Persephone

Chapter X

Cold. I couldn’t move, could barely breathe. Couldn’t scream. I felt heavy, trapped, terrified. The cold snaked its way up my torso, crushing my chest.
Where are you?
My mind rebelled against the foreign thought. I could feel something, someone, flipping through my mind, looking for answers.
The library. Hades’ voice. My pleasure.
Frustration and rage coursed through me, but it wasn’t mine. Footsteps in the distance. I didn’t know what would happen when they reached me, but I knew it wouldn’t be good.
A hand brushed against me. My blood ran cold.
“No!” I bolted upright. My breath caught in my throat. I was in bed; it was okay. Just a bad dream.
Nightmares make sense, I rationalized. I’d been through a lot; my brain was just trying to process it all. First Pirithous, then Boreas attacking me? I had a right to be traumatized. Plus, what kind of goddess would I be if I couldn’t handle a silly nightmare?
I climbed out of bed and walked over to my closet. I was down here for better or worse, and I should make the best of it. It was my winter break, after all, and like any other girl on vacation I was going sightseeing.
I chose a flowing yellow skirt with a white lace blouse reminiscent of an outfit I had from home before setting off for the Asphodel Fields.
I winced when Thanatos fell into step behind me. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Yeah, I do.” He grinned. “It’s my job, remember?”
“Aren’t you busy, like…killing people?”
He shook his head. “I don’t kill people. People die, and I collect their souls. Well, I have my Reapers collect their souls. I rarely leave this realm these days.”
“So why are you making new Reapers?”
“I only make a personal appearance when someone is killed by a god. That doesn’t happen much anymore, but people will always find new ways to kill each other. Did you know that every second someone dies?”
“Forty thousand men and women every day,” I quoted, uncomfortable with the knowledge.
“Every day,” said Thanatos. “More Reapers allow for crazy things, like weekends off and reasonable hours. My Reapers are just souls, you know? They deserve the same respect as any other being. Labor laws aren’t only for the living.”
“They don’t look like souls,” I said, remembering with a shudder.
“They’re blessed. They can go out into the world and come back. Just like demigods.” He saw my worried look and added, “They’re completely under my control. I get the list from Moirae every day and divide it amongst them. They go, they come back. I’d know if anything else happened.”
“No free will?”
“Plenty of free will. No privacy. Still, it’s not hard to recruit—who wouldn’t want to visit the living world?” He studied me carefully, and I took a deep breath as homesickness filled me with longing.
“No one,” I whispered. “How can you possibly choose?”
“They have to meet a few requirements. They can’t know anyone in the living realm.” At my confused look he laughed. “That only takes a few decades. They can’t have drunk from the Lethe. Demigods get preferential treatment.” Thanatos shrugged. “Outside of that, it’s just like any job interview.”
“If they’re just souls, why does Cassandra hate them?”
Thanatos smirked. “You caught that, huh? They can be pretty full of themselves. They think they’re special, and Cassandra caught wind of that. It really pisses her off when she finds them wandering around the palace.”
His eyes twinkled in a way that made me think the Reapers popping up every time Cassandra entered a public area of the palace wasn’t coincidence. “You’re messing with her!”
Thanatos winked at me. “Yeah, sorry about the whole…soul thing. I think Zachary was more shaken up than you were.”
I doubted that. “Does it always hurt so much?”
Thanatos tilted his head, considering. “It’s hard to tell, what with the pain of people dying and all. I’ve never had a soul complain about the process. It probably hurt you because your soul’s tethered so strongly to your body. It didn’t have a way to leave.” Thanatos gave me an easy grin. “Where are you headed?”
“A coffee shop in the suburbs.”
“Breakfast with Cassandra?” he guessed. A smile broke across his face when I nodded. “She has excellent taste in food.”
The Asphodel Fields closest to the palace were designated for the new or active souls. The longer souls stayed in the Underworld the further out they would spread. Most preferred peace and solitude to the crowded suburbs around the city.
Thanatos escorted me to a sidewalk café that looked surprisingly like a Starbucks.
“Over here!” Cassandra waved from a table on the edge of the sidewalk.
“Good morning.” Thanatos flashed Cassandra an insincere looking grin.
