Chapter Five: Comfortable?
Point of View: Artemis
Ten hours later
My eyes flutter open and I see white everywhere around me. I sit up quickly to find I am in a bed with hanging curtains drawn around it. The color is warming instead of that alarming evil red and I see that he's given me my privacy.
I push the curtains apart to see the room is all white and the windows to the outside are shut tight. I put my hand over my mouth.
He's made sure I don't feel uncomfortable in this room, well, as uncomfortable as possible when I'm clear down in the depths of my evil great great uncle/step great grandfather/soon to be father in law. Our family is truly screwed up royally. I'm marrying my uncle's son which means I'll be marrying another uncle, but used to be cousin. Wow, that's weird. I wonder if it's running through Perseus's head right now or if it already has.
I get off the bed and walk down the long hall after checking each room, then descend the first staircase, check that floor, and make it to the ground floor. I walk around exploring until I find him in the kitchen. He's not eating or drinking anything, yet I smell food.
"Has wandering around and sleeping for a long time made you hunger or should I put the food into the freezer?" He asks without looking away from his book.
I stop in my tracks. He's not even facing me, I'm not making any noise, and I usually don't have my presence in the air like he has his at the moment. "Yes, I am hungry." I answer.
"You sound like I'll be angry if you aren't. On the contrary, I wouldn't even be annoyed. I'd just have to move the food from the table to the refrigerator again." He says. "And you smell more like cinnamon after you wake up. Interesting. You make way too much noise by the way. I'm not your ordinary freak."
Oh, right. My smell, but I didn't realize how good his hearing really is. "Freak?" I ask and he ignores the question. "Haven't you wondered about how weird it is that I'm marrying you?"
"If you're talking about how I should theoretically still be your cousin but I'm really your uncle now, then, yes, I've thought about it. Just think of me as the monster under your bed and that thought won't be at the forefront of your mind." He replies and snaps his book closed. He walks into another room and comes back without it. He gestures for me to go into another room through the doorway ten feet in front of me. I do and end up in a huge dining room with a hanging chandelier. He helps me sit down and the sits across from me. Not at the two heads, but on either side of one on one end of the huge, long table.
"What's with the grandeur? You didn't give me that impression." I ask.
He snorts. "I was forced into the grandeur. I don't prefer it, besides, I have huge family members. I guess it wouldn't do if it was some small cottage like house. I didn't even want that. I'd rather sleep outside but my mother will not let me. I'm stuck inside when I go home if I want to sleep."
"Am I your prisoner in this house?" I ask.
"You have sounded dutiful ever since you woke up. I'm not your lord, I've never been like that. And no, you are not my prisoner, especially not here. I can make you my prisoner if you want but I don't have prisoners. That's not my part in this world." He answers.
I take a few seconds to answer. "What is your part?"
He smirks. "I'm the torturer. I have more ideas than they do, I'm the creative one."
He picks up his cup and drinks out of it. "What are you drinking?"
His smirk stays in place and he keeps his eyes on mine. "You don't want to know." He laughs softly.
I shiver and peer over anyway. It's immortal Ichor. "Whose is it?" I ask in a small voice.
He rolls his eyes. "Relax, I'm not going to drink yours. It's a monster's. A huge and dangerous one at that. Tartarus reformed him a little bit ago."
"Is it in the fridge?" I ask nervously.
He raises an eyebrow. "Yes, does it bother you?"
I nod a little bit and he sighs. "Habits die hard I guess." He snaps his fingers and shows me his glass. It looks like shadows. "The fridge doesn't have it anymore either. I'll attempt to...restrain my eating habits for you."
I nod slowly. "Thanks. What's in the cup now?"
"Black Coke." He answers.
"What does it taste like?" I ask curiously.
"Do you normally ask this many questions?" He asks me and I shake my head. "It tastes like cherry mixed with normal coke." He tells me.
"What is this?" I point at the covered dish.
"Why don't you find out?" He counters.
I hesitantly pull off the cloth and am excited to find its normal food. He chuckles at my expression and I frown at him. "And it's not flesh of any kind other than animal, right?"
"It's venison, Artemis. Just eat it before I make you eat it." He sighs.
Percy pov
"You weren't so impatient before." She comments as she forks her food.
