The Price of Freedom: Innocence Lost

Savage

Reaching down to the ground, you pick up the little wooden ball and shyly hold it out to the girl without saying a word.

"Thank you." The girl says sweetly, taking her toy back and twirling it around in her hands before sitting on the edge of the well besides you.

"I'm Caecilia." She introduces herself with a friendly smile. "You're one of the slave boys aren't you? My Papa comes to watch the slaves practice some times, to see which ones are strong enough to fight in the real arena." So, the girl is Titus's daughter. That explains what she's doing here and why she's so well dressed. "Papa says it's an honor but... I wouldn't want to be a gladiator." She tells you sadly. "I wouldn't ever want to kill somebody else."

The girl seems very naïve about the life of a gladiator. You're not sure if she understands that you don't have a choice. There is a brief pause while you try to think of how to respond, but again Caecilia breaks the silence for you. "Papa says that people are slaves because the Gods chose them to be. But I don't know if that's right." She confesses to you in a whisper, as if she's afraid someone else will hear. "... Why are you a slave?" The girl asks.

Well, that's a question with a whole lot of answers. You could just tell her the truth. Then again, if you don't want to talk about it, you could give her a more simple explanation. Of course if you're bitter, you could point out that her family had a hand in you becoming a slave. That said, you could just refuse to answer altogether.

"My father sold me." You tell the girl. She's the only one you've spoken to about it besides Alexius. "He owed a lot of people money that he couldn't pay back, so he sold me and my brother to pay off his debts." Telling the story doesn't upset you anymore. You've been a slave long enough that now, the memory of how it happened just makes you feel cold and bitter.

The girl just stares at you with her mouth open. "Your father did that to you?" She asks, sounding horrified. "How could he do that? My Papa would never do something like that! It wouldn't matter how much money he owed, he'd never even think about selling me!"

"Well, I suppose your father loves you more than mine loved me." You tell her, not sounding angry, just sad.

Caecilia is quiet for a moment before gently resting her hand on top of yours. "I'm sorry." She tells you softly. "But... Your father shouldn't have done that to you." She says crossly. "It's not fair."

You lift up your head to meet the girl's innocent eyes. "No, it's not." You agree, and it's a lesson she'll have to learn some day. "The world's not fair."

Caecilia goes quiet for a minute before jumping down from the edge of the well. "I've got to go now. Papa will wonder where I am." She says, hesitating a moment before turning back and placing the little wooden ball in your hands. "Here." She says sweetly. "You keep it." And with that, she turns around and walks gracefully away.

You make your way back to the arena where you spar with Lula for a little while since both of you need the practice. The girl is very aggressive in her fighting technique, but she spends so much time trying to hit people that it makes her defense quite clumsy. This usually means that your spars with her turn into a competition of who can hit each other the hardest.

During your practice, you manage to knock Lula to the ground by hitting her across the back with the side of your practice sword. That's when you hear a loud and rather self-important voice speak up from behind you. "Is that how you slaves have fun?" The voice asks smuggly. "Picking on little girls?" You turn around to see a richly dressed boy about two or three years older than you. His resemblance to Caecilia is so similar that you have no doubt in your mind this boy is your master's son.

"I am not little girl!" Lula objects, getting to her feet. "And he not picking me. We practice."

The boy looks very offended that Lula stood up for you, when clearly he seemed to think he was rescuing her. "Well then he should practice with one of the other boys instead of hurting a girl!" He yells, picking up one of the wooden swords himself. "In fact, he can practice with me!"

"Septimus!" You hear Titus calling from his booth above the arena. "Don't start causing trouble!"

"I'm not!" His son replies, turning to you with a smug grin on his face. "We're just going to have a nice, friendly fight, aren't we?" He asks, in a tone that makes the question sound more like a command. "Just for practice."

This is a difficult situation. With the other students, you're expected to fight to the best of your ability, but this isn't another student. This is the Master's son, and if you're not careful, you could end up in a lot of trouble.

Well, you were never one to back down from a challenge. You take up a defensive stance with your knees slightly bent and your sword held in front of you, blocking his line to your head. "Alright." You tell Septimus with a grin. He might be older than you, but you doubt this spoiled, rich boy has ever been in a real fight in his life. He's not going to know what hit him.

"There, see!" Septimus calls to his father. "The boy wants to fight!" With that, he slowly starts to circle you, causing you to shift your stance in order to keep eye contact with him. Maybe you were wrong. Maybe this rich boy does know what he's doing. "Come on then slave." Septimus challenges you. "Let's see what you can do."

He makes the first move, trying to bring his sword down across your chest, but you easily block it. Before you can make a counter attack, Septimus jumps back, studying you awhile while he considers his next move. Your fight goes on like this for a couple of minutes and you notice that Septimus has a very cautious technique, often stepping back and thinking about where to strike next. This makes it easy to defend yourself, since you can tell from where he's looking, what his next move is going to be.

After awhile of blocking his attacks, you see Septimus is staring at your left foot and probably considering tripping you over. This gives you an advantage, since aiming low with his sword would leave Septimus's upper body defenceless. All you'd have to do was bring your sword down hard enough across his head and the fight would be over. There's only one problem with that idea though. Septimus is Titus's son. With any other student, you'd be expected to do whatever it took to win, but giving your master's son and heir a concussion might get you into more trouble than the victory would be worth.

There's no chance you're going to let this boy win and add fuel to his already bloated ego. When Septimus makes a move to trip you, you bring the hilt of your sword down on his head so hard that it knocks him face first into the ground so that he's spitting out sand when he pushes himself back up.

"You cheating, little bastard!" Septimus yells at you, completely furious that you made a fool out of him in front of the entire academy. All the other students are laughing at him, which of course only humiliates him more. Getting to his feet, the boy shouts out in anger, raising the wooden sword above his head. You move to block him, but before Septimus can bring his sword down, Titus walks up behind him, grabbing the sword and snatching it out of the way.

"That's enough of that!" Titus firmly tells his son. "You didn't lose because he cheated, you lost because the boy's a better fighter than you. Learn from your mistakes, train harder and don't sulk about it like a spoilt child!" Of course, Septimus is a spoilt child, but you keep that opinion to yourself.

It's then that Mater Titus turns his attention to you. At first you're worried you're in some kind of trouble, but instead he looks down on you with an amused smile. "Good fight boy." He says, placing his hand on your shoulder. "I knew I saw something in you."