Note: And with this chapter, pre-game history is complete.
Apollon was gone.
It was a sudden, open gash in Artemis' consciousness. The arrow she had nocked and drawn back fell short of its target, and the rabbit scampered off. She cursed under her breath, but it was a hollow noise. That place where her brother always was, on the edge of her mind, a gentle presence that had been there since before their birth, was empty. Silence filled it.
She focused in on the arrow laying limply on the forest floor. It had been so long since she had ever missed her target that it seemed impossible.
Picking up the arrow, she held it tightly in her grip before snapping the shaft with pressure applied by her thumb.
Her father, it had to be. His cryptic words came rushing back to her from a few months back. He had said something about occupying Apollon's attentions, hadn't he? Her jaw clenched, teeth grinding together until she felt the first spikes of pain.
No, she couldn't panic. Couldn't let her fine control over her emotions slip. Calmly, she would search for that miserable idiot, and she would realize that her fears were for nothing.
And if not? Gaea help her father when she found him.
Artemis stopped first in Troy. She sat beneath the towering statue of her brother in his temple until his princess stepped inside. The girl, Cassandra, approached her cautiously. Her steps were small, light, eyes wide with fear when she looked upon the goddess. There was a small, terrible part of Artemis that enjoyed the look.
"Lady Artemis," the princess gasped, sweeping into a low bow, the curls of her dark hair brushing against the stone floor.
"Princess Cassandra," Artemis greeted pleasantly enough. She got to her feet gracefully, bare skin brushing against stone as she stretched herself out. As if she had been waiting for the princess to arrive, to make the girl feel all the more guiltier for whatever reason. "Where is my brother?"
The princess thinned her lips out for a moment, eyes wide. Was it fear that sent her heart skittering like that, or worry?
"He did not send you?"
Artemis gave a tight shake of her head, stomach sinking. She had been hoping he would make this search easier on her. "Why would he? Have you done something that would cause need for that?"
The girl had the decency to blush with shame, at least. Her mouth opened, as if she were going to say something, but Artemis could see the cogs turning in her mind as she thought better of it. Instead, Cassandra shook her head. "I haven't seen him."
That was the truth. Artemis didn't have her brother's gift for it, but she could see the stirrings of relief in Cassandra's eyes. She was glad to have not seen Apollon, and Artemis wondered what had happened since she had stopped paying attention to them.
She made no sound as she walked down the path past the princess. She was taller than the girl, towering over her by almost a head. Cassandra was forced to tilt her head back to stare up at the goddess.
"I do hope you find him, Lady Artemis," she murmured. Now that one did seem more like a lie.
"I will," Artemis promised. Her fingers curled around one of Cassandra's dark curls. "And when I do, you will not hurt my brother. Mortals don't tend to last long who do."
The princess went as white as Artemis' hair.
x
The maenads were not much more help, but then, Artemis hadn't expected them to be. Clawing, achingly mad hands reached for her, dirtying her chiton, pawing at her bare skin. Fingers twirled in her hair, bodies pressed against hers.
Her patience snapped somewhere in the midst of the conversation, one of the nymphs shrieking away as an arrow landed in her gut.
One of the satyrs laughed. "Darling, you're lucky that's where she aimed." He led the nymph away with a leering grin.
Artemis curled her lip in disgust. With followers like these, she couldn't imagine why Dionysus would hide away.
One of the more insane - if more insistent - maenads sighed. "Forgive our sister," she told the goddess in a slurring words, a wicked smile on her lips. She could eat Artemis up, that smile said.
Artemis didn't quite like the way it made her feel - less disgusted, more… something.
"She's a moron," Artemis growled.
"She's new and didn't realize that anyone who would dare to come visit the domain of our lord wouldn't be in the partying mood."
"Where is Dionysus, then? If my brother isn't here, then surely your lord would know." Nevermind that Dionysus was also her brother. Recounting her familial connections would cause anyone to have a headache, especially drunk, angry nymphs.
That gave the maenad pause, and she flashed a more regretful smile at the goddess. "We aren't sure," she said softly, barely a breath under her voice. Artemis heard it all the same.
"He disappeared, then?"
The nymph gave a nod. "We haven't seen our lord in a good number of days. That's why the partying is a little bit more frisky than usual."
