Chapter Seven

Pine needles crunched underfoot as the archer made his way through the forest enclave. Though this settlement was the size of a small city with its earthen structures built around the forest, there were no roads paved or trees removed from their natural place to make room for this settlement. It was built in unity with the wilderness and not to replace it.

Apollo had instructed his sunriders to land his carriage away from the enclave. They found a spot to do so in a large clearing. Apollo had proceeded on foot, leaving two of his sunriders to tend to the carriage's steeds and protect the carriage.

Moving further down the narrow trail, Apollo approached the spring at the center of the enclave, where many nymphs, mortals, centaurs, and others were openly bathing. All were female, as was the entirety of this enclave, but they did not seem bothered by the presence of the male god hiking along their trails. Of course, Apollo's eyes lingered on this sight of naked flesh for a long moment, he was the son of Zeus after all, but he did not stray from his course. Apollo carried on past the spring and to the modest building nearby despite the nymphs' beckoning calls and many rather forward invitations.

Apollo removed his bow and quiver inside a humble cabin and set them on the appropriate hooks located near the threshold. They were not left alone, as another bow made of silver and an accompanying quiver was already stored there. Once his weaponry was removed, Apollo made his way deeper into the structure to find the room at the back where his twin sat tending to her hearth.

"Missed you at the festival," he said as he grabbed a chair carved from a fallen tree trunk and dragged it closer to where Artemis was crouched on the floor of baked clay tiles. "I saw you leave but did not have a chance to wish you well."

Artemis sighed before looking over her shoulder. "I apologize for the offense, sweet brother. Father's behavior did not sit well with me."

Apollo lowered his gaze, staring at Artemis' boots for a long moment. Then, finally, he sighed and lifted his eyes to curiously see Artemis staring at him. "Yes?"

"You seem to have something on your mind yet your tongue is empty," Artemis said with her usual lack of expression.

With a soft chuckle, he nodded. "Just thinking of this gap between you and father..."

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "A gap, is it?"

Apollo gave a half-shrug. "Well, perhaps a chasm is a more apt term."

She let out a soft chuckle. "A chasm sounds fitting," she agreed and turned her eyes back to her hearth's flame, "and should suffice for me to toss his body when I am through with it."

"You don't mean that," Apollo said with a smile.

"Do I not?"

"You do not," he said with an elbow propped on the back of the chair, with its hand supporting his chin. "You're not mad at father. You are mad at his wife."

Artemis did not look back at her mother, her attention locked on the fire's embers. "He chose her side."

Apollo sighed and shifted his position, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together. "He chose not to choose either side; or you fault him as being against you."

"He is my father! I am his daughter!" she barked in reply. "He should support me!"

"He is King of Olympus," Apollo replied, head hung low. "He carries a heavy burden, sister."

Artemis scoffed. "Of course you would defend him."

Sitting upright, Apollo looked alarmed. "What do you mean by such things? Why would you dare say that?"

With a heavy sigh, Artemis stood up and kicked the curved door to her hearth closed. She paced across the room and lowered herself to floor level, placing herself on the pile of straw and animal skins that she used as a sleeping space. "Think on it some, brother," she said with a long, drawn-out sigh as she began to unknot her boots.

Doing just that, Apollo sat back in his chair and folded his arms. Then, when nothing came to him, he decided to dissect the entire situation piece by piece. His mind went back to the very beginning, when he and Artemis were just young godlings, before the usurpation and before their father became the King of Olympus, even before they were even called Olympians when the word 'god' was still a new concept and lacked any context to define it. But to understand what they were, one had to understand where they came from.

The Titans were the first generation of creations by beings known as Primordials; the most notable of their ranks were the two known as Ouranos and Gaia, who had settled in the Mediterranean area of Earth eons ago to conduct experiments. They created the titans to help them in their experiments, granting them the abilities needed to further their research.

