Ares watched, even his ironclad heart touched by Calista's devotion to Hephaestus.  She rushed to him, touching his gruff, uneven face to push his stringy hair out of his face.  She asked if he had done this to himself, Ares could only shake his head as he answered.  Looking away, the affection too much to look at.  He had to admit a bit of respect for his rival brother if he could keep someone like Calista at his side.  "Hephaestus' element is fire... if he wanted to unmake himself... he would need an active volcano.  This was done to him... with Earth.  And he was hidden here... to make it as hard as possible to find him."  The imlications were unsettling... since he was the literal embodiment of someone capable of doing such.<br/><br/>When she stood, he nodded his agreement.  With a point of his finger upwards, the stretcher sized sword lifted, easily bearing the weighty form of his brother.  Although Ares and him fought and argued over much, he would never have done this to him.  He hoped such was an unspoken fact to Calista.  He respected his brother too much to do such as this... perhaps steal his wife and daughter and taunt him or even battle him... but never to imprison him in a lingering death like this.  It was quite peculiar.<br/><br/>Together they worked thier way toward the enterance of the volcano.  Hearing battle, Ares perked up.  Quickly making it to the enterance they found Hermes aged to perhaps twenty-five or so physically.  His age was always chaotically shifting.  He stood in the middle of a battlefield of broken shields and spears of chitin and ant-like myrmidon corpses spread around them for hundreds of feet in every direction.  Holding a staff sized form of his caduceus, his hair long and flowing and so very blonde.  Turning his comely he smiled as he saw them approach.  His hair always shifting in the breeze.  "You found him, yes?"<br/>