All the months he'd been gone for torture, his father hadn't even missed him. For that matter, his father had barely looked at him or talked to him since his return. The only reason the king was here now was because Estes had wanted to see him train.
Why bother wasting our time...? The boy fights like a methusai. I'd rather watch the grass growing in the yard.
His father narrowed his gaze on his hoplomachos. "Galen, fetch a scribe and have him design a royal emblem for my son. Something worthy of a princely champion. An eagle or a lion, perhaps."
Estes shook his head. "I'm thinking a pegasus or trident."
"A phoenix," Styxx said. There was nothing more fitting for him. Forged by the flames of Hades's Pyriphlegethon River, he emerged. And like a phoenix, he wouldn't really exist until his father was good and dead.
The king inclined his head to him. "You heard my son, Galen. Phoenix it is."
"I shall see it done, Majesty, and deliver his new hoplon within a month."
While Galen and his father walked away to discuss the matter, Estes came forward.
"Your father's right, Styxx. You are becoming quite a fine young man."
Styxx didn't comment as he retrieved his helm and sword. "How does my brother in your custody, Uncle?"
A strange tremor went through Estes that Styxx couldn't define. And even though he tried, he couldn't discern his uncle's thoughts on the matter.
"He's very well. Happy. Healthy. Looks just like you."
"Except for his eyes," Styxx reminded him.
"Except for his eyes."
And the brand scars....
Trying not to think about that, Styxx returned his hoplon to the wall then entered Galen's headquarters with Estes one step behind him. "Does Acheron ever ask after me?"
"He does. Often. One day, I should like to have the two of you together. I think we'd all enjoy that greatly." There was something even odder in his tone. Something that sent a shiver down Styxx's spine.
Still, he couldn't hear one single thought from his uncle. How was that possible?
Disturbed by the anomaly, Styxx placed Galen's xiphos on the rack where his trainer normally kept it.
"So tell me, young Styxx. Has any woman caught your attention or heart yet?"
It was all he could do to not curl his lip in revulsion of that question. Between his mother and Ryssa's hateful lunacy and the faithless, mercurial women who threw themselves at him constantly, tying one to him was the last thing on his mind. "No."
"No?" Estes was aghast as if he couldn't fathom such. "How can you be so young and handsome, and not in love?"
It might help if he wasn't a complete stranger to that emotion. "I find women tedious and demanding. Boring and unappetizing. I've no interest in them."
Estes arched a brow at that. "You prefer the bed of men, then?"
This time, he did screw his face up in disgust as memories assailed him. "Gods, no. Hardly. I find the bed of neither one appealing."
His uncle gaped then choked. "Virgin still? At your age? Inconceivable. Both your father and I had bastards aplenty by the time we were ten-and-five. And your brother has long since found the pleasures to be had in the arms of others. I can't even begin to count the lovers Acheron has had."
"I guess I'm not the man my brother is." Of course it helped to not spend the better part of a year being tortured for demons you didn't have.
After that ...
He had no desire to be touched by anyone, for any reason.
Styxx left Galen's headquarters and walked toward the dressing room.