[color=gray][center][URL=https://lunapic.com][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/NN5GbBT.png[/IMG][/URL][/center]
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The ballroom had filled with the throbbing roar of conversation, and the clock was ticking ever onwards. Once more, when all the fallen deities had arrived and had their tongues properly whetted with whispers, Hera climbed the ballroom stairs and looked once more upon her subjects. The clinking of metal against glass dulled the room’s conversation, and Hera’s voice rang out over the crowd.

[color=7845b8]“It seems everyone has arrived. Everyone I expected anyways. Before we have our lunch, I’d like to say a few words,”[/color] Hera said, relishing the eyes upon her. Today, at least today, she held the attention of these fickle gods. [color=7845b8]“We have all had our differences, our squabbles. Both in the heavens, and here on earth. Today though, I ask that we leave our weapons sheathed, so to speak, and enjoy the gifts of the world tree, the gifts my people have tended and bore unto you all.”[/color] Hera grinned. She was all too happy to remind the other pantheons of Persephone’s contribution to their immortality.

[color=7845b8]“Without further ado-”[/color] The clangor of shattering glass silenced the Queen of the Gods, followed by two loud thuds, and screams of shock. The attendants had been showered with glass from the skylight above, now broken and open to the sky. Confusion gripped the crowd, as they gathered around an object Hera could not make out.

With all the authority of her station, Hera marched down the stairs, shoving her way through the crowd. In the center of the circle, lying in a pool of dark, mortally red blood, two bodies lay broken, and bent. Through each corpse’s chest, a bloody, ragged hole, gaped, like the bloodshot eye of the Fates looking on into the future. The faces were not unfamiliar to Hera. The smaller body, slender and pale, eyes staring into nothing, was Macaria, the spirit of peaceful death. The other was a face she had never forgotten, not even all these centuries later. Zagreus, Prince of the Underworld, He who had died before the fall, lay broken on the ballroom floor.

Melinoë had once been enjoying her little game of fear and madness, instead now taking it upon herself to just torment the mortals hired for the event. Her sour mood only seemed to deepen when Hera had taken center stage, puffing herself up like some glorified blowfish. Nonetheless she turned her attention to the Queen until the shattering of glass fell atop her and the lifeless forms of her siblings lay there at her feet. Blood pooled around their bodies in a way that reminded her of the Styx, slow and full of life long since past. It was thick and bubbling; fresh. There was a smell, the scent of death, one she never truly forgot, coiling around her feet, trailing upwards like an invisible cloud of smoke. There was this awful sound ricocheting off the marbled flooring and the too thinly decorated walls. Decor, she remembers thinking, that was just as gaudy as the woman hosting. A scream. [i]No[/i], a wailing so torn asunder that it couldn’t possibly be organic in nature. She wanted to turn and snap at the offending party. Why won’t the noise stop? Where is it coming from?

It never once crossed her mind that it was coming from her. 

Her vision blurred, darkening the corners of her eyes, but she couldn’t look away. Refused to. Their sight would forever be ingrained in her mind. It was her fault they were even coming to this godforsaken event. She had hounded Zagreus to make an appearance after his long hiatus. To drag their baby sister with him. It had been so long since she had been out. Mother and Father wanted nothing more than to see them. Not like this. Never like this. 

Melinoë couldn’t even blame Hera for this this time. It felt like she was falling for an eternity towards the ground, half expecting it to swallow her whole and bring her back to the Underworld, where this - the Fall, her life on earth, [i]this[/i] - would all be some horrific nightmare she would wake from. She somehow snapped out of her daze only to lunge towards their bodies, clawing at the ground in her scrambled attempts to get to them. To hold them in her arms. She needed to know that this was just an illusion. A horrible trick played on her by Phobos in an attempt to win their stupid little game. But she knew that that wasn’t the case. Couldn’t even bring herself to search the gathering crowd to find him and prove it. Too focused on her siblings, her own madness creeping up from within her like the bile that rose in her throat.

