Old Apate was back. Whatever chance he'd had of getting her to look at things from a different point of view, he'd lost. Prometheus had to ask himself, seriously, if he'd over-estimated everything. Her intelligence, her perception. She was so wrapped up in what others had 'done' to her that she couldn't see what she'd done to herself, and what she'd done to those 'others'. Draw a parallel between his life and hers? Useless, since he was 'always wrong'. His forehead fell against his knees, and for a moment he seriously considered putting that bronze hand around her throat and crushing it until there was no life left in it.
In the first place, that would probably piss Erebos off, no matter how much he disliked his child.
In the second place, he'd told Eos he wouldn't hurt her.
The delusion, the self-absorption. The blinding, staggering, stupidity. It was worse than dealing with Dolos - Dolos had given life to something else, had built Prometheus his favorite rocking chair. There were things in Dolos' character that spoke to a sum greater than its parts, much greater. Apate had never done that for anyone, nothing like it in point of fact. She couldn't create a life - the very thought of it was enough to make his stomach churn. Neither could she give someone a gift without expecting something in return. Because... all she was, was her delusion. It was all she had left, these layers and layers of lies that she claimed he didn't understand.
It was useless to try and talk to her.
"You still aren't listening," Prometheus told her when she emerged from the kitchen. "And you're right about one thing. I was wrong, when I said you would've made a better apprentice. Look at you."
He raised his head, face grave and lined, unsmiling as a stone.
"You're a fool. Keep lying to yourself, if that's what you want to do! Keep thinking about yourself before you think about anything else! Apate can never be wrong, because if she was wrong then, everything she's done since then would be wrong! Even the arrogant ass Prometheus-" and by now he was on his feet "-makes mistakes! No one, least of all me, ever claimed to be perfect! So why are you perfect, Apate? Is this what perfect looks like?
"As for Eos... she's not so afraid of losing something that she doesn't want to have it. If you can lie to yourself in the face of logic, try to learn from her. Maybe then someone will actually care enough about you to notice that you're upset. So far, you haven't given anyone much of a reason."
The Titan at last made a disgusted sound in his throat, turned away from her, started toward the door. At the last instant he stopped - stopped, with one hand on the doorknob, and looked over his shoulder.
"Don't come back to the forge. No, of course, I'm wrong. You would never do that, would you?"
He should have just killed her. And he might, if she ever made her presence known in his life again. The door closed very gently behind him, and then he was gone.