"Admetos, go back inside. I have private matters to discuss here."
Seeing his friend block him yet again with a sharp tone, the warm and hospitable king of Thessaly stiffened for a moment, then gave a small nod and pulled a composed smile back into place.
"Very well. You two talk. I will go into the city and prepare some food and wine for our guest."
As he spoke, he casually took hold of the war horse that was grazing in the shade of a tree, swung himself onto it with practiced ease, grabbed the reins, and rode off toward the distant city of Thessaly at a gallop.
Lorne watched the way the man's hand instinctively went to the bronze sword at his hip the moment he was in the saddle and felt a complicated mix of amusement and exasperation.
Preparing food and wine. Right.
He was clearly riding back to call for people to come and cut him down.
But then, watching the figure disappear into the distance at full speed, Lorne felt a flicker of genuine admiration in his eyes.
Knowing full well he was facing danger and still willing to stand up for a friend.
That was a rare kind of loyalty.
It was the sort of character that was genuinely uncommon in the age of the Greek gods, and no wonder even someone as proud as Apollo thought so highly of him and was willing to swallow his pride for his sake.
If he remembered correctly, it was precisely this very human quality that made Admetos, who would go on to take part in the two great epic undertakings of the Argonaut Expedition and the Calydonian Hunt, one of the rare Greek heroes to meet a peaceful end.
And through his deep friendship with the great hero Heracles, he indirectly saved both his own life and the life of his beloved wife.
At the time, Apollo had completed his service and recovered his divine standing.
Through his power as the god of prophecy, he foresaw that his dear friend Admetos would soon die and went to the temple of the Fates, putting in considerable effort to persuade the three Fates to extend his life.
The condition was that someone had to be willing to die in his place.
His wife Alcestis volunteered and went to her death for her husband.
While Admetos was making arrangements for his wife's funeral, Heracles happened to arrive for a visit.
Not wanting to be a poor host to his friend, Admetos opened his doors and received the great hero with genuine care and warmth.
Heracles knew nothing of this at first.
It was only when he noticed that every servant in the palace wore an expression of grief and asked what was wrong that he understood his friend had been entertaining him through his own deep sorrow.
Out of gratitude, Heracles went down to the underworld of his own accord, fought with the death god Thanatos, and brought the queen Alcestis back from death's side to her husband.
This story became the subject of many ancient Western literary and artistic works.
Lorne could recall no small number of engravings, reliefs, plays, and paintings connected to it.
At this moment, having confirmed that his friend was safely away, Apollo on the grass visibly relaxed and turned a cold expression toward the uninvited guest before him.
"Good. He is gone. What do you want in exchange for leaving him alone?"
Looking at this brother-in-law of his, all contempt and indignation,
Lorne had a powerful urge right then to say it outright.
'Apollo. You would not want anything to happen to Admetos, would you?'
It was clear that the god of light would pay for his close friend's safety without hesitation.
Artemis must have noticed this earlier and understood her brother's character well enough to choose to manufacture a pretext of disrespect and use Admetos to put pressure on her excessively proud younger brother.
She forced him to agree to maintain a surface harmony with the nine Muses rather than going to extremes and making enemies of both his former lover and the nine Muses who had switched sides.
And just as the goddess of the hunt anticipated, Apollo, however reluctant, swallowed it all and even took the initiative to write to Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses, to make peace.
Having sorted out the general shape of events, Lorne also worked out why Artemis didn't tell Apollo about Asclepios's death the moment it happened.
After all, his sweetheart had just recently dealt with Apollo on Lorne's behalf and had done so in the role of an older sister pressing her younger brother into submission.
Even if the goddess of the hunt acted with the larger picture in mind and for her brother's sake, the fact remained that Apollo had been made to lose face and swallow his pride.
She carried at least some guilt over that.
And now, the nephew entrusted to her care, Asclepios, had met with misfortune while under her watch.