However, the Titans grew restless and sought to be free of the shackles placed upon them by their masters. The leader of the Titans, Kronos cut Ouranos down and imprisoned Gaia in prison made from the essence of the corpse. Kronos then claimed the Primordials' palace of Haven for himself and the other Titans, declaring themselves rulers of all they could see from Haven's spires atop the mountain known as Othrys.

After the coup, after dozens or hundreds of years, the Titans realized that their own existence had required Ouranos' dimensional powers to keep them in this reality, and with Gaia imprisoned in a different reality of their own creation, they had to find other methods to solidify their grasp on this plane. The subjugation of the mental power of Earth's mortals was their solution.

By reminding the mortals of their existence, the Titans had an anchor on the mortal realm. The Titans refined the mortals' combined psychic energy into an energy source called worship. When filtered through systems contained in Haven, worship could be used to maintain the corporeal state of such eldritch beings. This maintained the Titans' existence without the assistance of Ouranos or Gaia.

As the Titans' influence and power grew, and mortals continued to spread their legend across the land, surpassing the distance of the horizon, the Titans no longer wished to spend time among the mortals and wished to dwell in Haven permanently—addicted to the intoxicating effects of worship. The impressive residence and research station that Ouranos and Gaia had built atop Mt. Othrys had everything they needed to sustain themselves and allowed them to live in comfort, provided that the mortals' worship continued.

So to be sure the mortals did not forget them, the Titan Rhea discovered a way to extract the essence of the Titans and bestow that essence upon their most loyal mortal followers. Through this process called exaltation, mortals would be elevated to a higher station, between the state of mortals and Titans. These exalted persons became divine.

The Titans' mortal servant Hestia was the first to undergo this process, becoming the divine steward of Haven. She was given the knowledge to maintain Haven, the secrets to turning worship into concentrated forms called Ambrosia and Nektar, which could be ingested to endow the Titans with even greater power and health, and was also given powers to defend Haven, making her a talented combatant.

The rogue Hades was later made to be the spymaster. He was given the powers of obfuscation and insight, allowing him to comprehend great mysteries and the ability to become unseen whenever he desired.

The shamaness Demeter was made to be a demonstrator and given powers of nature so that she could work miracles in the land of mortals to demonstrate the power of the Titans.

The fisherman Poseidon was made to be a mariner, given power over water and natural disasters so that he could spread the Titans' legend overseas and wreak havoc upon those who dare defy the Titans.

The community leader Hera was meant to be the coordinator, given great psychic powers, so that she could serve as a network for the stewards' communications across vast distances and so that she could monitor how the Titans were perceived among mortals, quell insurgent thoughts, and sense impending threats.

Finally, the last of the stewards was Zeus. A talented storyteller and orator that had amused Kronos, Zeus was given the gift of charm and charisma so that mortals would gather around him to hear him weave tales of the Titans.

In a sense, these six were now Kronos and Rhea's children, and though unrelated in their mortal life, they were spiritual siblings, connected by the essence of their 'father,' Kronos, and 'mother,' Rhea. These six were then sent out to further the legend of the Titans and to handle the Titans' interest in the mortal world, leaving the Titans able to spend more time in their Haven on Othrys.

However, the six realized that the combination of their corporeality and metaphysical empowerment gave them the potential that exceeded the Titans' own. The first to realize this was Hestia and when she shared her findings, she was imprisoned in Tartarus, the same prison that held Gaia. Hades and Demeter followed suit, as did Poseidon and Hera, until only the youngest and least among the six, Zeus, was remaining of Kronos and Rhea's stewards.

Fearing that Zeus would likewise rebel and knowing that Zeus had a tendency to think with his loins more than his brains; Kronos gave Zeus a wife to help ensure his loyalty, chosen from the ranks of the nymphs of the salt and sea; chosen not only for her beauty but also for her intelligence and discretion. Kronos asked this nymph, whose name was Metis, to keep Zeus in check and report any suspicious activity. Metis did as she was told, and Zeus was kept happy and content.

