Gegenes

This was the last place that Isco wanted to be.

The wings of the Theatre were built to hold the fighters that waited for their bouts, whether or not they stepped onto the sands willingly. After trying to stop the Governor’s guards at the dinner, he was forced into chains himself, locked in a cell next to Kanna, the only thing between them rusted bars.

She was still dressed for a banquet, the silk dress torn and stained with dirt from when the Keepers dragged her through the tunnels. They could have easily carried her, but Isco had a feeling the dragging was meant as a humiliation.

Not that it mattered.

Kanna still slept, her breath slow and cold.

He crept up to the bars that separated them and reached through to check her pulse. It was still there, faint but even.

Isco couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t woken up yet. The drugs that were given to her should have worn off within hours, but she still hadn’t regained consciousness. Even when the Keepers dropped her in a heap and dragged the shackles around her wrists and ankles, she remained boneless.

At first Isco assumed it was a ruse, and he stayed as far away as possible from the prone woman. He’d huddled in the corner the first night, waiting and watching.

She hadn’t stirred by morning, or the night.

The following day Hautman ordered Isco to make sure the prisoner lived to her execution.

Isco reached through the bars and shifted the shackles, sliding them into new positions so they wouldn’t wear sores into her skin.

There was nothing else he could do.

Isco crouched onto his heels, resting his hands on his knees.

The sound of footsteps caught his attention, but they were familiar now. Astar had been visiting multiple times a day.

Every moment trapped with his nightmare was an eternity, so at least her arrivals meant that time was passing.

“She still sleeping?”

Isco nodded, rocking back and sitting on the floor. “Still out,” he said, “As your father requested.”

The glare that Astar shot at him could have cut diamonds, but Isco had seen worse. Worse was breathing in the cell next to him. Worse could wake up at any moment. And still worse would rain down if she didn’t.

Isco turned back to Kanna. “Why do you keep coming here?” he asked.

“Why did you try to stop the guards?”

Isco started, glancing at Astar before turning away. “I have my reasons.”

“So do I.”

Isco scooted away from the bars as Astar lowered herself to the ground, leaning her back against them.

Astar sighed, pressing her forehead against the bars. She couldn’t reach Kanna from her position, so she just watched her.

“This is my fault,” Astar said. “She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me.”

Isco straightened, pulling his legs in toward himself. “What do you mean?”

“I met Kanna in Adur,” Astar said. “Sometimes I just need to get away from all this.”

Isco scoffed. “You mean all the food, and tapestries, and money and power, and the complete lack of want for anything?”

Astar turned over her shoulder but this time, she didn’t glare. Her eyes were sad, distant.

“There was this bar I went to,” she said, turning away. “I have to give it to your people and their alcohol.” Astar leaned her head back against the bars, looking up. “Powerful stuff.”

“It has been the downfall of many,” Isco said when the silence became drawn.

Astar changed her position, pulling her knees up to her chest. “It was a pretty shady area, but I guess I just didn’t think about those things. There was this group and…” she stopped, her voice cracking.

Astar let her legs fall and rolled her shoulders to straighten them. “I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if she hadn’t been there.”

She took a breath, letting it out in a long heave. She turned to look over her shoulder at Kanna in the cell, the barren walls and the chains holding Kanna captive. “I told her about this place,” Astar said. “I brought her here, told her she could make some money. I guess I figured I could protect her, being who I was. I could help her keep her secrets.”

Isco jerked, his spine snapping straight. “So you know who she is, then? You’ve known all this time?”

Astar’s eyes widened on him, then narrowed. “Not exactly,” she said. “But she doesn’t remember either.”

“What do you mean she doesn’t remember?”

“I mean just that, Isco. She doesn’t remember who she was before.”

Astar lifted her hands, rubbing them against her eyes. When she turned to Isco, her eyes were dry. “She’s the person who saved my life,” she said. “That’s all I need to know.”

The earnestness of the statement caught Isco off guard. He didn’t know how to react, and before he knew it, he was laughing. It started as something small, and he covered his mouth to try and keep it in, but it built inside of him all the same. His sides ached with trying to stifle it and he wrapped his arms around himself, bending over as the sound of his own laughter hit his ears.

It didn’t sound like him. He had never made a sound like that before.

Isco didn’t know why he was laughing, why the fact that the woman who commanded his nightmare didn’t even know the power she had was so funny to him. It should be a comfort that she wouldn’t recognize him, didn’t know him, but he was terrified.

Isco knew the light loa would come for her. He had hoped that he would be able to reason with her, to try and help her escape and perhaps prevent another tragedy.

But she didn’t know who she was, and the one she controlled was untethered.

He had been on edge since he was told about his mission to Gegenes, and after seeing the soldier there his stomach had turned into a knotted pit.

They had no idea what was coming, but he did. And he was locked in these bars, chained to this place.

He had survived the first time due to sheer luck, and he was not nearly lucky enough to survive a second time.

So what could he do but laugh, the sound clanging in the dark below the Theatre.