each filled our canteens, then the plastic water jug.

We made our way through the sewer system. It wasn't as gross as you would think. Unlike Alexandria, there weren't a couple million people living in the city, so nothing nasty was being flushed down the pipes now. Some of them seemed blocked by rubble from a cave in. After a couple of hours of cautious movement, we moved toward the surface and Vlakas chose a building for us to shelter in overnight.

We decided we could do without additional food until we found some place more permanent to stay. I divided up some rations and we each drank deeply from our water bottles.

Water might be a problem if we were here too long, but for now we had an abundance. With the way our bodies burned energy when we used magic, food would be the most pressing need. We could stay below ground in safety, but we would need to go to the surface to get food. Plus, if we wanted to pass the Machi Thanatos, we'd have to find at least three of the beasts each and defeat them. We'd already decided we weren't interested in killing other Mageia if we could avoid it.

Once we chose our camp for the night, I set up Air alarm tripwires at every door and intersection we passed. I wasn't going to let us get caught by surprise if I could help it.

The silence underground was unnerving. I was used to living in a city with the hum of millions of people living around me. The quiet here was… disturbing.

Vlakas dropped a cup he had been putting away after mixing some instant meal mix, making me jump. The clatter sounded like a thunderclap in silence.

"Sorry," he said, picking up the cup.

"S'okay," I said. "It's just so freakin' quiet here. Every sound seems magnified a million times."

He looked at me curiously. "You like all the noise of the city?" he asked.

I shrugged.

"It's all I've known, for the most part," I said. "Even the few times we went to the summer palace, we were still surrounded by hundreds of people."

His face turned thoughtful.

"When we were kids, you used to play music, didn't you?"

I blushed in the dark, grateful he probably couldn't see.

"Yeah, I plunked around on a guitar, but I was never really good at it."

"At court, I've heard Air Mageia who produced music using their power," he said. "Can you do that?"

I cocked my head at him.

"I don't know," I said thoughtfully. "I've never tried."

Even though we had both been sons of the king, we had been raised very differently. My mother had been a slave, his, a queen. So I never saw the inside of the court, but he had been raised there.

I tried to figure out how making music with my power might work. I considered the alarms I used in the halls. It had to be something along the same line, didn't it? They both made sounds, I just needed to figure out how to create music instead of an alarm.

I willed sound into the room, softly at first. Music I remembered from my childhood, songs I'd heard as I'd grown. I hadn't had time to pursue music once I was in the Legion, but I'd loved it as a kid.

It took a while to figure out the right way to modulate the air to create the sounds I wanted.

Vlakas watched me work, sometimes smiling when I got a tone right, grimacing when I didn't. After a while I was able to recreate some of the songs I remembered.

"If you can do music, can you do a voice?"

I looked at him over my own bowl of mush.

"That could be a useful skill," I said. I concentrated on the sound of Vlakas' voice, imagining how his voice ‘looked' in my head when he spoke.

A few moments later a voice that was a reasonable facsimile of Vlakas' said, "Kat is definitely the smartest Mageia in the world."

The look on Vlakas' face made me bark in laughter.

"Your face! It was your idea!" I said.

"Yeah, yeah, I have lots of ideas," he muttered pretending to scowl. "That doesn't mean they're all good ones."

I could see a smile tickle the corner of his mouth and I laughed.

"I'm going to have to practice that one," I said, finishing off my food. One of the things you learned in the Legion was to eat quickly.

"Kat - thank you," he said solemnly.

"For what?" I asked.

"For saving me up there," he pointed overhead. "When the fireballs started falling, I froze."

I shrugged.

"You just aren't used to everyone trying to kill you all the time," I said lightly, shaking out the plastic to create a barrier between us and the ground.

"And you are." He said, a statement instead of a question.

I started to brush the comment off with a joke, but I saw that strange look in his eye again.

"Yeah, I guess I am," I said quietly. "Even when we were kids, being the son of the King didn't really provide any kind of protection for me, or my brother. It made us a target of the other slaves' anger."

"We had to do this a lot," I gestured around us to our temporary camp. "Especially after our mother died. We had to find places that we could easily defend. The other slaves—they hated our father as much as we did, but they didn't dare show it to him. We were the easy targets."

Vlakas nodded.

