Prologue
THE WORLD CAME to be by Adam and Eve taking a bite of an apple and being cast out of Eden. Or perhaps it came to be in an explosion that caused ripple effects throughout the universe and when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become the third planet from the Sun. Before evolution took root, spanning hundreds and thousands of years from the dawn of time to dinosaurs and a few million years later cavemen all the way up to the way we view humanity and the world today.
Those are the stories written in textbooks or spoken with the conviction only humans on a pulpit like their law on a Sunday Morning. But what if like all things this is just another thing humanity made up to cope with the way of the world and the things that they didn’t understand because as much as humanity thirsts for knowledge, one will always fall short to another who has more wisdom and more experience and for those that grapple to stay hold of power, they will always lose their cards to someone with more influence and money.
But few know the truth and even fewer still walk the echoes of the world and its husk
It started with a war.
A war that had to be fought (does any war have to be fought?) over freedom and the Titans being too controlling and having their day in the sun but refusing to change with the rolling tide and instead becoming stoic and when Ichor became rust they still refused to change, but no matter what change was inevitable and the more one tried to run from it, the more it hurt when your wounds were shown the light of day
Zeus had been the one to declare the end of the war, being the only one of his siblings to escape the wrath of Chronus and the iron grip he held the world in, the world that once belonged to him but was now changing.
The war was bloody and plentiful as wars tended to be and it left scars on all those who had to get their hands dirty (how many times can you get your hands dirty without feeling the weight of the lives you took on your back? Once, twice, a hundred times)
When the dust settled thirteen Gods took their position on the new Olympus, now built out of the skeletons and dust of those that came before them. The world was divided fairly (fair is a matter of perception) between them all and Zeus was given the skies, Poseidon the seas and Hades the Underworld while Hades other siblings and immortal beings that made up this mess of a pantheon were given other attributes of the human psyche to rule over, whether that be the personification of humanity’s more gentle aspects like love and the ability to heal either yourself or other people and humanity’s more bloodthirsty aspects such as a desire for war and revenge
The second eldest child of Chronus, Hades, took control of the Underworld, It was a macabre job but Hades couldn’t find herself minding...Not that she minded at first. It was nice to be alone. She was used to the solitude and it was glorious. Unlike many of the myths and legends that follow their name Hades liked ruling the Underworld, everybody would become her subject at some point
There was no outrunning it, although there were a few that tried
The truth of the matter was, sometimes ruling such a vast empire got lonely and with that loneliness came a desire, one to connect and belong to something more than she was. But nobody could ever hold her fancy for long and the dates that her brother provided for her would be dreadfully...boring or she would see that they had no interest in her and they just didn’t want to piss off the King of the Gods
Because nothing good had ever come from that.
Then she saw Persephone, the young Goddess of Spring and everything changed
It was no secret that religion was mankind’s greatest weapon: It toppled kings, destroyed empires, left women in ruination, and meddled in politics. People were drawn to a higher form of power, a belief in something holy. Religion shaped the future of mankind towards damnation and men of faith happily led the generations down the ledge.
Hades had learnt this firsthand, that religion was the root of many problems and maybe that’s why later she would call herself a fool for making her religion out of the Goddess of Spring, the only person she would worship endlessly and follow to the ends of the Earth
After all, religions tend to topple the balance of things
There were many versions of what happened the day Persephone came to live in the Underworld. Many tales were whispered from the mouths of Gods with nothing better to do than to pass their judgment on something that had nothing to do with them
Many say that Persephone didn’t come willingly
But the truth is she did
There were many versions that the Gods twisted to suit their own purpose because Hades didn’t meld with the rest of the Gods. Despite being the second eldest child of Chronos, she was often overlooked because Hades had never been one to beat around the bush or to sugarcoat things to ease the blow, she wasn’t like Hestia and she didn’t have the tact of Artemis or the charm of Aphrodite nor did she have the wit of Athena
She was just Hades, and sadly her family often got bored of Hades
She still remembered the day she saw Persephone and she had never seen something optimise natural beauty like Persephone and look like the Goddess she was supposed to be. See the Goddess was everything that her titles said she was, with a quiet grace about her and unmatching beauty she was in many ways like the Spring but she also had that powerful stubbornness and unyielding passion that could topple empires if you pushed her too far
Hades could see that right from the beginning
The passion burning behind Persephone’s eyes -- just waiting to be set free
