“Are these the new recruits?” The Scar-faced man asks the Hooded man. The Hooded man nods. “What a sorry bunch of kids.” Scar-face examines all of us until his gaze falls on me. “You. What’s your name?”

“Damien, sir.” I respond listlessly. I still can’t fathom what has happened to me-my family, my friends, they’re all-

“Your name is no longer Damien. Your designation will now be Beta, until you earn the right to a name.” Scarface interrupts my thought and I feel a small spark of anger in my chest.

That anger wakes me out of my stupor and I finally take notice of my surroundings.

The temperature and lack of windows make it likely that I am in some kind of cellar. On either side of me are other kids. The youngest looks to be a boy of six winters while the oldest looks to be around twelve winters. Scarface and the Hooded man are the only adults in the room.

Finding nothing else of interest in the room I bring my attention back to Scarface. He is now giving new names to all of the other kids in the room. Scarface is an… interesting looking man, with a large painful looking scar running down the left side of his face. His brown eyes seem almost uninterested with the kid he is now interrogating.

My gaze travels down to Scarface’s armor and sword, he is wearing what I recognize to be chainmail, the chainmail has no noble or official markings, which is unusual considering that most warriors pride themselves on their service to one faction or another. His sword is a little more noticeable with a carving of a lion’s head making up its hilt.

I know of a few houses that make use of the lion’s head as a symbol, but it would be impossible to tell which, if any, house Scarface belongs to with just that symbol.

I am about to turn my attention to the Hooded man, when I realize that Scarface is about to say something important.

“Congratulations.” Scarface can’t stop himself from chuckling after saying that. “You have been chosen for a special training program by our esteemed organization.” He tells us with noticeable sarcasm in his voice.

I can’t help but feel a small bit of fear when I see the smile that covers Scarface’s face.

A few days later I find myself lying flat on the dirt. An older boy has decided to teach me a lesson and show off to his friends.

I slowly push myself off the ground and spit out a little bit of blood from when I had bit my tongue.

I get in a ready position, he mocks me by giving me a second to collect myself and everyone in the room knows it.

The Hooded man is watching us, but I know he won’t interfere. This was a good ‘lesson’ for all of the people watching.

I see the punch coming for me and I redirect it with my hand so that it won’t touch me.

I am lucky enough to have been taught a little bit about fighting as I grew up, but I have never actually been in a fight before and I am unprepared for the dirty tricks the older boy knew.

After the fist went by me, I see an opportunity to hit him in the stomach and I try to take it. He dodges my exhausted fist and knees me in the stomach.

I fall to the ground and roll away, A foot hits the spot I had been a second before.

I roll to my feet and prepare for the next punch. The older boy goes for a straight jab into my stomach. This time instead of just redirecting the punch, I grab his hand, pull him off balance and kick him in the stomach.

The boy heaves on the floor for a second before he gets up with an angry look in his eyes.

His foot shoots up so fast I almost can’t see it. All I can do is tense up as he lifts me into the air with his foot.

I fall to the ground with the wind knocked out of me and I know that I won’t be able to roll out of the way in time.

I hear the whoosh of air as his foot comes towards my head.

“That’s enough.” The Hooded man says.

I turn over to find the Hooded man holding the boy’s foot a few inches above my head.

“Fights are allowed and accidents happen. But if you purposefully try to kill another trainee… Let’s just say, you won’t like what comes next.” The Hooded man says to the room before turning his attention back to me. “Get up.”

I push myself off the ground and whimper a little bit in pain.

“You are with the new recruits, correct?” The Hooded man asks.

I nod in response, scared that If I open my mouth I might throw up.

“Then you should be off to see the alchemist with the rest of the recruits. Once you are done with your lessons come see me.” The Hooded man says before he turns around and walks away.

I nod again before staggering towards where I know the alchemist to be.

I lean against the wall as much as I can while I walk down the long hallways. I practically run into another recruit who is heading towards the Alchemist.

He stares at me in shock for a second, before having me wrap my arm around his shoulders.

“Are you going to be ok?” He asks.

“I think so. It just hurts a lot right now.” I respond as we walk.

He bites his lip for a second. “I know that the Alchemist has some healing potions, I think I can convince him to give you one.”

I nod in response.

A few seconds later we arrive at the Alchemist and my new friend keeps his word in convincing the Alchemist to give me a healing potion.

I immediately feel the pain go away and an energizing feeling spreads through my body.

“It should take a few minutes before it fully repairs the damage done.” The Alchemist says before motioning me towards a seat.

I walk over to my seat which is little more than a pillow, but the pillow is still more luxurious than what most of the other classes consider “seats”.

I take this moment to look at my fellow “students”.

In the class there are a total of twenty new recruits, All of them were with me the first day when I met Scarface.

I finally take a good look at the recruit who helped me walk here, since I was feeling too much pain to really notice him earlier.

He looks to be a kid of ten winters, just like me. His hair and eyes are a nondescript brown and he wears the same grey tunic the rest of the new recruits are required to wear. I find my gaze going towards the most noticeable thing about him, his skin color, dark brown. That color of skin is extremely rare in this part of the country and gives him a rather exotic feel.

The Alchemist starts talking and I drag my attention back to him. “Good afternoon new recruits. In this class I will be teaching you about poisons and antidotes. Something you will find very useful in your life.”

After saying that, he has us enter a long grueling hour of memorization. But I soon realize how useful the information is and do my best to memorize everything we were being taught.

