Marcus shrugs.“Selene’s back up there, with half a dozen other senators.She doesn’t mind me coming down here to wish you luck.”
He puts his hands on my arms."You know, we could pull you out of the tournament at any time?"
That catches me by surprise.Why would he suggest something like this right before one of my fights?Is he trying to sap my confidence?
“You know I need to be here,” I say.
“We could find another way to beat Selene,” Marcus insists.He gestures to the walls and the city beyond them.“She needs to win over the whole city.We can stop her there.”
“But thewayshe wins over the people is in the colosseum,” I say.“This is the place where Selene will agree to face me one on one.This is the place where I can change the minds of the people.I need to do this.I don’t need you suggesting that I should pull out, as if you’re scared my next opponent will defeat me.”
“You’re right,” Marcus says, in an apologetic tone.“I shouldn’t be so worried.You’re more powerful than anyone I’ve seen fighting in the colosseum.You’re...you’re amazing."
Marcus starts to lean in towards me, and I realize he intends to kiss me.Maybe it isn't even something deliberate or conscious.Maybe it's just a natural reaction to the tension of the situation, or maybe it's coming from a desire to make things right between us once more.We used to mean so much to one another.We used to be lovers.We used to be engaged to be married.
I’m not sure how I’ll react if Marcus kisses me.Will I just melt into his touch?Will I forget about the times he’s lied to me before, holding back his involvement in the city’s corruption, even if it was to try to undermine that corruption?Will I push back from him and risk souring things between us when he still has power over me as my nominal jailer?
Thankfully, I don’t have to decide, because Alaric reacts first.
“Are you going to force yourself on her, Marcus?”he demands.“Going to take advantage of Lyra being given to you by Selene?”
Marcus jerks back as if he’s been burned, giving Alaric an angry look.
“You can’t stand the idea that Lyra might just want me,” he says.“After you blew your chances by going off to run the resistance, rather than staying with her.”
“I did what was necessary for the city,” Alaric says.“I didn’t just stay behind to work within Selene’s regime.”
“Which is why you haven’t achieved anything,” Marcus snaps back.
It's an old argument between them.They stand for very different things within the city.Marcus believes the structures of the city are vital, even if they've been corrupted by Selene's influence.He seeks influence and power, trying to manipulate the laws and rules of Aetheria or to circumvent them through bribes.
In a lot of ways, that makes Marcus everything Alaric seeks to fight against, even if Marcus’ intentions are to make life better for the citizens of Aetheria.
Alaric, meanwhile, seeks to work outside of the law because he sees it as far too restrictive.He wants to tear down what he sees as an inherently corrupt system.
And I...what do I believe?I stepped away from my role as a senator because I no longer believed I could effectively stop Selene from within the system.
“At least I haven’t helped to prop up a would be tyrant,” Alaric says.
“At leastIdidn’t abandon Lyra in a prison!”Marcus shoots back.
This is getting out of hand.The two of them are fighting one another when they should be working together to fight against Selene.The tension between the two of them is obvious, and getting to the point where I can no longer ignore it.
I know I’m at least partly the source of conflict between them.They have very different views about the city, but I’m the reason they’re forced together, into a space where those arguments become obvious.
Each of them cares about me, in his own way.Alaric was my lover back when I was first a gladiator, and after the fall of the empire, when we both ran away to my home village of Seatide.I was engaged to marry Marcus during my time as a senator, ready to stand beside him as he pushed himself towards the highest political office in the land: that of First Senator.
It seems that neither of them has given up on me, and that risks driving a wedge between them.I don’t want that to happen.I don’t want to be the reason why Marcus and Alaric fight and aren’t able to work together to defeat Selene.
“Stop this,” I say.Marcus looks as though he might speak, but I cut him off.“No, both of you, stop.We can’t fight with one another.I know you have your differences, I know you believe in different things, but you have to remember what we’re doing here.We’re here because, if we don’t do something, Selene Ravenscroft will make herself empress at the conclusion of these games.”
I shouldn’t have to remind them of that, but they both look angry enough that I’m worried they might forget it if I don’t step in.They’ve fought one another before, and I’m worried they might do so again.Even now, I’m not sure how that fight would go.Alaric has the superior physical skills as a trained gladiator, and his illusions make him hard to target.Marcus is larger and stronger, though, and his magic gives him the ability to summon lightning into his hands and throw it at his enemies.It would be a brutal conflict, one that might leave all three of us injured.
I can’t allow that to happen, even as I know that the tension between the two of them isn’t going to go away.
“We need to focus on the fight,” I say.“Marcus, do you know anything about Jor?”
Marcus nods.“I’ve been talking to the bookmakers.You know they like to gather as much information as they can on the fighters so they can offer accurate odds on the bouts.”
