Nero yawned and stretched his arms out before getting out of bed. It didn't take him long to do his usual weekday morning routine; shower, brush teeth, and get his Hexside uniform on. Nothing worth putting much thought into, but then again, it was a school day. There was never really anything worth putting much thought into when it came to monotony central.
"Mom, what's for breakfast?" Nero asked as he walked down the hall to the kitchen and saw his mother sitting at the dining room table. Any desire for breakfast dwindled a tad when he saw the rather giddy look on his mother's face, almost like she had something to say that she was excited about and was waiting for him to ask. Now that she had his curiosity, he reluctantly asked, "Okay, what's with that look in your eye?"
"First, go change out of your Hexside uniform."
"Uh...why?"
"Because I pulled you out of school for the day!" Mom happily answered, much to Nero's surprise.
"Wait, seriously?" Nero asked as he smiled at the thought. No Hexside meant no boring lectures or putting up with annoying social climbers for a whole day, and while things were getting better, it also meant he'd get more time to himself to sort out whatever issues he had left regarding Edric and Emira. It was all very convenient-
"And you'll be coming with me to the Emperor's Coven!"
Aaaaaand there's the catch, Nero's smile faded as he crossed his arms and firmly replied, "Mom, can't I just not do that?"
"Nero," Mom's own happiness faded as well as she grew exasperated, "It honestly took quite a bit to schedule things for today. And..." she looked away for a second and ran a hand through her hair, "...and I'd like for you to get to see the Emperor's Coven for yourself. To see if anything will appeal to you. Just think of it like those "Take your child to work" days people have."
"Mom, I told you, I don't want to join Emperor Freakshow's coven, can't you just-"
"I know that, I-!" Nero was briefly taken aback when his mother raised her voice and stood up. She briefly took a deep breath and calmed herself down, "Nero, I know that, but I feel you aren't even giving any of the covens, much less the Emperor's Coven, a chance."
"Look, I just..." Nero stopped and sighed, scratching the hair atop his head as he looked to the floor. He felt like he was about to go on a long-winded tirade about how much he didn't want anything to do with the Emperor's Coven, but he felt it'd fall on deaf ears. Mom, especially recently, was pushing harder for him to join up, and the more she did, the more it felt like she'd eventually force him to join. He didn't know why she was so gun-ho about this, but he intended to remain steadfast and avoid joining, or at least delay that outcome as much as he could.
"I...Nero..." at the sound of his mother's voice, Nero looked up and saw that she was now directly in front of him, an almost pleading, desperate look in her eyes. "I know you're...reluctant to join a coven, and I don't want to force you. I really don't," she explained with a light sigh, "I just want you to give it a chance. Just for one day. Could you please do that for me?"
As Nero looked into his mother's eyes, he thought it over. It still wasn't something he wanted to do, but he wasn't seeing what he could do to change his mom's mind about this unofficial "Take your son to work day". It's just a day, Nero reminded himself of what Mom said, Put up with it for a day and make it clear that, no, you don't want to join the asshole's dumbass coven.
"Fine," he muttered just loud enough for his mom to hear, "I'll try to put up with it. Okay?"
Mom looked surprised for a second before she smiled. "Thank you," said before she clapped her hands and started moving around the kitchen, "If you want, you can get changed out of your uniform. I'll start making us some breakfast. Would you like anything specific?"
"I'm fine with whatever," he shrugged as he headed back to his room to shift to his casual attire, reminding himself that this was just for one day and that, hopefully, he wouldn't have to do this a second time. Plus, if nothing else, he was still out of school for a day, so that was a plus.
Not like any of this Emperor's Coven shit can be as boring as school, Nero mused to himself as he got changed.
"Booooorrrrrred." It didn't take long for Nero to learn just how wrong he was about the day. "What?" he asked when Mom gave him a look, "It's true. This shit's boring as hell. Aren't you guys supposed to fight criminals and crap?"
"Well, I'm sorry, but this is how things are," Lilith replied, "Being a high-ranking member of the Emperor's Coven requires micromanaging a lot of finer details, and that naturally leads to a lot of paperwork that has to be filled out, sent, reviewed, and sent back. Like it or not, it's 95 percent busywork and a meager 5 percent seeing action."
"Yeesh, sounds like a torture chamber."
"It admittedly is, but you get used to it after a few years." That wasn't what Nero expected to hear.
"Huh, kinda surprising," Nero leaned back in his temporary swivel chair, "You're normally into this kind of crap. Y'know, watching ink dry, meticulously detailing things down to a point, that kind of stuff? Weird seeing you not enjoy it." His mom looked back at her paperwork and sighed.
"For the first few years, I did enjoy it, honestly. But it tends to get... overwhelming, to put it mildly." She then almost growled as she said, "Having to deal with little shits like Kikimora certainly doesn't help." From there, it almost sounded like she was muttering something about "That bitch" and how she liked to slip more into Mom's already large workload than what was needed.
"Have you ever considered punching her in the face?"
"Hmm?" she looked away from her work, "Oh!" she then gained an almost playful smile, "No, but let's just say that I've been able to get back at Kiki a few times over the years."
"Like...?"
"Well, Steve and I were able to stick a "kick me" sign to her back. She went the whole day getting kicked around and didn't even see the sign until she had to go home," Lilith snickered, "And then there's the time I dropped some fire-bees on her during her lunch break," she practically started laughing almost infectiously, with Nero snickering alongside her. As she wiped a tear from her eye, she finished, "The look on her face was priceless! It was just like when Eda-"
Suddenly, she stopped laughing. Nero stopped too, shocked by the shift in his mother's demeanor, as she shifted from happy and borderline mischievous to melancholic and bitter. Without saying a word, she returned to her work, giving it her complete attention and ignoring all else. For a few minutes, Nero didn't really know what to say or do, only being able to look around the office to keep himself distracted. He then stood up and started pacing around, looking about his mom's workspace while doing what he could to avoid distracting her.
"Huh," Nero whispered as his eyes scanned one of the shelves, seeing a series of books aligning the rows; they ranged from poetry books by that William Blake guy to a bunch of history and biography books. But the top of the shelf drew his attention the most, as he looked to see a series of framed photographs, all kept cleaned and organized.
The first one Nero saw was one of the frontmost ones, it being a picture of him and his mom back when he was just a newborn, based on the hospital gown she was in and the bed she laid on. He couldn't help but feel a warmth in his heart, looking at the smile his mother had in the photo as she looked at his infant self with affectionate eyes.
The one right next to it was back when he couldn't have been older than twelve, dressed up in his new Hexside uniform for the Illusionist Track. He remembered that day, how happy Mom was when he told her what track he wanted to go into, how he went on and on about the things he was hoping to learn in the track, and how she scooped him up into her arms and joyously expressed how proud and happy she was for him. Sure, the track ended up being just as boring the longer it went on, given that it was just as easy as everything that came before it, but he'd always remember that moment fondly.
