THE GOLDEN AGE, sejanus plinth

011. the head gamemaker

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CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE HEAD GAMEMAKER
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BEING ORDERED TO the high biology lab always felt weird. Aurora had no intention of seeing the Head Gamemaker, especially after the previous day's funeral.

Her grim mood was mirrored on her face as she walked through the door and saw the woman feeding her... rabbits? Aurora couldn't really tell what kind of mutation that was in those cages, but she quickly looked away, the goosebumps already beginning to form on her skin.

She noticed Sejanus right then and her mood immediately lifted. She sat down on the seat next to him and greeted him with a smile.

Although he didn't seem to be happy to be in this place either (was there anyone that was happy to see Dr. Gaul?), he gave back a tiny smile as well.

The girl quickly pulled her notebook out of her school bag and got busy at doodling some more, just to avoid watching the woman and her rabbits. She wasn't the only one who avoided looking at her, though. Everyone, except for Sejanus, had their eyes on something or someone else.

"Hippity, hoppity, carrot or stick? Everyone's dying and you're..." Dr. Gaul turned around to the mentors, her eyes full of expectation.

"Feeling sick," Sejanus finished the sentence for her.

She laughed. "It's the compassionate one. Where's your tribute, boy? Any clue?"

There had been no updates on Marcus's whereabouts, Aurora hoped that he was far, far away from here.

"Possibly on his way to freedom," Sejanus replied, "possibly captured and under wraps. Possibly injured and hiding. Possibly dead. I've no idea. Do you?"

The girl looked up from her doodles and turned her head around to stare at his side profile. She couldn't help but admire his bravery. She, for one, was scared of the Head Gamemaker, especially now after getting a closer look at the rabbits.

What are these creatures? Aurora wondered, but quickly looked away again.

"No, don't answer," he spat out. "He's either dead or about to be, when you catch him and drag him through the streets in chains."

"That's our right," Dr. Gaul said calmly.

A shiver ran down the girl's spine, although it was not even close to being cold.

"No, it isn't! I don't care what you say. You've no right to starve people, to punish them for no reason. No right to take away their life and freedom. Those are things everyone is born with, and they're not yours for the taking. Winning a war doesn't give you that right. Having more weapons doesn't give you that right. Nothing does. Oh, I don't even know why I came here today." Sejanus sprang up from his chair, his cheeks red in emotion.

He practically ran to the door, but as he tried opening it, it didn't work.

As much as Aurora agreed with what he had just said, she would have never thrown it into the woman's face. Oh, and also not in Dean Highbottom's, who was sitting at the desk, the girl realized just now.

It was one thing to be brave, but the thing with bravery was, that it shared a thin line with stupidity. And Aurora didn't want him to cross that line.

Dr. Gaul was a dangerous woman, she could feel it. Her intuition said so and she could always trust that intuition.

"Locking us in now? It's like our own little monkey house." Sejanus stared at the woman from his place at the door.

Aurora could imagine what Arachne would say to this. Somebody put him in the real monkey house where he belongs.