"You are not going to steal from Hades."
Vita leaned back in her chair and dropped her little, leather-bound diary on her lap to cross her arms. She kept her eyes trained on Leo, determined not to show uncertainty. "Yes, I am."
"Why, in the Gods' names?"
"Because if he doesn't have my records, he doesn't know to send me back to Earth."
Leo frowned, taking a few seconds to mull over her words. Then she burst out, "That makes no sense whatsoever!"
"No, it does! Think about it. Over time, the Gods have had hundreds of children with mortals, if not more, right? Hades won't know who they are from the top of his head, he receives thousands of new souls every day. That's what his records are for. I just need to destroy my own records, so that he doesn't know I should be sent back, and I can stay in the Underworld and search for Barny."
"Vee...!" Leo sighed, leaning forward on the sofa and putting her head in her hands. "Listen, I understand that you miss him, but you're taking this way too far, sweetheart. Mortals lose people they love all the time. You know how they deal with it? They grieve and then they move on. It's the circle of life. You have to move forward with your life, Vee!"
"And I will," said Vita, her nose sticking up in the air. "As soon as I've tried everything."
"You have! Haven't you already died three times to try and get him back?"
"Twice," she muttered, finally averting her gaze to stare at the white knuckles that clutched her diary. "The third time was an accident."
Leo reached over the arm of the sofa to take her hand. "Hades doesn't make exceptions. You're only a demigoddess, you can't win from the God of the Underworld. And if you anger him, who knows how long he'll keep you in the pits of Tartarus to be punished. It's not worth it."
Heavy doubt settled in her stomach, but those last words made her look up. "You don't get it, Leo, this isn't just about Barny. I hate being a demigoddess, I hate the resurrections."
She pushed herself up from the chair, holding her diary up at her best friend. "I have lived for hundreds of years, yet I can only remember the last fifty or so. I used to live in Greece before I moved to England, can you imagine? Greece should be my home, but I don't know anything about the country, not even a single Greek word. It's all gone, that whole part of me has disappeared, and it..."
Vita turned around, dropping the little book onto the chair. Her eyes stung. "It doesn't feel like I get another chance at life when I'm resurrected. It feels more like someone else is taking over, pushing the old me out." She rubbed her eyes to stop the tears from falling. "I'm not the same person when I'm reborn. It terrifies me. I've lost Barny and now I'm slowly losing the part of me that loved him."
Each second that ticked by in silence felt heavier than the last. Her words hung in the air like thick smog filling up the room. She hugged her arms to her chest, trying to control her breathing.
"I'm sorry. I guess I didn't realise just how hard this is for you."
Vita turned to see her best friend stare up at her with sagged shoulders and a sorrowful look on her face. "It is. Look, if it doesn't work, come find me in ten years or so and I'll admit that you were right and move on. I promise. But I have to try one last time."
Leo nodded. "Alright. What's your plan?"
With a sigh of relief, Vita plopped down onto the sofa. The pressure of getting this right still suffocated her, but at least her best friend had her back. "I need to find where he keeps the records. Once I've got them, it shouldn't be too difficult to destroy them, what with all the fire around Tartarus."
Leo thought for a minute, then stood up. "Can I use this as scrap paper?" she said, holding up the diary.
Vita hesitated for a second before she nodded. She watched as Leo took out the pencil she'd used as a bookmark, flipped to the back for an empty page and drew a few seemingly random shapes.
"Alright, so when you get there, you'll end up in the Hall of Judgement first, right?" She pointed at a rectangle with three dots on one side. "That hall has five doors: one leading back to Earth, one to the Asphodel Meadows, Fields of Mourning, Elysian Fields, and," she tapped the pencil on one of the five arrows she'd drawn from the Hall of Judgement from the rectangle to a shapeless blob, "Tartarus."
Vita leaned forward to point at one of the large blobs. "Barny will be in the Meadows, I think. He's led a good life, so they wouldn't have sent him to Tartarus. He might even be in the Elysian Fields, although I don't think he's done anything that grand. And he's obviously not in the Fields of Mourning; he's not wasted his life on unrequited love, he's had me."
"Good, we know where he is then. But you'll have to get into Tartarus first. That's where Hades is and I'd bet my immortality that's where he keeps his records."
"Wait, hang on." Vita frowned, tapping the three dots in the Hall of Judgement. "Don't the three judges have those records? Rhadamantus, Minos and Aeacus send the souls to where they belong. They use the records for that, don't they?"
"Yes, but they read them and hand them over to the Erinyen before you've even stepped forward. Have you never seen that?"
Vita bit her lip. Now that Leo mentioned it, she had seen the Erinyen, guards of the Underworld, walk around with scrolls in their arms a lot. In fact, them opening the doors to enter Tartarus was how she'd gotten a glimpse of it in the first place. "Those scrolls are our records then? Maybe I can get it from them."
Leo burst out laughing. "From the Erinyen? Are you joking? Gods, Vee, that's almost worse than stealing it from right under Hades' nose."
"Alright, alright, it was just a suggestion," said Vita, her cheeks turning red.
Letting out the last few giggles, Leo continued, "Anyway. The Erinyen always take those scrolls to the Tartarus door, right? I've never been in there, but there must be a place in Tartarus where they keep all the scrolls. You'll have to sneak in there and take your own records, while avoiding the Erinyen who keep walking in and out of there." She raised an eyebrow at Vita. "Are you ready to give up yet?"