Nero felt his smile slowly leave as his curiosity shifted to the photos framed behind the two featuring him; all three of which featured his mother. Nero saw her more youthful appearance and realized that they were from her early years in the Emperor's Coven. The first one had her standing upright in her white coven cloak alongside an older woman in glasses who had a whip with a Monkey Palisman at the end.
Must be her old teacher, Nero thought as he remembered the one or two times his mom would mention something about an old teacher in passing; he couldn't place the name, but he was pretty sure it was Dora. At the same time, he saw that his mom had a forced smile and a frustrated look in her eyes.
The next two images looked to be from when she gained the rank of Coven Head and her first joining the Coven, respectively. Nero couldn't believe that the latter was real, not with how different his mom looked. Instead of the straight indigo hair he'd always known her to have, his mom's teenage self had poofy hair of a vibrant red. Her smile still came across as forced, and her eyes, hidden behind thick, round frames, conveyed a familiar sense of self-loathing in them.
But then his gaze shifted to the two photos just behind the three coven images, and for a second, his eyes widened. In both were his mother as a child, but something about them stood out far more than the previous pictures of her early years in the Emperor's Coven, and it didn't take long to see what it was.
His mom was smiling. Genuinely, wholeheartedly smiling. It was the same smile she tended to have around him, only with a child-like enthusiasm added on. And the people she was with in both photos made her smile seem even brighter. In the picture to the left, Nero could tell that the girl she was giving a one-armed hug was her sister, Eda. Rather than the white hair she had today, Aunt Eda's hair in the photo was a bright orange, and her golden fang was absent. Both the sisters were looking happily to the camera with the goofiest smiles he'd ever seen, and they seemed practically inseparable from each other. It was definitely a far cry from how they acted today.
Then his eyes fell on the final picture; a family photo with Mom and Aunt Eda at the forefront, both making peace signs to the camera as two adults stood behind them. The one just behind his aunt's child-self was a women in a purple dress with reddish-brown hair that stood upright at the sides and top. Behind his mother was a man in a blue coat whose orange hair was styled in a bushy beard and pony tail. Both of the adults were kneeling down and happily hugging the children they stood behind.
As Nero reached out to pick up the last photo in his hands, wanting a better look at the grandparents he never got to know, he thought about how they all seemed like one happy family. His mom, his aunt, and his grandparents all looked so loving and joyful in the picture, and it made him wonder what could have happened to put this weird distance between them-
"Nero." his mom's voice came from right next to him. He quickly turned to face her and saw that she was longingly staring at the picture he was about to pick up.
"Those are grandma and gramps?" Nero asked, getting a small nod in response. He slowly lifted the photo frame from the shelf, brushing his thumb over the image as he continued, "You guys look so happy together."
"We were."
"What happened?" Nero regretted the question for a second, watching his mother go rigid as she stared down at the photo in his hands. She reached out for the picture, with Nero meeting her halfway to hand it to her. Lilith turned away from him and gazed down at the frame, a deprecating look in her eyes growing more obvious the longer she looked at it.
"I...i-it's not important right now," she said quickly. Nero wanted to ask what she meant, but he bit his tongue to stop himself. The subject seemed pretty damn painful for her, and he really didn't have room to pry, all things considered. Instead, he watched as she put the picture frame back in its original place, "But what is important right now is that I need to head to the Conformatorium next."
"Prison break?" Nero rolled his arm as he felt a small tinge of excitement at the idea. It'd be his first time even seeing the Conformatorium, but if he was lucky, he'd be able to sneak off and get in a good brawl and kick some ass against escapees without Mom noticing. Sadly, seeing Mom shake her head as she turned to him made it clear that wasn't going to happen either way.
"No. Just a routine check to make sure everything's running smoothly, thankfully," she gave him a more stern look, "Now, while I'm certain the Conformatorium will be safe and secure, I want you to stay near me at all times. And in the event of an emergency, you get to safety as quickly as possible. You never know what could happen with all those convicts gathered in one place."
"Yeah yeah," Nero waved off, though that only caused the look in Mom's eyes to get more steely as she crossed her arms.
"Nero, this is serious. If something bad happens, I need you to get to safety as fast as you can. The prison houses the most dangerous criminals on the isles, and if one of them so much as comes anywhere near you-"
"I get it, mom. Really, I get it," Nero shrugged, trying to hide his annoyance at his mother's usual protectiveness, "We going or what?"
His mother nodded, shoulders sagging in relief as she held out her hand and summoned her staff to it. Soon enough, they were outside the office building and flying into the air. Looking up, Nero felt a bit bad that he was kind of hoping something big would happen while he was there. Still, Nero mused, It's somehow been less boring than the usual day at Hexside. Nothing fun ever happens there.
Crud, crud, crud, CRUD! Luz frantically threw her entire glyph book into the giant magic eating snake lady's mouth, carrying Willow and Gus to safety as the monster screamed in pain.
Yup, Nero thought, nothing but boring ass school stuff.
"Something on your mind, my little raven?" Lilith asked. The clouds in the sky grew darker as they flew further and as thunder shook the air. The moment a bolt of lightning fell from the clouds, Lilith started slowly descending to get away from the electricity.
"Not really, just looking around," Nero said as he leaned to the side to catch sight of the Conformatorium. The prison itself looked like an enormous cauldron with a tower at the center, and the entire structure was surrounded by jagged, building-sized bones. "Son of a bitch! That's the Conformatorium?"
"I know, it's a rather intense sight. I certainly had a stronger reaction when I first saw it," Lilith said as they both landed and got off her staff, "Now, remember what I said back at the office."
"Stay close at all times, avoid trouble yadda yadda, I get it." Nero's mom pinched the bridge of her nose and walked ahead with a sigh with Nero in tow. As they walked, Nero caught sight of a number of statues lined up evenly at the sides of the walkway, all of them carved in states of abject terror.
"Hey, Mom, who are those statues of?" Nero asked.
Lilith looked where he was looking and replied, "Those aren't statues, I'm afraid. They're the petrified bodies of the isles' most dangerous and ruthless criminals."
"What?" Nero asked in shock at the revelation, "Mom, don't you think that seems, I don't know, fucking excessive?"
"Nero, the Emperor's law dictates that the worst of captured lawbreakers be punished at the highest level. I know it seems harsh, but it's a necessity for maintaining peace," Mom explained, brushing a strand of hair behind her ears, "And besides, it's rarely employed anyway. The last time a petrification took place was thirty years ago."
It's still really fucked up, Nero crossed his arms and stared at his mother, asking, "Okay, what was the last guy's crimes?"
"I...I'm sorry?"
"You were about my age when the last petrification happened, right?" Nero asked before he continued, "I just want to know what they did to deserve...well," he pointed to one of the statues, "That."
