Most heroes start off with a rather unbelievable backstory. Like Superman, an alien sent to Earth to become one of the mightiest heroes. Or Spiderman who was bitten by a radioactive spider that gave him the abilities of an actual spider. But he. He started off with an even more unbelievable backstory...

He started in The Sanctuary of Redemption. A land whom is named after a damned lie, for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary. The land around it is filled with scrubs and spindly weeds and you can barely tell the difference between summer and winter, which is to say that it is always bloody freezing no matter what the time of the year. The Sanctuary itself is visible for miles when there is no filthy smog obscuring it, which is rare, and is made of flint, concrete and rice flour. The flour makes the concrete harder than rock and this is one of the reasons that the prison, for that is what it truly is, has resisted the many attempts to take it by siege, attempts now considered so futile that no one has tried to take the Sanctuary for hundreds and thousands of years.

It is a stinking, foul place and no one except the Gods above goes there willingly. Who are their prisoners, then? This is the wrong word for those who are taken to the Sanctuary because prisoners suggest a crime and they, none of them, have offended any law made by man or God. Nor do they look like any prisoner you will ever have seen: those who are brought here are all children under the age of ten. Depending on their age when they enter, it may be more than fifteen years before they leave and then only half will do so. The other half will have left in a shroud of blue sacking and been buried in Thanatos' Field, a graveyard which begins under the walls. This graveyard is vast, spreading as far as you can see, so you will have some idea of the size of the Sanctuary and how very hard it is to even stay alive there. No one knows their way around all of it, and it is easy to get lost within its endless corridors that twist and turn, high and low, as in any wilderness. There is no change in the way it looks - every part of it looks much the same as every other part: brown, dark, grim and smelling of something old and rancid.

Standing in one of these corridors is a boy looking out of a window holding a large, blue sack. He is perhaps twelve or thirteen years old. He is not sure and neither is anyone else. He has forgotten his real name because everyone who comes here is rebaptized with the name of one of the martyrs of the Gods - and there are many of them on account of the fact that, time out of mind, everyone they have failed to convert has hated their guts.

The boy staring out the window is called Perseus Jackson, although no one ever uses his last name, and he is committing a most grievous sin by doing so.

What drew him to the window was the sight of a silver deer out in the desolate place. He had never seen such a mesmerizing sight before, the strange animal moved with grace and fluidity that would've rivaled a professional dancer. He was broken out of his trance by the sound of the North West gate groaning as it always had during its rare openings. The sound mimicked the cracks of an old giant standing, in which case is very unpleasant to hear. Apparently, the deer felt the same as it immediately ran much to his dismay. He turned his head away from the now empty field and watched as two large men in their bronze armor stepped over the threshold and ushered in a small girl of about eight, followed by another slightly younger and then another. Perseus counted twenty in all before another brace of men brought up the rear and slowly arthritically the gate began to close.

Perseus's expression changed as he leaned forward to see out of the closing gate and into the wastelands beyond. The area as was stated was nothing more than an empty wasteland, the ground was dry with large cracks forming around the painfully dry soil. He squinted his eye to get a better look but his view was almost immediately blocked by the giant gates once more. He had only been out six times, each time he had gazed at the area outside with intensity trying to burn the image into his head, but each time he returns those images distort and fade away from his head. On these six occasions, he was watched as if the lives of his guards depended on it ( which they did ). Had he failed one of his many tests he would've been executed on the spot.

As the gate shut he turned his gaze towards the group of children again. None of them was plump but they all have the round faces of a young child. All were wide-eyed at the sight of the towering walls and tall bronze armored individuals around them. They were not scared, they were but instead bewildered by the strangeness of those around them. Perseus' chest filled with a deep strange feeling as he gazed at the faces of the new recruits... No, prisoners would be the most accurate expression, for recruits suggest a sense of choice and consent, and they have none of them.

He moved away from the window and walked on down the corridor.

"You! Wait!"

Perseus stopped and turned around. It was one of the men in the bronze armor that called him. However, this one seems to radiate a purplish aura around him, like a strange miasma of color. He was hugely fat with folds of skin hanging out of his strange striped shirt he wore under his armor. How this man fit inside his armor was beyond him. The strange man was standing in one of the doorways of the passage, splashing and odd sounds emerging from the room behind him, with each breath he could smell the sweet fragrance of pickled grapes. Perseus looked at the man, his expression unchanged.

"Come here and let me see you."

The boy walked towards him.

"Oh if it isn't Perryman," Said the fat man. "What are you doing here?"

"I was sent here to take this to the west wing." He held up the blue sack he was carrying, not bothering to correct the strange man.

"Huh? What did you say? Speak up!" Perseus knew the man heard him, much to his annoyance.

"I was sent here to take this to the west wing!" He repeated, yelling this time around.

"Are you yelling at me boy?!" He wanted to say yes, by the Gods was it tempting, but he kept his composure and shook his head.

"No, sir."

The fat man snorted and waved him away. "Good, now shoo I don't like the smell of you sea urchins."

