by Gina Carra
Hebe snorts. “I like her more every day.”
Hercules frowns. “Speak for yourself.”
Hebe nods. “Trust me, I will.”
Demeter laughs loudly. “We know you will.”
Persephone holds tight to Hebe’s neck. Not necessarily because she needs to, but because she missed them. And if things go badly, these might be her last memories with them.
She briefly wonders how Hades will judge her regrets as she floats through the River Styx and if she’ll ever be reunited with Autumn in Elysium.
Her eye catches on the lilacs just before her new ability wipes them out. She feels her heart clench at the sight of it, but their death folds them down like a drawbridge to a tunnel big enough to walk through, but curving downward into darkness.
They all stare down it as Hebe lowers Persephone to the ground.
Demeter hums. “It’s a bit on the nose, isn’t it?”
Hebe shivers at the creepy, dark tunnel in front of them. “If they’re really trying to deter entrance, they’re doing a great job.”
“She.” Persephone corrects her. “She’s doing a great job.”
They all stare at her.
Persephone leans in towards the tunnel. “She’s through there, right?”
It’s the most energetic she’s felt in days.
Hercules nods. “That’s the idea.”
Persephone crawls towards it. “And we have no idea what happens if I walk into it.”
Hebe hums. “Absolutely zero.”
Persephone turns to Demeter. They lock eyes and there are no words.
Demeter kneels down and wraps his arms around Persephone tightly. “I love you. Fate or no fate. I loved you from day one and I’ll never stop.”
Persephone tsks even though her eyes are tearing up. “Don’t be so dramatic, I’ll be back.”
Hebe kneels to join in the group hug, kind of using it as an excuse to hold Demeter more intimately. “You fucking better be back or we’ll kill you.”
Persephone laughs bitterly. “Hopefully my girlfriend will know how to deal with that.”
Demeter looks at her. “Girlfriend, huh?”
Persephone shrugs. “What else do I call her? My soulmate? My fated one? My mate?”
Demeter’s nose scrunches. “Yeah, okay. Girlfriend is fine.”
Persephone meets Hercules’ eyes. There are a lot of disagreements between them, but she’s well aware of all of the time and effort Hercules spent helping her. “Thank you.” Her words are as sincere as she can make them.
Hercules nods.
Persephone turns to the tunnel, one hand gripping each of her two best friends’ hands. “Just jump in right? Don’t test the water just…”
Persephone finds the energy to stand. Demeter and Hebe help her.
She stares into the tunnel.
She doesn’t gather her courage. She doesn’t hype herself up. She only needs one thought: Hades is on the other side.
She steps through without a moment of hesitation.
The Trials
Persephone braces herself for an attack as she steps through the tunnel’s entrance…
Nothing happens. It’s just a tunnel.
She glances over her shoulder at her friends one more time before she starts walking and doesn’t look back again.
The cavern is dark and cold, but after her month spent with Hades, it oddly feels like coming home. She lingers on that feeling, a little worried about it. As the goddess of Spring, she really should be repulsed by this place. She remembers being repulsed.
What she doesn’t remember is when that all changed.
It happened slowly, yet all at once. She doesn’t remember falling in love either, but she supposes that happened at the same time.
Maybe it’s part of the arrow, but just thinking about being in love and knowing Hades’s heart is empty leaves her hollow and pained.
Caught up in her thoughts, she almost doesn’t realize when she reaches a fork.
She halts suddenly, staring at the two paths that lie ahead of her.
As she stares at them, a voice reverberates through the caves that she recognizes all too easily: Styx.
“Two paths, a choice to make
One will give and one will take
To the left, a sister’s soul
The right, your love, but steep the toll”
Persephone feels a chill through her body as the voice fades. She knew Styx had been waiting to test her and she’s a little bitter it has to be now.
She’s used to riddles and she’s pretty damn sure she knows what her choices are. The left is a pathway to Elysium with Autumn, but the right will bring her to Hades. Well, after the Fates.
What she doesn’t know, is what happens to the option she doesn’t choose. She’s not an idiot. She knows there are consequences for choices in this world.
Styx controls passage to Elysium. Even if Hades snuck her in last time, she’s sure a choice like this wouldn’t be so easily circumvented.
So yeah. That’s what it comes down to. An eternity with her sister who she’s already lost once or a chance at fixing things with Hades. And from what it sounds like, it’s not a very likely chance.
She stares at the two paths.
Part of her wants to be optimistic. If she chooses the right, it shouldn’t keep her from seeing Autumn again. And if she chooses the left, she could still see Hades…but not Demeter or Hebe…
She swallows. Yeah, it’s a pretty shit choice throughout. But that’s the whole point of this, isn’t it?
A test of character. She’d just confidently told her friends she could do this, yet here she is hesitating when the choice is, unfortunately, obvious.
She’s a goddess. She’s never supposed to even see Elysium. And Autumn is happy. Whether she sees her or not, she exists in a place that caters to her happiness. She shouldn’t worry about Autumn. She could always have Hades bring her letters. She’d hate listening to the screams, but she knows Hades would do it for her…if Hades comes back from this.
