I have never been the outside of the walls of the Tartaros. I have always threaten to do it but I never had the guts to actually do it. The fact that I was breaking mom's rules was heart racing in a good way, at least what I thought was good. I felt free.

After I got out of Tartaros, the air felt rotten. The air filter Milo built really did their job. It was those things you don't have to think about until it's gone.

The whole time down the mountain where the Tartaros stood, I could not think about dad, my real dad. Only things I knew about him was the things Andi told me and what I saw on that memory, which was more than I knew a day ago. I knew he was some sort of leader like mom. I knew he had my eyes. Other than that we looked nothing a like. He looked charismatic, so he might have a active social life. I hope I could fit in it.

As I walked into Ashphodea, I could see the differences between each of them with just one glance. Ashphodea was so tidy. Every house was so put together and weirdly aesthetic. Still, none of the houses had any decorations or anything fancy on them. Mom would have painted every house I saw into some shade of rainbow if she was in charge of Ashphodea.

After I had walked deeper into Ashphodea, wondering what the hell was the security here, I walked into a square where a group of people were standing around around a tall building that was painted dark yellow like a sun that was almost setting. If you are looking for people, you need to go where the people are.

I'm an expert on dodging people, so I got in front of the people fairly easily. The house was more detailed up close. It had statues around it despicting greek myths.

I was more focused on the man who was just walking inside the house. He had a beard and longer hair these days, but I regonized him as the same man the memory I had seen. Dad. I tried to get his attention, but I was too late. Too gigantic men blocked my way to him.

"Where do you think are going, little boy?" One of the men crossed his arm and tried to look big and menacing. Should I have been scared? I didn't know how to react to him. Should I tremble before him?

"Only the gods and their affiliates can come in right now and by the looks of you, I don't think you have a career in politics yet." Even tough I was tall for my age, these men were even taller, by at least a head. I could probably sneak past them if I could. For now, I just smiled and tried to look like someone that wouldn't do anything suspicious.

"Do I get in if I have relatives inside?" I batted my eyelashes like little girl. The men didn't laugh. Were all people here this humorless? "I wanted to suprise me dad at work, but I understand if I can't come in."

The other man laughed. "Well, whose your daddy, kid?"

"Well, my dad is Louis Braun", I said with a smirk on my face. I tried to hold in a laugh when I saw the men's faces. At the same time they thought I was the biggest bullshitter in all of history, but I knew they couldn't call me liar.

"From all the years I've known Louis, he has never spoken about a kid of any kind."

"I never told you how big of a suprise it was going to be." The big men looked at each other confused. At that point I got my opening. I ran past them as fast I could, dodging their hand at the same time.

I ran to a big hallway that had hundreads of doors all around me. Like in a constant stream, thousands of people came in and out of those doors. All of the people were dressed so cleanly and simply. Mom would have evaporated if she was forced to dress like this.

The big guys grabbed me in the middle of the hallway. They tried to drag me away but stopped when he realized all the people around us were staring at me, my father in the middle of them.

"What's going on? Who is this kid?" Dad looked so confused. I was about to make him question everything.

I walked closer to Dad. I didn't know how I should be. Where should my hands be? Should I smile or not? I tried to hide all my anxiety behind a smile. "Hello. I am your son. My name is Edan. Nice to meet you."

The man looked at me up and down. I couldn't read his face. I knew my words were hard to prove right, but I'm ready for it. I had all the details I had. I had Andi's picture. He didn't have to beliave me yet, but he will me.

"How old are you?" Dad crossed his arms. He slowly walked around me, looking at me closely.

"I'm fourteen, Mr. Braun." Mom always nagged me that the first impression was the most important thing, especially if you are trying to charm someone. I tried my best to look like a kid that a important would want as a son. I fixed my posture and put my hands where you could see them.

"When are you turning fifteen?"

"April 1st. My... never mind." This was no time for jokes, how obvious they would be.

Dad shooed away the big guys. He looked deep in thought, hopefully taking in all of the things that came from my mouth.

"Who is your mother?"

My whole body froze. There were too many people around us. I couldn't say it. My mom's name was like a curse word here. It was literally a death sentence. I had to be creative as I could. So I gave Andi's picture to dad. "I'm sure you can figure out it by yourself. You seem like a powerful and smart man, I have gotten that genes from you as well, so you can figure out who were you with so you could have this kind of son."

Dad opened the picture. I smiled as wide as could when dad stared at the picture, and stared at me. He tried to say something but all he could say was mumbles. Finally, something that I could understand came from his mouth: "Does anyone know that you are here?"

