Calmly, as my mother weeps in desperation, I ask Hecate, “How can I be returned?” For I will have words with Hades. I will not be sentenced to a life where I am without and cannot do as I wish.
“What if I just have a little more time,” I start but I know the cost of such things.
“Daughter,” Zeus states clearly for all to hear, striking his staff and splitting the sky with sharp bolts and a thunderous boom. “It is law. And I will not see the realms come undone.”
And so it is.
Suddenly, I can hear it—all of their cries. I remember the sound. Their voices echo in the back of my mind. All of the souls, mourning when they streamed overhead through the dark sky, but now it is twice as loud. The screams of those in the mortal realm who have relied on my mother for life and sustenance and who have been betrayed by her, they send chills down my spine.
They are calling for me, and they are cursing me. They want me to help them, or they want me to leave…to destroy myself as a sacrifice for them. What they do not want me to do is nothing. They do not want me to stand still.
And I do not want to. These are my people. They send their prayers to me. They believe in my ability to help them or to at least comfort them. At the very least, they believe I am worth something. They believe I can reach them, or else they believe I can reach my mother and convince her to favor them again.
My throat goes dry and tears prick my eyes. No longer are the prayers for life anew. It’s for those who are already in need. Those who need peace in the afterlife and a guiding hand. Balance must be returned.
“My daughter,” Demeter calls, her eyes red-rimmed and tears streaking down her cheeks.
“Mother,” I whisper. I can barely swallow.
If he owns me—if I am bound to return to go to the Underworld forever—then how can I convince my mother to end her battle against the mortal realm? How will I ever convince her to stop? Why would she listen? Zeus… What will his sentencing be? All because she loved me and fought for me. I must fight for her now.
“Mother stop. Please. Give me a chance,” I rush my words out to her before turning back to the Titan who has such wisdom and magic.
“What do I do?” I ask Hecate. Surely, she should be able to guide me. “I do not know how to—I do not know what to do.”
“The world is at your mercy, Persephone.” Those words turn me cold with fear. I thought I had moved beyond that kind of fear, but it is back, returning with a vengeance. “You must decide soon.”
Hades
My chambers have never seemed as dark as they do now. And silent. Devoid of any soul. Even as I stare at the fireplace.
In Persephone’s absence, everything is dark and lifeless, so there should not be blazing fires. There should not be lights. Not until she’s in my arms.
I stand near the windows, my feet planted, looking up at the sky and casting directly into the mortal realm.
It takes a great deal of power to send demons to Earth, and it moves through me like the hottest fires that burn in the Underworld; the pain provides a needed distraction but as the darkness consumes me, it’s numbed.
The mortal realm will suffer greatly. It may never stop suffering. It is not my wish, but it must be done. The pendulum swings.
With a heavy inhale and my eyes half closed, I cast again, another wave of baneful power blazes through me, and through the sky, and through all the realms between the Underworld and the mortal realm. Gritting my teeth, I bare the agony.
This is what happens, I think with resentment as I send another fierce demon through the realms to wreak havoc on the mortal realm. To lurk in the shadows and release the fears that consume the souls. This is what happens when you play your games with me. This is what happens when you keep my queen from me. This is what will happen.
It is law that she belongs here. If they do not abide by the law of the gods. If the king of gods ignores the truth… All hell will break loose.
I can do this for centuries. For eternities. Why do they think I cannot? What has given them that false idea? Do the other gods think I learned nothing from all those years I spent alone in pits of despair? Do they think it taught me nothing? I know how to live in pain and how to bestow it. That is why this is my rightful place. I can stand the depths of depravity. I can endure it.
I learned more than the dark. I learned more than hopelessness. I learned how to survive both and feel content within them. I learned how to bide my time until I could take revenge.
I learned how to go beyond what gods and mortals expect. To deliver horrors. I learned how to keep storing up my anger and my hurt until it transformed into unfathomable power.
They should know that kings will do unfathomable things for their queens.
Is it unfathomable if I can fathom it? Is it unfathomable if I can do it? I cast another demon into the mortal realm and watch it go without feeling anything but resolve.
My anger still burns. It rages. It howls. But I contain it. I turn the wretched feelings into demons and send them to haunt souls in the mortal world on my behalf. I let it rain down on the Underworld as ash. The silence that fills every corner of the Underworld does not go unnoticed. It’s as if they are afraid to even whisper their dissent. As they should be.
There’s no longer any part of the Underworld that is not covered in the evidence of my loss. Ash coats every wall. Every intricately carved stone. Every valley. It coats every surface that’s in any way open to the sky. Perhaps it is my sickness, but I find beauty in the way it cloaks the roofs. It is even beginning to blow in through the windows of my home. If Persephone does not return soon, perhaps the entire Underworld will be buried in it. No one will be able to see what lies beneath. We will build atop the damage or give way to a new kind of death.
