“It is a land of great beauty and great bleakness. If you ever visit a battlefield, even years after the battle is done, you will feel the pain and despair. If there is enough of it, it taints the very soil and does not let go until the last who knows of the atrocities that happened there perishes. Airen’s soil is tainted with centuries of pain and despair. So much so, it rises up and dulls the very air.”

She studied him with intent eyes.

He continued speaking.

“It was some time after the challenge I bested against Trajan when Cassius relaxed his vigil. It was the dead of night and I was in the barracks, asleep. There were five of them. Six with Trajan. The five held me down. Trajan cut me. They would have raped me, but one of my bunkmates was Cassius’s now-lieutenant, Macrinus. He ran to inform Cassius and Cass came with Macrinus, Otho and Nero. Numbers more balanced, the tide was turned, and I did the first thing my father ever expressed disappointment in me for doing.”

“What was that?” she asked, her voice somewhat breathless.

“I cut him as he cut me, and then I took one of his testicles.”

Silence gasped.

Mars spoke through it.

“I did the former in vengeance. I did the latter as a lesson. Man or woman chooses to take cock. It is not forced upon them. King Gallienus was infuriated and called for my father immediately. Papa came, and he was not angry that this occurrence strained relations between two nations, for even Gallienus could see the cuts on my face and he knew his son had acted in a craven manner, without a hint of honor. Both future kings had been disfigured, one more monumentally, but it was Trajan’s actions that made it so. Thus, this was smoothed out relatively quickly. Father was also not angry at the lesson. He was angry at the vengeance. He said vengeance is meted over a lifetime of living above pettiness, and he considered lashing out in anger petty. He said it is the man who walks the high road who sees the best view. The climb to that road is often arduous. But the view is worth it. And regardless, even the climb is better than wallowing in the mud.”

“All I have heard, including this, it is clear your father was, indeed, very wise,” she noted quietly.

She was not wrong, so Mars did not remark on that.

“This is how I got my scars,” he finished.

“It wasn’t just retribution. It was also envy. Prince Trajan sought to sully your handsomeness,” she remarked.

“Perhaps,” he allowed.

“No. He did. I have heard Prince Trajan took after his mother in looks and was not near as handsome as his brother.”

Mars chose to ignore the fact she found Cassius handsome.