Halves

XXV. Persephone

I have never felt anything like this. 

Both the yawning abyss inside me and the absolute desolation surrounding me are numbing. How could Mother let her earth wither like this? She is supposed to be the very life of the natural world. 

Everything depends upon her. 

And she has let everything down.

I know she is here. She feels the same to me as always, but weaker. I follow the whispers, the ghosts of the dead stalks of grain and the shriveled trees. They are leading me to her, begging me for help.

I'm so sorry....

So focused am I on trying to see through the fog that has settled around me that it takes me a moment to notice the wildflowers are springing back to life in my footsteps, just as they did in the Underworld. 

There is still hope, even in this wasteland.

An old woman sits alone in the center of the field, hunched against the chill that I barely notice. Her graying hair is dull and matted, claw-like hands pulling faded yellow robes tighter around an emaciated frame.

Wait...yellow robes?

"Mother?" 

I cannot keep the shock and horror from my voice. To see my proud, dignified mother reduced to this is more terrifying even than when I first laid eyes on Kerberos.

The crone's eyes roll up to study my face. 

There is a long silence. 

Then she is crying, eyes filling and overflowing in a constant stream like the baths in Hades's palace. She wraps her arms around my knees, heavy sobs racking her frail body.

"My Kore! Precious, innocent, sweet Kore, I thought I would never see you again! But you have come back to me, my beautiful, darling girl. You are here again, we are together again! Oh, my Sweet, I am so sorry that everything died, but the thought of you never...if you weren't...." This thought is apparently too much for her to finish, because she collapses into wordless weeping once more.

"Hush, Mother, it's all right. I am here." I never thought I would feel so much pity for my mother. I bend down to wrap my arms around her. "I've come back. Now you must restore what you have destroyed."

Her wailing ceases, she nods. "Help me up, my Kore."

I give her my hand, and she stands. Sagging wrinkles smooth and tighten, her hair turns rich chestnut brown again, and soon she towers over me.

Why, I wonder, do I feel SO small next to her? 

Hades is much taller, yet I never once felt as if he looks down on me.

Mother smiles, pulling me onward. "Come, my Darling! We have so much to do!"

And so we work, traveling the limits of the mortal realm, sowing seeds and infusing life wherever we roam. The grayness recedes, the sun shines, water melts and runs freely again. Soil turns soft and fertile, trees explode with leafy growth. The grain returns, and the flowers, and nymphs are soon running their races once more, their melodic laughter ringing through the glades. The people who die can live again, without any more worry that they will run out of food.

Everything is the way it used to be.

Everything. 

I wake up every morning in the modest dwelling where I took my first breath. Mother's hugs are even more crushing than before, and she still gives me one each day before she leaves.