Defenders of Rome

The weeks passed slowly. Aelith was a good teacher, albeit a harsh one, and Iatus could read pretty much anything the demon put in front of him now. He was very excited when he got his toga. It was plain white but he loved it. His imaginings had all come to reality and when Ava had dropped it off he had paraded grandly around in it, giving speeches to imaginary, cheering masses. Aelith had got his perch, which he just adored; he was too stubborn to admit that anything was done to his satisfaction but he would spend most of his time on there, hooting instruction at Iatus when Ava was out. Iatus had really taken to reading, he loved the amount of knowledge contained in the library and would spend many an evening there, although there was little else to do.

The day before term started, the carriages arrived. Huge things pulled by teams of horses and adorned with all the finery money could buy. They came and delivered their packages of finely dressed students followed by a servant; each was greeted by Philip in turn and shown to their rooms. For some reason there seemed to be no activity around Iatus' room.

They were all about Iatus' age, although none were younger, if Iatus was 14 then they were between that and 16. He supposed at 17 they went off to do their military service.

Later in the day other, less adorned carriages pulled up and deposited less well dressed students. They were all smart but they also weren't Nobles. Philip greeted them as well and servants were allocated to each of them. This time they were shown to the rooms around Iatus.

Iatus decided to see who was moving in so he stuck his head out the door. There were a few people milling about but they all seemed to be servants except for one boy directing things into place next door.

"Umm, hi," said Iatus meekly.

"Hello there, are you next door?" the boy replied cheerfully.

"Yeah."

"Well good to meet you, I'm Javi, what's your name?"

"Iatus."

"Ah, another commoner! Finally! There wasn't a single one in the two years above me, which was fun. Anyway, I'm a second year now so I doubt we'll be seeing a lot of each other but feel free to say hi once in a while."

"Oh look, the filth found a friend!" called a loud, mocking voice from along the corridor.

Iatus and Javi turned to look and saw a mountain of a boy walking along the corridor towards them followed by a team of servants carrying all manner of furniture and luxuries. He appeared to be one solid mass of muscle and carried a sword nearly as tall as Iatus. Walking alongside him was a tiger that was looking at Iatus like he was food.

"Evening Trajan," replied Javi warily.

"New filth, as you're new I'll give you a free pointer. Don't get your hopes up, you may be being allowed to train with us, but you're not one of us. Commoners have no real power anyway, first time you step onto the battlefield you're as good as dead."

The boy laughed at Iatus' fear and walked away.

The tiger curled its mouth into a big grin, revealing all its teeth to emphasise the point.

"Don't mind him, in fact don't mind any of them. Us commoners are put in with the military caste, most of the people's families here have been battlemages for generations, they're proud and hate that they're not nobles so watch them. The nobles are all put in the west wing and will generally just ignore you.

Iatus shrugged, he was used to being ignored and hated.

"Well... I guess I'll leave you to unpack," Iatus said and went back to his room.

The next day Ava came in with breakfast as normal, "Master Iatus, Philip says that all of the students are to gather on the roof at 10 o'clock."

"Oh, okay," Iatus said and began to eat his breakfast, "Thank you Ava."

She smiled and left him and Aelith came flapping down from his perch to rest on his shoulder.

Iatus finished his breakfast and left his rooms. He climbed the stairs up to the roof and found a small crowd of people gathered there. The roof itself was built like an arena, with seating surrounding a large open space. There was a platform built on one side and Iatus wondered what went on here. He had seen games thrown by nobles before but there had been areas below ground for storing animals and gladiators, Iatus hadn't seen anything like that here. Students kept coming and some began taking seats. Iatus decided to follow their lead and took a seat. The arena slowly filled up and became quite noisy. A boy of about Iatus' age and height was working his way up through the crowd, he looked about in a daze, eventually he looked at Iatus and made a decision. He pushed his way through a group of boys and came and sat next to Iatus.

"Hi," he said a little nervously, "I'm Caius Maxentius Metellus, but people tend to shorten it to Max. Is this your first year here too?"

