Eros

Chapters 15 and 16

Chapter 15

As soon as the sun came up, Athena was sent back to the dungeons again. She was still alarmed by what had happened, but she had started to shake it off.

When she was let out again, at noon, she immediately went to Artemis' house. She realised Artemis was trying to contact Apollo again and without disturbing her, held her hand and joined her. Her mind suddenly took her to the place where the victims were and she could feel Artemis' spirit near her.

"Athena! You're here!"

"Yes, I just saw you trying to contact Apollo."

"Indeed. Look for him." With their minds, they travelled about the whole place. It was just as Artemis had remembered it, and they could just about see a body, again, with their head drooped down.

"Apollo!" He groggily lifted his head up. They were horrified. He was covered with bruises and scars, and there was blood dripping out from his mouth.

"A-a-rtemis, is that you?" he asked. They could hear how hurt he was.

"Apollo!" She was trying to hold back her tears, but she needed to stay strong for him. "What happened?"

"He does this every noon and night. He comes in here and beats us all."

"You're so weak! You can barely stand up!"

"It hurts so much. Only now I see the pain of the mortals. Sister, my body cannot take much more of this. I will be gone soon. Tell mother this. Tell her that I'm sorry for anything I did to her, and you, sister, I will always be with you. Always."

"Apollo, you won't leave. You won't." She suddenly materialised in front of him and hugged him lightly. She wept, and her tears healed only some of his injuries. "I won't let this happen to you."

"He will come soon. You need to leave; you need to be safe."

"I won't!"

"I love you, sister." He blew her a kiss and they found themselves back at her house.

"No! Apollo!"

"He has gone, Artemis."

"He was so weak, Athena! What if he, he-"

"He won't. We're going to find out who did this. And I have an idea of how to do this. Athena and Artemis went to the Last Wall of Olympus.

"Why are we here?"

"When I was asleep yesterday, I had a vision. I think I saw how Hera was kidnapped. She fought with him and even grazed him with a dagger, and it was right here."

"So?"

"If she did do that, he would have bled ichor."

"Oh! Yes! Let's try and find some!" The goddesses were looking for about an hour when Artemis decided that he didn't bleed, but then Athena found something.

"Artemis, look!" Artemis went over to see Athena looking at a minuscule bump in the ground.

"It's only a bump! It can't mean anything!"

"I've never seen anything like this before, and I'm sure I would've recognised something like this!" She took the tip of her spear and poked it into the bump, as a bit of ichor poured out. "I told you! Let's get it in something." Artemis put it into a little ceramic bowl. They took the ichor back and analysed deep into it to see little speckles of pink inside it.

"What is that?"

"I don't know, but it gives us another clue. We need to analyse a bit of all of the gods' ichor and see which one matches."