Contents
8. The Spartan War Academy
Overview
Alexis and nine initiates tour the subterranean Spartan War Academy under General Cleandro, who outlines merciless rules: no food, sleep, or bathing, and relentless study. Guest instructors Pine, Augustus, and Kharon raise the stakes; wrong answers trigger a lethal mountain-and-Styx circuit where Titans may attack.
Pine begins Thagorean ethics; Alessander’s mistake summons mentor Vorex, who forces the class onto its first circuit. Alexis barely endures the climb and targeted bullying, exposing her physical limits and the academy’s brutal weeding process.
Summary
General Cleandro leads Alexis and the other initiates into a cavernous, candlelit academy carved into the mountain. Amid haunting art and music, he declares the crucible a mental trial with no food, sleep, or bathing until January, and no medical help. He contrasts human limits with Spartan endurance, humiliates an initiate to enforce discipline, and warns that this place separates animals from gods. He shows the sparse classroom, austere dorms and bathroom, a grand library staffed by muses (to be revered or die), and a tunnel to a future menagerie.
Cleandro announces classes—Thagorean, Lost Classical Lore, Defense and Power—and reveals guest generals Pine and Augustus as instructors, with Kharon running the circuit. He explains the Socratic method: wrong answers alert mentors and send the class on a punishing mountain run and Styx swim. He chillingly adds that Titans sometimes pick off weak initiates, underscoring that the academy will not shield them.
General Pine arrives, genial but rigorous, introducing Thagorean (advanced mathematics fused with ethics). He begins with foundational concepts tied to real-world moral problems. When Alessander Poseidon fails a question, Cleandro pages his mentor. Vorex, heir of Poseidon, appears instantly and is ordered to lead the class on its first circuit, signaling that academic failure brings immediate physical consequence.
The initiates sprint from the cave into scorching daylight and ascend a steep dolomite trail. Alexis, undertrained and burdened by Nyx, struggles at the back, fighting cramps, dizziness, and bloody mucus. At the summit pause, Titus mocks and yanks her hair; Alexis swallows her anger to avoid escalation while focusing on survival.
Vorex, unfazed and contemptuous, orders the group down, calling this the easiest lap they will face. The class resumes the descent, with Alexis exhausted but compliant, having learned that every misstep—intellectual or physical—invites collective punishment and potential Titan danger.
Who Appears
- AlexisNarrator and initiate; overwhelmed by Cleandro’s rules, struggles on first circuit, endures bullying, determined to survive.
- General CleandroBrutal academy overseer; declares no food, sleep, or bathing; enforces Socratic punishments and threats of Titans.
- General PineGuest professor for Thagorean; friendly yet strict mutt who triggers circuit after a wrong answer.
- Vorex (heir to Poseidon)Mentor summoned after Alessander’s failure; leads initiates on first circuit with harsh discipline.
- NyxAlexis’s serpentine companion; protective, sardonic, insists on staying with her during the circuit.
- Cassius HermesOlympian heir; warned that status means nothing; questions Titan policy during circuits.
- DrexFellow initiate; asks about Titan dangers on the circuit, confirming deadly stakes.
- Alessander PoseidonInitiate who answers Pine incorrectly, triggering the class’s first circuit.
- TitusRed-haired initiate bully; taunts and physically harasses Alexis at the summit.