08/08/2017

Thank you so much for the feedback. You've all been so supportive.

I decided I wanted to completely rewrite every chapter, and though the plot will go exactly where it was always going, I think the way it gets there will be a lot smoother and less sloppy. I hope you can forgive me for essentially giving you the same material, just reworded. I'm sure once we get past the spot this story has been stuck on for what seems like forever, we'll all be a lot happier.

Let's begin, then.

-One-

He speaks smoothly, effortlessly as the unsheathing of a dagger.

"Zeus."

An expression of resignation tinged with weariness has settled on his brother's face. It's a look that perplexes him.

"I expected to hear from you sooner." Zeus' words are spoken with an air of caution.

"Ah."

"Ares has been irrational as of late."

Hades quirks a dark brow. "Indeed."

"Aphrodite, I think."

"Aphrodite?"

Zeus flashes a grin. "She troubles him," he says.

"She must trouble him a great deal," Hades replies quietly.

Zeus' living quarters are not quite as ostentatious as he would have guessed. He casts an eye over the room, the furniture, the ornaments, and smiles at the gold, gold, gold. It's reasonably simplistic, though, and doesn't hurt his eyes.

"I entertain here, mostly," Zeus says offhandedly.

Hades watches his brother take a large gulp of ambrosia from a golden chalice. There's an odd sort of restlessness in the air, he notes; as though the atmosphere is preparing to collapse. Even so, they speak as plainly as two kings should.

"I will speak to Ares." Zeus is looking at him directly. "I appreciate the workload you must have."

Hades almost laughs. "It is not the workload that concerns me," he says, "So much as the damage to mortal life."

There is a moment when the air around them seems to thicken.

"No," Zeus chuckles. "That simply won't do."

A beat of annoyance throbs in the back of Hades' mind, but is quelled by a light rap on the door. Zeus' gaze flickers briefly to him, and back to the door.

Fool.

It is a nymph that enters, one with oddly coloured hair and dull eyes. She looks over at Hades and tilts her head slightly before turning to Zeus, whispering something in his ear. She leaves quickly, but not before Zeus presses a hand against her rear.

"Interesting choice," Hades murmurs.

"Why do you say that?" His brother asks, grinning.

Honestly, Hades replies, "I'm not sure."

Zeus chortles. "She is not beautiful," he admits. "Women do not always have to be beautiful to find me between their legs." He threads a hand through his golden beard and wilts into the chaise lounge opposite Hades. "What about you, brother? I'm curious about the kind of women you see fit to bed."

"Have you always been curious?"

Zeus is still smiling. "Perhaps."

Hades' lips twitch. "I bed the odd nymph."

Nodding, Zeus asks, "From the Underworld?"

"Not all."

"You have no wife, though."

A bird lands on the balcony balustrade and twitters blithely.

"A wife is not a necessity to me," Hades says to no one in particular.

"Hm."

"Hera does not appear to be a necessity to you," he points out, giving Zeus a bland look.

His brother raises his chalice, eyes glittering. "A king cannot be without a queen."

"Oh no, Zeus," Hades says, rising, "Only a fragile king cannot be without a queen."

…..

The goddess of wisdom and warfare stands before him, slender without frailty, an unyielding look upon her face. A few nymphs have gathered by a grove of trees and are watching and tittering. Birds flutter to and fro. There's running water nearby. His head begins to pulse.

"The situation between Ares and I is acrimonious for a reason, I am sure you understand," Athena says, her voice a chime through the humid space. "Zeus doesn't enjoy reprimanding anyone, least of all the god of war, his son."

Hades nods and walks. Side by side they are dark and strong amid the vibrancy that disturbs him.

"He cares nothing for life unless it is immortal." His words are as unadorned as he.

"A detriment, to be sure," the goddess replies evenly. She waves her hand, gesturing to their surroundings. "He cares for this, though. He cares for the opinions of others." A half-smile starved of humour appears on her face. "He is weak without favourable opinions."

Hades' mind whirls. "And fractious with them."

The sun beats down and reminds him he is not in the Underworld. His thumb glides over the cold ring on his index finger and the skin on his face seems to prickle. A silvery laugh breezes through the air. His ears grasp onto the sound. He tenses.

Athena looks at him, he sees her, but she is gone.

It is a woman, a goddess, soaring through the grass, the trees, the flowers. Tumbling down her back are rich red waves, glossed in the sky's shine, and her skin is porcelain.

No longer Hades at all, the black-haired man moves and numbs like a pauper steeped in gold. His eyes lock onto her and his mind throws away the key. She turns, he watches, and she is effervescent, light, beautiful.

Everything that challenges him.

Her hands skim the budding flowers, and they blossom and bloom. Her eyes, a precious kind of green, brighten with happiness. She smiles and he is complete.

Later, as he sits on his throne and stares at the dead, he thinks of nothing but flowers and the colour red.

Significantly shorter than the original chapter, and this is something I anticipate being commonplace for this rewritten version. Experience has taught me that quality far outweighs quantity, and that my writing fares better without convolution. I think this chapter flows in a way the original didn't, and has a simplicity about it whilst still saying all it needs to. My favourite stories are often very simply written.

I hope you all enjoyed x