CHAPTER L: Et Tu, Brute?

I sat in Lisa's office with Mino. Lisa's office was neatly decorated with weapon diagrams, replicas of old artifacts, and several books written by Apollo and Asclepius. Mino looked dazed and confused, and his clothes were torn. Spending a day in Tartarus wasn't good for one's health but multiple days was deadly. I was honestly surprised to see Mino in this shape, not because he was barely standing, I was surprised to see him alive. How did he escape Tartarus with his life?

Everyone else in our artifact hunting group left to drop the artifacts off at the school since it was a short walk from Town Augustus, and Sara was still with Lisa discussing Sara's health and her mission. It took a bit to realize, but Sara looked just as bad as Mino.

Sara's red hair was all messed up, and her teal eyes carried an unrelenting sadness. Her khaki shorts were missing a leg, and her stomach had a freshly patched up scar, that was already healed, I could see from a slash in her shirt. She was also missing a cyan flip-flop. If I had to guess where it went, it was probably at the bottom of the ocean cleaner than her blood covered one which was almost a indigo color now.

"Sara, what happened?" Lisa asked examining Sara's hand.

"I was fighting Andromeda, and I reached my hand out desperately to catch her sword. Instead of the blade hitting my hand, it hit this hardened water and salt mixture." Sara answered.

"You have water weaponry?!" I asked suddenly surprised.

Lisa calmly walked over to me, and hit me with clipboard, before returning to Sara. It hurt like hell, but I guess I deserved it for eavesdropping. I also shouldn't have messed with Lisa, especially since she was a Legionnaire who was promoted to Centurion before retiring.

"And Andromeda?" Lisa asked going back to examining Sara.

"Hopefully dead, she betrayed me!" Sara yelled.

"Et Tu, Brute? Caesar said to his best friend, Brutus, who had delivered the final blow. Not to Caesar's body, but to his heart. Brutus eventually made amends when he felled himself on the sword, after being haunted by his past deeds." Lisa said going back to looking at her clipboard.

Lisa was talking about the tragedy of Julius Caesar, and how Caesar was betrayed. I could see her point as well. Lisa was talking about how Brutus' deeds eventually made him realize all that he did wrong. Of course he committed suicide, he wasn't left to die on an island in the middle of the Bermuda.

"Yeah yeah, Legionaries and fucking Shakespeare." Sara said.

Lisa looked up from her clipboard with a 'Try me bitch' stare, before going back to her office. Lisa grabbed a tank of salt water and set it down next to Sara. Lisa quickly grabbed a picture of a sword off her wall, and walked back to Sara. Lisa was clearly in a rush to test something.

"Make this sword for me, or at least something close. I want to test something for my book." Lisa said handing Sara the picture.

Sara held her out and water came out from the tank. The water went into her hand and the salt formed a basic outline of a Xiphos. The handle slowly filled with salt, and water filled the blade of the sword. Sara gripped the handle and the sword solidified into a water Xiphos with a salt handle, and salt hardened blade.

Lisa looked mesmerized "You mind if I try to take it from you?" She asked.

Sara handed her the blade, and Lisa's eyes lit up. Lisa looked liked a small child who had just been given an Red Ryder pellet rifle for Christmas. She slowly took the blade from Sara, and it stayed solid. The bad part though was that Sara was still using power to maintain the sword.

Lisa examined Sara and put the blade in the tank. The blade dissolved quickly and Sara relaxed. Lisa wrote something down on her clipboard and sent Sara on her way out the door.

"I'll see Theseus King now." Lisa said setting her clipboard down.

I stood up and helped Mino to his feet. I put his arm over my shoulder and practically carried him over to Lisa. She wasted no time in picking Mino up and laying him down on a hospital bed.

"What happened to him?" Lisa asked switching to professional doctor mode.

"He took a small detour to Tartarus on our quest." I said trying to make it sound better than it actually was.

"For how long?" Lisa asked looking at me.

"What's today? I was in the Labyrinth and six days could feel like one." I replied.

"Thursday, January twenty first." Lisa answered.

"Oh….well then about….a week." I answered reluctantly.

Lisa's eyes widened. She immediately pressed an emergency button on the wall behind Mino and got a small emergency ambrosia kit. She rolled Mino out of the room quickly and got him prepped for emergency care.

A bit of time passed before Lisa came back. I sat in the waiting room for what felt like minutes, but apparently six whole hours passed. Have I adapted to silence that much? I thought to myself looking at the clock in the waiting room that was ticking away.

"You're still here?" Lisa asked surprised to see I had waited.

"Yeah, how's Mino?" I asked, I still felt bad for basically forgetting him in the Labyrinth and I wasn't gonna make that mistake again.

"He'll live, however you should've taken him to Apollo. Spending that much time in Hades has….unfortunate consequences. He's lucky to be alive." Lisa said grimly, it was also weird to hear my father's name used for a place he despised.

"I couldn't, your father is way to busy. Still, thanks Lisa. I owe ya one." I said, and oh boy was that a mistake.

"Yep! Hop up on the table ya Dead Haired Daughter of Pluto!" Lisa said patting a spot on her checkup table.

I sighed and hopped up on the table as Lisa grabbed her clipboard. She set up some questions on her clipboard, and finally looked up at me.

"You ready there?" I asked.

Lisa nodded, "when did your condition start, Mary. And have you taken any steps to cure it?" She asked getting her pen ready.

"My hair and eyes turned white when I was fourteen. As for steps I've taken to cure it there are a few things. I fell in the Styx, I dyed my hair three times, and tried contacts." I answered.

"What happened?" Lisa asked writing my answers down, clearly interested in my curse.

"Well the Styx I'm pretty sure helped my healing so a normal cut that would take days to heal only takes hours, the dye washed out completely every time and yes I used different brands, and the contacts went blank." I responded thinking about all the different remedies I tried to hide my hair and eye color.

Lisa wrote the answers on her clipboard and muttered out something that I couldn't make out, she grabbed a book and flipped through it.

"Any symptoms?" Lisa asked flipping through the book.

"I can't shadow travel or raise the dead anymore. Not without borrowing power I collect in my dagger." I answered.

"Alright, thank you Mary. You're free to go now." Lisa said walking into her office.

I walked out before Lisa decided to forcefully put me under and dissect me. I walked through the town and looked at the small apartments, and gear shops. Every apartment building was small and rickety besides two of them, which both had penthouses for the Legatus Legionis of a legion. I believe the legions that were based here are Mars' Legion (led by William "The Wolf" Boswell), and Apollo's Arrow (Led by Aaron Barbieri).

I kept walking through Town Augustus, this was one of eight towns each connecting to a large city where the legion training grounds were. The town names were all Roman based. They were Augustus, Bacchus, Caesar, Diana, Elagabalus, Fortuna, Galerius, and Hades. Each served a different purpose to the main city. They served as a military hub, an economy center, and a graveyard (which was named fittingly after my father).

I looked around and stopped by a small café for an espresso, and a small sandwich. Both of which I enjoyed while watching the sun set on the beautiful town, and it's mix of Roman and Greek architecture.