The whole of Vasilia’s thoughts came to a terrible, crashing halt. Which was no reason to stay silent and let Zeus think for a moment she’d won.

“I, wha, well, well I [i]never.[/i]” Her canteen groaned in her iron grip. “Of all the impertinent, unimaginable, altogether [i]rude[/i] - as if you were there! As if you bothered to ask how they [i]really[/i] felt. As if you [i]ever.[/i]” Fine. Fine! Zeus didn’t want a civilized talk, she should have just said so from the start. “If all I am to you is another chance to pat yourself on the back, then why don’t you start with your [i]joyously servile[/i] brother. I believe he wandered off first chance he got, smart fellow.”

**********************************************

Ahhh, of course. He’d been wondering why Hades had bothered with them when he had Hermes at his disposal. 

...wait, [i]what?[/i]

“So.” Down, voice, down! We do [i]not[/i] get over-excited in the presence of Lord Hades. And squealing was simply out of the question. “Hermes has been giving up of her movement? That must be valuable, given her line of work-” 

To his credit, he tried his very best not to grimace when the dinner conversation grew loud enough to spill over into their game.