Halves

VIII. Hades

"I want to see your kingdom."

I like to think that nothing surprises me anymore. Being devoured by your own father, fighting a war that lasts without pause for a decade, and then spending the following millennia listening to the innumerably colorful, and often idiotic, ways that mortals can die tends to make one somewhat jaded. 

Or so I have found, anyway.

And yet, when those words crossed Persephone's lips, I was unprepared to hear them.

Had I thought the things she said to me in Olympus were untrue? Perhaps the cynical part of me did, attributing her eager words to nothing more than the excitable nature of youth. But it would seem that truer qualities lie beneath her inexperience. Not once in the passageway did she halt, or even turn to glance behind us. She did not fear the darkness, pushing forward into its open arms without faltering.

Walking beside her, watching over her unseen, I could not help but be reminded of my own solitary journey down here thousands of years ago. Did I descend into these cavernous depths with similar mettle? 

Again that traitorous, longing voice whispers into my consciousness.

See how she does not despise the everlasting night, the cold that freezes all? The role of your Queen would fit her as perfectly as her own skin....

I push the thought away. I am getting ahead of myself. There is so much to learn about her before I can make the decision unbiased. 

My own desires aside, I have to do what is best for my kingdom.

It feels like some sort of dream, holding Persephone so close as I soar over the hungry waters of Styx. I am acutely aware of her slender arms around my neck, the way her head rests against my chest. She trusts me.

I hope I never break that trust.

"Are we going to fly over everything?" she asks me, her voice soft with wonder at seeing the full width of the river below us.

"No, but remember, Styx coiled her bed around my realm seven times. Once we have crossed her six more times, I will land. After all, without my chariot, I should abide by my own rules and pay my ferryman to cross the Acheron."

"Acheron...that is the River of Pain?"

"Yes. I am pleased you recalled its name."

She falls quiet for a few moments, and I am aware that her gaze drifts up to my wings again. Trying so hard to be subtle in her interest, but the intensity of it burns at me like a torch.

"If you have questions, Persephone, feel free to ask them. You have my full attention, and I promise I will not bite." The sheer frequency with which this woman prompts a smile from me is alarming.

My guest leans back slightly to look into my face. She is blushing from my gentle teasing, a faint glow visible between the dusky folds of my cloak and the curling mass of her sable hair. "Very well then, my Lord. How did you come by your wings?"

"Many of the Olympians can take the shape of an animal at will, if they claim that animal as a symbol." Another beat of my wings carries us noiselessly across another stretch of river. "For example, Zeus chose the swan as one of his sacred animals. I preferred the tawny owl, for reasons that you can probably understand. It is more convenient, and less draining, to simply take on those features of an animal that I need at the time rather than to change completely."

"Do you think I could, if I learned how?"

"I don't see why you couldn't." Of course Demeter would have kept such a power unknown to her daughter. How easy it would be to lose track of spirited Persephone in the forest if she could blend in.