Cyrus stood at one end of the grand dinner table. Ian and Phoebe sat to his right. Marilyn and Alli still held hands to his left. He wasn’t sure what to think of Marilyn’s obvious affection for her girlfriend, not after their affair. But he knew he would have time to think about it, perhaps to speak of it to her, later. Now his focus and attention must be on his parents.
“Mother and father, do you see these people?” He looked to Ian and the women around him. “This is why I will never be one of you again. I may be born a god, but I’m not one of you. I would rather be a human than something that stands above and alone.
“When I left your home, I thought I was just going on an adventure. But I faced down evil twice now with these people. And what I’ve realized is they are far more noble than we will ever be.”
“Yes,” Persephone said. “You’ve made your feelings for humanity clear.”
“You still can’t see it, can you mother? Melinoe’s betrayal, Hermes’ intervention and the return of Caelus wasn’t just happenstance. You wrought all this. You live forever, but you’re unbelievably short-sighted. Your need to be above everything left you open to this plot. That monster is still out there, ready to rebuild his empire.”
“Caelus will be found and he will be stopped. He will not find the Olympians easy to overcome. His plot is exposed and his power structure fractured. We survived this day and he will not get another like it.”
“We survived today by the acts of my friends from the human world, not by the act of a god.” He pointed to the blue haired woman to the right. “Phoebe may be an immortal, but she’s still no god. She understood who could stand against Caelus. Marilyn, Ian and her were the heroes today. Not you, not me and not the Olympians.”
“What would you have me do, Cyrus? Do you wish me to forgive your trangressions? You may not have murdered Patraeus but you still abandoned your station!”
“You don’t get it still! The act of having a station is everything wrong with all of us! We are no better than the humans. This is their world. The sooner we learn to live in it, the better all of us will be.”
“Your insolence insults every Olympian,” Persephone said. “I do not understand your goal in all this, my son. We just want what is best for you and that is to accept your station. You must understand the importance of your own godhood.”
“There is no importance! Any importance disappeared millennia ago, mother, long before I was born!”
“Child, you will stop your insolence. You will listen or I will—”
Pluto raised a hand between Cyrus and his mother. Persephone stared at her husband as he rose from his seat.
“Perhaps the boy is right,” Pluto said. His voice was quiet but commanding. Cyrus couldn’t remember the last time he heard it, but he was proud to hear his father’s words. “We have let our own hubris blind us. We cannot let it continue. We must find our way in this world. Perhaps that means we must become part of it truly.”
“But husband—”
“No, Cyrus is right. We must honor his wishes. He and his friends are not ours to oversee, not anymore.”
“His life is his own and it’s about time he goes to live it.”
Pluto raised one gloved hand. He swept it across the table.
Cyrus still stood in front of four chairs filled with his friends, but they were atop his apartment’s roof.
“I’m so damn tired of being teleported everywhere!” Alli’s words rang across the roof.
It looked like it was almost morning—again. Cyrus didn’t want to think about how much time they actually lost in Hades. It could have been a few more hours or it could have been weeks.
“Come on inside,” he said. “I don’t know about everyone else, but if we’re starting a new day, I could sure use a cup of coffee.”
Everyone nodded their agreement as he took them to the roof access. Flashes of the minutes before his parent’s arrival raced through Cyrus’s skull.
He tried to focus on anything at all other than Marilyn’s naked form atop him. But it wouldn’t come to him, even as he glanced over to her, still holding Alli’s hand.
The walk down to his apartment seemed easy after the battle with Caelus. It was the familiar ache of everyday life. It felt good. It felt right.
His key was long gone, but a focused use of his powers popped the lock with ease. He stepped inside and immediately heard water running. It took him a second to realize it was the shower.
Someone else was here.
“I didn’t know you had a roommate,” Ian said as they passed the threshold.
“I don’t,” Cyrus said. “Be careful.”
They all started towards the bathroom. The thought of another battle made Cyrus feel even more exhausted, but he wouldn’t back off from anyone that attacked his home.
The shower ceased as they approached. Before anyone could open the door, it opened from inside.
Draped only in a towel, Melinoe stepped out. She gave her brother a wry grin.
“Hey, brother. It looks like we’re roomies now.”
Showing posts with label Persephone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Persephone. Show all posts
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Walking Shadows Book 2 Chapter 26. Ian
“It ends today, Caelus. I will take you again. I will carry you back for judgment. With good behavior, your sentence may only be a few more thousand years.”
Caelus screamed, his voice echoing across the rocks. He charged towards Phoebe. A blade of dark energy formed in his hand. Phoebe threw up her own blade to stop him. The two blades flashed as they struck. Phoebe stumbled back from the blow.
Hidden from view by his own illusion, Ian looked down at his hands. Phoebe knew exactly what she needed of him. But he wasn’t sure he could do it again. He still remembered Doppelganger. He still remembered how good it felt as he sucked the kidnapper’s life away. He wasn’t sure he could contain himself, not against someone with Caelus’s levels of power.
I don’t have a choice, he told himself, but he knew it wasn’t true. Phoebe said they could not stand against Caelus any other way, but he knew he could do nothing. He could slip away, walk from the fight. He could leave Cyrus, Marilyn, Alli and the others to death at Caelus’s hands. He really didn’t know them that well. He could just find his way out, back to the world. Other men or women could stop Caelus.
I can’t leave them to die. The thought hit Ian like a brick. He felt like he should be able to go. He should be able to abandon anyone. That something inside him was used to doing just that. Maybe it was a memory of the past or just some kind of sense memory. He wasn’t sure, but he knew it was wrong.
I have to stay and fight. I have to help. Even if it costs me everything.
He took a deep breath and remembered Phoebe’s plan. He silently counted to three. Then he ran, but not away. He charged straight towards Caelus.
As he leapt into the air, Ian only had one thought.
I sure hope this works.
He landed against Caelus’s back. He threw his hands around the freak’s neck and head. He felt the energy below the Godkiller’s skin. He felt it surging through Caelus’s veins. Every ounce of his body craved it.
Ian closed his eyes and let it all flow into him. It screamed through his frame like lightning. Beautiful perfect lightning. It burned his veins, ignited every nerve ending. He loved it, never felt more alive. He couldn’t imagine a high ever as great as this one. No orgasm, no thrill and no drug could ever compare.
Ian let the illusion fade around him. The desert of Elsewhere faded into the ether Ian pulled it from. He didn’t need it anymore. He had everything he needed draining into his veins.
“Ian, get ahold of yourself and get away!”
Phoebe’s words broke him from his revelry. His eyes shot open. He could feel the halo of energy around his skin. It surged around him, strengthened him and intoxicated him. But he remembered the plan. He couldn’t take any more of Caelus’s power.
He released the Godkiller and dropped back to the ground.
“No!” Caelus screamed. “It will not end this way!”
He turned his attention to Ian. Ian met the Godkiller’s eyes. He could tell Caelus knew his energy levels waned. The Godkiller knew what Ian had done. But the sudden drain of his energy was purposeful.
Caelus raised his blade, ready to strike down Ian and regain his power.
He never even saw it coming. Ian watched the slice of blue energy rip out of Caelus’s heart. The Godkiller’s eyes widened. The blue faded.
Ian only had time to roll out of the way before the body dropped to the ground.
Ian pulled himself to his feet. His body still surged with power. But the power made him afraid. He backed away from the others as they closed around Caelus.
“Is he dead?” Marilyn’s words echoed across the emptiness of Hades. Ian still couldn’t quite believe they were in some mythical hell, but the army of the undead and the unconscious death god made it seem clear.
“He’s left this body,” Phoebe said. “But I wasn’t able to contain him. The spirit of Caelus cannot be killed, not by any means known to this galaxy. He’s out there somewhere and he will strike again.”
“If he’s not a fool, it won’t be here.” Cyrus’s words echoed across the field. He turned to the other woman there, the one Ian could only guess was Persephone. “Mother, will father be alright?”
The goddess bent down by the still body of her husband. She rested a hand on his shoulder. “He is greatly weakened, but he will live. But his control over this realm is already dangerously shattered.”
Phoebe looked at Ian. “His power is not lost, only moved. Caelus tried to leech it away, but we’ve taken back from him.”
Ian could see the grim expression on Marilyn’s face as she turned to him. He could feel her judgment. I killed again. For good or bad, they see me as just a murderer.
Phoebe walked to him and took Ian by the hand. He tried to pull away from her, but she held him fast.
“You won’t hurt me, Ian. But you can help me. You just need to trust me.”
She led him over to the prone body of Pluto and the goddess next to him. Phoebe bent down. Ian leaned over next to her. He watched her put her hand beneath Pluto’s dark cloak.
His body suddenly shook against his will. He could feel his muscles spasm as the power was pulled from them. He didn’t know how, but Phoebe was pulling the energy he took from Caelus back into the god.
In just a matter of seconds, it was over. Pluto’s glowing yellow eyes were open and Ian could barely keep his feet under him. Phoebe bent over to support him.
“Lord Hades,” she said. “It is good to see you well. Now can you free us from this death realm?”
He rose suddenly from his prone position. And with one swipe of his arm, the land of the dead faded around them.
Ian’s vision blurred at the sudden change of scenery. He was used to his own illusions, but this was entirely different. This was a shift from one realm to another. He began to think this was becoming far too common in his life. Teleporting, dimension hopping, escaping intergalactic prisons: it seemed a strange way to live life.
Pluto walked to his wife’s side as the manor lawn appeared all around him. Phoebe took a moment to make sure the world met her approval. Then she turned her attention to the prone Alli. She bent over her still body and placed a hand on her neck.
“Her breathing is steady. She’s went through trauma, but whatever hold her captor had over her is gone. With a little stimulation—” Her hand glowed blue for just a second. Alli slowly blinked her eyes open.
Alli stared up into Phoebe’s eyes. She seemed confused. Ian figured she remembered the attack on her, but Phoebe’s warm smile didn’t fit the monster that turned on them not that long ago.
Marilyn rushed to her fallen lover’s side. Alli’s eyes were drawn away from Phoebe as Marilyn reached her side. They quickly embraced. They mumbled thankful expressions to one another as they held each other tight.
The staff retinue rushed in on them, dozens of them. Several took Melinoe’s still prone form and rushed her away.
“Cyrus, come,” Persephone said. “Bring your human friends. We have much to talk about and I suspect the dining room will be far more accommodating.”
Caelus screamed, his voice echoing across the rocks. He charged towards Phoebe. A blade of dark energy formed in his hand. Phoebe threw up her own blade to stop him. The two blades flashed as they struck. Phoebe stumbled back from the blow.
Hidden from view by his own illusion, Ian looked down at his hands. Phoebe knew exactly what she needed of him. But he wasn’t sure he could do it again. He still remembered Doppelganger. He still remembered how good it felt as he sucked the kidnapper’s life away. He wasn’t sure he could contain himself, not against someone with Caelus’s levels of power.
I don’t have a choice, he told himself, but he knew it wasn’t true. Phoebe said they could not stand against Caelus any other way, but he knew he could do nothing. He could slip away, walk from the fight. He could leave Cyrus, Marilyn, Alli and the others to death at Caelus’s hands. He really didn’t know them that well. He could just find his way out, back to the world. Other men or women could stop Caelus.
I can’t leave them to die. The thought hit Ian like a brick. He felt like he should be able to go. He should be able to abandon anyone. That something inside him was used to doing just that. Maybe it was a memory of the past or just some kind of sense memory. He wasn’t sure, but he knew it was wrong.
I have to stay and fight. I have to help. Even if it costs me everything.
He took a deep breath and remembered Phoebe’s plan. He silently counted to three. Then he ran, but not away. He charged straight towards Caelus.
As he leapt into the air, Ian only had one thought.
I sure hope this works.
He landed against Caelus’s back. He threw his hands around the freak’s neck and head. He felt the energy below the Godkiller’s skin. He felt it surging through Caelus’s veins. Every ounce of his body craved it.
Ian closed his eyes and let it all flow into him. It screamed through his frame like lightning. Beautiful perfect lightning. It burned his veins, ignited every nerve ending. He loved it, never felt more alive. He couldn’t imagine a high ever as great as this one. No orgasm, no thrill and no drug could ever compare.
Ian let the illusion fade around him. The desert of Elsewhere faded into the ether Ian pulled it from. He didn’t need it anymore. He had everything he needed draining into his veins.
“Ian, get ahold of yourself and get away!”
Phoebe’s words broke him from his revelry. His eyes shot open. He could feel the halo of energy around his skin. It surged around him, strengthened him and intoxicated him. But he remembered the plan. He couldn’t take any more of Caelus’s power.
He released the Godkiller and dropped back to the ground.
“No!” Caelus screamed. “It will not end this way!”
He turned his attention to Ian. Ian met the Godkiller’s eyes. He could tell Caelus knew his energy levels waned. The Godkiller knew what Ian had done. But the sudden drain of his energy was purposeful.
Caelus raised his blade, ready to strike down Ian and regain his power.
He never even saw it coming. Ian watched the slice of blue energy rip out of Caelus’s heart. The Godkiller’s eyes widened. The blue faded.
