Halves

XXII. Hades

For once my footsteps echo loudly as I stride down the corridor, thudding like the beat of war drums when I near Zeus's bedchamber. My youngest brother is shaken by everything that has happened, I can tell, despite his blustering bravado. But I feel no pity for him. 

Instead, I am finally fed up with holding my tongue at every idiotic decision he makes.

He has been asking for this for a very long time.

The door is not locked. I throw it open, letting it rattle on its hinges. 

"ZEUS!"

My brother looks alarmed at my ominous entrance. I am not known for making a spectacle of my wrath, though just because I taught myself the value of control does not mean I didn't also inherit the family temper.

"Hades! Listen, I know you are unhappy with me right now —"

"Unhappy, Zeus? I was 'unhappy' a thousand years ago. Do you know what happens to someone, when the same people just continue to pile on more and more reasons for that person to be unhappy? Do you?"

"Would you sit down for a moment? Have a drink with me?"

I lean closer to his face. "They either break, or they decide that they have finally had enough. Now you know me, Zeus. Or at least, you used to. Which kind of a person do you think I am?"

For once, the King has nothing to say.

I begin to pace his room. "I seem to remember that someone in this very palace wanted me to take a bride not so very long ago."

"Well, yes. I will not deny that."

"Why deny me my choice of bride, then? Or were you hoping I would marry someone in particular of your picking?"

Now he looks irritated. "Come now, Hades, it has nothing to do with the girl's identity. I could not care less WHO you marry. In fact, had you come to me about it, I would have happily arranged something between the two of you. We could have staged some glorious abduction — picture it, you hauling a kicking, screaming maiden off into the depths — very dramatic, very sinister, and I could have pacified Demeter or otherwise subdued her." 

His mouth twists sourly. "But no, you had to go about all of it SECRETLY, the way you do everything, and now I have to clean up your mess."

If Persephone makes me feel alive in a vibrantly pure and passionate way, this argument is reawakening other primal sensations in me that I have not allowed to rule since the War: the pounding of blood, the scorch of fury, the necessary desire to strike hard before you are struck down. 

"This 'mess' is not of my doing, nor hers, and you know it. Demeter is having a tantrum, and you are threatening to have a bigger one because you've realized you cannot control her anymore. Leave me and Persephone out of this."

His shoulders slump and he suddenly looks much older and wearier. "I cannot do that, Hades. Demeter has me trapped. Already the mortals forget their hymns and mutter curses instead. I must take that girl back, before things get any worse."

"I should just take her back to my kingdom with me. Nothing you idiots do up here affects me."

"That may be so, but we both know you have always had a weakness for those fragile little mortals. I have no doubts that you could easily leave all of us to our fates, but you could never sit idly and watch so many mortals die, knowing you could have done something to save them."

I run my fingers through my hair as well as I can without knocking my crown off. "Why? Why are you like this? Why is Demeter doing this? Have you all grown so utterly complacent in your power and glory that you have forgotten what it is to care for anything outside of yourselves?"