Chapter One- The Joys of Family
Her brown sun-kissed arms tighten around me in an easy embrace, and I sink into her like a stone in a vast lake, my head curled into her neck. So neat, so tight, so close I can feel the solid beat of her heart as deeply rooted as the pillars of the earth to her chest. I am whole, yet I am torn.
"Proserpine, be wary of the mortals. They will hurt you if they find you."
I close my eyes, yet Helios light is brilliant still to me. Her wild brown hair is thick against my face, the soft warmth of her robes encircling me.
"Proserpine, be wary of the Gods. They will hurt you if they find you."
The scent of summer lilies, fresh from a bubbling stream in some foreign land I battle to imagine in my mind wafts over me. I can almost hear the gurgle of water along its course as she whispers in my ear once more.
"Proserpine, most of all, be wary of the greatest evil. Men. They will hurt you if they find you."
Gods, Mortals, Men, Mountains, Air, Water, Animals, Love, Sorrow, Flowers, Rain, Horses, Music, Life, Love, Loss. Proserpine, Proserpine, so many warnings, so many. So many warnings until I could scream to the heavens louder than a titan that all I want is Freedom.
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The ground above gives an imperceptible tremor but to those who feel the earths pain as it's stretched wide. A moment later a distant thud drives through the ground and a ribbon of dust drifts down from the palace roof. Never before has this pressure been placed upon my citadel. As King of the Underworld, a certain foresight of trouble is a part of the job description, but no foresight is needed where the giants are concerned. A second thud. I'm up and moving this time. Damm Zeus and his over-confidence. He's cocky. King of the Gods above, the fates could have chosen a being with more intelligence than algae that grows on the verge of Tartarus to lead us.
I'm just out of the entrance when it comes- the earth roars and the temperature soars to all new highs as the entire vast cavern vibrates violently. It's going to shake itself apart, opening the underworld to the Upper world. The Asphodel Fields laid bear to the universe? Not on my watch. The stallions are pawing the ground, feeling the raw tension that threatens to shatter the air when I arrive. The calm briefly under my hands enough to tighten the harness. When we plunge up through the soil above Tartarus between a fault, the brilliant light of the upper world blinds me- but not as much as the dense ash wafting from Mount Ætna. If the ground is groaning, the sky is screaming as the titans knock the volcano apart, leaving no room for its chamber of magma. And when the magma runs out, when they can really throw their weight about down there, my kingdom will be laid open for all the world to see.
Where is Zeus? I think for a second, looking down at the township being buried under a hot flow of ash. Balance, the upper world is his domain, not mine. Balance is not my responsibility. No more time to think- through the thick grey ash a solid jet of magma is soaring into the darkened sky. I plunge towards the high cone and dive into an empty tube leading to the heart of the volcano. Horse and fire- never a good combination. I strike through the fertile soil down to the bowels of the earth to avoid the liquid fire the hides there. Inside this muted place the enraged bellows of Briareus are deafening. And then it comes- the all consuming groan of the exhausted earth as it gives up its fight and slowly tears open juddering and screaming in pain. Only one more thing to do. My chariot dives even deeper into the earth until I am below the imprisoned giants.
I strike the earth once with my trident. Twice. On the third strike the earth and everything below it falls away to darkness.
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"What is he doing this time?"
Hera's sweet voice turned as hard as steel at the word he. Not that I blame her. It can't be easy, being the goddess of marriage and having a philandering husband but being unable to try for divorce.
"Who knows. Take my advice and don't try and find out. It'll be good for your mental health."
And everybody else's, I added to myself. Any more hysterical Hera and I'll scream. I am after all the goddess of Love… I'm out of the picture when love fades. I know very well that Zeus is turning his roving eye where it shouldn't turn. Hera pauses beside me and I put a hand on her shoulder. Hera is one of those women who it is easy to love… and even easier to want to shake until her teeth rattle. I mean, who else would go out of her way to marry the one god who has become a pincushion of my little cupid's arrows, and then cry inconsolably every single time she realizes he's been unfaithful?
I pick up the glass of nectar beside me and take a sip as Hera vanishes back over the citadel of clouds to her sons chambers, no doubt. I turn my attention back to Zeus. Who has captured the God of Gods attention this time? Cupid scrambles onto my lap and I hug him to me, cradling his chubby young face in my hands. I could see Demeter out of the corner of my eye, her long auburn hair draped over her large plump frame having an enraged conversation with Ares. Three guesses what that's about.
"…and I said No! You are not to approach her, do you here me? She is not available for marriage-"
Demeter's voice floated over. I could see Hermes watching this discussion just as closely as I was. Athena, carefully reading through some scrolls was also listening keenly, though pretending not to. She's probably pleased. I flexed me fingers slightly in agitation. Poor child of Demeter, so well guarded she wasn't even allowed to live. Something needs to be done for young Persephone. Already Athena and Artemis defy my power with their chasity, and because of this over protective mother hen Kore looks to follow the same path. None of us even noticed him until his voice cut through the air like distant thunder.
"Zeus, tell me there is a good reason why you let the earth be shaken apart by the giants Typhon, Briareus, Enceladus. Tell me there is a good reason why you, preserver of the balance were idle."
Hades is always rather dark, but right now he looks deeper then Uranus at its height. Zeus spun with the expression of a guilty child on his face. The contrasts between the two brothers are as stark as the similarities. Both are tall and well built, but where Zeus is light, boyish and not the sharpest tack in the box Hades is, well, polar opposite. Dark man, Intense, intelligent and inexonerable. For all of this, I've never been particularly taken with the guy. And his kingdom… shudder.
"Hades. Long time no see!" Zeus scrutinized him for a moment. "You need to get out in the sun more, brother."
Even I winced at that. Try just a little tact there Zeus, just a little… Hades just looked at his brother, his expression completely bare, but a sort of white hot rage building up in the air. Everybody had paused to watch this exchange now.
"We are not all as privileged as you, all seeing one," he said quietly, but perfectly audibly, "To be able to ignore the tearing of the earth, the screams of your subjects and have the Asphodel Fields almost laid bare to the universe. Where were you with your lightning bolts? It was your idea to imprison the giants in Mount Aetna- now they are imprisioned in the deepest vaults of Tartarus beside the Titans as they should have been long ago. Why, why weren't you there brother?"
I dipped my head. I had seen too much of the blood staining his robe, the burns, the exhaustion clinging to him. A man destined to a life of constant work in darkness with no thanks and no joy so that his brother could live in paradise and philander. For the first time, I felt a deep shame of my father. The light seemed some how repelled to the marble pallor of his skin and I, the closest to him, heard his sigh when Zeus could make no answer to his question.
"I can see that one does not need to be 'all seeing' to see all things," he mutters starkly, and a moment later he is gone. The mood rockets perceptivly. Now I remember why we're all so pleased to see him go- he's damn depressing. Demeter just shakes her head, the argument with Aries apparently dissolved and walks away, probably to join her sister in the nursery. Cupid is playing with a lock of my long pink hair when suddenly my mind puts one and one together. And oh so perfect is the combination.
"Aphrodite, take that smile off your face. I know you're plotting something-" Hermes swings his son up easily in his arms. I smiled back. Radiance exploding in my chest as the thought sunk in. "How could you think such of me?" I demanded indignantly, but my mind is already turning over the finer points of a plan.