Axel's muscles ached as he peeled himself off his cot, blinking the sleep from his eyes.
He groaned, swinging his legs over the side of the cot. Lexaeus had said they'd be escorted to Ansem's villa at noon.
He looked around at the tiny cell one last time. Marluxia slept soundly, the drunkenness worn off.
He wondered what sorts of tasks he would have to perform as a slave. He recalled Luxord saying something about how one of Ansem's sons had taken a liking to Axel, though what his meant for him Axel did not know.
The doors to the cells would not be unlocked until sunrise, and since there were no windows in the room Axel couldn't tell what time it was. He tried the door handle, but it wouldn't open, confirming that Axel had woken before sunrise. This was unusual, since he often woke to the sound of the heavy door unlocking.
Axel slumped back down on his cot, his stomach turning. Though being a gladiator had been slavery for him, this was a new kind of slavery. As an orphan to soldier, Axel had never lived in a domestic household before. What would it feel like performing tasks for a small group of people rather than a stadium full?
The door clicked and unlocked, swinging open to reveal Lexaeus's face. "Get up," he grumbled, Marluxia groaning as he shook himself awake.
Lexaeus met eyes with Axel and said, "Change of plans, Ansem needs you and Larxene before Sol is fully in the sky."
"Who is Ansem, and why does he need Axel and Larxene? Why would anyone need them, specifically together?" Marluxia questioned.
"A scholar named Ansem the Wise purchased Axel and Larxene as slaves." Lexaeus replied, grabbing Axel's arm.
"How much did he pay for them? Gladiators aren't cheap..." Marluxia seemed more awake now.
"None of your business, just make sure the cot is suitable for whomever gets placed there," Lexaeus said gruffly. He shook Axel's arm, grinning. "Say goodbye to this life, Axel."
The cart bounced along the bumpy road, and Axel's head nodded along with it.
Larxene was silent, a sound Axel had never heard before.
The two stared at their own feet, unsure of what future lay beyond the trees of the grove.
A large villa soon came into view, and the two sat up straighter to see it more clearly.
"This is your new home," Lexaeus announced, "enjoy looking at it from the spectator's point of view while you can."
With their hands chained behind their backs, Lexaeus delivered them to the front door. A slave stood by the door, his eyes widening when they came across Axel and Larxene.
"Master Ansem will want those slaves taken to the slave quarters around the side of the house." He directed.
Lexaeus prodded them toward the slave quarters as he led them there.
Another slave took Axel and Larxene once their handcuffs were removed, and Lexaeus disappeared into the distance on the cart. The two were splashed with water for a bath and given bronze collars around their necks, the way a dog wears a collar. A bronze tag attached to the collars read something along the lines of "If found, return to Master Ansem of the Thirteenth Grove and you shall receive a gold solidus", though they could barely read it.
Once they had been cleaned and tagged, they were left alone in the atrium of the house.
"Look at this, a collar," Larxene tugged at hers.
The collar chafed around Axel's neck, but he knew he couldn't take it off.
The sound of footsteps echoed around the atrium, and the two turned to find the source: a boy, maybe about seventeen years of age, with spikes of golden hair and eyes like the sky.
The boy wore a casual wool tunic that fell to his knees, with a leather belt keeping it bunched at the waist.
His eyes drifted lazily over Larxene, but they locked onto Axel like a target. For once, Axel felt as exposed as he had the previous day when being examined by Ansem. He would've given anything to crawl into a dark space and hide, but he could not.
"Father, the new slaves are here." The boy called out.
Ansem appeared from another room, nodding and looking the two over. A third slave had appeared with him, ready to show Axel and Larxene to their new assignments.
"Larxene, go to the kitchen where you'll be assigned some common tasks. As for you, Axel, you will be the new personal slave for my son Roxas." Ansem gestured to the boy. "Don't be too discouraged if you confuse him with his twin brother, Ventus; the two are identical."
Larxene was taken to the kitchen by the other slave, and Ansem disappeared into the room from whence he came.