Artemis naturally had no face to go before Apollo, who was still serving his sentence, and dared not hit him with this piece of bad news and risk pushing the already strained relationship between sister and brother into a break that could not be repaired.
'Well, well. Coming all the way out here, not only am I carrying the blame on behalf of my little moon at home, but I am also smoothing over a sibling relationship for her. That feels like rather a lot.'
'So, Lady Artemis. What exactly are you going to do to make this up to me?'
A vivid and pleasant mental image flickered past.
Lorne immediately straightened his expression into something appropriate and turned a face carrying a trace of solemn pain toward his brother-in-law.
"Actually, I came here for no other reason than to tell you something unfortunate."
"What scheme are you trying to pull now? Don't think that just because my sister..."
"Asclepios is dead."
Hearing the words, Apollo's breath stopped and his face went completely blank.
"What did you say?"
"Your son Asclepios. He is dead." Lorne answered in a measured voice, then exhaled a slow breath and added quietly, "It happened while you were serving your sentence. He was struck down by Lord Zeus himself."
Then he laid out everything, how Asclepios developed the elixir of immortality and was killed by the
God-king Zeus's thunderbolt as a result, leaving nothing out.
"Zeus."
Apollo's voice went cold and flat, each word forced out between clenched teeth one at a time.
That handsome face began to twist under the pressure of fury he could no longer contain.
Then he hurled the shepherd's crook in his hand to the ground and charged headlong toward the edge of the pasture.
"Stop."
Lorne lunged forward and grabbed the enraged Apollo, clamping a hand over that mouth before it could start spitting curses.
"I took risks to come and tell you this because I thought, as Asclepios's father and Artemis's brother, you had the right to know the truth.
Not so you could throw your life away on a moment of anger."
However, Apollo's stubborn nature drove him to wrench and struggle with everything he had, his fury uncontained.
"Let go of me."
"No."
Lorne held his brother-in-law firmly in place and gave a cold warning.
"I do not care whether you live or die. But if you give that divine king yet another reason to punish you while you are still serving your sentence, what about your mother?
What about your sister?"
Silence.
The words "mother" and "sister" cut through the rage, and Apollo's reason came back.
The red drained from his eyes, and his body gradually stopped struggling.
Only now his face had none of its usual proud brilliance.
He looked like a man of great standing who fell from the heights and became a homeless wanderer with nothing left, with no one to turn to.
He crouched on the ground and murmured bitterly to himself.
"It is my fault. It is because of me that this happened to him."
Lorne crouched down beside him, patted Apollo's shoulder with an expression of genuine sympathy, and said nothing.
However, inside, he was thoroughly delighted.
'Yes. Yes. Keep thinking along those lines.
Zeus timed this perfectly.
He used Asclepios's death to send you a message and put you in your place.
After all, this all happened right as your sentence was almost up.'
Just as a certain black-hearted brother-in-law was busily stoking the fire in his brother-in-law's chest, a light breeze moved through the air, and the grass and trees nearby let out a soft rustle of leaves and branches.
Of course.
Barely given a moment to work with and already unable to sit still.
And you claim you do not care.
Lorne heard the frequency he had arranged for in advance, muttered inwardly, and shifted his expression into something more measured.
"In fact, you need not grieve too deeply for Asclepios. And you must not let thoughts of revenge against the God king take root in your heart."
"What do you mean by that?"
Apollo's temper flared at once, and the faint softening that had just begun to take shape toward Lorne vanished completely.
"It was my son who died.
Not yours. And you are telling me to be magnanimous?"
"Be quiet."
But Lorne, always seen by others as warm and even-tempered, gave a cold snort and cut off the god of light's helpless fury.
"Your son is still alive."
The barely audible words reached Apollo's ear, and his breath caught.
Every trace of the frenzied anger drained away in an instant, and both his hands seized Lorne's arm with a death grip.
"You are not lying to me?"
"Do you want everyone to know about this?"
At that pointed reply, Apollo immediately let go and could only stare at Lorne with wide, restrained eyes, not daring to make any move that went too far, like a large dog that had been brought to heel.
