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Meg was used to many things, perks of being a demigoddess who was best friends with the sun god and grew up with a wannabe god emperor. But even this was just a little too much.
She stared at the person currently sprawled dramatically over the couch in her living room and raised an eyebrow. Then she turned around and walked back out of the room.
She was not dealing with this.
When she entered the kitchen, Lu laughed at her, bright and carefree. Which was so not fair, after all, they had a god in the living room, and someone would have to deal with him. By Lu’s expression, she didn’t think it would be her.
Which was fair, after all Meg was pretty sure she would have to deal with the god. But still: rude.
“So, you’ve discovered the immortal currently in our living room?”
The Gaul asked her, sounding way too amused. Meg hummed.
“I’m hiding from him. I don’t want to deal with whatever chaos he will bring.”
“You know he won’t leave before you solve whatever problem he has.”
Meg did know that, but she just wanted to ignore it. Why was this her life?
Lu handed her a plate of freshly baked raspberry and white chocolate cookies and a pitcher of lemonade. Meg sighed but took it. Some sweet treats would not solve the problem, but they would certainly help with her annoyance.
“I will go deal with our guest… call Apollo if anything starts to burn or something.”
Then she turned and walked back into the living room, ignoring Lu wishing her good luck. She didn’t need good luck, but patience and a small to medium miracle.
The god had not moved in the slightest, still sprawled over the entire length of the couch, still one hand gripping his hair, still an expression of utter confusion on his face.
Meg sighed and put the cookies and lemonade on the coffee table. Then she sat in one of the armchairs.
“How can I help you, Hermes?” she asked, trying to hide her annoyance.
She had met the god of travel once before, at the Olympian celebration of Apollo’s reascension. He had been nice enough, if a little irritating. Meg thought he and Apollo were friends, and she and Hermes had parted as… not friends, but favorable acquaintances.
But they were certainly not close enough for whatever this was.
Hermes groaned dramatically and sat up, throwing Meg a deeply sad look.
“Apollo won’t talk to me,” he all but wailed, and Meg had to keep herself from rolling her eyes.
“Okay…? And what am I supposed to do about that?”
“You are his friend, are you not? His sister, if he is to be believed. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?”
Meg took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a brief second. Since when was she the mediator between Apollo and the other immortals?
“…Okay. What happened?”
Hermes immediately brightened, and Meg was sure that at least some of his earlier despondence had been fake.
“He doesn’t avoid me, but… he doesn’t truly talk to me either. We used to have so much fun together, confide in each other, but he doesn’t anymore, not since his latest stunt as a mortal. I try to talk to him and he answers in the most superficial way possible and then makes an excuse to leave. I don’t understand what changed.”
Meg stared at the god, trying to understand if he was being serious. Then she remembered the way Apollo had acted in the beginning and sighed deeply. Gods.
“You are saying yourself that your relationship changed after Apollo’s time as a mortal, but you don’t understand what changed?”
Hermes threw his hands in the air.
“You’re saying that as if his time as a mortal changed him! But it was only six months! That is practically nothing. Besides, he was mortal before and that didn’t change anything.”
Meg had to remind herself that the person in front of her was, in fact, a god and could kill her where she stood if she wasn’t careful. She would have liked to slap some sense into him, but somehow she did not think that would go over well.
Instead of getting herself killed, she reached for one of the cookies Lu had made. It was good, great even, and the sweetness distracted her from her desperation. When she had finished her cookie, she took a deep breath and started to speak, her voice calm and collected, hiding her exasperation.
“Hermes, he was hunted down continuously for almost half a year by horrible people, all of whom he had a history with, only to have to face Python in the end. And that while he was more mortal than he ever has been, and by a lot. He changed, anyone would, after surviving what he did.”
What we did, she didn’t say. This was not about her part of the quest.
Hermes raised an eyebrow at her, and she wanted to smack that ignorant look off his face.
“Oh, come on. He had a little road trip around the U.S., and when things got tough, Father gifted him his immortality back.”
Meg stared at him, utter disbelief coursing through her. Then a horrible thought came to her.
“You have absolutely no idea what happened.”
She gasped, shocked.
Hermes shock his head, his voice sounding defensive as he said:
“I know the basics. He didn’t take care of his oracles properly and had to fix it. Prophecy is his domain after all. When he needed to face python to free Delphi, he nearly failed, and father gave him his godhood back so he wouldn’t screw up to badly”
She couldn’t believe it.
“How can you not know?”
“We weren’t allowed to watch, since some of us might have been tempted to interfere. Is there something I missed?”
Hermes sounded concerned by now, but still confused, and Meg could understand why he and Apollo were having problems. If Hermes thought that that was it and acted like nothing had happened around Apollo… that would not end well.
The demigoddess did not like the implications that none of the Olympians besides Zeus and maybe Artemis knew the full scope of what had happened. Zeus actively trying to hide what Apollo had gone through, and succeeding…
But it also meant that the tyrant who called himself king of the gods thought that the others knowing would be problematic. Meg didn’t buy the excuse about trying to keep them from interfering. If she told Hermes what had truly happened, she might be able to create problems for Zeus, and she was always on board for that.