She scowled at him. “Just her. You can sit somewhere else.”
Thanatos shrugged and grabbed another table, settling in with a cup of coffee and a book. It was still early, so there weren’t too many souls out and about. There were a surprising number of Reapers. Thanatos handed them each a page from his book when they approached his table.
“Morning!” Cassandra’s voice was bright and cheerful. She held out her hand and a thick black organizer materialized. My eyes widened when I saw that every hour on the open page of her schedule was filled with tightly scrawled notes. “We’ve got a busy day today.”
I eyed her coffee cup with suspicion. I wasn’t a fan of coffee, but if the stuff they served down here gave me even a modicum of Cassandra’s energy, I’d take it.
Cassandra launched into the schedule, and I waved down a soul wearing a green apron.
“Can I have whatever she’s having?”
The waitress gave me a sympathetic look. “It won’t help, dear.”
I sighed. It had been worth a shot. “Soy hot chocolate?”
“Coming right up.”
I turned my attention back to Cassandra.
“Okay, so we attend court every afternoon.” Balled up straw-paper flew past Cassandra’s face. She shot a glare at the table of nearby Reapers. The paper vanished the moment it hit the ground. “Moirae and I pass judgment, separating out the few souls who’ll go to Tartarus and the Elysian Fields, and then we take any who deserve or chose to the Lethe to drink. Then Minos will explain the rules of the Underworld and take the souls on a tour. That’s where you and Hades come in. When Minos returns with the souls, introduce yourself, and send them on their way.”
“That’s it?”
The waitress set a cup of steaming hot chocolate on the table in front of me.
A piece of straw-paper landed in it.
“Sorry!” one of the Reapers called.
I plucked out the paper and took a cautious sip. Perfect.
Cassandra ignored the Reapers. “It rarely goes that smoothly. The souls want to talk, mostly just trying to get sent back, and they’re not stupid. They know that Hades is their best shot at getting back.”
“Can he? Send them back, I mean?”
Cassandra hesitated. “That’s complicated. I’ve never seen it done, but Hades swears that if the conditions are just right, it’s possible.”
“So are you and Hades…” I trailed off poking my fingers through the holes of the black wrought iron patio table. I somehow couldn’t picture Hades dating. Cassandra took a sip of her latte, looking at me expectantly. “…together?”
She choked, grabbing a napkin and pressing it to her lips. “What?” she exclaimed, half laughing, half coughing up coffee. “Gods, no! I’m dead! Even if I wasn’t… Hades?” She gave a mock shudder, crumpling her napkin up. “No, we’re just friends.” Her look turned crafty “Why?”
“Does being dead matter? I mean, you’re corporeal here, and it’s not like you’re a zombie.”
“It matters,” Cassandra assured me. “I could be with any soul I wanted, but a living being? That would just be weird.”
“Well, not anyone topside, but down here there doesn’t seem to be any difference between us.”
Cassandra chewed her bottom lip. “It’s not that.” She watched the shop owner across the street sweep the sidewalk as she tried to formulate her answer. “It’s just…” She sighed. “Look, he’s a god, for one. Once bitten, twice shy.” She ignored my puzzled look. “Things between gods and humans are weird.”
“Zeus didn’t seem to think so.”
“Zeus had sex; he didn’t have relationships. Either way, the humans were never better off for having gotten involved with him. Even without the whole god problem, or it being Hades, he’s alive. I’m not. That’s a huge barrier.”
“How?”
“It just is. When we die, something about us changes. Our society would never work if it didn’t, not to mention our non-economy. The drive the living have to always do more, get more, and conquer more dies with us. We’ve got our memories, the same basic thoughts, but inside we’re different. You’ll be able to feel a difference between souls and gods if you stay here long enough. We’re just different. It would never work between me and Hades.”
“Okay.” I couldn’t help but laugh at how flustered Cassandra looked.
She glared at me and took another sip of her latte. “Anyway, why did you ask?”
“I was just curious.”
She nodded, and I was surprised she accepted that as truth so readily. At school an exchange like this would have resulted in me being grilled mercilessly, but she knew I couldn’t lie. How had I not realized that before?