Ian only had time to roll out of the way before the body dropped to the ground.
Ian pulled himself to his feet. His body still surged with power. But the power made him afraid. He backed away from the others as they closed around Caelus.
“Is he dead?” Marilyn’s words echoed across the emptiness of Hades. Ian still couldn’t quite believe they were in some mythical hell, but the army of the undead and the unconscious death god made it seem clear.
“He’s left this body,” Phoebe said. “But I wasn’t able to contain him. The spirit of Caelus cannot be killed, not by any means known to this galaxy. He’s out there somewhere and he will strike again.”
“If he’s not a fool, it won’t be here.” Cyrus’s words echoed across the field. He turned to the other woman there, the one Ian could only guess was Persephone. “Mother, will father be alright?”
The goddess bent down by the still body of her husband. She rested a hand on his shoulder. “He is greatly weakened, but he will live. But his control over this realm is already dangerously shattered.”
Phoebe looked at Ian. “His power is not lost, only moved. Caelus tried to leech it away, but we’ve taken back from him.”
Ian could see the grim expression on Marilyn’s face as she turned to him. He could feel her judgment. I killed again. For good or bad, they see me as just a murderer.
Phoebe walked to him and took Ian by the hand. He tried to pull away from her, but she held him fast.
“You won’t hurt me, Ian. But you can help me. You just need to trust me.”
She led him over to the prone body of Pluto and the goddess next to him. Phoebe bent down. Ian leaned over next to her. He watched her put her hand beneath Pluto’s dark cloak.
His body suddenly shook against his will. He could feel his muscles spasm as the power was pulled from them. He didn’t know how, but Phoebe was pulling the energy he took from Caelus back into the god.
In just a matter of seconds, it was over. Pluto’s glowing yellow eyes were open and Ian could barely keep his feet under him. Phoebe bent over to support him.
“Lord Hades,” she said. “It is good to see you well. Now can you free us from this death realm?”
He rose suddenly from his prone position. And with one swipe of his arm, the land of the dead faded around them.
Ian’s vision blurred at the sudden change of scenery. He was used to his own illusions, but this was entirely different. This was a shift from one realm to another. He began to think this was becoming far too common in his life. Teleporting, dimension hopping, escaping intergalactic prisons: it seemed a strange way to live life.
Pluto walked to his wife’s side as the manor lawn appeared all around him. Phoebe took a moment to make sure the world met her approval. Then she turned her attention to the prone Alli. She bent over her still body and placed a hand on her neck.
“Her breathing is steady. She’s went through trauma, but whatever hold her captor had over her is gone. With a little stimulation—” Her hand glowed blue for just a second. Alli slowly blinked her eyes open.
Alli stared up into Phoebe’s eyes. She seemed confused. Ian figured she remembered the attack on her, but Phoebe’s warm smile didn’t fit the monster that turned on them not that long ago.
Marilyn rushed to her fallen lover’s side. Alli’s eyes were drawn away from Phoebe as Marilyn reached her side. They quickly embraced. They mumbled thankful expressions to one another as they held each other tight.
The staff retinue rushed in on them, dozens of them. Several took Melinoe’s still prone form and rushed her away.
“Cyrus, come,” Persephone said. “Bring your human friends. We have much to talk about and I suspect the dining room will be far more accommodating.”
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Walking Shadows Book 2 Chapter 25. Marilyn
Marilyn didn’t quite understand everything that was happening around her. But it truly didn’t matter. She saw this Caelus down Pluto in one hit. She heard the words from Cyrus. She could feel his power like a siren’s call.
Cyrus stood up to the monster in his friend’s body. But she knew he couldn’t hurt him. No one could hurt this monster, not really.
We need to go, she thought. We need to get out of here before he kills us all.
Persephone screamed in rage at Caelus. “What are you? What are you doing?”
Caelus slowly turned his attention her way. “I am taking back what is mine. You took this world from me, godling, and I would have it back.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about! Get out of my home.”
Caelus shook his head. “They teach you nothing. You know my name, you know my place. I am Caelus. I am the sky. I am the stars. I created your progenitors, godling. You are my children, yet you betrayed me to a prison you could not imagine.”
“I did nothing,” Persephone said. “I do not know you, dead thing, but return to the realm from which you came.”
“That will not happen,” Caelus said. He walked towards her.
Persephone swung an impotent fist towards the emaciated form of Petraeus, possessed by whatever this Caelus was. Marilyn watched him catch her hand almost in slow motion. He held her fast and shook his head.
“Your rage is impotent. It will do you know good against me.”
He pulled her closer, ran a hand supply down her cheek. “If you are good, I might find you a place as a concubine. If not, you can join the fool on the floor.”
Persephone spit into his face. “Go to Hades, you monster. I bow only to Zeus.”
“His time will come, woman. As will yours.”
Caelus’s hand stopped its caress. He drew it back and brought it hard across Persephone’s face. She sprawled to the floor. She stared daggers up at him, clutching her jaw.
Cyrus saw enough. He charged towards Caelus, intent on avenging his mother’s honor. Marilyn tried to stop him, but Cyrus moved too fast. Caelus didn’t even seem to see him as Cyrus charged forward. Marilyn saw the distortion form around his hands, signs of the sonic energy he built up. He planned a killing blow, but Marilyn didn’t know if even that would stop this monster. She wasn’t sure if anything could hurt Caelus.
A figure dropped down from above on Cyrus. Shrouded in darkness, she struck him with a sharp foot to the skull, rebounded off and landed on her feet. She smirked, white teeth gleaming beneath her raven black locks.
Nightmarish visions floated around her, moving as if tendrils of pure evil. But despite her change into a long black gown that melded with her dark creatures and the hair now falling in her face, Marilyn recognized Melinoe.
Persephone and Cyrus both stood shocked. Melinoe walked up to Cyrus and drove a sharp boot into his gut. She pushed him back and away, and let him crumple down next to their mother.
“Melinoe,” Persephone cried. “What are you doing? Help us! Your brother is not the enemy. This monster is.” She pointed towards Caelus.
“Oh, mother, so naive. Thousands of years and still you do not even glimpse the minds of the truly enlightened.”
She turned and walked to Caelus. He opened his arms to her as she approached. She came into them and kissed the lips of the possessed corpse. It was no peck, but a kiss of passion, a kiss of longing.
“Hello, my love,” Melinoe said. “I’ve waited millennia to finally see you, to hold you, to touch you.”
Persephone clearly couldn’t believe her own eyes. “You betrayed us. You killed Petraeus and framed your brother. You’ve betrayed everything I’ve ever taught you!”
“No, I’ve manipulated you into doing everything I needed you to do, mother. I thought I would have to use my dear brother and his lover here to unlock my beloved’s prison. You sent me after him like a hound, but I waited and waited until he had the right connections, the right people around him. I knew Cyrus was too much a fool to ever stay away from human connections. And I needed those connections.”
Cyrus looked to Marilyn. Marilyn gave him a slow nod. She knew she wasn’t the smartest or wisest being in the universe, but she understood Melinoe’s words well enough. This was why Cyrus wanted to run, to leave her and the others behind.
“But Cyrus didn’t just pick a lover, he also picked up an entire group of friends,” Melinoe said. “An entire gaggle of them. I realized I wouldn’t have to convince you to use my choice of prison. I could just trick his friends into traveling there.”
“Don’t be coy, Melinoe.” A new voice emerged from the shadows behind Marilyn. “You couldn’t have done it without me.”
The man stepped out of the shadows. He was a thick figure, dark skinned and covered in tattoos. Marilyn didn’t know him, but she recognized the figure draped over his shoulders. It felt like forever since she last laid eyes on her.
“Alli!”
The man laughed. “Good, I’m glad you still remember her.” He dropped Alli on the ground in front of him.
Caelus turned and looked down at the limp form. “Is she still alive? You have not harmed her? She freed me from my prison how ever inadvertently. She should be honored for doing so.”
“Honored?” Marilyn’s word seemed to echo through the room.
“I cannot survive in this corpse forever,” Caelus said. “And I do not plan to spend another day without a body. Your friend honored me with my freedom. It seems only fit that I honor her by wearing her body and transforming her into a god.”
“You would kill her,” Cyrus said. “She did nothing but help you.”
“Oh, yes, the dear girl did give me my freedom.” Caelus turned to the other man. “No thanks to you, Vulcan.”
The tattooed man shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“It proved all too simple,” Caelus said. “Many things changed during my imprisonment, but mortals remain trusting fools. They trusted Smith here because he was one of them, a man with powers. They didn’t even ask questions, knowing he was a figure that could help them. It was all too easy to plant him where he needed to be in order to intercept their path and bring them to my prison.”
“You’re sick,” Cyrus said.
“Perhaps. But I’ve also won. I played your entire family for fools, child god. I led your human allies into breaking the chains only they could break. And I did it simply by offering power to my allies.” He looked at Melinoe, eying her like a piece of meat.
“Are we really the fools?” Marilyn’s words pierced through the tension in the air. She heard enough from this mad god. He might have more power than they could hope to beat, but she wasn’t sure. He seemed to use shows of powers to hold them, but beyond his attack on Pluto, really did nothing. Melinoe and that Vulcan bastard were doing the grunt work.
Focus, she told herself. You can’t help Alli if you don’t focus.
“You speak out of turn, human!” Melinoe’s words brought everyone attention back to the traitor.
“No, I don’t think I do. I don’t think we’re the true fools. You are, Melinoe.”
“Enough! Enough of your insolence!” Melinoe turned to Caelus. “Show them, my love! Show them your power!”
Caelus started to chuckle. But the chuckle quickly grew into a full belly laugh. Marilyn could feel the menace in his humor though. This wasn’t whimsy or joy. This was a snake being caught just as it struck.
He pulled Melinoe into him and kissed the goddess on her lips. Her eyes turned black. Her skin shriveled beneath his touch, the veins showing through her skin. It took only a matter of seconds.
Caelus released her body and let her drop to the floor. Melinoe still lived, but she looked like a mummy of her former self. But Caelus stood triumphantly, his own skin more alive than before.
Caelus turned to those gathered before him. “Do you see now? Do you understand what you have made me? This is my body now. But I will have all your life and your death.”
He looked down at Persephone and Pluto. “Once I suck you dry, I will have control over life and death. My limits will gone and the world will be mine.”
He kicked Melinoe’s body aside. “I don’t need any foolish love affairs to get in my way.”
Cyrus stepped between his parents and the killer. He was ready to die to protect them.
Marilyn didn’t know what to do. She still couldn’t grasp what this monster was. He talked of godhood and ancient times. Her life was measured in a matter of a few short years. It was too much to take in. Too much to comprehend. She couldn’t grasp why anyone that ancient could be so evil. Nor could she ever believe they stood a chance against such a being.
No. There’s no choice. Chance or not, we have to stop him here. If Cyrus and I don’t do it, the entire world might pay. Live or die, it’s time to fight.
Hermes flashed across the floor, teleporting from his position to directly in front of Cyrus. His fist caught Cyrus in the jaw. Cyrus stumbled at the impact, but he didn’t fall. He threw up his own hand.
The chamber shook as he unleashed a burst of solid sound at Hermes. But Hermes vanished before it could strike. The blast flew across the room and smashed into the stone slab on which Petraeus’s body sat only minutes before.
Hermes reappeared near Caelus, but Marilyn was already ready for him. Before he could react, her body was already fluid. She flowed towards him, enveloping him in less than a second.
He might be fast, but he wouldn’t escape her, even if she had to squeeze the life out of him. Marilyn already knew that killing a god was a crime here, but she no longer cared. Hermes hurt Alli. He tried to hurt Cyrus. The bastard would pay.
She squeezed with all her might, uncaring about her fate or that of the god. Marilyn never felt rage like this before, but she felt it for the monster her liquid form enveloped. She felt his bones bend and crack, felt him struggle to cry out, but no air came.
And then he was gone. Disappeared from within her and gone from all sight.
Caelus roared with rage. He raised both hands and unleashed a blinding burst of energy. Marilyn felt it rip into her skin even as it flowed across everyone else standing in the room.
It hit her like a anvil to the chest. The blast knocked her down and back. Her eyes were on Cyrus and Persephone. Both went down at the impact as well.
“Fighting will solve nothing. You can scare away Hermes. You can try to fight, but I will not be beat. I am Caelus. I am a god of gods. I am the ruler of the universe. This world is mine!”
He threw up a hand and the chamber shifted around them again. The tomb started to rise back to the surface, but as it did so it opened into a wider wall.
The walls shimmered and transformed. Gone was the marble, replaced by old brick, ancient stones piled one upon the other. The room temperature quickly rose.
Marilyn remembered what Cyrus told her about the Estate. He said it existed between Hades and Earth. As she watched, it seemed clear that Caelus was moving them from reality into the death-realm. She didn’t know why, but she already knew it would be bad.
“Yes, yes! This is my world now. The false god of death is gone! Now Caelus will rule. Now I will take what is mine. Life and death, reality and unreality. All are mine to control. Come. Come lords and ladies of Hades. Come and know your new ruler. Come and be free from this realm. All you must do is destroy my enemies.”
