ATLOP: Trial by Fire

We Find out the Truth, Sort of

JUDGEMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION

Welcome, Newly Deceased!

The line crawled, long and windy and only moved a step at a time every five to ten minutes.

Out of the back of the tent we could just glimpse two much smaller lines. They were stopping at a desk and moving on at a faster rate than the line moved in.

The spirits going to the left line were flanked by security ghouls and were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punishment, which glowed and smoked in the distance.

It was a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and caves. There were miles of barbed wire, or electric sparking fences, or pits of water with fish (piranhas? And was that a sea snake?) leaping out of them, separating the different torture areas.

I caught a glimpse of some of the punishments.

People being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches, or listening to opera music. I saw things that made me pale, knives gleaming and blood splattering. Screams could be heard faintly from here and Annabeth and Grover looked just as nervous as me. I saw worse, but I couldn't bear to describe them. They'd give me nightmares for some time.

The line coming from the right side of the judgement pavilion was much better. It led towards vast fields in the distance. These fields were bright and filled with flowers. The ghosts there seemed bright in comparison to those in Asphodel. Beyond even that I could see a glimmer of blue with a white isle in the center.

Elysium.

I knew where I wanted to go when I died.

"That's what it's all about," Annabeth murmured. It was almost like she'd read my mind. "That's the place for heroes."

Despite the size of the field in the distance... it was small. Well, not small, you could fit millions, maybe billions, in there. It was still massive. But...

My gaze slipped towards the Fields of Punishment, many times more massive, and then back to the Asphodel Fields which could make the whole continent of Asia seem small.

Elysium was small in comparison to the other two.

So few people lived lives where they did good enough to go to Elysium.

We left the judgement pavilion (slipping through the crowds of ghosts and clinging to each other to not be lost amongst them) and moved deeper into the Asphodel Fields.

It was getting darker, even for us. Annabeth and Grover's clothes lost color (strangely mine didn't, I was wearing one of the outfits Triton got me from the sea). The crowds of chattering spirits began to thin.

It was a good three, maybe four, hours of just walking. I got the sense that time wasn't the same here, and despite the hours of walking it still felt like maybe one at most had passed. Nearly the opposite of the Lotus Hotel.

Grover tried to chat to keep our spirits up and we listened to him idly.

I shook my head at the feeling of sparks crackling across my skin. It was strangely familiar, perhaps there's another being in the underworld nearby?

I kept an eye out.

It was many miles of walking before we heard a familiar screech in the distance, and I finally noticed a familiar burning itch again. It overlaid uncomfortably on top of the crackling electricity that had slowly been growing stronger.