Thalia bit down on her lip. She wasn't trying to be kind, she was... Well, she was trying to be kind. But it was also true. This was— Apollo was— he was going to find Telos, he just was, it was what he did, it was the only truth Thalia would let herself acknowledge.
But Melpomene didn't believe in happy endings.
She clenched her suddenly stinging eyes shut, drew a breath, opened them again. "Okay," she agreed softly. "You're right. I don't know that. But—" and she couldn't help the small note of mulishness that crept into her voice with that but, "you don't know either, okay? You don't know this is the ending, it's too early to call time."