The moans seemed to come from everywhere. Marilyn rose to her feet, but as she did so, the first of them appeared from nowhere. A lone shambling figure in ancient attire, some kind of Roman warrior. He came towards them, unspeaking, perhaps mindless.
And he was far from alone.
They appeared one by one, male and female, young and old, Greek and Roman, ancient and far more modern. In seconds, they seemed to stretch for miles.
Caelus laughed. “Yes, yes! Your monstrous overlord is gone! Rise, my army of the dead. Rise, serve me and live a new life. I will give you the justice you’ve craved for eternity!”
Marilyn met Cyrus’s eyes. The young god just shook his head. She knew the meaning. I don’t see a way out of this.
Marilyn didn’t see one either, but she knew she wasn’t going to stop. One way or another, she refused to let this be her fate.
“This isn’t over,” Marilyn said. “We have to fight him.”
Persephone shook her head as she cradled her husband’s still form. “Without Pluto we have no control over Hades. We cannot stop Caelus.”
“Why can’t we?” Marilyn looked towards the dark god. “He’s a pompous ass with some power. He can suck the life from a god, but he still fears us. If he was as powerful as he claimed, we would all be dead now.”
“No,” Persephone said. “He’s older than us, more powerful than us. We can’t—”
“No, you’re wrong,” Cyrus said. “I’m sorry, mother, but Marilyn is right. If I learned one thing from the humans I’ve met, it is that when all else fails, it’s up to you to do the right thing. And if that means I must fight for my very life, then so be it.”
Marilyn could only smile at his sudden support, but she knew she didn’t have time to focus on it. The undead were closing on them.
She twisted her head around in a full three hundred sixty degree turn. They were surrounded. But it didn’t matter. All they needed to do was stop their leader. And she may not know how to kill him, but she could stop him in his tracks.
“Let’s do this!”
Her hands flailed out like two trees flailing in hurricane force winds. They each struck a few of the undead, sweeping them down and into more of their brethren. It did little to break the siege, but it opened a clearing. It gave them room to move.
Cyrus shot into the air with a wave of sonic energy that shook the dirt beneath their feet. The strange red-black sky seemed to undulate around him. He flew towards Caelus, ready to end the fight one way or another. Marilyn hoped for his survival, but she needed to make her own move.
As one arm continued to push back against the oncoming horde. Her other hand slipped across the ground. She pulled her fingers through the dirt and towards Alli’s still form. Her lover was still breathing, but Marilyn knew that she might need medical care.
Can’t think about that now. Got to focus on the task at hand.
The hand on the ground found what she sought just as her other outstretched arm was caught and held by one of the oncoming dead. She started to pull it away, but the walking deadman was joined by first one man, then several more undead men and women. They held her arm fast and started to pull.
She ignored their insistent tugging. She knew they would pull her in soon enough, but she had other priorities. Caelus needed to be stopped, one way or the other and she knew she could do that.
She brought up her other arm, Sticky Gun in hand. Before anyone could realize what she was doing she took aim and fired. The first ball of glue-goo flew into Caelus’s chest and started to expand. She fired a pair of follow-up rounds. With three shots in place, the goo spread out across his entire frame.
She pulled against the horde that wanted to rip her to shreds, but it was no use. “Cyrus, Persephone, help me!”
She looked to Cyrus, but Marilyn saw he had his own problems. The undead had pulled him from the sky. He blasted them back with sound blast after sound blast, but even his powers didn’t allow him to generate the attacks fast enough. They were overwhelming him.
“Persephone! You have to help us. If you don’t, I’ll die and your son will die! If not for mankind, do it for your family.”
Persephone stared down at her still husband. Her eyes traveled to her daughter’s shriveled, still form just a few feet away. But she didn’t move. Marilyn wasn’t sure the goddess even heard her. They would die here.
Slowly Persephone rose to her feet. As she rose, her face went from passive and broken to strong and commanding. Marilyn couldn’t believe the change that came over the goddess. One second, she seemed beaten, but now she truly looked like a queen.
Marilyn realized the goddess was a far stronger presence than she ever let on. She let her husband show force, but she controlled her own power.
“You made a mistake,” Persephone said. “I am queen of the dead. But I am also the overseer of the harvest. This is my time of power. I am at my strongest. And you Caelus, will pay for your transgressions against my family!”
Caelus laughed as he met Persephone’s glaring, glowing eyes.
“Prattle and prance all you want, woman. I am Caelus the Unkillable. Caelus the All-Powerful. You can imagine what you wish, but your kingdom is mine now.”
“No, as long as I stand, Hades remains free of your will.”
She waved a hand outward. The army of the dead around them dropped to their knees. Marilyn found her body released from their tightening grip.
Caelus shook his head, the only part of his body free from the goo’s grip. “You think I’m beaten. You think you’ve won. And I’m only just beginning. You see I am many, many things. But one thing I have always been is a powerful force in the universe. Since millennia long forgotten, gods have rose to rule mortals. And sometimes those gods stepped out of line. That is why I exist. I walk this universe to end the foolish immortals that think themselves unconquerable. I am Caelus and I am the Godkiller.”
The ground started to shake beneath their feet. The sky seemed to flicker from a dull gray to a glaring, deadly red. The army started to fall down. Their frames seemed to shrivel.
Marilyn didn’t know how, but somehow Caelus drew in their power.
Cyrus stood up to the monster in his friend’s body. But she knew he couldn’t hurt him. No one could hurt this monster, not really.
We need to go, she thought. We need to get out of here before he kills us all.
Persephone screamed in rage at Caelus. “What are you? What are you doing?”
Caelus slowly turned his attention her way. “I am taking back what is mine. You took this world from me, godling, and I would have it back.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about! Get out of my home.”
Caelus shook his head. “They teach you nothing. You know my name, you know my place. I am Caelus. I am the sky. I am the stars. I created your progenitors, godling. You are my children, yet you betrayed me to a prison you could not imagine.”
“I did nothing,” Persephone said. “I do not know you, dead thing, but return to the realm from which you came.”
“That will not happen,” Caelus said. He walked towards her.
Persephone swung an impotent fist towards the emaciated form of Petraeus, possessed by whatever this Caelus was. Marilyn watched him catch her hand almost in slow motion. He held her fast and shook his head.
“Your rage is impotent. It will do you know good against me.”
He pulled her closer, ran a hand supply down her cheek. “If you are good, I might find you a place as a concubine. If not, you can join the fool on the floor.”
Persephone spit into his face. “Go to Hades, you monster. I bow only to Zeus.”
“His time will come, woman. As will yours.”
Caelus’s hand stopped its caress. He drew it back and brought it hard across Persephone’s face. She sprawled to the floor. She stared daggers up at him, clutching her jaw.
Cyrus saw enough. He charged towards Caelus, intent on avenging his mother’s honor. Marilyn tried to stop him, but Cyrus moved too fast. Caelus didn’t even seem to see him as Cyrus charged forward. Marilyn saw the distortion form around his hands, signs of the sonic energy he built up. He planned a killing blow, but Marilyn didn’t know if even that would stop this monster. She wasn’t sure if anything could hurt Caelus.
A figure dropped down from above on Cyrus. Shrouded in darkness, she struck him with a sharp foot to the skull, rebounded off and landed on her feet. She smirked, white teeth gleaming beneath her raven black locks.
Nightmarish visions floated around her, moving as if tendrils of pure evil. But despite her change into a long black gown that melded with her dark creatures and the hair now falling in her face, Marilyn recognized Melinoe.
Persephone and Cyrus both stood shocked. Melinoe walked up to Cyrus and drove a sharp boot into his gut. She pushed him back and away, and let him crumple down next to their mother.
“Melinoe,” Persephone cried. “What are you doing? Help us! Your brother is not the enemy. This monster is.” She pointed towards Caelus.
“Oh, mother, so naive. Thousands of years and still you do not even glimpse the minds of the truly enlightened.”
She turned and walked to Caelus. He opened his arms to her as she approached. She came into them and kissed the lips of the possessed corpse. It was no peck, but a kiss of passion, a kiss of longing.
“Hello, my love,” Melinoe said. “I’ve waited millennia to finally see you, to hold you, to touch you.”
Persephone clearly couldn’t believe her own eyes. “You betrayed us. You killed Petraeus and framed your brother. You’ve betrayed everything I’ve ever taught you!”
“No, I’ve manipulated you into doing everything I needed you to do, mother. I thought I would have to use my dear brother and his lover here to unlock my beloved’s prison. You sent me after him like a hound, but I waited and waited until he had the right connections, the right people around him. I knew Cyrus was too much a fool to ever stay away from human connections. And I needed those connections.”
Cyrus looked to Marilyn. Marilyn gave him a slow nod. She knew she wasn’t the smartest or wisest being in the universe, but she understood Melinoe’s words well enough. This was why Cyrus wanted to run, to leave her and the others behind.
“But Cyrus didn’t just pick a lover, he also picked up an entire group of friends,” Melinoe said. “An entire gaggle of them. I realized I wouldn’t have to convince you to use my choice of prison. I could just trick his friends into traveling there.”
“Don’t be coy, Melinoe.” A new voice emerged from the shadows behind Marilyn. “You couldn’t have done it without me.”
The man stepped out of the shadows. He was a thick figure, dark skinned and covered in tattoos. Marilyn didn’t know him, but she recognized the figure draped over his shoulders. It felt like forever since she last laid eyes on her.
“Alli!”
The man laughed. “Good, I’m glad you still remember her.” He dropped Alli on the ground in front of him.
Caelus turned and looked down at the limp form. “Is she still alive? You have not harmed her? She freed me from my prison how ever inadvertently. She should be honored for doing so.”
“Honored?” Marilyn’s word seemed to echo through the room.
“I cannot survive in this corpse forever,” Caelus said. “And I do not plan to spend another day without a body. Your friend honored me with my freedom. It seems only fit that I honor her by wearing her body and transforming her into a god.”
“You would kill her,” Cyrus said. “She did nothing but help you.”
“Oh, yes, the dear girl did give me my freedom.” Caelus turned to the other man. “No thanks to you, Vulcan.”
The tattooed man shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“It proved all too simple,” Caelus said. “Many things changed during my imprisonment, but mortals remain trusting fools. They trusted Smith here because he was one of them, a man with powers. They didn’t even ask questions, knowing he was a figure that could help them. It was all too easy to plant him where he needed to be in order to intercept their path and bring them to my prison.”
“You’re sick,” Cyrus said.
“Perhaps. But I’ve also won. I played your entire family for fools, child god. I led your human allies into breaking the chains only they could break. And I did it simply by offering power to my allies.” He looked at Melinoe, eying her like a piece of meat.
“Are we really the fools?” Marilyn’s words pierced through the tension in the air. She heard enough from this mad god. He might have more power than they could hope to beat, but she wasn’t sure. He seemed to use shows of powers to hold them, but beyond his attack on Pluto, really did nothing. Melinoe and that Vulcan bastard were doing the grunt work.
Focus, she told herself. You can’t help Alli if you don’t focus.
“You speak out of turn, human!” Melinoe’s words brought everyone attention back to the traitor.
“No, I don’t think I do. I don’t think we’re the true fools. You are, Melinoe.”
“Enough! Enough of your insolence!” Melinoe turned to Caelus. “Show them, my love! Show them your power!”
Caelus started to chuckle. But the chuckle quickly grew into a full belly laugh. Marilyn could feel the menace in his humor though. This wasn’t whimsy or joy. This was a snake being caught just as it struck.
He pulled Melinoe into him and kissed the goddess on her lips. Her eyes turned black. Her skin shriveled beneath his touch, the veins showing through her skin. It took only a matter of seconds.
Caelus released her body and let her drop to the floor. Melinoe still lived, but she looked like a mummy of her former self. But Caelus stood triumphantly, his own skin more alive than before.
Caelus turned to those gathered before him. “Do you see now? Do you understand what you have made me? This is my body now. But I will have all your life and your death.”
He looked down at Persephone and Pluto. “Once I suck you dry, I will have control over life and death. My limits will gone and the world will be mine.”
He kicked Melinoe’s body aside. “I don’t need any foolish love affairs to get in my way.”
Cyrus stepped between his parents and the killer. He was ready to die to protect them.
Marilyn didn’t know what to do. She still couldn’t grasp what this monster was. He talked of godhood and ancient times. Her life was measured in a matter of a few short years. It was too much to take in. Too much to comprehend. She couldn’t grasp why anyone that ancient could be so evil. Nor could she ever believe they stood a chance against such a being.
No. There’s no choice. Chance or not, we have to stop him here. If Cyrus and I don’t do it, the entire world might pay. Live or die, it’s time to fight.
Hermes flashed across the floor, teleporting from his position to directly in front of Cyrus. His fist caught Cyrus in the jaw. Cyrus stumbled at the impact, but he didn’t fall. He threw up his own hand.
The chamber shook as he unleashed a burst of solid sound at Hermes. But Hermes vanished before it could strike. The blast flew across the room and smashed into the stone slab on which Petraeus’s body sat only minutes before.
