“Fame changes a man,” He said, turning to me. “I wore my olive wreath with pride for the next four years, and for as long as I had it on my head, people bowed at my feet. This was also the time I had my first lover… the same man who I defeated to win it, and he became my Erastes, a teacher and lover while training me. We both knew that I only won him because of age, as he was older and lacking the strength I was in excess of. As for skill, I had lots of it, but he still had so much to teach me. It was a time of bliss for the both of us, with hard training in one moment, a stolen kiss in another, and sex before we knew it. I took from him and he took from me. The only difference was that with time, I discovered that I loved women more, while for him, he only loved me.”I bowed my head, intent on not showing how much it made me squirm. For as long as I could remember, even in my childhood, I had not liked the idea of being dominated and made love to by a man. I had always felt that I wo

This revelation would be the end of our discussion.“You see. We all have stories to tell in this place, and every man here has his own share of burdens, his own punishment from the gods. You should get comfortable with yours, as we are all the same here. Now let's go see that tent that's being set up for you, young one.”I stood in a daze, taking care to take my box and hold it close to me. He led the way, his tiny legs taking quick steps before me, while I followed in his lead, still pondering on his story.How had it escaped me that Inar was a woman?The size was intimidating enough, far too much to be anything but a man's, even with how she towered above me. I would have wondered about the voice, but I had not heard Inar say a word since I got in here. Not so much as a whisper.“Whoa whoa whoa whoa,” I heard someone cry in the distance, and I turned to find a number of soldiers who strangely included a half-man-half-horse with long fiery hair pouring down his shoulders and a big m

“Do you promise?” Bruma asked.“Yes.” I answered.His familiar, throaty laughter rang around the tent again, only stopping when he leaned in to kiss Seni on the cheek and then whispered in his ear. After this, the servant got up and went through the flap he had been passing, leaving me with his master.Only then did I remember why I had come to see him.“Speaking of battles, Bruma. Who are the Eagle Men?”“An ancient powerful army, very much like ours, except that we are men banded together to protect and support each other, while they are a whole army who sinned against the gods, were punished with death, and share this desert with us. We are also not as uniform as they are. A bit scattered on our side, if you ask me.”“How powerful are they?”“Terrifying enough to shake the balls off every man who knows nothing about their dirty tactics. To get into their ranks, you had to kill one hundred eagles and be so skilled with a horse that you could shoot from horseback with ease, which mea

“You defeated the Invincible Soldier, did you not?” The Warlock asked, his mischievous face turned towards me.“Only with the goddess Athena's help.” I answered promptly.“Even better. We'll tell the soldiers that amongst us condemned men by the gods, there is one of us whom the goddess loves.”“What if she doesn't help?”“Quit being afraid, kid.” Bruma cut in. “All I did was leave the Invincible Soldier's tomb without my eyes and the men in this place thought of me as a hero, for seeing him and coming out alive. Here you are, victorious over him. It doesn't matter who helped you. What matters is that you wielded the weapon that destroyed him, and that is all that there is to it.”I was lost for words. Whatever I would have wanted to say hung on my tongue and never made it out, so I opened my mouth, shut it, opened it, and shut it back again.“You have it all planned out then.” Bruma said. The lines on his face had disappeared, and he appeared to breathe with ease.“Indeed. The young

This time, it was Bruma who got to my tent first, and not the other way around.“Hey, lad.” He called out, so that his voice shook me awake from outside the tent. “We've got to get to where we'll be training.”It took me some time, with the need to clear out the haze that filled my head, but I soon threw on my hood and got out to meet him. It was still so early that the sun had not yet risen, and a cold wind slapped my face the moment I got out, leaving goosebumps that refused to leave what remained of my human skin.“Wait,” he said the moment I reached him. “In what direction does your tent lie from mine?”“Exactly east. My tent is east of yours.”“We head in that direction, then,” He said, and my eyes followed the emptiness in which his outstretched arm pointed. The both of us started in that direction, and I was surprised to notice how many people were awake at that time as we passed the tents. I counted a number who were passing water beside their tents, including a man with one h