Mom opened her mouth and raised her hand to speak, but she ended up going silent instead, looking like she was lost in thought. Her contemplative expression turned to shock, but then she shook her head and regained it again. Nero wasn't sure what was running through her mind, but it looked like some kind of repeated cycle was going around in her head.
"Ah, Madame Clawthorne." A deep, booming voice came from behind Mom as they both looked to see a towering demon with purple skin garbed in a white cloak and black trousers. He was wearing a hood and beaked mask that completely hid his face from view, overall making him look kind of like a massive tool. He was joined by two Conformatorium guards who stood to his left and right, "Welcome to the Conformator-" he stopped and looked directly at Nero, "Who are you?"
"Nero," he replied, a bit miffed that his question to Mom remained unanswered as he crossed his arms, "And you?"
"Oh! Nero, this is the head of the Conformatorium, Warden Wrath. Warden, this is my son, Nero," she introduced them before turning to face the warden, "I apologize if this is unexpected. My son is shadowing me for the day to see what the Emperor's Coven is like."
"Ah, well then I hope we can work well in the future," the warden said to him, "There is nothing more rewarding than punishing those who don't conform to the rules of our society."
Well, good to know I was right on him being a tool, Nero groaned and cleaned out his left ear, "Whatever, can we just get this over with?"
"Nero!" Mom chastised before looking to the warden apologetically, "I apologize for that. My son can be rather...impatient. I hope you understand."
"No need to apologize, Madame Clawthorne," Wrath replied, "I have a son myself, and I understand what you mean. Besides, the inspection cannot be delayed any longer."
Mom nodded, "Right, the inspection. In any case, I'll allow you to lead the way, Warden Wrath."
Wrath gestured for Nero and his mom to follow him inside the Conformatorium, first entering the garage where a bunch of prison carriages were parked before motioning to his guards to return to their posts. The warden and Mom started chatting about security measure improvements as they walked down the halls, saying something about "recent recaptures" and how not even "The Owl Lady" would be able to escape.
Somehow I doubt anything here could hold Aunt Eda for long, Nero silently snarked to himself. The guards here didn't seem all that bright or competent for people who were supposed to keep the isles most dangerous crooks locked up.
"And now," the warden walked a bit further ahead of them to open the door, "We get to our current inmates."
Wrath opened the door and they walked into the large spiraling tower of holding cells. Nero looked up and witnessed the dozens upon dozens of prisoners held within. As they walked, he started falling a bit behind, tuning out the warden and Mom's discussion even further, only hearing something about upgrades to the holding cells. That was mostly because he was more caught up in looking at the many prisoners locked up; some seemed threatening, while other seemed so small and miserable he wondered what the hell they could have done to get locked up. Even some of the more menacing prisoners looked pretty sulking the more he paid attention to them.
"And, here we have our two most recent recaptures," Nero's attention was shifted to the warden as he stopped just behind his mom, who was paying careful attention to everything she was hearing. "These two were involved in a prison break with the infamous Owl Lady," Wrath gestured to the two cells at his side. Nero looked and saw the prisoners in question; a fanged, dark-skinned witch wearing an indigo dress whose black hair was done up in a ponytail, and a small white demon with a round body, red hair, and a very prominent nose.
"You won't siwence us!" the small demon shouted in a high-pitched voice.
"Yeah!" the woman shouted in agreement with her fellow prisoner.
"SILENCE!" Wrath shouted back, causing both of them to back up.
"Okay," the tiny demon squeaked.
"What exactly did they do anyway?" Nero asked, getting everyone's attention.
"As Warden Wrath said," Mom began, "They aided Edalyn with-"
"No, I heard that part," Nero interrupted, "But I mean what did they do the first time? You said they were "recaptures", so they were here before. Why were they locked up to begin with?"
"They refused to conform with the normal behavior of the isles, and had to be punished accordingly," the Warden answered, a menacing drawl to his voice.
"That literally answers nothing I just asked," Nero glared at Wrath, resisting the urge to clench his fist in anger. The whole thing was starting to sound more like they were just locking up people they didn't like.
"In any case, we should continue on with the inspection," Mom interrupted a bit too quickly for Nero's liking. The Warden was quiet for a moment before he nodded and continued along, Mom following just behind him. Instead of walking just alongside them, Nero looked to the two prisoners the warden showed him and Mom, seeing the curious looks in their eyes. Looking back to the fleeting figures, he spun a quick spell circle and conjured an illusion clone just behind his mother to follow her.
Figuring that's buy him at least a few minutes before Mom realized something was up, he looked back to the two prisoners once he was sure he wouldn't be heard and asked, "So, why were you two really in here earlier?"
They both looked to each other before looking back to him, the taller woman asking, "How do we know we can trust you? You came in with the warden and the leader of the Emperor's Coven, so for all we know, you could be some coven spy."
"Yeah! We don't twust you!" the round demon agreed.
Nero sighed and answered, "For starters, I'm only here because I'm shadowing my mom while she's at work, and fuck the Emperor's Coven. I don't want anything to do with it in the first place."
That last sentence seemed to surprise them, as they looked at him with wide eyes before the dark-skinned woman smiled, "In that case, name's Katya. Tiny over here's Tinella."
"Yo!"
"And to answer your question," Katya reached behind her and pulled out a book before flipping to a random page, revealing a bunch of drawings of sentient food with hearts around them. "I'm only in here because the warden hates my fanfiction. I mean, what does he have against food being in love with each other?" she slammed the book closed and grumbled under her breath, "Jerkface."
"And he thinks I'm cwazy!"
Katya rolled her eyes and pointed to Tinella, "And she's a conspiracy theorist."
"You mock me now, but we'we all just pwathings in someone ewse's cwazy fanfic! I know we awe!" Tinella ranted.
"Sure," Katya drawled out.
"Wait, but those aren't even crimes," Nero mused out loud, "Those barely count as annoyances."
"Yeah, well that's the coven's crap in a nutshell. Stay in line, or get out of life," Katya muttered, leaving Nero lost in thought, even briefly looking around to the rest of the prisoners. How many of them were just average people living out their daily lives until someone decided they didn't fit in and locked them up? Some of them might have been actual criminals, sure, but if Katya and Tinella were any indication...
"This is bullshit," Nero muttered to himself as he dragged a hand down his face.
"Agreed, but you might wanna get back to your mom before she finds out you're still here."
He thought over Katya's words for a second and moved to leave, but he ended up looking back at hers and Tinella's cells. "Can't just leave them to rot," Nero said to himself as he walked back to Katya's cell and started looking around the doorframe, "Where's the lever to open it?"
"Thewe isn't one," Tinella said and pointed to the side of her cell, "Wath weplaced them with keypads."
Nero looked and saw the pad in question, briefly wondering why they gave it a color scheme that practically blended in with the wall. He heard Katya say something about how figuring the ten-digit code out was impossible, but the longer he stared at the numbers on the pad, the more he noticed something; out of all the buttons, the 1 button was the only one to be chipped and smudged.
