Dirge of Hell | Greek Mythology

24 Smile

When Hades walked past the corridor and revealed himself in plain sight, Kore immediately stood up and ran to the other side of the bed, using the bed as a barricade against him. As if that were not enough, her eyes shifted around the room, looking for an emergency exit in case the situation called for it but having found none and following the basic rules of fight or flight, she picked up a small porcelain vase sitting innocently on the gold bedside table and held it up threateningly against the masked intruder.

He stopped and surveyed her. For someone like her, politeness and kind pretenses, which he was a master of, should be reasonable. "I'm offering you a truce. I believe we have never met in a preferably amiable nature."

"What do you want King Evil?" she narrowed her eyes, suspicious.

His eyebrow and the corner of his lip twitched simultaneously when he heard what she called him. "Well, first, I'd like to inform you that holding that vase threateningly against me is not necessary," he nodded towards the porcelain object. "You have my word that I will be most civil. Second, I'd like to apologize."

"Apologize?" Kore repeated, reluctantly setting down the vase where it belonged.

"Yes. I believe we got off on the wrong foot last night. I'd like to amend that." He lacked social skills, sure, but he knew enough to gain someone’s trust if he really wanted to.

"You're going to let me go?" she asked with hope shining once again in her eyes. Hoping against hope that this was all a mistake and she would be back again in the Upperworld as soon as possible.

Hades paused. He wanted to seem friendly but he also wanted her to know that her request was even more impossible now that Hypnos let him know the exact origin of his attraction. He will be complete and he will regain his former self…by all means necessary as he once swore. Putting on a more confident and commanding air he said, "I am willing to make a deal with you."

"Deal?" she looked at him skeptically. "What kind of deal?"

"You have something of mine and I want it back," he replied casually, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. "If you can either make the flowers in the Asphodel Fields disappear or successfully teach me compassion, whichever comes first, only then I will let you go. But until then you must promise to stay with me."

"Compassion?" she rolled her head to the side in confusion. "You want me to teach you how to care?"

"Yes. Do we have a deal?" Compromises and deals had always been his special talent.

She nodded vigorously. "Yes!" It seems easy enough. She just has to make King Evil not evil anymore. But what did he mean she had something of his?

"Breaking this deal will have severe consequences. Do you understand?" he said with a hard, austere voice, one he normally reserved in judgment.

She hesitated for a bit and replied in a softer tone, "Yes. But you will let me go, right?"

He nodded. "Keep your word and you’ll have mine. Well then, Persephone —"

"Kore!" she immediately interrupted. "My name is Kore."

He blinked, unfazed. "You have a name blessed by the Fates. As long as you're in my realm, you will be known by this name. Whether you choose to be or not to be, you will forever and always be Queen Persephone of Hades."

She looked down and twiddled her thumbs. "But…but…I don't like the name Persephone."

He smiled ever so slightly. "I used to have only two names too before until I lived here. My birth name is Hades Aidoneus yet now I am known as Chthonius Hades Aidoneus Clymenus Polydectes." The corner of his lip curled a little bit more. "I do have the longest name in this entire realm and I am notorious for having so many more titles. At first it did seem uncomfortable to have so many names attached to me but I eventually got used to it."