Gorgias wore Scout Armor, with a Bolter Pistol and Combat Knife hanging from his belt and a backpack slung over his shoulders.
He walked along the mountain path, heading toward the home he remembered. The closer he got, the more he caught the damp, salty sea breeze, and the more familiar his surroundings felt. He remembered herding sheep on the hillside as a child. Back then, he had mostly switched between going out to sea with his father to fish and helping his mother take the sheep out to graze and bring them back.
He had raised the sheep until they were fat and plump, and one of the ewes had even given birth to two lambs. Later, when his eldest brother got married, their father sold the sheep, and a sister-in-law who didn't much like him came to live with them.
He had been young then, and didn't understand why his sister-in-law disliked him when he hadn't done anything to her. Only later, after he became a sailor, did the captain tell him that she was afraid he would get a share of the family property.
But none of that mattered anymore. He had become an Astartes, and in the future he would follow the Forged Steel Lord into battle among the Void and the stars. He had no more ties to the tiny plot of land owned by a fisherman's family.
At last, as he neared the fishing village where he had grown up, he saw the familiar houses. A few little brats, seven or eight years old, were squatting at the village entrance, playing a game. It was the Knuckle Game, which he had often played as a child. Back then, he had always lost to one of the local ringleaders. Sadly, that boy had drowned in an accident just a few years later.
The children noticed Gorgias too. Startled by the sight of the enormous giant, they even abandoned their dice made from sheep bones.
The five children scrambled to their feet and ran into the village, shouting as they went.
"Giant! A giant! A giant's come to the village to eat people!"
Gorgias could only smile wryly. He continued silently toward home and stopped outside the door. The little house was built of stone and lime mortar, and its outer walls had crumbled badly.
The sheep pen beside the house was empty too. It looked as though it had been empty for some time.
He crossed the yard and went straight inside. As he stepped over the threshold, he nearly hit his head. In his memory, the lintel had never been so low.
A slightly plump, middle-aged woman saw a giant carrying a knife walk through the door. She was so startled that the wooden basin in her hands fell to the floor.
Looking at her familiar face, Gorgias instinctively said,
"Sister-in-law."
At the sound of that familiar address, the woman recognized him too.
"Gorgias!? Didn't the captain say you were missing?"
Gorgias bent down to avoid the salted fish hanging from the rafters and nodded.
"It's me. I wasn't missing. By the way, how are our parents?"
Gorgias's parents were doing well. His eldest brother and sister-in-law took good care of them, though their parents were getting older and had various ailments. His father's gout flared up now and then. But they were poor fishers; wasn't it the same for everyone?
When Gorgias saw his parents, they were both astonished by how much he had changed. He simply took a pile of silver coins and paper money from his backpack and handed it to them.
"This is paper money. It's money, and it'll be introduced in this area soon. I know there's a lot you won't understand, so just know that I've joined the army."
"I'll arrange for someone to send money back every year. If it ever stops coming, it means I'm dead."
That evening, after his eldest brother returned home, the whole family gathered around the table for dinner. Fish and seaweed soup—a plain, simple meal, and one Gorgias had eaten all his life.
Meanwhile, in the royal palace of the Lasidream City-State, in the dining room of the king's widow's chambers,
Alexios dipped the last of his whole-grain bread into the black soup, put it in his mouth, and swallowed. Beside him, his younger brother Lycurgus was peeling an orange.
Then the king's widow spoke.
"Alexios, does it taste all right?"
Alexios looked up at his mother. The brothers had been away from home for six years, and she looked much older than they remembered.
"Of course, Mother. The food from home is delicious. Have you been well all these years?"
The former queen smiled.
"Your uncle is the new king now, and he takes good care of me. Don't worry, I'm doing well. Besides, we're in private. Just call me Mother."
"How many days will you stay this time?"
Lycurgus answered before his brother could.
"Not even two or three days. The Forged Steel Lord wants us to return as soon as possible to get familiar with our weapons and train. Next month, we'll leave this planet and enter the Void to fight among the stars."
Their mother nodded, looking a little disappointed.
"After dinner, go bathe. A bath will wash away the dust and misfortune of your journey. Aphrodite's foam will protect your bodies."
After the meal, Alexios and Lycurgus enjoyed a long soak in their mother's private bath. They had even specifically asked for the water to be heated to eighty or ninety degrees, which the servants had strongly objected to.
With a bath towel around his waist, Alexios stepped out of the bath, feeling comfortable. He hadn't expected to find his mother waiting outside with their clothes in her arms. When she saw Alexios, the clothes slipped from her hands and fell to the floor. She went straight to her son and stared at his body.
His mother reached out and tenderly touched the many wounds covering her eldest son.
"Why do you have so many wounds? Do they hurt?"
His mother knew it was a pointless question. Of course so many wounds hurt.
Alexios only shook his head.
"They don't hurt that much. They used anesthesia for the first surgery. They didn't use any after that, but I can bear it now."
His mother leaned closer to inspect the wounds and saw that some of the healing was still fresh. The wounds stretched from his chest to his back, covering almost all of both sides. She asked,
"What happened to these wounds?"
Alexios said unconcernedly,
"It was the Black Carapace implantation. The Apothecary told us to stand still. He used a scalpel to peel back our skin, placed the Black Carapace underneath, and then stitched the skin back up."
The queen was horrified. Peeling back the skin like one would peel a sheep's hide—it felt as though the cuts were on her own body.
The queen covered her mouth and asked carefully,
"What did it feel like?"
Alexios scratched his head.
"I didn't feel much. When the Black Carapace touched my skin, it felt like something was burrowing into my muscles. It was a little itchy."
His mother suddenly threw her arms around him, tears spilling from her eyes.
Lycurgus happened to step out of the bath with a towel wrapped around him. Seeing his mother hugging his brother and crying, he looked completely bewildered.
"Brother, what's going on?"
But the queen soon stopped crying. She drew both her sons close, and they knelt halfway down so they were level with her.
The queen cupped her two sons' faces and said,
"My sons, we are Lasidream people. We save our tears for our enemies. I don't understand this Void and these stars you speak of. I only know that you're going off to war."
As she spoke, she kissed each of her sons on the cheek.
"Remember, come back with glory and spoils."