Nero facepalmed, There is no way these guys are that dumb. "Alright, let's see here," he brought his finger up to the 1 button and pressed it ten times over. Like clockwork, Katya's cell opened up and she cautiously walked out.
"You mean to tell me the passcode was just one button this whole time!?" she whispered as loudly as she could.
"That's just wazy witing," Tinella deadpanned as Nero moved to her cell and inspected the keypad. Sure enough, it was the same thing; a one button code...with 2 being the only used key instead of 1.
"Man, these guys are idiots," Nero snarked as Tinella's cell opened. As the small demon joined Katya, he looked to the two freed prisoners and said, "Sorry, don't think I can free anyone else. Gotta head back before Mom notices the illusion, y'know?"
"Eh, it's fine. We get it," Katya shrugged and smiled before she and Tinella turned to leave. "Oh!" she turned back to face him for a second, "And thanks for helping us. Don't know too many people who would."
Nero smiled back and ran to the hall where the warden, Mom, and his illusion doppelganger went down. Thankfully, it didn't take him that long to reach them, as he turned a corner and saw they were in a large room with a glowing pillar of light at the center. Good, they're not looking this way, Nero thought as he made his illusion back away a bit and poof out of existence, quickly taking its place just as his mom looked back to face him.
"Nero, is something wrong?" Mom whispered to him.
"Uh, n-no, just...uh," he stammered and tried to think of something before a lightbulb went off in his head as he started rolling his shoulders, "Just gettin' ma stretch on!"
Nero felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead as Mom raised an eyebrow, though she thankfully shrugged and returned her attention to the warden, who was going on about recent upgrades made to contraband security. He didn't pay too much attention, only really listening when Wrath said something about trying to make it so that not even beings from outside the realm of Limbo could bypass it. Though luckily he didn't really have to, since as soon as Wrath finished yammering and turned to ask if they had any questions, one of the Conformatorium guards ran into the room.
"Sir! We have a problem, there..." the guard started before he hunched over onto his knees, panting, "Just...hoo boy, just give me a minute. Titan, why did I skip leg day?"
"What is the meaning of this?" Wrath asked just as the guard finally caught his breath.
"Two prisoners have escaped!" The guard yelled, causing the warden and Lilith to stiffen in shock.
"How is that possible!?" the warden shouted, "Have all the guards begin searching. They couldn't have gotten far!"
"Allow me to help," Mom said before looking to Nero, "Nero, I need you to stay here where it's safe. I'll be back soon."
Whatever Nero wanted to say was cut off by his mom forming a blue barrier around him. Soon enough, she, Warden Wrath, and the guard left the room and left him alone. Not having anything else to do, he summoned his scroll and started playing games to pass the time; he played a racing game, a fighter, and a platformer for a good ten minutes before he got bored and started staring at the ceiling. Suddenly, the barrier around him fizzled out as the doors slammed open and his mom entered with an irritated expression.
"You okay, Mom? Nero asked, "You look pissed."
Lilith took a deep breath and said, "I'm fine, my little raven. It's nothing you need to be concerned with."
"So, I'm guessing that you didn't catch them?"
"No. Unfortunately, they got away from us." She muttered something about how she needed to file another report before saying, "In any case, it looks like we should be going now."
"So what now? We done, or...?"
"No, I still have one more task for the day before we can head home."
"And what would that be?"
"Inspecting the routines of the coven troops at Emperor Belos' palace to ensure they're doing their jobs efficiently." As the two of them left the Conformatorium, Nero didn't really think much of his mom's final task for the day, but as they were flying in the air, he realized what it truly meant: having to walk around in Emperor Freakshow's personal domain.
Shit! Nero thought. Okay Nero, cool it. All you have to do is put up with it for a little while. Just try to avoid that..that... he shook his head, Just avoid Belos and deal. You can manage that.
"My little raven, are you alright?" Lilith asked, stopping her inspection of the palace coven troops for a second. Nero could tell she was worried about him, even as he did his best to not let on how he was keeping an eye out for Emperor Freakshow.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Mom," Nero said.
"Nero, please don't dodge the question." Unfortunately, she didn't leave it at that.
"Look, it's just..." Nero sighed and asked, "Fuck it. Mom, you remember when we came here when I was a kid?" It took a few seconds for her to look like she remembered what he was talking about.
"I...maybe this was a mistake." She handed him her staff, Coronis unfurling his wings at the end. "If you wish to leave, you can. I'll finish my rounds and meet you back at home." It was honestly a good opportunity to head home. More importantly, the whole point of this was because Mom wanted him to give the Coven a chance, and after everything he'd seen so far, he could safely say he wanted to join even less than he already did, so sticking around for anything more was pointless.
"Actually, I've put up with it this long, may as well see the day through. I don't want to, honestly, but...well, you want me to try, so I'll try." Nevertheless, he persisted, if only for his mom.
"Okay, but if at any point-"
"I'll manage. Okay?" Lilith nodded at his response and went back to surveying the scouts and guards; the same boring routine, but he stuck close to his mom, trying not to look over his shoulder on the off chance Belos was just behind them. Thus far, there hadn't been any sign of him.
"Hey Lilith!" Nero and his mom turned around to see a man dressed in standard Coven scout attire, beaked mask and all. "And hey to you too, Nero! Man, you're almost as tall as Lilith now!" It took Nero a few seconds to recognize the voice, though he didn't have to since his mom smiled and walked up to the man.
"Hello Steve!" she greeted, "Good to see you. How have you been?"
"Oh, you know. Standard routine," he shrugged, "Marching from place to place, staring out to search for any potential threats to the castle every hour. That sort of thing."
"Eh, sounds boring," Nero said. Mom gave him a slightly admonishing look, though Steve didn't seem to mind.
"Yeah, it can get draining after a while, but it is what it is. What can you do?" Steve replied, rubbing the back of his hooded head.
"Huh," Mom looked pretty surprised, "I...don't think I've ever heard you complain about your duties before."
Steve and Mom started talking for a bit while Nero slowly started detaching himself from the conversation to wander about. He was going to look around to see if any of the interior had changed since he was last here as a kid, but a sudden, familiar voice almost made his heart stop.
"Hello, my subjects," Belos' disturbing, willowy tone caused him to jump and assume an admittedly sloppy fighting stance before he saw no one but a pair of coven scouts, one leaning against the corner wall and clapping for her friend, who bowed like a stage performer.
"Holy crap! That impression was awesome!" the scout praised while Nero sighed in relief.
Get a grip, he reminded himself,, briefly looking to his right arm and clenching his fist a few times to relax, You're freaking out like a little kid.
"Nero," he heard his mom walk up behind him and place a concerned hand at his shoulder, "Are you alright, my son?"
Taking a deep breath, Nero answered and turned to face her, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just thought I heard something."
