Chapter 1
'You know he won't keep this promise, don't you?'
Artemis waited a little, quite sure that Apollo wasn't going to answer, but still giving him a chance to do so. Silent treatment from her brother wasn't something new and she learnt long time ago not to become exasperated and just press her point.
'If you don't want to discuss it, fine; but it won't solve the problem,' she continued after some time.
If Artemis knew how to take silent treatment from her twin, Apollo knew how to deal with his sister's desire to discuss things that he didn't wish to discuss. Or he thought he knew. He came a little closer to Artemis and gave her that cold and distant look that even other gods considered extremely arrogant to be received from one of their own.
'There is nothing to discuss. Father made a decision and he wasn't going to brook any objections. I told Asklepios, no more resurrections. It's better to heal a thousand sick than to bring back to life one dead and then take his place. I told him I wouldn't be able to help if he chooses to ignore the warning. He gave me his promise; end of the story.'
'You know he won't keep this promise,' Artemis pressed again.
Apollo turned away from his sister and said, 'You don't care about Asklepios, so stop harassing me.'
The fact that Apollo's cold eyes weren't on her any more, didn't help much because the tone of his voice was just as icy. But she knew how to be stubborn when she wanted something; the problem was, of cause, that Apollo was just as stubborn himself. They were twins, after all. But still, they were so different. There were some things that she could understand about Apollo, there were others that she didn't understand but gave many attempts to, and yet there were those that she didn't even try to understand or didn't want to. One of them was his attachment to humans. Why should he be so involved? Why should he care? In love or in hatred, he was always close to them. His feelings were so strong, so emotional towards people, and yet with the gods he was either carefree cheerful or haughtily arrogant.
Artemis suddenly snapped back from her reverie, 'You are right, I don't care about Asklepios, but I do care about you, believe it or not.'
'Oh, I do believe, but I can take care of myself, even being the younger brother and all.'
Artemis closed her eyes and thought, 'It won't help, why I even try?' Her resolve melted away and it evidently showed on her face because when moment later she opened her eyes, Apollo was smiling, and the cold dark silver of his eyes became sunny gold.
'That's the sister I like,' he said, and then added, giving her soft kiss on a cheek, 'I have to go, I'll see you later.'
Artemis sighed. She rarely worried for her brother, more often she was angry with him. Oh, he could take care of himself but time and again he has chosen not to. He would just step aside and shrug his shoulders. He would says 'yes' to any punishment their father gave him, he would silently accept all the verbal abuses their step mother hurled on him, he would respectfully bow when their uncles, more so Poseidon than Hades, started to berate him for something they didn't like. Apollo would choose to hide behind his wall of acceptance or indifference and walk away, and be accused of being arrogant bastard.
But he can take care of himself. Artemis, though, was afraid that everybody forgot it. And then one day they all will be in for a nasty surprise. Artemis was sure of it and this is why she didn't like the last incident with Asklepios. Because Apollo agreed too soon and too easy on Zeus demand, which was actually Hades demand, and as little as she cared for her nephew Asklepios, she knew that Apollo loved his son a lot. Really a lot.
Apollo always cared for his children. Well, other gods loved their children too; sort of, because usually the degree of that love corresponded to the degree of their children's ability to give gods reason to boast about them. Artemis was glad that she was excused from this competition.
So, Asklepios was a great healer. Nothing unusual about that given the fact her brother was a god of medicine, among many other things.
So, Asklepios' mother was a stupid princess who decided to seduce some handsome stranger while being pregnant with Apollo's child. Nothing unusual about that either.
Artemis couldn't remember the last love affair of her sibling that went well. She always thought that her brother was too perfect to be true and it scared mortal women into cheating on him before he cheated on them. All Apollo's male love interests ended up dead. Artemis was quite happy that she decided to remain virgin, and her heart was as cold as it possibly could be. Taking into account how many traits twins usually shared, she didn't savor the possibility of constant heartaches and dreadful experience with Orion definitely proved the correctness of her choice.
Apollo almost never boasted about Asklepios talent and even when it sometimes came up in the conversation, he chosen to explain it by the training he received from Chiron the centaur. As if. Well, may be it did help, but, come on, Theseus, Jason, Dioscuri brothers, they all were taught by Chiron, and who would ever think that they can heal anybody?
Well, Asklepios could heal! He could heal anybody, any ailment, and any disease. Nice topic for conversation. Most of Apollo children took either after his ability to predict future, play music, or use a bow with deadly accuracy. Being able to heal would be considered just another nice talent possessed by the score of very gifted children that Apollo produced.
