[POV: Cain]
"So, how's the wound?" I ask the question in an offhand manner. But Abraxes can hear the terribly hidden grin on my face as he answers.
"Terrible. Would you like a replica?" He asks me politely. But there is frustration lining his tone. I want to respond to his jest. But before I can, a terrible shudder takes him. Abraxes does not make any noise, yet I swear I can hear his teeth gnashing together.
It passes as quickly as it comes, and he huddles deeper into the four blankets we wrapped him in. They do nothing in the way of healing him. But they do provide him with comfort. It helps with the aftershocks he experiences every few minutes.
'The poor bastard.' I think slipping into my bed.
"Sorry for waking you." He apologies for the hundredth time. I glance up at the hidden form of Sylas. The shadows move and I guess he is shrugging his shoulders. He's oddly quiet. His head turning and watching Abraxes from the top bunk. He's a strange little man, I decide.
'I guess reassurance is my job.' I think with a small sigh.
"You're fine," I wave my hand, knowing that he can see through the dark. "I've awoken to more troubling situations." I tell him with a shrug. His emerald eyes glow in the dark as he stares at me. Before another shudder rocks through him.
"What happened?" I ask as he finally calms. His gaze is distant, before he turns to look at me again. Focus reigniting within him. It's almost like he's going through shell shock. I think he's not going to answer my question. Then, he speaks.
"I nearly tore my soul apart using Rowan's Impetus Talent." It takes me an embarrassingly long moment to remember who Rowan is. I never really spoke to the false Aureate before his execution. "He had an Innate Ability which my Eidos labelled as a Transformation. Unfortunately, it turned out to be something more."
He experiences another shudder. I can almost hear how fiercely he grips the blankets covering him. It lasts for nearly an entire minute before he's back.
The bed above me creaks, and I know that Sylas is now leaning forward. I can see one of his legs swinging carelessly off the edge. I am tempted to grab it. Just to hear him scream as he falls to the ground. It would be amusing. But I am feeling as curious as the wacko above me, so I let him be.
"Well? Don't just leave us guessing. Tell us what it was!"
It isn't how I would say it. But Sylas has a few screws loose in his head. So, he can get away with speaking so carelessly. I look at Abraxes too, meeting his emerald gaze. It almost looks like he shrinks away.
It's almost an instinctual reaction to Sylas raising his voice. I think for a moment that he is scared or maybe even afraid somehow. But then, I take a closer look. Because that gaze in his eyes is familiar.
And I realize, slowly at first, then all at once. Those emerald eyes…they hold not a speck of fear within them.
Instead, they are almost evaluating us. Sizing both Sylas and I, in an eerily similar fashion to that of a predator. It's a familiar sight. I have seen it before. That look in a predator's eyes as it looks for the easiest way to kill its prey. I've spent my entire life fighting as a gladiator, I have seen that look in a panthers and tiger's eyes numerous times.
I know how they think. I know how their minds run through countless variables before they strike. I know how they act when they find themselves pushed into a corner. Looking at Abraxes now, I can only see a wounded predator who thinks his back is against the wall.
It is a terrifying sight on a human, I realize.
"It was Metamorphosis. I nearly lost myself." His words are short. They are sharp. They are tinged with reluctance as he answers Sylas' question. There is an unspoken warning behind his words. I can recognize it for the subtle threat that it is.
I am under no illusion that he is telling us this information out of the kindness of his heart. No, he owes us a debt for helping him. By answering our questions, he is paying that debt off. It is a small, unspoken rule. But everybody learns to value such debts when living in the Plumeria.
Unfortunately for us, that debt is now entirely paid. Revealing so much information about your own Impetus Talent is dangerous work after all. Especially with us now knowing the side effects that come with its use.
Abraxes' tone tells me all I need to know. No more questions are allowed.
It's a sad thing really. I wished to know more about the other Talents Abraxes has hiding within his shadow. I can only imagine just how terribly powerful he will become in time. If we survive Ασία that is. Which, speaking off…
"Do you think you'll heal in time for Ασία?" I ask, leaning back against the wall behind him. Soul damage is a painful thing after all, and it heals slower than any regular injury does. But Abraxes only shrugs, the shadows around him moving with the motion.
Another shudder runs through him again. It's shorter than the previous one.
"I should be okay." He tells me. It is far from the most promising of answers. But it isn't me who is suffering from it. So, I accept the response for what it is. It is better this way. It is easier than learning to care for my cellmate. Especially with the chances of us all dying being so high.
It is the reason why not one of us has tried to forge a bond between us. The chances that only one of us will survive are high. And getting attached will only lead to pain that none of us wants to feel.
'What a joke.' I can't help but sneer at the thought. Whilst Abraxes was off fighting against eight Enforcers. Sylas had taken the time we had available. To explain to me what awaited us when we arrived to Ασία. I was far from pleased when I learnt the truth.
I am far from pleased even now. I doubt I will ever be pleased about this.
Being a slave is one thing. I have learnt to accept my role in this world as I grew older. But being sent off to my death. Being made into a sacrifice. That is an entirely different story. One that I never agreed to.
Especially when my sacrifice is being made, so some Aureate princes and princesses don't have to dirty their delicate hands. Growing up, you are told that Enlightened are noble heroes of humanity. The reality is far from the truth.
"What do you two think of Ασία?" I suddenly ask my cellmates. I'm curious to see if they share my opinion.
Abraxes is silent, another shudder working through his body. His eyes are distant. Before they come back into focus again. Sylas jumps off his bed. He lands silently. Before leaning against the bed frame and looking down at me.
I feel my eyes narrow almost instinctively. A spark of defiant fire leaping up from within me. It feels as if I am being looked down upon. It feels as if I am being considered weak.