"You sure, Nero?" Steve interjected, "You look a bit paler than usual. If you want, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows someone's cousin who's a therapist's secretary. Maybe they can recommend some breathing exercises if you need them."
"Thanks, but no thanks," Nero said a little too quickly for his liking as he looked away. It was a nice sentiment, but he didn't need or want to see a therapist about anything.
"Well, if you ever change your mi-"
"Ahem! Excuse me," they all looked down to the shrill voice and saw the little gremlin, Kikimora, looking at them with snide contempt and superiority.
"Oh, hello, Kiki," Mom groaned, the annoyance almost rolling off her in waves.
"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything important."
"Something tells me you wouldn't care even if it was important," Nero snarked at the tiny, hand-headed demon. Kikimora looked like she was about to say something, but she suddenly gave a side glance to Mom, who had a look in her eyes that almost dared the smaller demon to say something. In an instant, Kikimora took on a more professional posture and cleared her throat.
"Well, child," she started, "If you must know, the Emperor has called an emergency meeting for the coven heads in his throne room," she then turned to Lilith, "All of them. I'm afraid your mother has more important things to take care of, and she could do without any distractions. I do hope you understand."
Nero raised an eyebrow, feeling like the gremlin was trying to insult him somehow, but whatever barb was laced into her sentence flew over his head. It didn't seem to fly over Mom's head though, since her hair was starting to defy gravity and her eyes glared with azure light down at Kikimora. "Kiki," Mom snarled in a warning tone, blue flames enveloping her fist as she raised it into the air. The gremlin looked terrified and started backing away, but thankfully, Steve stepped between the two and tried to stop Mom from scorching the little shit to ash.
Mom glared at him for a second, but the way Steve shook his head made it clear he was trying to keep her from doing something she'd regret in the long run. With a sigh of reluctance, she calmed down and straightened out her hair. "I understand, Kikimora," she said evenly, though Nero could still hear the barely restrained anger behind it, "I'll be there shortly."
Kikimora wiped the sweat from her brow and regained her haughtiness, "Good, we don't want to disappoint the Emperor after all," she turned to leave, but not before stopping and glaring back at them, "And Steve?"
"Yes, Lady Kikimora?" Steve saluted.
"Get back to work."
"Roger that!" he answered as Kikimora continued to walk away, soon out of sight and earshot.
"What a bitch," Nero said.
"Yeah," Steve said with a sigh. Mom, for her part, just kept glaring hatefully in the direction Kikimora walked off in before cooling off.
"Nero, it looks like I have to go now," his mom said. "If you need to head home-"
"Mom, I told you. It's fine. I'll just do some exploring while you're busy," Nero interjected.
"And I better get back to patrol. See you guys later!" Steve waved as he walked off to do just that, leaving Nero and his mom alone. He could tell Mother was nervous to leave him to wander the halls by himself, all things considered, and while he normally found her overprotectiveness grating, he stowed that aside to give her as reassuring a smile as he could.
"You should probably get going, too. Last thing you'd want is to piss Emperor Freakshow off by being late." His mom still looked worried, so he cleared his throat and said, "Look, I'll meet you at the entrance when you're done. I think I can find my way around this place, even if it's been over a decade."
His mom let out a breath and said, "Alright, I'll meet you at the palace entrance in hopefully an hour." She hugged Nero, and it took him a few seconds to return the gesture. "Now, are you sure you'll be able to find your way around? I could set up the locator spell, just in case." Nero rolled his eyes.
"No, Mom, I'll be fine. Just get going." She finally nodded and took her leave, leaving him by himself with no one but the one or two passing guards on patrol in the area that paid him no mind. Surprisingly, he felt a tad more at ease, though he chalked that up to knowing that Belos would be at the meeting Mom was going to and wouldn't be able to run into him.
"Let it go, Nero," he whispered, trying not to think about that monster from his childhood.
With one final exhale, he moved down the hall to explore the palace. It wasn't long before he started walking down hallways lined with all too familiar murals, ones that he'd seen during his first visit when he was four. Everything felt different now all these years later, though. He remembered a time when seeing the murals filled him with this sense of childlike wonder, either because he thought the history behind them was cool, or because the images just looked impressive to him back then. Now, at 17, the longer he looked at them, the more he hated them. All he saw were monuments to a monster.
How do people actually follow this fucker anyway? Nero looked down at the floor and pondered that question a few times over. After what he saw today at the Conformatorium, he could safely say that the system Belos was leading was an even bigger load of bullshit than he already thought it was. At first he figured it must have been some kind of charisma, but besides what he felt on the guy, he remembered the few times his mom either spoke to him via mirror or brought him up in conversation. The tone she had was always fearful and kowtowing towards him, so the only reason Nero could find for anyone to kiss the bastard's ass was simple: everyone was afraid of him.
And as he sighed to himself and absentmindedly pushed a door open, he honestly couldn't blame anyone for that. I mean, I don't really have any room to...say... whatever else he was thinking grinded to a halt when he looked up and saw the relics standing tall on the room's podiums. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he muttered, "Of all the places I had to wander into..."
Much as he didn't want to, he looked around the room, everything as it was from the last time he was there. As he looked around, more memories started to seep into his head; wandering around without a care in the world, seeing the cool looking interiors of the structure, then accidentally hearing a voice and finding his way into the throne room to witness-
"OOF!" Nero snapped out of his worsening memories to see that he bumped into one of the relic's podiums, causing the relic in question to fall to the floor. Thinking fast, he summoned an ethereal arm and caught the relic just before it hit the ground. With a quiet sigh of relief, he put it back and turned to leave...
"You really shouldn't be here," …only to be stopped by someone with a bit of an annoying voice. Nero looked up to see the owner of said voice; a rather scrawny looking coven soldier that was just a bit shorter than him wearing a white hooded cloak that covered his body, which itself was garbed in a yellow tunic, black pants, and brown combat boots. His gloved right hand held a staff with a single wing for the guard and a pommel made of glowing red crystal. Probably the most attention catching parts of his attire were the golden helmet and left-mounted golden pauldron, both of which gave Nero a good idea who this guy was supposed to be.
"Don't worry, I was already leaving," Nero replied as he walked passed the Golden Guard to leave the bad memories from this room behind.
"How did you do that?" Nero stopped at the question and turned back. The Golden Guard seemed to look at him with a curious posture, "That arm thing that you did. Can't say I've ever seen that kind of magic before, and I've seen a lot of them. Is that something you learned or is it unique to you?"
Nero looked down at his right arm, hesitating for a few seconds before answering, "It's kind of a me thing, honestly."
"Huh, so your right arm-"
"Yes."
"And it can make magical constructs of-"
"Yes. Anything else you want to know?" Nero asked, a little annoyed by the questions considering what they were about.
"Look, sorry," the Guard held his hands up in surrender, "I was just curious. It was a new form of magic, and I wanted to know more about it. Y'know?"
Nero sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, I get it. Just don't like talking about it. Anyway, should probably get out of your hair. Need to leave the palace anyway."
