NOTE:
so this chapter is going to be different. I've been trying to decide how to tell calliope's backstory without giving you guys an information overload lol.
so this chapter with cover the duels and then more of calliope's story.
it does not coincide with an episode of the show. this is an extra chapter to tell cal's story!
WARNING:
calliope's backstory is extremely violent and dark because she's only 13 and 14 during her training. i just want to give you guys a heads up.
ALSO:
I kinda made a trailer for this story :)
please watch with headphones <3

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AN ASSASSIN'S GUILT ( i. )

https://youtu.be/Q-341KJ2RTk

6 YEARS AGO
MERCIA

"Again!"

Wiping thick mud off her face, Calliope struggled to stand up. Her ribs ached; her head pounded. Morning training was definitely the worst part of her day. She drew in a sharp breath, gripping the thin handle of her heavy sparring sword, which she only recently became strong enough to swing. Calliope drug herself out of the mud in the center of the sparring arena. She faced the fourteen-year-old boy in front of her --he was taller, older, and stronger-- and he looked over her with victory already tracing his expression.

With Sepharin watching from the gate, Calliope raised her sword. The boy, Darrian, charged at her with a loud yell of power as he mercilessly swung at her head. Calliope barely evaded his attack, her nimble figure as her advantage. She swung at his chest, his sword blocking hers with ease. Darrian hit the side of her face with the blunt handle of his sword. She felt the irony taste of blood flow in her mouth as her vision blurred. Then, he swept her legs out from underneath her, and once again, Calliope's back collided with the cold mud. She coughed as Darrian smugly stood over her.

"Why don't you just give up already, little girl?"

A fire of anger awoke in her chest at his mocking tone. She spun around in the mud, her foot coiling back, and colliding right with Darrian's groin. He yelled in pain, tumbling over and dropping his sword.

"And that is why," Sepharin entered the arena, patting Darrian on the back, "you never let your guard down; no matter who you are fighting. You had her beaten, but you let your pride get in the way."

Calliope stood up, her entire body caked in mud; her icy blonde hair was turned a disgusting brown color from three hours of sparring.

Darrian shot Calliope a narrowed look as he spat at her feet, "Bitch," he muttered as he walked away.

Calliope watched him exit the small arena, "I'm never going to be as good as everyone else here," she looked to Sepharin. "I'm the smallest and the youngest."

Sepharin put his hand on her shoulder, leaning down to be at her eye level, "But, you have something the other five lack," she raised her eyebrows. "You're clever, Calliope, and you have a strength inside you that I believe can make you truly great." He pointed to her heart. "You just have to start believing that yourself, and then, no one here will be able to stop you." He stood up straight, lightly shoving her towards the gate. "Now, go get cleaned up. You stink."

Trudging down the dirt path that led back to the village, Calliope let out a quiet huff. She shivered from the cold mud that stuck to her skin, which didn't help considering they were in the middle of winter. She spotted smoke rising from the small cottages in the distance, aching to get beside a fire.

Even though this life was hard, it was better than being someone's prisoner or someone's slave. Sepharin was giving her a chance to have a better life, and she wasn't going to let the other five teenagers training with her discourage her goals.

Sepharin was an assassin; all the kids he trained knew what they were getting into. Joining his guild --the most secret and powerful assassin's guild of all time; so secretive that someone had to become a member to learn everything-- was an honor Calliope wanted to have.

But, she had to make it through another year of brutal training before she could even attempt to join the guild.

"Hey, midget," Calliope rolled her eyes as she walked into Sepharin's cabin in Crasmere. "Why don't you do us all a favor and just quit now? We all know you aren't good enough for the guild."

Turning to Darrian, Calliope glared at him so hard that her eyes started to hurt, "Why don't you do us all a favor and go fuck yourself."

The other four teenagers in the room chuckled as Darrian stepped closer to Calliope, "You think you're so funny, don't you midget?"

Calliope crossed her arms over her chest, "Just leave me alone before I kick you in the balls again."

In a startling motion, Darian lurched forward and slammed Calliope against the wall. She stared back at him with a forceful expression as his bewildered eyes thirsted for revenge.

"You know guys, I think midget here needs to be taught a lesson," his head turned to the other four teenagers watching the scene unfold.

One of them, the only other girl in the group, Bree, reached towards the fire where the end of a long, metal stick sat. Calliope's eyes widened as she began to struggle against Darrian, but the other three teenagers came forward to hold her against the wall. Calliope's heart was beating so fast that she was afraid it was going to lurch out of her chest as Bree handed Darrian the metal stick. The end of it was sizzling with heat.

Darrian dangled the end of the stick near her face. Calliope squeezed her eyes shut tightly as felt the intense heat close to her skin, continuing to struggle against the three boys holding her to the wall.

