"Kratos! Kratos! We need to ta-"

That was the last thing Prince Zagreus remembered until he surfaced once more from the Styx in the House of Hades. And that confused him, because usually he at least remembered some graphic means of death. Had Kratos crushed his skull that quickly?

"Hey, Hypnos," he said, after drying himself out on a towel. "How are things?"

"Oh, hi there, Zag! Not bad! Not bad! Well, I mean, your father is getting on my case because I lost the notes for his 7:48 meeting - I'm not sure your sundial is working given we don't have a sun or anything like that and... what was the question?"

"How are things?" Zagreus repeated.

"Oh! Right! Yes, not bad! My brother came back, but you missed him."

"Than's already gone?"

"No, Charon! He showed up and gave me this!" Hypnos stuck a pale hand into the pocket of his robe, and pulled out a squashed-looking gyros. "'S good. Oh, and..." the hand dipped back in, and this time came back with a somewhat greasy note. "For you," he said, before taking a bite.

"Oh, really? Interesting."

"Mmm-hmmph." Hypnos swallowed, and checked his notes. "And look at you! Getting drowned in the River Lethe! I think that's actually a first! How did it feel as the water filled your lungs?"

"I don't remember," Zagreus said distractedly, reading the note.

"Hah! Oh, wait, were you not actually making a joke? I guess that makes sense! Wait, where are you going?"

"Back out."

"But you normally do a loop of the place and talk to everyone and offer some of us nectar and-" He squeaked as he caught the nectar Zagreus tossed to him. "Hey, thanks!"

"You saved me a lot of trouble by passing along that message. And I've got another one for your brother next time I see him," Zagreus said, stalking away towards his exit.

"Zagreus," said Nyx, Mother Night, raven-tressed and star-wrapped, waiting for him by his bedroom door. "Dear child."

"Is something wrong, Nyx?" Zagreus said, pausing. He could always make time for her.

"My daughters have reached out to me."

"Your..." he swallowed. "The Fates?"

"Yes. Indeed."

"W-what did they say?"

"Nothing for your ears. But I know them, and I know they know that I would mention this to you, though not what they said. And so it must be their will - or their vision - that I tell you that they have spoken to me, and that you draw your own conclusions from that."

The hair rose up on the back of the Prince of the Underworld's neck, and he shivered. "Thank you, Nyx. I don't exactly understand what is going on, but I appreciate you making time for me."

"You are a good boy, child. Now go. Be on your way. And..."

"Hmm?"

Night reached out, and patted him on the head. "Just be yourself, my child."

He smiled up at her. "Thank you, Nyx. I suppose I better be on my way. I might say I'll try to stay safe, but I'm going to be trying to break out of the Underworld and there's a grey-skinned murderer out there so I don't think I'll succeed."

Because Charon's message had been clear.

This concerns the matter of the Ghost of Sparta. Speak to Ares. Speak to Athena. They will be looking for you.

So that was exactly what Zagreus was going to do.

The two of them found him the moment he leapt from the upstairs window; the shield of Athena and the blade of Ares orbiting each other, right before the grand gates of the House of Hades.

"Well," he said, running a hand through his hair, "I hadn't expected them to show so soon. But I guess this is the one place in the Underworld that doesn't move. Maybe Uncle Poseidon told them about how he found me to talk my ear off about fishing." The mendacious prince quite enjoyed fishing, though he was not very good at it - certainly not compared to the lord of the wine-dark sea. "Well, here goes nothing. Let's hope it's good news. In the name of Hades! Olympus, I accept this message!"

Two towering figures appeared before the young prince. To his left was Ares the crow who feasts on the war-dead; Ares dark-skinned and pale haired; Ares whose rage brings empires to ruin and whose callous whim cares not for where the blood flows. And beside him was his half-sister shieldmaiden Athena, armoured in radiant orichalcum, her eyes like steel; Athena the general whose clarion call orders men to advance; Athena who burst from skyfather Zeus's skull fully formed.

"You know, you're giving away which one you prefer," Zagreus muttered as they took shape within the pillars of light. The prince did notice, however, that neither god seemed to exactly be looking at each other. And not in the sense that their attention was focussed on him; rather, they were quite deliberately not looking at each other.

