Orpheus had left his unrepentant son in his room and swam after his wife. Attina was devastated. She wept bitterly so that not even the Olympian prince could get through to her to comfort her. It took hours before his presence finally seemed to calm her.
"I'm a terrible mother," she sobbed against her beloved's shoulder.
"That's nonsense and you know it, Attina," Orpheus spoke softly to her, but Attina shook her head.
"I could never learn to be a good mother, let alone that of an heir to the throne. I should never have assumed I could. The future of Atlantica is at stake if I fail to raise him properly," she voiced her deep-seated fears.
"You, as the eldest sister, have taken on the role of a mother at such an early age. Haven't they all grown up to be great adult mermaids? You can do it," Orpheus continued to encourage her.
"I never had the chance to know how my mother would have brought us up. Besides, taking her place was the least I could do after... after I killed her," Attina burst out.
"You didn't kill her, Attina! Are you really still telling yourself that?" asked Orpheus in horror.
"She died because of my own stupidity. I am the reason why we didn't have a mother to raise us. I let my father become a bitter man who only Ariel could bring back to his senses. My family would have been better off if it wasn't for me. They could have been happy," Attina got off her chest what she had been burying inside all this time.
"Attina, you are not to blame for what happened. Have you ever talked to your family about it?", Orpheus asked her the question.
"No, we don't talk about mother's death. It hurts too much and besides, we all know what happened," the eldest sister replied sadly.
"But you should talk about it with each other. Have you ever thought about the fact that you might not be the only one of you who is making these completely false accusations?", Orpheus tried to make her understand.
"Why should they? Mother came back to free me. No one is to blame but me," Attina clarified.
"I am not so sure about that. I can't speak for your sisters, but your father, for example, seems to blame himself a lot too. But even he would never want to burden someone else with it. You two are very similar in that respect, believe me," Orpheus reminded her.
Attina realised that her husband was probably right, at least in that aspect.
"Yes, I suppose that is true. Father and I are very much alike. He also always resorted to severity when he was at a loss. Ariel could never understand that. Ares probably didn't either," Attina reflected, kneading her hands.
"The path we have taken lately is something we should probably reconsider together. But it doesn't justify him hurling those cruel words at you," the Olympian elaborated.
"Yes, we should," she agreed with him.
"We can do this. Together," Orpheus encouraged her and breathed a loving kiss on her forehead.
"Thank you. I'm so glad to have you," she said, snuggling against him for support.
A clearing of the throat finally made them both aware that they were no longer among themselves.
"Your Highnesses, I would now begin to assemble the luggage," the servant explained his appearance. The royal couple looked at him in confusion.
"What journey?" asked Orpheus finally.
"To your homeland, Your Highness?" the servant now replied, equally confused.
"Olympia? Why should we... oh. Oh, damn," Orpheus realised bit by bit what it was all about.
"The Olympian sea games," Attina now realised too.
"We're not going away. You can swim away again, we don't need your services," Orpheus turned to the servant again.
"We can't. It would be a faux pas. Your father would be furious. In his eyes, it would almost be a declaration of war," Attina reminded him.
"I don't care, our current situation doesn't allow it. He must realise that," Orpheus argued.
"It is enough if one of us stays here with Ares. You should swim there," Attina talked at him.
"I will not leave you alone with our son after he has behaved so decently towards you! I promised you a moment ago that we would work things out together, and I'm not going to leave you here alone just because my father is celebrating a festival," Orpheus didn't want to hear the suggestion.
"Please, Orpheus, the Atlantic athletes must be supported by the presence of the royal family. You know better than anyone the importance of the Games in our society," Attina continued.
Orpheus would have given anything not to leave her alone in this situation, but he knew she was right. Refusal had never really been an option.
"I'm so sorry," he apologised to her and gestured for the servant to start packing up his things.
"I don't want you to go either, but it's better this way. We have to set a good example and then everything will be fine," she tried to ease his guilty conscience.
"I guess you're right," he allowed himself to be convinced.
"Besides, it would cause too much of a stir with some of the kingdoms if none of us showed up there. We do want to keep Ares' situation a secret for as long as possible," Attina remarked.
"All right, leave it to me," Orpheus finally agreed.
"Then I guess I'd better go say goodbye to our verbal snapping turtle. I don't want you to have to explain to him that I travelled to the Games without you. You might want to swim over to Anaya's parents and talk to them. We shouldn't keep the two of them apart any longer if we want Ares to come to his senses a bit," Orpheus explained and made his way back to his son. Attina agreed and set off in her turn.
Arriving at his son's chambers, the father could hardly believe his eyes. Ares followed the doctor's instructions without making a move. They were practising some movements with the flipper. The doctor kept a constant eye on the four large metal eyelets he had inserted in Ares' fin. He had done a good job. The cross-shaped lacing of the triangular tear was now holding without any problems. Ares's fin allowed itself to be steered by its owner as desired, even if it was still a little restrained and awkward.