"Fair enough," he replied, "By the way, what's your name?"
"Nero."
"Nero," the Guard scratched his helmet like he was trying to remember something. Not a moment later, he perked up, "Wait, you're Lilith's kid, aren't you? The same one she likes to gush about like, all the time?"
For a second, Nero felt his face heat up before he slammed his forehead into his palm. "Titan dammit mom," he cursed under his breath.
"I mean, I think it's nice. If my dad was still around, I'd like to hope he was gushing about me to his coworkers. If he had any, obviously," the Guard placated as he walked up and held out his hand, "Anyway, you can just call me the-"
"Golden Guard. Yeah, all the gold armor may have gave it away," Nero groaned in his hand, still processing the embarrassing new detail. He was able get over it quickly enough to shake the Guard's hand, "Anyway, uh, thanks...I guess."
"No problemo. Say, how about I walk you out?" he asked as he retracted his hand, "It'd be kinda nice to have someone new to talk to. Plus, I don't get much time to talk with anyone on the job, and these are sort of my off hours, so..."
Nero thought about it, briefly remembering what his mom mentioned about her experiences with the Golden Guard; that he was an immature brat. But he honestly didn't come across that way at all, and annoying as his questions were, they reminded him a bit of Luz and her own fascination with magic. Hell, it even reminded him a bit of his own curiosity from when he was a kid. In its own way, it was a little endearing.
"I don't see why not," Nero shrugged, hiding the ghost of a grin he had as they walked out of the relic room. Traversing down the halls, Nero tried to figure out what to talk about, but that was a bit of a struggle. Thankfully, he didn't have to, as the Guard opened up first.
"So...how's life?" even with Nero having no room to talk, he couldn't help but find that opening awkward as he raised an eyebrow. The Guard gave an equally awkward chuckle, "Yeah, I know. Not exactly a good conversation starter, but to be fair, I don't know any good conversation starters."
"Yeah, that makes two of us, GG." at the confused sound he made, Nero explained, "I mean, I don't even know your name and constantly calling you "Golden Guard" is gonna get annoying after a while, so I'm calling you GG for short."
GG raised a hand, "Actually, my name's-" before he cut himself off and started whispering to himself. He shrugged and said "You know what? GG it is. Honestly, I've never had a nickname before. Feels nice."
"Glad you think so. Least you didn't get stuck with "Claw Boy" for one," Nero grimaced.
"That doesn't sound that bad. Why's it a bad nickname?" at GG's question, Nero raised his right arm as if it was obvious. "Ooooh," GG seemed to get the picture, "But how come you don't like your right arm? Doesn't seem that bad to me."
"Long story that I ain't getting into."
"Well, if you ever feel like talking about it..." Nero didn't respond any further, instead just walking beside the Golden Guard in silence for several seconds. Seeing that GG wasn't attempting to say anything, Nero sighed, May as well give it a shot.
"Any hobbies?" he asked, GG looking at him with a tilted head to which he shrugged back, "What? I told you, this ain't really my style."
"Not judging, just..." he went silent again before answering, "Does reading count as a hobby?"
Nero raised an eyebrow, "Why the hell wouldn't it?"
"I wasn't sure if it was or not," GG rubbed the back of his neck, "Anyway, as far as books go, I recently got into a book called Ruler's Reach. How about you? What books do you like?"
"Mostly comics, manga, and anything with intense action or monsters in it," Nero answered before he started counting off his favorite series, "Far as manga goes, there's Berserk, Devilman, Bleach, and Digimon. For regular reading, I used to have some books in this series about a detective of some kind, but I lost track of them a couple years back. I also read a book that goes over the different monsters you'd find on the Boiling Isles, so, y'know. There's that."
"I have no idea what any of those are, but they sound nice."
"Well, what else do you read?" Nero asked. The Guard pondered for several moments, way too many to come up with an answer if Nero was being honest.
Before he could say anything, GG finally spoke up, "Uh, actually, that's it. I've only ever read Ruler's Reach and I kinda stumbled on it by accident when I was in the middle of a patrol."
"That's..." Nero shook his head, "You sure you haven't read anything else before?"
"I mean, I've read all the Coven manuscripts and required learning, but if we're talking about external media, then nope. I got nothing."
Nero almost felt his eye twitch trying to process that, That doesn't even...how!? Does Emperor Freakshow just keep people in his coven from reading anything he doesn't want them to? Granted, wouldn't put it past him, but still... It just didn't add up in Nero's eyes. Sure, after what he'd seen today, it had more than enough basis, but even his mom was allowed to read things outside coven purview and have a life that didn't revolve around the system. The Golden Guard was starting to sound like he was raised on nothing but coven crap.
"Fucking Emperor's Coven," Nero pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?" GG's question sounded shocked and just a tad hostile. Nero sighed as he began to realize that the conversation was now soured.
"Look, I don't know what kind of bullshit you were brought up on, but did you just not read anything other than coven required reading because you didn't have the time, or were you not allowed to?"
The Guard looked ready to retort, but stopped midway and looked down. But after a bit, he snapped up and said, "I just...I was just lucky to find something to read that wasn't "useless drivel" is all."
"Who told you to avoid "useless drivel", as you put it?" Nero asked, despite pretty much knowing the answer.
"Emperor Belos, of course."
"Right," Nero facepalmed, "And Ruler's Reach isn't that because..." He waited for an answer, but was instead met with an uncomfortable silence that went on way longer than it should have. It got to the point where Nero imagined GG cycling through facial expressions underneath his mask. Realizing what that meant, Nero simply stated, "He doesn't even know, does he?"
"I've been meaning to tell him," the Guard defended, "He just...he's very busy. You know, running the isles, maintaining peace and order-"
"More like being an oppressive asswipe," Nero probably shouldn't have blurted that out, but he didn't regret saying it.
"Excuse me?" GG grew indignant, "Emperor Belos is NOT an "oppressive a-"" he stopped and shook his head, "Not even gonna finish that sentence. Look, I don't know why you'd say that, but that isn't who he is."
"Tell that to the people he locks up in the Conformatorium."
"Oh sweet naïve Nero," Nero wasn't liking the Guard's condescending tone or the way he shook his head, "I don't know how to tell you this, but the people in the Conformatorium are criminals and monsters. They use any crime or lie necessary to get what they want. Don't really blame you for falling for them."
"Okay. Enlighten me. What lies have they told you that you, in your infinite wisdom, were able to see through?" Nero asked, his question followed by the Guard scratching the cheek of his helmet.
"Well, I've never actually talked with or interrogated any prisoners before, but-"
"Let me stop you right there," Nero interrupted with a calm glare, "How the hell can you say that the Conformatorium's nothing but liars and monsters if you've never so much as talked with any of them even once?"
"Emperor Belos has been very clear that-"
"Oh my fucking Titan!" Nero felt his exasperation peak, "Are you even hearing yourself? Belos this. Belos that. You're just following everything he says without a second thought!"