This pairing continued for some time until Metis became pregnant. The Titans had always created beings through essence manipulation and not procreation, and as such, this simple act alarmed Kronos. It had previously been assumed that since Zeus had been given immortality through Titanic essence, he would be unable to mate as a human could or would only be able to do so with his own kind—and not with eldritch beings such as nymphs. Fearing that Zeus' physiology was too dangerous, Kronos imprisoned not only Zeus but also his pregnant wife. Kronos feared that the child of such a coupling would be even more potent than the original six stewards of Othrys, and his paranoia could not allow such a threat to his power.

But Kronos did not count on his companion Rhea's curiosity. Eager to see how her experiment would play out, Rhea tricked Kronos into locking up a conjured look-a-like of Zeus of her own creation. Furthermore, Rhea warned Zeus of Kronos' intentions and gave Zeus time to flee to a remote island.

In exile, Zeus trained in secret, intent on rescuing his wife and child from their prison. But as Zeus grew more powerful, he still felt he was too weak to do this alone. Zeus would need allies. In his efforts to recruit more to his cause, Zeus used the powers of persuasion and charm. In so doing, Zeus not only made allies but lovers as well. The first of these lovers was Leto, a woman chosen by the Titans Polus and Phoebe to undergo a similar yet distinctly different form of exaltation.

Leto found Zeus on his hidden island while surveying it for the site of a possible observatory for the Titan Phoebe. Rather than report his location to the Titans, Leto heard Zeus' tale of what Kronos had done to his kin and decided to join his cause. It did not take long for Zeus to get his lustful itch and Leto to fall for the god's unnatural charm.

What the two shared was not equal to Zeus's love for his wife. Metis' incarceration plagued his mind at every turn, but the romantic comfort he received from Leto was necessary to keep him from breaking under absolute despair. On their secluded island, the two never married, but they did raise two children together, the twins Artemis and Apollo.

Artemis was happier then. She was Zeus' only daughter, and she would listen to every word of his stories, captivated by her father and his tales of his world travels as he continued to recruit allies to be used in his upcoming coup of the Titans. But Zeus' escapades started producing followers who flocked to Zeus' secret refuge to join his cause in increasing numbers. Without his steward spreading his tale, Kronos' power began to wane as Zeus discovered that he was becoming more powerful as his own legend increased.

To explore the applications of this discovery, Zeus began spending less time with his children and lover; and spending more time in the field, storytelling as he once did but now with the intent to spread his own legend. This did not sit well with Artemis and compelled her to begin training with weapons so that she might ease her father's concerns and be allowed to join him on his journeys. Not eager to let her do something like this on her own, Apollo agreed to train with Artemis, and the two became accomplished archers and warriors, using their superior physique to surpass the skills of every one of their mentors and trainers.

Apollo and Artemis were soon able to convince their father to allow them to follow him, becoming his closest allies as he built his resistance. Their mother did not understand their need to be with their father, but she understood that this was their own decision. She supported her children's decisions, as she always had before and since.

When Zeus' powers had grown able to rival a Titan's, Zeus decided to make a strategic strike against the Titans. Apollo and Artemis joined Zeus and a small force of key allies on a mission to break into the prison Tartarus. Though their primary mission was to free Zeus' wife Metis, they discovered that she could not leave Tartarus due to her nymph physiology. Metis had grown too weak and absorbed too much of the prison dimension's unique necrotic essence.

This devastated Zeus. He had freed his kin, gaining a decisive edge for his resistance, and yet Zeus was prepared to give it all up to stay in Tartarus with Metis. Metis coerced Zeus into fleeing from the prison by pleading with him to take their daughter, born in Tartarus, and leave that dreadful place. Metis demanded this of Zeus, saying that if he loved her, he would afford their daughter the opportunities Tartarus had deprived her of all these years. Of course, this daughter was Athena, the older half-sister of Artemis and Apollo and the true firstborn child of Zeus.