Vita gave her friend a shove. "Never. I can do this. Get into Tartarus, find the records room, destroy mine, and get out of there."
"Easy peasy," Leo mocked, grinning. "Where are you going next? The Fields and Meadows are much more heavily guarded than Tartarus. How will you get in?"
Vita took the diary from her friend and stared at the arrows leading into the Meadows and the Fields. She bit the back of the pencil, thinking. "Maybe..." she said slowly. "Maybe I don't have to sneak in there at all. Not at first, anyway. If they don't have records of me, I'll have no positive and no negative deeds, right? Without any other information, the judges will have to send me to the Meadows. I'll start my search there."
"How are you going to get there? Are you flying to Italy, taking the portal at Lake Avernus?"
Vita grinned as she stood up from the sofa, snapping the diary shut. "Nope, I'm taking the easier route."
Leo's eyebrows raised, before understanding made her frown. "Gods, Vee, that's gruesome!"
Vita shrugged. "I'm not proud of it, but it's the easiest and quickest way to get there."
"Easy for you," Leo muttered, rolling her eyes. "Someone's going to have to clean up the mess you leave behind, though. You do realise mortals get punished for this down there, don't you?"
Turning away, Vita added the diary to the pile of notebooks she had placed in the corner of the room, below one of her larger plants. "I guess that's the one good thing about being immortal then. Listen, I need to ask you for a favour before I go."
"A favour?"
She pointed at the diaries by her feet. "Destroy them for me again, will you? They can't be found."
Leo sighed. "Sure. But you should really digitalise them next time. Destroying a USB stick is so much easier."
"If I come back, I will." She reached out and pulled her best friend into a hug. "It's going to be okay, Leo. You'll see."
Leo nodded into her shoulder. When she pulled away, she shot Vita a sad smile. "Of course it will. If anyone can do this, it's you." She hesitated. "Perhaps there's one more thing I can do for you."
Vita's eyebrows shot up. "Oh?"
"A gift. I don't think my grandfather will be happy if he finds out I shared this with you, but... Well, just don't get caught, alright?"
"Your grandfather? What could you possibly give me that Hermes would be pissed about?"
"Hold your hands out."
With suspicious hesitancy, Vita lifted both her hands, palms up. Leo lay her hands above them and closed her eyes. She whispered words Vita couldn't understand, like a chant. Just when Vita wanted to ask what she was doing, her hands emitted a weak, blueish light. Something tingled in her fingertips, crawling slowly up her arms and down the rest of her body.
She squirmed, but Leo grasped her hands, the blue light now barely reaching through the cracks.
It was over before she had a chance to panic.
"... benedictiones Hermes," Leo concluded, voice raising with the last few words. She pulled her hands away, but the blue light had waned. "There. The speed of Hermes. You can run faster now, until it wears off. That should help you stay ahead of the Erinyen. Maybe. Just about."
"The speed of... Did you just give me a divine blessing?"
"I sure did." Leo winked, grinning.
"But... But how?" Vita sputtered. "Since when can demigods grant divine blessings?"
"Hermes took an interest in me once, came down from Olympus to teach me. It didn't last long, but at least I got this out of it."
Vita's jaw dropped. "That is so unfair! I've never even met Hephaestus, let alone learned anything from him."
"Yeah, well. It's a cool trick, but that's all it is. I never saw or heard from him again, so you're not missing much."
"Still pretty awesome. Wait, can you teach me?"
Leo shook her head, shrugging. "Sorry. Only Olympian gods can pass on this skill. Which explains why our mums never taught us anything." She lay her hands on Vita's shoulders and stared into her eyes. "Are you sure you want to do this? You can still go back."
Vita took a deep breath. "I'm sure. If it doesn't work, I'll be back in... Well, after Hades lets me out of Tartarus, I guess." A shudder ran down her spine at the thought of getting stuck in hell to be taught a lesson by the God of the dead.
Leo bit her lip, a frown on her face. "Perhaps I should come with you."
"No." To emphasise her refusal, Vita made her way to the door and held it open for her friend.
"But, Vee! I could help you."
"I'm sure you could, but I'm not going to let you get caught in the middle. I'm going and I'm going alone. That's final."
Leo sighed, picking up the diaries and making her way over to her friend. "Alright then. Be careful, okay?"
"Always am." Vita smiled. "I'll be fine, I promise."
Leo nodded and threw her arm around Vita for one last hug. "Say hi to Barny for me."
Her stomach exploded with nervous moths as soon as the door fell shut behind Leo. She was alone. She took a deep breath and let her gaze glide across the small living room. The old sofa, all her plants scattered about the room, the little altar to Eucleia in the corner of the room.
Her mother was the Goddess of Glory. Surely she could do this.
With one more nod to herself, she went into the kitchen and opened the cupboard. Her nose wrinkled at the sight of the little plastic bag that was going to get her to the Underworld.
I can do this, she thought as her stomach fluttered in protest.
She sat down on the sofa and tore the bag open. As she breathed in the salty smell, her mouth already began to tingle.
Alright. Here goes. She scooped a handful of peanuts out of the bag and stuffed it all into her mouth. As the tingling sensation grew and spread to her throat, the moths in her stomach made way for the heavy emptiness of pure fear. This wasn't the easiest way at all. Just the quickest.