Summoning Bones

19. Dreams in the Underworld

The room took Eirene's breath away. She set her bag down on the bed, and walked around the bed to the window. The warm sun shown through the gentle curtains. It gave peace to Eirene, between Makaria's death, and her and Cadmus' whatever they had, she hadn't felt calm, let alone a sense of peace.

"Ma'am, if you'd like to accompany me. We are fitting you for your dress," squeaked a maid. Eirene turned to face her. She was small, with pale skin and white blonde hair. She beckoned Eirene closer, who followed her through a door to a room filled with luxurious gowns hanging on various racks around the room. Their jewel colored fabrics displaying the King's expansive wealth.

"Please stand there," said the maid. Eirene stood on a small pedestal facing a floor length mirror.  She looked over herself, not quite recognizing what she saw. Her body wasn't her own. Her hair wasn't her own. The glamour over herself was powerful, it had to be. She hid herself from her father, so why stop now. But as she was going to attend a ball with her supposed mate, part of her longed to remove the magic. Because what she saw in the mirror was a cracked and broken girl, not the powerful goddess she truly was. 

"Ah yes, a lovely girl, beautiful hair, goregous figure, hidden under shapeless clothes, bah," mumbled a woman. She walked into the room, and had immediately began to scan Eirene over. She was hunched with age, her hair greying, but she mumbled and looked over Eirene without problem.

"Hello?" Eirene said.

"Hello," the woman responded.

"Who are you?" Eirene asked slowly, as the woman bobbed and ducked around Eirene with a measuring tape, wrapping it around her waist, chest, neck, from her head to her toes, and around each arm.

"Did I forget, silly me. I'm Ms. Lillian, the seamstress. I'm fitting you for your dress, when you make your debut with you husband!" She said, clapping her hands. Eirene's face went white.

"Wh-what?" She said, feeling as though she were talking through cotton.

"Well, that's why you came isn't it? To announce your marriage to the kingdom?" The room started to spin in front of Eirene's eyes, titling right and left. Black spots began to dance in the room, and the world was growing darker and darker, slowly fading into nothing as Eirene's eyes closed, and her body fell over onto poor Ms. Lillian.

Eirene's eyes fluttered open as she sat up, no longer in front of a mirror, but instead a large tree. Its bark was pure white, with black sap oozing from its knots. Its branches extended into the tall cave, scraping the ceiling nearly a hundred feet up. Ripe fruit and green leaves laden the branches, making them droop ever so slightly down. The fruit was perfect looking, delectable and supple, making anyone's mouth drool just looking at it.

If Eirene didn't know any better, she would reach to grab the nearest pomegranate, feel the smooth seeds and sweet pulp. But the taste of such a fruit had tricked her mother into half a year in the pits of Hell, and she would not let herself fall for the same trick. She remembered the sweet taste of them from when she was a child. But as she grew older, and she began to resent her father and hate the Underworld, the fruit would trap her.

She stood, brushed off her black dress, and went to adjust her cloak but found it missing. She cursed, her only protection in the Underworld was gone, missing as if it were never there. She might as well face her greatest fear, there was no point in continuing their game of cat and mouse. Eirene began to walk around the large tree, to where a lovely pond was sparkling as if from a sun shining down on it. Its crystal clear water looked refreshing and welcomed Eirene to sip it, but once again Eirene knew better. The Underworld would do anything to keep her there, and she refused to spend any longer than she had in the caves surrounded by the smell of death. The world of the living so much brighter, promising potential and happiness. The Underworld reeked of unkept promises, broken hearts, and echoed with the screams of the damned.

As Eiren rounded the tree's large trunk, as voice spoke.

"Water," croaked the voice dry as sand. Eirene gazed over the pond to where a frail man, looking like nothing more than leathery, wrinkled skin on bone. His eyes had sunken into his face, a wispy, white beard, hanging sadly from his chin.

"Water," he repeated. Tantalus, forced to be tortured with the luxurious fruit just out of his grasp, and cool water surrounding him that he could not drink. His hunger stabbed at his stomach, which had not know satisfaction for thousands of years. Eirene ignored to poor excuse of a man, and walked around the pond to where dark trees stretch for miles. Very rarely did she agree with her father's punishments, and yet this one she felt it suited the situation perfectly. However, little credit could be given to Hades, but rather his brother, who Eirene despised equally if not more so.

Eriene entered the trees as she had at the edge of her town and the one over, but this time she was utterly alone. She found herself missing the presence of Cadmus, a half breed beast, but one that, even if she hated to admit it, was a wonderful person to cuddle with in the cold of night.

Eirene shook her head, clearing herself of her thoughts, and wove through the trees, careful not to step off the path. The shadows quite liked to pull unsuspecting ghosts into further pain. It was a cruel place, the Underworld. It smelled of sulfur, lavender, and the sickly sweet smell of death filled Eirene as she reached the end of the forest.

In front of her, a black castle loomed over the forest, larger than any mansion, and larger still than the King's castle. It called to Eirene, longing for her to step a foot inside her home. On the front steps, stood her father. He leaned half his weight on a golden cane, and smiled when his daughter approached him. His hair was white, and his pale skin made him look like the ghosts he ruled over.

"Hello, my dear Melinoe. It has been too long," he said, pulling her into a reluctant hug. "Come in, come in." He turned, and led Eirene up the stairs and into her home.