THE GOLDEN AGE, sejanus plinth

017. realization

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
REALIZATION
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AURORA CAME BACK to the auditorium not one minute too late. Barely sitting a second, something happened in the arena.

She didn't know the girl's name nor whose tribute she was, but the girl climbed up the steel posts and made her way towards the middle of the crossbeam. An axe in her hand, she seemed to talk to Marcus.

And then she killed him out of mercy.

"That's my girl Lamina!" Pup yelled in excitement. A camera zoomed in on his reaction and he put the biggest smile on his face.

"First kill of the day! That's my tribute, Lamina, from District Seven!" He told the camera.

Aurora tried to hide behind her monitor, not wanting the cameras to get a glimpse of her shocked face. Putting Marcus out of his misery had probably been the right decision, but being that excited about someone ending someone else's life?

She didn't feel like celebrating.

Pup tipped on his monitor and sent Lamina some water. They all watched in expectation how well it would work, considering that it was the first time a drone was sent into the arena.

It was already minutes later when the drone was finally caught by the camera. It made its way over to Lamina unsteadily and instead of delivering the water properly, it crashed into the crossbeam. The water bottle broke and a collective sigh of disappointment sounded through the auditorium.

Besides getting a replacement water bottle ten minutes later, nothing happened. Lamina was still the only tribute to be seen (if you didn't count Marcus because his corpse was now laying on the ground).

Aurora was glad that a bloodbath hadn't occurred. The Games were boring, truly boring. She hoped them to become a flop this year so that no continuation would take place next year.

She also hoped that Sol would become the winner and that rather quickly, but without the brutality of a bloodbath.

Now sitting in the dining hall, quietly eating her lunch, she was lost in thoughts as Clemensia put her plate down across from her. Her brown eyes practically threw daggers at her and Aurora couldn't remember a time in which the other girl had looked so coldly.

Aurora raised an eyebrow, her mouth full of rice, waiting for her to say something.

But Clemensia didn't say anything. She kept scratching her neck and collarbone that were hidden under the high collar of their light blue uniform shirt. Now being so close to her, Aurora saw the patches of dry skin on the girl's face.

Was she shedding?

"I'm glad that you're still not much of a talker," Clemensia mumbled, now rubbing over her collarbone aggressively.

Aurora put another spoonful of rice in her mouth. She was a talker. Around company that deserved to be talked to, that she felt comfortable talking to. And Clemensia Dovecote had always been the type of girl that was nice enough to understand that.

"I'm glad I can be of service," she answered after a while.

Sad to be back at the auditorium, but also nervous to see if something had happened to Sol, the girl was sitting on her chair, ignoring Festus and Dennis's conversation. Persephone was also adding something from time to time, but the other girl's eyes were glued to the screen.

Sol was still hiding in the opening of the wall. It was dark around her, so she was hard to make out, which was good.

Because of the slow Games, Lucky Flickerman was about to interview the Head Gamemaker. The two were already sitting on the armchairs in Lucky's little corner and waited for the camera to zoom in on them.