I was wincing before the first blow even fell, doubling Luke over.
Luke coughed and wheezed, but they pulled him to his feet.
“What is your name, Neo?” Procopios demanded, grabbing Luke’s face in a punishing grip.
“L-lucius—” This time the blow doubled him over before he even got his whole name out, then punches rained down on him until the floor was splattered with his blood.
I muscled my way through the crowd and pushed one of the Hoplites out of the way and lifted Luke to his feet, as if I were one of his captors. Which…Fuck. I kinda was.
“Youhaveno name,vlakas,” I hissed into his ear as I pulled him to his feet.
Despite being bloodied from multiple blows, his face lit up when he saw me, and I groaned. Subterfuge had never been one of Luke’s strong points.
“Elex!” he gasped.
“Vlakas!” I said at the same time as loud as I could, hoping to cover his exclamation. I gave him a shove.
“You obviously don’t learn very fast, idiot,” I yelled. “Vlakas seems like a good name for you!”
There was more hooting and hollering as he was pushed around the ring of cadets, but I couldn’t miss the look of hurt on his face. Luke was one of the smartest people I knew. Calling him an idiot was humiliating. Better humiliation than more blood spilled, though.
The other Hoplites started chanting “Vlakas! Vlakas! Vlakas!”
“Vlakas, eh?” Procopios said, looking at me suspiciously.
I nodded at him, feigning nonchalance.
“It fits,” I said, shrugging as if it didn’t matter to me either way.
The last thing I wanted was for Procopios to make the connection between my younger brother and me.
Procopios leaned forward and took Luke’s chin in his grip, forcing him up.
“What is your name, boy?” Procopios demanded.
Luke’s left eye was already swollen shut, and there was a gash on his right cheekbone. I saw his face twist as if he were going to argue, but then I caught his eye and shook my head almost imperceptibly.”
“V-Vlakas,” he managed to wheeze out.
“Welcome to the Legion, Vlakas,” Procopios dragged him to his feet and shoved him at me. I barely managed to keep my feet as he stumbled into me.
“You know the rules, Hoplite,” the Lochagos growled at me. “You name them, you claim them,” he snarled.
Just like that, I was promoted.
I nodded at Procopios. I’d never claimed a Neo before, but I knew the rules. Any Hoplite could claim a Neo, and most did so repeatedly, building a little stable of kids to do their work for them. In turn, they were supposed to provide them with training and protection. Others were more cautious. If you named a Neo, they were your responsibility until they were promoted to Hoplite. Until they were promoted, any transgressions they made, you paid for. Usually in blood.
The Hoplites that named the most kids were also the ones who tended to prey on the young. Neos had no one to turn to, no one to speak for them. If a Hoplite chose to kill a Neo, or punish them in any way, there was nothing anyone could do. It was just the first in the long line of subjugations they would experience in their lives as Mageia.
It wasn’t lost on me, either, that the system of training Neos was just one more way to make Mageia fear and resent each other. After all, the less we trusted each other, the less likely we would be to revolt against our Elusian masters. Not that any past rebellions had done us any good.
“C’mon,” I snarled, roughly dragging him by the arm.
“But—” he started turning back to look at the line of children behind us and I saw Procopios watching us.
With my free hand I jerked him forward and slapped him across the face. More laughter rang out around us. The slap wasn’t hard enough to really hurt, but it was enough to send him into a shocked silence.
“Shut the fuck up,” I growled as I dragged him through the crowd.
