There was so much wisdom in what he had to say. Not necessarily the wisdom of someone who was exceptionally wise, but the wisdom of a father who had seen and experienced much more of the world than his daughter had. Sure, Harmonia had lost children and grandchildren, but if she stopped to think about it, so had her father. There was a time when the world was littered with half-siblings on her father's side that had come to death in the ways of mortals. He would know, he would understand.
There were many that would say Ares was incapable of love, they were all wrong. He loved, in his distinctly Ares way, but never did Harmonia question his love for her. She questioned his pride in her many times since her marriage, if she was doing right by him, if she was worthy to call herself his daughter. But here he was, telling her that she never had to answer to anyone.
That wasn't entirely true. She answered to him and to her mother. She owed explanations to those closest to her and those individuals only.
Harmonia gave her father a soft, unsure smile. No matter what he said, she knew that she had been weak and no child of war should show weakness. Weaknesses were for being exploited and hadn't she had more than enough of that in her life for a million lifetimes? She wasn't just fighting tears at the moment, she was also fighting the urge to wrap herself around him as she often did as a child, frequently clinging to his leg when she was small enough to do so and then to his arm.
Except that no matter how much she was sure he would outwardly show disdain for it, she did lurch forward and wrap her arms around his torso. Harmonia was fighting tears so hard that her body was starting to quiver from holding them in. She had missed her father, and not just during her time in the Underworld, but through ever trial she crossed, she missed him.
If she could change only one thing about her past, one thing at all in regards to her immortal family, it would be that Ares would have been by her side with every untimely death that tore at her heart and effectively killed a part of her. “It's been so long,” she breathed into his chest. “Everything is so different.” Pulling back away from him, she wiped away the few tears that had managed to escape. “It's like having vertigo all the time, I'm not always sure which end is up anymore.”
Then, abruptly, she changed the topic again. “Daddy, why didn't you come? With everything that had happened and was happening... Why did you leave me to not see you since the wedding?” It stung, more than the betrayal of any other members of her family.