Ceres stood at the entrance to Apollo's palace. She watched as he landed his chariot, then led the horses to the stables. Ceres was hot, annoyed, tired, and worried. None of the gods she went to hadn't told her a thing. When she asked about Proserpine, their eyes had widened with fear and their faces had clouded over for a millisecond.
They were hiding something. She figured someone had told them to keep quiet. But who could tell Apollo that? No message could get to him; he drove the sun! Anything would burn up.
Apollo opened the great doors and a waft of cold air blew over Ceres face.
"Apollo, we need to talk."
"Aw, man Ceres. Is this about me cooking the crops? Because I-"
"It's not about that. You see everything that happens during the day. My daughter is missing. Do you know what happened?"
He flinched. "Yeah… I kind of do"
"What? What happened?"
"She went into the forest and…didn't come out."
Ceres snarled "I know that."
"But she did leave. And she left with a god."
"WHY. ARE. YOU. DOING. THIS. TO. ME! MY DAUGHTER IS MISSING! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR PROPHETIC MUMBO-JUMBO! I ALSO DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR MIND GAMES! IF I WANTED TO PLAY MIND GAMES I WOULD GO TO MINERVA! NOW WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER!?"
He paled "She's in the Underworld, all right! I watched Pluto appear, grab her, and take her to the Underworld!"
"And why did you not come to me?"
"Because I didn't know it was her until you came in and asked about her."
"How could nobody else know about this? Or even tell me?"
Apollo flinched again. "About that… I saw Jupiter sending messages to all the gods you visited. I couldn't see what they said."
"Jupiter sent them messages. That's why they didn't look surprised when I arrived. What else has he done?"
"Three days ago, I kinda…sorta… saw him talking with Pluto."
"What do you mean, talking?"
"Jupiter did most of the talking. Pluto didn't look too excited."
"Right. Thanks for your help Apollo. I think it's time Jupiter and I had a little chat. And Apollo? Don't think I missed that comment on you cooking the crops. We are SO going to talk about that later."
She turned to light and zipped back to the throne room in Olympus. Apollo followed her. The entire council was there, except for Diana. The gods looked at Ceres confused. She ignored all of them and glared daggers at Jupiter.
"YOU. LIED. TO. ME" she said through clenched teeth, glaring daggers at Jupiter.
"I have no idea what you are talking about."
"You told me you had no idea what happened to Proserpine."
"And I didn't."
"Except you helped her kidnapper kidnap her."
"Why would I help someone kidnap my own daughter?"
"I don't know. Why don't we ask Pluto, who took her?"
He paused at that, "if Pluto took her, I'll have to go talk to him and tell him to release her. But it will have to wait. We're having a meeting."
"No, you will get your arse off that throne and go demand he return Proserpine!"
"I can't do that. It doesn't go with the ancient rules."
"If you don't" Ceres warned, "I will not allow anything to grow or be edible. People will die by the millions. And you will get a constant headache from all the praying."
"I'm sorry Ceres. I can't do that. I haven't been invited in. the only one who could go is Mercury, and he can't make demands."
"You sick, lying, cheating, skirt-chasing, ASS! YOU'RE NOT FIT TO BE KING OF THE GODS! YOU ARE NO LONGER HER FATHER! ALL RIGHTS YOU HAVE WITH HER HAVE BEEN REMOVED! I HOPE YOU ROT IN TARTARUS!"
She stormed off, so angry everything was red and swimming. The other gods looked at each other in worry. Jupiter stared after her, stunned.