Sliver Of Shadow

Discrimination

"... What the actual Hades are you doing, di Angelo?" Kyrie choked as she stumbled into the Room of Requirement.

Nico growled under his breath, attempting to ignore Kyrie, and thrust his dagger forward again, piercing the dummy that had magically appeared before him. He didn't like daggers - too small and not much reach - but Thanatos had insisted (and he'd banned Nico from swords and knives for the week). Still that, of course, wasn't the real problem here.

The real problem was that Thanatos was making him train… on broken glass.

Nico really, really hated him now.

He was made to dance across the razor-like shards, leaving a glistening trail of dark red in his wake. The pale teen gasped, his breath coming short - but forced himself to persevere, to finish this new torture that his (possess-or? nuisance?) had laid out for him.

"It's not like I want to mutilate my feet," Nico snapped finally deciding to acknowledge the Hunter standing before him, jumping and twisting midair to avoid an attack of mini-arrows from behind. He wasn't quick enough - more than half managed to embed themselves into his shoulder. "Ow - urgh. He's making me do it."

Kyrie snorted. "Oh, yes - him. The voice in your head, otherwise known to you as Thanatos. You sure you don't have schizophrenia?"

"Shut up." Nico hissed. "You know I'm telling the truth."

She did, but it was just too hard not to poke fun at such a hilarious situation. And boys were very fun to mess with. Especially gay ones.

"Yeah, yeah - here, I brought your Transfiguration homework. Thalia says you have to do it too, since she has to."

Nico stopped in surprise. "Thalia… doing homework? Since when?"

"Well… since the lady Artemis told us to. We're supposed to blend in, and not attract any more attention than we already have."

"Is it even possible to attract more attention than you already have?"

Kyrie shrugged. "Who knows? Anyway, you have to do your homework. End of story. I recommend going to that bushy-haired one in the same house as Thalia - the house called Griffin-something. She's very helpful."

It had been a week since the Hunters of Artemis had shown up at the Quidditch

game, and quite an eventful one too - complete with more of Umbridge being a (censored), gaining a centaur for a Divinations professor (because Umbridge had finally fired Trelawney) , and two tons of gossip about one amazing Harry Potter. Honestly, Nico almost felt bad for the guy, dealing with all the whispers and rumors following him around behind his back. The son of Hades had had a lot of experience with that.

"I don't think I'll even have the time to even see her - my schedule's too filled with training and detention as it is."

"Sucks for you."

Nico sighed, stepping off of the platform of shining glass, now dyed red. As he walked, the injuries on his legs and feet slowly disappeared, fully healed with Thanatos's help. That was, at least one benefit of having such a (censored) in his mind.

Hey. Watch you mouth.

No. Shut up. Nico stuffed him (yet again) into a mentally formed box.

Meanwhile, Kyrie's eyes had widened in surprise, a childlike expression overtaking her face. "Now that's a handy power. I want a voice in my head too! I want one! I want one!" She began to whine and stomp her feet.