When they walked outside, Hallez was shocked to see the sun was low in the sky. More time had passed than she realized. Fiona stood outside the door, shifting from one foot to another. When she spotted Hallez, she ran over, the cheerful expression from before back on her face.

    "So, how'd it go?" Fiona asked, her wavy brown hair bouncing up and down. "You were in there for a long time, I thought you weren't going to come back out! Am I supposed to show you around now?"

    Hallez shrugged uncomfortably. Outside, past the steps, a crowd of legionnaires had gathered, and were staring at Hallez until June came and shooed them away, slowly. "I got accepted into the Legion, and yes."

    "Awesome! Well, let's start here, I guess. This is the Praetorium—"

    "You're not freaked out," Hallez observed, trying not to let the surprise be evident in the tone of her voice.

    Fiona knew what she was talking about. "No, why would I be?" Suddenly, her voice turned serious. Although she was shorter than Hallez by a few inches, she looked her right in the eyes, and put her hands on Hal's shoulders. "Hallez, I know this sounds sappy, but hear me out: I've only known you for a few hours, and yet I know that, even if your father is Death, you are good. You won't hurt anybody without good intentions."

    Hallez wanted to argue, but she was interrupted by June.

    "The Friday NSG are canceled for today!"

    Groans and mutters rang out from the mass of teens.

    "BUT, BUT, BUT!" June interrupted. The crowd went silent. "This will give you MORE time to prepare for Saturday's MFSDO, which will be moved back a few hours due to an emergency Senate meeting!"

    Some cheered, while some groaned again.

    "AND you can head straight to dinner tonight!"

    Everyone cheered this time, and June looked on, her shoulders shaking in laughter.

    Hallez looked at Fiona in question as everyone hurried off, murmuring among themselves, except this time in excitement.

    "We have battles in the valley twice a day," Fiona explained. "Practice games. In the morning and at night. Six days a week, each day a different category. Sundays are free, sometimes even Saturdays, but that's rare. Dinner is only served in the mess hall after the games. NSG means Night Strategic Games, and MFSDO means Morning Fort Strategic Defense-Offense. You can probably tell that we were feeling very creative with the names."

    Hallez nodded, feeling amused, but not showing it. "Can we continue the tour?"

†††

Fiona showed Hallez around the Castra.

    "It means fort, or fortress," she explained, halfway through. "Or military camp, or anything that relates to it. It's built to be able to fit the entire Legion and everything they need to live here. Oh, and don't look him in the eyes."

    Hallez turned back to Fiona from where she had been studying a German Shepherd, sitting to the side of the wide road, which was apparently called Via Principalis, meaning the "main road", where the most important buildings were; For example the mess hall, the storage unit ("Backup storage unit," Fiona claimed), the armoury, the weaponry, a forge, a laboratory for some reason, and, of course, the Praetorium, which was where the praetors, and sometimes a consul, slept.

    "Why not?"

    Fiona answered after she'd given the dog an affectionate pat on the head, careful not to look at him. "His name is Orpheus, he's our adopted mascot. But some time back, Orpheus lost his ability to see. Some of the children of Vulcan—god of forges, metalwork, fire, and a few other things I think—and the second consul, Pauline Hakuna, daughter of Minerva, gathered together and gave him his sight back. But then they did some tinkering, as a prank, and made it so he could shoot lasers at anyone he chooses. Don't worry, it's unlikely he will."

    Hallez nodded, a little amused, and a little terrified. Her face, however, stayed completely void of emotion, and she kept her body language neutral. Like it usually was.

    She was also hit with a pang of guilt, and sadness. Cade was a sucker for dogs and cats, and basically anything that could be kept as a pet. She wondered what he would think of Orpheus. Not that she would find out anytime in the foreseeable future, because she was the one who left him, she was the reason he was with flesh-eating horses in the first place.

    Hallez was careful to keep all of that concealed, but it didn't hurt any less.

    They continued on their tour.

    A second road ran perpendicular to Via Principalis, called Via Praetoria. The two roads divided the Castra into four equal quarter squares. The Via Principalis ran from north to south, while the Via Praetoria ran from east to west. On the ends of the Via Principalis, were two gates, called Porta Principalis Dextra, and Porta Principalis Sinistra. The former was on the north end, and the latter was on the south end.

    "Dextra means 'right', as in, your right hand, right side, in Latin," Fiona explained. "Sinistra means 'left'. When you're facing Porta Praetoria, the Flagship Gate, which is on the west end of Via Praetoria, the names match up. On the east end of Via Praetoria is Porta Decumana, which is like the back gate."

    "Lots of complicated names," Hallez noted. "I will definitely have no problem remembering. None at all."

    Along the Via Praetoria were the barracks, living quarters for the legionnaires, and also the baths and restrooms, which were in one building. There was also, funnily enough, a pet adoption building. With tigers and other exotic and endangered species of animals.

    "Why is there a pet adoption place?"