"Very good, your highness. Now try to get her into a curving position. I'll help you a little, but I'm sure you'll soon be able to do it all by yourself," the doctor urged him, encouraging him.
Ares followed the instruction and actually managed to guide his fin into the right position almost without help. Of course, this would be quite another matter if he actually had to perform these movements as a sequence while swimming, but it was already a great fin stroke in the right direction.
"Have we calmed down again, have we?", Orpheus drew attention to himself.
"Dad," Ares remarked to him in response, "I...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
"Hear, hear. I expect you to apologise to your mother in person, young man. This is not done until you do so. Do you understand? I hope next time you think about what you're doing with your words before you say them," Orpheus retorted sternly.
"I will," Ares promised.
Orpheus wasn't so sure about that, but he left it at that for now.
"I'm going away for a few days and I expect you to behave yourself. Your mother is with Anaya's parents right now. You will be allowed to meet again for now," the Olympian offered to his son and saw the octopus nod in satisfaction.
"Where are you tearing off to?", Ares wanted to know from him, as he had expected.
"Olympia," Orpheus replied curtly.
Ares frowned and tilted his head.
"What do you want with Papou?" he asked further, irritated.
Orpheus didn't know if it wouldn't be smarter to tell a white lie, but he wanted to set a good example, so he answered truthfully: "The Olympic Sea Games will soon be taking place."
Ares' eyes grew wide with excitement.
"The games! Take me with you! Take me with you! Please! Please! Please! Dad!" he begged immediately.
Orpheus knew exactly how much his son had been looking forward to experiencing the sea games for years. He could no longer remember the first time, as he had been too small to notice anything at the time, and the second opportunity that had arisen had eluded him due to a nasty cold.
Since then Ares had been looking forward to the next games and now he was going to miss them again. It just couldn't be true!
"Please take me with you. Don't leave me here. I want to see the games. I've had to wait so long," he continued to plead.
"You can't," Orpheus lashed out.
"Why?", Ares did not let up.
"First of all, you haven't behaved in a way that you deserve, and secondly, it would be too awkward to bring you among the masses in your current situation," Orpheus offered two arguments that Ares had nothing to counter.
"This is so unfair! Why do I miss it every time?", Ares vented about the situation.
"You are still so young, Ares. You'll get plenty of chances to attend the Games in the course of your life," Orpheus tried to defuse the situation.
"But I want to go to the Games now, not in four years' time," Ares clarified.
"I'm aware of that and yet you can't," Orpheus remained firm, "keep practising diligently with the doctor until I get back."
"All right," Ares groaned resignedly.
Satisfied, Orpheus wrapped his son in his arms in farewell.
"Be good," he breathed with a kiss on the top of his head and then withdrew.
Ares looked sadly after his father for some time.
Night was falling on Atlantica and Orpheus had so much to prepare for the upcoming journey to his home kingdom. Without the help of the eager servants who took care of his luggage and everything else he could delegate, he probably would not have been ready in time for departure. He wondered how he could have forgotten such an important appointment, but when he thought back to the events of the last time, he was not a bit surprised that he seemed to have repressed this unpleasant appointment.
After a short night, Orpheus finally woke up ready to leave. He instructed the servants to take the debauched luggage, most of which contained gifts for his father and Apollo, to his shell.
Since he was now travelling alone, Orpheus had dispensed with harnessing the large carriage and had switched to his shark team, as was proper for him as an Olympian. Since it was too dangerous for anyone except the owner of the noble creatures to approach them outside their stables, it was up to Orpheus to make the final adjustments to be able to drive off.
His shark lady Persephone was obviously happy to finally have something to do again. Ever since he had made her his faithful companion in the arena, she had not left his side. But here in Atlantica, the opportunities to keep her busy were few and far between. Like his mythological namesake, Orpheus had wrapped the deadly beauty around his fingers without violence and had thus escaped death in a most elegant manner, which had ultimately also earned her her name. Persephone was an imposing figure and was in no way inferior to most of her male counterparts. It was much more she who put the smaller sharks in their place as soon as she was in a stable with them. Orpheus was proud to have formed a bond with her. She had frightened him so much in the arena, but now he knew he could rely on her completely. He did not like to admit it but he did not want to miss this part of the Olympic tradition. He was always shown respect when he rode with her harnessed in front of his chariot.
Atlantica was now some time behind him and the first foothills of Olympia would soon appear before him, ushering in the approaching end of his quiet, soothing journey. The Olympian prince was sure that it wouldn't be long before his family made him white-knuckle again. After all, his father and eldest brother had a distinct talent for it. But Orpheus didn't want to think about the coming trouble just yet. Besides, he was travelling to the Games, even if he had phrased it differently before Attina in the heat of the moment, in the end he too could not help but look forward to the peaceful competition between the sea kingdoms. He hoped that Atlantica's athletes would bring back some victorious wreaths to their homeland. And he also looked forward immensely to a certain not-to-be-neglected part of his family. The reunion would make up for the frustrating quarrels he was undoubtedly heading for, at least he fervently hoped so.