Churchill Downs was all a flutter with activity. Which made sense. It was the most exciting two days of the year at the Louisville, Kentucky track. Zeus had been on site since early yesterday. Mostly for networking purposes, as while he had interest in the Oaks -the filly race held on Friday, from a gambling side of things, he had other things on his mind. He had a horse in the Derby.

( It was a very tricky business, racing horses. )

Philotes loved the Underworld. It was her home, it was where she'd grown up, it was where most of her family still lived. While others might find it a dark and dismal place, and certainly there were many that found it frightening, Friendship always felt there was a dangerous beauty to it. And it was the peril that made the loveliness stand out that much more. At least, that was the way she saw it.

And because she was a child of the Underworld, she had resources that others wouldn't have at their disposal. ( She had spies. )

She was standing next to her fireplace, looking at the pictures on her mantle. They were modern photographs, each in its own gilded frame. Her children, the loves and the wars. But the balance between them was missing. One of her children had never gotten their picture taken. One had been gone for far too long.

Aphrodite sighed and started walking to the main room of her temple. She supposed this was all her fault in some way. If Hephaestus hadn’t caught her and Ares having sex, none of this would have happened. Her husband seemed to have cursed the child from that union, though he never admitted it. Dite never regretted it. She had her daughter and Harmonia was beautiful.

( But Harmonia... )