33 Risen#re

Lirian and Edith climbed from the limo with only a single goal, to get as far from it's occupants as possible.

It had been the longest ride of Ediths life and certainly not the good kind.

When they returned to academy her face was completely red from shame and Lirian didn't fair much better.

Even for a trillion year old god like himself it was far too shameful and humiliating, it wasn't just Anya that laughed at him for not getting the job done, so did Edith's guards.

'That's it, I'm never going to be a good guy again,' Lirian complained internally as he walked side by side with an Edith that looked like she had been slowly boiled in a pot.

The entire academy was locked in a mournful silence and every class they passed by was empty, they made their way to the auditorium, it was large enough to fit 100 000 people with ease and more than half of the seats were taken up as the head master gave a speech.

Edith looked around and saw the candidates on a panel facing the crowd, it was going to be a hassle to get all the way through for Lirian so she grabbed his hand and pulled him along.

It took a few minutes and after several stares from the people they bumped into they were able to reach the podium.

"Where did you disappear to?" was the first thing that Lirian heard when he reached them, "Everyone has been saying that your disappearing act is an insult to all other candidates," Media chided him.

"I went to pick up Edith," Lirian answered nonchalantly.

"It looks like you went to do a lot more than that," Wentian chuckled while glancing at their necks the red hickey were extremely evident on their skin .

"The two of you should have at least used some make-up cover it up," Media chided them, "There are camera's everywhere, and you can bet that someone is going to notice."

"My bad, sorry that I didn't see them," Lirian responded sarcastically.

"See them? I'm surprised that you can't feel them they are enormous," she only exaggerated a little as she glanced between Edith's mouth and the red marks on Lirians neck the two did not match up.

Edith was still dying from the trip to the academy, hearing them talk about it only served to fuel the growing flames on her face, she felt it was really stupid to be going red over a couple of hickeys, today was just not her day at all.

She looked forward doing her best to hide the fact that she was glowing from shame as well very hungover, and listened to the speech about her sister, that she never knew.

The only things she ever really heard about her sister was how much they were alike but other than that there was nothing else she knew, they were complete strangers.

People said that they both inherited their mother's hair and that their temperament was almost identical not to mention that they were both rare geniuses.

She felt that she should be sad about her passing but it was hard to feel that way about a complete stranger no matter how alike they were.

She tried to focus on the head master's speech, but as she looked at him, she couldn't help but think about what Lirian had told them, it was such an absurd concept, why would someone loyal to the empire target the children of the empress.

"... it only serves as proof that despite being a celebrated genius, that sometimes when we involve ourselves with people greater than ourselves, we can still die in an unfortunate manner," Telamon said with a sunken expression of sadness as if he had lost someone dear to him.

The arrival of Lirian did not go unnoticed by Telamon, he cast him a cold glance that no one could notice as he said those last words.

"Would any of the candidates care to say anything?" he asked looking down at them.

The camera's all went straight to Edith specifically, the sudden bright lights scolding her eyes left her with an urge to throw up, she put her hands on the podium to steady herself.

She cursed at her bad luck, of all the days she would have to give a speech, it had to be the one day she was hungover. As Ilma's sister it was her duty but before she could move another voice echoed throughout the auditorium.

"Sure, I'd love to give a speech!" Lirian smiled, "You can thank me when you're completely sober," he whispered into Edith's ear as he began walking up the steps to the main podium while tapping the ground with his walking stick.

As he got close, he purposely let the stick hit Telamon on his legs for everyone to see, he smirked slightly, a smirk solely for Telamon to see, "Oh, my bad," he said with a sincere smile, "But as you can see, I'm blind, which idiot blocked my way?" he asked.

In that instant he heard almost the entire audience gasp for breath, and he could hear multiple people slap themselves in the face.

Edith slapped herself especially hard, "This is not me hearing things because I'm hungover, is it?" she whispered to Tobias.

Tobias shook his head looking exasperated, "I would think that I was drunk if it was anyone else, but sadly no, that really just happened."

"What the hell is that idiot up to?" Media said while biting on her nails, he was starting to push things too far, eventually, her family would force her to cut off ties with him if kept pulling crap like this, and she would have to obey, hack she gladly would, he was practically asking to get himself killed with his antics.