In the Underworld, Persephone was a force of nature to Hades. Her curiosity shone like sunshine, her easy, graceful movements like a cool breeze, the hum of her voice a gentle rain.
But if Persephone was gentle rain, Demeter was a hurricane. Raging towards him, Hades had no doubt this goddess starved the Earth without a second thought. Humans feared him, he thought, but it was immortals like her they should fear. Fury, panic, and revenge burned into her eyes as she neared them. He had expected no less and steeled himself for the oncoming storm.
Hades held his hand out for Persephone. She took it, hopping off the horse next to him. He didn't think it was possible, but Demeter looked even more enraged, her voice dark and icy.
"Get your hands OFF of her!" Demeter ran up to protect her daughter, startling the horses, and causes them to rear up and whinny loudly. Demeter gasped, grabbing Persephone by the arm and yanking her away as Hades tried to calm the horses, annoyed at the spectacle.
Persephone pulled her arm free, disoriented by the sudden flurry of motion. Demeter composed herself, put her body in front of Persephone, and whirled back around to Hades.
"How dare you come here!" Months worth of anger bubbled up insider her, so much she could hardly focus what to articulate. "Leave now or I will make sure you spend every waking moment in agonizing suffering to pay for what you've done!"
Persephone peered over her mother's shoulder. Hades looked thoroughly unaffected by her mother's words, his expression unmoving and dispassionate. She was impressed; she had never seen anyone hold their ground against her mother. She had long ago learned to pick her battles to placate her, and the nymphs wouldn't dare challenge her on any matter.
"I will gladly leave, but with Persephone with me." Persephone winced; that was definitely the wrong answer.
"If you even think of laying a finger on her..." Demeter grinded out, her voice low and rasping, "I will let every last soul on this Earth die until your kingdom if overflowing with the dead."
The goddess of flowers' jaw dropped, her eyes wide.
"Mother!" she shook at her mother's shoulder, horrified, but Demeter did not budge, her eyes boring into Hades. Despite her clenched fists and tense stance, she could feel her mother shaking. She was furious, but she was afraid; a frightened animal lashing out to protect itself. To protect her.
Hades looked down at the sharp, vicious expression Demeter pointed at him. He had certainly expected anger, but this was unchecked, callous rage. Looking into her eyes, he had no doubt in his mind she meant was she said.
She didn't know it yet, but there was nothing she could do, and he wondered what consequences the Earth was suffer this time as a result. For a brief moment, Hades pitied her. She likely thought she would never see her daughter again when she first left; he at least had come knowing she must return to him.
"Demeter, if you will listen to reason, she must return as she-"
"I will listen to nothing that comes from the mouth of rapist!" she spat at him, tears pooling in her eyes despite her best efforts. Persephone paled and over her mother's shoulder, her gaze briefly met Hades'.
As the dusk sky grew darker, a sudden chill cut through the air, causing her daughter to rub her arms with a shiver. The time for words was over. She knew from experience that there was only one thing the gods would listen to, and it was the wails of dying mortals. And hear it they would.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, causing all three gods to look up. Both Demeter and Hades sighed in relief; Hades glad for someone whose authority she must listen to, Demeter glad to have the one who ordered her daughter back, the one who could outrank him.
A bright flash of lightning illuminated the field, and suddenly Zeus was before the three of them. He stood tall, broad, and regal, his long, thick hair catching the last glimmer of light in the sky. He looked between the three of them, weariness already on his face. He had already mediated this battle, yet here it was again before him, all the players in one place with him in the middle.
Demeter smirked at Hades; he had lost and would be put in his place soon enough. Zeus looked at his brother, confused at what could possibly have possessed him to do this. He had not known the god of the Underworld to be a man of great passion or prone to foolish endeavors for the sake of a woman; even now, he seemed calm in the face of Demeter's wrath.
"Hades," he started, hoping this exchange would begin and end civilly, "What business do you have here?"
"I've come for my wife."
Zeus sighed. He had hoped this mess was behind them; it seems it was not.
"He can't have her," Demeter sneered, pushing her daughter further behind her. "And you know what I'll do if he does." Zeus turned to Hades, a resigned look on his face.
"Hades, we have settled this..."
"It's not a matter of me having her," Hades interjected. "Her realm must have her."
"This realm must have her!" Demeter shouted, disgusted Hades would associate her precious, radiant daughter with the darkness of the world below. "She was born goddess of the flowers and belongs here! She is no longer and never was your wife!" Demeter turned to Zeus for affirmation.
"You look to him, yet he was the one who promised her to me," Hades commented dryly, tired of this exhausting interaction with Demeter. She replied with a snarl, and Zeus gave Hades a withering look. He expected the onslaught of emotions from Demeter, but had not expected Hades to exacerbate it.
"Zeus, this is not a matter for you to decide. Persephone must return with me." The king of the gods opened his mouth, angered at his brother's outright defiance of his authority, but Demeter beat him to it.
"You have no way to-"
"She has eaten the fruit of the Underworld."
Persephone, who felt like a child as people fought over her, watched in awe as all three powerful gods simultaneously went silent, the sudden emptiness heavy in the air. Hades looked triumphant, Demeter's mouth hung open, and Zeus' eyes were wide in realization. The goddess of the harvest found her voice first, spluttering defensively.
"T-there is no way he could possibly prove such a-"
"Persephone." Zeus addressed her directly. He wanted to hear from her, the one who had always been the silent piece in the center. "Is this true?"