I shook my head, even though it was technically a lie. Andi and Sonia knew, but I knew Louis didn't give a fuck about them. He wanted to know would one of the Gorgos would follow me and burn the whole Ashphodea to look for me. My answer that was just a shrug. I sincerely hoped Sonia would lie for me. If not, Mom would burn the whole Ashphodea, dad included.

People around me started to move weirdly. A tall and slim woman pushed people around to get to next to dad. She was the first one in here that stood out from the mass. She was the only one who was wearing bright colors. Her bright yellow dress clashed with her dirty blonde hair and tan skin. I could see her in Tartaros, but she looked like she would kill me if I said it out load.

Woman didn't even look at me. She walked up to my dad and linked her arm with him. I could even how much pain my dad was under when her long nails pierced his arm. When she finally looked at me, her face looked manic. "Neela Hayer-Grey. How do you know my Louis?"

Hayer-Grey. She was Hayer-Grey. Warning bells in my mind started going off. I tried not to show how quite literally freaked out I was. You know that every coup can't be done if you don't eliminate the former leader? When Gorgos took over Tartaros, it's former leader was named Adaine Grey. I had to be my most charismatic self if I want her to keep me alive and not to give her ideas for revenge killing because of her dead mom.

"We are as close as a father and son who didn't know other existed, could be", I said, while flashing a wide smile at the woman. I could see her imagining murdering me right there and then. I was in her territory, it seemed. It wasn't my fault that she felt threatened by a teenager.

Neela looked at dad wanting a answer to my words right then. Inside her mind, she was definitely throwing chairs or screaming. "Louis, can we talk just the two of us, please?" She tried to push him away from me but dad stood still.

"Darling, I got this. Just trust me." I hold in my smile when I saw Neela's reaction. She looked like she was about to explode.

"I trust you when you give me a reason to it. I'm not taking in some kid just so you and me can play house. If you really think he's your son, I won't ever trust you", Neela whispered between her teeth. I didn't like how that made me feel. Something shifted in the way dad looked at me after Neela said those words. I needed to make him trust me.

"You and mom, you met after you arrested her of something, that I don't know about. You met again in some sort of a ball. Mom had a red dress, and you didn't have that beard." I laughed nervously while every single person in that room looked at me. "I saw that memory. If you don't believe me yet, I can't help you. This is all I have. I know who my mother is, and you and me both know she has only been with on person who could be half of my dna."

Neela smiled, and held in every single bad thing she wanted say to me. "Well, why are you here now? What makes today so special for us to get to finally meet you?"

Why today? That is a good question. I already told them about the memory and everything else I should hold in. It was hard. "I just finally had proof who my father was so that's why I'm here to entertain you. I did get help from a girl who I met on the way here." I didn't say where exactly I met her on the way, but people wouldn't probably question me about it, especially Neela.

"What girl are you talking about?" One of the faces that stared at me walked forward. She was a little older than Neela and dad, dressed in a simple dress that blended her in with the other people in the stream of workers in this building. Only thing that made her stood out was her leg, that was almost like stone. I slowly realized who she was. I had seen her dancing with mom's brother. That was Andi's mom and technically my aunt. It was wild to think about.

"She was quite young, my age or maybe older. She was just wondering around. I don't what she was doing. She felt lost." It was nice that I could still just speak the truth. I was sure that right now, Andi was walking behind Sonia, with no clue what was going on, like little girl.

The woman turned to look at dad. "I need to go get her-"

"You are needed here. I'm sure she is just fine... Edan, right? She was fine, wasn't she?" Both of them looked at me. I could see Andi looking at me through her mother's eyes, judging me for blowing her cover.

"I don't think so at least."

"There you have it. She is fine, Julie. She's a smart girl. It's good she is on her own adventure to learn skills that she isn't learning due to not being in the youth program." Dad tapped her on the shoulder. "More important thing is that my son is here now. I need to make him welcomed."

Julie walked towards me, her eyes piercing me with each step. After she was really close, she hugged me and whispered in my ear: "You're her son, aren't you?"

"Is my dad a womanizer, or something? Could I be a son of anyone else?" Andi's mom released me from her grip. I could finally understand why Andi was always on a verge of a breakdown. Anyone could become neurotic around her watchful eye.

"I don't want to stop this meaningful moment but we have a meeting." I had almost forgotten Neela, who had her disgust painted on her face.

"Julie could do the notes for this. I need to show my son around before the night." Dad took me by the arm, smiling. Everyone let us get passed when we walked outside. Every worry I had about the doubts Julie and Neela gave him were gone when I saw his smile. "You came in a right place. I can't stand those meetings. It just blabbering from people who don't even need to fight or know anything about fighting, especially war."

