Athene frowned, but did not turn to face Thanatos. "Just because you do not appreciate them does not mean their world is not as beautiful as ours." She replied, her voice even, yet respectful despite her irritation.

"But for what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?" She inquired, though she felt she knew the answer already.

Thanatos gripped a currently skeletal hand in a level of frustration, tempted to ask her what of the mortal realm she appreciated, but withheld the comment. Instead, he outstretched the hand, a blue light beginning to move around it.

"One of your... 'Followers', I suppose, died recently. He was injured during the Trojan War. His injuries overtook him. Along with that, another of your followers died in the war, a spear impaling him as he leaped from the wooden horse. His appearance was a tad late, and someone thought to try and attack those emerging." The second soul appeared, the two now both caught around Thanatos' hand.

"I've been busy with my own work in the meantime, so I couldn't easily have messages delivered in the interim. Now that I've sorted through the mess that was the war, there were a few Gods I've had to inform of the loss of life. More so, the information is only important because they are so sworn to those I've informed, that what happens to their souls is up to you. I find it sad, really. One succumbs to his wounds years later, and the other dies screaming the name of his Goddess, never getting the chance to fight. I'd shed a tear, if I cared myself."

Athene's hand moved swiftly, snatching the gleaming lights away from Thanatos. She cradled the spirits in her hands, a look of sorrow in her grey eyes. "My sons," she stated, her tone firm on the words, "shall receive rest in my Library. No better place for knowledge seekers exists." She told Death, the lights in her hands turning to a piercing silver before fading away to... somewhere.

"Is that all you wanted from me, Thanatos, or are you eager to voice your distaste for mortals once again?" She questioned, her pronounciation of the death god's name being curt and abrasive.

"I'd say our business is decisively concluded." Thanatos stated, having not moved from where he was regardless, and looking down from the clouds. "It doesn't surprise me that you have a library. I suppose all of the knowledge you collect must be amassed somewhere." He then chuckled, and said, "Distaste indeed, but even you cannot deny how much less they are than we. The knowledge you've collected in even a year is something most mortals may attain in a lifetime of searching."

Athene shook her head at Thanatos' proclamation. "That is simply the condition of my birth. Knowledge and its acquisition are my domain. But our existence is no more valuable than any other. We are all a part of the same cycle. We all play our part, one way or another. You have simply lost sight of what it means to be part of that."

"I well enough know of the cycle I tend to, Athene." Thanatos said, and flourished his hand, letting several other souls that he needed to escort to the Underworld drift around his hand a moment, "Every mortal lives, and dies. In such short spans of time. They spend so much time fighting and accomplishing little more than the suffering of each other. To be fair, of course, the Gods indulge in the same rather often as well. But at least our existence isn't so insignificant through a lack of time to do anything of worth." He then waved a hand, and the souls around his hand returned to below his cloak.

"Humor me, though. What have I lost sight of specifically?"

"Compassion." Was Athene's one-word reply. She knew that fulfilling the function of Death would not be something she could relate herself to, but even she could tell that Thanatos had let his heart grow too cold over the millenia. He was more bitter and distant than even the last time she saw him.

"Compassion?" He took a moment to consider every angle of the statement, then shrugged, "It is inevitable. I have seen every death, orchestrated each. Eventually, the countless endings become too similar. Too much of the same. You've seen one person die for a lost cause, you have not seen them all. You see several thousand, hundreds of thousands... It begins to look the same."

He considered the Trojan War in that, although it had been twenty years ago by this point. Still a blink of an eye for one who's duties didn't stop. So many deaths that he could swear he had seen before, and before that, and before that...

"That is an aversion to what you mean, though. I do not care if they die. How could I? I am the one to ensure they do die."

Athene stared at Thanatos for a short time period before sighing and shaking her head. "This is not an argument worth having. Instead, let us discuss something else." She told Death, the goddess standing and turning to the roads of Olympus. "Your visits are sparse. You should see some of the new feats of architecture." She offered to Thanatos.

Thanatos kept his gaze fixed down, towards the mortal realm below. He could ignore it, really, for only a time. If nothing else, he was good enough at what he did for how long he had done so, that making some kind of time to not dabble in death was doable.

"It has been a while. Very well. What feats are these, then?" He turned to Athene, looking past her as well to catch sight of some feat he really hadn't noticed before.