Don't you hate that moment when you realize that you never actually finished that chapter you thought you posted a long time ago? Yeah, sucks. Sorry 'bout that. Oh by the way, the Hall of Ages description is based on the one in The Red Pyramid, but this one doesn't have the magic because it's not as cool.
Disclaimer: Cat and I don't own TMI nor Chief Lector Iskandar (he's Rick Riordan's).
Camille walked through the hallways, piece of parchment in hand and her billowing tunic serving to dramatize the effect of her long, brisk strides. The famous seductress passed servants and bailiffs, earning bows from the poor and rich alike. The kohl applied around her piercing green eyes masterfully evoked the chilling image of the hawk the makeup represented.
Camille smirked back at the looks thrown her way, all of them filled with different emotions. Admiration, fear, respect. Camille got a vast amount of attention and she drank up every second of it. She nearly laughed out sound when a random slave boy almost tripped in attempt to turn and watch her walk by.
On any normal occasion, Camille probably would've stuck around to flirt with him and try and coax more embarrassing reactions to her natural charm from the boy. But sadly, this was no normal occasion.
She turned a corner into the wing for the higher-ups of the palace's social class. Her own room was located down there, as were the rest of the priests'. A suspicious mewing noise was coming from Magnus', but she paid it no mind. There were more important things to do than snoop around her handsome friend's room and find out exactly what he was hiding.
Camille ignored the two guards placed outside of the grand wooden door and patiently waited admittance. A guard recognized the priestess immediately and rapped on the door for her. It didn't take long before it was opened.
"Lady Camille, what a pleasure. Come in, come in. Take a seat wherever you'd like," Pothinus said, ushering her in with small gesture of his arm. Though his words were welcoming, he voice was tight and annoyed. Camille almost sighed. Annoyance seemed to be Pothinus' voices' default tone; no matter what situation he was in, if he wasn't already feeling an overpowering rage, he was annoyed.
"I'd rather not, actually," Camille said briskly. This was not a visit of a friend, so there was no reason to treat it as such.
The guards shut the door silently behind the pharaoh's regent and Pothinus wasted no time in attempting to exchange dull pleasantries that annoyed Camille to no end. "How have you been, my lady?"
"Shut up, Pothinus, you know I'm not here for a nice little chat about the weather. Let's get down to business, shall we?" Camille said, holding out the rolled up parchment she had been carrying. Pothinus hesitantly reached out and took it from her hold.
"What is this?" he asked, only sounding half-interested. He unrolled the scroll and held it out to read.
"Oh, I'm sure you know what that is. You should be able to recognize it fairly easily; you wrote it only a few days ago," Camille said. Pothinus' eyes snapped up in shock when he recognized the writing and he gaped at Camille.
"How…. This is not yours, Priestess Camille." His attempt at sounding authoritative was feeble at best.
"You see, I have a great amount of reliable sources scouting out every nook and corner of this palace," Camille said softly. "Needless to say, when someone caught eye of your sole privately owned servant sneaking off with a letter and headed towards the troop leader's quarters, it raised suspicions. Don't worry, only I am aware of your plans."
Pothinus placed the letter on his bedside table and looked Camille in the eye. It was a bad choice; Camille could plainly see the poorly masked fear in his eyes. "Why," Pothinus asked quietly, "have you come to see me, Priestess Camille?"
Camille gave him a sweet smile and picked the letter back up. "I would like to join you, of course."
"And then he completely threw himself off the table just to be in my arms," Magnus declared, making sure to flash Alec a cocky grin. He was rewarded with a blush and an incredulous look.
"I did not!" Alec protested. "He pulled me off! I swear, he's insane."
"Eh, it's all a little fuzzy. Either of us could be right," Magnus said, nudging Alec with his shoulder. To Magnus' delight, the soldier was the first to sit next to him when their little group had formed.
"No, it's perfectly clear. He pulled me off," Alec insisted.
"Just to let you two know, we don't actually care. In case you didn't already realize," Ragnor huffed. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall of the Room of Rites.
One of the first things Magnus did the day after his lovely date with the hottest Roman ever was reintroduce said Roman to his best friend. Alec had, of course, brought rat boy with him to the place they decided to meet up. Ragnor and Simon had instantly bonded over their annoyance toward Alec and Magnus, which Magnus found to be very unfair. It wasn't his fault that he'd already told Ragnor all the details of the date only three times already. He had enjoyed himself immensely and felt the need to share his giddiness.