"Dear cousin," said stately Athena. "The boatman Charon has sought us out, bearing a message - and to think that my half-brother's great mistake is inconveniencing you."

"Mistake? No mistake, dear sister. Just a consequence of war, as you would know if you stopped coddling your warriors. I," Ares smiled, "do not make mistakes."

"Oh, do you not, dear brother? Because I recall a certain incident with Hephaestus-"

"Please, do not be so petty as to be all Artemis at me." Ares rolled his shoulders. "But my younger kin, you should have said that you had found Kratos in the depths of the lands of the dead. And to think that you have been fighting him, time and time again? Oh, such a whetstone to hone your edge against! No wonder I have felt your presence approach the surface closer and closer. With the training and battle arts of Achilles and such a foe to test yourself against, you will be a most fearsome warrior when you emerge."

Athena made a disgusted noise at the back of her throat, that in a less esteemed woman would have been a tut. "How can you take pleasure in such things? Least of all what your schemes did to the man Kratos — who was kin of ours."

"All craftsmen take pleasure in great works."

"Your rage drove the poor man mad, Lord Ares."

"A mere casualty of war, sister. He asked for this power. No boon I granted, he did not beseech. And so he became the mightiest mortal warrior. That is what he desired from me, and I was more than happy to grant it to him. So many fell before him. So much blood shed upon the earth; so many bodies left only as food for the carrion crows." Ares spread his hands. "In that, the two of us were in accord. So many of your Athenians dead at his hands. Do you remember?"

Athena's jaw muscles tensed. "Yes, I do, brother. So kind of you to recall those battles, where your bestial blood-maddened Spartans murdered as they pleased."

"Your men would have done the same to mine," Ares said simply. "My blessings simply proved stronger — strong enough that your vaunted shield could not save them."

Stooping slightly, Athena leant in towards Zagreus, eyes narrowed. "You wished to know the truth of the sins of Kratos, Zagreus? Well, here they are from the crow's mouth. You have taken war-blessings from my brother; you know that he is not a creature of sanity or rationality. Kratos was a general of Sparta, and to hurt me and my Athenians, he implored Lord Ares for gifts of bloodshed beyond that which any man had before. Other heroes of earlier ages had known not to embrace the full madness of the slaughter, but that Spartan did not. By the end he was as mad as Heracles in the depths of Hera's curse."

"And a warrior without compare! That was all he ever asked me for. And so that was what I gave him."

Zagreus looked up at the gods, his kin of the heavens, and saw that they were bickering like children. "I do have a question, though," he began, hoping that they could hear him.

Whether or not they could hear him was not answered, because their argument continued. Zagreus tried not to sigh, though, because he had the missing part. A man, claimed by the rage of Ares until he could no longer tell friend from foe; family from threat.

Had he brought it on himself? Was he an innocent victim of the games of the gods?

No, both answers would be easy, and both of them were wrong. How could one assess culpability from here? He knew he knew very little of the state of affairs on the surface. All he could listen to Ares and Athena bicker, and see what each of them wanted him to think. Except…

"Goddess, might I ask why you are involved in this matter, and why you so kindly deigned to speak on this subject with me?" he asked as politely as he could while also trying to raise his voice over the argument.

Both of the gods seemed to remember he was here, and there was mutual throat clearing and settling down. "You see, noble cousin," Athena said, "after Kratos came to his senses, he was wracked with guilt. Seeking penance, he entered the service of the gods — where my half-brother used the brutish man for his own brutish schemes. I may have provided some assistance despite my well-deserved ire for the Spartan."

"Look at her, my kin, hiding behind her shield of pretended innocence," Ares almost purred, his malice made more vicious for how it was hidden within soft pleasantries. "Do not mislead Zagreus so, sister. Others may not see your fingerprints smeared scarlet red over these events, but I can. Do you think I did not hear when you whispered in his ear, offering him foolish hope and leashing him more thoroughly than I ever did? When you led him to believe that his nightmares of his kinslaying were some curse we Olympians laid on him, rather than the torment within his own mind for his own deeds that placed the Fury sisters on his tail? That you implied to him that it was my trickery that led him to slay his kin, so that you might turn my own blade against me?"