It’s a big ‘if.’
But they’re fated.
She can’t give up so soon. Going to Elysium is the easy path and when has Persephone ever done something easy?
She has to assume it’s not the last time she’ll see Autumn. She forces her feet forward and walks through the tunnel on the right.
As soon as she’s through, the passageway seals off behind her.
No going back now.
She keeps walking.
Without seeing a choice of paths, Styx speaks up again and Persephone internally groans. She can already tell it’s going to be a harder riddle.
“From seed to bloom, only a few will treasure
From bloom to decay, a feeble measure
One is celebrated, one is cursed
Both call to you, for which do you thirst?”
Persephone frowns. She mumbles to herself. “Fucking great. Half riddle, half choice.”
She trudges on down the dark tunnel. After spending the day in the sun, she wraps her arms around herself in the cold.
She’s a little upset that the riddle referred directly to her. It was so on the nose that it made her worried she might misunderstand it.
From seed to bloom, only a few will treasure. Her first thought is her flowers, sure. But with the direct mention of how 'both call to her', she thinks she knows what the riddle is getting at.
With Autumn’s power within her, she represents both Spring and Fall.
But it’s more than that, isn’t it?
She thinks back to how Autumn and Hades understood each other because of the assumption that they both brought death. The choices weren’t Fall and Spring, they were Life and Death.
Both of those lived within her right now and she was supposed to pick between her flowers and…and destruction? It didn’t seem like much of a choice, but then…maybe it wasn’t that either.
It hits her suddenly.
She had just been thinking
about how being in the Underworld again made her nostalgic. Surely she didn’t have to decide already whether she’d stay down here or not?
She runs over it in her head again.
From seed to bloom, only a few will treasure
From bloom to decay, a feeble measure
One is celebrated, one is cursed
Both call to you, for which do you thirst?
She focuses on taking it personally. It was clearly meant for her and her alone, so she can’t get too general with it.
Life or death. What does she thirst for?
The answer should be obvious, but…she wonders how Styx knows what she was always too scared to say out loud.
Ever since she lost Autumn, she always wondered if death would reunite them. Then she met the god of death herself and fell in love with her.
Somehow Styx knew, and she wanted to see if she could admit it not only to her, but to herself.
She keeps pushing forward, but answers with a soft mumble. “Death. I thirst for death.”
She takes the silence and lack of destruction as confirmation that she chose what Styx wanted her to.
Her footsteps echo.
It’s too quiet and it’s been quiet for too long.
She worries now that the punishment for wrong answers is wandering these caves for eternity.
After what feels like hours of walking, she sees what she least expects: an opening.
She hears it before she sees it. The rushing water of the River Styx beckons her forward. She runs out of the cave into the large expanse of the river’s banks, expecting to see Hades. Instead, Styx hovers over the river just like she did last time Persephone saw her.
She speaks and Persephone is surprised that the rhyme pattern is abandoned. “Persephone.”
She swallows nervously. “Styx. Ma’am.” She bows her head, unsure what the proper way to greet her is.
Shockingly enough, she laughs. “No need for such formalities. We know each other now, do we not?”
Persephone blinks at her. “I—I can’t say I feel as though I know you. But it does feel as though you know me.”
This makes her laugh again. “And why do you think that is, hm?”
Persephone shrugs. “Maybe you have a similar power to Had—”
“Guess again.”
“Is this another test?”
“It certainly is.”
Persephone stares at her. It’s bizarre to see a relaxed grin on her face and her previously blank eyes, now have pupils that watch her with amusement.
She thinks about the choices offered to her. If Styx didn’t know anything about her, beyond the specifics, how would she know to ask that last question?
The answer settles within her almost unprovoked. “You’ve had to make the same choice.”
She hums. “I did.”
“Not to be rude, but it seems as though whoever you made the choice for either isn’t around or well, she's taken.”
Styx laughs again. “Haven’t you wondered why Hades, a higher god, is scared of me? Why Zeus never comes to visit?”
Persephone blinks, unsure why Zeus was mentioned. Persephone’s eyes go wide. “You’re— you’re his mothe—”
“Of course I’m not his mother. You’re so fun to toy with though, aren’t you?” She laughs again.
Persephone goes quiet, unsure what to say since she’s clearly being messed with.
Styx lowers herself from the air and steps down on the banks of the river. She’s eye to eye with Persephone now. “I guard the river, but more than that. I am the river. I used to flow through mountains and valleys up above, but I reside here now. Much like you, a choice was forced upon me that made things quite complicated. You’ve met my sister. She guards the river you had been in before you first got here. I recognized her in the drops that followed you here.
“When Hades was first given domain here, she’d been alone. It wasn’t long before Zeus felt someone had to keep her in line, just in case. Though all in all, Hades has been remarkable. But Zeus wanted someone to guard the river and it was me or my sister. I chose me. It was an easy choice with a lot of terrible consequences, but I don’t regret it because I know she still smiles with the flower goddess on Earth.” Persephone understands that, just like how she had chosen to walk away from Autumn because she knew she was happy.
