LXVIII ||| Your Responsibility Now

That was a fucking low move. So. Bloody. Fucking. Low.

["I mean, you did steal his players,"] this time, only I can hear his.

This is different, Jack. And he did it to piss me off.

["And it worked!"]

He picked Philippa's children, Jack!

["Who are also your half-siblings', remember?"] Ugh.

Oliver knows I would hate his move, it was low. And it's different.

["He's as pissed off as you are, Hel. I can tell!"]

Fuck that. He was bloody petty.

["He got back on you!"]

"Stop defending him!" I yelled at him, too loud. So loud that every single person in the class heard and turned to me. "Ugh. I'll kill you, Jack." Crossing my arms over my chest, in a very I-am-pissed-out-of-my-mind sign, I did my best to hold my anger inside me as I turned to Mia, who, of course, was grinning devilishly. "What now?" I growled.

Her grin got wider, "You have seven days to train, make strategies, find a way to create technics of the game together. Hel, you're new at this, but you will be the one managing it all, it's your responsibility. Those 13 kids are now your responsibility, so, be responsible, child. Study them and find everything you can make you of. Think you can do it?"

"Of course. I did learn how to plan a war, you know? Strategies in a game like this won't break my mind. Besides," I scoffed, "seven days? What is seven days for someone who can stop time?" I said with my most condescending smug that they all hate. "Time is my plaything. I'll make these kids work their arses off in what will feel like ten years and not days. I'll train them the same way Cosmos trained me!"

"I'm scared," Kalisha and Elsa both mumbled to Noah, who simply brushed it off, smiling as if he believed I'm joking.

"We will win this," I groaned. "Anything else, Mia?"

She tilted her head, "I heard a Black Sìth came to you."

"Yes, and?" I blinked annoyed.

"What did it want?"

"It told me to meet a person, eleven days from now," I moved my weight from one leg to another.

"A person?" She arched her eyebrow.

I licked my lips, "Can we talk in private?" I side glared Oliver and he scoffed annoyed. "There's something very important I've been wanting to ask you, but I was kind of avoiding for some reason."

["Wait, you're going ask how to break the mating bond?"]

Not yet. But I want Oliver to think so.

And by how he tensed up, it worked, "Hel," he groaned and took me by my forearm, making me stare at him, "You better not joke about this, just because you're mad. Not right now. We've been over this!" I would be all sad, if I wasn't so fucking angry.

"Yeah?" I said sarcastically. "I remember that I've made my point!"

He frowned, "You better not do that. I'm serious."

I glared at him and pushed him away, "I would joke about any of this. Now, fuck off before I attack you. I'm angry and ready to kill two very specific people, and it's your fault," I hissed.

"You stole them."

"And you know what you just did," I growled under my breath, and then I turned to Mia, "Can we talk, please?"

"Don't!" He groaned and I pushed him to the wall with my magic.

"Ignore him, it's me who's curious, not him!" Then I walked to her, "Then I tell you all you need to know about the fey," Nacht. "But I really, need your help. You're the only one who might help me with this."

She grinned, "Alright, Hel. Come with me!"

"Master Mia, please," when his voice broke, I gulped but stoically.

"Quiet down, child. I'm not impulsive, I'll listen to your mate and tell her all she want to know. No need to freak out, Oli, that's definitely what she's intending in here. You got her mad, now you deal with it. She's your mate, after all. Not my problem," she winked and teleported us away.

✵ 𖣔 ✵

"I'm not getting between your mating bond with Oliver, Hel," she exclaimed as she sat down on her chair, and I found myself sat in front of her desk. As she snapped her long-nailed now polished in red fingers, two teacups appeared on our hands.

Inhaling the chamomile tea scent, I took a sip, "Oh, no. I mean, yes, a part of me is looking for a while to take care of that, but that's not why I'm here. Shall I tell you about the fey now or after I ask you about what I need?"

She grinned amused, "So, was that just to piss him off?"

"Of course. He isn't deeply attached to these kids I chose, but he purposely chose my half damned siblings for his team. Oliver played dirty, and used something he knows throws me off. So, I used something that I know would send him on the edge," I rolled my shoulders. "He brought that to himself."

To my shock, she burst out laughing, "How amusing. How amusing indeed. You even fooled me, I'm surprised. My pupil will have a hard time with you, he'll have to sweat a lot. I can't wait to watch it," then she leaned closer. "Did you see the gargoyle in the 5th gallery?" Hah.

