A/n I apologise in advance for the lack of jewellery-related accuracy in the following chapter. I also apologise fully for the fact that this has been so long in the updating. Schoolwork creeps up on you, doesn't it? Oh well, here's the part that I missed out first time round.

o-o-o-O-O-O-o-o-o

I didn't think about what happened with Artemis and Orion for a week. I mean it – it looked to just be a one off. She went back to meeting up with her nymphs most days instead, stopped talking about him and went back to her wild-looking self; her hair was suddenly tousled and her skin free of make up. We argued twice and she stopped singing those silly songs. I relaxed.

I know that the time was exactly a week because, although most of us don't care much for the days if the week, Zeus always holds councils on the same day of every human week – but at irrational hours, just to keep us on our toes. So I realised that it was the day of the next council when Artemis began acting strangely.

The fact that she had returned to the house earlier and slunk off to her room was down to the other Goddesses. No, I wasn't sure why she was finally listening to them either, but apparently if she turned up looking as bad as usual then she was going to be ordered straight back out. Personally, I didn't think that it was fair, but it's an explanation.

I sighed and readied myself to knock on the door and tell her that we really were going to be late if she didn't get her act together, and froze mid-action.

"♪ When he left me… On the brink of the storm…♫"

Ignore the singing. I commanded myself furiously, knocking on the door perhaps a little more sharply than I would have done any other day. "Artemis? If I'm late one more time then Father will eat me. I'm not joking this time."

Rather than snap back or ignore me, she laughed at the feeble joke (yes, I can admit my faults) and opened the door. She was glowing. Yes, glowing. Artemis. I couldn't believe it myself.

"Give me a moment." She said brightly, and stepped back to her dressing table for a moment. I watched, utterly speechless, as she preened her white-blond hair one last time and then spun to face me. Her smile was dazzling. "What do you think?"

"Er…" I couldn't stop myself talking nonsense "You look good but… why ask?"

She froze, hands still on her shoulders, and seemed to deflate slightly. "No reason." She picked up her cloak and swung it around her shoulders, then pushed past me to the door, suddenly cold. She snapped her hand around the doorknob and I shied slightly, fearing that she would start on me before we got through the council – or even the door.

"Sorry." I muttered, not quite knowing what I was apologising for.

o-o-o-O-O-O-o-o-o

"Apollo."

Hermes was lounging on the windowsill again, this time of my room. I ignored him and tried to keep reading my book, seeing the words but not taking in the sentences.

"What's up with Artemis?" He climbed in through the window and took his hat off, looking serious and not at all like his usual self. I finally looked up. "She was in a stress at the beginning of the council, then left as if her own hounds were behind her with this big grin on her face. Did you know where she was going?"

"No." Putting the book down, I stood up off the bed and looked him in the eye. "But you do, I take it, from the look on your face."

He started spinning his hat on one finger, showing his uncertainty. "The whole of Olympus is alive with rumours," he admitted, "and I was running an errand for Zeus – as usual – when I saw her. She was in the forests, but not with her nymphs. She was wandering around on foot with that human, Orion."

My blood ran cold. All of the stories about him and Eos cam back to the forefront of my mind, and I think that Hermes could see on my face exactly what I was thinking. All the men who had tried anything with my sister before had died, usually very painfully, but I didn't trust Orion all the same…

"I don't think that you're sister would do that, 'Poll," it sounded as if he was trying to reassure me – or himself.

"She wouldn't," I replied grimly, throwing down the book and looking around for my sandals, "but I wouldn't put it past Orion to try."

I was just tugging my sandals on, wrestling with the straps as my fingers seemed to turn into thumbs, when I heard the door to the house flung open. Hermes and I froze, looked at each other, then almost fell over ourselves scrambling towards the door. Hermes beat me, the little bugger, but I pushed him out of the way and into the corridor.

We were right. It was Artemis, spinning and closing the door behind her, leaning on it for a moment before she saw us.

"Boys!" she said in surprise. Hey, it's my house as well, and even if you are older than both of us, it doesn't give you a right to patronise us. "You're in, Apollo!"

I had to fight the urge to start teasing her about something herself. It wasn't the time to do so – no matter how much she irritated me by pretending to be shocked that I was in. "You sound surprised." I answered dryly as she passed us.

She turned to face us both just before she entered her own room, "Well, nice to see you both again." Did you not see us at the council? Or are you someone else just pretending to be my sister? "But I'm shattered. See you in the morning." Still smiling, she disappeared from view.

"Well, that settles something." Muttered Hermes, a glint of something like mischief in his eyes. As usual.

I snapped. "Settles what?" Grabbing the unfortunate messenger by the shoulder of his tunic, I slammed him back against the wall. "You'd better tell me what you've worked out, fly-boy, or I will personally put that kerykerion somewhere even the great God Zeus won't be able to find it. Even if he wanted to!"

Hermes gulped. He probably thought that I meant the threat fully, and his mind was working out places that the kerykerion could end up. It was only a moment before the look on my face made him realise that there really wasn't a choice about telling me. "She was wearing a ring. A silver one, on her left hand."

I let him slide down the wall to his feet. "Artemis wears a lot of silver, you berk," I replied. Even though my mind was whirring, knowing that Artemis wears only certain silver jewellery, and not when she went out.

"A ring?" Hermes asked, prying my fingers away from his shoulder. "You know as well as I do that she wouldn't wear that for the hell of it, 'Poll."

I knew what he as thinking. I just didn't want to admit, didn't want to link the human – the mortal – thing for giving rings as a sign of betrothal to my sister. Or Orion.