The Stone Family Mansion - Near Mount Hood - Portland, Oregon.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
"Will, darling, get up, it's nine o'clock in the morning."
"Just a little longer..."
"That's what you said the last two times. Come on, or I'll drag you out of bed myself."
Catherine's soft voice came from the hallway, carrying with it a threat she was definitely prepared to carry out.
Three days ago, William returned home to the Stone family mansion, a few hours southwest of Portland, Oregon, a large, elegant yet old-fashioned house with vines on the walls and red bricks.
Large gardens decorated the main entrance, filled with all kinds of flowers. Catherine, William's mother, being a Diadra, did not like big cities with too many cars and people.
The house is located in the middle of a lush forest, most of the land for miles around belonged to her family, and control of the plants and all the trees was under her mother's control, who was practically untouchable in her territory.
"I'll be right there!"
William's voice came from under the grey sheets. The cold Oregon weather was very pleasant for him.
"I have to leave my warm nest... ugh!"
William quickly took a hot shower and brushed his teeth. A few minutes later, he went down to the dining room.
"Here you go, I made your favourites."
Catherine placed a glass plate with a couple of freshly made French toasts right in front of William, sliced bread soaked in milk and fried in butter, sprinkled with sugar and covered with blackberries.
"Good morning, Mum... and you too, Dad!"
William's words were spoken with some reluctance; he didn't want to get out of bed yet.
Catherine smiled. Her son's attitude had changed radically a year ago. One day he woke up brimming with confidence, a mixture of diligence and laziness.
"Good morning, Will. I have to say that in the year I haven't seen you, you've really grown. Look at you, you're a carbon copy of Dad in his youth."
The voice coming from the stairs belonged to Victoria Stone, elegantly dressed in soft colours and black trainers with a loose-fitting jumper and thin gold bracelets, just what you'd expect from the daughter of a renowned jeweller.
"Add to that your face and the fact that you stopped dressing like a tramp, I bet you're a magnet for girls at Nevermore!"
Victoria sat down at the glass table, her hair tied back in a ponytail with a butterfly-shaped clip that, of course, also had diamonds encrusted in the silver.
"I was better looking!"
Her father's voice came from the living room, where Uriel was typing on his laptop while listening to the news on television.
"It's good that you gave up that stupid 'I don't want to be an ''Outcast'', I want to be ''Normie'' attitude. I was getting fed up with it."
"Victoria, that's enough. It wasn't his fault that his features took so long to appear."
Catherine stopped Victoria. She had also been worried about her son before; William's previous attitude was not normal.
William rested his head on his fist and began to remember.
"Those were bad thoughts... I've put them behind me now."
His mother let out a sigh of relief when she saw that William still had a carefree smile on his lips. She kissed William on the head and collected the dirty dishes.
"I'm sorry..."
Victoria whispered to William. The subject left an uncomfortable feeling in the family, and the rest of the conversation that morning was somewhat dull.
(So the reason William didn't attend Nevermore in the original universe was because he restricted his abilities and rejected his family legacy... although these are just my theories).
For a few minutes, the only sounds were the clatter of forks and knives, running water, and the loud voice of the news presenter.
"Dad, remember when you wanted to teach me about our family history..."
William finished his breakfast and set about washing his dishes, as well as those of his sister, who had rushed out of the house, apparently to help out during the holidays at one of their mother's many flower shops in Portland.
"The time you slammed the door in my face and said you didn't want to know anything about this family... yes, I remember it clearly."
"Cough, I'm sorry about that... you could teach me now."
"Give me until this afternoon, I have to finish a few things first."
Uriel didn't seem upset about it, even though it had happened a couple of years ago.
"Okay... thanks."
William's room.
"Time to remodel this place."
William took off his black waistcoat and rolled up his shirt sleeves. Since he wasn't wearing a tie today, his bear-head brooch was fastened to his shirt collar.
"First, the bed canopy has to go."
It took William two full hours to remodel his room. The large canopy was removed from the bed, as it was too old-fashioned for his taste.
Now a large new grey carpet covered most of the floor. His old desk was too small and old for his taste, so it was also removed and replaced with a new, rather expensive, shiny black one.
The curtains, the paintings on the walls, even the coat rack were replaced with ones of a different style.
"Having a card with a lot of money on it is very convenient..."
William made sure no one was watching and gave his card a gentle kiss with all the money he had earned helping with the family business.
