Within the Earth's crust, Anaera slept, and dreamed. At first her dreams were quite ordinary, if wonderfully beautiful. They were joyful, comforting, but ultimately unreal, and no amount of happiness could mask the illusory nature of the scenes. That changed.

Anaera was having a very different dream now. It seemed she was not an active part of this vision, but a passive observer to a scene that seemed absurd, but incongruously real. Her spirit hovered in a shadowed corner, watching a roomful of powerful beings getting in touch with their feelings.

"Welcome to our latest meeting of Mortaloholics Anonymous. I'd like all of you to welcome a new addition to our group," an entirely nondescript Being addressed the cozy assemblage of gods and goddesses. The nondescript Being, obviously the officiator, urged a tall god forward to speak to the room.

"Hello," he began, somewhat nervously, "My name is Ares, and I am a mortaloholic."

"Welcome, Ares," the other deities responded.

"Now, let's all sit down, and Ares, you can tell us about your problem," the Officiator suggested.

"I have a truly terrible problem. For as long as I have been a god, I have used mortals, without compunction. There was no limit to the number and kind of the wretched, puling spawn I would manip-"

The Officiator cut him off gently, "Now, Ares, in here we do not use such terms for mortals. We recognize such phrases as part of the problem. Please, call them the 'Pontently Challenged,' or at worst, 'mere mortals.'

Ares bowed his head, thought for a moment, then continued his relation of his abuse of mortals. He recounted several incidents of inciting populations to war.

After he spoke, others of the august assembly told tales of their manipulations. Aphrodite blushed with shame as she told of mortal beauties whom she had brought low, because they dared compete with her. Zeus trembled as he spoke of the desire he still felt for all the mortal beauties as yet untouched by his glory.

Anaera watched the whole thing, entirely confused. What kind of dream was this for her to be having? Through her confusion, though, she still managed to observe a figure in an opposite shadowy nook - another nonparticipant.

"Hades," the Officiator spoke to that silent shadow now, startling Anaera completely. "Would you care to join our group yet?"

Various godly voices arose in encouragement. "Don't be foolish!"

"Admit your problem!"

"Draw strength from your fellow mortaloholics!"

The figure in the corner merely leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, while Anaera's mind froze in shock. It couldn't be her father. Why should she be seeing him now, after so long? The Officiator did not share her doubts.

"Your problem is perhaps the severest, yet you continue in denial. Have you not abused mortals? Have you not used even the dead? Do you not recall how you obtained your bride? Indeed, bored with these great offences, you even went so far as to manipulate your own immortal daughter!"

Suddenly, a light burst upon Anaera, and she was spotlighted before the group. She realized she was very much real and solidly present within this room. The gods and goddesses turned as one, to regard her with shock equal to her own. And the figure in shadows jumped up into the light, confirming his identity as Hades, former lord of the dead, and father of Anaera.

They spoke their astonishment at the reunion simultaneously.

"Daddy?"

"Nae-nae?"