As Zeus agreed to this, Metis decided to finally release herself from the pain caused by her forced existence in the otherworldly prison. Metis gave Zeus a final kiss and then faded into scattered shards of elemental essence in her husband's arms as his three children stood back, watching over their broken father.

Zeus kept his word, though. He left Tartarus shattered and more resolute in his determination to dismantle the Titan's empire. Though Athena was a welcomed addition to the resistance, the introduction of this estranged daughter further caused a divide in the relationship between Zeus and his other daughter, Artemis, as suddenly she was no longer her father's only beautiful daughter.

This divide would only grow further in the years to come.

After the prison break, Zeus had a powerful force to rival the Titans. So he tasked his spirit-siblings to aid him in furthering their own legends.

Poseidon sailed across the sea to spread the tale to the island tribes.

Demeter worked miracles among the farming communities in the name of their cause.

Zeus himself used his newfound shapeshifting powers to infiltrate the larger settlements in the heart of the Titans' realm, with Hera tagging along to aid him should he be discovered.

Hestia trained Zeus' children, Athena, Artemis, and Apollo, further preparing them for the war.

Finally, Hades used the abilities given to him by Kronos to use as his spymaster to become invisible and spy on the Titans, gaining valuable intelligence to use against their enemy in the upcoming conflict.

The gods had become united in purpose. The Titans began to know the taste of genuine fear. Tensions grew.

As the gods built their power up, the godlings Athena, Artemis, and Apollo mastered their innate abilities. Also, during this time, Zeus married Hera, and the pair had two children, Ares and his twin sister Eris. This again soured the relationship between Artemis and her father. Artemis felt that Zeus had spurned her mother, Leto, by marrying Hera. Apollo tried to smooth things over, but Artemis did not want to hear it, and she withdrew into the wilderness to be by herself.

Being immortal, the gods used the time to their advantage, training in secret and biding their time. Hera and Zeus had more children, with their daughter Ilithiya being born next, followed sometime later by Hephaestus. The gods and titans had a few skirmishes, forcing the gods to relocate their camp from time to time to prevent capture. The godling children would become overeager and engage in guerrilla warfare with the Titans on rare occasions.

When one of the godlings' attacks on the Titans backfired, the gods were forced to abandon their camp prematurely without a replacement ready. As a result, Zeus had to make an alliance with the Oread nymphs in the mountains of Arcadia to shelter the gods in a secret cave that was sacred to the Oread tribe. This alliance was sealed through intimate means, as is customary among the nymphs, resulting in Zeus lying with their tribal leader, the immortal nymph Maia. Months later, this resulted in the birth of Hermes.

To assure the survival of his people, Zeus had broken the sanctity of his second marriage. Though she had endorsed it due to its necessity, Hera was still unsettled by this, particularly after Hermes' birth. Hera's love for Zeus began to falter with every passing day that the gods remained in the cave, sheltered by the Oreads.

As tensions escalated at home and with the Titans, Hera decided that open war might be unnecessary. Instead, she sought to negotiate with the Titans secretly, wanting a more stable existence for her own children. She arranged to talk with Rhea on neutral ground, but when she went to the meeting with Ares and Hephaestus accompanying her for protection, she found Kronos himself waiting there instead. Ambushed, Hera's sons did their best to defend their mother, but Kronos nearly crippled Hephaestus in the melee and almost did the same to Ares. Hera used her powers to compel Ares to retrieve Hephaestus and flee, sacrificing herself to be captured to spare her sons.

Ares returned to the mountain cave with Hephaestus and word of Hera's capture. After hearing of Kronos taking another of his wives, Zeus called his resistance to arms. Then, deciding that the time had come, the gods rallied their allies and prepared an all-out assault on the Haven on Mount Othrys to rescue Hera.

In the melee, a great deal of ichor and blood was shed. There were gods whose names were lost to history that died on that battlefield, but in the end, the Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus joined forces to take down their creator, the mighty Titan Kronos.