Perseus raised a brow but did not stay for long, as soon as the fat man turned his back he immediately bolted his way to another corridor. The words of the strange man echoed inside his head.

'Sea urchin.' The man said. The words were foreign to him. What is a sea? By the way the man spoke of it, it sounded distasteful and foul. He shook his head clearing his thoughts, the lady in grey would arrive in the training buroo soon and it would be bad if they realize he wasn't there.

Twenty minutes later Perseus arrived at the training buroo. It was empty except for the Lady in Grey herself, who did not look up or give any sign that she had seen him. She continued to write on her scroll for another five minutes before speaking, still without looking up.

"What took you so long?"

"Lord Dionysius stopped me in the corridor of the outer banks."

"Why?"

"He heard a noise outside I think."

"What noise?" Finally, the Lady in Grey or as she is called Lady Athena looked at Perseus.

Her eyes were pale, almost watery shade of grey, but sharp. They did not miss much. Or anything.

"They were opening the North West Gate to let in the fresh children. He wasn't expecting them today. I'd say his nose was out of joint."

"Hold your tongue." Said Lady Athena, but mildly by her unforgiving standards. Perseus knew she despised Lord Dionysius and hence felt it less dangerous to speak in such a way.

"I asked your friend about the rumor they'd arrived," said Lady Athena.

"I have no friends, mi'Lady," replied Perseus. "They're forbidden."

The Lady laughed softly, her laugh held a divine and pleasant sound, something that is very common among the Lady Divines.

"I have no worries about you on that score, Perseus. But if we must plod - the scrawny blonde-haired one. What do you call him?"

"Luke."

"I know his given name. You have a moniker for him."

"We call him Vague Luke."

The Lady laughed, this time there was the echo of some ordinary good humor.

"Very good," She said appreciatively. "I asked him what time the children had arrived and he said he wasn't sure, sometime between eight bells and nine. I then asked him how many there were, and he said fifteen or so, but it might have been more." She looked at Perseus straight in the eyes. "I punished him to teach him to be more specific in the future. What do you think of that?"

"It's all the same to me mi'Lady," Replied Perseus flatly. "He deserved whatever punishment you gave him."

"Really? How gratifying you should think so. What time did they arrive?"

"Just before five."

"How many were there."

"Twenty."

"What ages?"

"None younger than seven. None older than nine."

"Very good." The lady smiled in content, satisfied that all her questions had been answered so precisely. "Go over the board, I've set a puzzle there for you. Ten minutes."

Perseus walked over to a large table, twenty feet by twenty, on which Lady Athena had rolled out a map that fell slightly over the edges. It was easy to recognize some of the things that were drawn there - hills, rivers, woods - but one the remainder there were numerous small blocks of wood on which were written numbers and hieroglyphs, some of the blocks in order, some apparently chaotic. Perseus stared at the map for his allotted time and then looked up.

"Well?" Said the Lady.

Perseus began to set out his solution.

Twenty minutes later he finished, his hands still held out in front of him.

"Very ingenious. Impressive, even," Said Lady Athena. Something in Perseus' eyes changed. Then with extraordinary speed, Lady Athena lashed the boy's left hand with a leather whip studded with tiny but thick bronze plates.

Perseus winced and his teeth ground together in pain. But quickly his face returned to the watchful coldness that was all these days that the Lords and Ladies ever saw from him. Lady Athena sat down and considered the boy as if he were an object that is both interesting and yet unsatisfactory.

"When will you learn that to do the clever thing, the original thing, is it merely your pride controlling you? This solution may work but it's unreasonably risky. You know very well the tried solution to this problem. In war dull success is always better than a brilliant one. You had better learn to understand why."

She banged the table furiously.

"Have you forgotten that I have the right to kill instantly anyone who does something unexpected?"

There was another crash as she hit the table again, stood up and glared at Perseus. Blood, not a good amount, dripped from the four holes in Perseus' still-outstretched left hand.

"No one else would've indulged you the way I have. Ares has his eye on you. Every few years he likes to set an example. Do you want to end as an Act of Sacrifice?"

Perseus stared ahead and said nothing.

"Answer me!"

"No mi'Lady."

"Do you think you are needful, you useless Zed?"

"No mi'Lady."

"You have twenty-four hours to consider your sins and then you will debase yourself before the statue of Zeus."

"Yes, mi'Lady."

"Now get out."

Dropping his hands to his side, Perseus turned and walked out the door.

"Don't bleed on the mat," called out the Lady in Grey.

Perseus opened the door with his good hand and left. Alone in her cell, Lady Athena watched the door close. As it clicked shut, her expression changed that of barely constrained rage to one of somber regret. How long do they have to keep this act? She turned her head towards the window and gazed at the desolate land before her. "When will this be enough father?" Thunder rumbled in the distance. Athena took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. The door opened and a pair of children walked in warily.

"Why are you late?!"

~ End ~

The new book is out! What do you guys think? Don't be afraid to leave a like and comment if you enjoyed the first chapter of this book.