Of course, she knows. She's probably the one who made it possible for me to find that place, "I did. I learned a lot, thank you Mia. It means a lot. So," I looked down at the bracelet adorning my left wrist, "is this the gem that strengths my kind?"

A nod, "Indeed."

So, the Maden did fool Meredith. "Nacht, the Black Sìth told me to meet Annabelle Bluebonnet on the Corse Woods of Death, in February 13th, at 5 pm. It also said she's waiting for me and Oliver. But by the words he used I believe it might be one of the primordial Triple Goddesses. He also left it underlined that he knew my grandfather Umbra Miralanthor, and that I look like him. And that this Goddess in question, if I'm right and it is one, has been watching me."

No reason not to be honest with her.

And she seemed very amused by my crude honesty, "Nacht? That's the name of the messenger of the Maden, darling. Seems like the youngest of the Triple Goddesses want a meeting with you, as expected. She was never one to interfere in the shadows as much as the Crone, but definitely more than the Mother."

My eyes widened, "It is really her?"

A nod, "Must be, if it was Nacht. I remember him vaguely, but he did meet your grandfather, and your grandmother, and the winged serpents council, as he was the sub-leader of his kind, and they fought together with King Umbra Miralanthor!" She must know what Lydia told me.

"So I've learned."

"You asked about the emerald," she took a sip of her tea, "did you read the architecture records I made?" When I nodded, she licked her lips. "So, are you going to Emerald Sky City?"

Hah, to think she already knows everything and is just keeping it for herself for the fun of it… how bored must she be? "Yes. I was going in seven days, but now that we'll have to play on this damned festival, I'll go after I meet with the Maden, when I'm done whopping Oliver's arse."

She grinned ferociously to that, "Good. You shouldn't ignore the call of a Goddess, even if it isn't the one you worship. That could anger them, and that would be terrible for you. But that aside, you also worship the Crone, don't you?" I think I made it obvious.

"Yes. Mom told me that's the Goddess that always protected our family. So, yes, it's the only one I pray for. Besides, I'm confused because I used to think the Maden had fucked me up by telling Meredith to use emerald on me, on the coffins and shackles, because it was harmful to me. But now that it seems like she was messing with her to help me, I don't know what to think."

Sigh, "The Triple Goddesses operate each in their own way, Hel. Crone was always the one who wanted to help the most but as they can't directly interfere, she did it on the shadows, many times concealing those whom she knew would be major characters of the big events that were going to happen in the future. Maden, on the other way, likes to act in a ambiguous manner, she measures whom will be more entertaining to her, and then she helps them in a way they won't know she's doing it."

"As the youngest of the three, she always seemed to have a childish mindset, whereas the Crone, as the oldest of the three, was always one to take everything extremely seriously. You may know that by now but the Maden sees the past, the Mother sees the present, and the Crone sees the future. The future is the most overwhelming thing to see, I believe, and it weighs on her, as she has the ability to successfully know what will need to be done for a better future to be born."

"The past, is heavy on the mind in the way of remembering the worse things that happened, and I believe the Maden keeps this childish mindset to brush the heaviness of not having helped the horrors of the past," she pointed to me. "Like the technical extinction of your kind, that was the loved children of both the three Goddesses and it saddened both of them to a grand degree. As a bystander, I would compare it to the pain of losing a favorite perfect child whom you love a lot. Plus the fact that their other child together, are now frozen in time, unable to act on anything."

"Must be tough to be a Goddess," she scoffed. "When it comes to the Mother, she's a righteous overly religious virgin," I couldn't help, I burst out laughing at such a ungodly description, and to my relief, she laughed with me. "I mean it, you know. She seems like some uptight nun," again, I was overwhelmed by a wave of laughter. "She's always around, always watching every single thing that happens in the present, and even though she wants to help her children, she gulps and insists in following the rules, even if she does not agree with any of it. Simply for the sake of being the righteous one and following it."

"In fact, I think something as horrible as the possible extinction of another of her children would have to happen for her to send the rules to hell and find a way to help," she tilted her head and drank more of her tea, I did the same. "So, I believe that in your journey, you might potentially be helped by her. Not now, but I do have a feeling that it might happen."

["She sounds like she knows that will happen!"]

I'm starting to believe she isn't necessarily a dark witch, Jack.