From the dark and hallowed halls of the hellish House of Hades came the curses of the Underworld's prince.

"Why is everything so dusty! I know we can't expect Dusa to take care of the archives as well as the living areas but shouldn't we hire some cleaners for this area? What if someone ever wants to look at them? Maybe that's why Father grew his beard. It serves to filter the dust out of the air when he heads back into the stacks!"

The scritching of the scribes could not drown out Zagreus's loud mouth as he did his best to find where in the blazes his father had hidden the pertinent files. Even Nyx hadn't known. But Zagreus knew his father, and knew the man had a rigid sense of order. He wouldn't misfile something this important; he just wouldn't record where it was. It would still be where it was meant to be, just… not recorded anywhere else.

"Still rummaging around, disturbing my workers?" boomed Hades from behind him. "I have never seen you put so much effort into anything to do with paperwork."

Zagreus had to stifle the urge to flinch and hide. He was doing nothing wrong. He was just looking through the archives, which he had every right to do as the prince of the Underworld (who might have had to bribe his father with diamonds to let him back into the archives after he got fired, but that was beside the point). "How in all the rivers are you so quiet?" he demanded.

"Maybe you are just inattentive and self-absorbed."

"You used your magic helmet to sneak up on me," Zagreus accused.

"Do not blame your shortcomings and dulled senses on me, boy."

"I notice you didn't deny it."

"Because it is my house, and I can do as I wish - unlike you. What are you doing sneaking around here? Do you wish to be barred from the archives again?"

"I am looking for something I can use against Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta," Zagreus said, trying to avoid snapping back. "Something killed him. And he's looking for something. I need to know the truth. About everything. So I can find out about him and who he is."

"All men die, boy," Hades boomed. "A man's life matters little, save that it determines where he spends eternity - and Kratos, of all men, has earned his punishment in Tartarus. Oath-breaker, kin-slayer, a man who lived his life controlled by his tempestuous passions." Hades made a disgusted noise. "You would be better off spending your time with Achilles studying the art of the blade than rooting around in the archives."

Zagreus exhaled. "Are you seriously telling me that you want me to get better at killing your minions rather than doing paperwork?"

"At least that way, you might stop embarrassing the house with how many times you die at the hands of an escaped ghost," Hades said sourly.

"Oh, of course! It's just about the House and its reputation! Not because I'm your son and he's killed me repeatedly."

"You have, by this point, made it clear that you do not consider being killed to be a major impairment or reason to change your ways," Hades said, shaking his great head gravely. "I am trying to engage with you on your own terms. And that is no small compromise of mine."

"I know there's someone called Calliope who is important and is the root of all of this," Zagreus said, trying to keep his voice level. "And if I can find out-"

Hades sighed, a deep exasperated sound. "It will benefit you none. It is just another family tragedy, in this melancholy bloodline. She was his daughter; he murdered her - and his wife too - and then your uncle, Lord Zeus, had me bend my rules and send a girl who was not worth of Elysium to those hallowed fields for she was his granddaughter. At least it was less egregious than sending that beast Heracles there, but her deeds had not earned her anything other than a spot in Asphodel."

"I don't care about your rules, father! I need to find her to find out exactly what happened!"

"You have never cared about my rules," Hades said sourly. He groomed his moustache with his fingers, and then turned on his heel. "Do as you wish. You always do."

With frustrated grunt, Zagreus got back to his paper-sorting, before his father's voice drifted over from the door.

"You may discover the case file in section phi-epsilon-alpha, lower gamma folder, and see for yourself the height of our wretched family's folly."

Zagreus paused, and cleared out an ear with his little finger. Had he just heard…

"Thank you, father!"

Lord Hades was gone.

The girl was recorded in being assigned quarters in a remote section of Elysium that Zagreus had seldom been through before. Finding her was no easy work, made only more difficult by the fact that the ashen-skinned maniac who was her father was rampaging around making problems for anyone he ran into, especially Zagreus.

Having fought his way back up to Elysium for what had to be the… the manyth time, he wasn't exactly counting, Zagreus was not in a fine mood. Indeed, if he had been any more sullen and recalcitrant and irate-

"You're not helping matters, old man."

-then he would have missed the sound of a flute coming from one of the two doors that led from his current formerly-full-of-exploding-tiny-chariots location.

"Oh, wait, really? A flute is coming from that door." Zagreus leaned in, ears pricking up. "Oh hey, yeah, there is. Thanks for that, old man."

Having noticed it all on his own, Zagreus confidently pushed open the doors of another chamber of the glades of Elysium, and was immediately presented by the sonorous tolling of a bell.

"No no no Than, not now…"

"Death comes…" intoned Thanatos.

"Yes, I know you do, Than. But-"

"Come on, Zagreus, let's see who can clear out the most…" Death trailed away. "There don't seem to be any heroes here."

"No, there aren't." Zagreus shielded his eyes, looking around the well-lit glade which admittedly had a certain edge of clutter which would remind any onlooker of the Underworld prince's own disorganised quarters. There, a ball; there a pile of pillows on the grass; there some discarded small clothing left unwashed.

"This better not be some way to trick me into doing your laundry, Zag," Thanatos said acerbically.