Hati was there at that moment, snatching her out of the air before she was able to reach the bodies, having sensed something was off. Melinoë clawed at him, thrashing, screaming, [color=#e9d66b]“Let me go! I need to be with them! Hati, let me go! No, no, no, no,”[/color] as he dragged her away. This whole day reeked of suspicion and it was only now, as he held his friend back that those fears were confirmed. [color=295751]”I’ve got you,”[/color] He whispered into her hair,calming her as best he could, pulling her back and shielding her from the sight of those on the floor. The rest of the room was in a panic, fleeing from the scene or moving closer to get a view of a dead god. It wasn’t something that had happened, to their knowledge, in this day and age. Only those who were well versed in destruction and death stood their ground and began to congregate to whisper of the scene before them.

The white wolf had to bite his tongue before he bit theirs and instead motioned towards Artemis to come take a closer look. He would have to pass Madness off on Phobos, get him to take her away along with her parents. They shouldn’t be here to witness this of all things.

Artemis stepped forward from her place at Athena’s side as her brother moved to help Phobos with Melinoë. For a moment, she half expected the children of death to spring to life, wounds healing as they should have. But they did not. Their bodies remained cold and lifeless on the floor. As whispers began to sweep the room, Artemis knelt beside the corpses, peering at the wounds with the eyes of a hunter. 

Macaria had died first, quickly. The blade had pierced her from behind. She hadn’t seen a wound like this in centuries. The mortals had long ago lost their taste for swords.

Zagreus had gone fighting. His hands were wounded, most likely trying to catch the blade. A blow to the heart had ended his fight. [color=5e74ee]“Hati, see if you can catch a scent,”[/color] Artemis commanded, still scanning the bodies for evidence.

Without hesitation he was on it, the only one to give orders that he would jump at the chance to complete. Getting low to the floor, Hati sniffed the corpses of the fallen. It was that scent again. The one that had been plaguing the venue since before he arrived. This would prove a bit more difficult than he would like to admit yet still he followed the putrid stench.

It was almost like he could see the tendrils wafting off the bodies in the center of the room, winding and weaving up, up to the skylight above before disappearing over the top. They needed to get up there, follow the trail before it went cold. He motioned above and then to the stairs leading to the roof, [color=295751]”Gotta get up there,”[/color] it wasn’t so much of a question as it was a statement and he was taking off before any other instructions were given.

Upon arriving on the roof the tendrils swirled through the shattered glass before congregating not but twenty feet away. Just like a pointer Hati was calling attention to the Huntress at the sight he found. A single matte black card, embossed in gold with a logo and script. He didn’t spare it a long enough glance before his eyes trailed along the ground once more, gaze following the trickle of blood splatter and caught sight of a weapon. One that looked all too familiar to him, lay there on the ground. It’s bladed edge coated in blood. He turned to Artemis, looking back and forth between her and the sword, a form of fear creeping its way up his spine before lodging itself at the base of his neck, [color=295751]”This, this… this was supposed to be lost. O-Or locked up or something… it’s not supposed to be here.”[/color] The shaking of his voice wasn’t familiar to him and it worried him that the simple sight of a weapon would cause this shift. 

Artemis picked up the blade, studying the runes carved into the shining gold. Centuries had not dulled the sheen of this sword, a weapon she’d only read about. [color=5e74ee]“Dainsleaf. Didn’t realize this survived the Fall.”[/color] She looked behind her, down at the crowd below. They both knew what this meant. A Norse blade, two dead Greeks? At best it would be chaos down there upon hearing the news, at worst, war. [color=5e74ee]“We’re going to have to tell the others about this. They’ll want answers.”[/color] Artemis groaned. She did not like being without answers. [color=5e74ee]“We’ll have to tell them something. Deal with the mortals. Put Athena on the case and keep Hades and Persephone from starting a fucking war.”[/color]

It was an order he didn't want to obey but it was one that [i]needed[/i] to be done. Hati knew what would erupt if things got leaked, if what they knew was discovered. He wasted no time in getting to ground level and pulled Athena to the side informing her of her newly appointed duties, [color=295751]"We need all hands on deck for this. Keep them as in the dark as possible until we know everything."[/color] There wasn't any other way he could have stressed the importance of it all without exposing his hand. Athena was smart, she would understand.