"Yes. I'm Iatus by the way."

"Just Iatus?" Max said, a little surprised.

"Yeah, and this is Aelith," he continued, diverting attention away from his lack of a family name.

"Oh, is that a demon? How did you get that? We haven't even had our first lessons yet!" Max exclaimed.

Iatus laughed, a little nervously, "No, it's just an owl."

Aelith gave a little hoot as if to emphasise the point.

"Oh, I guess that makes more sense, it's funny how it has got so attached to you though," Max pondered.

The crowd suddenly grew quiet and the two boys looked up from their conversation to see three men in red tunics and bronze armour with plumed helmets walking through the crowd. A demon of some kind or another followed each of them. There was a black leopard, a hunting dog and a hawk. Aelith looked concerned at the hawk and gave a little involuntary hoot. The three men made their way up to the platform on the far side and turned to face the crowd. There were less than a hundred students in total and the size of the arena made the numbers look tiny.

The largest man stood forward to address the crowd. The hawk came and perched on the man's shoulder much in the same way as Aelith did. The man's voice boomed out with unnatural loudness.

"Welcome, students, to the Mage's Academy. I trust you have all settled in for a new year as lessons start tomorrow, your servants have all been given timetables, tardiness will not be tolerated, this is not a noble's prep school, this is a military academy. For new students the rules are as follows, no leaving the grounds without permission, no unsupervised summonings and no assassinations of other students. You are the defenders of Rome, you are expected to act like it at all times. Is that clear?"

There was a general murmur of assent and the man continued.

"Right, I am Legate Marcus Ahenobarbus, you refer to me as sir or Legate. This is Tribune Julius Claudius and this is Tribune Crassus Scipio, again Sir or Tribune. We will be overseeing your training over the next few years. You may be thinking of a cushy life in public office, but before you get to that you must serve your time in the legions like everyone else. Now go back to your rooms and prepare for your lessons tomorrow, first years, prepare yourselves for the hardships ahead. Dismissed."

The officers then left in the same brisk way they had entered and everyone started talking at once.

Iatus looked back at Max and raised his eyebrows, "Well, that was brief."

"Yeah, they don't seem very friendly do they?" Max replied and they both laughed, "That hawk did look like something special, didn't it?"

"Yeah, it did..." Iatus mused. He would have to ask Aelith about it later.

"So, why exactly are you talking to me? I'm a commoner..."

"Yes, but, well, you see... The other Nobles don't like me very much."

Iatus frowned in confusion.

"Well I'm sort of an outcast, I'm the youngest of five brothers and I've never really performed well in my tutorials or at swordsmanship or public speaking or making friends or anything really. So my father just tries to pretend I don't exist. And the other nobles all know it..." he trailed off miserably.

"Yeah, anyway, we should go get our timetables," suggested Iatus quickly.

"Yeah," Max agreed and they made their way back down to the rooms.

Max was in the west wing so they went their separate ways. When Iatus entered his rooms Ava was waiting for him on the sofa. She was holding a piece of parchment with a neat, drawn table on it.

"This is your timetable," she said, jumping up and handing it to him.

Iatus looked at it for a moment and then thanked her, he then went off to his room and lay on his bed, studying it.

"It seems I only have three types of lessons: combat, theoretical demonology and practical demon work," Iatus mused out loud.

Aelith had returned to his perch and looked down at him with big yellow eyes. "That makes sense, what more could you need to know? However, I suspect the third year nobles get politics lessons as well, you magi are notoriously power hungry monsters."

Iatus frowned at him but said nothing.

Iatus rose from the bed and walked to the door then turned back as an idea struck him, "Aelith, can you find out which rooms are Max's without attracting attention?"

Aelith ruffled his feathers indignantly, "Can a mouse find its way to cheese?" He then turned and flew out the window. A few moments later he was back.

"Follow me," he said and led the way.

They walked around the corridors, past room after room until Aelith gave a little flap outside one and gestured with a wing. Iatus knocked on the door and Aelith returned to his shoulder.