The three brothers were not the only gods to overthrow Titans. Apollo and Artemis took down the Titans Hyperion and Theia. Hyperion surrendered to Apollo personally, swearing fealty to Apollo and giving him his golden bow to prove his loyalty. However, Apollo ordered him to tear himself asunder into lesser beings, thereby creating a new race of nymphs known as Heliades and their brother Phaeton. Ares and Athena worked together to chop down the Titaness Mnemosyne. On her own, as retribution for the death of Kalliste, Athena struck down the cruel Titan Pallas, creating Cratus, Bia, Zelus, and Nike from his remains.

In the aftermath of the usurpation, the gods imprisoned the surviving Titans, placing them in Tartarus, stripping them of their excess essence, and divvying those extra powers among the gods to fill roles that best suited their personalities and existing skills. Most of the gods agreed that Zeus should be their king and Hera, his queen, and so it was. Due to the heavy damage caused to the mountain of Othrys, the gods moved the Haven to Mount Olympus, the site where Hera had been kidnapped by Kronos, and there they set up their court.

As the spoils of war were divvied out, Artemis chose to be Goddess of the Wilds, Hunting, and the Moon. She was eager to have an excuse to stay away from the Haven and the politics that thrived in the Olympian court. As the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis would often encounter nymphs and hunters. Artemis would form hunting parties with some of these sorts, whether to hunt the monsters the Titans had unleashed upon the world or game whose numbers needed to be thinned; or even to become the hunters of men, ridding wilds of poachers and predators that walked on two legs instead of one.

One day, long ago, Artemis had met Orion. A masterful huntsman and warrior, Artemis quickly became fond of Orion. Though he claimed to be a devout champion of Poseidon, Artemis added her blessing to him, increasing his power significantly.

When Artemis and Orion teamed up to take down a wicked monster known as Scorpio, their relationship grew into an intimate affair. Happy for a change, Artemis brought Orion to Haven to meet her family. Though much of Artemis' family welcomed Orion for the positive influence he brought on Artemis, Apollo felt differently. So when Apollo found Orion creeping about the Haven, he followed the hunter.

Discerning that Orion had an ulterior motive through his keen senses, Apollo approached Artemis to learn more about her lover. Artemis did not like being interrogated by her twin and shut him down, but not before revealing that Orion claimed to be a champion of Poseidon.

Armed with this knowledge, Apollo traveled to Poseidon's far-off realm of Atlantis to inquire about the god's champion. But unfortunately, Poseidon denied having made Orion his champion. So Apollo investigated further, keeping a watchful eye on Orion as he and Artemis continued to spend time together.

During another visit to the Haven, Apollo found Orion in a tiny room, communing with Eos, an exalted servant of the Titan Theia, the very Titan which Artemis herself had defeated during the usurpation. Enraged, Apollo barged in and tried to arrest Orion. In their ensuing scuffle, Orion threw Apollo through a dimensional gate and then fled, taking Artemis' bow with him.

When Apollo alerted his father to this, Zeus called for his best tracker to personally lead the hunting party to capture Orion. But, of course, Artemis declared herself to be the best tracker in the land and demanded to be the one to right this wrong. Not wanting Artemis to have this burden to bear, Apollo insisted he should be allowed to accompany her so that Artemis herself would not be forced to kill the man she had loved, but Zeus gave in to Artemis' own rage-fueled insistence and gave a decree that she should be the one to deliver the fatal blow.

Though Orion was a skilled huntsman, he was easy prey for the Goddess of the Hunt, who pried her stolen bow from his corpse's fingers after shooting him with an arrow delivered by Apollo's borrowed bow. Afterward, the twins then paid a visit to his mistress Eos and brought her to Tartarus to be reunited with her Titanic benefactor.