It didn't seem friskier to Artemis at all, but nobody was asking her for her opinion on the matter.
"We did see Zeus, though," another satyr chimed in, hooves scraping the dirt as he moved in closer to Artemis.
She frowned and clenched her jaw. "Thank you. I'll, er, leave you to your festivities, then."
Shouldering her bow and ignoring the pitiful cries of the wounded maenad among the other sounds of the eternal party, Artemis made a hasty escape.
x
The next arrow that she shot was directed at her father's throne, who missed having it pierce the middle of his forehead just barely as he leapt out of the way. Lightning crackled at his fingertips, but she refused to cower.
"Where is Apollon?"
"You dare come and attack me?" Zeus fired back.
She nocked another arrow and aimed it at his heart. "I brought the wolves as well, in case you thought I wasn't serious."
Artemis was playing a dangerous game here. Immortality was a joke, and he was her father, after all. He could find some suitable enough punishment for her. Like binding her to a husband, taking the forests from her, making her a slave.
She didn't care, in that moment. All she cared about was finding her brother and making sure that Zeus hadn't come up with some scheme. It was a Zeus-like thing to do.
He sighed, holding up one hand to placate her. "Artemis, lower your bow."
"Tell me where he is. Tell me what you're doing! Did you take Dionysus as well? What are you thinking? We're on the verge of a civil war, between Troy and Greece and this is what you decide to do?" She fired her words much like arrows, watching the way they sunk into his body until he could do nothing more than sigh again.
"There are more important things than Greece and Troy," he said carefully, taking a step closer to her.
She growled and kept him in his place. "What does that have to do with Apollon? Or that fool?" She did lower her bow, though, placing the arrow back in her quiver.
"They're fine. For now."
"For now. Is that supposed to comfort me? You're ignoring my questions!"
With the danger of being shot gone, Zeus came forward again, placing his hands on her shoulders. Maybe it was supposed to be comforting or placating, but it felt condescending. His hands weighed her down. "Your brothers, as well as Hades, are a danger. To themselves, to us, to humanity."
Artemis gave him a blank look. "Alright?"
"I've taken them to a place where they might fix that before they end up destroying everything we've worked for."
She didn't buy it. She didn't even try to buy it, and Zeus could see that from the look on her face.
"I want to go," she told him quietly. The ache that was Apollon was too much, heavier than Zeus' hands. "If you took Apollon away to help him, then I want to be there to help him out as well."
He shook his head, dark blond curls moving with the force. "No."
"Yes," she argued. "Who else is he going to listen to but me? He won't listen to you. And Dionysus is a bad influence."
"Hades-"
"Is a miserable pushover, for being the lord of the dead," Artemis spat.
A weary look crossed her father's face, as well as irritation. But she had sunk her teeth into this one, and only imprisonment was going to keep her from her brother.
"You call Dionysus a bad influence, but what have you done for Apollon to change his fate?" Zeus asked her. "You take him in, let him think that everything will be fine with the way he acts. You've helped facilitate this process. You're part of why he has to learn."
Artemis snapped back as though she'd been struck. She would have preferred that. An ache swelled over her, her lips parting for silent words that she couldn't give voice to.
"It's my fault that he's become too dangerous to stay here?"
He let go of her, stepping away now. "You didn't help."
Guilt stabbed her, icy and painful. Dionysus' words came back to her. She had coddled him. She was making him dangerous, her stupid brother. The moron who fell in love too easily and smiled so brightly and could be a force to reckon with if crossed and cried when he got hurt.
She stamped her foot on the marble floor. "Then all the more reason to take me to him. If I made him a monster, then I'm one too. Let me fix it."
"No."
Rage screamed like fire in her veins. "Take me to him, Father. Take me to him, or so help me, the fear Selene caused when she met with Endymion will be like nothing compared to what I will do to this world."
He watched his with a cautious gaze, cold and calculating. She reached a hand out, fingers squeezing slowly into a fist as the sky outside of Olympus began to darken. She would cast the world into a darkness so black, there would be no hope. No relief. Crops would die. The tides would stop flowing.
"Send me to him."
Zeus gave her a grim smile. "The Fates said it would come to this. I had hoped they would be wrong, but then… I never expected Apollon to be the herald of the world's destruction, either."
