11 | έντεκα
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YOU COULD CUT the tension between Hades and Apollo with a knife. The longer we spent in the dark lord's palace, the more it became apparent that Apollo was his least favourite nephew.
Hades suggested that Persephone go fix me up in another room while the gods discussed some private business. My curious ears were tingling at the sound of his words, but Persephone and I obliged.
We were now in Persephone's spare room as she stitched up my open wound with what looked like normal stitching instruments.
Silence engulfed us as she hummed the tune to some old generic pop song, still smiling quite wildly. It was safe to assume that Persephone was a little looney... but in a good way.
I was curiously looking around. The room, like every other room in the house was black, but some of the frames and decorations were gold. The gods loved gold.
I shifted on the bed awkwardly. She was sat on a chair in front of me. "You know, I haven't been up there in a while. Do you still have what they call the... fellyvision?" It took me a moment to understand what she was saying. "You know, there are channels and a control devise and you get to watch whatever you want, I'm sure you've heard of a fellyvision!" She giggled slightly and I scratched the back of my head with my free hand. "Oh! You mean the 'television'?" I asked, trying my hardest to suppress a laugh. "That's right." She giggled, earning a responsive laugh from me. "Don't laugh at me." She giggled, flashing me an embarrassed simper.
"I've always loved earth, what with your insane inventions and infectious music." She beamed at me, carefully patched up my scar.
"Tell me about yourself... how are you?" She asked seeming suspiciously interesting in me. I shrugged to myself in my head.
"Well... there isn't really much to tell. In true orphan story fashion, my parents abandoned me on the doorstep of an orphanage when I was just a baby, and I was an orphan until I turned 18, I got a bursary to study Philosophy and Mythology, and I've been studying there for three years now." I answered honestly, trying to think if there was anything else I could remember. "Oh darling, I could have told you that, I meant with your personal life."
I didn't exactly feel comfortable divulging my personal life to somebody I had just met two hours ago, no matter how nice and friendly they were, so I changed the topic. "So it seems like Apollo and Hades despise each other very much... why is that?" My curiosity had gotten the better of me, this kind of hatred had to have some source.
Persephone seemed to have taken the hint, and retreated from pushing the matter any further. "Oh, they're all just bitter about something my husband did to Eris a long time ago." She was now concentrating a little too hard on fixing me up right, I suspected she was embarrassed about seeming nosey.
I started to recollect the exact words exchanged between the pair when we were all outside.
Tsk-tsk... what a shame it is she'll never be able to access her full power...
I cleared my throat before speaking once again. "Do you know what that is?" If Persephone was getting annoyed with my badgering her about the matter, she didn't show it, in fact, she seemed more than eager to discuss the matter.
"Well... it was a long time ago, before Hades met me. He and Eris had gotten into a row about something, I can't remember what. At that time, Eris had found her fated love and had been able to access her full power so you can imagine how much havoc she had been wreaking upon the earth. I think this was around the time of the black plague..." she paused to think about it before shrugging and continuing her tale.
"Hades was unhappy and bitter." She rolled her eyes, and it was my first time seeing her do something with so much attitude. "So, one day Eris came down into the Underworld – something she would casually do – to bestow her chaos upon it... you know; set demons free so they could run amok, injure Cerberus so that the gates would be guard-less... but before she could do it, Hades caught up to her." She was now pitifully shaking her head, a ruth expression found its way onto her face.
"He told her to never return, but she did and the next time he caught her, he was so outraged that he cursed her." I couldn't help the dramatic gasp that escaped between my lips. She nodded at me, a grim expression darkening her face. I was too scared to ask what the curse had been. It must've been serious if it ignited such a gruesome mutual hatred between Apollo and Hades. "The curse was very simple, but very wicked... he cursed her so that every time she was near her fated love, he would have to suffer a most cataclysmic death. It was torture for her because the fated loves of gods don't just die and wind up in Asphodel Meadows, the land of the dead, but instead get reincarnated over and over again." She sighed as she finished her story, stitching up the very last bit of my scar.
"That poor girl had to watch her fated love die a few times until finally deciding to stay away from him, for good. He walks the earth even today, no clue that he's fated to the goddess of chaos and discord." She let go of my hand and slumped back into her seat.
Glancing down at my wrist, I realised that the scar was glowing a bright gold underneath my skin until finally disappearing, wiping my skin clean of any trace of the bite.
"Thank you." I mumbled, still pondering what I had just been told. "Have I ever been reincarnated?" I asked, hoping she had the answer to my question.
She shook her head no. "You're a new soul, one can tell it from miles away. But unless you become immortal, you will be reincarnated when you die and the cycle will continue forever more." I found myself frowning slightly at her words.
It wasn't really that fair, was it? Other souls would finally get to rest after death in Asphodel Meadows, the land of the dead while I would just get shipped off to a reincarnation center to begin a whole new life again.
"Apollo never forgave Hades after that." She said, pulling me out of my bitter thoughts. "Doesn't he feel bad? Can't he lift the curse?" I asked hopefully. Maybe there was still a chance for Eris to be united with her fated love forever.
Persephone shook her head. "I'm afraid not. Hades has been trying for decades now. Nothing works. He feels such great remorse but he cannot do anything." Persephone was now rising from her seat, almost as if to leave, but instead made her way to the window. "All those pretty sunflowers..." she murmured to herself.
"He didn't look very remorseful outside..." i mumbled under my breath. Persephone heard my words. "Hades is a very proud man, Ariel. He has somehow developed a soft spot for Eris, who he has gradually grown closer to over the years – and if he could take it back, I know he would. He cares for her dearly now, you see..." she was still glancing out the window, almost as if she saw more than just dead land. "They've buried the hatchet..." this time she was whispering, thinking out loud as I sat on the bed watching her. She really was a right loon.
Feeling the urge to change the subject, I cleared my throat. This seemed to release her from her reverie and look straight at me. "Why did you send Cerberus after me?" This was a question I had been itching to ask ever since I saw her.
Her brown eyes were now glancing straight into my green ones now. "I hope you don't think that my intentions were to hurt you, they weren't. The Fates told me about the prophecy, and I just wanted to keep you safe..." she answered.
"Keep me safe by dragging me into the Underworld?" I asked, eyebrow raising pointedly. "No! Yes... it's a lot more complicated than that. I hadn't anticipated Ares being with you... so I thought you'd be safe in the Underworld with me until he came to fetch you." She answered sincerely. "Ariel, these gods, these Olympians want to kill you. You're the key to saving us all... my mother said so." She added, plopping down next to me on the bed and taking my palm into hers.
Demeter, who was one of the Olympians was Persephone's mother. "You don't know what it's like up there, Ariel. They're all slaves to Zeus' desires. He controls everything they do. He has a hold on all the Olympians. I was so grateful to Hades when he granted me freedom, so grateful to have found my fated love..." she seemed to have been caught in a daydream now, or a memory of how Hades had saved her from Mount Olympus.
"Zeus has already destroyed enough. I must be stopped." She said, frowning so deeply that I was sure her face was going to turn upside down.
"Oh, would you look at the time! It's so late, we should get you fed and into bed." She hopped up as if the subject of Zeus had never been brought up in the first place, her frown replaced by her usual wild smile.
"Tomorrow, we shall visit the Fates as you all wish."