Following what happened with Orion, Artemis sank into despair. She hated Zeus even more, blaming him for not listening to Apollo and letting her brother deliver the fatal blow. She felt that this was proof that her father no longer loved her. Becoming more reclusive, Artemis began to ignore calls to attend meetings of the Twelve and isolated herself in the wilds, accompanied only by her closest nymph companions.

In the arms of Callisto, the most skilled huntress among the nymphs, Artemis found a way to lose herself and put the memories and torment of Orion out of her mind. Instead, she thought that what they had was love, allowing herself to forget that nymphs are sensual beings and had different perspectives on such things.

Eventually, Artemis put Orion behind her and began to feel normal. She began a slow return to her callings among the Twelve, and during a festival meant to celebrate the return of Artemis, a festival which Apollo had convinced Zeus to allow, Artemis brought Callisto as her companion. While Artemis was drinking with her brother, Zeus encountered Callisto. Of course, the beautiful nymph caught his eye. Callisto and Zeus slipped away from the festival to pursue private festivities, unaware of Hera noticing their interactions and departure.

Apollo would later tell the tale that Hera had transformed Callisto into a bear and tricked Artemis into killing her, but all Hera did was give a soft whisper in Artemis' ear. That is all it took to throw Artemis into a fierce rage that she grabbed her bow and ran into the wilderness to find them. Apollo had gotten there to see Artemis poised to fire her arrow into their drunken father as he stumbled away from the sexual rendezvous. Apollo called out to his sister, hoping his presence would convince her not to do it, but she loosed the arrow anyway. Apollo's cries may not have fazed Artemis and Zeus was too drunk to notice, but Callisto did hear the cry and threw herself into the line of fire.

Apollo rushed in to lend aid, but the arrow was tipped with adamant and pierced the nymph's heart. Artemis screamed at Callisto, demanding to know why she did what she did, and her last words were, "I didn't do it to spare Zeus… I did it to spare you the pain of shooting your father…" and with those being her last and final words, another of Artemis' lovers passed away with Artemis' arrow having done the foul deed.

With Callisto dead, Artemis wanted someone to pay. Yet, she had no one to blame but herself. Her bow had killed Callisto, and though she wanted to make both Zeus and Hera suffer for their part in Callisto's death, Apollo convinced her to refrain. Zeus was too drunk to realize what he had done, and it had never been his intent to hurt Artemis, having not realized that Artemis and Callisto were lovers; and Apollo's spin on the story had already cast the blame on Hera in a much more damning way than the truth would have.

These were ancient memories. While not from another lifetime, they were from another world. So much had changed, and yet, Artemis still held a grudge. When the word of the fabricated story reached Zeus' ears, and he learned of his part in the events that night, he summoned his twin children before him. Zeus asked Artemis how he could make this right, and though it went contrary to what she and Apollo had agreed upon earlier, Artemis demanded that Zeus order Callisto's soul to be reincarnated.

Zeus asked for time to consider this request. When Artemis refused to listen to Apollo's demands to retract what she had asked of her father, Apollo did what he never thought he would ever do. He conspired with Hera.

Apollo's fabricated legend had the unintentional effect of painting Hera as more potent than she indeed was. This had resulted in a spike in her received worship, and she liked it. Apollo knew this, so he offered to spin more tales for her among the mortals to increase the power of her cult. Hera liked the sound of this, so she asked Apollo what he wanted in return. Apollo asked her to challenge Artemis' request. Hera asked why he wanted her to do such a thing, and Apollo was blunt in his words, reminding her that is none of her concern.

Harsh words aside, Hera agreed to his terms. She weaved her own tale of deception with Zeus, somehow convincing him that if Callisto were to be reincarnated, she would be a threat to the pantheon. Considering his options, Zeus apologized to Artemis and refused her request, even though it hurt him dearly to do so. Both in spirit and in the flesh, as an angry Artemis kicked him into the Empyrean flame, burning his backside and leaving a scar that lasted years.