"I didn't have people threaten me physically. Well, except for Maalik. People were just always trying to use me as a way to get to my— to the King," he said.

I nodded, having assumed as much.

"The older I got, the easier I thought it would be," he continued. "When I turned fifteen without manifesting either Mageia or Elusian powers, I thought I was home free. I'd never heard of anyone developing powers after sixteen, so I assumed I was human. I thought maybe people would just leave me alone and let me study. There have been human Kings of Alexandria before. I didn't think my father cared much about me not being Elusian. I thought… I thought he loved me. Or maybe he could, one day, if I made him proud. Even up until the day he sent me to the Legion, I hoped there was some part of him that would change the laws."

He sighed.

"I guess I was lucky," I said, squeezing his shoulder gently. "After a while I knew he never loved me. I was just a thing to him. A potential heir."

Vlakas nodded.

"We have to fix it, Kat," he looked up at me from his seat on the ground, an earnest look in his eyes. "We must fix our society. We shouldn't be living like this. No one should."

"No one should," I agreed. "It's just going to take a lot of effort to make the change, a lot of power and influence."

"Power?" he asked. "Why power?"

"Think about it this way, V. How much did you notice the plight of Mageia when you were a kid? When you summoned a servant, did you wonder if anyone would show up? Or did you just assume they would do what you told them?"

"I… just assumed," he answered honestly.

"Exactly. We would have to change the world view of a lot of people. Not just of the Elusians, but the humans, too. We'd have to change how everyone looked at and thought of Mageia. Hell, of everyone. This is bigger than just us. We need to make a society where there is no slavery."

His eyes grew round, and he sighed.

"That's a tall order," Vlakas said sadly. "Wave a magic wand and free all the slaves, but then, what do they eat? Where do they live? Who takes over the roles they played? It's a tall order, but you've obviously have been thinking about it for a while."

"It is," I agreed. "And I have."

"How do we even start? Wouldn't it be easier to just run? Why don't we just… go? What's to keep us from just leaving?" he asked.

I looked at him in surprise.

"This island, or escape Alexandria?" I asked.

"Either. Both." He responded with a shrug.

"Well, typically the Machi Thanatos arena area is surrounded by the military to prevent Mageia from escaping," I answered. "They are usually staffed with a lot of Elusians so they can keep our power under control."

He hummed thoughtfully.

"What if we just… didn't go back? Wouldn't they assume we were just killed or something?" he asked. "Living here might not be bad."

I tapped the metal collar.

"I'm sure they have some kind of tracking device in these things. They've never said as much, but they'd almost have to have something in them," I said. "How else do they know if someone is dead or not?"

"And it takes a Fire Mageia to get one of these off," he finished. "How do they keep them on Fire Mageia?"

"The Legion values Fire Mageia more than just about any other element because they are especially good at killing. Fire Mageia are considered the elite. They get better treatment, fewer chores, more perks. They even get a stipend, even as Hoplites. The Elusians make it so most Fire Mageia don't want to leave."

"Just another way to divide us," Vlakas said finally.

I nodded sadly.

"Get some rest, I'll take first watch," I said.

Vlakas settled down on the plastic. I unfolded the thermal blanket and laid it over him. The temperature had stayed consistent, but I figured it would get a lot cooler in here once the sun set. I turned the light down to its lowest setting. I didn't want to sit in complete darkness, but I didn't want to announce our presence either.

The silence felt heavy around me, as though it had a physical weight. The room we were camped in was larger than I would have liked. I felt exposed. I had my Air alarms placed, but I was still nervous. Who knew what we would find in this place?

The adrenaline rush had long worn off, leaving behind weariness. I was struggling to stay awake as the night wore on, so I decided to take a walk around the room.

The room was large. I wasn't sure what purpose it had served but banks of old machines made long aisles. It made it a bitch to see anything, but it also helped disguise our presence.

Just as I finished the first circuit of the room, I heard the barest whisper of a sound coming from the hallway. I eased my knife from my belt and crept toward the door.

I peered cautiously around the corner. I didn't think any of the other Mageia knew how to make an alarm like mine, but sandbagging was common in the Legion. What your future enemy didn't know they couldn't use against you.

I paused at the door, just out of sight of where V lay sleeping. There. The same noise I'd heard earlier, like the sound of an animal moving in the darkness. It was a risk, but I reached out with my senses to see if I could figure out where the noise was coming from.