"I have never done that in my life," Zagreus said, offended.

"Your laundry? No, you haven't."

"That's not what I meant."

"And yet it is true."

"Than, you're embarrassing me!"

"You embarrass yourself."

The inhabitant of this room apparently had decided that the discourse of the two deities meant they were not a threat, though perhaps they were an indication that a circus troupe had come to town. A small girl in pale blue, flute in hand, her darker hair streaked through with the pinks of Elysium's touch emerged from the bushes. She looked up at the two strangers with wide eyes.

"Who is this child, Zag?" Thanatos muttered.

"Her name is Calliope. I've been looking for her because she's Kratos's daughter," Zagreus replied.

"Huh. So that's why you were rooting around in the archives. My brother said it was surprising that you seemed to be working."

"Why does everyone say that?"

"Do you really want me to answer?" Thanatos turned his attention back to the girl. "Do you know who we are?"

The little girl looked up at the pair of men. "Yes," she said softly. "You're Lord Thanatos, Death Himself." She turned her attention to Zagreus. "And you're a dangerous escaped convict who keeps on getting killed by Theseus."

Zagreus kept a fixed expression, despite the spluttering noise coming from Thanatos's direction that sounded a lot like Death was laughing at him. He didn't like the experience. He preferred to laugh at death, though not in person because he didn't want to hurt Than's feelings. "That is… arguably true."

"No no, it's true, you've never beaten him once," Calliope said in the inconveniently pedantic way of the small child.

"I am Zagreus, son of Hades, prince of the Underworld," Zagreus said, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"But still a dangerous escapee?"

"Oh, very dangerous."

"Can't be so dangerous if you keep on losing."

There was a clatter as Death Himself fell over making desperately muffled noises. Zagreus tried to cling to his dignity. "I am also your cousin, once removed."

"What does that mean?"

"It means your father is my cousin."

"Okay."

Zagreus couldn't help but feel slightly let down by the lack of reaction. "'Okay'? Just that?"

"I don't see why anyone would show up and just tell lies."

Clinging to his scythe, Thanatos tried to keep a straight face and failed. "G-go on, Zag. Ask y-y-your questions."

"You're not helping, Than." He cleared his throat. "I do understand that this might be… no, I'm going about this the wrong way." He reached into a pocket and pulled out a bottle of nectar. "Here. I've been looking for you for a while, and I have a present for you."

Her eyes lit up at that. "Really? Nectar? For me?" Calliope exclaimed brightly. "Come on! This way!"

A few moments later, and the Prince of the Underworld and Death were installed in too-small seats, as the girl poured out nectar into little clay cups. The other guests at the party were a pair of rag dolls, and a helmet she had presumably stolen from some warrior in Elysium.

"Thank you very much, Mister Escapee!" Calliope told him.

"Thank you for the seat," he said, for lack of anything else to say.

"I don't really have many people come to see me. I don't really have any, actually. Except for Patty. But the warriors don't really care about children. And there's no one my age here."

"Mmm hmm," Zagreus said. "I know the feeling. I grew up somewhere where there weren't many people my own age around. It can be lonely."

She nodded firmly. "Yep!"

"Tell you what, I'll try to find you again and see you whenever I'm passing through Elysium. It'll be good to see someone else to talk to."

He earned a gap-toothed smile for that. "What, really?"

"Really."

"That's great! You're really nice, Mister Runaway."

"... are you making fun of me?"

"Of course not," the wide-eyed, innocent-looking small child said.

"I think you're making fun of me."

"You're mean to say that."

"I am?" Zagreus raised his hands in mock surrender. "Well, I guess I'm wrong then."

"Yep! You are!" Calliope said with a mischievous grin.

He took a deep breath. Now came the hard part. He ran a hand through his hair, and tried to think of the best way to say this. "I do have some questions for you, Calliope."

"Call me Calli!"

"Okay, I will do that, Calli. So I do have some questions for you. And I'm sorry if they aren't fun to answer. Because they're about your father. He's been killing… uh. A lot of people. Me a bunch of times."

"Yeah. He does that," Calliope said quietly, her face falling. Her fingers tightened around the bottle of nectar he had given her.

"I want to know about him. What he was like. What he did. Everything that might explain why he's so angry and why he hurts so many people."

"So you can kill him?" The words came out like an accusation.

"I don't want to," Zagreus said, looking down. "I'm not even sure I can. He's a lot better at fighting than me. No, I really want to be able to talk to him. To understand why he's so angry. And maybe get him to calm down."

Calliope's little hands balled up in her dress. "You're not like any of the men in Sparta," she said.

"No, I'm probably not. I'm the son of Hades. I was born down here."

"Is that why you're running away?"

"No. Yes. Maybe. It's complicated. I… I found out my mother lives on the surface, and I've never met her. But I want to meet her."

"I miss my mama," Calliope whispered.

"She's probably in Asphodel," Thanatos observed. "But Lord Zeus's diktat means that they must be separated since-"

"Well, damn that," Zagreus snapped, suddenly angry.

"He's the King of the Gods-"

"And so what does he think he's doing? Separating a child from her mother just so he can feel better about himself! And feel better about himself rather than doing anything to fix things."