"Thank you, Ragnor! Finally, someone speaks the truth," Simon said, nodding vigorously.
"Quit nodding, weasel face, you might get sick again," Magnus warned, smirking at the memory of the soldier's green complexion from the platter Magnus had been ordered to open. I don't care if it's rude, I will never let him live this down. Plus, the only Roman I'll ever be nice to is Alec, Magnus thought.
"Shut up, that was a horrifying experience-"
"That was funny," Alec told Simon, picking up the sword he had on the ground between him and Magnus and teasingly tapping Simon with the flat side of it. Ragnor audibly sucked in a breath; his distress at Alec's actions were obvious.
Magnus decided to save the Romans from Ragnor's long lecture on the dangers of playing with weaponry by quickly starting back up with his story. "As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted-"
"I can finish the story for you, since Magnus has repeated it enough times to drill it into my mind," Ragnor said quickly, moving in closer to the small circle that the four had sat in on the dirt floor. "They passionately kissed, stole a cat, and rode off into the sunlight with the smell of seaweed riding the winds and the romantic thoughts of never wanting to reach their destination, lest the ride ever end, floating around in their dirty little minds. That destination being the crappy horse stable that everyone hates, by the way. The end."
"That is an awfully anticlimactic way of putting it," Alec told Ragnor, tipping his sword down and drawing patterns in the dirt. "I thought it was much more romantic." He snuck a shy glance at Magnus and blushed when they made eye contact.
"As did I," Magnus agreed, kissing Alec on the cheek.
"You're just setting out to make me vomit?" Simon asked. He lifted his hand to his mouth and faked a retching noise. Alec just rolled his eyes and continued his aimless dirt doodles.
"Go, run him through with your pointy weapon," Magnus demanded, shoving a slender finger in Simon's direction. He even gave Alec's arm a tap to get him motivated. Apparently, though, that wasn't enough to get the lazy guard on his feet.
"Oh, shut up Mags," Ragnor said. "Simon here is the last person in this palace who is actually sane. I can't have him dying on me, I would be left with you two and your creepy flirting."
"I'm not flirting," Alec pointed out.
"Crap!" Magnus yelled, jumping up and nearly slicing his ankle on Alec's blade. "I totally forgot! I'm supposed to be at the House of Life by now. I was supposed to meet with Chief Lector Iskandar and he's going to walk me through the first class I'm going to teach on protection spells and what is he going to think now that I'm already late for my-"
"Magnus!" Alec had jumped up and put both of his hands on Magnus'- he hadn't noticed he was running his fingers through the black strands in worry. "Stop talking about it and hurry."
"Oh! Right." Magnus kissed Alec on the cheek nodded his goodbye to Ragnor and Simon before he sprinted out of the room.
"I already know that you were the one who helped Ptolemy exile his sister. I promise you Pothinus, I did my research. I would not have come to you if I did not know what I was getting into," Camille told the man she was sitting across from.
"I know, I'm just making sure I know you can be loyal to me above any other person of power. You must realize that this will succeed. There is no room for backing out; it will be an inconvenience we do not have time to deal with," Pothinus replied.
The 'we' he was referring to was him and his expected right hand man: the troop leader, Achillas.
"If you do, in fact, change your mind, there will be grave punishments," Achillas said slowly, in a cryptic tone. Camille rolled her eyes. This was not the first time she had spoken with Achillas, though they did not converse often. Amazingly, however, even only with brief meetings every so often, Achillas had somehow managed to make himself one of Camille's least favorite people. He was dull and, though Camille was told he was very clever, never had anything of importance to say.
"Oh, thank you," Camille replied slowly, filling her voice with sarcasm. "Now that that is all cleared up, let me tell you this. Achillas, you are in no position to be making threats. I've already read that letter enough times to make my eyes bleed. I could recite your plan right now. Would you like me to? It takes place during the banquet. Though she isn't your main target, you plan to slip-"
"That isn't necessary, Camille. We are aware of our own plan, thank you," Pothinus said curtly. There was a leer in his voice that Camille didn't appreciate, but she took it upon herself to be the better person and ignore it. "If you want to work with us, you must do the job we assign you. Personally, I believe you would do best at pouring the snake venom into Princess Cleopatra's beer. It is an important task and an honor for you to do."
Camille was very quickly losing her patience.
"So you're going to give me the job of poisoning the exiled Princess only to settle whatever weird grudge you have against her?" Camille snarled, standing up and striding across to stand in front if Pothinus. "No thanks. I did not come here to be tossed aside with the jobs that our fat little pharaoh himself could do."
