Chapter 3

Kat

The noise in the Legion dining hall was almost deafening, but I was used to the din. Most of the tables were filled, and the noise of hundreds of people filled the room. Kids as young as eleven or twelve scampered through the aisles, casting fearful glances around and trying not to be noticed as they clutched their meals to their chests and ran to find a safe place to eat. The older cadets were scattered throughout the room, occasionally groups of two or three clustered together for protection.

"Hey Kat," Levi said as he and Daphne sat down across from me. "Sorry I missed your birthday." I shrugged. I had turned eighteen a few days before, not that it mattered here.

They were a couple of cadets I had formed cautious partnerships with to help survive in the Legion. A single person was easy prey for one of the many gangs that prowled the halls at night. I nodded but focused on my plate, ignoring the events around me as much as I could, mentally reviewing the facts for an upcoming exam. There was more than one way to fail in the Legion.

This was a sociological exam on Alexandrian society. Our society was a rigid, militaristic one: You were Elusian, human, or Mageian, in descending order of importance and decreasing number of rights and opportunity.

Elusians sat at the top of the social structure. The King was Elusian as well as the members of his Council. All members of military leadership were Elusian: they had to be, to control the Mageia. Elusians believed they had been granted authority over the world by their god, Elus.

Humans were soldiers, artisans, and bureaucrats among other things. They could gather wealth and grow in prominence and influence, but they would never be part of the ruling class except in very rare circumstances. My thoughts drifted to Luke, as they did from time to time. I hadn't heard whether he had developed Elusian powers, or even been declared just human, so part of me clung to some hope that his mother might be able to protect him.

I turned back to my notes, not that I needed to study for this part. It was my life.

Mageia were the lowest of the low. Identified Mageia were feared and distrusted by Elusian, humans, and pretty much other Mageia, too. We were disowned by our families for fear of tainting them with our mere existence. Any Mageia discovered were automatically sent to a Legion to "train to serve", supposedly. Stripped even of our names, the Legion turned us into slaves and weapons and used every tool possible to crush our will. The ideal Mageia was one who did not think for themselves, but who lived only to serve.

I was so not the ideal Mageian. I could fake it normally, but some days it got to me, and the whip marks on my back stood as mute testament to that fact. I'd been in Legion training since Erix had died, so after seven years this pretty much was my normal.

Someone sat down in the seat to my left, and I gripped my knife automatically, refusing to look up. While there may be allies, there were no friends in the Legion, and everyone wanted something. Trust no one.

"Hey, Kataramenos," I heard Edell purr.

Kataramenos was what the Legion had named me the day Maalik had hand delivered me to their representatives. It meant "Cursed One". Seemed appropriate.

Edell was a Hoplite, one of the oldest in the Legion, and an Air Mageia. That wasn't saying a lot. She was maybe twenty-one and would be undergoing her Machi Thanatos soon. The Machi Thanatos was a test. Groups of Hoplites were taken from each Legion and sent to the Machi Arena to be tested against each other. Once you left for your Machi, you returned either a full Mageia, a slave, or you didn't return at all.

"Edell," I acknowledged without looking up. I didn't like Edell, but I didn't want to piss her off unnecessarily, either.

"I hear you're going to be promoted soon," she said leaning her left arm on the table, sliding her right hand along my bicep, her voice low and sultry. I didn't respond. What was there to say? I was past due to be promoted to Hoplite.

"It can be dangerous in the Hoplite quarters at night. Lots of gangs that would like to have a piece of your lovely ass," she said as she slid her hand down my arm to my thigh. "You're not very good at making friends. That tends to make people a little…sensitive," she said. That was an understatement. I was a right bastard. It was the only way I knew to survive. I tensed as she moved her hand toward my crotch.

"We could become friends. I could protect you," she breathed in my ear, leaning forward to squeeze my cock through my pants. "For certain… concessions."

My knife hand shot out, the blade piercing her left hand and pinning it to the table.

"Cocksucker!" she screamed, her right hand going to the pinned wrist.

"Yeah, well, you knew that already, didn't you, Edell? After Nadir left your bed for mine, I thought it was pretty apparent," I chuckled.

Nadir was Edell's partner and had been in the last group to go to their Machi Thanatos. Stealing him away from Edell before he left had been petty revenge for years of insults from her, but very satisfying. In more ways than one.

"I will fucking kill you, Kataramenos," she yelled, yanking on the knife that was buried deep in the wooden tabletop, blood beginning to pool under her hand.