She looked over at Hades, whose face was serene, whose stern complexion in the face softened momentarily for her. She looked at her mother, whose wide eyes were fixed expectantly on her, wordlessly pleading for it to false. She looked up at the king of the gods, realizing he had been dealing with this mess she had briefly witnessed for a long time.
"Yes. I ate them." Her voice was soft, but sure. Then the quiet settled back in.
She glanced at her mother and she immediately regretted it. Demeter's eyes were fixed on her, heartbroken, tears threatened to spill over. Hades looked at his brother knowingly. Zeus approached the shell shocked Demeter.
"Demeter," he said gently, "You know this means -"
"You forced her!" she screamed at Hades, pointing an accusatory finger. "She would never choose to bind herself to that terrible place!" She looked pleadingly up at Zeus as she quickly spiraled into hysteria, her voice shaking.
"You can't expect me to accept his! He-he stole her, he forced himself on her, and he clearly made her eat them, you can't possibly -"
"He didn't make me eat them."
For a second time, Persephone's quiet voice silenced the group. She focused her gaze on Zeus, trying to avoid the wide eyed betrayal on her mother's face.
"He wasn't even in the room when I did. He couldn't even have known until after I left."
Hades was grateful to finally have her voice defending him. He longed to be alone with her, to know what she was feeling about all this. Between her account and Zeus' clear understanding of the laws of the universe, there was no denying it now.
"She's right - after Hermes took her back, I found a pomegranate with six seeds missing. She must return to the Underworld for no less than six months." He paused, to make sure both Zeus and Demeter were listening.
"She has since spent six months in the world above, and the separation between the Underworld and the Earth has already started to blur. If she is gone any longer, the living Earth will be overtaken by the souls of the Underworld. It is time for her to return."
Persephone thought back to laying in the shade earlier that day, what felt like a lifetime ago. She had dreamnt of him so clearly, she thought she could feel his hands on her body. She'd called for him, he said. She merely spoke his name, and he heard her, a realm away.
Demeter choked out a sob, falling to her knees. Everything had been taken from her again, and this time she had been teased to think she had her life back. She felt a sharp pang of regret for keeping Persephone away from the likes of Apollo or Hermes; anyone would have been better than him. Any haughty or unfaithful lover and the following heartbreak would have been better than dooming her to half her life in death.
Zeus crouched down to comfort Demeter, but was secretly relieved that the decision was out of his hands and that this was finally over. He placed a hand on her shoulder, only for it to be roughly shoved off. Demeter stood abruptly, clenching her fists so tightly her nails dug into her skin.
"If you let him take her again, then I will let the Earth wither every day she is gone," she declared slowly, her devastation transforming back into resolve. "If he wants thing back as they were, then you will have things back as they were," she said to Zeus, eyes narrowing. "I don't care if every human on Earth dies in the meantime."
"They won't die." All eyes turned to Persephone again. This time, she did not avoid her mother's gaze. "The mortals won't die," she repeated. "Not in six months. I have watched them harvesting. They have enough stored to survive that long. They may suffer..." she looked into her mother's eyes, trying to will away this callous disregard for human life on her behalf "...but they'll live."
Demeter wanted to collapse into tears at being betrayed not one, not twice, but three times by the very daughter she was trying to save. Instead she stood frozen, mouth open, staring at her beautiful Kore. But she had always felt it, and didn't see it truly until now: Kore had gone, and Persephone had taken her place. And now she would lose her for half her life.
The goddess of the harvest staggered towards Persephone and clutched her in a strangling embrace, determining never to let her go. She hugged her back, resting her head on her mother's shoulder.
The king brothers watched from a distance, daring not to interrupt the moment between mother and daughter. Zeus regarded Persephone with new eyes: Demeter's coveted daughter, Hades' stolen wife, acting on her own accord to settle the battle started over her, the battle she never had any say in before.
Hades, however, swelled with pride: this only proved to him further she was meant to be queen. His impatience to have her back only grew the longer she held her mother.
Demeter finally pulled away, looking to Zeus, and though she hated to do it, looking to Hades, with repentant and pitiful eyes. It was the last thing she could do, and it had to be believable.
"Please don't take her from me tonight, not like this. Give me time to say goodbye to my daughter," she said, her voice cracking. Zeus looked over Demeter to Hades, who gave a short nod.
"She will be in the Underworld for the next six months; it will wait for her another six days." Demeter exhaled a huge sigh of relief; she didn't yet know where, but she and her Kore would be long from here by then, whether her daughter wanted to go or not. Six days was plenty of time for them to disappear beyond any gods' finding, and come what may to the borders between the mortal world and the Underworld.
"And I will stay in the world above with her until she returns." Demeter's eyes snapped up to Hades, her blood running cold. She scrambled to respond.
"Surely the Underworld cannot survive without its king for -"
"If it must survive without its queen, it will survive without its king." Panicked, she looked over to Zeus.
"This is hardly necessary -"
"It is done, Demeter," Zeus answered with finality. "Hades will ensure his wife returns with him as planned, just as he will return her on time in six months." Zeus nodded at Hades, the command just as much to him as it was to her. He looked at Persephone one last time before a sudden flash of lightning took him away, leaving Persephone, her mother, and her husband alone again in the now dark field.
The king of the Underworld looked curiously at his queen while her mother scowled at him. She was truly in her core exhausted from the emotional turmoil in such a short period of time. She took Persephone's hand, leading her away.
"You're welcome to sleep in the field, with the animals," she added with a scoff. Persephone looked over her shoulder as her mother walked her away from him.
Six days.