    "Well, why not? There was a whole assembly with the Senate for pets in the Castra. The pet adoption building—also known as PAB—also acted as a place where endangered animals could be safe. There's currently a petition to create a sanctuary for some of the bigger species."

    Cade would love that idea. If he were here.

    Hallez decided to just accept it and move on to a question she had been juggling with the whole tour.

    "Tim mentioned something about you being in the Tenth Cohort... and you said the barracks were separated by cohort numbers. What does that mean?"

    Fiona's smile never left her face, but Hallez thought she could see it flicker from genuine to just a mask, like the one Hallez put on and hadn't taken off in years.

    "Well, in the Legion, there are ten cohorts," Fiona started. "The First, Second, Third, Fourth, so on. We're divided evenly, sixty every cohort. At least, we should be."

    Hallez let a little shock show in her body language. The last sentence, unless she imagined it, was said in an angry tone. Hallez didn't know Fiona very well, and she hadn't wanted to jump to conclusions or judge early on, but she had just subconsciously assumed that Fiona wasn't the type to get angry easily. But maybe she didn't.

    Hallez gathered herself. "Two questions. If every cohort has sixty legionnaires, then there's six hundred legionnaires?"

    The daughter of Fortuna nodded, but it seemed half-hearted. "Yep! Don't think that's a lot, though, because in the Old World, each legion had a few thousand legionnaires per legion."

    "Second question," Hallez continued, deciding, again, to just accept it. "What do you mean, you should be?"

    The brunette took a deep breath. She closed her blue eyes. "Well, you see, the First to Tenth Cohort is basically... You can think of it like a chart of skill sets and levels. The First Cohort is where the people with the best skills and abilities are, while the Tenth Cohort is where all the newbies are, or where the legionnaires who are still learning and haven't been able to move up are. The praetors and at least one consul can decide when a contubernium to move up the cohorts, while the centurion suggest which contubernium. And I'll get to what a contubernium is soon," Fiona added, though Hallez wasn't going to interrupt her. "Lately, there hasn't been any move-ups from the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth. The number of legionnaires in my cohort, the Tenth Cohort, has increased. So there's now more legionnaires in my cohort than others."

    Her angry tone returned in the last few sentences, but now, she calmed down again, mostly. "And a contubernium... Well, I'm just going to break down the legion groupings and...stuff. First, there's the Fifteenth Legion itself, which is six hundred legionnaires. Then there are the ten cohorts, each with sixty legionnaires. A centurion leads their cohort, along with their contubernium. Then, the manipules. Three maniples every cohort, each consisting of twenty or so legionnaires. The smallest group or unit is the contubernium, each usually five legionnaires big, usually four for every maniple. Contuberniums aren't set in stone until they are moved up from the Tenth to the Ninth. When they are, the contuberniums are a team, they stick together, and train together, and they work and live together for the rest of their lives in the Legion."

    Hallez tilted her head to one side, processing all the information given to her. In the end, she just accepted it. It wasn't like she had any choice. She was in this now.

    Fiona breathed deeply through her nostrils, as if rebuilding the dam that was holding back all the negative emotions that had cracked and leaked during her explanation. When she looked up, Hallez was shocked at the cheerful expression on her face again. But this time, Hallez knew that there was something darker, much sadder behind it. Hallez could relate.

    "Now, come on! Let me introduce you to my contubernium at the moment, which will probably be your contubernium."

†††

They entered the Tenth Cohort barracks. From the outside, it was shaped like a rectangle, but on the inside, it was a triangle, with doors on the slanted sides. Hallez made the logical guess that the walls were to separate the maniples.

    Fiona led her to the door on the right, and slipped through as another person came out. Hallez followed. Inside, like the first room, the walls were filled with bunk beds, and small simple night stands in between each one. There were also bunk beds in the middle, creating nothing short of a small maze, though it was still fairly, comfortably roomy.

    So you have to solve a puzzle in order to sleep. Awesome.

    As they moved around, Hallez saw that in some places, there were even a few bedrolls.

    Hallez counted exactly ten bunk beds, twenty bunks. The bedrolls showed that they were, indeed, overflowing.

    People were moving inside the room, but it didn't feel crowded. It felt cozy.

    Near the back corner, two people were talking to each other. One was a male teen, a year or two older than Hallez. The other was also a year or two older. The male had a striking resemblance with Fiona, while the other, female, had skin the color of dark chocolate.

    They stopped talking when they saw Fiona and Hallez approaching.

    The male-Fiona look-alike grinned when he saw them. His cheerful grin was also similar to Fiona's, except more mischievous and playful.

    "Fiona! You're her supervisor?" the possible-relative-of-Fiona asked.

    Fiona nodded. "Yep, Travis, Lavi, meet Hallez! Hallez, meet Travis Janet, my older brother, also son of Fortuna, goddess of luck, fortune, chance, and faith, and Lavi Phillen, daughter of Apollo, god of the sun, archery, music, poetry, prophecy, foretelling, healing, diseases, and some other things, and the patron of the Legion!"