Hermes reappeared near Caelus, but Marilyn was already ready for him. Before he could react, her body was already fluid. She flowed towards him, enveloping him in less than a second.
He might be fast, but he wouldn’t escape her, even if she had to squeeze the life out of him. Marilyn already knew that killing a god was a crime here, but she no longer cared. Hermes hurt Alli. He tried to hurt Cyrus. The bastard would pay.
She squeezed with all her might, uncaring about her fate or that of the god. Marilyn never felt rage like this before, but she felt it for the monster her liquid form enveloped. She felt his bones bend and crack, felt him struggle to cry out, but no air came.
And then he was gone. Disappeared from within her and gone from all sight.
Caelus roared with rage. He raised both hands and unleashed a blinding burst of energy. Marilyn felt it rip into her skin even as it flowed across everyone else standing in the room.
It hit her like a anvil to the chest. The blast knocked her down and back. Her eyes were on Cyrus and Persephone. Both went down at the impact as well.
“Fighting will solve nothing. You can scare away Hermes. You can try to fight, but I will not be beat. I am Caelus. I am a god of gods. I am the ruler of the universe. This world is mine!”
He threw up a hand and the chamber shifted around them again. The tomb started to rise back to the surface, but as it did so it opened into a wider wall.
The walls shimmered and transformed. Gone was the marble, replaced by old brick, ancient stones piled one upon the other. The room temperature quickly rose.
Marilyn remembered what Cyrus told her about the Estate. He said it existed between Hades and Earth. As she watched, it seemed clear that Caelus was moving them from reality into the death-realm. She didn’t know why, but she already knew it would be bad.
“Yes, yes! This is my world now. The false god of death is gone! Now Caelus will rule. Now I will take what is mine. Life and death, reality and unreality. All are mine to control. Come. Come lords and ladies of Hades. Come and know your new ruler. Come and be free from this realm. All you must do is destroy my enemies.”
The moans seemed to come from everywhere. Marilyn rose to her feet, but as she did so, the first of them appeared from nowhere. A lone shambling figure in ancient attire, some kind of Roman warrior. He came towards them, unspeaking, perhaps mindless.
And he was far from alone.
They appeared one by one, male and female, young and old, Greek and Roman, ancient and far more modern. In seconds, they seemed to stretch for miles.
Caelus laughed. “Yes, yes! Your monstrous overlord is gone! Rise, my army of the dead. Rise, serve me and live a new life. I will give you the justice you’ve craved for eternity!”
Marilyn met Cyrus’s eyes. The young god just shook his head. She knew the meaning. I don’t see a way out of this.
Marilyn didn’t see one either, but she knew she wasn’t going to stop. One way or another, she refused to let this be her fate.
“This isn’t over,” Marilyn said. “We have to fight him.”
Persephone shook her head as she cradled her husband’s still form. “Without Pluto we have no control over Hades. We cannot stop Caelus.”
“Why can’t we?” Marilyn looked towards the dark god. “He’s a pompous ass with some power. He can suck the life from a god, but he still fears us. If he was as powerful as he claimed, we would all be dead now.”
“No,” Persephone said. “He’s older than us, more powerful than us. We can’t—”
“No, you’re wrong,” Cyrus said. “I’m sorry, mother, but Marilyn is right. If I learned one thing from the humans I’ve met, it is that when all else fails, it’s up to you to do the right thing. And if that means I must fight for my very life, then so be it.”
Marilyn could only smile at his sudden support, but she knew she didn’t have time to focus on it. The undead were closing on them.
She twisted her head around in a full three hundred sixty degree turn. They were surrounded. But it didn’t matter. All they needed to do was stop their leader. And she may not know how to kill him, but she could stop him in his tracks.
“Let’s do this!”
Her hands flailed out like two trees flailing in hurricane force winds. They each struck a few of the undead, sweeping them down and into more of their brethren. It did little to break the siege, but it opened a clearing. It gave them room to move.
Cyrus shot into the air with a wave of sonic energy that shook the dirt beneath their feet. The strange red-black sky seemed to undulate around him. He flew towards Caelus, ready to end the fight one way or another. Marilyn hoped for his survival, but she needed to make her own move.
As one arm continued to push back against the oncoming horde. Her other hand slipped across the ground. She pulled her fingers through the dirt and towards Alli’s still form. Her lover was still breathing, but Marilyn knew that she might need medical care.
Can’t think about that now. Got to focus on the task at hand.
The hand on the ground found what she sought just as her other outstretched arm was caught and held by one of the oncoming dead. She started to pull it away, but the walking deadman was joined by first one man, then several more undead men and women. They held her arm fast and started to pull.
She ignored their insistent tugging. She knew they would pull her in soon enough, but she had other priorities. Caelus needed to be stopped, one way or the other and she knew she could do that.
She brought up her other arm, Sticky Gun in hand. Before anyone could realize what she was doing she took aim and fired. The first ball of glue-goo flew into Caelus’s chest and started to expand. She fired a pair of follow-up rounds. With three shots in place, the goo spread out across his entire frame.
She pulled against the horde that wanted to rip her to shreds, but it was no use. “Cyrus, Persephone, help me!”
She looked to Cyrus, but Marilyn saw he had his own problems. The undead had pulled him from the sky. He blasted them back with sound blast after sound blast, but even his powers didn’t allow him to generate the attacks fast enough. They were overwhelming him.
“Persephone! You have to help us. If you don’t, I’ll die and your son will die! If not for mankind, do it for your family.”
Persephone stared down at her still husband. Her eyes traveled to her daughter’s shriveled, still form just a few feet away. But she didn’t move. Marilyn wasn’t sure the goddess even heard her. They would die here.
Slowly Persephone rose to her feet. As she rose, her face went from passive and broken to strong and commanding. Marilyn couldn’t believe the change that came over the goddess. One second, she seemed beaten, but now she truly looked like a queen.
Marilyn realized the goddess was a far stronger presence than she ever let on. She let her husband show force, but she controlled her own power.
“You made a mistake,” Persephone said. “I am queen of the dead. But I am also the overseer of the harvest. This is my time of power. I am at my strongest. And you Caelus, will pay for your transgressions against my family!”
Caelus laughed as he met Persephone’s glaring, glowing eyes.
“Prattle and prance all you want, woman. I am Caelus the Unkillable. Caelus the All-Powerful. You can imagine what you wish, but your kingdom is mine now.”
“No, as long as I stand, Hades remains free of your will.”
She waved a hand outward. The army of the dead around them dropped to their knees. Marilyn found her body released from their tightening grip.
Caelus shook his head, the only part of his body free from the goo’s grip. “You think I’m beaten. You think you’ve won. And I’m only just beginning. You see I am many, many things. But one thing I have always been is a powerful force in the universe. Since millennia long forgotten, gods have rose to rule mortals. And sometimes those gods stepped out of line. That is why I exist. I walk this universe to end the foolish immortals that think themselves unconquerable. I am Caelus and I am the Godkiller.”
The ground started to shake beneath their feet. The sky seemed to flicker from a dull gray to a glaring, deadly red. The army started to fall down. Their frames seemed to shrivel.
Marilyn didn’t know how, but somehow Caelus drew in their power.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Walking Shadows Book 2 Chapter 21. Cyrus
Pluto and Persephone stood over them at the height of the tower before them. Cyrus could not help but feel there was no need for this trial. The judgment was already passed in the gods’ eyes. He was already guilty.
And so is Marilyn, he thought. All because I was a fool.
“Cyrus, son of Pluto, you stand accused before your regal father, charged with the betrayal of the pantheon. You turned against your own family, worked against us, even struck your own blessed sister. How do you plead?”
“Not guilty,” Cyrus said.
“We will see, Cyrus. You make a poor choice by dragging out these proceedings Your father might have been lenient if you would have admitted your guilt.”
“I would have to be guilty of something for that, mother. Yet I feel no guilt here.” Cyrus stood tall in the face of his mother and looming father. Pluto merely stared down at his son. But Persephone looked annoyed at her son’s rejection of her words.
“You have chosen to continue this trial,” Persephone said. “Let the record reflect the arrogance you show in doing so.”
“Call it what you will, mother.”
Persephone turned to her daughter. “Melinoe, you stand as prosecutor to Cyrus. Tell us your experience with his crime.”
“Of course, my queen.” Melinoe turned and gave her brother a smirk as she spoke. “I remember the time well. You had left for your annual pilgrimage to stay with the honored Demeter. Cyrus and I both remained behind to serve watch over Hades House. Father showed little interest in the house’s day to day affairs as is often the case when you are away.”
This brought a smile to Persephone’s face. Mother always liked to hear stories about Pluto’s mad love for her.
“However, Cyrus proved to have no interest in his godly duty. As soon as he was free of his parents’ oversight, his attention turned to the human world.”
“I object. We live in the human world. Why are we even pretending otherwise?”
“You have no right to speak at this time,” Persephone said. “You will get your chance to defend your actions, Cyrus. Now is not that time.”
Cyrus crossed his arms as Melinoe continued. He would listen to his sister’s words, but he didn’t have to like it.
“Dear Cyrus immediately started packing. He wanted to leave and he wouldn’t let anyone stand in his way. He would not be dissuaded, not even when one of his dearest friends tried to stop him.”
I don’t like where this is going, Cyrus thought. None of this makes sense. I just left. I didn’t talk to anyone. I don’t know what Melinoe is playing at.
Marilyn squeezed his hand. He gave her a nod as Melinoe continued.
“It was horrific. Patreus grew up alongside Cyrus. He was nothing but a human grandson of Zeus, yet another of a thousand bastard children. But Patreus came to us when he was young. He grew alongside Cyrus. And Cyrus killed him.”
Patreus is dead! No, it can’t be. That cannot be right. He—I should never have left here. Cyrus buried his head in his hand.
“I watched it all,” Melinoe said. “My brother did not think I was near, but I stumbled upon him when he tried to leave. He argued with Patraeus. I thought at first it was some kind of lover’s quarrel, but I never knew the two to be so intimate. Patraeus seemed distraught.”
None of this happened. I simply told Patraeus I couldn’t stay. He tried to convince me to stay, but we didn’t yell. We didn’t fight. She’s lying.
“Cyrus pushed Patraeus. Patraeus fought back, even though he knew he had no chance of victory against a true child of a god. With no reason or recourse, Cyrus decided to use his powers against the poor young man. It wasn’t loud, not like I expected. But it was a low steady hum. I could feel the force of the vibrations even from across the house. I watched as Cyrus’s powers flayed the skin from his dearest friend.”
“No!”
Marilyn’s words broke up the affair. She pulled away from Cyrus as she said it, but her words were directed towards Melinoe. “It isn’t true!”
“Silence, mortal!” Persephone’s words rang through the room. “Another outburst and I will pass judgment on you now. You are a fly before us. Do not forget that.”
Persephone turned to her daughter. “Finish your story, daughter.”
That’s all it is, Cyrus thought. A story, a piece of fiction. I thought I was to face a few decades of confinement. But this is a frame up, a con job. I didn’t think even Melinoe could want me dead.
“I have little use for mortals as you well know,” Melinoe said. “But I also know that demigods are protected under Olympian law. Cyrus didn’t care. He wanted his freedom and would not let anyone stand in his way. He didn’t even seem troubled by his crime. I watched him take his bag and walk over the blasted corpse of his friend. Little more than a skeleton was left of the boy.”
“Is this all of your testimony, Melinoe?”
“It is, mother.”
“What do you accuse your brother of?”
“I accuse him of the murder of a child of Zeus. He willfully killed a child of Olympus. And he did it to abandon his sacred duties.”
Persephone turned to Cyrus. She peered down at him as Pluto stood silently beside him.
“You have heard the charges against you, my son. These are dire charges. You know that they could lead to your death or your exile to the lower realms. These actions are indefensible, but you have time to speak, son. I suggest you make the best of your remaining few minutes. Let it not be said that your father does not know mercy.”
The room fell silent. Cyrus could feel everyone’s eyes on him. He knew his mother expected him to fall to his knees. He knew she wouldn’t really listen to any of his words. He could save himself by pleading and begging. But none of it mattered. It wouldn’t save Marilyn. She would be punished one way or another. A hundred years in confinement here would be a pain for him ,but it would mean her death. He couldn’t have that burden on his soul.
“Melinoe is lying. I didn’t even know that Petraeus was dead. I spoke to him before I left. He tried to convince me to listen to you and stay. But I didn’t do that. I left. I freely admit to that crime. I thought that was the crime I stood trial for today. But I have never taken another man’s life. I’m still trying to believe that my friend is dead.”
Melinoe shook her head. Persephone joined her. Cyrus could feel his chances sinking. He would fight if need be. He wouldn’t let them frame him for a crime he did not commit.
“Your words sadden me, son. I suspected truth from the son of death. Instead, you make excuses. You deny the sworn word of my blessed daughter. You turn against the gods words and then have the gall to deny your guilt.”
