Chapter Text
The House of Argents. A house now known not only for its carnal entertainment but now of the exotic pleasures found within. The House of Argents is located on the hills looking over the flourishing city of Capua. There is no wall separating the ludus from the cliffs that abruptly end the training area. The beautiful sight of Capua in the valleys below distracts the true dangers of its purpose. One misstep and a long journey to the Underworld can be made.
Chris is the Dominus of the house, no Domina by his side as he lost her to a terrible sickness. Instead his sister, Kate has taken the role of Domina of the house, overseeing the more exotic sides that the Argents provide to the prominent people of not only Capua but Rome as well. Chris was at least blessed with a daughter, Allison, who neither has the gender to be appointed a future lanista nor has the heart to oversee the exotic tastes provided to others. Kate on the otherhand indulges her sexual appetite with select few of the gladiators that reside in the ludus.
"Dominus." Doctore Stilinski stood before Chris. Chris looked up and smiled, spreading his arms out beside him.
"Ahh Doctore, what news do you bring? Have the new slaves been purchased and brought to the ludus?" Chris asked. Earlier, Chris and Stilinski went to the markets, browsing the slaves that stood in a line. The men and women shackled at the hands and feet. The only clothing both sexes wore were dirty cream pieces of clothe that just covered the genitals. The women were left baring their breasts to the crowds, as was common, to be judged for their beauty in all aspects. Those that were on sale, only six were purchased for the house of Argents, five that would go through training in the ludus to become a gladiator, the other a female to become a personel slave to the Argents.
"Yes Dominus, the men stand in the ludus and Stiles has been ordered by Kate to oversee the girl."
"Ahh excellent. Go to the ludus, I shall be there shortly." Stilinski turned and left, heading through the corridors and downstairs. The room made of cut stone and filled with pots of wine. He turned to the gate next to him and nodded to a guard who unlocked it. The Doctore moved through, not even paying heed as the gate was locked behind him and moved swiftly to the grounds of the ludus.
Derek shifted, shackles clinking with every movement. The sun bore down on his shoulders and heating the pressed dirt he stood barefoot upon. Other gladiators sat at table or stood below the balcony watching and grinning, they jostled each other, making jokes as they pointed at him and the others. He stood in the middle of a line of four other men, one he sadly knew, his uncle Peter. It was his fault he was in this position. They had been caught killing roman soldiers who had pillaged their home and slaughtered all of his family members except for him and his uncle. Even his dear sister couldn't escape. After the slaughter his uncle had never been the same, he became deranged and power hungry.
The man that stood to his left was lanky and pale with curly brown hair, Isaac Lahey he said his name was. The boy looked terrified. The next one down was of dark skin, large with broad shoulders, broader and taller than him. Boyd the boy had said, nothing else after that. Finally the boy on his farther right was tanned skin and black hair. He had an asymmetrical jaw and stood quite silently. Derek wondered if these boys even knew where they were let alone what kind of place this was. Derek didn't get to think anymore when an older man who wore a red leather chest plate and a whip in his hand came out of a corridor beneath the balcony that overlooked the ludus.
Doctore Stilinski stopped just a few feet where the new slaves stood. His eyes in a scrutinizing gaze as it flitted from one slave to the next. The slaves watched him only for a few seconds before their attention was torn away from him and set above towards the balcony. Stilinski turned to see Argent leaning his hands on the railing looking down upon the slaves. Kate and Allison stood on either side of him with Stiles standing not far from view with the new girl by his side, Erica her name was. Stilinski looked back to the slaves to address them.
"What is beneath your feet?" Stilinski firmly asks. No one answered, instead looked among each other in confusion.
"Answer! What is beneath your feet?" He yells at them.
"Sand?" Scott piped up.
Doctore Stilinski turned to the gladiators behind them. "What is beneath your feet?" He asked them.
"Sacred ground, Doctore. Watered with the tears of blood." A gladiator shouted not at the Doctore but at the new recruits.
Stilinski turned back to the five men. "Your tears! Your blood! Your pathetic lives forged into something of worth. Listen! Learn! and, perhaps live - As gladiators! Now attend your master." Stilinski crossed his arms and turned sideways so he neither had the new recruits or the Dominus to his back.
"You have been blessed! Each and every one of you, to find yourselves here at the ludus of Chris Argent, purveyor of the finest gladiators in all of the Republic!" Chris informed the recruits in a powerful voice. The gladiators beneath him cheered in the name of Argent.
"Prove yourselves in the hard days to follow, prove yourselves more than a common slave - more than a man! Fail and die, either here where you stand, or sold off to the mines. Succeed, and stand proud among titans!" Chris finishes and the gladiators chant the name Argent, honoring the name of the house.
Stilinski turned back to recruits to finish their lecture. "A gladiator does not fear death. He embraces it. Caresses it. Fucks it. Each time he enters the arena, he slips his cock in the mouth of the beast, and prays to thrust home before the jaws snap shut."
Derek's smirk to the vulgarness didn't go unnoticed to the Doctore because next thing he knew a whip was being cracked his way.
"You, what is your name?"
"Derek Hale."