I doubt that Sylas even knows the significance of what he is doing. He doesn't understand. So, I don't challenge him. Compared to the other clans. My Clan—Clan Delta—raises its children in an entirely different way. Whilst others are raised to become miners, farmers and entertainers.
We are raised to be gladiators. Fighters and warriors. Born for combat and entertainment. Sharpened by glory and pride. Rewarded with living another day. Any one person from Clan Delta has more pride within their pinkie finger than either of my cellmates do in their entire bodies.
"What's there to think about?" Sylas shrugs, turning to face Abraxes. It makes me relax. It's a subtle thing. But I know that Abraxes catches it. He is smart. His eyes are sharp, and I can feel them pointed at me.
"We get sent in. We last a few lucky days. And then we die. It's all very simple, lads."
Abraxes and I blink in eerie synchronicity. I don't think either of us know whether we should be amused or worried. I end up feeling a weird combination of both.
"How can you accept your death so easily?" Abraxes asks him. Then pauses as another shudder runs through his body. He still doesn't make a single sound. It makes the small respect I hold for his strength, grow.
Sylas answers with a snort.
"Why would it not be?" He asks us. As if we are the odds ones here. "There is nothing waiting for me back in the Plumeria. There is no one I love praying for my return. All I have left are bittersweet memories and the desire to go beyond the end."
His voice is low and hollow, as he explains his reasoning to us. A part of me can relate to the man. And I am sure Abraxes can too. The Plumeria takes from us all. It does it without any hesitation and without our choice.
"Is the future not worth living for?"
"What future is there to await me?" Sylas answers Abraxes' question with one of his own. "If I by miracle survive Ασία. Then what will I have? Nothing. I will the life of a farmer. Tilling the ground. Seeding the plains. And feeding the Aureate. All without a grain of thanks. All until they need another body to sacrifice to the approaching Collapse."
Sylas pauses, as Abraxes shifts in his seat. Another shudder runs through him a moment later. I pity the fool. But my attention is soon brought back to the maniac. Because I think this is the first time, I am seeing the real him.
"You understand, don't you? I would rather welcome my end. Then suffer another day under the rule of those gilded bastards." His voice is like poison. It reminds me of the vipers I had to face as a child. Deadly little things.
But it's a sad thing to witness. To see another man lose his will to live. I can almost see the fire within him being extinguished into embers. Then into nothing but smoke. It is pitiful, and I find myself thinking less of Sylas for it.
I was raised in a society where the strong rule all. But he is a weak man. A dead man. A lost man trying to find the quickest way to meet the reaper. I am tempted to end his life now. But I do not wish to smell blood for the next five days. So, I stop myself.
I realise, even if we all live through Ασία. I will never try and call him a friend. I will never see him as one. He has no pride.
"How about you, Abraxes?" I ask my remaining cellmate.
He struggles through another shudder. His breathing is weak, and his eyes are distant again. But he brings himself back through sheer force of will. Then, he speaks.
"I lost both my parents and brothers to this world when I was young." He begins, taking a moment to breath. He needs it. "I was too young to under my lose at the time. And when I grew up, all I felt was acceptance. Because I understood that this was normal. That the world was built on the backs of dead Mercury's…"
He looks at me then. His emerald eyes glowing and piercing the dark. It almost feels like the air around us is vibrating. There is a power to him, I realise. Even when he is so thoroughly injured. He speaks and the world responds to him.
"There was this girl I grew up with…ah, she was my entire world. We both lost our families as the years passed us. But we never strayed from one another. We clung to each other, with enough strength to make the moon and the tides jealous." He smiled. It was a small, sad little thing.
"Initially we were friends. Then we became the others reason to survive. Then the reason we lived. Oh, we loved each other so much it physically hurt at times. I was going to marry her one day." He reveals, his smile growing just a little.
I can see where this story was going. I can see the pain in his eyes. Through the smile on his face. I can see the love Abraxes held for this woman.
"Her name was Keres. She was…many things. Caring, stubborn, gentle, even annoying at times." A small chuckle leaves his lips. "She was perfect. She was everything I could have ever imagined and wanted…but she was not born for this world."
The air around us is slowly becoming suffocating. But I do not care for it. This man is strong, and he is shaping the world around him with mere words. His emotions are just that strong. And I cannot help but think that he would have thrived in Clan Delta. He would have been a brother to me.
"Maybe if we were ruled by poets and scholars, she would still breathe. Sometimes, I imagine that we do live in such a world. In peace and not in ruin. But we are ruled by warlords and royalty."
He pauses, another shudder running through him.
"She was killed during the Ceremony. I murdered the man responsible. You asked me what I think of Ασία? I think it is a waste. I think it is a crime that will never be punished. I think the world needs a reminder of whose corpses it was built upon."
I am grinning now. It is a wild thing, and I do not try to hide it. Because this man is not just thinking of revenge. He is thinking of more. And he has the power to do it. A power which is in the very air around us. A power I have already seen and experienced.
"So…I want to survive. I want to grow stronger. I want to become so powerful that every Primus in the world learns to fear me. That every Aureate can do nothing but bow to me. As they watch me destroy their precious society. I want to go to Ασία, and I want to learn how to take this world and bend it until it reaches its braking point."
I can't help it. I laugh. A single, wild laugh.
Because this man is insane, but he has also just become so much more interesting.
"Hey, Abraxes. You want to become my brother?"
He may not have come from Clan Delta. But there is no reason for me to not ask him.
Unlike Sylas. The wandering dead man that he is. Abraxes has a fire that does not only compare to mine. But it exceeds it. His will to live is strong. His ideology is one that will change the entire world. I want to see how far this mad bastard can go.
Through the dark, I revel in the surprise of his eyes.