Seeing the god of light respond with at least that much sense,
Lorne gave a satisfied nod inwardly.
He cast a careful glance around them, put up a defensive barrier, made certain the atmosphere of danger and secrecy was properly established, and only then reached into the magical array and produced the sacred cup, giving it a gentle shake in front of Apollo.
Sweet wine filled the cup on its own, presenting itself before Apollo like a deep-red mirror.
And in the beautiful depths of those ripples, Apollo saw a familiar silhouette, curled quietly in sleep.
"Asclepios!"
Something in the blood seemed to resonate.
The name left the god of light's lips the moment his eyes found the shape.
Faced with the joy of recovering what was lost, Apollo could barely contain himself.
"That is right. This is Asclepios's soul. I found a way to protect him from Zeus's Thunderbolt."
Lorne gave a nod and continued, mixing truth and fabrication in the right proportions.
"Though he survived by a narrow margin, his soul sustained serious damage. He will need to rest and recover within my divine instrument for some time. With enough care, there may come a day when he is fully healed."
"As long as he is alive. As long as he is alive."
Apollo murmured the words, exhaling a long, relieved breath.
The defeat on his face began to recede.
As long as he was alive, there was still a chance to make things right.
Nothing else mattered.
Watching Apollo's expression gradually recover, Lorne let his gaze flicker and spoke in a deliberate tone.
"He is already dead as far as that God king is concerned. You should understand what happens if anyone discovers he is still alive."
"Understood."
Apollo's expression sharpened at once, and he gave a rapid nod.
But at the same time, a question he could not let go of began to surface.
"About Asclepios. How did you come to..."
"It was your sister."
Lorne gave Apollo a measured look, his eyes carrying a weight of meaning.
"Ever since you killed Pan and brought that disaster down on yourself and were sent here to Thessaly by the divine king, Artemis worried that your stubborn refusal to ever bow your head would sooner or later cost you everything.
So she specifically asked me and the nine Muses to come and check on you in case your own actions brought further trouble down on you.
What she did not expect was that not only did you show no gratitude, but you also kept doing exactly as you pleased and took out on others the resentment you felt over your punishment from Zeus and the attack by the Gigantes, which drove the nine Muses away and made them unwilling to serve as your attendant gods any longer.
So Artemis, as your older sister, had no choice but to step in and clean up the mess you left.
First she worked through me to smooth things over with Mnemosyne and stabilize the nine Muses, keeping the damage to a minimum.
Then she came to Thessaly as quickly as she could.
She knew your temper and knew when you know you are in the wrong, you will not bow easily.
So she was willing to play the villain, using that business with the king of Thessaly to force you to agree and to wear down some of that edge and stubborn pride of yours so you would not stumble into something even worse while you were already down.
And in the end, after all of that, you still showed no sign of coming around, and the trouble you kept bringing on yourself reached out and caught Asclepios too."
At that point Lorne shifted his tone and spoke with a note of quiet relief.
"Fortunately Artemis thought ahead. Worried that your temper would eventually lead to something irreparable, she asked me in advance to keep a closer eye on Asclepios while you were serving your sentence.
If she had not, you would truly have nothing left to do today but burn incense at your son's grave."
Hearing this account from Lorne, who had watched from the outside, the color slowly rose in Apollo's handsome face as shame replaced everything else.
He looked close to wanting to disappear into the ground.
For the sake of helping and guiding her younger brother, her sister Artemis had gone to such extraordinary lengths.
And he had repaid her by causing her difficulty again and again.
He had even let that business with Admetos make him hold a grievance against her.
'What a wretched person I am.'
Watching the proud brother-in-law give himself two sharp slaps across the face and wear an expression of genuine remorse,
Lorne understood that the good name he had built for Artemis was now beyond any questioning.
The small crack between sister and brother was fully sealed, and the bond between them was stronger than before.
(End of Chapter)