“Meg?”
The god in front of her asked, and the demigoddess smiled.
“Good news is that I know the solution to your problem. Bad news is that you will not like what I have to say, and I might get hit by lightning for it.”
Hermes raised an eyebrow at her, looking skeptically relieved.
“I don’t think my father can hear you in here if you don’t say his name. Apollo has warded this place quite strongly.”
Oh. Meg had not known that. She would have to talk to Apollo about enchanting her home without her knowing, but right now, it worked out for her.
She poured herself a glass of lemonade, then she started speaking.
“Apollo nearly died, multiple times. Once, he only survived because Artemis — or Diana, I suppose — saved him. More than once, he only survived because his godly abilities kicked in, but he could not have known they would before he put himself into those situations. Once he… he stabbed himself with an arrow so he would die, to keep them from using his essence. He was more than willing to die to keep us others safe.”
Hermes blanched at her words, his formerly brown hair greying rapidly and his whole body going impossibly still.
“He wouldn’t…” he whispered, and Meg only shook her head sadly.
“He did. In the end, after we had defeated the Triumvirate, he went to Python alone. He never talks about it, but it ended with him hanging above Chaos, watching Python dissolve below him. He would have let go if not for Styx. When he came back, he never uttered a word about it, we only know because Rachel saw.”
Hermes just stared at her, and Meg stayed silent for a few beats to let her words sink in.
“When he came back and you expected him to be the same, and he wasn’t, he stopped talking to you. I don’t think Apollo knows that you didn’t know.”
“…Oh.”
If it were any other moment, Meg would have celebrated making the god speechless, but she couldn’t be happy about it, since Apollo’s suffering had caused it. She smiled sadly.
“He was left to die, abandoned by his family during a very hard time for him. I don’t think he blames you for it, he understands fearing your father, but he can’t unlearn the lessons he learned. He doesn’t want to, either. Do you understand now why he has changed?”
Hermes nodded. Hesitantly, he murmured:
“My father… we were told Apollo was whining about nothing, and he had it easy, even though the reason for his punishment would warrant much worse. That he should be thankful that my father was merciful…”
Meg hummed. She contemplated if she should say what she was thinking, but then decided to just do it. She didn’t think Hermes would smite her anyway.
“When I was young, my… stepfather used to punish me and my step-siblings very differently. They would only get punished when they really screwed up, and even then, not as badly as they deserved. My stepfather would be patient with them even if they didn’t necessarily deserve it.
I, on the other hand, got in trouble for anything and everything. He didn’t like the dress I was wearing? I had to do extra training or skip meals or something. Nothing overly noticeable, but still bad. The noticeable punishments he reserved for when I really messed up, like talking back to him or making him look bad.
But those occasions didn’t happen too often, because I got to know the consequences and would do anything not to provoke my stepfather’s anger.”
Meg fell silent for a little while, trying to gather her thoughts. She hated referring to Nero as her stepfather, but she thought it would convey the message better.
“After we defeated my stepfather, my siblings and I talked about our experience growing up with him. As it turned out, each and every one of us felt the same about the punishments. No one saw the punishments the others went through, besides those designed to convey a message. We had never talked with each other about it while living with our stepfather, too afraid to come off as whining or exaggerating.
After all, if our stepfather was only this unfair to me, how could I be sure I was not whining and exaggerating? He was so kind and loving and generous to everyone else, why would I be different?
I wasn’t, but I couldn’t see that because I couldn’t see the struggles of my step-siblings.”
Hermes was staring at her, and she thought he might have understood her point.
“Your stepfather was Nero?”
Meg shrugged.
“He claimed that title, even if he never truly was. I don’t see him as my stepfather, but as someone who… treated me horribly for a very long time.”
Hermes stayed silent for a little while, and Meg took another cookie, watching him think.
Finally, he took a deep breath and broke the silence.
“You would compare my father to Nero?”
Meg hummed.
“I don’t know your father. Talk to Apollo. Let him tell you about his experience. Listen to him, he had to learn about all this as well. But be truthful. It will be hard, but it is something that needs to happen.”
Hermes sighed deeply but stood, taking a cookie as he did so.
“You have given me much to think about, Meg McCaffrey, and I thank you for it. I think I understand now why Apollo values you so much.”
Meg smiled slyly.
“He would be lost without me. I saved his life too, you know. When you see him, tell him he should bring those fancy pumpkin seed bread rolls from Germany for the next family dinner. Lu is experimenting with different soups, and they’ll go quite nicely with butternut squash soup.”
*******
The next morning during breakfast, there was a ring at to door. Which was strange, most people who visited would just come in. Cautiously, Meg went and opened the door. There was no one in sight, but when she looked down, she saw a large basket filled with all sorts of bread rolls and dark green card with two simple words written on it.
Thank you.
Meg smiled.