"Stop it Artie! I'm not here to play games with you. I've got important questions and I want answers."
The Greek goddess pouted and slumped over on her couch as if she were going to cry. "You always do this to me Acheron. Why? What have I done to deserve this?"
Acheron laughed from his perch on the railing of her temple, "You are so full of yourself it amazes me that you ever have time for me." He slid down off the railing and walked over to circle her couch. "I'm serious here Artie. There's a big problem and I need answers so pull your head out of the clouds and answer me."
"What will you do for me?" she purred as she lifted her head and reached out a hand to stroke his side. He shoved her hand away and glared at her. "Fine, what's the problem?"
"There's been a rash of violent Daimon attacks all over the world and several other nasty critters have been seen as well. What do you know about it?"
"Bah! Who cares if there are less humans to bother us? It's not like they are valuable to me." Acheron rolled his eyes and then glared harder at her. "You are infuriating, you know that? Fine, I don't know anything about the issue. Now let's talk about my problem."
"What problem? Since when do you have problems?"
Now Artemis glared at him, "You know that he's trying to kill me. That is unacceptable. You need to put him up."
"Put him down, and I'm not going to do it. Can you really blame Sin for hating you? You took his powers and made him helpless. Hell, I'd help him kill you if I didn't need you."
Artemis spun and looked critically up at his swirling silver eyes. "Would you really kill me?"
He knew that he wouldn't ever do it, even if he had the chance. As much as Artemis infuriated him, she had meant something to him long ago and very few people in his extremely long life had shown him any compassion so he treasured the ones that did. "Depends on the moment. You really don't know anything about what's going on?"
"No, I do not." She changed her face to a salacious grin and began sauntering towards him when a massive crash echoed through the hall from the other room. "What in Zeus's name was that?" Artemis was half way to the door of the room when it flew open and two of her handmaidens came tumbling in to crash in a heap of limbs on the floor. "What is the meaning of this?" Artemis shouted as she loomed over the two women on the floor.
"Forgive the intrusion Mistress. I tried to stop her but…" this came from the young woman on the top of the pile who seemed to be holding down the other one. The woman on the bottom of the pile shifted and rolled the other handmaiden off her as she stood up and faced Artemis.
"I've had enough of this garbage. You need to keep away from him!"
Ash was amused by this display and he stepped forward to pull Artemis off of the woman in front of her if the goddess flew off the handle. Artemis must have seen him coming forward because she stepped into his path to block him from the women. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't before he'd seen the one who was currently yelling at Artemis. His jaw dropped as he took in her features and who she so closely resembled. Artemis continued to move in front of him but he reached over and stopped her motion with a heavy hand to her shoulder.
"Who is she?" he asked breathlessly. He felt as if he'd just been hit in the chest by one of Zeus's lightning bolts.
Artemis turned and looked at him with horror on her face. She had been trying to keep this from happening for so long now and one simple thing had ruined her carefully guarded secret. "I…oh Acheron, I'm so sorry." She turned back to the two women and stabbed a finger towards the outer part of the temple. "Leave us!"
OoOoOo
It took her nearly three hours to explain it all to him. Acheron's temper was massive and there was no way she could explain the sudden appearance of his daughter without a huge argument as well. At first she thought he really was going to kill her because all he did was glare at her with his jaw clenched tight enough that she thought it would shatter. She was in tears by the time she finished the explanation and she collapsed into a sobbing heap at his feet.
He said nothing for a long time, stalking around the huge room occasionally shooting her a wicked glare. Eventually he sat with his head in his hands and took a deep breath, "May I speak with her?"
Artemis' head shot up and she looked at him with a stunned expression, "Of course. Do you forgive me?"
"No," he growled. "You really don't ever think of anyone but yourself do you?"
She really couldn't respond to that without admitting the truth so she simply rose from the floor and called Kat into the room. "I'll let you two talk," she said quietly as she backed out of the room.