Dirge of Hell | Greek Mythology

8 Pull the Trigger

Nefeli woke up groaning. Someone was wiping her forehead with a wet cloth. Leuce? She opened her eyes and saw someone else. A dark haired woman was humming a lullaby while she tended to her. She stared at her nurse. There was something about this woman that she was forgetting. . .

"…the love of my life, Lord Hades Aidoneus, god of the Underworld and his mother, Great Lady Nyx, goddess of the Night…"

She blinked multiple times. Surely she was dreaming. Probably hit by her husband a little too hard on the head. There was no possible way that the Great goddess of the Night was right beside her and nursing her.

"Why do you stare at me so mortal?" Nyx said gently.

Nefeli opened her mouth in a silent horror. She raised her hand and slapped herself hard, maybe then the dream would end.

"Oh dear, why would you do that?" Nyx asked admonishingly. "Do you like pain?"

She shook her head dumbly. Then, as if coming to her senses, she jumped off the bed she hadn't known she was lying on and immediately prostrated herself in front of the goddess quite like what her daughter has done.

"Oh great goddess, why do you show yourself to a lowly mortal such as I? Forgive me for I do not understand your intentions. In my ignorance, have I offended you?"

"Oh please, do raise your head. I am not a worshipped goddess. You need not prostrate yourself to me so. I am here to see your daughter."

Nefeli raised her head and met eyes with the beautiful smiling goddess. "My daughter?"

"Yes. If possible, we'd like to take her with us."

"Is it because she's a nymph?" Nefeli said with tears clouding her eyes.

"Oh my, she's a nymph?" Nyx exclaimed and clapped. This was a pleasant surprise. "Are you quite sure?" She then continued in a solemn tone, "Do not lie to me mortal."

Nefeli shook her head vigorously. "I am not lying, great goddess. She is a nymph of Oceanus that I raised."

"How fortunate!" Nyx jumped. "I shall tell this to Aidon at once!"

888

Nyx found the two lovers entwined in a heated embrace, sharing a passionate kiss under the shadow of a tree. Hades was gripping (or crushing would be the better term) the said tree behind Leuce in an effort to control himself. The urge to take her right then and there was very strong but he fought against it. Unlike the other gods of Olympus, Hades believes in the sanctity of marriage. His image of an ideal married couple was none other than Nyx and Erebus – faithful, loyal, bound, inseparable through all eternity. And that is what they would be after he turned Leuce immortal.

They were so preoccupied with each other that they didn't notice the night goddess at all. Nyx cleared her throat and the two separated from each other briskly as if they were burned, like how a couple of young lovers would if a parent suddenly barged into their intimate moment.

"Aidon, I'm really sorry for interrupting but," Nyx started, looking at everywhere but them. She felt bad at intruding their precious moment but it couldn't be helped. She had something important to impart. "Nefeli, I believe her name was, informed me that Leuce here is a nymph daughter of Oceanus." She shifted her eyes back at the pair, "I think now would be the right time to ask for permission to marry her from both her mother and father."

Instead of bursting into action like Nyx expected, Hades and Leuce stood dumbfounded and stared at each other as they processed the new information: Leuce was not mortal. She already was immortal. How the Fates smiled at them so.