The regent gasped and stood as well. "How dare you? King Ptolemy is an honored leader and has earned the position onto the throne with his generosity and extensive kindness, even to the likes of you. And you strut around running your pretty little mouth like you own the place."
"King Ptolemy has done nothing for Egypt, except exile the first promising leader in decades," Camille said purposely, knowing that Pothinus remembered full well that he had bragged about that. "He earned his way onto the throne by being born into royalty with a silver spoon in his mouth and gold jewelry adorning his greasy little fingers. I think there needs to be change around here-"
"Then why are you here?" And finally, the troop leader had captured Camille's attention. She turned on him.
"You want Caesar gone, yes?" Camille asked. Achillas nodded. "As do I. That is our common ground. I believe there were major problems in this palace long before the Romans decided to step in. They must be removed; they are only complicating things for our hierarchy." Camille sighed heavily, taking good care to make it overdramatized. "I will poison the Princess if that is all you wish of me, but I refuse to go through with the plan if you two do not hold up your end of the deal. Are we all clear?"
At the confirming nods from both Pothinus and Achillas, Camille tossed her long hair behind one shoulder and stalked out of the room.
Magnus liked to consider himself the most amazing thing one could lay eyes upon in the entire known world. Other people tended to agree with him. He'd never heard one complaint about his looks (except for, perhaps, the older citizens who believed he wore his skirts a little too low on his hips to be appropriate for one who dealt with gods) and he often got many compliments in many different ways. And yet, the Hall of Ages was a pretty gorgeous thing to look at.
As he walked down the long hallway, Magnus felt like he was Horus. Not to say he believed in the gods; Magnus didn't consider himself a part of any religion. But Magnus had always been interested in the stories told of Horus, a god who could walk on water, and the shimmering blue rug running down the entire length of the floor reminded him exactly of such tales. The hallway was lit with torches casting a golden light down the hall, and the stone pillars holding up the high ceiling were taller than Magnus thought imaginable for a building. Hieroglyphic symbols were burned into these pillars and when the light from the fires hit the indents at just the right angle, to Magnus it looked like they were glowing.
The entire House of Life was big, but it was this room that took up the most space. Since not too many magicians were being trained, only a few hundred, Magnus supposed it made sense to have the entrance be the biggest part, making the entire 'House of Life' ordeal seem much more important that it surely could ever be.
A man was lounging against a pillar at the end of the long hall. He looked around forty years old, with tan skin, dark hair and eyes nearly the color of the sky at night. Magnus approached him carefully, knowing quite well that he was late.
"Bane, nice of you to show up," the man growled. He looked dangerously pissed, but Magnus didn't let that faze him.
"Isn't it? If you don't mind, I'd like to be taken to Chief Lector Iskandar." Magnus flicked his wrist to get the angry man to begin leading him.
"Well, today is your lucky day. I am he. When you begin teaching magician students, I should trust you wont show up late regularly?" Chief Lector Iskandar asked.
Well, fuck.
"O-oh, hello there. Nice to meet you, Chief. I hear you're one of the greatest magicians to ever live. I've looked up to you since I was little." What he said wasn't really the truth, but Magnus did not feel guilty. He had lied in attempt to salvage the position he had earned in the House of Life, so it was completely justified. Thankfully, however, Chief Iskandar demeanor changed; he began to only looked amused by the situation rather than annoyed.
"Stop the flattery, I've heard every compliment there is to give. Honestly, I like you better when you're rude. Very few dare to talk to me like that," he commented. Then he turned on his heel abruptly and started at a brisk pace down the hallway. Magnus was shocked by his sudden action, but didn't hesitate to yell after him.
"Oh good, then you should probably get used to it. I'm not used to being around someone who gets flattered as much as I do," Magnus sneered. He had no intention of being overly rude to Chief Iskandar for the rest of his time at the House of Life, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to play it up for the rest of the day.
"Come on, I won't have enough time to show you the classrooms if you don't put a bounce in your step," Chief Iskandar said over his own shoulder, snapping his fingers to encourage Magnus to move.
"Fine, fine," Magnus started after his new boss, trying really hard to mask his excitement at his new job. Magnus didn't know what he did to deserve all these good changes in his life, but he wasn't complaining at all.
So sorry about the wait. Hopefully we'll get the next chapter up faster, but I'm not promising anything...