"Does the truth burn you, Lord Ares?"

"I do not find myself burning, dear sister. Perhaps you might want to use some of that self-same truth?" Ares cracked his knuckles. "Incited by her, my kin, Kratos sought to rise above his station and sought to displace his own troubled mind onto me. But I brought doom to him, and he was merely half-divine. Far less impressive than you, I, or even her. And so Kratos kinslayer passed into the river Styx, and from there — I am led to believe — he was imprisoned within Tartarus. And perhaps one might ask questions as to how he could escape his confinement?"

"Are you directing that accusation at me, Lord Ares?" Athena demanded.

"Is your conscience guilty that you would assume that, my dear sister?"

"Once again you seek to blame me, when you were the one who granted him that selfsame mad strength that led him down his path to destruction. Are you at all surprised that such a man would seek to escape the Underworld? But…" Athena raised a hand, "that is an argument perhaps for later. And no doubt Zagreus has places for me and need not listen to my refutations of your furious words. So perhaps we might pass him our blessings — potent ones, to aid him well should he encounter Kratos again — and we might take our discussion elsewhere?"

Ares nodded. "That would perhaps be wise. War is our concern, my sister, but our kin has the creatures of the Underworld to slay and would not desire to see our own fight. Not yet, at least. But when he is free, well, I would quite like to see what skills he has honed against my former tool Kratos."

Dying a lot, Zagreus did not say. "I am most grateful for your kindness, and the information," he said instead, bowing his head to them as two pillars of light fell on him.

"Do not disappoint me, my kin, and send that wretch screaming back to the depths of Tartarus," said Ares.

"Take my shield and my wisdom, and stand firm against reckless aggression," added Athena.

When the light faded, leaving him alone, he could feel terrible strength within him — far more than he would ever normally have while still in Tartarus.

"Wow. They must really be worried about Kratos escaping if they're blessing me like this," the wise prince said to himself. "Oh, hey, you called me wise. Guess I'm right. Mmm. Really a good thing I didn't tell them what I really thought of this whole mess."

Indeed, it was a good thing that the prince of the Underworld has refrained from blasphemy against the jealous and oft-times vengeful Olympians.

"Mmm. I need their help to get out of here, and offending them isn't a good idea. At best, they'd just stop helping me. And I've seen how they can be when they're annoyed at me - and that's when they like me. The last thing I want is Athena protecting all the shades of Elysium and Ares filling Taratrus with stabby-stabby murder blades," opined cunning, if excessively casual, Zagreus.

The prince tilted his head. "Huh. You actually approve of what I said. Or at least the general attitude. What's wrong with how I said it?"

The more conventional way of putting things would be to speak of the valiant shield of Athena protecting one's foes and the enemies granted the terrible strength of Ares War-Crow's wrath.

"Okay, but was what I said wrong?" said the impudent prince. He worked his shoulders. "I'm disappointed in both of them, but they're family. When I get out of here, we're going to have to live together for a very long time. If I want to sway their minds on anything, I need them to listen to me. Lecturing them as if I'm my father will just get their backs up. And trust me, as someone who has been lectured extensively and repeatedly by my father, I know that a superior attitude is exactly the wrong way to get someone to listen to you.

"No one's innocent in this mess," he continued, kicking the paving stones. "Except for Calliope. And I guess his wife, whatever her name was. Ares didn't care that his blessings were driving Kratos mad, and... hah, Kratos didn't either, not until he killed people he actually cared about. And Athena used him, both to get back at Ares and also as a punishment for his murder of her favourites. Lord Uncle Zeus was angry about the death of his granddaughter, but didn't actually fix anything. And my father considers this a mess. He just isn't prepared to fix it either, because he doesn't think it's his fault.

"And I could be like my father and say that it's not my problem that Ares and Athena used the life of a mortal as a piece in their games. Ignore all this and just get out of here. But you know what? I've decided this is my problem. So I guess this just falls to me. And maybe I might have a chance against him with all these blessings they loaded me up with in the hopes I'd kill him and send him back to Tartarus. At least for long enough to actually talk to him."