Thanatos leaned back. "I've… never seen you like this. You don't usually get angry. Except with your father."

"I don't try to show it," Zagreus said, taking a deep breath. "Getting angry doesn't fix things. But what Lord Uncle Zeus has done doesn't fix things either!" He reached over and squeezed the snivelling Calliope's wrist. "Hey, listen Calli. I can't promise I'll manage it quickly, but I'll try to at least see if I can pull some strings, get you permission to see your mother again - and though I don't think my father will let her live here, I might be able to let some visits happen. Okay?"

That earned him an earnest little nod and a snotty smile.

"Now, please. Can you tell me about your father? What he was like?"

And so Zagreus heard the story of Calliope, and through her the story of Kratos. Kratos, Sparta's greatest warrior and general, a man who lived for war - yet fell in love. A man with a wife and a child, yet whose heard was torn between home and the bloody battlefield. A man devoted as much to crow-feathered Ares who eats the eyes of the dead as to his wife and child. And, though the girl had not known what was going on, Zagreus knew well the signs of taking too many blessings from Ares. The rages, the urge to kill, the revelry in the swirling maelstrom of blades and the doom of the hanging blade. Kill or be killed, indeed.

Kratos had never been a calm man, certainly never as easy-going as Zagreus was. His rage was fanned by the blessings he sought out from Ares, all to become a better killer, and Ares loved those who killed in his name. The more war Kratos sought the more war he desired; the better a killer he became the more he let his Spartan rage drive him. Ares blessed him like no mortal before, and the body of a demi-god, a son of Zeus, could hold more of the terrible fury of the God of War than a lesser man's.

And in the end, drenched in blood, heralded by the cawing of Ares' crows, Kratos had come home and been unable to tell friend from foe, kin from cattle, family from threat - and in his red-tinged madness he had butchered his wife and child and many others too.

Zagreus held the little girl, and let her sob into him until her weeping fit passed. When he detached his arms, his expression was one of seldom-seen resolve. Carefully, he nudged her over to Thanatos's lap.

The Reaper Thanatos looked down at the girl Calliope, and a frown sat upon his pale lips. "What are you up to, Zag?"

"I'm putting her in your hands, Than."

"I'm Death."

"And? You're also probably the nicest, most trustworthy, more reliable guy in all the Underworld." Zagreus gave him a thumbs up. "I couldn't think of a better person to trust with a kid."

"I don't meet many children." Thanatos paused, and reconsidered his statement. "Well, I do. But only in passing. For work. There really isn't much time to speak with them."

Rising, Zagreus cracked his knuckles. "It's all the fault of my stupid family. Lord Uncle Zeus and his desire to 'fix things' without caring about whether they're actually fixed. My rule-abiding, stuck-up father who will bend the rules the least possible needed to do what he has been ordered to. Ares and the fact he just doesn't give a damn. Kratos too - he's not innocent of any of this… this farce. And," he pursed his lip, "I remember hearing something, I'm… I'm pretty sure that Athena is involved in this mess too. She's helpful to me, but she's too clever for her own good and skilled at keeping her hands clean. I need to talk to some people. Put things right."

"Zag, don't walk off and leave me with this child."

"What's that, Than, I can't hear you! Maybe Nyx's shadows are interrupting things. You're shrouded in darkness, I can't see you either-"

"Zag. We are in the same room."

"Oh the darkness, the darkness is taking me, I really have to get going." Zagreus departed at high speed, riding a wave.

Calliope tugged on Thanatos's clothes. "What is he talking about?"

Thanatos sighed, shaking his head. "Zag is a fool. And he thinks he is funny. It is one of his personality flaws. Many, many personality flaws. How could anyone possibly like someone like that?"

"Do you like him?" asked Calliope.

"What? No. Of course not, not at all, in no way!" Thanatos said, calmly, wisely, and he didn't bluster or have a certain pinkness to his cheeks. Not at all. In no way.

"So what happens now?" Calliope gave death incarnate a lop-sided, weary, teary smile. "It doesn't matter. You can leave me alone. I'm used to being alone here. The heroes here don't have any time for children, and the one man who's nice is very sad and just sits by the river, sighing. Poor Patty."

Thatatos's face twisted into an elegant sneer. "And prove myself the equal of these so-called heroes? No. Zag is a fool, but even he wouldn't do that. Come with me, child."

"So you're doing what he says, but not because you like him?"

"I d-don't like him," Death said gravely, seriously, and impassively. "No. I'm only doing this because… because you could be useful!"

"So it's not because you like him. It's just you want me as a 'prentice?"

"I don't need an apprentice!" Thanatos paused. "Though you were a demigod in life. And that means your spirit has a certain strength in it and I have been very overworked with all the famines and diseases sweeping the mortal world. And you have already been touched by death. But no! No! This is just… just a short term thing! Nothing else!"

"It's just that you said I could be useful-"

"Not asking questions right now would be useful," he said firmly. Wearily, Thanatos leaned on his scythe. "Zagreus," he muttered to himself, "when you're through with this, you and I are going to have a talk about you making me take care of small children. You owe me for this."