"Well, I don't know about that either. Mom never allowed me." I laughed nervously. We just walked outside. People who were still on there looked at us in the shock on their face, but something stopped them from saying anything. I had a hunch that something was dad.

"Good that you are here then. I can teach you anything you want about being a man." Dad tapped my back gently, which made people stop staring at me. "I have a dinner party this evening with my co-workers. Do you want to come with me?"

I felt like my brain exploded. This was all going so fast. It was more than I could ever imagine. "Totally!"

Dad smirked. I wonder if our smirks were the same. "We just need something fancier to wear. We need to go to me and Neela's apartment."

"What Neela was even to you? She is just like a hawk." Dad laughed loudly. I knew there were something between them, but they weren't like Mom and Serena who still were so lovey-dovey with each other even tough they had been each other for eons.

"Don't tell her you said that." Dad ruffled my hair. "Neela is a Hayer-Grey so she is very careful who people closest to her talk to. I understand that, and hopefully you will too. I wouldn't marry her if I didn't."

I didn't know if I had offended him. I didn't like it, but that was the first time I felt insecure. I tried to be sorry, to ask for forgivness but I didn't know how to do it. "Forget what I said."

Dad didn't say anything in return. He would have probably forgiven me, if we didn't come to in front of a giant white building that had several more floors than others around it. "Probably more small than your mom's but still nice. My castle."

I was so fixated by the house, I didn't feel the need to correct him. Even tough I usually slept in Sonia's place, my technical home was upstairs of the old city hall. Mom said we didn't need any space because any space should be used by new citizen's that came in every day. One floor of dad's house looked a size of my home. If you are a big deal, why can't you take at least a bit of space?

We walked inside and I was blinded by the whiteness of the room. "If you go upstairs, the first door in front of you is full of party clothes. Take something that fits you." Father gestured to the stairs in front of us. He walked forward himself, disappearing around the corner. I was finally breathing properly. I couldn't touch anything. I could break something and Neela would kick me out. As long as I just went straight up the stairs to where I need to go as I was fine.

I forgot that mindset when I opened the wardrope door. I wasn't proud of it, but I fell down and screamed perhaps too loudly when a masked figure jumped out. When the figure took off the mask, I noticed that he was a boy maybe Sonia's age, with even lighter hair than Sonia's. However, Sonia's smile was much friendlier. "You're not Neela. Who the hell are you?"

Dad sprinted to the room after he heard me screamed. When he saw what happened, he just laughed and helped me get up. "You are such a kid. It's just Nikolai. He's just like his aunt, he won't bite." Dad disappeared again, before he screamed to the boy. "Nico! Find Edan something to wear. Something proper."

"Who is your aunt?" I crossed my arms, smiling crookedly. Nikolai did the same.

"Neela Hayer-Grey, my father is Neil Hayer-Grey, Hercules if you want to use their working names." Great, more Grey family members. He is exactly the kind of people who would kill me as soon as they found out who my mother was. "On what street corner did Louis find you?"

I tried not to take my eyes off the boy so he wouldn't notice that I was hesitating about what to say. "I'm not homeless… I'm Edan, I'm… related to Louis." My voice sounded way too raspy. Nikolai just looked like I had told the funniest joke in the world, and he tried to hold back a giant laugh.

"You looked like you were… forget it." I don't know how that answer and the question were connected. I wanted to ask him what he meant, but dad came back to us, tuxedo in hand.

"I found this in the dressing room downstairs. This was the first tuxedo I wore to work.” His smile was wide. "You might recognize it. I met your mother again in this outfit.” I grabbed the suit with both hands. I had a part of my own history in my hands. This was proof that the memory I saw was real. The suit was exactly the same as in the memory. Now it was mine.

I walked past Nikolai to the wardrobe and put the tux on perhaps too quickly. One of tux's sleeves even tore a little. The jacket was way too tight. It only looked decent if I kept the tux open.

When I got dressed so fancy, I remebered what day it was. It was Tartaros independece day. It was that day of the year when we dressed as the most colorful outfits and we danced till the next day. It was always the only night mom let me to stay up. I hoped they had fun without me.

I walked out of the wardrobe to in front of my father. He looked at me with a smile and closed the tux jacket. I couldn't breathe. “You look perfect. You will break the hearts of all women.” dad chuckled and put his hand on my shoulder. The tightness didn't bother me, it couldn't. The most important thing was that I got to spend time with my father as father and son.