“I deny nothing!” Cyrus’s voice echoed off the walls as he raised it. “I admit I left Hades House. I admit that I hid to keep from returning. I admit that I grow tired of horrible standoffish behavior of this family. Our era is a thousand years past. Maybe it's because I never saw the heyday of our era, but I see that fact clearly. The age of the Olympians is dead. I wanted to see the world and understand humanity. Not hide from it.”
“We don’t hide from the world. The world belongs to us!”
Cyrus shook his head. “You are so deluded you cannot see what is before you. You think mortals so lowly that you could think I would kill a friend. I loved Petraeus. He meant more to me than anyone else in this room. But he was a lowly to you despite his grandfather. You are so lost in your world that you truly cannot believe that I looked at Petraeus as an equal. I could never kill him.”
“Enough! You will say no more!” His mother’s fury echoed through the room. Her eyes seemed to flare as she spoke.
Cyrus rose up to his full height. He breathed in deeply. “I will not be silent! Not anymore!”
“You will not speak!” Persephone’s rage shook the room. “This is my court, not yours!”
Pluto’s hand reached out and rested on his wife’s shoulder. His head moved slow as his wife and everyone in the room turned to look at him. But the nod was obvious.
“He—”
Pluto said nothing. He only looked at his wife.
She turned and threw a hand into the air. “Fine. Speak.”
Cyrus felt all eyes on him.
“I did not kill Petraeus. I didn’t even know he was dead. I—it’s still hard for me to think that my friend is dead. I do not know what motivates her, but Melinoe’s story is a fabrication. I left Hades House. Petraeus and I spoke before I left. He tried to persuade me to speak with you before I did. But I knew that conversation would be pointless. I knew you didn’t want the connection to humanity that I want. I’m tired of pretending we’re somehow better than them just because we live forever and have some power. Thousands of them can say the same thing.”
He shook his head. “I love you, but I cannot be like you. So I said goodbye to Petraeus and left.”
“How dare you!” Melinoe’s words echoed through the room. “I am not a liar. You are a murderer and a false witness!”
“I don’t know what happened to Petraeus,” Cyrus said. “But now that I do, I will bring his killer to justice. Find me guilty or innocent but his death will not go unavenged.”
He met Melinoe’s eyes as he finished his threat. Cyrus turned back to his mother and father.
“I left you under my own volition, mother and father. Punish me for that if you see fit. But I have not killed my friend.” He looked to Marilyn. “Mortals are far more important to me than you could ever imagine.”
No one said anything for a very long moment. They don’t trust me, Cyrus thought. But they don’t fully trust Melinoe either.
Persephone looked between her two children. “You challenge your sister’s word. But you also admit to your own wrongdoing. Her word does not give us reason for question. But yours do. You willingly stepped away from your duties as a god of Olympus. I do not—”
“I have no duties as a god of Olympus. Ancient Greece is three thousand years dead. The last of the Romans gave up on us more than a millenium go. We survive on the power provided by a few outlying worshipers. Beyond that Olympus is just a myth. The humans look on us as a story. They don’t even know I exist.”
“That would have changed, Cyrus. You would have rose to be a great force in Olympus. You could have—”
“I could have done nothing, mother. You hold on to a dream that no longer exists. You had your followers. Petraeus would have followed you both anywhere. But I am not the person for that. I no longer see myself as some god. I am a man, a gifted man, but just a man.”
Persephone’s eyes widened in shock. “Sacrilege!”
“No, mother. It is the truth. We can no longer live above them. We are already forced to live among them. Let’s not play games with what that means.”
“How dare you? This is your way of life! You cannot just say no and walk away. That is not the way of our people. You may not live in Olympus, but you are an Olympian. You are a god and you must learn to act like one.”
“I know very well how to act like one,” Cyrus said. “And I don’t want to do it anymore. I won’t do it anymore. So make your judgement, but do not pretend this is anything but a farce. My friend was murdered and I’m being aimed as the patsy.”
Cyrus turned to Marilyn. He spoke in hushed tones. “I’m sorry. I wish you never got involved in this. I was afraid you would just be forced to grow old next to me. But they want more than that.”
“How much more?”
“My sister wants me dead, Marilyn. I don’t know why, but she’s murdered my friend.”
“How can you be sure? How do you know this Petraeus is even dead?”
Cyrus stopped short. She was right. The gods were fickle if nothing else. It wouldn’t be unlike Melinoe to simply lie about Petraeus’s fate. A missing demigod could be as good as a murdered one if her story was right.
“I demand to see the evidence held against me.”
“What?”
“I want to see the body of my friend, mother. It is the least you could do if you accuse me of his murder. I only have the words of those around me that he is even dead. I will not be condemned for a crime that I didn’t even know happened. Not without seeing the proof.”
“No,” Melinoe said. “No, you cannot let him do that, mother. It is too terrible! He—”
“Enough, Melinoe. He speaks truth. He does have the right to see the body.” She turned to her husband. Pluto nodded. The courtroom began to shift again.
Beneath their feet, the floor shifted downward. Marilyn grabbed on to Cyrus. He wrapped a comforting arm around her. He knew she wasn’t used to the behaviors of Hades House. Trapped between two planes, the Estate was set at the whims of Pluto.
“It will be fine. Just watch and wait.”
“I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff in my life,” Marilyn said. “But this might be a new record.”
“I’m afraid we’re only just getting started. Brace yourself for some real oddities. This isn’t a normal world. There’s a reason why I left.”
The floor continued to drop directly beneath them, even as the rest of the courtroom opened. Persephone and Pluto lowered down next to Cyrus and Marilyn. His father was still passive. Persephone showed no emotion, but Cyrus couldn’t help but feel the doubt she felt.
Melinoe sat high above, still in her booth. The fact that Pluto didn’t bring her down also made Cyrus wonder if they didn’t trust her either.
Something was off about this whole affair. Petraeus’s death made no sense. Melinoe had no reason to kill him, not that he could grasp.
The floor came to a stop a full two stories beneath the surface. Cyrus knew his parents could take them down much farther, but the underworld had no real answers for them. Instead, they would just travel to the crypt, a simple stone crypt for the honored dead. Petraeus would rest there until his grandfather Zeus gave an answer to his final resting place. But that could not happen until the trial was complete.
The room shifted behind Persephone and Pluto. The moving walls opened to expose the crypt. Cyrus had only visited the tomb once before, when a demigod in the service of Apollo was killed by a messenger of Hermes. He didn’t remember it to be a pleasant experience.
Pluto turned and yanked on the large stone door. It opened with ease.
Marilyn squeezed in closer to him. She didn’t really seem afraid. But she did seem to need some kind of comfort. He was happy to provide it as they moved to follow his parents into the tomb.
It was black inside the crypt. Persephone brought the torches to life with a wave of her hand. “This way.”
They walked through another door inside the massive crypt, which Pluto opened as easily as the first. As soon as they entered, Cyrus saw him. He lay in perfect state atop a stone slab. Petraeus was still and white. His body had been cleaned up and cleansed. His corpse was perfect, clean and still.
Cyrus pulled away from Marilyn and stepped towards the body. “Oh, Petraeus. I’m so sorry, my friend.”
He stared down at his dead friend. For the first time the loss felt palpable. For the first time he truly regretted leaving his parent’s home. He couldn’t help but feel that his friend would still be alive had he remained.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you,” Cyrus said. “I’m so sorry.”
Petreaus’s bright blue eyes shot open. “Don’t be sad, godling. I’ve been waiting millennia to meet you all.”
A sly grin filled the face of Petraeus. But Cyrus knew this wasn’t his friend. It was something else. Something old. Something very, very evil.
“What are you?”
Petraeus sat up, still smiling. “Don’t you recognize your old friend, Cyrus? It hasn’t been that long, has it?”
“You’re not Petraeus.”
Pluto stepped forward. His hand came up. Energy crackled through the room. For the first time in forever, Cyrus saw an emotion on his father’s face. It was fear.
Petraeus—or whatever he was—raised a hand. A burst of power struck Pluto head on. Cyrus watched his father suddenly consumed by energy as dark as his own.
Pluto fell to his knees. Persephone moved to her husband’s side as crumpled face first to the floor. She bent over him, even as Pluto shook from whatever strange energy fell over him.
Cyrus stepped between his parents and the monster in his friend’s corpse. “Who are you? What are you?”
Petraeus’s body smiled. “You would never hope to recognize me, little human. I am greater than this tiny demigod body. I am greater than the gods that sit before you. I am the darkness, the universe from which this world was formed. I am Caelus and after a thousand, thousand years, I am free.”
And so is Marilyn, he thought. All because I was a fool.
“Cyrus, son of Pluto, you stand accused before your regal father, charged with the betrayal of the pantheon. You turned against your own family, worked against us, even struck your own blessed sister. How do you plead?”
“Not guilty,” Cyrus said.
“We will see, Cyrus. You make a poor choice by dragging out these proceedings Your father might have been lenient if you would have admitted your guilt.”
“I would have to be guilty of something for that, mother. Yet I feel no guilt here.” Cyrus stood tall in the face of his mother and looming father. Pluto merely stared down at his son. But Persephone looked annoyed at her son’s rejection of her words.
“You have chosen to continue this trial,” Persephone said. “Let the record reflect the arrogance you show in doing so.”
“Call it what you will, mother.”
Persephone turned to her daughter. “Melinoe, you stand as prosecutor to Cyrus. Tell us your experience with his crime.”
“Of course, my queen.” Melinoe turned and gave her brother a smirk as she spoke. “I remember the time well. You had left for your annual pilgrimage to stay with the honored Demeter. Cyrus and I both remained behind to serve watch over Hades House. Father showed little interest in the house’s day to day affairs as is often the case when you are away.”
This brought a smile to Persephone’s face. Mother always liked to hear stories about Pluto’s mad love for her.
“However, Cyrus proved to have no interest in his godly duty. As soon as he was free of his parents’ oversight, his attention turned to the human world.”
“I object. We live in the human world. Why are we even pretending otherwise?”
“You have no right to speak at this time,” Persephone said. “You will get your chance to defend your actions, Cyrus. Now is not that time.”
Cyrus crossed his arms as Melinoe continued. He would listen to his sister’s words, but he didn’t have to like it.
“Dear Cyrus immediately started packing. He wanted to leave and he wouldn’t let anyone stand in his way. He would not be dissuaded, not even when one of his dearest friends tried to stop him.”
I don’t like where this is going, Cyrus thought. None of this makes sense. I just left. I didn’t talk to anyone. I don’t know what Melinoe is playing at.
Marilyn squeezed his hand. He gave her a nod as Melinoe continued.
“It was horrific. Patreus grew up alongside Cyrus. He was nothing but a human grandson of Zeus, yet another of a thousand bastard children. But Patreus came to us when he was young. He grew alongside Cyrus. And Cyrus killed him.”
Patreus is dead! No, it can’t be. That cannot be right. He—I should never have left here. Cyrus buried his head in his hand.
“I watched it all,” Melinoe said. “My brother did not think I was near, but I stumbled upon him when he tried to leave. He argued with Patraeus. I thought at first it was some kind of lover’s quarrel, but I never knew the two to be so intimate. Patraeus seemed distraught.”
None of this happened. I simply told Patraeus I couldn’t stay. He tried to convince me to stay, but we didn’t yell. We didn’t fight. She’s lying.
“Cyrus pushed Patraeus. Patraeus fought back, even though he knew he had no chance of victory against a true child of a god. With no reason or recourse, Cyrus decided to use his powers against the poor young man. It wasn’t loud, not like I expected. But it was a low steady hum. I could feel the force of the vibrations even from across the house. I watched as Cyrus’s powers flayed the skin from his dearest friend.”
“No!”
Marilyn’s words broke up the affair. She pulled away from Cyrus as she said it, but her words were directed towards Melinoe. “It isn’t true!”
“Silence, mortal!” Persephone’s words rang through the room. “Another outburst and I will pass judgment on you now. You are a fly before us. Do not forget that.”
Persephone turned to her daughter. “Finish your story, daughter.”
That’s all it is, Cyrus thought. A story, a piece of fiction. I thought I was to face a few decades of confinement. But this is a frame up, a con job. I didn’t think even Melinoe could want me dead.
“I have little use for mortals as you well know,” Melinoe said. “But I also know that demigods are protected under Olympian law. Cyrus didn’t care. He wanted his freedom and would not let anyone stand in his way. He didn’t even seem troubled by his crime. I watched him take his bag and walk over the blasted corpse of his friend. Little more than a skeleton was left of the boy.”
“Is this all of your testimony, Melinoe?”
“It is, mother.”
“What do you accuse your brother of?”
“I accuse him of the murder of a child of Zeus. He willfully killed a child of Olympus. And he did it to abandon his sacred duties.”
Persephone turned to Cyrus. She peered down at him as Pluto stood silently beside him.
“You have heard the charges against you, my son. These are dire charges. You know that they could lead to your death or your exile to the lower realms. These actions are indefensible, but you have time to speak, son. I suggest you make the best of your remaining few minutes. Let it not be said that your father does not know mercy.”