"Careful with that, Edell," I said, standing and taking my bowl to the conveyor belt that took dirty dishes to the kitchen for cleaning. "I'd hate to see you without the use of your hand for your Machi."

A hand injury could spell death in the Machi when you were fighting everything and everyone for survival. I wasn't that much of a dick, though. I had made sure my blade hadn't broken any bones and had slid between muscle and tendon when I'd slammed it home. She would be fine in a day or two, if she didn't jerk it out the wrong way. Bitch or not, I had no desire to see Edell dead. Despite what the Legion tried to teach us, she was Mageia, after all, and there were few enough of us as it was.

I saw Daphne and Levi grin at me as I left.

"Catch you this evening?" Daphne asked.

"I'll see you after practice," I said.

Daphne had an exceptionally smart mind, but she struggled with some of the finer points of using magic. I had offered to tutor her in using her Air magic.

"I'll go with you," Levi said, standing quickly. He had suffered Edell's advances when he had been younger, and I knew he didn't want to spend any more time in her company.

I turned away as Edell continued to tug on the blade and went to leave, but the sound of hooting and cheers stopped us. I saw the Lochagos enter the dining hall, a group of youngsters in front of him. Shit.

Shouts of "Neos!" and "Fresh meat!" and laughter filled the room and I sighed. The soldiers were herding a batch of newly discovered Mageia into the dining hall, all wearing the white sleeveless smocks of the uninitiated.

There were about twenty of them, both male and female. The Legion didn't care what sex you were, everyone wore the same thing. Most of them were young, maybe eleven or twelve, with one or two older kids thrown in as well. One kid looked to be much older than normal. He had his head down, his hair falling over his face as he knelt to wrap his arms around a couple of the smallest kids and seemed to be trying to reassure them.

All the kids looked terrified, and I didn't blame them. They'd probably just been uprooted from everything they knew and loved, had their budding powers Suppressed for the first time, and been tossed around with little explanation before being dumped here. The same thing had happened to all of us.

"Legion, attention!" the Lochagos bellowed, and the room fell silent.

He and the other Elusians sorted the kids by age. Hoplites gathered around. I dropped my tray on the conveyor and moved to leave, hoping to avoid the show, but then I heard Procopios start his spiel.

"Welcome to the Legion," he yelled. "I am Lochagos Procopios, and I am responsible for you snotlings until you are promoted to Hoplite."

I could see Procopios through the sea of soldiers as he began walking in front of the children, glaring at each of them in turn.

"When you walked through those gates, you left behind whatever life you had before today. As of now, you are Legionnaires. You have no name except what the Legion gives you. You have no family except what the Legion gives you. Am I understood?" he yelled.

Most of the new kids were still crying. Procopios grabbed a little girl of maybe twelve who was sobbing and pulled her forward.

"Am I understood?" he screamed in her face. The poor girl was terrified, and only sobbed louder.

Procopios backhanded the girl hard enough to send her flying to the floor. Snickers erupted from some of the Hoplites as she fell. I watched impassively and tried to ignore the twitch in my cheek. We'd all been through it. Better that she learns now what to expect from her new life.

"Am. I. Understood." Procopios screamed as he loomed over her.

"Leave her alone!" yelled the oldest initiate, stepping between the little girl and the Lochagos. My stomach felt like it dropped to the floor at the sound.

The body wasn't familiar but fuck. I knew that voice. Luke.

Before I knew it, I began to force my way through the crowd to the inner ring of Hoplites surrounding the initiates, snarling at Hoplites who got in my way. I was only a Cadet, but I'd earned a reputation for being a vicious bastard, so once they realized I was the one pushing, they got out of my way.

"Oh ho! We have a little hero on our hands, Legionnaires!" Procopios yelled to the jeers and cheers of the students. Fuck. He loved it when they fought back, and I knew Luke well enough to know he wouldn't back down.

The Elusians shoved Luke to the front row where he knelt and lifted the young girl to her feet before he hid her behind his back. He'd grown a lot since I'd last seen him. He was seventeen, and far past the age that he should have first shown Mageian powers. I'd thought—hoped, really— that he was safe from all this. He'd grown like a weed: he was tall and lanky, probably somewhere around six feet. We'd both inherited our father's black hair, but while mine was split by a streak of white, his was pure black and fell in waves around his face.

While he was tall, he also looked…soft. Which made sense. He had always preferred reading to swordplay and puzzles to brute force. As a legitimate child, I doubted he'd ever missed a meal in his life.

Procopios would eat him alive.

By the time I made it to the middle ring of Legionnaires, they already had him by the arms.

"What is your name, Hero?" Procopios asked.