    Lavi smiled a warm smile at Hallez. "Apollo's the god of many things, it's sometimes hard to remember them all. Even I forget sometimes. Anyways, nice to meet you, Hallez."

    Travis nodded, sitting back on the bed. "Yeah. Hey, you're the daughter of Letum, right? Or Mors, or whatever?"

    Hallez nodded.

    "I gotta say, it kinda freaked me out at first," Travis admitted. "But if you think about it, it's cool. I mean, everyone is capable of death. Also, it's a nice change of pace from all the children of Apollo, Jupiter, Neptune, blah blah blah."

    Lavi punched Travis in the shoulder.

    "OW!" Travis exclaimed. "What was that for?"

    "Be polite, you idiot! Also, I'm one of those children of Apollo!"

    "Anyways," Fiona interrupted their bickering. "Us three are one contubernium, from maniple 10C. Which means Tenth Cohort, maniple C. There's supposed to be four contubernium in 10C. We're actually the seventh. Got moved around lots of times. Ended up with this group. At least you're with us! Now I don't have to deal with these two bickering lovebirds alone."

    Fiona glared playfully at her brother and Lavi. They both blushed.

    "LIES AND SLANDER!" Travis said, but his voice was a few octaves higher than usual.

    Hallez had to admit, inside, at least, that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. None of the people in her future contubernium judged her for her heritage, even if other legionnaires did. She was starting to warm up to them.

    As the girls laughed at Travis' high-pitched voice, Hallez felt warm, inside. Maybe, just maybe, she will be accepted here.

†††

Aaaaand, not even four hours later, her mood plummeted again.

    Before that happened, Fiona had gotten her a bedroll from the storage unit, but Hallez couldn't sleep. She hadn't gone with the others to the mess hall for dinner, since she didn't have much of an appetite, and instead waited in the room of maniple 10C for them to come back. She looked around the room, and saw all the little trinkets, random little souvenirs, pictures of their parents, and the other personal belongings the other legionnaires had. Hallez realized that she had nothing except for the clothes on her back, and her tool belt, inside of which was nothing very personal.

    She had left her device in the sands of the Mojave Desert.

    The last thing she had gotten from her mother. Gone. Just like that.

    That realization was the catalyst that started the descent of her mood.

    You see this, Lizzie? Lucy Kane had said. This is what we use on our trips, my Little Raven.

    She had always called Hallez, Lizzie, or Little Raven. Apparently, the former was because Hal-LEZ was hard to pronounce when read on paper, and she'd earned the nickname Lizzie. Raven...she didn't understand it until she was told her father was Death.

    But why? Little Hallez had asked. What's it for?

    You'll see, my Raven, her mother replied. It will explain everything.

    It certainly did not explain everything. And though she felt the corners of her eyes burn, no tears fell.

    As Hallez was thinking, Fiona and the others returned from dinner. There was a small window on the wall, and outside, it was completely dark. Millions of stars, more than Hallez had seen even in the middle of a desert, shined bright and proud. Hallez loved to stargaze, but since her parents' death, she couldn't find the energy to be outside under the stars, and just lay below them, gazing into space. Everytime her head hit the pillow of her bed, she fell asleep and stayed like that until her alarm clock rang.

    Hallez asked Fiona if she could go outside the Castra walls to stargaze.

    "Yeah, you can. There will be sentries, of course. And patrol drones. But if you just tell them what you're doing and come back and don't do anything stupid, you won't get in trouble."

    So, now, she was standing outside, lying down in the grass, gazing at the stars. Occasionally, a tiny drone the size of a butterfly would fly soundlessly overhead.

    That was an odd detail Hallez had noticed, but hadn't got the chance to ask Fiona about yet. Technology. She had seen many futuristic technologies and other high-tech things that seemed to fit right into the old-fashioned buildings of the Castra. Holograms, mainly, for various reasons, like practices and blueprints. (At least, that's what she thought they were.) There were also robots that acted and moved with grace, like they were alive. Devices that can float. So on.

    Then, while she lay there, the main reason for her rapidly plummeting mood appeared from thin air in a flash of red sparks, and landed on her face.

    Hallez snatched the piece of paper off her nose, and jumped up. But, as she expected, there was no one. Hallez scowled, her guard back up. She looked at the paper. It was a note. The night was dark, but the moon and stars were enough for her to read it.

    On one side, the neat, handwritten words, written with fancy hooks and curves, read:

    You want the shield and your friend? Come get them, I'll be waiting.

    The note was not signed. But the words sent a shiver down her spine. She flipped the note over, and her body went rigged.

    It was a picture. A picture of a dark cave. She couldn't see much, but, in the corner, propped against the wall, was the golden Ancile. And, next to it, unconsciousness, unmoving, but alive (she felt like he was, he had to be), with a mop of curly, fluffy brown hair, was Cade.

---

I'm not sure how the chapter word count turned from 1k - 1.5k to 2905—
BUT DON'T WORRY, THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL PROBABLY BE LESS THAN 1K SO ALL IS NOT LOST! /joking
-Lunya