Styx isn’t done though. “You might be surprised to know Hades and I were once dear friends. There were simple rules set up so the two of us could coincide. She wouldn’t mistreat my river, and I would allow her painless entry to the waters to allow her to work easily.”
Persephone chews her lip. “Clearly that’s changed.”
She laughs softly, but her eyes seem sad. “Clearly. She tried to drown a child in my river. Even through the child’s helpless thrashing, even as the godly power drained from its body, she held it submerged.”
“Hercules.”
Styx nodded firmly. “I couldn’t stand idly by. Even though I knew she’d been misled she desecrated the powers of my waters. Hades had broken our contract, so I followed suit. The pain of her deed immediately took root in her own heart. I vindictively listened to her screams and took the child into my arms. Hercules had already lost her godly power, but she had survived. I passed Hercules to Hermes who found a family to care for her.”
It’s quiet between them as Styx smirks at Persephone who squirms after hearing about Hades’s attacks against Hercules. “Your loyalty to Hades is unchanged.”
Persephone sighs as she nods. “I should be revolted, shouldn’t I?”
Styx shakes her head. “Hades broke the one promise between us. Lead arrow or not, she knew better than to betray me. You weren’t the one who was betrayed. You believe in her. Regardless of all she’s done, you have faith. You have love. I myself may never be able to forgive Hades, but as an old friend, I can at least assist in bringing back her joy.”
Persephone startles at that. “You’ll help?”
Styx nods. “But unfortunately, these trials come in threes.”
Persephone scoffs. “I thought that was three. The paths, the riddle, and the question about your choice.”
Styx laughs again. “Oh, that last one wasn’t really a test. You truly are easy to confuse.”
Persephone frowns, not enjoying the teasing. “So what’s left?”
Styx’s pupils fade as she floats back above the river. “Confrontation.” She liquefies, becoming one with the river again.
Persephone stares at the water for a bit before her eye catches on a reflection. She quickly looks up to see Hades staring at her across the water. Persephone’s not sure if she should even move. Hades is motionless as well, just staring.
Persephone doesn’t know why, but her hand awkwardly flaps at her side in a wave. She feels like an idiot as soon as she does it, but she can’t think of what to say so that’s going to have to do.
Hades cocks her head. “I never dreamed last time.”
Persephone takes a shallow breath at the sound of Hades’s voice. She can’t exactly run to her with the river between them. “Last time?”
Hades’s lips quirk. “A curious hallucination?”
Persephone tries to follow. “What is?”
Hades snorts. “You are.”
Persephone points to herself. “You think I’m a hallucination?”
Hades shrugs and turns away to walk down the riverbank. Persephone does the same on the opposite side, walking beside her at a distance. “You were last night and the night before.”
Persephone can see how this is a test. She’s not sure whether to play along or not. “What makes you so sure those were hallucinations?”
Hades looks at her curiously. “Because I woke up sweating in my bed afterwards.”
Persephone raises her eyebrows. “You were scared?”
Hades shakes her head. “No, just sweaty.”
Persephone feels her lips quirk. “Turned on?”
Hades looks at her again with a small frown.
“Just sweaty. I don’t know why.”
Even though she hoped, Persephone can feel that Hades is still hollow. “Are you sure it was sweat?”
“What else would it be?”
“Well, where was the sweat coming from?”
Hades is quiet.
Persephone hums. “The sweat wasn’t by any chance dripping from your eyes, was it?”
Hades keeps walking without looking over. “It may have been.”
“But, let me guess, you don’t cry?”
“Not after a lead arrow. Before all these arrows I didn’t even dream. The fact that I dream now after a lead arrow is just illogical. It defies all previous experience.”
Persephone snorts. “That’s not the only thing about me that defies all previous experience.”
Hades throws her a look, murmuring to herself. “Why is my hallucination hitting on me?”
Persephone shrugs playfully. “Wet dream?”
Hades kicks at the water beside her briefly. “It could become wet if you get annoying enough. I’ve done it before.”
“Jumped in the river?”
Hades nods.
“Why? Isn’t it illogical to waste energy?”
Hades shrugs, hesitating. “It does something to me. It…”
“It makes you feel.”
Hades glares at Persephone. “I don’t know if pain like that counts as a feeling.”
Persephone thinks back to the past month. Hades hadn’t been able to even stand after going into the water. There’s something eerie and dark about hearing Hades talk about jumping in willingly just to feel something. She shivers.
Persephone comes back to herself. As she puts one foot in front of the other, she suddenly realizes she’s been walking this whole time. Crossing into the Underworld seems to have healed her the same way returning to Earth had healed Eros…or maybe it’s her proximity to Hades. She refocuses on Hades’s words. “If this past month was anything to go by, it is. Trust me, it is.”
Hades doesn’t answer.
They walk in silence for a while.
Hades murmurs to herself. “I’m usually awake by now.” She glares over at Persephone. “You haven’t tried anything rash yet.”
Persephone tries to figure her out. “Do you want me to try something rash?”