"Some greenie who has beef with Fi's uncle." Cadmus gave the competitor an unimpressed once over and then cupped his hands around his mouth to yell "Kick his ass into next week, Fi!!" loud enough for half the stadium to hear. The kid blanched. "And I dunno if your brother could beat Fi, but I don't doubt that he'd put up one hell of a fight. It takes guts to survive in that hellhole and balls of steel to actually fucking thrive."
Levi gasped in surprise, inching away from Cadmus when he yelled, but he had a wide, very amused smile on his face. He scooted back once he was done screaming. “He looks too terrified to have personal beef. I would have assumed he was fighting for someone like the other man.” He lightly chuckled again as the conversation turned to his brother. You haven’t met my brother, he humored to himself. “Balls of steel…That’s my brother,” he chortled.
Cadmus turned back to him with a breezy smile. "They all get scared when they realize they'll be fighting Fi instead of our crusty old regent. Perks of having one of the most loyal men in the world as your nephew." He laughed as Levi did, a glimmer of interest in his eyes. "Fiori said you're real fond of your brother, what's that like? I can't imagine liking anyone in my family, let alone my siblings."
“Hah, I bet. His uncle is terrifying, but he doesn’t look like he’ll do very well physically fighting. With his age and all.” He hummed thoughtfully, but his smile gradually waned. “Family is an important thing in my country. The most important, in fact, and siblings are our first close friends. We were close during our childhood, and I… suppose I am still fond of him.” He wasn’t sure why, though, if Johan clearly wasn’t fond of him. “For who he used to be.”
Cadmus nodded, turning towards him a little so he wouldn't get distracted by the fight that was just starting to wind up. "It was… similar in my country, not that I remember too much of it, but…" He laughed bitterly, shaking his head. "Gods, my family was just a bunch of assholes tied together by the same bloodline. I'm pretty sure I wasn't, like… supposed to happen, and everyone fucking resented me for it."
Levi turned his head to listen, nodding solemnly. He furrowed his eyebrows with more concern the more he listened. Surely not every family in Nord Widona was perfectly functional, even Levi’s wasn’t anymore. But hearing about and witnessing broken families still made his heart ache. “That’s… terrible, family shouldn’t do that to you,” he frowned. “Which country are you from?”
Cadmus laughed quietly when he realized how worked up Levi was getting, pushing his shoulder gently to get him focused on the present instead of Cadmus' past. "It's fine, Levi. I'm from Pollor, west of here, it's a complicated place. It's important for events to be foretold and I, unfortunately, was not. There's not much more to it than that."
Levi simply nodded, glancing back up when Cadmus tapped him. He sighed out a heavy breath, “Alright. Family is just a sensitive topic for me. Especially…” he breathed, “Especially now.”
Cadmus met his eyes with a calm smile, nodding at his explanation. "It always is when you end up over here with a collar 'round your neck." He clapped Levi on the shoulder, pulling away a bit now that he was present. "I get being worked up by stuff like this, it's not fun to talk about, but… I've made my peace with it, y'know? That's all you can really do."
“Yeah, I know,” He replied not much louder than a murmur. Making peace with the fact that his brother betrayed him so heinously would take time. Perhaps time that wouldn’t be enough in the days he had left to be here before he was freed. Maybe to make peace with it fully, he needed to see Johan face to face.
Cadmus nodded, perking up now that the sad part of the conversation seemed to be ending. "Good! Let's talk about happier things, why don't you tell me about your home country? I've been lots of places but I haven't gotten to visit Nord Widonia yet."
(What if/what would happen if Cadmus somehow found out Levi is the prince? Of course Levi would outright tell him, but if he accidentally shares a bit too much)
“Nord Widona?” He smiled, at the change of topic. “It’s…cold, usually very cold, but it seems to bring everyone together. Friends are as close as family, and family by blood is even closer. Our own festival is in the dead of winter. On the coldest, darkest, longest night of the year, all the citizens gather outside for markets in each major city. Everybody is in their warmest clothes, drinking hot drinks and buying and selling homemade crafts.”
(First of all, I really like that idea! Second of all, Cadmus would probably keep it quiet and then sneakily try to slip away so he could tell Fi while not quite being inconspicuous enough. B/c Cadmus probably thinks Levi's there to kill Fi as some kind of plot by his uncle)
Cadmus lit up when Levi started talking about festivals, hanging on every word and oohing and ahhing at all the appropriate times. "That sounds wonderful! Festivals here are fun, but they just don't have the same spirit, y'know? The only time anyone's together is for the golden day, and that's just a whole bunch of quiet reflection, I really miss the ones where you feel like you're connected to everyone else in the world just 'cause you're all celebrating."