The room fell silent. Cyrus could feel everyone’s eyes on him. He knew his mother expected him to fall to his knees. He knew she wouldn’t really listen to any of his words. He could save himself by pleading and begging. But none of it mattered. It wouldn’t save Marilyn. She would be punished one way or another. A hundred years in confinement here would be a pain for him ,but it would mean her death. He couldn’t have that burden on his soul.
“Melinoe is lying. I didn’t even know that Petraeus was dead. I spoke to him before I left. He tried to convince me to listen to you and stay. But I didn’t do that. I left. I freely admit to that crime. I thought that was the crime I stood trial for today. But I have never taken another man’s life. I’m still trying to believe that my friend is dead.”
Melinoe shook her head. Persephone joined her. Cyrus could feel his chances sinking. He would fight if need be. He wouldn’t let them frame him for a crime he did not commit.
“Your words sadden me, son. I suspected truth from the son of death. Instead, you make excuses. You deny the sworn word of my blessed daughter. You turn against the gods words and then have the gall to deny your guilt.”
“I deny nothing!” Cyrus’s voice echoed off the walls as he raised it. “I admit I left Hades House. I admit that I hid to keep from returning. I admit that I grow tired of horrible standoffish behavior of this family. Our era is a thousand years past. Maybe it's because I never saw the heyday of our era, but I see that fact clearly. The age of the Olympians is dead. I wanted to see the world and understand humanity. Not hide from it.”
“We don’t hide from the world. The world belongs to us!”
Cyrus shook his head. “You are so deluded you cannot see what is before you. You think mortals so lowly that you could think I would kill a friend. I loved Petraeus. He meant more to me than anyone else in this room. But he was a lowly to you despite his grandfather. You are so lost in your world that you truly cannot believe that I looked at Petraeus as an equal. I could never kill him.”
“Enough! You will say no more!” His mother’s fury echoed through the room. Her eyes seemed to flare as she spoke.
Cyrus rose up to his full height. He breathed in deeply. “I will not be silent! Not anymore!”
“You will not speak!” Persephone’s rage shook the room. “This is my court, not yours!”
Pluto’s hand reached out and rested on his wife’s shoulder. His head moved slow as his wife and everyone in the room turned to look at him. But the nod was obvious.
“He—”
Pluto said nothing. He only looked at his wife.
She turned and threw a hand into the air. “Fine. Speak.”
Cyrus felt all eyes on him.
“I did not kill Petraeus. I didn’t even know he was dead. I—it’s still hard for me to think that my friend is dead. I do not know what motivates her, but Melinoe’s story is a fabrication. I left Hades House. Petraeus and I spoke before I left. He tried to persuade me to speak with you before I did. But I knew that conversation would be pointless. I knew you didn’t want the connection to humanity that I want. I’m tired of pretending we’re somehow better than them just because we live forever and have some power. Thousands of them can say the same thing.”
He shook his head. “I love you, but I cannot be like you. So I said goodbye to Petraeus and left.”
“How dare you!” Melinoe’s words echoed through the room. “I am not a liar. You are a murderer and a false witness!”
“I don’t know what happened to Petraeus,” Cyrus said. “But now that I do, I will bring his killer to justice. Find me guilty or innocent but his death will not go unavenged.”
He met Melinoe’s eyes as he finished his threat. Cyrus turned back to his mother and father.
“I left you under my own volition, mother and father. Punish me for that if you see fit. But I have not killed my friend.” He looked to Marilyn. “Mortals are far more important to me than you could ever imagine.”
No one said anything for a very long moment. They don’t trust me, Cyrus thought. But they don’t fully trust Melinoe either.
Persephone looked between her two children. “You challenge your sister’s word. But you also admit to your own wrongdoing. Her word does not give us reason for question. But yours do. You willingly stepped away from your duties as a god of Olympus. I do not—”
“I have no duties as a god of Olympus. Ancient Greece is three thousand years dead. The last of the Romans gave up on us more than a millenium go. We survive on the power provided by a few outlying worshipers. Beyond that Olympus is just a myth. The humans look on us as a story. They don’t even know I exist.”
“That would have changed, Cyrus. You would have rose to be a great force in Olympus. You could have—”
“I could have done nothing, mother. You hold on to a dream that no longer exists. You had your followers. Petraeus would have followed you both anywhere. But I am not the person for that. I no longer see myself as some god. I am a man, a gifted man, but just a man.”
Persephone’s eyes widened in shock. “Sacrilege!”
“No, mother. It is the truth. We can no longer live above them. We are already forced to live among them. Let’s not play games with what that means.”
“How dare you? This is your way of life! You cannot just say no and walk away. That is not the way of our people. You may not live in Olympus, but you are an Olympian. You are a god and you must learn to act like one.”
“I know very well how to act like one,” Cyrus said. “And I don’t want to do it anymore. I won’t do it anymore. So make your judgement, but do not pretend this is anything but a farce. My friend was murdered and I’m being aimed as the patsy.”
Cyrus turned to Marilyn. He spoke in hushed tones. “I’m sorry. I wish you never got involved in this. I was afraid you would just be forced to grow old next to me. But they want more than that.”
“How much more?”
“My sister wants me dead, Marilyn. I don’t know why, but she’s murdered my friend.”
“How can you be sure? How do you know this Petraeus is even dead?”
Cyrus stopped short. She was right. The gods were fickle if nothing else. It wouldn’t be unlike Melinoe to simply lie about Petraeus’s fate. A missing demigod could be as good as a murdered one if her story was right.
“I demand to see the evidence held against me.”
“What?”
“I want to see the body of my friend, mother. It is the least you could do if you accuse me of his murder. I only have the words of those around me that he is even dead. I will not be condemned for a crime that I didn’t even know happened. Not without seeing the proof.”
“No,” Melinoe said. “No, you cannot let him do that, mother. It is too terrible! He—”
“Enough, Melinoe. He speaks truth. He does have the right to see the body.” She turned to her husband. Pluto nodded. The courtroom began to shift again.
Beneath their feet, the floor shifted downward. Marilyn grabbed on to Cyrus. He wrapped a comforting arm around her. He knew she wasn’t used to the behaviors of Hades House. Trapped between two planes, the Estate was set at the whims of Pluto.
“It will be fine. Just watch and wait.”
“I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff in my life,” Marilyn said. “But this might be a new record.”
“I’m afraid we’re only just getting started. Brace yourself for some real oddities. This isn’t a normal world. There’s a reason why I left.”
The floor continued to drop directly beneath them, even as the rest of the courtroom opened. Persephone and Pluto lowered down next to Cyrus and Marilyn. His father was still passive. Persephone showed no emotion, but Cyrus couldn’t help but feel the doubt she felt.
Melinoe sat high above, still in her booth. The fact that Pluto didn’t bring her down also made Cyrus wonder if they didn’t trust her either.
Something was off about this whole affair. Petraeus’s death made no sense. Melinoe had no reason to kill him, not that he could grasp.
The floor came to a stop a full two stories beneath the surface. Cyrus knew his parents could take them down much farther, but the underworld had no real answers for them. Instead, they would just travel to the crypt, a simple stone crypt for the honored dead. Petraeus would rest there until his grandfather Zeus gave an answer to his final resting place. But that could not happen until the trial was complete.
The room shifted behind Persephone and Pluto. The moving walls opened to expose the crypt. Cyrus had only visited the tomb once before, when a demigod in the service of Apollo was killed by a messenger of Hermes. He didn’t remember it to be a pleasant experience.
Pluto turned and yanked on the large stone door. It opened with ease.
Marilyn squeezed in closer to him. She didn’t really seem afraid. But she did seem to need some kind of comfort. He was happy to provide it as they moved to follow his parents into the tomb.
It was black inside the crypt. Persephone brought the torches to life with a wave of her hand. “This way.”
They walked through another door inside the massive crypt, which Pluto opened as easily as the first. As soon as they entered, Cyrus saw him. He lay in perfect state atop a stone slab. Petraeus was still and white. His body had been cleaned up and cleansed. His corpse was perfect, clean and still.
Cyrus pulled away from Marilyn and stepped towards the body. “Oh, Petraeus. I’m so sorry, my friend.”
He stared down at his dead friend. For the first time the loss felt palpable. For the first time he truly regretted leaving his parent’s home. He couldn’t help but feel that his friend would still be alive had he remained.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you,” Cyrus said. “I’m so sorry.”
Petreaus’s bright blue eyes shot open. “Don’t be sad, godling. I’ve been waiting millennia to meet you all.”
A sly grin filled the face of Petraeus. But Cyrus knew this wasn’t his friend. It was something else. Something old. Something very, very evil.
“What are you?”
Petraeus sat up, still smiling. “Don’t you recognize your old friend, Cyrus? It hasn’t been that long, has it?”
“You’re not Petraeus.”
Pluto stepped forward. His hand came up. Energy crackled through the room. For the first time in forever, Cyrus saw an emotion on his father’s face. It was fear.
Petraeus—or whatever he was—raised a hand. A burst of power struck Pluto head on. Cyrus watched his father suddenly consumed by energy as dark as his own.
Pluto fell to his knees. Persephone moved to her husband’s side as crumpled face first to the floor. She bent over him, even as Pluto shook from whatever strange energy fell over him.
Cyrus stepped between his parents and the monster in his friend’s corpse. “Who are you? What are you?”
Petraeus’s body smiled. “You would never hope to recognize me, little human. I am greater than this tiny demigod body. I am greater than the gods that sit before you. I am the darkness, the universe from which this world was formed. I am Caelus and after a thousand, thousand years, I am free.”
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Walking Shadows Book 2 Chapter 17. Marilyn
They all sat in silence as the meal continued. Marilyn figured it was for the best. Melinoe seemed to just want to pick at her and her relationship with Cyrus. It seemed odd to her that gods seemed so concerned with relationships. From every story she remembered, they didn’t seem so involved in healthy relationships themselves. Even Melinoe was a bastard, born to Pluto’s brother.
She couldn’t quite understand why they thought Cyrus and her were anything serious. She certainly didn’t look at it that way. She doubted he did either.
Maybe it was their low opinion of her and all “humans”. She also found that amusing. She still wasn’t even sure if she was human. She could look like one, but she could just as easily be a monkey or a bear.
She took the last bite of her dessert, a simple chocolate mousse topped with freshly whipped cream. It was quite delicious and unlike anything she expected to eat in the house of Hades. Of course, up until a few hours ago she never even considered the house of Hades as anything that existed.
She looked to Cyrus. He stared at the dessert in front of him. She could see the gleam of sweat on his forehead. For the first time, she realized how terrified he was. She told him how the trial would go—how he hoped to talk his way free—but this was the first time she really could tell how worried he was that he would fail.
That terrified her in return.
“You should finish your mousse,” Persephone said to her son. “Your trial will start whether you eat it or not. Why not go to your fate with a full belly?”
Cyrus pushed it away. “I don’t think I’m hungry anymore, mother. I thank you for your hospitality but I would rather get on with it.”
“So be it. Let the trial begin.” Persephone’s words seemed to echo through the room. Marilyn could feel their weight. Melinoe simply smiled at them.
Cyrus reached out and took her hand under the table. She gave it a light squeeze, all the comfort she knowed how to bring him right now. She wasn’t the kind of person that formed deep emotional bonds. She didn’t know how to soothe his pain—not with her clothes on at least.
The room seemed to shift around her. She rubbed her eyes with her free hand. But it didn’t change what she saw. The room truly was shifting and changing around them.
The table slowly split and receded towards the wall. The back of the room seemed to rise up as Persephone and Melinoe’s seats slowly shifted back and upwards.
Within a minute, the change was complete. Persephone sat high above the room. She loomed in a high bench, clearly one of the judges before them. Melinoe sat in another seat to her side. It was lower, something of a witness stand next to the judge.
They both sat yards away from her. Cyrus still gripped her hand, but they were now looked down upon by the gods that held them captive.
Marilyn could feel the tension in the air. She knew it was only beginning.
“Are you ready to stand your trial, Cyrus?”
“Ready as I will ever be,” Cyrus said to his mother.
“And does the human—does Marilyn understand what is at stake for her?”
Cyrus turned to her. She nodded. He turned back to his mother and said, “Yes, though I argue she is not involved in this.”
“She has no choice in the matter. We will determine where she stands and she will face judgment with you.”
Marilyn rested her hand on Cyrus’s arm. “It’s okay. I understand what this means.”
“You could die here.”
“I know you’ve done nothing wrong. I know you didn’t make this. And I know we don’t have a choice.”
Persephone leaned forward. “A wise woman, for a human.” She turned as her husband walked onto the raised platform.
“Your father is here. Let the trial begin.”
She couldn’t quite understand why they thought Cyrus and her were anything serious. She certainly didn’t look at it that way. She doubted he did either.
Maybe it was their low opinion of her and all “humans”. She also found that amusing. She still wasn’t even sure if she was human. She could look like one, but she could just as easily be a monkey or a bear.
She took the last bite of her dessert, a simple chocolate mousse topped with freshly whipped cream. It was quite delicious and unlike anything she expected to eat in the house of Hades. Of course, up until a few hours ago she never even considered the house of Hades as anything that existed.
