I was cold. After what felt like hours of torture and interrogation from Foxglove, I was thrown back into the cell without my shirt and with cuts all over my body. Luckily, they were shallow. Unluckily, they burned and reopened when I tried to move. With a sigh, I tried one more time to get in a comfortable position to sleep, but my cuts and chains weren’t having it.

“How bad did she treat you?” My new friend in the corner asked. I thought he was asleep considering his eyes were closed and he hadn’t moved the whole time I was back.

“Not that bad.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the truth either. She had been relentless in her treatment, but I could tell she was holding back. Everything she did to me physically could easily be hidden under a shirt or pants, but the psychological torment was almost too much to bear. I was relieved when she finally stopped.

“You don’t have to act strong, especially with me. I’ve had to deal with that psychotic woman for years. After they realized I wasn’t going to break, they decided to leave me here to rot.” He sighed. “What did she want to know, and did you tell her? I have to ask, you see, for your, mine, and Algea’s safety.”

I understood, but it still hurt that he didn’t trust me. “She wanted to know how I knew Algea and what my name was.”

“You didn’t tell her your name did you!” Ri Ri was now leaning towards me, eyes wide open.

“No I didn’t. All I said was I met Algea in the woods. That’s it, I swear!” I saw Ri Ri relax and go back to resting against the wall. “Why is my name so important? I knew there had to be a reason why Algea gave me a fake name, but why would someone want to tourture it out of another?”

“Did Algea not explain these things to you? Same old Algea.” He shook his head at that. “She always assumes you’ll pick these things up as you go. What she keeps on missing is the fact that we aren't mind readers and she has to actually explain these things.” He shook his head. “Anyway, do you know the story of how Isis, the goddess of magic and mother of Horus, tricked Ra, who was on his deathbed, into revealing his true name?”

“I read it in one of the books Algea gave me, but I don’t see how this affects me.”

“I’m getting there.” He smiled. “Well, when Ra gave up his true name Isis had the power to force Ra into securing Horus as his successor. This principle plays a heavy role in our magic system, being the children of these gods. Take healing magic for example. You have basic magic that can heal anyone without having to know the person’s true name, but this magic is limited. It can heal, but the spell might take a longer time to heal or all the wounds will heal into a scar. Whereas the same spell with a true name woven in would heal nearly instantaneously or your wounds will not scar no matter how deep the cut.

“However, if your true name is woven into a spell meant to harm, the spell will not miss and its effect will be amplified. This can prove useful on the battlefield. Especially since most spells have to be written out, and missing can prove to be a fatal error.” This got me thinking of how much trouble I would have been if I had answered Foxglove. That's when the questions rushed out of me as fast as I could form them.

“How do you know your true name? Do I, a human, even have a true name? Can I divulge information I don’t even have?” That’s when he started laughing.

“Those are all good questions. To answer the underlying question, yes humans have true names. As to how we get a true name, it is sort of the same answer. When a demigod dies their human first name becomes their true name. So, your human first name, or the name your caretaker gave you, is your true name.” I paled.

“That means Algea knows my true name. What if she tells someone?” My stomach was cold with the thought that I unknowingly gave such great power over to someone I had just met. Granted, I didn’t know at the time, but I still didn’t like the thought of her having so much power over me.

“You needn't worry. Any secret given to Algea will be taken to the grave. She has a reputation of never having broken under torture after all. She also won’t use this information against you. Once she deems you a part of her family, no harm will come to you. She would die first.”

“Then how come you all are imprisoned, and you have been tortured for years.” I asked, but something in my head had paused on the word family. I suddenly remembered our encounter with the guy who said Algea was his wife. This caused me to blurt out, “Did you know that Algea is married? How does that work in your world? Is it the same as with us humans?” So many questions I had been too nervous to ask before were rushing forward, but I didn’t want to annoy my new friend so I stopped where I was. I will get answers to all my questions eventually, but I will have to be patient for now.

“Well those are two vastly different types of questions with two complex answers. I would suppose the easiest to answer would be the ones about her being married. No, she is not married. She was, however she hated the guy. I think it was something to do with legal security. He liked her, and she needed someone to help her with any legal problems she got into. So, they were married. I heard that she divorced him a few years back, but knowing him, he will never let her go.

“As for your questions regarding why I am here and why she would let me get tortured, she didn’t. Enyo framed her for killing someone for strategic gain. The man in question was a first born of Bast. You see, in our world, the amount of power you can draw on from your parent’s magic is dependent on your age. So for example, you are the eldest of five. You can perform magic like transforming into your parent’s respective animal, perform a spell in your parent’s scroll, and have general physical traits, like a tail.”

“Wait a tail?” I interrupted.

“Oh yes. Sometimes when a human changes over to a demigod they wake up with a physical trait of their parent’s animal counterpart. The unlucky ones get things like tails or ears. I think Algea is one of the luckiest of all the children of Bast. She only walked away with a heightened sense of smell and night vision. Most end up with cat ears or tails.”

“What about you, Ri Ri? What did you get?” He snorted.

“Please, call me Ridley. Ri Ri is just an awful nickname Foxglove gave me. Anyway, when I woke up I found that there were scales running down my back and my feet were sporting claws and webbed toes. Not a pleasant feeling.”

“I can only imagine.” I nodded.

“Anyway, where was I? Oh! So out of those abilities I listed, the first can access all of them, the next two oldests can access all but the full transformation, and the last two only have the physical traits. It is kind of like that except with hundreds of thousands of children.

“So back to the original topic, why I am here. When Enyo killed the first born of Bast, Algea became the first born, but Enyo framed Algea for killing the man so the court convicted her of the murder. However, because it was ruled to be a strategic murder she was given the harshest punishment possible: life in the maximum prison.” He looked sadly and distantly at the floor.

“That doesn’t explain why you are here, and why I met Algea in the middle of the forest. Also, why would Enyo do such a thing in the first place? Algea said that it was because of some career ending information Algea had on Enyo, but what kind of information could she have to warrant this kind of reaction?” It just didn’t seem right.

“Enyo is very ambitious to a fault. Don’t get me wrong, ambition is a good thing, but doing anything to achieve your goals comes at a price. She has worked hard to climb the social ladder and became Duryona’s leading tactician, but what she really wants is a seat on the high council. So, what kind of information could ruin her chances at a seat that would govern the entirety of Duryona?”

‘I felt like something along the lines of an affair wouldn’t stop someone from governing their people. To be honest, affairs are probably common with them. If I was immortal and fought in war, what would I do that would ruin any chance of me getting a position of extreme power?’ I thought. ‘It would probably be something along the lines of a war crime or treason. Wait, that’s it! If she had done something that would have secured a victory, but the action itself would have worked against her people. That would make her a liability in a position of power.’ I gasped at my revelation.

“Did you figure it out?” All I could do was nod. These people kill each other for survival. What could she have done that was considered a war crime? I finally looked Ridley in the eye as the horror of what could have happened hit me, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at my general direction, but his eyes were unfocused. A look of expectation was on his face, and I realized. He hadn’t seen me nod.