87. Without Mercy #2
When the snakes retreated, nothing remained.
Shutting her eyes, Medusa released a long breath.
"One down."
When she opened her eyes, she was back in the room, and Perseus was still sitting with his head bowed.
No traces of life remained. Unwilling to take any chance, she slashed his neck.
Red sprayed, staining her arm and dagger.
As she watched him collapse, she searched her conscience, looking for regret or guilt. Nothing of that sort.
Satisfied, she dismissed her dimension only for the door to burst open.
Akrivi stumbled in and froze.
Medusa looked from the still-bleeding corpse to his ashen face and felt the need to explain herself. "I... I had to do it."
Akrivi should have left the table the instant he sensed something was off.
The way Medusa hurried away. That look of panic in her eyes.
It reminded him of some months back when she lived with a blindfold for a week.
Even when she got rid of the covering, she wouldn't meet anybody's eye.
It had taken a whole month before she returned to her confident, stare-into-your-soul self.
But instead of using checking on Medusa as an excuse to flee the painfully awkward dinner, he had stayed because it seemed like the self-preserving thing to do.
He had only found an excuse to leave when Rico suddenly abandoned his dinner and hurried towards the villa.
Following the water cat led him to the room Phorcydes kept Perseus.
Nothing prepared him for what he walked into. The smell of blood, the way it dripped from the table to the white stone floor, and the body. She casually stood next to the corpse, bloodstained arm, happy face, and tears. Wait, tears?
Shaking himself from his shock, he approached tentatively. Rico was already at her side, licking the blood off her hand that still gripped a dagger.
"Soft Hands..." He met her eyes. She appeared calm, and her snakes rested languidly on her shoulders. "Are you alright?"
She looked from him to Rico. Then her dagger vanished as she absently patted the water cat. "I've never been more alright in my life."
"Then why are you crying?"
"I am?" She touched her face and frowned when her fingers came away wet with tears. Then her frown dissolved to a smile once more. "These are happy tears, Akrivi. I am happy."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, it is so," she answered softly. "And can you please get me one of those?" She pointed.
"This?" Unsure, he pointed at his sapphire earring.
"Yes. I would have used his," she nodded at the dead boy. "But I'd find that disgusting."
"Huh?" There was no light of madness in her eyes, but one could never be certain. "Are you really alright?"
"Do not look so concerned." She walked to the opposite wall, grabbed a jar of water and emptied it into a stone basin.
There was not the faintest trace of the tension she had at the table.
If anything, she appeared refreshed, with her green eyes shining in a way he had never seen before.
Whoever looked that relaxed after killing a person?
Granted, Perseus had attempted to kill her first and almost succeeded. Still...
She retrieved a towel. "I know what this looks like, but he was already dead when I slit his throat. Killed him here first." She tapped her temple. "You understand?"
Akrivi nodded slowly. "I understand." I don't. "But..."
"But what?" She dipped a towel in the basin, squeezed and began meticulously wiping her arm.
Couldn't she see the bigger issue? "Your aunt—"
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"
Akrivi groaned on the inside. Of course, Aunt Granny had to come now. She marched into the room, eyes shaking as she stared at the body.
"What did you do?" The air around her began forming mirages as she glared at Medusa. Phorcys arrived as well, took one look at the body and sighed.
"I said I would kill him, did I not?" Medusa stepped in front of Akrivi and Rico. Was this an attempt to shield them? Well, if it came down to it, Akrivi was prepared to fight. His future enrichment was very dependent on Medusa's survival.
"We could have freed your father?" She struck the ground with her staff, causing a faint tremor. "Have you no patience?"
"Patience?" Medusa shook her head, frowning. "I've been patient enough."
"I was so close." The space around Phorcydes continued to distort as her shoulders drooped, voice growing sorrowful. "You stubborn, stubborn child. I was so close."
"You're the one who asked what I wanted," Medusa shrugged, not a hint of regret on her face.
"And what you wanted, more than anything in all of Cosmolith, was killing him?!"
"Yes." Medusa nodded. "I wanted him dead—completely erased from existence. Give me a hundred do-overs, and my choice would remain the same."
There was a crack as Phorcydes' grip tightened around her staff. "You—"
"And it wouldn't have worked," Medusa cut in. "The only thing that can free those bound by Pilos thistles is the Monolith."
"You don't know that," she spat, green eyes flashing.
"I do," Medusa replied, a hardness now in her voice. "I know so much now... so much ugliness and paths to power you wouldn't believe." Then her voice grew softer. "I beg you, aunt. Please, be patient with me. I swear to free my father."
For a tense, silent moment, Phorcydes fixed Medusa with a glower, then she released a drawn-out sigh. The air around her slowly calmed as she walked over to the body, staring with dismay. "What a waste." She clicked her tongue and turned away. "At least I got some blood."
Then she left the room.
"Father," Medusa began to say.
"There's no need to explain yourself." He walked over to the body and touched the table it lay on. Rapid degradation left a human-shaped outline of black ash. Once finished, he walked over to Medusa and patted her head, snakes and all.
"I could see that he caused you pain. Your mother mentioned something about a beheading. That you did this is understandable."
Akrivi looked at Medusa, doubly confused. What beheading? Ah, what's the point? He had since learned to stop attempting to make sense of the mystery that was Soft Hands.
"There is no need to leave yet." Even though Akrivi had never seen him smile, there was warmth in his eyes. "I sensed you were about to flee with your friend and Rico."
She chuckled. "I thought I was subtle."
"Not enough to escape your aunt's notice." His expression grew even more solemn. "Speaking of your aunt, forgive her enthusiasm to free me. She cares, that's why."
Medusa shook her head. "She hates me."
"She does not," Phorcys said gently. "You simply stalled her plan of us living free and happy on some hidden island where we'll never die."
Akrivi raised his brow at that. The hag was so harsh in her bearing that it was difficult picturing her in such a fantasy.
"Give her time. And you," Phorcys turned his attention his way.
Akrivi stood straighter.
"I trust you will reveal nothing of what you've witnessed so far."
"I will not." Akrivi held up his palm to show the Moirai's marking.
"Good." Phorcydes patted his shoulder once before leaving.
The silence had barely settled before Medusa spoke. "The games. I saw the strangest thing in a vision of a... previous future."
"Huh?" Again with her puzzle-speak.
She faced him fully, concern in her eyes. "Do you... Do you think there's a possibility you'd represent Poseidon at the games?"
"Huh?" Akrivi asked again, thrown by her strange questions. Maybe her sanity was truly slipping. "That's impossible. Ares passed me to Otrera. He assured us of our protection. Is this about what the queen said about Poseidon looking for me?"
"Never mind." She stretched, twisting her neck this way and that. "Gosh! I'm famished. Let's go to the kitchen."
"Gosh?" More nonsensical words. They both strolled out of the room with Rico in tow. "What's gosh? And we've already had dinner."
"I know. I know," she said with a laugh. "At least eat with me. I'm so happy I could cry."
As they ate and talked, that nagging returned.
He had been so consumed by the Moirai and creating portal stones that the threat of Poseidon coming for him slipped his mind.
What bothered him the most wasn't that Poseidon could uproot his life.
He had enough experience of high deities uprooting his life.
It was Medusa that bothered him. If Poseidon were to appear and attempt to take him, she might do something stupid.
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