Infinite 01 - Infinite Sacrifice

eyes, he turns and walks out of my life.
    ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
    Three weeks later, I’m getting sick, ecstatic I’m going to have a child. The sadness of Theodon and Demetrius disappears to be replaced by new hopeful thoughts. Theodon comes back at this time and gives a weak, “Congratulations” when Ophira tells him of my news. It’s great to have him back, but he’s different—unhappy and distant. Before he leaves, he tells us he won’t be coming back for months, since it’s a dangerous time to travel with krypteia coming. Ophira hugs him, and he leaves on his horse.
    Two weeks later, Nereus is banging on our door. We run out to see Arcen, bloodied and bruised in the back of Nereus’s cart.
    Nereus steps off the cart and wipes his brow. “That old friend of mine in agoge brought him to me. Said he found him by the road like this and thought we should take care of him before the agoge boys got to him.” Nereus gives me a serious look. “For him to lose like this is a disgrace punishable by death or exile.”
    “Please thank your friend for me.”
    Ophira and I carry him in while Nereus ties up the horse. Ophira gathers everything we’ll need to try to fix him and lays him down on his old mattress. He’s gotten so much taller since the last time we’d seen him, but his growth has stretched his already frail flesh thinner. We do what we can and go to bed. It takes two days before he can speak to us.
    As we’re feeding him chicken broth, he tells us what happened. “I was sent out for krypteia with nothing but my cloak. I had to steal everything I needed or find it in the wilderness. I was alone, with no one else to help me.”
    I turn my eyes away as he breaks down in sniveling tears.
    Ophira hands him a piece of cloth to wipe his nose, and he continues, “I couldn’t come back until I killed a helot. I knew I had to prove myself, knew I could finally make them respect me. That’s when I saw him—this big, strong helot walking down the road alone at night. I grabbed a stick, snuck up, and clubbed him on the back of the head. He fell, and I hurried to strangle him before others could come to help him. As I was choking him, I saw it was Theodon.”
    Ophira’s hands fly to her mouth and stomach.
    A wave of fear sweeps through me, and I grab by his scrawny shoulders. “What did you do, Arcen! Tell me what you did!”
    He winces in pain and cries out, “Of course I stopped! But he went mad, started punching and hitting me like I’d known it was him! I didn’t even get a chance to explain to him!”
    Ophira starts crying as I put my hands to my head. “Was he hurt?” I ask.
    “Oh, you would care about him first! I’m your son, but whom are you concerned with? The helot boy!”
    Ophira flees the room as I stand above him and say in a low tone, “You’re lucky you’re so badly damaged, son, because if you were not, I would beat you until you realized how disrespectful you are.”
    I walk out, and neither of us checks on him the rest of the day.
    Nereus returns a week later at night and says he has to sneak Arcen back into Laconia as agoge reassembles. I go in to fetch Arcen, who still lies in his bed.
    “I’m not going back,” he says, arms crossed.
    I expect this. “You’re going back.”
    “I can’t go back. You don’t even know the hell I’ve been through since you sent me away. They starve you. Freeze you. Beat you and have all the other boys beat you! I’m not like them. I’m not good at this!”
    I grab his cloak and whip it at him. “Arcen, you’re a Spartan. There is no choice for a Spartan! You can’t learn a trade or be a philosopher. It is not allowed in Sparta. There is nothing else!” I stand right in front of him. “Stand up, go back, and finish agoge. Once you get into the army, it’ll be much easier. They’re hard on you to make you stronger. You’re almost through. You must finish!”
    He grasps his cloak and bunches it up in idle hands. “If I go back without killing a helot, they will not pass me.”
    “Nonsense. Go back, tell them you fought, and you don’t know if the slave was killed since two helots came to his defense and took him away.”
    A smile breaks across his face like it just might work. I feel so disgusted he’s mine.
    “Now come. Nereus will take you back under the cover of darkness, and please, whatever you do, stay away from Theodon! Don’t fight anyone! Focus on feeding yourself.”
    I stick a whole loaf of