She looked to Cyrus. He stared at the dessert in front of him. She could see the gleam of sweat on his forehead. For the first time, she realized how terrified he was. She told him how the trial would go—how he hoped to talk his way free—but this was the first time she really could tell how worried he was that he would fail.
That terrified her in return.
“You should finish your mousse,” Persephone said to her son. “Your trial will start whether you eat it or not. Why not go to your fate with a full belly?”
Cyrus pushed it away. “I don’t think I’m hungry anymore, mother. I thank you for your hospitality but I would rather get on with it.”
“So be it. Let the trial begin.” Persephone’s words seemed to echo through the room. Marilyn could feel their weight. Melinoe simply smiled at them.
Cyrus reached out and took her hand under the table. She gave it a light squeeze, all the comfort she knowed how to bring him right now. She wasn’t the kind of person that formed deep emotional bonds. She didn’t know how to soothe his pain—not with her clothes on at least.
The room seemed to shift around her. She rubbed her eyes with her free hand. But it didn’t change what she saw. The room truly was shifting and changing around them.
The table slowly split and receded towards the wall. The back of the room seemed to rise up as Persephone and Melinoe’s seats slowly shifted back and upwards.
Within a minute, the change was complete. Persephone sat high above the room. She loomed in a high bench, clearly one of the judges before them. Melinoe sat in another seat to her side. It was lower, something of a witness stand next to the judge.
They both sat yards away from her. Cyrus still gripped her hand, but they were now looked down upon by the gods that held them captive.
Marilyn could feel the tension in the air. She knew it was only beginning.
“Are you ready to stand your trial, Cyrus?”
“Ready as I will ever be,” Cyrus said to his mother.
“And does the human—does Marilyn understand what is at stake for her?”
Cyrus turned to her. She nodded. He turned back to his mother and said, “Yes, though I argue she is not involved in this.”
“She has no choice in the matter. We will determine where she stands and she will face judgment with you.”
Marilyn rested her hand on Cyrus’s arm. “It’s okay. I understand what this means.”
“You could die here.”
“I know you’ve done nothing wrong. I know you didn’t make this. And I know we don’t have a choice.”
Persephone leaned forward. “A wise woman, for a human.” She turned as her husband walked onto the raised platform.
“Your father is here. Let the trial begin.”
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Walking Shadows Book 2 Chapter 15. Cyrus
His mother sat at the head of the table. His father was not in sight. Cyrus couldn’t remember the last time he saw Pluto eat though, so the lack of him at the dinner table was little surprise.
Melinoe sat to his mother’s right. The anger was apparent in her eyes. The final two chairs sat at the far end of the sixteen foot table, one at the end and the other two its right. Cyrus walked to the chair to the side, pulled it out and offered it to Marilyn.
She gave him a look that seemed to say “Are you sure?” Cyrus nodded and she sat down in the chair with a weak smile.
Cyrus leaned down and whispered into her ear. “Just stay calm. Everything will work out one way or another. We will survive this.”
Persephone’s eyebrow raised as if she heard Cyrus’s words. Cyrus didn’t make any indication that he even noticed. He couldn’t give her anything, not even a clue.
Cyrus sat down in a seat and finally met his mother’s gaze.
“What will you have of me, mother?”
“Calm down, son. Calm down. This is dinner. We have plenty time for your trial when all this is over.”
Marilyn stared angrily at Persephone. Cyrus put his hand on hers, gave it a squeeze. Remember the plan, he thought. He just hoped she was thinking the same thing.
Stark entered the room. He stood with the same strict straight posture he always seemed to hold. He didn’t make eye contact with anyone, instead simply staring ahead. “Dinner is served,” he announced.
A dozen servants came out of the kitchen, platters in hand. They moved with a practiced grace as they brought the meal to the tables. None of it was a surprise to Cyrus. Most of the staff had been here for decades when he was born.
They placed a pair of platters in front of each person at the table. The servants opened the trays all at once, revealing perfectly sliced beef wellingtons with a simple salad on the side.
Marilyn looked to Cyrus, unsure of the food in front of her.
“It’s fine,” he told her. “It’s just normal food. This place exists between the two planes, but even my parents need to eat. Stark and the chef take great pride in dinner. Great food has never been a problem in this household.”
“Don’t be afraid, little human.” Melinoe’s words came out with a hiss. “The gods are civilized. We will not harm you until the appropriate time. Then I will enjoy your pain. I have exquisite tortures in mind for you.”
“Enough,” Persephone said. “We are not here for threats, Melinoe. The trial will determine Cyrus and his concubine’s fate. Now it is simply a time to enjoy each other’s company, perhaps for the last time.”
“I have a name!”
Persephone acted as though she hadn’t even heard Marilyn’s words. She simply started to eat her food as she looked at her son.
“Enough, mother. You’ve walked among humans for three hundred years. The least you could do is treat them with some level of dignity.”
“Dignity? They don’t even live long enough to make their names worth remembering. Cyrus, you are barely a babe. Someday you must learn to control yourself. Have your fun with the little people but don’t treat them like equals. They are playthings for us, nothing else.”
“I’m no one’s plaything!”
Cyrus put his hand on Marilyn’s hand. She sat back, breathed deeply. She clearly didn’t like having her sense of self challenged. He supposed it made sense based on her history.
Even so, he couldn’t have her overreact. His mother played at hospitality, but that didn’t mean she would hold herself to her own standards. When angered, Persephone’s fury was dangerous. She didn’t possess the control of her emotions that his father did.
“Her name is Marilyn, mother. You can judge me. You can ignore her. But I will not have you refer to her as anything but that. I agreed to come here without a fight, but that can change.”
Persephone smiled as she put down her fork. “You have grown quite a backbone, Cyrus. I have to admit I’m impressed. Fine you can have your way. I will call your human Marilyn if you insist.”
“It won’t do her any good,” Melinoe said. “Her fate will be worse than yours, brother.”
“We will make our own fate,” Cyrus said.
“You are a fool if you think you can make your own fate. You are a god. You are in service to the Fates themselves. You cannot escape them. You can only obey them.” Melinoe turned to Persephone. “Why do we continue this farce? Let’s just get on with this. I want to flay the human’s skin from her bones.”
“Enough,” Persephone said. “We are having dinner, Melinoe. You will show civility to your brother and his hu—Marilyn. Or you will answer to my wrath as well.”
Melinoe fell silent. But she didn’t take her eyes off Cyrus and Marilyn. Cyrus could feel her anger. He knew she would hold the slight against him, and more importantly, Marilyn. But her anger also confused him.
They never had the best relationship, but that didn’t ever come with the kind of vehement distaste she seemed to show now. The behavior was odd. She was always overly violent, but not like this. Something was wrong with Melinoe. Something else was going on with her.
Persephone looked around the table with a smile on her face. “Isn’t this wonderful? It’s nice to have dinner as a family again.”
Cyrus said nothing. He picked at the salad in front of him as he watched his mother across the table. Melinoe loudly chewed the wellington. She wanted to be annoying and would settle for the most childish tactics she could find.
“I know this is a bit stressful,” Persephone said. “I wished you would have returned of your own accord. But even so, it is good for the family to be together.”
“What about father?”
“Your father has his own needs. You know that, Cyrus. He will join us for the trial. Rest assured he loves you very much.”
Something didn’t sound right to Cyrus. His father had been weak for decades, but it wasn’t like him to not at least show himself at meal time. He may find sustenance in other places, but he was a man that enjoyed his wife’s company. Nor did he regular trust her on her own.
Pluto had something wrong with him. He knew his father was in worse shape than he realized before. The transfer back here must have taken more out of him than he thought.
Persephone dropped her silverware, folded her hand and looked across the table. “Now tell me, Cyrus, how did you meet this Marilyn?”
“Wait,” Marilyn said. “If you’re a god, how do you not know?”
Melinoe scoffed. “We are not omnipotent. Nor are we omniscient. We aren’t some kind of fantasy being like so many fools believe in. We are just higher beings than you lowly humans. We consume the power of your worship and use it to channel abilities greater than someone as low as you can ever imagine. We—”
“Hospitality,” Persephone said “Remember your hospitality. If we are a higher civilization, we must respect the agreements we have made. Isn’t that right, Cyrus?”
“Respect is something earned, mother. I never stopped respecting the agreements I made with anyone. I just decided it was time to choose my own path.”
“Your own path,” Melinoe said. “You ran away! You hid from your own duties.”
“I went to find my own life.”
“Enough!” Persephone rose, slamming a hand on the table. “I have heard enough bickering. This is supposed to be a loving relaxed meal, but none of you listen.”
“I am sorry,” Marilyn said. “But clearly the issues underlying the trial you have planned for Cyrus doesn’t sit well either with Cyrus or Melinoe. I would say your children were all too human, but of course for the fact that they’re not.”
Persephone laughed out loud.
Marilyn looked to Cyrus. “Did I say something wrong?”
“I’m not sure,” he said.
“It seems it takes a mortal to understand the minds of gods,” Persephone said. “Your friend Marilyn is far wiser than any woman I have ever met. You will be wise to keep her, Cyrus, if you survive this day.”
“I suppose I should,” Cyrus said.
Melinoe sat to his mother’s right. The anger was apparent in her eyes. The final two chairs sat at the far end of the sixteen foot table, one at the end and the other two its right. Cyrus walked to the chair to the side, pulled it out and offered it to Marilyn.
She gave him a look that seemed to say “Are you sure?” Cyrus nodded and she sat down in the chair with a weak smile.
Cyrus leaned down and whispered into her ear. “Just stay calm. Everything will work out one way or another. We will survive this.”
Persephone’s eyebrow raised as if she heard Cyrus’s words. Cyrus didn’t make any indication that he even noticed. He couldn’t give her anything, not even a clue.
Cyrus sat down in a seat and finally met his mother’s gaze.
“What will you have of me, mother?”
“Calm down, son. Calm down. This is dinner. We have plenty time for your trial when all this is over.”
Marilyn stared angrily at Persephone. Cyrus put his hand on hers, gave it a squeeze. Remember the plan, he thought. He just hoped she was thinking the same thing.
Stark entered the room. He stood with the same strict straight posture he always seemed to hold. He didn’t make eye contact with anyone, instead simply staring ahead. “Dinner is served,” he announced.
A dozen servants came out of the kitchen, platters in hand. They moved with a practiced grace as they brought the meal to the tables. None of it was a surprise to Cyrus. Most of the staff had been here for decades when he was born.
They placed a pair of platters in front of each person at the table. The servants opened the trays all at once, revealing perfectly sliced beef wellingtons with a simple salad on the side.
Marilyn looked to Cyrus, unsure of the food in front of her.
“It’s fine,” he told her. “It’s just normal food. This place exists between the two planes, but even my parents need to eat. Stark and the chef take great pride in dinner. Great food has never been a problem in this household.”
“Don’t be afraid, little human.” Melinoe’s words came out with a hiss. “The gods are civilized. We will not harm you until the appropriate time. Then I will enjoy your pain. I have exquisite tortures in mind for you.”
“Enough,” Persephone said. “We are not here for threats, Melinoe. The trial will determine Cyrus and his concubine’s fate. Now it is simply a time to enjoy each other’s company, perhaps for the last time.”
“I have a name!”
Persephone acted as though she hadn’t even heard Marilyn’s words. She simply started to eat her food as she looked at her son.
“Enough, mother. You’ve walked among humans for three hundred years. The least you could do is treat them with some level of dignity.”
“Dignity? They don’t even live long enough to make their names worth remembering. Cyrus, you are barely a babe. Someday you must learn to control yourself. Have your fun with the little people but don’t treat them like equals. They are playthings for us, nothing else.”
“I’m no one’s plaything!”
Cyrus put his hand on Marilyn’s hand. She sat back, breathed deeply. She clearly didn’t like having her sense of self challenged. He supposed it made sense based on her history.
Even so, he couldn’t have her overreact. His mother played at hospitality, but that didn’t mean she would hold herself to her own standards. When angered, Persephone’s fury was dangerous. She didn’t possess the control of her emotions that his father did.
“Her name is Marilyn, mother. You can judge me. You can ignore her. But I will not have you refer to her as anything but that. I agreed to come here without a fight, but that can change.”
Persephone smiled as she put down her fork. “You have grown quite a backbone, Cyrus. I have to admit I’m impressed. Fine you can have your way. I will call your human Marilyn if you insist.”
“It won’t do her any good,” Melinoe said. “Her fate will be worse than yours, brother.”
“We will make our own fate,” Cyrus said.
“You are a fool if you think you can make your own fate. You are a god. You are in service to the Fates themselves. You cannot escape them. You can only obey them.” Melinoe turned to Persephone. “Why do we continue this farce? Let’s just get on with this. I want to flay the human’s skin from her bones.”
“Enough,” Persephone said. “We are having dinner, Melinoe. You will show civility to your brother and his hu—Marilyn. Or you will answer to my wrath as well.”