"I'm not impatient, I'm not used to being questioned relentlessly." I mutter. "It's straining to be nice to a daughter of the sky god. It's trying on my nerves."
"Oh, sorry." She whispers.
"Don't worry about it. I'm getting used to it, slowly. What other questions do you have?" I ask casually.
Artemis pov
Is he really letting me pry?
"Are you stopping the blood thing completely?" I ask.
He looks at me. "I can." He says.
"You don't have to if you don't want to." I say quietly.
"No, I do. It's bothering you too much. It may even be something that makes you think I'm a normal male. Does it cast a monstrous light on me in your eyes?"
"No." I whisper.
"Really? Enlighten me." He says.
"How come you're not eating?" I ask.
"You're stalling." He comments but answers with, "I ate a little bit ago. I don't sleep for very long. I awakened far before you did. You slept for a good solid fifteen hours altogether by the way."
"Okay." I nod. "I guess you don't strike me as monstrous, just a kind of dark beauty in appearance that frightens me a great deal. But I'm getting used to it. The blood drinking just surprises and unsettles me."
He laughs silently and shakes with it. "Dark beauty? You mean tantalizingly demonic looking?" He asks.
I nod. "What's with the appearance change?"
"I am not Poseidon's child anymore, I am Tartarus's and Gaea's." He says.
"You said you lost all your original Ichor and then it was replaced with theirs. Is that all that happens?"
"No. It reshaped my soul around my fatal flaw and healed over most of the emptiness and sorrow I felt. I'm truly twisted inside. I guess I have to learn to be human again so I don't frighten you as much when I am around." He explains.
"It's okay. The only thing that bothers me is the blood."
"Hmm. Fine." He answers.
"What about the others? Did they accept you that easy?"
"Yes. I broke as my old self and then was reformed into their brother. They accepted me as such the moment I was reborn and I them." He replies.
"And it took them ten years to break you?" I ask.
"Yes. Ten years to break through my already pained haze of loss, to break my fighting spirit, to break the person I never lost, and to break the will I had left from everything that happened. Only to be replaced with all new ones aimed towards them. I don't mind and I've grown attached." He explains.
"So, the way they make it sound at least, you're a masochist?" I ask him cautiously.
"Yes, I love pain." He says simply.
"Do you want to...uh..." I can't bring myself to ask it.
"Hurt you?" He asks gently. I nod. "No, I did before. Not now." He assures me.
"Is it just us down here?" I ask.
"Yes, except for when the others visit or if some monster brings me a message. The monsters know better than to come around my territory." He says.
"When is the wedding?" I ask to get it over with.
"When my father commands it to be." He answers.
"When will he tell you?"
"When he is ready."
"How soon do you think?"
He sighs and looks at me. "At the earliest, as soon as he gets everything ready if he started when we left. At the latest, right before we start our main attack in the war."
"So not very long then." I state, not ask.
"No." He says.
"What did you mean by blessing?" I ask.
He doesn't answer and I eat my food slowly, almost finished.
"Are you a god?" I ask.
He still doesn't answer. "Are you there?"
"I'm not a god, but I'm not a regular immortal either." He finally answers.
"What does that mean?" I ask as I take my last bite and swallow, setting down my fork.
"I'm not a minor immortal, god, Titan, Giant, or monster. I am a deity however, just not what you would think." He tells me carefully.
I wait patiently.
"I'm a Primordial. Unlike my siblings, I am too much like my mother and father." He says slowly.
"What are you Primordial of?" I ask shakily.
His face grows solemn and pale. "It will frighten you." He tells me.
"I can take it. I have to marry you anyhow. I might as well get used to it." I say nervously.
"There's a reason I'm the one that tortures people, but it's not the only reason for that domain I hold power over." He tells me.
"Oh." Is all I manage.
"I am the Primordial of Torture, Pain, Monsters, Loyalty, Combat, Weapons, Forgiveness, and Love." He says.
I look at him shocked. "Love?"
He looks away. "Yes." He whispers.
"And what do you love?" I ask carefully.
"At the moment, I am confused. But I do love my family." He replies, he still won't look at me.
"What about me?" I ask and he freezes. "Will you come to love me?"
He rises and holds out one of his hands. I take it and he pulls me towards the stairs. He leads me up into the room I slept in and sits me on the bed. "I already am falling, I might as well go straight to hell." He says.