DIVINE - A Persephone And Hades Retelling

EIGHT || The Goddess Of Many Faces

The Fates - Weavers of Destiny

The fates were made of old magic, older than the gods, older than the most ancient of Titan, older than the first stars. There was never a time when they did not dwell. They had seen the beginning and the end before they were even labeled as such. Some say it was this that drove them mad. They were the ones who orchestrated the deadliest of battles and brought every baby into the world. The orchestrators of life and of death.

They might have been right, and they might have been wrong, but no one questioned them, no one but themselves.

Fate hung heavy on them all.

The fates were a combination of three sisters. First, Clotho, the spinner who was the final voice on all major decisions. She was the one who decided when gods and heroes were to be saved or put to death. It had always been such a large responsibility, and yet she bore the weight of such decisions dressed in the image of a 10-year-old girl.

Then there was Lachesis, the one who measured the thread. She decided how long a soul was to live out its life on earth. She appeared as a warm and loving woman decorated with the kind of hope-filled eyes that symbolized the time in every mortal's life where they could see their future ahead of them while also looking back at their past.

The last sister was Atropos, the unturnable, who would cut the string that symbolized a mortal, or god's lifeline. Instead of choosing to change her personification, the goddess showed each year plainly, never using magic to cast a different appearance. She left no question for whoever saw her that she symbolized death.

Together they spun the threads of fate, controlling the story of every soul.

---

With a defeated sigh, Persephone crawled out of bed. She tore the covers off the bed to wrap them around her. Then she left in search of Hades. It was late, far too late for him to be out, and far too late for her to be searching for him. He had told her that he would be going to bed soon, that he only had a few papers that needed looking at. But he never came. It did not matter, she was not sleeping anyway, only tossing and turning. There was far too much on her mind to be able to drift off into dreams.

Tomorrow they will go to Olympus together. So many possibilities echoed in her mind. It was the unknown that drove her into unrest. She guessed it was the same for Hades. She needed answers, there was no way she could walk into Olympus, not knowing what would happen to them. Hades had already done all he could do to prepare them both for anything that might happen, but now it was her turn.

She found him out on their favorite balcony that overlooked the vastness of the Underworld. He stood leaning against the railing, so still, she wondered if he was already asleep. She copied his movement, choosing to stand and watch him until he raised a glass of what looked like nectar to his lips.

"Couldn't sleep?" She asked as she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind him, leaning her head against his muscular back.

"You know I can never sleep," he told her before he squeezed her hands. She knew he was lying, only covering up how worried he was about tomorrow. Still, she didn't say a word, only held him. He turned around to face her while still leaning against the railing and now pulling Persephone to lean against him.

"Do you miss your mother?" His question puzzled her, this was not what she had expected him to ask. She would have thought that many other things were on his mind than this.

"A little," she told him truthfully. "I've never been away from her for so long. And I know I should still be mad at her, but I can't seem to make myself forget about her. I know she would love you if she could only see you the way I do. If only there could be no hostility between the two of you. I just wish she could be happy for me, then there could be peace between us all." She answered his question but watched as his already deep eyes deepened into what looked like worry.