Still, Artemis' rage grew. On more than one occasion, she attempted to steal Callisto's soul from the Underworld. Sometimes Apollo had managed to convince her to abandon her course. Sometimes it was Hades that managed to do so. Once, it took Cerberus nearly mauling her to death to cause her to surrender. But after decades, she would eventually return to that foolish endeavor, until just before the departure of Earth, she managed to pull it off and free Callisto's soul, even if Artemis herself was captured before she could escape.

Artemis spent her final days on Earth in Tartarus, wondering what form Callisto would take in her next life. Finally, Zeus pardoned Artemis, needing her skills to conquer Elysium, but he warned her not to let her search for Callisto distract her from her duties.

True to her word, Artemis played the part of the dutiful daughter once more. She helped conquer the old gods of Elysium and helped shape the new order. Artemis attended the festivals and events that she was asked to and performed the other duties of her station with diligence. However, she just wanted to be reunited with Callisto all the while.

When centuries had passed, and Artemis was worried that Callisto had reincarnated as mortal several times, she asked for Zeus' permission to finally seek out her loved one. Zeus, still torn by whatever Hera had told him and the need to be Artemis' loving father once more, agreed to Artemis' request but offered a word of caution.

Artemis searched the world over and found no sign of Callisto. She checked with Hades and learned she had been reincarnated as a nymph once more, but he could not locate her. Not even the Gray Witches or the sorceress Hecate seemed able to find Callisto.

Eventually, just recently, in the last few years, a letter was delivered to the Forest of the Moon, written in Callisto's hand. It simply read:

*'I do not wish to be found. Please stop searching.'*

Of course, Artemis took this hard. She did not know how to process this development.

Fearing that Artemis would again sink into another depression, Apollo sought her out and engaged in a long discussion with her. Somehow, Apollo got his sister to finally open up about what he had known all along but had never heard her say aloud. The admission of her conflicted emotions about Orion and Callisto, her feelings of betrayal, and her deep and complex relationship with her father all boiled over… and then she confessed something else, and it was time for Apollo's own confession.

"I love you," Apollo had admitted before he grabbed his sister, pinned her to the wall, and kissed her passionately. It was a surprise, though not an unwelcome confession, as Artemis reciprocated the advance and threw herself into the carnal embrace. It was not the first time the twins had been intimate with one another, but it was the first time they did so as lovers with one other alone and not as twin siblings sharing a lover.

This would not be the last time they would indulge in such a taboo.

"Did you ever reach a conclusion?" asked Artemis in the present, summoning her twin to the same. She was lying on her side atop the animal skins next to her brother, her fingertip and thumb teasing one of his chest's hairs while her bare leg was resting between his muscled legs.

Apollo smiled. "I think I was pretty clear on that matter," he said. "Did you not feel it happen? I can repeat it for you if you'd like..." he said, laughing.

"Not that," she said with a scoff and a nudge against his ribs. "I meant, did you have an answer to your own questions? Remember what we were discussing before… this happened?"

Apollo nodded and looked back at the ceiling with a grin. "I was just thinking about that… about everything, really."

"Of course you were," said Artemis with a sigh as she sat up and grabbed her clothing. "I am glad you were the one to be burdened with those gifts of yours. I do not know if my mind would be able to function if I was plagued with such things. Being the god of prophecy and having such gifts of insight and foresight would be excruciating."

Scoffing, Apollo sat up and placed his hand on her still bare shoulder. "Only if one is trying to forget the past does it become a burden."

"Oh, please," Artemis scoffed, slipping her shoulder from under his hand. Then, standing upright, she pulled her breeches over her legs. "The past is the past. It does not matter. It has no bearing on the here and now."

"It does," said Apollo with a sigh. "Strange for someone so haunted by the past to say such things..."

"You have your troubles, brother," Artemis said, rolling her eyes. "Do not suppose to speak at me as though you are not just as troubled as I."