“Let’s go shopping,” Cassandra said, nudging her plate to the center of the table.
She showed me all sorts of stores where people made beautiful things for the sake of doing something they enjoyed. I browsed the jewelry stores and the handmade clothes.
I could shop for fashions across time. My hand skipped over a blue Victorian gown and stopped on a green tunic. In school, wearing something like this would be ridiculous, but here people would just assume I was from Ancient Greece.
“You going to get anything?” Cassandra asked, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Not today.” I tucked the tunic back into the rack. I was comfortable in my own era of clothing.
“All right. Well, I have to head back to the palace. Do you remember the way back?”
I nodded. “I’ll be back in time for my history lessons with Hestia.”
Cassandra grinned. “Good girl. I’ll see you in court.”
I watched her leave, and then meandered through the shops, doing my best to ignore Thanatos. It was weird shopping with a guy following me. As the light from the sky grew stronger, more souls and Reapers crowded the shopping square, so I made my way out to the riverbank. I avoided the Lethe; I didn’t trust myself not to do something stupid like fall in. Instead I walked along the Styx back toward the castle, watching Charon’s little boat move along the bank.
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?” Thanatos asked when he caught up to me.
“Why?”
“You keep speeding up when you see me behind you.”
“Sorry.” I slowed down.
Thanatos fell into step beside me, his dark robes seeming out of place against the vivid colors of the Underworld. “I’d forgotten.”
“Hmm?”
“What it was like to frighten someone.”
“I find that hard to believe. I mean, you’re Death!”
He smiled. “No one down here has any reason to fear death. They’re all immortal or already dead.”
“I’m sorry if I’ve been rude.”
“Don’t be. I wouldn’t want a guard following me either. It’s kind of condescending, really.”
“I’m glad someone sees it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the protection, but I thought I was supposed to be safe down here. I’m not safe enough to walk to a coffee shop by myself?”
Thanatos nodded, pushing his hands into the pockets of his robe. “Tell you what—don’t think of me as a guard. Just think of me as a friend. We’re just walking together, okay?”
I smiled. “Okay.”
We reached the palace, and our footsteps echoed on the marble floors. “I’ll be around if you need me,” Thanatos reminded me. I waved, heading to my room for lessons with Hestia.
She came right on time. The goddess was soft-spoken and diminutive. After looking askance at my papasan chair with her smoldering gray eyes, she created a side room for our lessons that contained a simple wooden table and two wooden chairs. The most interesting thing in the room was the fireplace.
Then she took one of the seats, motioning for me to take the other. In her soft voice she gave me a brief rundown on all the living gods and proceeded to tell me the history of the gods of Olympus. She spoke for precisely one hour and fifty minutes, leaving ten minutes for questions.
I had a splitting headache by the time I got to the throne room. It didn’t help that I was nervous. Rhad and Minos had already taken their seats. Their voices rose and fell in murmured conversation. Moirae glared at me and sat in her chair with a huff. I ignored her and waved to Cassandra.
“Where’s Hades?” I asked.
“Here.” Hades appeared out of thin air at his throne.
“You have got to teach me how to do that.”
He grinned, and the carved wooden doors set in the intricately carved stone arches burst open. Aeacus led more souls than I could count through the door.
“Now we’re back to the throne room,” Aeacus said. “You’ve met Moirae, of course, but now allow me to present the rulers of the Underworld: Lord Hades and Queen Persephone.”
I stood and smiled. My gaze traveled over the court. I was vaguely aware of Hades speaking. There were men and women of every age and ethnicity. Their style of dress made it clear they were from all over the world. They watched Hades with rapt attention. I’d expected tears and panic, but except for a few souls fidgeting anxiously, they stood there calm and collected in the face of their deaths. My gaze kept getting caught on the children.
“Say something,” Hades hissed.
“Can they all understand me? English, I mean.”
He gave me an odd look and signaled to Cassandra. She launched into a speech warning about the dangers of the Lethe as Hades whispered, “Everyone you’ve met so far isn’t speaking English. All speech at its base carried universal meanings. Death is the universal translator.”
“I’m not dead. How can I understand them all?”
“Uh, you’ve always been able to. You’re a goddess.”
