I got my sight back suprisingly well. I will never get used to this. I massaged the spots our training clothes stimulated pain. Milo really shouldn't make these little less traumatizing. Well, the more traumatizing part comes when I have to talk to Serena.

I looked around me. We were completely back in our white cushioned practice room, where only color was those red letters above us. I looked at Sonia. She had crumbled into a ball, still holding the weird stick in her hands. Her small body was shaking.

I felt bad. I didn't care about school at all but Sonia really did. She really wanted to be like her uncle, but she couldn't official apprentice before she does all the required missions succefully. She is already 18 so only thing stopping her for finally doing that is... me.

I walked up to Sonia and raised her head to look at me. "It was fun. I just kept fucking up, so you can blame me for this."

Sonia smiled and got up. I took her by the hand. We really didn't have time for moping around. Were we ready or not, we had to get ready to meet the teacher.

Even tough I couldn't see Serena, I could still feel her dissapointing stare from under the stairs. My breath was getting heavier. We were getting into the lion's lair.

If I had to pick which of the three Gorgos I wanted to fight the least, Milo, Mom, or Selena Darcy, I would pick Serena. When I heard Serena's voice while I was walking upstairs, I held my breath for a second in a panic. "Edan Alexander Roseblood. Could you please tell me what was that?"

That's the energy of how our conversations have been in the past two years. I don't know if it's some kind of tradition that when a boy becomes a teenager, he becomes the class bad guy, and a person you have to follow every single second. Or maybe it only happens when you are city's leader's son and your teacher's stepson.

Serena waited for us hands crossed. She was a scary sight angry. Even without heels she was couple of centimeters taller than me, but for some reason, she liked to wear high heeled boots that made her look like a giant. She was wrapped in her green waistcoat and she was fiddling her thin bracelet between her fingers. She was trying to calm herself down,

I put on my widest smile. Now was the time for the ass kisser to come out. Unfortunately, ass kissing was really hard with Serena. I had to use my privilege, my secret weapon. "Come on, i don't think mom would think it was that horrible. She always says-."

"I don't think you know what I mean." Serena looked at me behind her angular sunglasses. I was afraid I couldn't talk myself and Sonia out of this mess. I had to start the project "Convince Serena to not talk to mom, so I wouldn't have to hear mom's complaining again." It has never worked. But you will never know. five hundread time the charm.

"Serena- Teacher-" Suprisingly enough, but I have hard time to make up excuses about something I did when I myself don't really know why I did it. I just sometimes do something. My human instincs kick in. I just wanted to be defensive and scream: "Well, when have you done something like that? You rearly do any missions. Usually you just teach dumb kids how to shoot a gun." I will never say it out loud because I don't want to die while the other class is watching.

All the other students were standing around Serena. Every single one of them loved that I was getting scoulded. Most of them were giggling or whispering shit about me. Well, at least someone founds this amusing.

"What was the only rule of the mission? Do you remember?" Serena raised his glasses on top of his head.

"I know we fucked up, but like you saw what kind of situation we were. We could have never-"

Serena raised her arm, which meant I needed to shut the fuck up. " You had many options but you decided to start doing whatever you wanted. You guys wasted so much time even before the explosion." I waited for the finishing blow. "The whole mission was to see how well without being seen. So why did Sonia screamed while flying through the air? The better question would be why did you split up so you could goof around?"

"I- The crowd was too big." My eyes wandered towards Sonia who was quietly looking at Serena. She looked... sad, just sad.

Serena raised her other hand that had a tablet. She sighed and tapped something in it. "I gave guards orders that they had to follow noise. bigger the noise, more the guards. If you had listened in class, you would know this."

I bit my lip. I hate when she was right.

"You know I don't want to do this, but... I need to seperate you two. I need both of you to work with someone of your own age."

"You can't do that. No-one here doesn't know how to speak to me. I literally can't work with anyone else." Sonia's arms were shaking, but Serena didn't seem to care.

"Everyone here is an asshole." Every single student here were looking at me with murder in their eyes. "I know we aren't the most productive, but at least-"

"I'm sure I will find something. Worry about yourself. If you want to complain, talk to your mom." Of course. I will definitely talk to my mom about how I suck at school. Better solution for me would be to walk to Asphodea holding a sign: "I'm Medusa's son. Come and get me.".

Serena was about to say something else, but a kind voice stopped her. "What do I need to know? Hopefully nothing serious this time." Fuck.

When I turned towards the sound, I tried to smile as wide as I could, even tough my heart was beating fast. Saviour of Tartaros and worst fear of Ashphodea's worst nightmare leaned into the doorframe smiling. All objections I still have were stuck in my throat, refusing to get out.

"We just talked with Sonia and Edan about their recent mission." It's interesting how Serena changes when mom was with her in a same room. It wasn't a big change, but noticeable enough for me, a person who has lived with her my whole life. Her voice wasn't tense and she wasn't as cold as she was alone. I wish I was that happy that mom was here.

I didn't want to look mom in the eyes because I knew that she could murder me with just a look. Still, I was ready to talk myself out of an any punishment mom would give me. But she... She just smiled at me and tapped me on the shoulder. "We should probably start the private lessions again. Let's talk about later."

Mom walked past me and grabbed Serena's arm. Mom pushed Serena away from the kids. While other kids started talking to each other, Sonia and I sneaked towards them. Serena's and mom's voices were quiet but I could hear them.

"My sun, are you okay?" Serena touched mom's cheek smiling warmly.

"We found him. Izaiah Jones, Palademus. The only surviving inventor. We finally found him." Mom's smile was the widest I have never seen. She grabbed Serena's both hands and kissed them. "We are attacking tonight. Finish up the class. Today is the day we have been waiting for."

I felt weird that they were so happy about murdering someone. Well, It's their job. Still... I had a weird feeling that wouldn't go away.

Serena quickly nodded and walked back to the kids. "Class, let's continue tomorrow. Valencia, Ivory, you're next. Be prepared."

The whole class left as quickly as possible, pushing each other on the way out. I was on the way out, but mom stopped me. Sometimes I think she can read my tought because I was definitely going to look for Izaiah Jones and how was he important to kill.

"Edan, Can we talk?" Who was Izaiah Jones and why did he make mom to act like this. She looked like she had cried. I don't know why else mom's eyes would look so veiny. "I want you to stay with Sonia and Milo tonight. You don't have to do morning training or anything. Just stay with Sonia until We're back."

I didn't want to start fighting or interrogate about Izaiah, so I just nodded. Something inside me did want to yell that I wanted to go with them, or just to know what was going on. I knew it wasn't going to happend, but I always kept on hoping.

"I need to go. Let's talk about everything after i'm back" , mom said and kissed me gently on my forehead, "I love you, sweetie."

When mom was walking away, something slipped out of my mouth that I didn't want to say: "Why is Izaiah Jones so important?" I didn't trust my mom's happiness. My mom couldn't be this happy just because of some dude.

"I'll tell you everything when I'm back. Everything will get better after today. " That was the last thing she said before she left to kill Izaiah i guess. I did hope Izaiah was a bad person. If not... I hope his end will be peaceful.