I silently urged Luke to keep silent, but telepathy had never been one of my gifts.

"Lucius Alexus the First," he said, glaring defiantly at the Lochagos.

"Oh ho! A mikros prinkipas!" Procopios announced. Shit. Telling this crowd that Luke was a little prince was like dumping blood in the water.

I was wincing before the first blow even fell, doubling Luke over.

Luke coughed and wheezed, but they pulled him to his feet.

"What is your name, Neo?" Procopios demanded, grabbing Luke's face in a punishing grip.

"L-lucius—" This time the blow doubled him over before he even got his whole name out, then punches rained down on him until the floor was splattered with his blood.

I muscled my way through the crowd and pushed one of the Hoplites out of the way and lifted Luke to his feet, as if I were one of his captors. Which…Fuck. I kinda was.

"You have no name, vlakas," I hissed into his ear as I pulled him to his feet.

Despite being bloodied from multiple blows, his face lit up when he saw me, and I groaned. Subterfuge had never been one of Luke's strong points.

"Elex!" he gasped.

"Vlakas!" I said at the same time as loud as I could, hoping to cover his exclamation. I gave him a shove.

"You obviously don't learn very fast, idiot," I yelled. "Vlakas seems like a good name for you!"

There was more hooting and hollering as he was pushed around the ring of cadets, but I couldn't miss the look of hurt on his face. Luke was one of the smartest people I knew. Calling him an idiot was humiliating. Better humiliation than more blood spilled, though.

The other Hoplites started chanting "Vlakas! Vlakas! Vlakas!"

"Vlakas, eh?" Procopios said, looking at me suspiciously.

I nodded at him, feigning nonchalance.

"It fits," I said, shrugging as if it didn't matter to me either way.

The last thing I wanted was for Procopios to make the connection between my younger brother and me.

Procopios leaned forward and took Luke's chin in his grip, forcing him up.

"What is your name, boy?" Procopios demanded.

Luke's left eye was already swollen shut, and there was a gash on his right cheekbone. I saw his face twist as if he were going to argue, but then I caught his eye and shook my head almost imperceptibly."

"V-Vlakas," he managed to wheeze out.

"Welcome to the Legion, Vlakas," Procopios dragged him to his feet and shoved him at me. I barely managed to keep my feet as he stumbled into me.

"You know the rules, Hoplite," the Lochagos growled at me. "You name them, you claim them," he snarled.

Just like that, I was promoted.

I nodded at Procopios. I'd never claimed a Neo before, but I knew the rules. Any Hoplite could claim a Neo, and most did so repeatedly, building a little stable of kids to do their work for them. In turn, they were supposed to provide them with training and protection. Others were more cautious. If you named a Neo, they were your responsibility until they were promoted to Hoplite. Until they were promoted, any transgressions they made, you paid for. Usually in blood.

The Hoplites that named the most kids were also the ones who tended to prey on the young. Neos had no one to turn to, no one to speak for them. If a Hoplite chose to kill a Neo, or punish them in any way, there was nothing anyone could do. It was just the first in the long line of subjugations they would experience in their lives as Mageia.

It wasn't lost on me, either, that the system of training Neos was just one more way to make Mageia fear and resent each other. After all, the less we trusted each other, the less likely we would be to revolt against our Elusian masters. Not that any past rebellions had done us any good.

"C'mon," I snarled, roughly dragging him by the arm.

"But—" he started turning back to look at the line of children behind us and I saw Procopios watching us.

With my free hand I jerked him forward and slapped him across the face. More laughter rang out around us. The slap wasn't hard enough to really hurt, but it was enough to send him into a shocked silence.

"Shut the fuck up," I growled as I dragged him through the crowd.

We didn't speak again until I led him to a small unused room in the Hoplite quarters. Now that I was officially a Hoplite, I got to have a cell with only one roommate instead of dozens. I already knew who it was going to be.

I shut and latched the door behind us.

Luke just stood there staring at me, his eyes wide with shock. I'd never struck him as a kid. I'd always been the one to protect him from our eldest half-brother, Maalik. At least until the last day, when he'd tried to protect me.

With the door safely closed behind us I turned and froze.

Luke had always been taller than me, even as kids, but now… he almost towered over me. He was pale, except for the red mark on his face from where I'd slapped him, and the marks that were already bruising and purpling. I winced as I saw the marks. I'd hit him harder than I'd thought.

"Shit, Luke, I'm sorry…" I started, but he cut me off throwing his arms around me in a tight hug.