"Now, all you have to say is that you're sorry for being a rude little bitch," Darrian said, "and we'll let you go." Calliope's eyes flashed between the fiery hot metal and Darrian. "Well?"

Calliope gathered saliva in her mouth, spitting it right in his face. Darrian's eyes heated up with intense anger, as he reached down, ripping Calliope's shirt, and shoving the hot metal right against her ribs.

Her scream of agony was so loud that it rattled the entire village of Crasmere.

♛ ♛ ♛

CAMELOT
PRESENT DAY

The day of the duels comes quickly, and everyone is talking about Calliope. She has no knowledge of which knights Uther picked or which weapons she would have to use, but Calliope feels confident that she can win.

As she gets dressed, Calliope's eyes linger on the thin red scar on the right side of her ribs. Her fingers trickle over it, the memory of the scar flashing through her mind. This scar is the one that pushed her spiral into darkness; she was already dangling above the consuming pit of nothingness --hanging on by her fingernails-- but that day, as Darrian shoved her against a wall and put burning hot metal on her skin, her grip loosened and she let herself fall to the dangerous blackness below.

And even now, she still finds herself making the long and exhausting climb back to the light, but a firm hand grips her, whispering things in her ear to pull her back into the expanse of darkness that made her a brutal killer.

"Cal!"

Calliope pulls on her blue tunic, fastening her belt and placing her sword in its sheath. She turns as her door opens, and Merlin sticks his head into her room.

"It's time to go. There's already a big crowd at the training grounds."

"Wonderful. I want as many people there as possible to watch me prove Uther wrong."

Strolling into the kitchen, Calliope's eyes land on Gaius as he mixes a potion together. She takes a deep breath as she stops beside him, glancing over his focused expression carefully.

"Gaius, I know you don't want me to do this, but I still want you to be there."

Gaius sets the circular bottle on the table, turning his eyes to Calliope, "Of course I'm going to be there, Calliope. Someone has to calm Uther down when his knights lose."

A happy laugh leaves her lips, "You're right. I'm sure he'll be very distraught."

Conquering emotions always seemed to come naturally to Calliope. Most people about to engage in a dangerous and important fight would feel nerves eating away at the hollows of their stomachs, but not Calliope. She focuses her thoughts on her one goal as she walks towards the training grounds with Merlin: win one fight at a time until there aren't any fights left.

She walks with a threatening stature that creates a tense frame of mind for every onlooker that interrupted their day to get a glimpse at the grand fights that could give a voice to so many. There was more at stake here than just Calliope's bragging rights. She is fighting for every person that has been told they aren't good enough; for every person turned away for being the wrong gender or the wrong class.

She fights with purpose and that makes her dangerous to Uther.

As the crowd makes an entrance for Calliope, moving out of her way with nods of good luck, her eyes land on Uther. He stands across from her with his son right behind him. Calliope and Arthur's gazes meet for a split second. He offers her a grin, and after that, she knows he has kept his word and is really there for her.

Morgana and Gwen stand with Merlin and their unwavering support. Gaius finds a place for himself close to the center, ready to jump in to treat any serious injuries.

"So, I guess we really are doing this," Uther says with a long sigh as if these duels are just a waste of his precious time. "You will face Sir Fredrick, and you will fight with axes," a tall and lean knight steps forward, clad in his armor and chainmail. He holds a long ax with a smirk on his lips. "I won't even bother naming the other two because I think everyone here knows you won't last ten seconds."

Calliope nods, "We'll see."

She unfastens her belt, handing it to one of the squires helping with the duels along with her sword. The squire hands her an ax with a long wooden handle. She feels of the freshly sharpened edge that would easily pierce a man's skin.

The squire offers her a shield, and she takes it in her left hand, knowing exactly how she's going to beat Sir Fredrick as she scans his overly confident disposition. He's not taking this fight seriously, which is going to make this fight a quick and easy one.

A shield is unnecessary, but she'll play along with Uther's game.

Sir Fredrick stands across from her, denying a shield from his squire. The knights behind him laugh as Calliope keeps her shield, but she has a plan. They won't be laughing for long.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Sir Fredrick asks as he walks closer to her.

Calliope raises her eyebrows, "I'm not the one you need to worry about."

"Alright, enough talking. Just get this over with," Uther says with impatience.

Just as Calliope predicted, Sir Fredrick swings first with aggression and no timing. She moves out of the way with ease, not even having to use her shield to block his attack. She simply lets him swing at her, dodging and ducking like she's in a funny dance with a mad man. Her shield never gets hits once.

She can see frustration building in his eyes. Right where she wants him. As he swings his ax down at her, Calliope shoves her shield forward with strength. The ax collides with the shield, lodging in it, and before Sir Fredrick can even pull back on his ax, Calliope pushes her shield forward as she spins it, and Sir Fredrick is knocked to the ground by the hilt of his own ax.

