Apollo snorted. “As I said, they’re basically worthless. What I need to know predates their births by a number of centuries and has to do with Apollymi and Kissare.”
Interesting…
A waitress came up to ask Apollo for an order.
He sneered at her. “Do I look like I eat or drink shit? Begone from me, mortal scum!”
Dikastas sighed at his angry words. So much for Apollo being a god of temperance. “That was unnecessary.”
“So is wasting my time!”
Yet Apollo had no problem intruding on his zen and wasting his. Typical. But then Apollo had always been a selfish prick that way.
All that mattered was his life andhiswants.
Everyone else could go to Kalosis and rot.
Leaning back in his chair, Dikastas sipped his café au lait. “Well, if that’s what you’re after, the person you really want to talk to is Bet, as she’d have the most…” He trailed off as Apollo gave him a harsh stare and he realized the total stupidity of what he was suggesting.
“Ah,” Dikastas said with a snide smile. “Guess you can’t go there, can you?” Not after Apollo had screwed Bethany over in not one, but two separate lifetimes. The Atleantean goddess of wrath and warfare wouldn’t take kindly to Apollo going to her for anything other than a full disembowelment.
Followed with a thorough denutting.
And the sun itself would freeze over before she’d ever help the bastard who’d killed her beloved husband and cursed her to lose her baby.
“She wouldn’t have been there when Apollymi set up the Atlantean pantheon anyway. She hadn’t been reborn yet, right?”
Again, courtesy of Apollo’sfirstbrutal betrayal against her and her husband.…
Dikastas set his coffee cup down and reached for another beignet. “Correct.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Apollo stroked his chin as he thought about something. “So how did Archon convince the frigid bitch of all time to marry him and establish a pantheon with him as its king so that he could play ruler?”
Dikastas snorted at his assumption. “Apollymi isn’t frigid. Therein is the problem. Her passions run deep and dark. She’s ruthless and bloodthirsty, but that doesn’t make her cold. She’s as fiery as a volcano and even quicker to erupt, and far deadlier when she peaks.”
“You still haven’t answered my question. Whyhim? Whythen?”
Dikastas shrugged. “Simple. Someone gave Archon the intel that Apollymi was awaiting the return of her precious Kissare and she mistook the dull god as her Sephiroth come back to be with her. The spy fed Archon enough information that he was able to dupe her into thinking that he was her betrayed lover reborn as a god. That was why she agreed to set him up as her king and allowed him to rule over her. At least for a time.”
“Are you sure he wasn’t?”
“Yeah. Very much so. Kissare loved Apollymi. He gave his life for her and for their son. There was nothing altruistic about Archon. He was much likeyou.”
Apollo’s eyes narrowed. But he chose to ignore the dig. “Who was he working with?”
“No one knows. Archon refused to betray his informant. He was too grateful to be the king of his own pantheon to ever give over the name of someone Apollymi would have surely gutted.”
Apollo considered that for a few minutes. “Was Kissare ever reborn?”
“Again, no one knows. But I’d say he must have been.”
“Why?”
“Because someone fathered Acheron. Knowing Apollymi as I do and how she is, I would lay my money and life that Kissare was the father of both her sons. You find out who Acheron’s real father is and you will find out who Apollymi really loves.”
“You think he’s still alive?”
Dikastas cradled his coffee mug as he considered it. “That would be the question of all time, wouldn’t it?”