A boy opened the door, he had dark skin and a shaven head that reflected the light. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yes," Iatus said, "Is Maxentious about, I was told this was his room."

"Yes, it is, I will announce you. Who shall I say it is?"

"Iatus, just Iatus."

The dark skinned boy nodded and went inside, he returned a moment later and let Iatus in. The room was almost identical to his own, except the furnishings were red instead of purple, and had gold leaf trimmings. Max was sat on the sofa and smiled when he saw him.

"Greetings Iatus just Iatus," he laughed, "Take a seat."

Iatus smiled and sat down, "I see you have your timetable. Can I see?"

Max nodded and handed Iatus the paper on the table by his side. Iatus took a look through it and nodded.

"It is exactly the same as mine," he concluded.

"So, what do you make of the lessons?" Max asked.

"Well, I don't really have much to go on, I've never seen anything like this place before," Iatus said hesitantly.

"Yeah, my father told me the sort of thing to expect, they mainly stick to demons but we still get combat lessons, we are still going to be soldiers after all."

Iatus nodded, "What does your father do then, is he a mage too?"

"Technically, yeah, he's the Governor of Pannonia though. Spends most of his time waging wars against the locals. Does nothing but complain about how the senate won't give him the troops he needs to win anything, the Goths have been killing his men by the hundred."

Iatus frowned, he had heard the rumours but the senate's statements were all very hopeful. They said that the barbarians were not bothering Rome's forces with their weak demons and feeble forces, but now that he thought about it he had seen very few soldiers on leave recently and there had not been a Triumph celebration for ages, it must have been over a year ago now.

He could see that the boy was concerned and decided that it would be best to change the subject.

"So, what have you heard about the teachers? We have combat training with Legate Ahenobarbus, what do you make of him?"

Max smiled, "I hear stories about him, last year he released a lion on the first years, for their first lesson. Admittedly his demon protected them from harm, mostly. My three brothers were all his favourite students in their years," his mood trailed off at the end.

Iatus nodded, feeling the conversation return to uncomfortable territory, consoling people wasn't a skill he had needed much in his life.

"So what of your family, what do they do?" Max enquired.

"Umm, well," Aelith gave his shoulder a squeeze in warning but Iatus felt he could trust Max, "I don't really have any."

"Well, how did you end up here then?" Max enquired, doubtfully, "You need a parent to be a mage to guarantee that you will be one too."

"Well, I was caught stealing so they put me to the test as punishment."

"Wow, so that means you have already summoned something, where is it?" Max said excitedly.

Aelith dug his talons harder into his shoulder but Iatus knew what he was going to say, "They didn't let me keep it, I just made it appear and then they let it go."

"What did it look like?"

"Well, it wasn't that impressive, to be honest, it just sort of appeared in a puff of smoke, it was a weedy little thing with stupid big eyes and feathers that stuck out when it saw me, and then it was gone; it was a bit disappointing after living in fear of demons my whole life," Iatus smiled inwardly as he felt Aelith ruffle his feathers indignantly on his shoulder and he knew that he would pay for that later.

Max's face fell in disappointment, then he perked up as a thought struck him, "Well then, maybe summoning won't be so bad after all."

Iatus smiled , "Yeah, you could be right."

They talked for a while, the servant came and served them lunch at some point and they ate together. Eventually Iatus grew tired and returned to his room, tomorrow would be a busy day and he decided to get some sleep.

When he got back Ava had fallen asleep on the sofa, probably waiting for him. He looked at Aelith and the bird nodded. He waved his wings in the air and Ava floated up off the sofa on a cushion of air. She stirred a little and rolled over but did not wake. Iatus opened the door to her room and she floated past him. The room was tiny in comparison to the rest of the place, it was long and thin with a simple mattress occupying most of it. There was a small set of draws for her clothes with a candle on it and a little model boat. It occurred to Iatus that that was all she probably had.

It's still more than I had... he thought, pushing away his pity.

Aelith put her down gently on the mattress. Iatus closed the door silently behind him and then turned in himself.