Green grass breaks through snow, Artemis pleads for my help

“There’s another thing we have in common,” Claudius says, with something approaching gentleness. “Gods, demi-gods, and royals alike. We’re born to extraordinary, unearned privilege, and told to prove ourselves worthy of that privilege, even though worthiness never granted us our powers in the first place. I understand it in theory. Someone like Luo Binghe, for instance, who has the power to control people with a single drop of his blood, could stand to be tested by a higher power to see whether he deserves such a thing. Heriditary kings should be judged on whether they deserve to rule over others. But the sort of judgment that comes from Zeus is simply judgment on how well you can serve his own designs. All because of the family you happened to be born in.”