"Because clearly, unlike you, I don't ignore the good his rule has brought and make things up!" the Guard shouted back.
"And I don't blindly hang off Emperor Freakshow's every sentence because thinking for myself is apparently too damn hard!"
"Better that than a reckless rebel in the making!"
"And better that than a tyrant's bitch!"
At that, the Guard went completely silent, his posture conveying just how pissed off he was before snarling, "Take it back."
"No."
"I said," the Guard's staff flared with crimson energy, "Take. It. Back!"
Nero gave him one final cold glare, "Make me, Golden Guard."
Lilith stretched as she walked out of the Emperor's throne room, the rest of the Coven heads walking not to far behind her while Kikimora remained behind to speak with Emperor Belos. She was able to hear some idle, friendly chatter between Darius and Eberwolf, and some not so friendly chatter between Terra and Adrian, with the former sending subtle, snide remarks towards the latter. Mason, Scooter, Hettie, Osran, and Vitimir, on the other hand, were further behind from the rest of them, too much so for Lilith to make out whatever conversations they were having, if any.
Not like what they're talking about matters anyway, Lilith thought as she sped up slightly down the hall. The day was over, after all, and knowing her son's discomfort with the palace, it was time to head home. She still admonished herself for not realizing her son's fear until it was too late, but she at the very least was happy he wanted to make an effort to move past it. If he was willing to do that, maybe it was a sign that he was willing to give the Emperor's Coven a chance? Maybe she wouldn't lose her son. Not to her sister, and not to Belos.
Either way, I shouldn't dawdle anymore. He's probably at the entrance by now, She saw the hall split into four ways with the way to the entrance directly in front of her. As Lilith was about to speed up, however, a sudden dark blue blur zoomed past her at speeds her eyes couldn't track. She ran and poked her head around the corner where the blur went, eyes widening to see her son skid to a halt across the floor before rolling upward, blue flames in his left hand with scorch marks running up the sleeve of his coat. His mouth moved, making a taunt of some kind, but whatever it was, Lilith didn't hear it. Instead, she could only focus on the preceding events.
The way Nero was flung across the hall, the burn marks, his defensive posture. Someone had attacked him. Someone tried to hurt her son.
Lilith turned her head and saw her son's attacker: the Golden Guard. The brat stomped forward, staff glowing crimson as he turned into a yellow blur to strike her little raven again. That was his last mistake. Lilith was already right in front of him in the blink of an eye, and she slammed her staff into the side of his head, sending him flying to the wall. Immediately after, she blitzed toward him and grabbed him by the neck before slamming him into the wall a second time, leaving a significant imprint of his body. The Golden Guard's helmet was now cracked open, a single magenta eye looking at her before it winced in pain as she brought the tip of her staff to the front of his mask, Coronis' form burning bright.
"Don't. Fucking. Move." The world around Lilith devolved into white noise as she heard what sounded like shouts for her to stop, even from her son. For a moment, it almost made her cease what she was doing, but she was too focused on making the little shit burn for what he did. She focused her magic into her Palisman to make good on that promise, but suddenly found herself pulled back by an unknown force, and Lilith slammed hard into the wall just behind her and fell with a groan.
"I think that's quite enough of this childish display. Wouldn't you agree?" Lilith's eyes snapped open as she looked up to see Emperor Belos stand between her and the Golden Guard.
"E-Emperor Belos," Lilith stammered as she stood upright in an instant. The Emperor's cold gaze fell entirely on Lilith, leaving her doing everything she could to avoid trembling in fear.
"I don't know what led to your actions, Lilith," Emperor Belos spoke, his tone frighteningly even, "Nor do I care for that matter, but attacking the Golden Guard will not be tolerated. He's much harder than you are to replace. Is that understood, Lilith Clawthorne?"
"Y-yes, my lord. I understand," Lilith's eyes wandered to see the rest of the coven heads now witnessing the events, some with expressions of shock, such as with Darius, and others with twisted delight like Terra. Even Kikimora had arrived and was clearly enjoying the situation unfolding. But then her gaze fell to Nero, and all she felt then was worry.
She could see it in her son's eyes; the fear and trepidation at Belos' presence. It was subtle, but she could see his right arm shake, fist clenching on reflex as his breathing grew louder. For a second, she looked back to the Emperor, who now turned his attention to the Golden Guard, himself rigidly standing at attention while she slowly, but discreetly, made her way to her son to put herself between him and Belos.
"Would you care to explain what you thought you were doing?" Belos asked the Guard, who seemed almost paralyzed.
"I was just-" The Guard interrupted himself before taking a deep breath and kneeling, "I-I apologize, Lord Belos. I lost my temper and acted out of line."
"That much is obvious, as is your injuries," Belos' tone sounded rather dismissive of what Lilith had done to the Guard, "Such lapses in behavior are not to be tolerated. For your own safety, you'd best start living up to what I expect from you. Have we an understanding, Hunter?"
The Guard, Hunter, fearfully looked up at Belos and nodded, and Lilith felt relieved for a moment. If nothing else, the coven's so-called "prodigy" was facing judgment for attacking her son. It obviously wasn't for that reason, but she'd take that over him getting away with it. However, as she prepared to leave with Nero in tow, she heard her son let out a baited breath as she looked back to him. For a moment, he stopped shaking, and suddenly stepped past her to walk right towards Emperor Belos.
"Nero, what are you doing!?" She whispered to her son, who ignored her and proceeded to shout the emperor.
"Hey!" Belos and the Guard looked to Nero, who froze up for a second under the emperor's gaze. Lilith was ready to step between the two, but Nero shook off the moment of terror and said, "Look, asswipe. The only reason Hunter lost it was cause I said some shit, so lay the hell off already!"
For a moment, there was nothing but dead silence throughout the halls. Lilith stood in complete horror at her son's insult to the sovereign of the isles. Nero, do you know what you've done? Lilith's thoughts ran in disarray. For all intents and purposes, he just made himself a target, and one for the only person on the isles she couldn't protect him from. And for what? she glared at the Golden Guard, who seemed almost as shocked as she was at the turn of events, Your attacker? Why would you put yourself in the line of fire for someone like that!?
"Ah, the son of Lilith Clawthorne. How long has it been since you were in the halls of this palace?" Belos' tone betrayed nothing as he narrowed his eyes, "Regardless, this does not concern you. I suggest you know your place, and remain out of this."
Nero sneered and crossed his arms, "Yeah? Well since he and I fighting led to all this, I think it does concern me. So I suggest you quit being such a Titan damned prick already before I rip off that mask and make you uglier than you already are."
"Nero, please just stop talking," Lilith whispered to herself, tightening her grip on her staff as she felt a wave of anger roll off of the emperor. She didn't know what he would attempt, nor could she think of any way to stop him. If the worst came, she could put herself in front of her son to take whatever hit came, but after that, she didn't know.