Calliope holds the edge of her ax over him, but he's too dazed to get up as blood flows quickly from his nostrils.

The crowd cheers as Calliope pulls Sir Fredrick's ax out of her shield and tosses it away. She sees Arthur smiling as he claps.

Calliope turns to King Uther, throwing her hands up.

"I thought you said this would be hard."

She sees the grimace of resentment on his face as the squires help Sir Fredrick up and take away the shields and axes.

"Sir Aldwin," Another knight steps forward from the crowd --burly and muscled-- but Calliope is not intimidated. "Your weapons will be fighting staffs," Oh, Calliope's favorite.

A squire hands her a long, weightless staff that feels natural in her hands. King Uther glances at her, thinking this challenge will be too much for her. After all, a fighting staff is hard to master correctly, and few swing it between their hands properly because of the intense coordination the weapon requires.

Sir Aldwin takes his stance across from her. Calliope's grips the staff perfectly, pointing one end at the knight with a cheeky glint in her eyes as if saying, 'come and get me, bitch'.

The knight lets out a loud yell as he swings the staff at her gut. Their staffs collide with a clamorous clanking sound that carries in the air with the gasps of the crowd. Calliope pays attention to his every move carefully, noticing that he always steps with his right foot before he tries to deliver a strong blow.

Calliope toys with him for a few moments, knocking him in the shoulder blade and then the elbow as he hisses in pain. She spins the staff between her hands quickly, showcasing her skill before she jumps over an attempted leg sweep.

She patiently waits, and then as Sir Aldwin goes to step with his right foot, she bangs the middle of her staff right against his nose, and then she sweeps his legs out from underneath him --just as he tried to do with her-- his breath being knocked out him as his back collides with the grass.

The crowd cheers again as Calliope turns to them. Two fights won easily with only one left, but the claps and smiles from her friends don't distract her as Uther stares at her with a determination to prove himself right.

"Sir Leon," Calliope recognizes the next knight well. Next to Arthur, he's the best fighter in the entire kingdom. He steps in front of her, but something about his persona is different than the others. He doesn't glance over Calliope like she's less than him; he doesn't carry himself with arrogance. "The last fight will be with swords."

One of the squires hurries to Calliope with her sheath. She pulls her sword out, the metal glinting in the sunlight. The texture of the handle is familiar to her; the weight and grip feel like an extension of her arm.

Sir Leon stakes his stance across from her; the crowd holds their breath in anticipation of the last fight. If Calliope wins this one, she will have proved Uther wrong in front of everyone.

But she knows this will be a harder fight. The other two knights were easy because they weren't taking the fights seriously, but Sir Leon looks at her just as he would look at any opponent.

The two began circling each other, tension bubbling in the air as they waited to see who would make the first move. In sword fighting, timing is crucial. Calliope has to watch his every movement carefully because she doesn't know what his fighting style is. She remains patient, waiting for his attack first so she can gather how he moves; his dominant foot and weak points.

Her patience pays off as Sir Leon finally swings his sword at her. Blade collides with blade, sparks flying as Calliope steps back, blocking his first attempt. Her light footwork comes to her advantage as she keeps a good distance between them so she has room to move.

She barely avoids a large gash on her face as she feels the air from his blade fly in front of her cheek. Calliope presses forward, swinging her sword with more strength as she puts Sir Leon on a defensive front. With equal measures of determination and focus, both fighters swing their swords with accuracy as they struggle for the upper hand. Calliope feels her forehead breaking out with sweat as she angles her blade down, pulling it up quickly so the blunt of the handle collides with Sir Leon's jaw. His head is thrown to side as he stumbles back. Calliope takes the advantage, slicing her blade towards his wrist and catching the skin of his hand. Blood flows heavily from the wound as she kicks his wrist, causing his blade to fall to the grass.

Sir Leon meets her eyes, and instead of beating him then and there, she tosses her own blade away, bringing her fists up to her face. She motions for him to come towards her.

"You scared to fight without your blade?" She asks, raising an eyebrow as she takes her fighting stance.

Every pair of eyes watches the fight intently as Sir Leon raises his own fists. How do knights fair in hand to hand combat? Calliope is about to find out.

Calliope lets her body relax and her instincts take over as her focus hones on Sir Leon as if he is the only person at the training grounds. He throws the first punch, and Calliope ducks out of the way, circling him as she kicks him with accuracy on his left kidney. He winces in pain, throwing a few more coordinatined punches, and one manages to hit her shoulder painfully.

But pain didn't affect Calliope like it did most people. Pain is simply an illusion of the mind, and just like emotions, Calliope can put it aside.

Tired of the back and forth fighting, Calliope lands an elbow against the soft spot of Sir Leon's temple followed by a hard punch to the nose. In his dazed state, she kicks in the back of his knee at an excruciating angle, and as he falls, she spins around raising her foot for a final blow right across his face.

