𝑃𝐻𝑂𝐸𝐵𝑈𝑆. (𝑂𝑓 𝐺𝑜𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠)

three - now

Now.

"Is this your plan then? Hide here, scheming Hera's ruin?" It was Hades who spoke to the sun god, worried for his sanity. "You know I will support you in your cause, but I fear you may lose yourself in the wrath, my friend."

Apollo, sitting in the gardens tended to by Persephone, which held the only few living things in the realm of the Underworld, listened to Hades carefully. He wasn't dull as to not have considered the same, but the more time that passed without his Adoria, the less sane he seemed to become, and the less he seemed to care. "Tell me something, and don't lie, I'll know. If someone were to take Persephone from you, and not for a simple half of a year, but with the intention of keeping her from you for all eternity; what would you do, Hades?"

The god of death didn't hesitate, "It would be a very busy day in hell."

That made Apollo smile wickedly. "Oh, and I intend for it to be."

Down in the heart of the city of Delphi, a wrinkled woman by the name of Catia sat inside the Temple of Apollo, awaiting the god she knew would walk through the door at any second, asking questions that she could not answer.

She was right. Of course she was right. She was the Pythia after all, the head priestess of the temple, the Oracle of Delphi. Her prophecies were never wrong and her intuition was unmatched, measuring up to only Apollo himself.

The god himself stood outside the doors of his temple, reading the words inscribed on the outside of the building. Know thyself. There was a time he found that particular saying to be poetic, a beautiful message to those entering his sacred temple. Now it made him scoff; there was something so hypocritical about having that phrase carved into the stones that held up his temple when he no longer felt like he knew himself.

He entered the temple, walked through it's large halls, into a wide open room where his Oracle sat in the very middle of it waiting. Apollo smirked and spoke, "you knew I was coming."

"You could've stopped me from knowing, but you didn't. You wanted me to know, so that I would be ready for you." The Pythia sighed and continued with a grim look in her eyes, "great Apollo, I cannot see more than you yourself, if you are here to ask about Adoria, it has been a year to the date, I cannot-"

"I'm not." The god cut her off harshly. Every time someone said her name it reminded him of how she wasn't there anymore. Not anymore. "I'm here for something else entirely actually."

"My apologies. What is it you're here for then?"

"Hera doesn't know where Adoria is."

This made Catia stiffen. At a loss for words, she could only gape at her prophetic god.

"I thought I almost had her back again. Zeus ordered Hera to quit her games and give me the information I seeked, but Hera's always one step ahead and I am running out of ways to find Ria." It was the first time he'd used his nickname for her since she vanished. No, since she was taken. "My best bet is provoking the others into searching her out as well."

"How do you plan on doing that? Hades and Aphrodite have already joined you in your search, but the others will be weary to take sides."

"Not if I give them good reason to. For the most part, everyone on Olympus can't stand Hera and her meddling, she punishes everyone else because she can't punish her husband for his infidelity. Adoria was collateral damage to her, a means to an end as always; she's done it to some before, but this time is different, Adoria was different. She thinks she's won, but this game is only just beginning." Apollo reached his hands out to take the Pythia's own. He smiled sadly at her. "Which is why I must apologize for what I am about to ask of you."