Chapter 12

"So this is where we will be staying for the foreseeable future," Iliana asked. We were in front of a nice two-story house, just outside the gate. I wanted to bask in the situation of me moving out for a bit.

"Yes, the owner of the place died in an unfortunate accident and fortunately for us he didn't have any family or friends so I can just take over his identity," I said receiving a look from her.

She sighs. "Unfortunate accident? You sound like you killed him."

I give her a faux hurt look. "Your lack of trust wounds me."

She looks apologetic for a moment, "You're right, that was uncalled for."

"Actually you were right the first time, I did end him. To assuage your consciousness though, he was an ass who enjoyed the company of boys of a certain age." I said and she scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"Wow, you got me to apologise for nothing." She said almost annoyed. "Were his activities at least unknown it would be annoying having to deal with parents bothering us because they think you touched their children's no-no zones."

"Fortunately yes but we have other things to worry about, help me set up the wards," I said,

Ward crafting was a nice art that wasn't dependent on how much magical power you had. You could empower wards with other things like ambient magic in the air, you could get someone to refill it with their magical reserves or dozens of other methods like using magical objects as anchors.

So I am more proficient in it than Iliana, who mostly focused on the regular spells. She was adept enough so I could allow her to do the grunt work. Ward crafting was a tedious and time-consuming art, so she wasn't the biggest fan but luckily for me Iliana was a reasonable girl who didn't like when I did all the work.

All in all, she was the perfect person you would want on age group assignments, I wished she was there in my previous life. Dealing with lazy asses who wanted me to do all the work was annoying.

We spent the rest of the day doing our best to ward the place to high heavens. Anti-Divination, improved healing, scent removal, increased durability for the house and plenty more. Most of my warding skills came from either Iliana or by doing favours to my mother.

For example, Aphrodite didn't like that one of the children of Athena said that he thought his girlfriend was the most beautiful girl in the world. So she requested I punish him to get my knowledge.

One quick application of my powers to let his girlfriend fall out of love with him and I was set. It was petty of her but who am I to complain when I get so much for doing something so insignificant.

It certainly encouraged me that I didn't like the bloke, he liked to brag about his intelligence. Wasn't very smart of him to displease Aphrodite, however. He can be glad though at least he wasn't cursed to love a bull as my mother did to Minos' wife.

"Finally getting a nice bed. I call dibs on the best room." She said In excitement.

"No," I reply and watch her excitement deflate.

"We can share. That bed is the comfiest," She offered to my amusement.

I usually preferred sleeping with someone than alone but that was a romantic partner and ever since my death, I had a somewhat irrational distrust of all women. Fortunately, it has diminished and now I have an equal amount of distrust for both genders. Balanced as all things should be.

"Sure but if you monopolise the blanket even once I am kicking you out," I said. Who wouldn't want a cuddle buddy in the form of a nice little sister? Plus it would reinforce her loyalty if even further

Though I just have to make sure that she doesn't turn all yandere and while I doubt she would, caution is nice. It was annoying the last time I met one after all.

"Deal, I'll even use my own blanket," She said excitedly. We talked for a bit before I left.

I took some clay out of the cupboard and began manipulating it to the image of a bird. I sang to it and it came alive.

"Watch the neighbourhood my creation. You have an important mission of keeping us safe," I said to it and it nodded. It was intelligent and loyal and could notify me of something suspicious. I could use magic to see out of their eyes so that was nice as well.

I went on to create more small creatures and spread them out across the small town we were staying at. That emptied my magical reserves and I retired to bed.

Iliana Pov:

Wards were nice and all but now she wouldn't be able to communicate with her mother unless she left the yard. She decided to join Ezra without her mother's knowledge since she was so excited.

She doubted her mother would disapprove. She might worry about her safety outside of the camp but she wasn't that inexperienced little girl anymore. Ezra trained her into a competent battlemage and she would forever be grateful for it as well as the other things he did for her.

She would admit that she didn't feel worthy of her relationship with him. He was handsome, powerful, practically her big brother and while she knew he wasn't the most morally upstanding person that didn't diminish her image of him.

Though if anyone even pointed out that she had a crush on him she would vehemently deny it, but couldn't deny it to herself. She once heard that he slept with an older child of Demeter and cried the entire night away.

Amelia comforted her. Telling her, while they may have had his lust they would never have his heart. So Iliana set herself another goal: make sure his heart would belong to her and maybe their future children no matter how long it would take.

She entered their shared bedroom and admired his form for a bit before making himself comfortable in his arms, his muscular arms.

"I just felt a chill go up to my back," Ezra said half-asleep.

"It's probably nothing, go to bed," She said as she closed her eyes. He shrugged and closed his eyes as well.

Her father was an abusive ass, as Ezra would say, so it felt nice to be appreciated. She rarely felt physical affection so it was nice to sleep in his arms. She could feel her mother's touch in dreams but dreams couldn't compare to reality.

Maybe she should do something nice for him. He always wanted to explore the labyrinth, plunder its depths and take control. Maybe she should find a clear-sighted human so they could achieve their goals of controlling the labyrinth. Is it even needed with their magic though?

She would leave those questions for later, it's cuddling time.

A/N: You can read ahead on patre,on/ DickMcJones.