Titans of Chaos

"Of course, Victor. That he is the only fit man for you, a blind monkey could perceive from half amile off on a foggy day."

"I really think my private life is none of your damn business, if you don't mind my saying so,Headmaster."

He spread his hands, and "Your promise is a nullity in any case. Promises of marital favors aremeaningless outside of marriage, which is a sacred institution. The Great Queen Hera Basilissaestablished the rules of the universe along these lines, and the rules of magic follow them."

I snapped, "We've gotten a bit off the topic, and you owe me at least three questions! I have a turncoming as well, you know!"

"Not true at all, Miss Windrose! I have been keeping a careful, that is as much as to say, an exactcount of questions. Yours, of course, have been remarkably unimaginative, consisting of inquiressuch as, 'What's so wrong about that?' and 'Do you not like Colin?' and, a brief question, thus:

'Victor... ?' You have asked an abundance, indeed, a superfluity of questions, Miss Windrose, and Ihave answered them all."

"You haven't answered anything yet! What about Lamia's question?"

He looked insouciant. "What about it?"

"Why did you train us to use our powers? You intended to use us to fight your wars. Right?"

"That aspect of it was not entirely beyond my imagination, I admit. However, it was with somecare that I took pains to make it appear to the other Olympians that I was not mollycoddling you.

Had I placed you in foster homes, for example, and assigned certain of us to be your parents andkin, naturally the ones who got to play at being your parents would be regarded with deepestsuspicion by the others."

"So you couldn't afford to treat us nicely as we were being raised?"

"Do not be overly sentimental, Miss Windrose. It ill becomes a woman of your intelligence andcharacter. You were raised perfectly well, better than most. If you feel that the world has treatedyou unfairly, you have achieved a state of mind well known to all teenagers, but maintained onlyby adults of a more shrill and self-absorbed type."

I said, 'Tell me about your parents."

He tilted his head to one side, his eyes narrowing. But he shrugged and said, "If you will. I wasraised by Eos, the Lady of the Dawn, who, while a kindly mother, was somewhat heedless as awoman, and she awarded me numerous bastard half brothers. My father, Astreus, was given afine rack of horns, and he was, as you might well imagine, quite remote. You should find littleground for envy."