“No, I can’t.”
Hades sighed. “Yes, you can.”
“I’ve taken foreign language classes—”
“Demeter let you—” He sighed as Cassandra began wrapping up her speech. “Which language?”
“Latin.”
“That’s mostly written, and there aren’t any native speakers anymore.”
“So if the person speaking isn’t—”
“Look, can you just say something so we can go?”
“What should I say?” My heart hammered in my throat and my mouth went cotton-dry. What could I possibly say to a bunch of dead people? Sorry you’re dead? Abandon all hope? Welcome to hell? Good news, we’ve got cable?
I clamped my lips shut. Oh God! What if I actually said something like that in front of all these people?
Hades sighed again.
“Do you need a paper bag or something?” I snapped.
Hades shot me a murderous look, and I realized all the souls were looking at me. I spoke without thinking. “Thank you, Cassandra. I hope you all enjoyed the tour.” Yeah, Persephone, I’m sure they enjoyed the postmortem tour. “Um, have a happy afterlife.”
Minos jumped in before I could make a bigger fool of myself. “Does anyone have any concerns they would like Lord Hades or Lady Persephone to address?”
Aeacus led the souls without questions from the throne room. I was relieved to see most of the children go with him. As I suspected, the souls who stayed had been the ones fidgeting throughout the speeches, waiting for their chance to speak. They clamored for our attention. I could sum up their requests in three words: put me back. Unfortunately they used far more than three words. They each told heartbreaking stories.
“You have to let me go back,” a man in a black tuxedo was saying.
“I’m sorry, but I won’t do that.” Hades sounded sincere, but it didn’t escape my notice that he didn’t say that he couldn’t do it, just that he wouldn’t.
The man must have noticed as well. “I’ll give you anything. I’ve got money, lots of money, and I’ve got—”
“You can’t buy me off.” The compassion was gone from Hades’ voice.
The man shifted gears and looked at me. “Please,” he whispered. “I have to go back.”
I looked at Hades, then back at the soul. “I can’t—”
“No!” he shouted. He rushed forward, ignoring the judges’ shouts. “You can’t say no to me, no one says no to me! I—”
Hades flicked his fingers when the man reached my throne. He flew backward, hitting the throne doors with a thud.
“Minos,” Hades said in a calm voice, “please see to it that this gentleman gets settled.”
I stared at Hades wide-eyed. “Is that code for something?”
Hades gave me a look. “No, it’s not code for something. The man just died. Bargaining and anger are part of the process. He’ll be fine. Next!”
By the time it was over, Hades was gripping my shoulder, keeping me in my seat until the last soul left the room. When his hand left my shoulder I bolted out of the throne and ran for the door.
Hades waved Thanatos off and followed me as I fled from the palace. “It gets easier,” he said when I finally came to a halt in the center of the castle gardens.
“How?” I gulped, blinking back tears. “I mean, there were children, and they all wanted—” I couldn’t finish.
He opened his mouth, closed it, and ran his fingers through his hair. “You get used to it. Those people, they’re upset for the moment, but when they adjust—”
I made a strangled laughing sound.
“I’m serious,” he said. “Follow me.”
I hesitantly trailed him through the courtyard. He led me to the edge of the suburbs where the new souls milled around looking out of place.
“What—” I began.
“There.” He pointed at an elderly man rapidly approaching the group, calling a woman’s name.
An older woman turned, her eyes widening when she saw the man. A wordless yell erupted from her lips and she ran to him and leaped into his arms. He spun her around, laughing.
“See?” Hades said. “It gets better.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
He nodded and walked back toward the palace. “See you at dinner?”
I nodded. Thanatos came and took his place beside me when Hades stopped at the group of children gathered near the new souls and knelt to their level, speaking animatedly.
I watched in disbelief as worry and fear left their faces. They smiled when he produced some candy from his pocket and sent them clamoring toward a large playground with adults surrounding it. The adults watched the children with expressions ranging from hope to dread. Were they people who’d always wanted kids, or parents looking for their children? What would that be like, watching every day, half hoping you could see your children again, half terrified because it meant their lives would be over?
I watched the playground for a long time, waiting until each child was claimed.