Contents
15. Obsession
Overview
Augustus finds Alexis bloodied yet victorious over Alessander and Titus, igniting his protective fury and conflicted desire. After Cleandro withholds punishment, Augustus privately brutalizes the boys’ minds as a warning. Struggling for control, he runs the circuit, then decides to accept Kharon’s plan, signaling a coming shift in strategy and power.
Summary
Hearing crashes in the study room, Augustus and Cleandro rush in and find Alexis bloodied with a smashed nose and swelling eyes. Alessander lies unconscious under broken chair pieces, and Titus bleeds on the floor—both felled by Alexis. Augustus is consumed by rage and a conflicted protectiveness, loathing the crucible’s risk to women yet grudgingly respecting Alexis’s ferocity.
As Cleandro opts not to punish Alexis, Augustus approaches her, warning her to take better care and that there will be consequences. His anger and forbidden attraction spike, and he flees before he lashes out, running the circuit to regain control.
When the crucible ends, Patro and Achilles collect the barely conscious Alexis. Augustus, needing an outlet, drags Alessander and Titus behind a bookcase and uses his Chthonic power to savagely invade their minds, forcing them to the brink while vowing retribution if they ever harm women again. He then masks his calm before other mentors arrive.
Still agitated, Augustus leaps away, unintentionally arriving in a quiet forest. Seeking a fight to vent his fury, he hunts for Titans and admits to himself that Kharon’s approach is the only viable path. He resolves to agree to Kharon’s plan and force change before his loss of control costs lives.
Who Appears
- AugustusMentor and Chthonic elder; enraged by Alexis’s injuries, warns her, then mind-tortures Titus and Alessander; resolves to adopt Kharon’s plan.
- Alexis HertInitiate; bloodied but defeats Alessander with a chair and injures Titus; draws Augustus’s protection and ire.
- CleandroMentor; declines to punish Alexis after the fight, signaling leniency that frustrates Augustus.
- AlessanderInitiate; knocked unconscious by Alexis; later mentally assaulted and warned by Augustus.
- TitusInitiate; left bleeding by Alexis and then brutally mind-tortured by Augustus as a warning.
- PatroInitiate; arrives after crucible ends, helps carry the injured Alexis away.
- AchillesInitiate; arrives with Patro and assists in moving Alexis after the crucible.
- PocoAugustus’s companion creature; calms him briefly during his spiraling rage.