"I am troubled by your mistreatment of yourself, sister," Apollo said. "When you are cruel to yourself, you disrespect my sister, my other half, and the love of my-"

Artemis let out a long annoyed sigh, tossing her tunic aside for the time being to turn to look down upon her brother and scowl. "Do not call me that."

"Sister?"

"No…" she said with a harsh tone.

"Other half?" Apollo asked while wearing a teasing smirk and nothing else as he laid on the animal skins.

Artemis rolled her eyes. "You hate it when I depreciate myself. Very well then. I am not fond of you depreciating the other women you have been with."

Apollo scoffed. "You jest."

Artemis had her usual expression. "You're jesting. I do no such thing."

"You used to do so," Apollo said with an amused grin. "When we were kids. You were quite fond of it, I recall. Actually, you were even good at it. Hermes himself used to call you funny," Apollo said, laughing by himself at the memories. When he saw she was not amused, he let out a sigh and tried to deflate her glare with a smile. "Seriously, sister, if you're thinking that any of those other women could possibly compare to you, you are either sorely mistaken or the new Goddess of Comedy."

With an arched back and a dropped back head, Artemis let out a groan. Then, composing herself, she returned her gaze to her brother. "I do not deserve this pedestal you put me on, brother! What of Koronis? You had a son with her!"

Apollo scoffed. "And you killed her when you discovered she had been carousing with another. I have no love for her left in my heart, no more than you for Orion."

Glancing sideways, Artemis sighed.

Apollo sighed as well, biting his lip. "I suppose that was a poor example."

"Most likely the only example worth even mentioning," Apollo said as he propped himself up with one arm beneath him. "The rest of my affairs have been short and brief. Mostly consisting of oracles, priestesses, nymphs, princesses, the occasional prince, and so many barmaids… oh, so many barmaids."

Sighing, Artemis shook her head as she reached for her tunic. "I do not need to hear this."

"Jealous?"

"Hardly," she said, rolling her eyes. "What this is… What we do here is for mutual benefit. This is not a relationship."

Apollo raised an eyebrow. "You cannot escape the fact we have a relationship."

"We have a relationship as brother and sister," Artemis admitted as her arms found the inside of her tunic's sleeves and then pulled the tunic over her head to cover her chest. "Granted, it is an intimate relationship. We are twins, brother. We are special. We cannot expect others to understand us, not the way we understand each other… I love you, but we are not lovers."

Chuckling, Apollo shook his head. "You confuse me, dear sister. What we just did, what we have been doing for years, certainly contradicts that sentiment."

Pacing away from the bedside, Artemis groaned. She sat on the same chair Apollo had dragged away from the table and sat to wrap her feet. "Must you be so difficult, brother?" she asked with annoyance. "Perhaps we are lovers, but that does not make us mates or consorts. We are in this to find release and comfort, much as we did when we were curious godlings playing out what we saw father and mother doing in the dark. I do not wish to make you my husband or bear our children."

Grabbing his trousers, Apollo sat up. He was poised to speak when he noticed a faint breeze prickle his arm hair. His eyes shot to the door and saw it open with a cloaked trespasser in the doorway.

Pulled back taut and aimed true was Apollo's bow with one of Artemis' own arrows. Before Apollo could cry out a warning, the arrow was loosed and sank into the god's chest, knocking him back to the animal skin bed and casting his gaze upon the ceiling made of packed clay and thatch. Then, before it all went black, he felt Artemis' hand on his chest and heard her sweet voice in his ear; but as her hair came into view, the darkness drifted over him before he could gaze at her face once more.

As his mind drifted, his hands fumbled to find Artemis' own. When he found her hand, it was wet with his ichor. He held her hand and handled her shoulder with his other hand, pulling her in as he managed to put words to accompany his struggling breath. "Gray cloak. Broken book…" were his final words before his senses slipped away.

The last thing he felt was Artemis escaping his grip. The sounds of her unshod feet giving chase were the final sounds that touched his ears. What followed next was cold and dark emptiness...

## Characters

### Gods

* Apollo
* Artemis