Escaping the Arena

Secret Meeting

The air seemed thick with tension when Gavi and Cait entered the secret hideout. They had heard of Lindsey's return and were anxious to see the girl for themselves. When they entered the furthest room of the cave, their 'rebel headquarters,' no one was speaking.

Both Lindsey and Kairos seemed to be avoided the other's gaze. Argus and Alexios hovered in a far corner with Delia and Elene, murmuring quietly to one another. Raine shuffled nervously from foot to foot, he never felt comfortable at the meetings, he was constantly worried about being caught.

"Everyone okay?" Gavi questioned the group, he wasn't sure what was going on, but they didn't have time to sit around and argue. He had overheard Bram talking that morning about cutting rations even further.

"We are fine, Gavi," Kairos told him, giving him a strained smile.

Lindsey blushed as he looked at her. She suddenly remembered who he was, and their encounter after her vision. "So, you're still stalking me?" She joked, causing him to choke.

Cait laughed as her friend tried to catch his breath, she liked this Lindsey girl. Sassy girls were always the best, she needed another girl like that in this sea of men. "I thought I was the only one you stalked, Gavs?" She teased.

The Master's son's face had gone deep purple at the relentless teasing from the girls. He stole a glance at Kairos, who eyed him suspiciously, but said nothing.

"I am glad you made it back into the fold of Enmity." Cait decided to change the subject, she too had seen the look Kairos had given Gavi. From her talks with her friend, the heir of Nexus was extremely protective of his partner, she didn't need the two boys getting into a pissing contest when they needed to get their plans formed.

Lindsey studied the other girl. She knew of her, Kairos had told her this was the girl nearly executed in her place, she didn't understand why the girl would go to such lengths. Cait gave her a pleasant, gapped tooth smile. She was very pretty girl, dark hair, green eye, olive skin.

"I couldn't abandon everyone." She mumbled, not meeting Cait's gaze.

"Of course not, no one could imagine such a thing." Cait told her kindly. "I've watched you since you coming here, you are these people's leader, even the people of my faction respect you."

"Since we came?" Kairos growled, he shot Gavi a dirty look at her words.

Gavi held his arms up in defense, "She didn't tell me. Trust me, it took me forever to figure out who the heck you two were."

Cait laughed, she reached an arm out to Lindsey's shoulder. "Echo was full of people well in tune with the world around us. We had heard of the Nexus people, who hadn't? Eos was a friend to our Master. We considered one another allies. I have heard stories of you and Kairos since I was a child, you two made for great bedtime stories, I truly didn't know if you were real or just fantasy until I met you."

The heirs to Nexus gave one another very confused looks. They had never considered themselves to be held to the high honor that seemed to follow them around. Both of them had been raised to be just like anyone else's sure, they knew Lindsey was different, but they had never really worried about it.

"Bedtime stories?" Raine questioned with a laugh. "Why would your people want to give your children nightmares?"

The group shared a round of laughter.

"It is said, among certain peoples that these two are the embodiment of ancient Gods. At least that is the story I heard." Cait explained, Raine's sarcasm hadn't fazed her in the slightest.

Lindsey's mouth gaped open in shock. Painter's story had suddenly come back to her. Did he know the story too? Or was it a coincidence? So many questions swirled through her mind. She gave Cait a long look, the girl seemed to know more than she was letting on at the moment.

"Anything to give the people a sense of hope." Gavi said, ending the talk all together. He turned to Kairos, "So, Bram is still angry with me, I'm not allowed in the meeting chamber until I 'stop acting like a child' so I don't know much, but I do know he is planning on cutting rations. The Arena caravan leaves in three weeks, you have to figure out a way to get in before it's too late. My father isn't going to miss out on going."

Kairos looked to his confidants, Alexios and Argus gave him a slight nod. They had been discussing this plan for the past couple nights, it was now or never, especially with rations being cut once again, people were already going hungry.

"I've got a plan," Kairos said simply. He looked down at Lindsey, the two hadn't really spoken since their argument early that morning. After the tears had stopped falling, neither of them had been ready to admit to their faults first. Both of them were just too stubborn. "But now that Lindsey is back, she is obviously going to have to be included."

The redhead nodded, ready for whatever plan may benefit them and their people the most, she was not sure what was going to happen once they were sent to the Arena, but she was in it for the long haul.

"We are going to steal rations, once we are caught, we will confess to being Eos' heirs, how does that sound?"

Gavi nodded thoughtfully, he had figured outing Lindsey and Kairos would be the best way to get them sent to the Arena. Even Bram couldn't miss the chance of sending the great heirs of Eos to a public doom, plus they would most likely receive tons of glory and gifts for bringing such high in demand people to the show.

There was still a slight chance that Bram would possibly decide to kill them, especially if he realized that
Lindsey was the escaped girl from before, but they was just a chance they
were going to have to take.