Melinoe fell silent. But she didn’t take her eyes off Cyrus and Marilyn. Cyrus could feel her anger. He knew she would hold the slight against him, and more importantly, Marilyn. But her anger also confused him.
They never had the best relationship, but that didn’t ever come with the kind of vehement distaste she seemed to show now. The behavior was odd. She was always overly violent, but not like this. Something was wrong with Melinoe. Something else was going on with her.
Persephone looked around the table with a smile on her face. “Isn’t this wonderful? It’s nice to have dinner as a family again.”
Cyrus said nothing. He picked at the salad in front of him as he watched his mother across the table. Melinoe loudly chewed the wellington. She wanted to be annoying and would settle for the most childish tactics she could find.
“I know this is a bit stressful,” Persephone said. “I wished you would have returned of your own accord. But even so, it is good for the family to be together.”
“What about father?”
“Your father has his own needs. You know that, Cyrus. He will join us for the trial. Rest assured he loves you very much.”
Something didn’t sound right to Cyrus. His father had been weak for decades, but it wasn’t like him to not at least show himself at meal time. He may find sustenance in other places, but he was a man that enjoyed his wife’s company. Nor did he regular trust her on her own.
Pluto had something wrong with him. He knew his father was in worse shape than he realized before. The transfer back here must have taken more out of him than he thought.
Persephone dropped her silverware, folded her hand and looked across the table. “Now tell me, Cyrus, how did you meet this Marilyn?”
“Wait,” Marilyn said. “If you’re a god, how do you not know?”
Melinoe scoffed. “We are not omnipotent. Nor are we omniscient. We aren’t some kind of fantasy being like so many fools believe in. We are just higher beings than you lowly humans. We consume the power of your worship and use it to channel abilities greater than someone as low as you can ever imagine. We—”
“Hospitality,” Persephone said “Remember your hospitality. If we are a higher civilization, we must respect the agreements we have made. Isn’t that right, Cyrus?”
“Respect is something earned, mother. I never stopped respecting the agreements I made with anyone. I just decided it was time to choose my own path.”
“Your own path,” Melinoe said. “You ran away! You hid from your own duties.”
“I went to find my own life.”
“Enough!” Persephone rose, slamming a hand on the table. “I have heard enough bickering. This is supposed to be a loving relaxed meal, but none of you listen.”
“I am sorry,” Marilyn said. “But clearly the issues underlying the trial you have planned for Cyrus doesn’t sit well either with Cyrus or Melinoe. I would say your children were all too human, but of course for the fact that they’re not.”
Persephone laughed out loud.
Marilyn looked to Cyrus. “Did I say something wrong?”
“I’m not sure,” he said.
“It seems it takes a mortal to understand the minds of gods,” Persephone said. “Your friend Marilyn is far wiser than any woman I have ever met. You will be wise to keep her, Cyrus, if you survive this day.”
“I suppose I should,” Cyrus said.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Walking Shadows Book 2 Chapter 12. Marilyn
It was cold, so cold. Not like winter, or even a walk-in freezer. It was worse, almost impossible to take. She felt as though her skin should crack and break. That she should die.
But she kept her eyes closed. She trusted Cyrus. She did before she jumped him. And she knew even now, she needed to keep trusting him, even if their current situation seemed completely insane.
Gods and goddesses out of myth? It was crazy. But none of Cyrus’s family seemed stable. And Pluto seemed barely human.
She had to trust him. She had no choice.
The cold seemed to fade. She still felt lost though, as if reality wasn’t around her. She feared it wasn’t, but knew not to dare looking to find out. She clutched Cyrus more tightly. He was her only link to anything real.
She realized the warmth wasn’t a lie. She could feel the sun against her skin, even though that made no sense. It was barely the beginning of the night when they disappeared from River City.
“It’s alright,” Cyrus said. “We’re here.”
Marilyn opened her eyes.
She stood at the edge of a forest. The trees were empty of their leaves, dozens of tiny fingers stretching towards the sky. But they were trees. Oak and birch and willow. It certainly wasn’t her image of hell, biblical or mythological.
“What is this? Where are we?”
“Providence, Rhode Island,” Cyrus said. “Andy Hades, or at least the throne of it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Hades isn’t a place in the traditional sense. It’s an idea, a concept that exists in Pluto’s very being. My father can move it wherever and whenever he feels. It takes a lot of his power though, so they relocate only once in a great while. Mom made him move to the New World in the early nineteenth century. I always assumed they appreciated the humor of settling in a city called Providence.”
“This is crazy.”
“It’s definitely not normal. It’s not what I wanted one way or another.”
Persephone walked towards them, stopped before them. She looked Marilyn up and down with what could only be described as disdain.
“Son, you’ve humored your consort long enough. We need to convene in the main hall. We have much to discuss over dinner, before the trial begins.”
Cyrus nodded. He turned, pulling Marilyn around with him.
As she turned, the plantation house came into view.
“It’s huge.”
The house was in the Southern antebellum tradition. Pillars filled the front area, surrounding dozens of windows and a gorgeous set of double doors.
She realized that she stood on the massive front lawn of a secluded home. The forest was just to block the house from the main room. A winding path led around it, obviously the drive way for the ancient house.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Beauty often masks corruption,” Cyrus said. “This estate is no different. My parents can pretend to be generations of owners, but it’s just another lie. Another salve over the pain.”
“Pain?”
“It’s a plantation. Only Hades House doesn’t grow cotton; it only breeds suffering. Everyone that works inside is a lost soul. My father makes them work to just get there, but takes pleasure from their continued torture. It fuels him.”
“And your mother?”
“She’s a harvest goddess that married the lord of the dead. That’s weird even for an Olympian. She has her own sadistic streak, only she saves hers for her family.”
They walked up the half a dozen steps on to the massive porch. Despite Cyrus’s warnings, Marilyn found it hard to look past the sheer opulence of everything around her.
The door opened as they approached. It seemed to move on its own, free of any contact. She wondered if it was mechanized or just part of the magic of the place.
A chill rushed down her back as they passed through the door. she suddenly felt light headed. The room started to shift under her.
She stumbled, nearly fell. Cyrus caught her, but the world was already changing around her.
It wasn’t a house at all. It was a pit. Darkness surrounded her, thousands of souls whispered in despair.
They cried out for redemption, freedom, forgiveness and a thousand more desires. But there was no helping them. They could not be saved from the agony. Not by her, maybe not by anyone.
Cyrus’s voice echoed through her skull.
“Marilyn, can you hear me? Marilyn?”
She blinked off the vision. She was back inside the house, back in reality or some modicum of reality at least.
Cyrus helped her back to her feet. Marilyn clutched at her forehead as the room slowly stopped spinning.
“I was somewhere else,” she said. “Somewhere dark and horrible.”
“I don’t know how, but you saw the reality of my father’s kingdom. No mortal should be able to walk in that realm.”
“I’m not just any other mortal.”
“No,” Cyrus said with just the hint of a smile. It was the first time Marilyn could remember seeing even the hint of happiness in him. “No, you certainly are not.”
“Sir, are you and the lady all right?”Marilyn looked up in the face of an older man, perhaps in his early sixties. His head was bald and he wore a finely pressed suit. His posture and perfect white gloves made him seem more like a caricature of a butler more than an actual one. But Marilyn was becoming more accustomed to this kind of thing. It seemed Cyrus’s world was filled with one odd thing after another.
“No, Stark. Everything is quite all right.”
“Excellent, sir. If I may, dinner awaits in the next room. You will be expected to dress for the occasion. I can summon a matron to assist the lady—”
“That won’t be necessary,” Marilyn said.
“Take us to a wardrobe and we can change together,” Cyrus said.
“Sir, it wouldn’t be proper—”
“It will be alright, Stark. Just do as I say.”
“Yes, sir. Please follow me.”
Cyrus took Marilyn by the hand as they walked towards the long staircase at the back of the entrance hall.
The hall alone was massive, large enough to hold her apartment twice over, maybe three times.
Cyrus leaned in close to her. “We have maybe thirty minutes until dinner. We will have to change and come up with a plan. It will be the only chance we have. Understand?”
“I understand. Let’s do this.”
But she kept her eyes closed. She trusted Cyrus. She did before she jumped him. And she knew even now, she needed to keep trusting him, even if their current situation seemed completely insane.
Gods and goddesses out of myth? It was crazy. But none of Cyrus’s family seemed stable. And Pluto seemed barely human.
She had to trust him. She had no choice.
The cold seemed to fade. She still felt lost though, as if reality wasn’t around her. She feared it wasn’t, but knew not to dare looking to find out. She clutched Cyrus more tightly. He was her only link to anything real.
She realized the warmth wasn’t a lie. She could feel the sun against her skin, even though that made no sense. It was barely the beginning of the night when they disappeared from River City.
“It’s alright,” Cyrus said. “We’re here.”
Marilyn opened her eyes.
She stood at the edge of a forest. The trees were empty of their leaves, dozens of tiny fingers stretching towards the sky. But they were trees. Oak and birch and willow. It certainly wasn’t her image of hell, biblical or mythological.
“What is this? Where are we?”
“Providence, Rhode Island,” Cyrus said. “Andy Hades, or at least the throne of it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Hades isn’t a place in the traditional sense. It’s an idea, a concept that exists in Pluto’s very being. My father can move it wherever and whenever he feels. It takes a lot of his power though, so they relocate only once in a great while. Mom made him move to the New World in the early nineteenth century. I always assumed they appreciated the humor of settling in a city called Providence.”
“This is crazy.”
“It’s definitely not normal. It’s not what I wanted one way or another.”
Persephone walked towards them, stopped before them. She looked Marilyn up and down with what could only be described as disdain.
“Son, you’ve humored your consort long enough. We need to convene in the main hall. We have much to discuss over dinner, before the trial begins.”
Cyrus nodded. He turned, pulling Marilyn around with him.
As she turned, the plantation house came into view.
“It’s huge.”
The house was in the Southern antebellum tradition. Pillars filled the front area, surrounding dozens of windows and a gorgeous set of double doors.
She realized that she stood on the massive front lawn of a secluded home. The forest was just to block the house from the main room. A winding path led around it, obviously the drive way for the ancient house.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Beauty often masks corruption,” Cyrus said. “This estate is no different. My parents can pretend to be generations of owners, but it’s just another lie. Another salve over the pain.”
“Pain?”
“It’s a plantation. Only Hades House doesn’t grow cotton; it only breeds suffering. Everyone that works inside is a lost soul. My father makes them work to just get there, but takes pleasure from their continued torture. It fuels him.”
“And your mother?”
“She’s a harvest goddess that married the lord of the dead. That’s weird even for an Olympian. She has her own sadistic streak, only she saves hers for her family.”
They walked up the half a dozen steps on to the massive porch. Despite Cyrus’s warnings, Marilyn found it hard to look past the sheer opulence of everything around her.
The door opened as they approached. It seemed to move on its own, free of any contact. She wondered if it was mechanized or just part of the magic of the place.
A chill rushed down her back as they passed through the door. she suddenly felt light headed. The room started to shift under her.
She stumbled, nearly fell. Cyrus caught her, but the world was already changing around her.
It wasn’t a house at all. It was a pit. Darkness surrounded her, thousands of souls whispered in despair.
They cried out for redemption, freedom, forgiveness and a thousand more desires. But there was no helping them. They could not be saved from the agony. Not by her, maybe not by anyone.
Cyrus’s voice echoed through her skull.
“Marilyn, can you hear me? Marilyn?”
She blinked off the vision. She was back inside the house, back in reality or some modicum of reality at least.
Cyrus helped her back to her feet. Marilyn clutched at her forehead as the room slowly stopped spinning.
“I was somewhere else,” she said. “Somewhere dark and horrible.”
“I don’t know how, but you saw the reality of my father’s kingdom. No mortal should be able to walk in that realm.”
“I’m not just any other mortal.”
“No,” Cyrus said with just the hint of a smile. It was the first time Marilyn could remember seeing even the hint of happiness in him. “No, you certainly are not.”
“Sir, are you and the lady all right?”Marilyn looked up in the face of an older man, perhaps in his early sixties. His head was bald and he wore a finely pressed suit. His posture and perfect white gloves made him seem more like a caricature of a butler more than an actual one. But Marilyn was becoming more accustomed to this kind of thing. It seemed Cyrus’s world was filled with one odd thing after another.
“No, Stark. Everything is quite all right.”
“Excellent, sir. If I may, dinner awaits in the next room. You will be expected to dress for the occasion. I can summon a matron to assist the lady—”
“That won’t be necessary,” Marilyn said.
“Take us to a wardrobe and we can change together,” Cyrus said.
“Sir, it wouldn’t be proper—”
“It will be alright, Stark. Just do as I say.”
“Yes, sir. Please follow me.”
Cyrus took Marilyn by the hand as they walked towards the long staircase at the back of the entrance hall.
The hall alone was massive, large enough to hold her apartment twice over, maybe three times.
Cyrus leaned in close to her. “We have maybe thirty minutes until dinner. We will have to change and come up with a plan. It will be the only chance we have. Understand?”
“I understand. Let’s do this.”
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