Page 14 - SMITE Official Magazine Issue 20

FICTION
and QQ. And that is all I say on the matter.”
He shut the door in her face and turned
back to his work before the fire, muttering
to himself. Apollo’s hulking clerk glanced up
for just a moment before turning back to his
own work, the incident written off already.
Outside, the fog thickened, and the threat of
future snow loomed as night ganked the city. The
bitter winter cold opened its icy jaws and gnawed
on the houses and homes of rich and poor alike,
and stalked the streets with a breeze like knives. In
Apollo’s counting house, the small, sputtering fire
struggled to warm the air, ignored by Apollo himself
as he stayed about his duties and shooed carolers
away, lest they infect him with their noise and cheer. “Yes!”
What was Christmas to him? Just an easy day
off for lazy workmen and a burden on the wallets
of hard-working gods like himself. Nothing more.
After a fashion, there was a heavy knock on the
14 The Official SMITE Magazine Issue #20
open door to Apollo’s office. He glanced up and his
clerk, Ymir was standing there, his awkwardly tiny hat
in his hands. Apollo sighed, weary of the demands
of this time of year already. Ymir raised one hefty
blue hand and waved it back and forth in greeting.
“Hi!” he said.
“Let me guess, you want
Christmas off?” Apollo replied.
“To spend time with your family I suppose.”
“Yes!”
“Well, I refuse to support this idiotic idea of
a holiday. Sending good men home to sleep and
laugh and play instead of working. How awful.”
Ymir frowned somewhere behind
his great snowy beard.
“That’s too bad!” he said.
“Yes, yes it is.” Apollo went back to his accounts,
but he felt the looming presence of Ymir there,
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