@hrtbrkprinces
setting: gladiator and the lanista’s son
In the bowels of the estate, the training ground and household of the gladiators, the Ludus, was quiet. Kaius had won that day, and everyday that had preceded, had he not he’d be dead but with every victory the promise of freedom loomed closer. The Thracian did not care how many men, women, or beasts he had to kill, so long as he won his lanista coin, he was of value. Enough coin, and Kaius would be a free man, he could lay his sword down and take up honest work. His father had been a fishermen, in an age so long ago that Kaius could scarcely recall, he’d been a slight thing, huddled on a boat with little more than a spear and a net to provide.
Given his victory, Kaius should’ve been given at least a night’s rest, but guards arrived at the door to his cell and beckoned him out. It wasn’t the first time that he’d been summoned in the dead of night, to entertain the lanista’s parties, to be whored out for whatever purpose the man’s paying clients desired. He was a gladiator, and that was meant to mean something, but in the end he was little more than meat.
The estate was quiet, however, and the lanista and his wife were nowhere in sight. Kaius recalled hearing something about them attending a party at the magistrate’s, leaving the household sparse save for some guards, the gladiators below, and other servants. He was led into the royal chambers of the lanista’s son, and as he entered the door closed and they were left alone. Given their setting, Kaius could only assume where this was leading, he’d seen how the boy watched him as he trained, how he cheered for him in the arena. Kaius slipped off his leathers, letting his meager coverings fall to the ground as he stood bare in front of the other.
“Is this why you summoned me?”