From there he began to round up the mortals, which wasn't difficult as they all congregated towards the back of the venue. With the most charming smile he could muster he sauntered into their space, hoping to calm their nerves with a carefree sort of attitude, [color=295751]"Bet you didn't think you would be working a murder mystery luncheon, did you?"[/color] A lie that rolled off so easily it made him sick.

While Hati lied to the mortals, Artemis was calling her girls to the club, in an attempt to gain control over the crime scene. Of course, Hera sensed the authority of hostess slipping through her fingers as the party devolved into chaos. She would not be sidelined, not today. As Artemis returned her phone to her bag, Hera materialized beside her, stern and cold.

[color=7845b8]“What did you and the dog find? I won’t be kept out of the loop,”[/color] Hera said, keeping her voice low. [color=7845b8]“Should the festivities be halted?”[/color]

Artemis shot Hera a curious look. Was that fear in her voice? Fear from almighty Hera? Regardless, it would be harder to ice Hera out right now, than it would be to just oblige her, at least a little. [color=5e74ee]“We found a weapon. Athena will be looking into it. That is all we know.”[/color]

Hera scoffed. [color=7845b8]“What weapon could do this?”[/color] She had encountered no such danger in all her years walking the earth. As far as she knew, this kind of incident should not have been possible. Even so, she hadn’t known Zagreus to survive the Fall. It seemed there were mysteries upon mysteries that she did not know the answer to.

[color=eed873]“What am I telling Mel, Artemis?”[/color] Apollo’s voice cut into their conversation as he stepped into place beside his sister. The voice, soft and melodic, threw Hera back, only weeks earlier, to the last time she’d heard that sound, crackling out over the radio.

[right][sub][color=eed873][i]“Alright my early risers, I wanted to share something with you. It’s a little bit of a work in progress, a bit alternative, but let me know what you think.

At a gathering of fallen stars, two fall farther, farthest, dead
Slain by a blade, cursed to draw blood, no hope in store for the lost son
Spirits gather round the raven’s head,
While old crimes stain the queen’s plumage, deep, deep red.[/i][/color][/sub][/right]

The memory was vivid, crisp and clear. She’d dismissed the song as more of Apollo’s drivel, requested her assistant change the channel and moved on. Now she saw it for the prophecy it was. He had foreseen this. [color=7845b8]“What do you know?”[/color] Hera spat, whirling on Apollo and shoving her finger into his face.

Apollo put his hands up in surrender. [color=eed873]“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,”[/color] Apollo replied, calm and cool, [color=eed873]“but I’m gonna ask that you get your finger out of my face. Can’t damage the moneymaker after all.”[/color]

[color=7845b8]“You foresaw this, I heard you. On the radio, you sang some stupid-”[/color]

[color=eed873]“Woah, I’m gonna stop you right there. One, none of my songs are stupid. Even the stupid ones. Two, I don’t see shit anymore, Hera. The lyrics come to me, I can’t tell what’s prophecy and what isn’t. If I predicted this, it was an accident.”[/color]

Hera growled and shook her head, marching back to her place on the stairs. She would not be made a fool of here, in this place. Someone was coming, for her, for her family, for all of them. They would not get her, not today. Let their enemies come for them when they are full of ambrosia, let them see what happens then. [color=7845b8]“Don’t worry everyone, the situation is being dealt with. For now, I think it’s appropriate to call the festivities here. Apples will be distributed, and information will be gathered. After that, you are free to leave.”[/color]

Artemis spoke up then, to add her own commands. [color=5e74ee]“If you think you have any information, or that you might be able to offer up a particular skill set, speak with Athena or myself. We’ll be taking point on this, unless someone has any objections.”[/color]

Hera sighed. T’was an abrupt ending indeed.

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As the fallen fell furthest of all, the chambers shook. As blood flowed freely from immortal wounds, never to be healed, a hollow screech bellowed from below. An echoing cavern deep, deep below, tangled in the roots of the Tree, hidden from sight, cried out in anguish. Icy breath escaped from the once tightly shut confines, enveloping the space in fog. Hephaestus was concerned. It wasn't like he witnessed the Waking on a daily basis. The world was changing, reshaping in preparation for a new age… It was the start of something big and yet no one, down below or above, would have seen it coming. He just hoped they would forgive him.
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