"Hope," said Artemis. "What an interesting word. Desire, in other words. Yearning, grasping, all those things that I have tried to kill but could not. This is a galaxy of animals. Men who are deer, girls who are cats, civilizations that are snakes. Animal hopes, animal fears, animal loves - all in service to the greatest Beast of all."

"So, I set hope aside," she said. "And I became a weapon. Unquestioning. Unhesitating. An instrument of slaughter. A mother of monsters. Butchery codified into laws, laws refined into sciences, power there for anyone who reached for it. And they did. Power was there for taking, and the powerful could not help but reach for it. They brought more and more of me into the world. More and more perfect science, more and more perfect death, more and more of the Hunt. Every time it worked they grew more comfortable with it. Every time they became comfortable they set their sights a little bit higher. Until you. Until her. Until they'd made a machine for killing gods, and still they did not have the capability to stop."

Silver fingers on your claws. "One gun in the house. Two guns in the house. A dozen guns in the house. Hidden in drawers and cabinets. In pockets and shoes. More and more weapons. Each individually obedient, controlled, prepared, loyal. Each a weapon of terror, domination, control. But keep adding guns. The risk of an accident increases. Nobody [i]intended [/i]anything. Everyone obeyed the rules. Everyone obeyed the rules, except for the one buying the guns - the rules didn't apply to [i]him[/i], after all."

A breath against your ear.

"It was an easy shot, once I saw it. Just a matter of time enough for the arrogance to play out. If not you, then her. If not her, then the next one. He was never going to put the genie back in the bottle. That's the problem with wanting [i]more [/i]all the time."

A breath even closer, against your neck. Playful. Dangerous. Impossible to tell if she's teasing or not.

"You should see what I've got in stock for the rest of my family~."