The piles of debris made it challenging. I couldn't actually see much. I didn't want to announce my presence by using the flashlight, but I needed to do something. The subbasement was obviously used for storage at one time.

I finally made it back all the way to the stairway we'd descended. My alarms were still in place. I figured the noise must have been some kind of animal. I decided it was safe enough to use the flashlight.

I turned to return the way I came and flicked on the light. There, at the end of the hall a pair of silver eyes reflected back at me.

Those eyes stared at me in shock for a moment before suddenly turning and bolting down the hall. I could barely make out a human-sized shape in the dim light

"Shit!" I swore before taking off running after the intruder. Somehow he had gotten behind me, between me and V.

The light cast crazy shadows as I ran, my feet pumping to catch up with the man. If he was a Mageian, he wasn't anyone I knew. I'd never seen eyes like that before. They had appeared almost like those of an animal.

I raced after him until we reached a corridor V and I had passed on the way down here. There was an open door at the end that had been some kind of janitorial closet. We had checked to make sure there were no other doors in that direction when we passed.

Gotcha! I thought. It was a dead end. I could see him in the distance and slowed my pace slightly, getting ready to throw an Air shield over him. There was nowhere for him to go. I had just created the shield to imprison him when he turned--and leaped through the wall, disappearing from sight.

"What the fuck?" I said, approaching the area where he had stood. There were no doors, we'd checked. Where the hell had he gone?

I flashed the light around the hall, which was filled with stacks of boxes and files. I turned away from the janitors closet in confusion when the light caught on something to my right, the direction the person had disappeared. Buried behind the boxes and other trash I saw a large, square opening towards the ground. I knelt cautiously, shining the flashlight into the opening and felt a breath of air brush my face. It was a ventilation duct.

It made sense since we were pretty far underground. They would have had to have some way of keeping the air flowing down here.

I stood in disgust. No way in hell was I chasing someone through a fucking ventilation duct. Whoever he was, he obviously knew this area better than I did.

I took the shield I had intended to use to imprison the man and placed it over the ventilation opening, then added an Air alarm across it for good measure. Let the fucker try and get through that.

I headed back to where V and I had camped, relieved to see him undisturbed. Unwilling to be caught by surprise again, I closed the door to the hall and blocked it with a large desk that sat at the end of the room.

When I turned to move back to my brother I almost tripped over sa small package on the ground by the door. Tattered remnants of material lay around, and I almost hadn't noticed it. I stepped around it cautiously. I could almost swear it hadn't been here when we had come through earlier.

I checked the room, but didn't see any more ducts that were large enough for a man to crawl through. The one in the hallway had been exceptionally large. I suspected it had served as one of the primary air sources for the basements.

I glanced at my brother but V was still sleeping. He'd dropped off to sleep almost instantly, a talent of his I'd envied for a long time. I settled down near him, trying to calm my racing heart, no longer worried about falling asleep.

I picked up the package after testing cautiously for explosives or traps. At first glance I thought it was just paper, but then realized it was wrapping something. I opened it and was surprised to find a book. A book of poetry.

Printed words were heavily monitored in Alexandria. The King used his stranglehold on knowledge to control the masses.

I opened the book and realized it was a book of poetry, and I sighed. V must have found it while we traveled. My brother adored books, and I couldn't help a surge of affection for him. In sleep his face lost some of the reserve he had developed since joining the Legion. I remembered how he had looked as a kid, running around after Erix and me.

He had only been a couple years younger than my twin and I, but we'd seen him often. As children, we had attended the same school, been trained in court etiquette, politics, history, and other topics, just in case we ended up developing Elusian powers, making us eligible to be named full heirs.

Vlakas had always been a quiet kid. Extremely smart, but also kind and empathetic. He read anything he could get his hands on, but he especially loved history. He had loved learning, and I had thought he would make a great King someday. Until he developed Mageia powers.

I still wasn't sure why he had developed his powers so late in life. I'd never heard of a kid developing after fifteen.

I settled into a light trance so I could keep aware of any activity in the area without falling asleep. Fortunately the rest of the night was quiet.

I woke V for his watch, warning him of our unknown visitor before finally trying to rest. For what seemed like hours, those silver eyes seemed to bore through my memory, but eventually sleep claimed me.