"You've certainly grown into quite the rebel, haven't you?" Belos snidely asked.
"Coming from you, that's a fucking compliment," Nero's reply was met with another wave of anger, but it left as soon as it arrived. Instead, the Emperor wordlessly turned away.
"I'm afraid I have important business to attend to now, but I suggest you learn manners, boy. Lest you end up with an enemy you cannot hope to escape from," Lilith's throat tightened in rage at the Emperor's undisguised threat, but she kept herself composed as he walked away. "Hunter," he called the Guard, "Follow along. We have much to discuss."
"Yes, Lord Belos," the Guard answered in a resigned tone, standing and following Emperor Belos, but not before turning back to Nero with a look of confusion and, for a split second, gratefulness. The moment they were out of sight, Lilith ran up to her son and hugged him with all her strength, which he returned after a few moments of rigidness.
"Mom, it's okay. I'm fine," Nero said as he let go.
"Good," Lilith smiled before she gave him the most maternal glare she could muster, "But what the hell were you thinking!?"
"I couldn't just sit back and let him take the heat like that," Nero sternly defended.
"Nero, he attacked you. You have burn marks on your clothes and were knocked across a hall because of him. Why would you want to defend him?"
Nero rubbed the back of his head and looked down, "Because like I said, I started it, so him taking all the blame just didn't sit well with me," he admitted, "And even if I didn't, I don't think he has to put up with Belos' bullshit either."
"But-"
"Oh Lilith, lighten up on your kid," Darius walked up from behind her, Eberwolf at his side, "After that display, I'd say he's earned a break from any patronizing." Lilith blushed with a slight tinge of anger at the accusation before noticing that the rest of the coven heads were gone. "If you're wondering where the others went, Terra and Kikimora left as soon as you started hugging your kid. Something about finding the display disgusting," Darius answered her unspoken question before pointing at her son, "The rest ran away somewhere after he started getting mouthy with the emperor. Didn't want to be in the same place on the off chance Belos erupted."
Eberwolf yipped in agreement before he scurried up to Nero and briefly sniffed his boot. "Uh...what?" Nero asked as Eberwolf suddenly climbed onto his back, "What the hell?"
"Eberwolf, stop it!" Lilith shouted.
"Ugh," Darius groaned, "Mutt, would you kindly leave the boy alone?" Eberwolf leapt off Nero's head and returned to Darius' side. "Why are you like this?" Darius asked the Beastkeeping Coven's head witch, though that question went ignored.
"What just happened?" Nero asked in confusion.
"What happened was that the Huntsman was getting a feel for your sent like he does with everyone else," Lilith glared at the diminutive hairball who tried to look innocent.
"Yes, well, I suppose greetings are in order," Darius walked up to Nero and held out his hand, "Darius Deamonne," he pointed down to his fellow coven head, "And you've already met Eberwolf."
Eberwolf yipped out a greeting and a playful wave. "Uh, nice to meet you, I guess?" Despite Nero's look of confusion, he still took Darius' hand and shook it before waving down at Eberwolf. "So, Mom," Nero looked to her and asked, "Think we can head home now?"
Lilith raised an eyebrow, but saw the trepidatious look in her son's eyes as he asked. He was still clearly shaken by encountering Belos again, even if he stood up to him. With a nod, she waved goodbye to the remaining two coven heads and quickly made her way for the palace doors with her son. The moment they were outside, they flew into the air on her staff and made their way home. Along the way, Lilith occasionally looked back at her son, who remained silent the entire time. A small part of her wanted to ask him how he felt about his day, if anything today gave him a new perspective on the coven, but after what just happened, she couldn't bring herself to voice the question. It was all to clear that her intentions, to help him be more open to the idea of joining the Emperor's Coven, had ended in failure.
And strangely enough, there was a small part of her that was actually relieved it had.
Nero took a deep breath as he laid back on his bed, hands rested behind his head. After he and Mom got back home, she went to the kitchen to make dinner rather wordlessly. When he asked her what was wrong, she insisted that everything was fine and that he had nothing to worry about. It was easy to tell she was lying, but Nero didn't press any further than that. Not like he had any room to do so.
Holding his right hand to his face, he felt it tremble again just from thinking about that brief encounter with Emperor Belos. Despite his brief standing up to the bastard, he was still afraid. With a glare, he shook his head and managed to still it as he sighed, "Years later and you're still that same scared little kid." Suddenly, his scroll manifested on its own, showing that he got a text from Edric.
"Hey Nero, where were you at school?" the text read.
Opening the text box, he saw it was a joint chat shared between himself, Edric, and Emira. With a shrug, he texted back, "Mom had me shadowing her at work for the day."
"Really? Sounds boring." Emira texted, to which Nero silently agreed and texted back about what was going on now, making sure to leave out any major details.
"Yup. Pretty damn boring. Just watched her do paperwork, inspect Conformatorium, and later the coven scouts at the Emperor's palace." Nero texted, leaving out some of the more important details, if only because he wasn't sure how to properly talk about it.
"I feel your pain." came Edric's reply.
"Yeah, but at least I got to skip school for a day. So everything was less boring than it could have been."
"Oh...uh...Emira, should we tell him?"
"You already typed it, so we don't have a choice, idiot."
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"What are you two talking about?" Nero interrupted their message chain with a text of his own.
"There was a monster attack on the school today. Something called a Basilisk. Luz and a bunch of other students took it down."
Nero felt his eye twitch as he read Emira's message a few times. After a huff of annoyance, he typed, "You mean to tell me the one time there's anything interesting happening at Hexside, I fucking miss it!?" a few moments later, he got Edric's message back.
"If it makes you feel any better, we missed most of it too. We got our magic sapped out of us by the Basilisk and were out cold for the whole thing."
Nero scoffed to himself and texted, "Yeah, well at least you two were around something interesting."
After a few seconds, Emira texted back, "Oh come on. Something interesting had to happen on your day off. Like, say, you were at the Emperor's palace, so did you run into Belos? Is he as creepy as he sounds?" Upon reading the text, his mind ran back to when he stood up to the Emperor; trying to keep his nerves in check. Every second of staring him down made Nero afraid that he'd mutate into...whatever it was he saw as a kid. He didn't know what to make of it, and he hoped to never see it again, nor think about it at all for a long time.
"No. Didn't even see him," Nero lied in his text.
"Oh well." Emira texted back, "Still, sounds better than being stuck at home all day."
Nero typed, "I guess."
A good ten seconds later, Edric messaged, "We better get going. Dinner's ready."
"Nero! Dinner's ready!" Mom called out from across the house.
Talk about perfect timing, Nero mused before texting back, "Same on my end. Talk later, I guess?"
"Sure thing. See you later!" both of them texted at the same time before closing out the chat. With a final sigh, Nero hopped out of bed and walked down the hall of his house, hoping to put today behind him.