All his new furniture was purchased online and delivery was quite fast, the day after he ordered it.
The empty walls now had some of his paintings, images of the prey he hunted captured forever in oil.
The largest was the white widow accompanied by the Ink Centipede and the Blood Centipede, the painting of the Silver Drake rested on the wall of Nevermore, and the Black Demon in his study at the academy.
The Red Hat Goblin was a small painting placed near the window from where you could see the entire front yard, the forest covered with dry leaves and trees with vibrant colours such as red, brown and green in their leaves.
"Now the clothes..."
Next on the list was to put away all the clothes he had recently bought and throw away the old ones. His sister was right; many of the shirts in the wardrobe were too old or had tacky prints. There wasn't a single tie, let alone anything formal.
Piece by piece, the clothes filled the spacious two-door wardrobe: jackets, plain T-shirts, waistcoats and jumpers, as well as sweatshirts and ties.
His new blue Nevermore uniform was already ironed and hanging up, a black and blue striped blazer, white shirt, black tie, and grey jumper.
It featured the school's iconic emblem, a yellow 'N' with a ribbon just below it bearing the school motto 'Unitas Est Invicta', the symbol of a raven, the moon, and a star.
"Unity is invincible in Latin, what a nice touch."
"I like what you did with your room, it used to be too..."
"Simple?"
"I'd say bland. You wanted to talk about family history, right?"
Uriel peeked in from the open door, carrying an old book covered in the skin of some unknown animal.
"Come, I'll tell you what we know. Our family is so old that records only began in 1500, in the 16th century..."
Uriel sat on the carpet, leaning his back against the edge of the bed, and William sat down beside him.
The conversation lasted several hours until late afternoon.
"So our bloodline comes from a demigod?"
William swallowed silently. Exiles and mythological creatures were one thing, but gods and demigods were another league altogether, a much bigger one.
"It's confusing, and we don't have any hard evidence, but we believe that our blood is the result of the union of several lineages."
"Our passion for hunting comes from our descent from Hippolytus, the Greek hero, son of Theseus and Antiope."
Uriel turned the page of the book to an old illustration.
"Theseus, the same Theseus who defeated the Minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete and King of Athens!!!."
"Don't forget Antiope, Queen of the Amazons. Wait, since when do you know so much about mythology?"
"Let's just say I became interested after studying at Nevermore."
Uriel wasn't entirely convinced by the answer, but he didn't ask any more questions. He didn't want to overwhelm his son, especially after his performance in recent months, from good grades to excelling in sports, art, music, and metalwork.
"Hippolytus, before being reincarnated as a minor god named Virbius, was a human who served Artemis, the goddess of hunting, wisdom, and chastity. He was framed for the suicide of Theseus' wife, Freda, for rejecting his love. He was punished and died when he faced the sea bull sent by Poseidon."
"Poseidon, father of Theseus, technically we are also related..."
"In theory, tell me when you killed your first beast, did its body disappear into ashes?"
Uriel stopped his explanation about gods and demigods and looked directly at William when he asked his question.
"Yes, after a while it turned to ashes... is that common?"
"For the rest of the world, it is by no means common, but for a Stone, of course, every prey that dies by Artemis' spear or Poseidon's sword is an offering to the gods."
William looked at the Mithril spear that now decorated his wall right next to Sting, held in place by a pair of golden eagle claw-shaped clips, one above and one below.
"Artemis?"
"According to legend, Hippolytus was so handsome that Artemis herself was in love with him, and after one of his heroic deeds, he was rewarded with a spear made by the Cyclopes, the divine smiths of the gods."
"Who told you that I had already killed my first unusual beast?"
"Andreus came to visit, concerned by the vision of an old friend."
"What vision?"
Uriel pointed to William's painting, to the vivid White Widow roaring in the picture.
"The Imp King was fine since you were accompanied, but that you ended up with a white widow is impressive."
"But considering that your first main form was a Grimm, the representation of the threatening, gloomy and ruthless nature of death was to be expected."
"Actually, it was a Trasgo Queen."
His father fell silent and looked at William.
"I shouldn't have said that..."
"Worthy of being a Stone, mine was a Great Wide-Jawed Serpent that devoured your grandfather's cows."
Uriel did not reproach him for performing such a dangerous act as confronting an unusual beast known for its incredible toughness. He merely smiled with pride at having such a son and rolled up his sleeve, revealing a long scar covering his forearm.