Until Asklepios started resurrect mortals. First, it was shrugged off; what god wished to admit that somebody else's offspring could do something that mortals weren't even supposed to be able to do. Then they started to make bets. Will Asklepios manage to resurrect that human, or that human; what if poor thing died from a sword, or an arrow, or of some obscure disease, or while giving birth to a child? Artemis was quite sure that Hermes was behind it. When everybody realized that all the bets were going to end the same ways, they almost lost an interest and stopped making wages which of cause didn't stop Asklepios of resurrecting mortals. Artemis doubted that he ever knew, but then again, Hermes liked his nephew (as he liked almost everything that has anything to do with his brother) and would find a reason to mention it to him.
It was another cheerfully uneventful gathering on Olympus when Hades showed up. Well, the ruler of the Underworld didn't like immortal visitors to his realm and even less he liked to visit their heavenly dwellings in the sky. So, everybody jumped up, even Zeus, they all started hug him and kiss him, and even Demeter herself rolled in the chair of honor. 'Isn't she supposed to hate him or what?' whispered Hermes into Artemis ear.
Hades gloomily ignored unwanted attention, and looked around trying to find somebody. Evidently failing in his attempt, he asked in his usual sullen manner, 'Where the Hell is Apollo?'
'Very funny,' louder than Artemis thought prudent commented Hermes. Hades gave his nephew a dark look.
'He is somewhere; I don't know,' said Zeus, 'what's the matter?'
'I am not in a mood to chase after him all over the earth, because now I am sure he is not here, otherwise you would drag him in already to entertain you, so you tell him this – one more mortal being snatched back from the dead by his too talented son, and I unleash all the fury of the Underworld on Olympus; I will bring here all the monsters you banished to Tartarus because you didn't want to look on them or deal with them, I will bring all the shadows, all the miasma, all the curses of the dark side, I will make your lives so miserable that you wish you were able to die. I will not allow nobody to undermine my power.'
'Nobody wants to undermine your power,' Zeus said in a very even voice, 'Nobody wants to upset you. We appreciate your rare visits to Mount Olympus but would like you to make them about us, not about some dead mortals.'
'Those dead mortals are my subjects, and though I may allow one to two of them to leave my kingdom on occasion for some time, they definitely shouldn't make a habit of it'.
'They definitely shouldn't,' agreed Zeus, 'and as far as I know, they definitely couldn't either. What happened?'
'What happened?! As if you don't know!' roared Hades, 'Asklepios happened! You don't care because it entertains you; you even make bets!'
'Hermes,' whispered Artemis, 'you shouldn't play two sides, one day it will cost you dearly'. Hermes only smirked. 'If I am forced to work on both sides, I should be allowed to entertain myself on both sides. But Hades is cool, he just doesn't like encroaching on his power and domain.'
'Who does?' quietly commented Artemis, 'but you should be careful, brother.'
'Ah, aren't we in a protective mood today? What happened? Too many bear cubs left motherless recently?'
Artemis gave Hermes disdainful look and moved away from him.
Zeus promised his brother to take care of the situation promptly. Leaving the task of entertaining Hades to Hera, he nodded to Hermes to come closer. Hermes, never the one to keep his father waiting, snapped to attention.
'Go find Apollo,' said Zeus, 'just don't bring him while Hades is still here. I don't think though that he is going to linger.'
Hades left indeed shortly after, and then Apollo appeared. It was difficult to read his face, the mask of nothingness hid any emotions he may had at that moment. Artemis had no doubt that he already knew what it was about. Who could question Hermes' ability to chat or Apollo's ability to know what's going on?
Then Zeus made his usual mistake, purposely or not, of starting to berate Apollo in front of everybody. What was yesterday just a nice topic for the leisurely conversation, suddenly became huge transgression of showing disrespect for the gods from Asklepios side and customary show of vanity from Apollo side. When Zeus mentioned something about Apollo's lack of parental skills, Artemis saw her brother eyes became dangerously cold and distant. But Apollo always knew how to pull himself together.
'I can assure you, father, there will be no more resurrections. No more depleting Hades' stock of dead subjects'. Artemis couldn't discern even a slight hint of humor in Apollo's voice. 'I will talk to Asklepios and he will go back to his trade of healing mortals, not to reviving them.'
'You better do so,' said Zeus gravely. Hades fury was rather amusing, considering how rare they have to endure it, but Zeus hoped for the further entertainment in a form of Apollo's rage, but his son didn't want to oblige. Instead he chosen his 'I am so above all this' attitude and left Olympus to talk to his son.