Status Updates From Fallen City

Quite enjoying this!

What he did that day in the Forum as Vitrasian lay dying was the first whispered word of revolt. No one could believe that a young man who'd been plucked from the Lower City had turned on his own and taken almost half the legion with him. How had the quiet, solemn son of Magistrate Matius inspired a rebellion that had torn the great city of Isara in two?

Before I could speak again, before a single thought could stop me, I was lifting up onto my toes, hands sliding across his skin. And I kissed him. My mouth pressed to his and my blood was suddenly running so hot that my heart felt like it was drowning in it. Like it was being held underwater.

I was all too aware that this wasn't just a low-ranking legion-naire. Matius' name had been everywhere since the First Feast.
He was the heir to a faction leader's seat in the Forum and had a face that made a traitorous flush burn in my cheeks. But he seemed wholly uninterested in the attentions of the district.
For the last few weeks, he'd been trying to see me. Not only that, but he was also admitting it.

I didn't need to see her face, because I had every part of her memorized. There wasn't an inch of her skin I hadn't touched.
There wasn't a single curve on her body that I hadn't pressed my mouth to.
Maris.

"Don't tell me you didn't notice that he's beautiful," she said.
I wished I hadn't noticed. Matius' son was strikingly hand-some, his form cast like one of the statues in the temple. He had the look of a god, and I wasn't the only one whơ'd thought so. The other Magistrates, along with their sons and daughters, had been whispering about him throughout the night.

"I hear you're a novice under the Philosopher Vitrasian?" Casperia met my eyes directly as she licked her lips, the tip of her tongue poised at the edge of her teeth.
I nodded. "That's right."
"A strange placement for someone of your family rank."
"He's a legionnaire, first and foremost," Kastor cut in again.

And I understood why. They were both the kind of beautiful that was hard to look away from, but that wasn't what made my stomach drop when I saw Casperia's daughter. It was that look in her eyes- something almost violent. She was missing the feigned gentleness that the other Magistrates' daughters had. Like at any moment, she might actually open her mouth and scream.