DIVINE - A Persephone And Hades Retelling

FIFTEEN || Love And Power

The words rattled in her head as she tried to make sense of the mayhem that she now found herself in. I accuse Hades of raping my daughter. Never did she think her mother would stoop so low as to accuse Hades of such a thing. Even though Hades was always portrayed as a deadly and dangerous god, he even liked to present himself as such, but she knew he could never be as ugly as her mother was painting him to be. She had seen his soft eyes and his gentle spirit, she knew him well and trusted him with everything she was. Her mother saying such things about him made her sick. She could not understand how others in the room were believing these lies. Surely they could see that Demeter was grasping at straws.

"You can't be serious!" Hades roared to Demeter, his voice shaking even the ground.

As Hades' anger only grew, Zeus tried to slow down the situation. He understood where this was going in a way no other god did. "Hades, before this goes further, do you know the punishment for the rape of a goddess?" he asked his brother carefully.

Hades snapped his head towards Zeus, his anger now focused solely on his brother, furious he would further these slanderous accusations. "These are accusations of a madwoman!" he yelled.

"Do you know them?" Zeus asked again, his voice stern. Persephone worried Zeus was no longer an ally in this trial, he did not seem to be rejecting this claim her mother was making. Instead, he seemed to be taking it quite seriously. Persephone was suddenly worried about what would happen if it came to fruition.

Hades did not answer at first. He allowed his anger to boil inside of him. Then even worse than his yelling, he was calm again. "Yes," he growled out an answer to his brother.

Her world seemed to be spinning around her as she watched everything transpire around. Persephone heard herself ask before she knew she had opened her mouth, "I don't, what will happen if he is convicted?" The silence that followed was what scared her most of all. The sympathetic eyes and the silence told her what she feared most.

With what sounded like a tired sigh, Hades turned to her, not wanting anyone else to tell her but him. His eyes were heavier than they were before making her suddenly wish he was shouting again. "As punishment for such force, my throne would be stripped away from me. All power would also be taken. My punishment and length of sentencing would be determined afterward," he spoke plainly. It was the same tone he had used when he spoke of his parents, but now he was describing what could be his fate. In fact only, and with no emotions.

She wanted to cry. To scream. To plead.

She wanted to run to him.

She watched him shake his head. He knew what she was feeling, he could probably read it on her face. She was no longer keeping her guard up, she had far too many thoughts flying around in her head to worry about how she appeared. Even now, with everything on the verge of collapse, he was telling her to be strong. That now more than ever, they had to rely on one another and trust that they would find a way out. But how could he know that everything would be okay? How could he look at her with such hope? Did he not feel the same doubt hanging over him that she did?

He could lose the Underworld. His beloved kingdom. The place he had made his home. He had spent years pouring himself into his work to make it into the realm it was today. It only worked so well because of him. And now they were going to take it away from him? Who would he be if it was taken? She knew instantly it would destroy him. She could not be the cause of his downfall. Never. She could not cause him that type of pain.

Instantly in her panic, she thought of the fates and what they had told her. They had warned that her mother losing and her and Hades being together would be two different questions. That even if her mother lost it did not automatically mean Hades and her would be together. That the two facts were not always mutually exclusive. She now wondered what they had meant and what they had in store for them. She wondered if this was the tragedy that came with being with Hades. She wondered if she was pulling him to a future where they were still together, but he no longer had his crown.