At first, I started to struggle, then forced myself to relax. I was being held, not held down, I told myself. I forced myself to breathe through my panic as the feelings that small bit of comfort stirred in me melted through the ice-cold facade I'd been living with for years.

I found myself wrapping my arms around my brother and holding on for dear life. He was sobbing and mumbling, but I couldn't make out what he was saying at first. I nudged him back to sit on one of the cots and was finally able to make out what he was saying.

"You're alive. You're alive. You're alive," he kept repeating.

"Yeah, Luke," I whispered, beginning to hug him back. "I'm alive."

After a few minutes he calmed enough to loosen his hold to lean back.

"I… I thought you were dead," he said. "I heard our father talking about Erix, and how you jumped Maalik."

I frowned in chagrin.

"Bastard deserved it," we whispered in unison as we recited our childhood mantra.

That made us both laugh and broke the strange tension for a moment.

"So… what happened?" he asked.

I sighed.

"After I jumped Maalik, he and some guards beat the crap out of me and dragged me in front of Cyrius," I said, the memory still causing acid to church in my stomach, even years later. I'd never call the man Father again, not even in my thoughts.

"I—When he told me--," I said. "When he told me they found Erix's body downstream, my powers manifested for the first time, and I tried to kill him."

Luke's eyes grew wider if that were possible.

"You—you really did try and kill him?" he said. "I had heard rumors, but he never confirmed them."

I couldn't stand the look of hero worship in Luke's face. It certainly wasn't something I deserved.

"Tried and failed," I said angrily, standing and pacing the small room. "He Suppressed my powers almost as soon as they manifested."

I saw Luke wince. He had to have had his own first experience with Suppression.

"Is Davidus here?" He asked hopefully.

I shook my head.

"He must have been sent to a different Legion," I said. I'd hoped to find my older brother here as well.

"I'm sorry about Erix," Luke said. "No one told us that he died, just that he had disappeared the same night you did."

"It's no big deal," I responded coldly, drawing on the same armor I'd been using to defend myself for years.

"Of course it's a big deal!" Luke said. "He's your brother, Elex!"

"Don't call me that," I snapped automatically.

"Wha—why not? It's your name," he said, searching my face in confusion.

I sat down next to him and took him by the shoulders.

"Listen to me closely, Luke, because this is the last time we use those names. You need to get this through your head," I began. "We are anonymos. We have no name but what the Legion gives us. We are kamiaokogeneia. We have no family but what the Legion gives us."

"That's bullshit!" he said angrily. "They can't take your name, or your family!"

"They can, and they do, adelfos," I said. "We aren't people to them anymore. We are Mageia. We are soldiers. We are tools. We are slaves who exist only to please our masters," I continued.

"So—you weren't kidding when you said you ‘named' me," he said.

"Sorry, I couldn't think of anything else in the moment," I chuckled.

He shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter. It's just… going to take some getting used to."

I nodded. I remembered going through the same period of adjustment from being called Elex to Kataramenos.

"At least you're used to me calling you vlakas," I teased.

He grinned.

"So what's your name here? Mikros?" He teased.

I punched him in the arm.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing his arm.

"I am not short," I sniffed. "I'm just not a giant, unlike some people.

His grin grew wider. I'd always been a little touchy about my height.

"Seriously," he sobered. "What should I call you?"

I grimaced. He had to know sometime.

"Kataramenos," I said, but hurriedly continued. "But most people call me Kat."

Luke's eyes narrowed.

"You are not cursed," he insisted, his voice rising.

I pulled away from him.

"Yeah, well, it sure seems that way," I said a little bitterly. "Mitera died, Erix died, then Davidus and I became Mageia," I said tonelessly. "And now…"

"And now… me," Luke said, a sigh escaping him.

I nodded.

"I think they named me pretty accurately," I responded.

"Elex—" he started, but I interrupted him.

"You can't call me that," I said angrily. "Seriously. Rule number one. Even when it's just us. I'm Kat, you're Vlakas, or just V if you prefer. If they catch us using our real names…" I shuddered. "I saw one of the Neos have his tongue torn out for using someone's old name. He—he drowned in his own blood."

I still had nightmares about that boy.

"I-I'll try to remember," he said.

"Not good enough," I said sternly, and he looked up at me, his eyes wide.

"In here, there are no second chances, V. I named you, so I'm responsible for you. That means until you become a Cadet, if you break the rules, I'm the one who will be punished."

I didn't think his eyes could go any wider, but they did.

"That's not fair!" He exclaimed, and my laugh was ugly.

"Rule number two: You're in the Legion, now," I said. "Fair isn't a word we use here."