Contrary to popular belief Hades didn’t fall for Persephone right away. Instead, they spent time together in the shade of an old oak tree and talked for hours. Hours would bleed into days and days would bleed into months and it had become a regular occurrence for them to meet up at the old oak when they weren’t busy
Hades began to feel more comfortable with the younger goddess than she had with anyone in a long while and when she expressed this to Persephone, her eyes began to glow with uncertainty “How can you like me? I’m just a minor Goddess, I-I’m nothing special”
Reaching out to touch the side of Persephone’s face with her cold touch (though Persephone didn’t pull away or flinch like most people) she gave the woman a soft smile”My dear Perse to me you areextremelyspecial”
Feelings began to emerge for both of them, but they didn’t act on them not wanting to ruin something good. For they had finally found somewhere where they belonged and didn’t want to ruin it. It was during a hot afternoon when they finally confronted their feelings, Hades had Persephone lying on her lap, combing her hair through with her bony fingers and quietly humming to herself, it was then when the Goddess of Spring and everything good in Hades’ life (except Cerberus that puppy was always a good boy) opened her eyes and muttered something that would forever change her
Persephone sat up, gorgeous ageless eyes boring into Hades and snatching her breath away as Persephone poured her heart out to the other woman just as she had many times before “I don’t wanna live here anymore, I want to leave for somewhere where I feel valued”
Hope struck Hades in the chest “Come live with me, in the Underworld”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and we don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. We don’t have to tell them anything, we can just say I kidnapped you or something that way you’re mom won’t get mad at you but at me instead”
Persephone raised an eyebrow “You really think you can kidnap me?”
“What you think I can’t?”
“Oh I know you can’t” Persephone gasped, flashing Hades a wicked grin Hades felt something in her chest and at that moment she knew that she wanted Persephone by her side forever.
Time stretched out for a boundless amount of time, even if Hades was a Goddess and ages and centuries can pass before she feels like any time has passed at all and here, right now in this moment of time. Persephone was the only thing that existed and time stretched on and on as they continued to stare at each other
Hades couldn’tbreathe.
Especially when Persephone grabbed her by her shirt and pulled her into her their lips met and finally Hades could breathe, even if the woman in front was trying to take it away from her. When they pulled away both were grinning like mortal teenage girls
Hades ran her thumb over her lips, she was sure that this wasn’t real, that somehow Persephone would vanish and she would be left alone again and that she didn’t deserve Persephone but a few minutes passed and Persephone was still here
And this was real
“You really want this?”
“I’m in”
Hades nearly cried when those two words fell fromherpretty Goddess’s lips because she decided right then and then, she would with reckless abandon stop following her old religion if she could follow Persephone because she would fall down at the woman’s feet and repent all of her sins, if that was what her Queen so demanded
She would never follow anyone else’s words but those of her Queen
Hades quickly sealed the deal with another kiss, this one longer and more passionate, not just a quick peck of two women testing out the waters. Tongues clashed as they hastened to explore the crevices of the mouth of the other. Warm, wet and sometimes sloppy
But it didn’t matter because all they cared about was each other
They stayed like that for the rest of the afternoon, underneath the shade of the big oak tree, Persephone’s head resting on Hades’s lap as her fingers absentmindedly card through the tressels that seemed to be bestowed with fire. Occasionally exchanging kisses and talking of the future as if they had forever in front of them.
The two of them then did what was planned and when Demeter and Zeus found out that Hades had kidnapped Persephone. She stopped doing her work, which caused winter to come into effect and when Zeus found out that Hades waskeepingPersephone in the Underworld, he sent Hermes after them
It turned into a real shit show then
Hades, caring for her girlfriend gave her a pomegranate seed that would bind her soul to the Underworld and she ate it hurriedly, not wanting to leave Hades behind, and when Demeter found out she was...well to put it kindly pissed off but of course, she had found a loophole within Hades plan and went straight to Zeus
Zeus wanting everything back in order said Demeter could have her daughter back and when Hades protested that that wasn’t what Persephone wanted (because apparently, she was the only one who cared what the copper-haired woman wanted) Zeus went back on what he said and allowed Persephone to be in the Underworld six months out of the year
And by the next year, they were married
And they were happy, for she had done the unthinkable and ate from the forbidden fruit until like everything does, times changed and their kingdom fell and with it came tragedy.
It is said Eve condemned Adam to a life of sin when she took a bite of the apple a charming snake offered her. This is the story of another woman who ate fruit from a forbidden tree in her quest to find love and freedom, but like all things love and freedom come with a price and perhaps that price will be too steep to be paid.