(Ohh Awesome! So would Cadmus be killed before he gets a chance to tell Fi and Fi still learns Levi’s a prince when they escape to Nord Widona? Or would he be able to successfully tell him before he dies? Either way, there’ll still be plenty of drama, I think)
“Mhm,” he nodded eagerly, smiling wide. “That’s what I really love about my country. We’re all connected, especially during the festivals. Oh! I would love it if you and Fiori could visit someday, most likely when the war is over, or I could just tell the guards you two are my guests.” He rambled, getting more comfortable in these types of conversations. They felt casual, even a little bit familiar, and he nearly forgot he was imprisoned.
(Either way is good, but… maybe the night Cadmus goes to tell Fi he runs into Levi so he's trying to shake him off but when he does that he runs into the regent who kills him and then we get a whole dying breath confession where he tells Fi Levi's the prince.)
Cadmus frowned slightly at that last bit of information, turning it over in his head, but he kept his mouth shut. Levi was just a slave, he wasn't anyone important. Nobody important ever ended up in the collar. "Yeah, I bet that would be… fun. What do you normally do at the festival? Who do you hang out with?"
(Oh man, yeah I like that!)
Levi didn’t seem to notice the shift in the mood, too invested in talking about his country. “Oh, we walk around the stores, after sundown admire the lights and go to the marketplace and browse the crafts. Couples who are courting like to go there together and drink steamed wine. I usually walk around with my lover, my friends, and one day to socialize with the nobles.”
Cadmus nodded, though he seemed more nervous than excited. "Yeah, I'll probably drag Fi out into the streets with me later." He laughed weakly, eyes flicking anxiously to the arena, where Fi had started on his final fight. He was in control enough that Cadus could turn his eyes back to the more important threat. "How come you don't see the nobles very often?"
Levi’s energy started to wane, finally noticing Cadmus’ sudden disquiet in the conversation, “I prefer the company of my friends, and I spend enough time with the nobles outside of festival season,” he replied less eagerly.
Cadmus pushed a smile onto his face when Levi quieted, not wanting to make him suspicious. "Oh? Bet it's a real chore, I know Fi's not a big fan of the nobles over here either." He injected some enthusiasm into his tone, brightening up before Levi's eyes. "Course we don't have nobles the same way y'all do, we've got councils. It's just so much beaureocracy, y'know? Feels like you can never get any work done."
Levi relaxed, passing his brief lack of enthusiasm as a simple fluke. Maybe he was just thinking; it was entirely possible. He nodded, “Yeah, it really is. But a part of it is fun, making small talk and forming connections and relationships with them. Some of them are being trained to be the next royal advisors, so it’s especially interesting to talk to them. One of them is actually my lover,” he beamed.
Cadmus gave him a genuine smile at that, trying to push aside his fear. Levi seemed like a genuinely sweet guy, he couldn't be a threat. Even if his closeness with a godsdamned royal advisor was pretty suspicious. "Yeah, Fi told me you had a boy back home. Tell me about him, how did y'all meet? What's he like, anything like mine?
“Hah,” he sighed out a laugh, “I guess one might say he’s a little bit like Fiori. Only because he seems a bit cold and callous on the outside, and he’s a bit of a fighter too. No where as good as my brother or Fiori, though. He’s quite shy, actually, but with a biting personality when he’s passionate about something.” He paused, trying to think about what else he could say about Mordecai, “Oh, and we were introduced to each other at a party several years ago.” Their parents had introduced the two of them, when Levi was fifteen and Mordecai was sixteen. They had only meant for a close friendship to form, but a friendship, and then a romance grew instead.
Cadmus laughed too, relaxing a bit. Levi couldn't be the prince, he was probably just some low ranking noble, maybe a second son of a second son. "Your brother, does he have a name? I'm sure Fi would love to hear about him, he's always looking for a new fight. He's stuck on Alessia right now, but he's gonna have to move on soon, he's too close to memorizing her style."
LevI smiled, continuing to chuckle. He looked over to Fiori to watch him, just for a moment before turning back to Cadmus. “Ha, yes, actually. Johan,” the name just slipped, and his stomach dropped. Shit. He struggled to maintain his expression—Johan was a common name in his country, he comforted himself. And maybe, just maybe Cadmus didn’t know the second prince’s name.
Fiori ducked a blow. Cadmus was not so lucky, struck dumb by the news. Johan, he repeated to himself, Johan, Johan, Johan. One of the only men to scar Fiori. One of the few men strong enough to thrive in the arena. He slapped a smile onto his face, softened the edges of the expression until it looked real enough, and tried to meet Levi's eyes like he hadn't just felt everything click together into a distressing bigger picture. "Same as the prince, right? Your parents must've been big fans of royalty. I mean… you've got a prince's name too, don't you?"