The Fields of Fire

Chapter 10: Arthus Adana

"Well sorry for the inconvenience, but this is what we have. So if you won't waste any more time, yours or mine, we should get going." Marcus replied with authority.

The Soldier stiffened up in response, he seemed a bit bemused by Marcus' tone, but he quickly straightened out and replied, "Right away sir!" He turned around with the other soldiers, and said, "This way!"

The group of soldiers lead Arty and the Students, towards the open entry way of the Colosseum. Arty was a bit nervous seeing a military guy with his teacher, but he supposed he did want to be a Soldier and a soldier has to meet other soldiers. Zaben seemed to share Arty's concern, "So do you think he's taking us to like, be tested in front of all the Generals and stuff?"

Arty nodded in affirmation, it made sense as an explanation to him. He was excited to finally see the other students use magic, but the thought of a whole bunch of Generals looking over him like he's some sort of barn animal just made him even more nervous. I've never even used magic in front of anyone other than Marcus and my Mom... Arty thought. But to his shock, Marcus interrupted his train of thought and calmed his fears, "You're not getting evaluated by any Generals. You're all uniquely remarkable students and I would never expect men of a purely military mind to try and understand the nuances of magic. The only person you're trying to impress here is me, I just want to see what you can do."

Arty saw Brinton sulk at those words, clearly insecure about his powers. Zaben turned to Arty, speaking even quieter than last time "how did he even hear me!?"

   Arty replied with simple assurance, speaking loudly knowing it wouldn't make a difference, "he can read minds, so he knew what you were saying before you even said it."

    "Nope." Marcus replied, his head not wavering from its forward position, "Mind Reading was one of the few tricks I never picked up from my time in school. I just never got the hang of that spell, but all the best students could do it and I still needed to be able to compete. So instead of bashing my head against a wall trying to learn a power that wasn't coming to me at all, I just learned how to be very good at eavesdropping instead. It's a power that requires no magic and it's also just about as good as mind reading." He looked back with a smug smile on his face "you'd be surprised the kind of secrets people say when they think no one is listening."

    Arty took a mental note not to say anything potentially embarrassing around Marcus. They kept walking through the Colosseum's surprisingly extensive network of dark marble passageways. The Soldiers had flashlights and seemed to know the way. Arty imagined that back hundreds of years ago these halls were lit by torches and packed to the brim with animals, warriors, and people coming to watch them all fight it out. He wondered which one of those he was supposed to be.

    Eventually the dark passageway turned out towards the light. It wasn't too bright out, seeing as it was near sunset, but it was still bright enough for arty to need to cover his eyes as he followed the men out onto the dirt clearing that was the center of the Colosseum. The arena floor was pocked with large stone blocks, that looked like they'd been dragged into place across the dirt by heavy equipment. Pulling his hands away from his eyes Arty could see the whole image of what was really before him. Easily 400 feet across in a perfect circle, the towering green granite structure barely left any room for the bright orange sun as it reached up into the sky. The surrounding parts of the massive complex seemed to be designed for seating, of course those who would have sat there were long gone, but Arty could almost faintly hear the roar of the crowd echoing down through the centuries. Arty was no fan of the Elves, nor the giant glorified slave pen he was standing in, but he was impressed for how long it had been there. Hundreds of years was quite a while, and it stood as a reminder to Arty that history is being made with every passing second. Being in the Colosseum encouraged Arty to make a future for those who'd come after him that was better than the history of those who came before. Arty smiled to himself, knowing that was probably what Marcus was going for.