Halves

Epilogue

Hades brought his tale to a close. 

There was much more to their story, so much more that he could continue its telling for many future nights. 

But one look down at his drowsy children told him they had heard all that they needed to, for now. Only Melinoë, the eldest of the three with him, was still completely awake, soft gray eyes wide and wondering as she nestled against him.

"Do you think that will be enough to keep these two wild ones sound asleep through the night?" he asked in a whisper, fondly touching her cheek.

Melinoë smiled conspiratorially, obviously proud to be consulted about her unruly younger siblings. "I think so...but maybe you should tell me a little bit more, just to make absolutely sure?"

"How tricky of you! I think perhaps you should go to bed as well, Sweetheart. It is long past time for young people to be asleep." 

Though thoughtful and responsible past her years, even Melinoë had only entered the world twelve short years ago. 

How young they were, all of them, compared to the very long life he has led. 

"There will be plenty of time for you to hear the rest."

"I know." She stretched up to kiss him on the cheek. "I love you, Daddy."

"And I love you." She looked so much like him, with her soft waves of blue-black hair and pensive, melancholy features. 

He wondered, as he often did, since they were so similar in personality as well, would he have been like her at that age, given the chance to live a better childhood?

He would never know the answer to that question.

Melinoë crept away to her own bed, small feet making no sound, and he smiled at her quietness. 

Another trait they shared.

The two who were nearly asleep on top of him now were certainly much more like Persephone. Spirited Zagreus, eight years old, already seemed to raise havoc wherever he went. Sometimes it felt as if even the entire Underworld could not hold his boundless enthusiasm for absolutely everything life had to offer. And Makaria, only five, was the perfect image of how he imagined his wife must have looked as a child, and somehow instinctively knew just how to get him to do whatever she wanted.

He never could have imagined he would enjoy being a father so much.

It took some creativity to shift Zagreus off his lap and guide the boy back to bed, since Makaria's hold around his neck had only loosened by a minuscule amount. But eventually, even she was at last pried away, and after a final kiss to each child, he escaped, closing the door behind him.

Barely away from the younger three and he found himself besieged anew, this time by his eldest daughters. 

He and Persephone had been woefully unprepared when their first "child" turned out to be three instead. Alekto, Megaera, and Tisiphone had celebrated their twentieth birthday that very day, and, recently returned from a celebratory outing to the mortal world, they were overflowing with their own stories to tell.

Alekto, aptly named "Implacable One", assertively talked over her sisters until they finally acknowledged her unwritten right to speak first and subsided. "Father! We're back!"

"So I can see." Hades laughed. "Let's move away from the door, shall we, so we do not wake the little ones." He guided the three young women further down the hall. "How was your trip?"

Alekto's gray eyes flashed with satisfaction. "It was fun. We chased down and tormented all the mortals we could find who had committed moral crimes against each other."