Everyone gasps as Sir Leon's unconscious body hits the grass, the blood from his nose trickling onto the ground. Calliope stands over him victorious, and then, the crowd erupts into a fit of cheers. Her eyes fall to Arthur, an impressed look etching his joyful expression. Then, she looks to Merlin and Gaius and Morgana and Gwen; all of them clap as they let out happy laughter for Calliope's accomplishment.

Then, her eyes fall to the young girls watching the fight. Their eyes are filled with admiration, and Calliope knows that even if King Uther refuses to hold up his end of the bargain, she has won in another way.

♛ ♛ ♛

5 YEARS AGO
MERCIA

In the six months that followed, Calliope and the other recruits mastered swordsmanship. They learned how to throw daggers and shoot bows and swing axes, training grueling hours every single day without many breaks. Calliope's muscles became toned; her pain tolerance increased. She fought in good weather –the sunny days with a light breeze—and she fought in the bad weather –days when the rain was so heavy she could barely even see her opponent and lightning ricocheted in the dark clouds above her—but most of all, Calliope became ruthless, training extra hours and barely sleeping with her focus honed on the one goal of joining the guild.

The others still doubted her. They still called her midget, and Darrian spat the word 'bitch' in her face almost every day, but she didn't speak to them anymore. She let them have their fun and their jokes. She let them think they were better than her.

She knew the truth; that one day, she would be more powerful than all of them.

"What are we doing out here?"

Darrian's voice filtered through the drizzle of the rain. Sepharin stood in front of the group, his arms crossed over his chest with a mysterious glint in his blue eyes.

"You've all passed the first part of your training," Sepharin eyes moved from one teenager to the next. "The easy part."

Bree laughed, shaking her head, "Seriously? None of what we've been doing for the past year was easy."

"Then maybe you'd like to go back to your drunk father that beat you every night?" Bree shut her mouth. "So, we're out here in the forest," Sepharin motioned to their surroundings. "What do you see?"

"Trees," Darrian joked, making everyone except Calliope laugh.

Sepharin sighed, "Yes, Darrian, there are trees. Anything else?"

"Life," Calliope's voice rose above their laughter, making everyone go quiet.

Sepharin grinned, "Yes, that's correct. Life." He threw his hands up as the rain tapped against his tunic. "As an assassin, you will be taking a lot of life from the world. Sure, you may be able to swing a sword and throw a good punch, but do you really have what it takes to kill?" He turned, motioning to the other side of a small hill at the tree line. "On the other side of that hill sits the town of Kald. Now, in order to be a good assassin, you have to get in and out of places quickly. You have to know your target and their weaknesses. The faster the kill, the better, but you also don't want to make a scene. In my guild, we work in the shadows. No one outside of the guild can see your true self."

Calliope watched closely as Sepharin pulled six small pieces of paper out of his tunic. He walked up to each recruit handing them one of the torn parchments. Calliope took hers, glancing over the writing:

John Arment.

"Sometimes, when you're tracking a target, all an informant can give you is a name; no description, no tattoos or scars, just one name," Calliope's heart pounded as she realized she was going to have to kill someone, "And sometimes, in places with the king's soldiers, it's too risky to carry your sword or a large dagger. They randomly search people all the time, and your goal is to bring no attention to yourself whatsoever, so that means you have to improvise."

"So, you're telling us we have to go into a place crawling with the King's soldiers and kill someone?" Darrian asked, his voice laced with uncertainty.

Sepharin twined his hands together behind his back, "Each of you was given a name, and that name is a person who has wronged you," How had John Arment wronged Calliope? "Your task is to go into the city, find them, kill them, and return before anyone even knows they're dead."

"What if we get caught?" The boy beside Darrian, a broad-shouldered idiot named Brandon asked.

Sepharin shrugged, "Well, then you'll be hanged for murder in the city."

"What?" Darrian's shock gave away the fear festering within him as Sepharin turned his head.

"Being an assassin comes with great risk," his gaze trained on Darrian as he silently analyzed every emotion given away by his face. "Are you afraid?" He asked the question to the entire group. "Fear is an emotion. Emotions make you weak; they make you soft and naïve. If any of you want to survive this, you'll have to look deep inside yourself and find a way to conquer your emotions."

The minuscule thoughts of fear and doubt caved in Calliope's mind as she inhaled a sharp breath. She only thought of the name John Arment. There were no other images or whispers in the depths of her brain; only one name, and that is how she conquered her fear.

Focus on the task at hand.

Do not be weak.

Do not get caught.

Become a shadow.

hey readers! i hope you guys are enjoying cal's backstory!! i'm excited for you guys to finally know the real way she became the red dragon!!
remember to vote and leave your thoughts in the comments!! <3