Halves

XIII. Persephone

I have no idea how early or late I climb out of bed when I finally wake. Without sunlight, my assumption of the passing time is based only around the fact that Hades calls our shared meal "dinner". I fell asleep when I could no longer keep my eyes open, and I woke when my dreams ended.

A different shade attends me today, asking what I wish to eat. I request more honey cakes, wickedly glad that my mother is not here to tell me I shouldn't eat sweets for breakfast.

"Would my Lady like new clothing today?" asks the shade when she returns with my meal, faint features showing distaste at the smudges of dark earth on my chiton.

"I would! Though I doubt the King has anything that would fit me," I laugh.

In answer, she throws open the doors of the wardrobe, revealing a row of garments hanging at the ready. When did those get there? 

"They may not be perfectly sized to you, but they are easily adjusted. Which would my Lady like?"

As one still dreaming, I approach the wardrobe. There are so many colors. Mother never let me dress in anything other than a maiden's white. 

Is it actually ALLOWED for me to wear something other than white, now that I have the opportunity?

"That lightest green one. Please." My voice comes out slightly unsteady, like a timid child's.

She helps me into it, and I am amazed at how light and airy the material is. It is close to my size, only requiring the skirt to be gathered up to accommodate for my shortness and the belt to be tied a little tighter, tasks which my attendant quickly fulfills.

"King Hades hopes you approve." The shade stands back, awaiting my reaction.

"I do, very much. Where is the King today?"

She begins work on my hair, pulling it up in a slightly different fashion than I wore the day before. "He is still out. He told me to pass on that he will join you for dinner again, if not before."

My heart sinks a little. Part of me wanted Hades to see me in one of the dresses he gave me right away . "Thank you."

The shade finishes her ministrations to my hair and moves to leave. "My Lady is free to wander the palace as she wishes, or to return to Elysium. You need only send for one of us to bring you a horse."

I thank her again, and she disappears. 

I eat the last of my honey cakes and drape Hades's cloak over my shoulders again. I do not feel like lounging around the palace today, though I am not sure I feel like going back to Elysium without Hades, either. 

What I do feel like doing, I have no idea.

I end up just wandering through Asphodel, finally able to experience how it feels to walk down the main road of a town. I greet the shades whose paths I cross; they all stop and stare after me in confusion as I pass, though I do not care. 

It almost feels nice to be noticed, even if it is simply for being peculiar.

A bare hill of dark stone eventually rises in my way, so I climb it, just to prove I can. It is more difficult than climbing a tree, or Hades's bookshelves, for that matter, but soon my fingers and my feet grow used to its hard edges and steep drops, and I finally reach the top. Sitting down to catch my breath, I watch a solitary bat fluttering between groups of stalactites that jut sharply from the darkness a little ways away.

My mind returns to what Hades said when he first carried me here, that all of the Olympians who wish to can claim an animal as their own, and take the shape of that creature ever afterward. "I claim you!" I announce to the bat on a whim, pointing at it imperiously in my best imitation of Mother. "You are now the sacred animal of Persephone, and when the people who die see you, they will think of me. You may thank me later."