Axel and Roxas were the only two left in the atrium now.
The silence seemed to suffocate them, but as a slave Axel had been taught not to speak out of turn.
"Are...you going to say something?" Roxas offered after a while.
Axel furrowed his brows, surprised he had been given the opportunity to speak without really being commanded to.
"What do I say to my master?" Axel wondered.
"I don't know," Roxas admitted, looking off to the side.
"I...I heard you took a liking to me when you saw me at the chariot races...?" Axel mentioned.
Roxas's eyes snapped back to Axel, gleaming with some emotion Axel couldn't decipher.
"You were the most skilled...what was that fire you produced?"
"I-it was a trick I learned in battle against the Greeks," Axel replied.
"In battle? Do you mean when you fought against other gladiators?" Roxas clarified.
"No, before I was a gladiator I was a soldier in my home country's army." Axel answered.
"Roxas, are you talking to someone?" A voice from another room called out.
"O-of course not!" Roxas shouted back. He hissed at Axel, "Don't speak out of turn when someone is near."
From another room, two young men entered the atrium. One of them was identical in appearance to Roxas, excepting the differently-colored tunic he wore. The other was another slave around Axel's age, but had a much stockier build. His hair was the color of rich soil, and his name (as Axel would learn) matched the color of his hair: Terra.
"So this is your new personal slave?" The boy identical to Roxas, whom Axel figured was Roxas's twin Ventus, sneered.
"He was one of the gladiators from the chariot races we saw yesterday," Roxas said.
"I see..." Ventus circled Axel the way a vulture circles its prey. "Why would Father purchase a gladiator to be a house slave?"
"I insisted upon it," Roxas's voice made the occurrence seem like something to be ashamed of.
"Of course he did," Ventus didn't seem amused, "because Father will do anything to please you."
"Why does it matter to you? Your slave didn't die." Roxas gestured to Ventus's slave.
"Oh that doesn't matter to me," Ventus waved his hand, "it's the fact that Father would go out of his way to attain something for you. But I suppose that's common for the heir of the family, is it not?"
Roxas pursed his lips, biting back his anger.
"What are you two arguing about again?" Another voice grumbled, as a girl maybe fifteen years of age entered the atrium.
The girl was thin and fair, her blond locks draped over her right shoulder. Her tunic was crisp white and went down to her calves.
"Male speak, Naminé, no need for you to worry." Ventus replied.
"It wasn't important," Roxas added.
The girl, Naminé, knit her brows. Her eyes glanced over Axel, but she didn't seem interested in him as if he were a column in the atrium.
"You're being quite loud," Naminé chided.
"We apologize," Roxas offered.
"What does it matter to you? You have no reason to demand quiet of us." Ventus sneered.
"Ventus," Roxas warned.
"What? A woman needs no reason to scold men," Ventus affirmed, "those Vestal Virgins must be instilling the wrong ideas into your head. A woman needs no ideas, she stays at home."
"Ventus, that's enough," Roxas's voice hardened.
The twins met eyes for a while, as if communicating without speaking aloud.
Ventus made a "Hmph" sound and exited the atrium with Terra following.
"Is this a new slave?" Naminé asked, nodding her head at Axel.
"He's mine," Roxas confirmed.
"What are those markings?" Naminé touched her cheek where the mark would be if it were branded on herself.
"Branding, like how cattle get branded on a farm," Roxas explained.
Naminé nodded, and turned back to her room.
Axel and Roxas were left in the atrium now.
"What do you think of my brother and sister?" Roxas asked.
"I suppose they're fine people," Axel proposed.
Roxas nodded, though somewhat halfheartedly. "Come along, I'll show you your duties."
As Axel followed him, Ansem's words echoed in his head: "Don't be too discouraged if you confuse him with his twin brother, Ventus; the two are identical".
But as Axel observed, the two weren't identical at all, and he could easily tell the one with the sour attitude was Ventus.
Translations
- Omnia memoriter - ...got it memorized
Vestal Virgins - Young unmarried girls who worshiped the maiden goddess Vesta