Class ends and we are told by The Alchemist to go to Scarface’s class next.

“Um… I didn’t catch your name.” I say to the dark-skinned student who had helped me.

“I am called Seven here. What about you?” He responds.

“Beta. But my real name is Damien”

He freaks out a little bit, “Don’t let anyone hear you say that. You can get in a lot of trouble for using your real name!”

I step away slightly, shocked by his seriousness “I’m sorry. It’s just… I don’t want to forget that part of me.”

Seven calms down a little bit “It's fine, just be careful.”

After that we walk in silence until we arrive at Scarface’s classroom.

Scarface sits in the middle of a large room with a bamboo sword in his lap. I marvel at the size of the room for a moment and immediately notice the racks upon racks of weapons lining the walls of the room.

“Welcome to your new hell Kids.” Scarface doesn’t have to raise his voice to get the whole class’s attention. “By the end of your time here on these grounds, I want you to be able to use every single one of these weapons like you were born holding them. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir.” Is the response that most of the class gives him.

“Good, now put on those backpacks and run around the base.” He points at a pile of backpacks and each of us pick up a backpack.

My backpack feels incredibly heavy and I imagine that the others are having the same problem.

Twenty minutes later we are all on the ground, dead tired.

“Is that ALL you can do? What a group of pathetic wimps. Get up and keep your backpacks on. We’re going to start practicing with a type of dagger called Kuriman. Then we will move on to throwing daggers. Then…”

I started droning him out at this point as I move to pick up the dagger he was going to have us start with.

A grueling two hours later, I am dead on my feet as I move to the next class. This one was easier for me, it was a kind of acting class. We are told to talk and move a certain way for a little bit, then told to talk and move a different way after that. It was rather fun actually. Especially after all the crap that I had been going through before this.

Finally our classes are over and we are told to go to bed, I quietly slip away from the group at that point. I think Seven notices, but he doesn’t say anything.

It was eerie being in the halls while they were silent, Part of it was the fact that all of the walls were made of stone and we didn’t have any windows. The only light we ever got was from some magical lighting enchanted into the ceiling.

As night approaches, the lights in the ceiling dim, making it even more eerie.

It is a long walk to the Hooded man’s room and all I have that interests me are my thoughts.

It has become obvious that this school is training me to be some kind of assassin. Not that I really care though, maybe the skills I learn here can help me with… that situation. It’s doubtful though, even if I gain power here, it won’t be enough to stand up to… them. Maybe if by some small chance, my sister is still alive, it might be worth it to try. I shake my head. I hate thinking about those things! There is nothing I can ever possibly do about it! And I hate myself for it.

I am starting to understand that I am different from the other kids here. They don’t understand things the same way I do. I wonder when that happened, it is probably because of that incident.

I hear some people approaching and hide in a small alcove. Scarface and another man are walking towards me.

I wonder why I am hiding from them. The Hooded man told me to come see him, I have a good excuse for being out here.

“The trainee has been getting out of control lately. Alex told me that he would have killed one of the recruits today if he hadn’t stepped in and-“ The man is telling Scarface as they walk by.

As soon as I can’t hear them, I continue on my way.

I wonder how those lights in the ceiling work. Does a mage come by once a year to reset them? Or do they just stay like that forever?

A few seconds later I arrive at the Hooded Man’s office-like room.

I knock.

“Come in.” Says a voice from behind the door.

I walk into the room to find the Hooded man sitting at a desk, waiting there with his namesake hiding his face. “It was quite impressive the way you handled that boy this morning. Where did you learn to fight like that?” He asks me as soon as I entered the room.

“My parents had someone teach me.” I answer.

“Interesting.” The Hooded man studies me for a moment before turning back to some paperwork on his desk.

I wait for a few seconds, before I realize that he isn’t going to say anything else. “Excuse me, sir.”

He looks back up at me.

“Why did you ask me to come here tonight?”

He is quiet for a second and I can’t see his expression beneath his hood. “Why do you think we are training you?” he finally asks.

“I assume that we are being trained as assassins or warriors of some sort.” I respond in confusion.

“Come now, you’re smarter than that. Why do you think we are training you?” he repeats himself.

I don’t see what he is getting at, “I don’t know sir.”

“When we found you, as we did all of the others, you were lifeless. You had obviously lost all hope. Of course that isn’t uncommon. No, the reason we chose you is because no one would or ever will notice your disappearance. You could die right now and no one would care. You have nothing to live for. When you were on the ground this morning, you should have stayed there and he would’ve just walked off, you knew that too. And yet, while you were on the ground some life entered your eyes and you stood up, ready to fight back. Why? Why do you still have life? Why are you still fighting?” The Hooded man stares at me with a fervor and I finally see his eyes, they are a dark piercing blue.

I stand there, shocked at how serious his eyes are. I begin to wonder, why am I still fighting, after all I have been through, why am I still standing? Finally it comes to me, “Hope. Hope that I will find light at the end of the tunnel.”

The Hooded man looks at me for a moment in contemplation before nodding “Report to me instead of the weapon-master tomorrow. You may leave now.” He turns back to whatever paperwork he was working on.

“Thank you, sir.” I say as I leave his office.

It is a long walk back to my bed and I wonder at my answer to The Hooded man’s question. Who knew that after all I had been through, I still had hope? I know that it is a foolish notion, the notion that I might actually be able to change something.

But it is all that I have.