Chapter four

-One week later-

"No!" Graham shouted.

Like every other time the man had shouted, Emma rolled her eyes and turned to look at him expectantly, she couldn't exactly complain about all of the things he had protected her from, but it was hard to feel as though the panicky man wasn't some kind of watcher.

"That's the River Lethe," he explained, "if you get one drop on yourself you'll completely forget who you are."

"Thank you for the warning," the blonde replied as she turned on her heels and walked over to the rapidly moving river.

"What are you doing?" Graham squeaked and ran up behind her.

"I've been warned, Graham," the blonde said without turning around and fell into a crouch to look at the river.

"Don't touch it."

The blonde just nodded and continued to look at the water, "tell me about it."

The brunette sighed deeply, this is what happened at every landmark that they had come across so far, she asked him to tell her a story about them. Apparently, the myths that she had read were completely inaccurate.

"This is one of the five rivers of the Underworld, the shades of the dead must drink its waters in order to be re-born. Those who wish to achieve Elysium must do this three times."

The princess looked across the river to Elysium and she smiled broadly, "Elysium? So there are real heroes in just across this river?"

"I suppose…" Graham said reluctantly.

Emma shot to her feet and jumped across the river in one quick swift motion.

Graham let out a garbled sound and then a sigh of relief when he saw her standing safely on the other side.

"Are you coming?" she called and then turned on her heels and began walking towards the land of the blessed.

Graham walked into the throne room and fell against the wall with a huff.

He had never had such an eventual week in his long existence, nor had he ever travelled so far across the dominion in which he lived.

"Something wrong?" Regina asked from the throne that she was lounging on, it was deceptively like she cared, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't him she was asking after. Even if she hadn't made any form of contact with the woman that she was betrothed to.

"Emma found Elysium," he sighed.

"And?"

"She wants to go back tomorrow and meet some 'heroes'," Graham grumbled, luckily she had simply wandered around and had decided that it was a place she would like to be more rested to explore.

"Why would she want that?" Regina asked with a grimace.

Graham rose his eyebrow and decided not to comment on the fact that the woman seemed hurt by the thought that Emma wanted to spend time with heroes, "because she is a grown woman who had never had her child-like wonder crushed by the outside world."

Regina was silent for a moment, until she finally asked something that had been on her mind, even if she was trying to convince herself that she didn't think about Emma nearly as much as she did.

"Has she yet to complain about being forced to live here?"

The brunette man gave this some thought and then replied, "honestly, it doesn't seem like you have forced her to do anything. She loves exploring."

"But what will happen when she has no new things to discover?" Regina said almost to herself.

Graham bit his lip, but he found that he was no longer able to hold his tongue, "if you wish to spend time with her, you need only ask her."

Regina's head snapped up and Graham felt almost as if his entire body had been paralysed by her deathly gaze, "whatever do you mean by that?"

"Err...I just thought that perhaps you wish more from this Emma than simply keeping her in the Underworld. She doesn't seem as though she would be particularly adverse to building a relationship with you," he said after swallowing hard.

Hades narrowed her eyes, and stood from the throne, "I did not take her as my wife to 'build a relationship', she is merely here so that she isn't with her insufferable parents. I couldn't care less what she does while she lives out her pathetic little life."

"But…"

"That mortal could never replace Persephone!" Regina's voice echoed, and Graham was surprised that he didn't instantly turn into a quivering mess.

He nodded and attempted to move back while she stalked towards him only to realise that he was already standing against the wall.

Regina looked the man up and down, before she rolled her eyes and swept her way out of the throne room, leaving Graham desperately trying to catch his lost breath.

"Are you truly not afraid of anything?" Graham asked the blonde as she began to walk once again towards Elysium.

"I suppose I must be afraid of something, but I just haven't had the chance to experience it yet," she shrugged.

"You never experienced fear?" he repeated, it certainly explained how relaxed she seemed around Regina.

"There wasn't much that could have harmed me in a castle with constant posted guards," Emma shrugged.

Graham nodded even though she wasn't looking at him, and asked, "you don't miss it at all?"

The blonde bit her lip and looked stoically ahead, "I miss my parents," she said slowly, "but there isn't anything else in that world for me."

"How would you know?" he shot back.

Emma furrowed her brow for a moment, but then she just let out a laugh, "good point, but it's hard to imagine that anything in the Enchanted Forest could be as spectacular as the abode of a goddess."

Graham rolled his eyes and continued to follow her, though this wasn't the first time he had experienced it, the feeling of passing into Elysium was still a rather strange one. The bleak colours of the Underworld seemed to shift to those of a summer's day, he understood that the area looked different to each of the inhabitants, but at the moment it just looked like a normal village. He imagined that it had something to do with Emma, obviously the area had somehow deemed her worthy to see what she wanted to.

"Are you just going to start introducing yourself to people?" Graham sighed, "I don't think they would take well to having met the wife of Hades."

"Will you calm down?" Emma replied, at the moment she was more interested in the surroundings than the people. The area had just looked like any other place in the underworld the day before.

Though Graham knew that Regina would deny involvement, it was rather strange that it changed once the ruler of the Underworld found out just where Emma would be exploring on that day.

Emma wandered over to the blacksmiths where a man was pounding heavily on a sword, he stopped and looked up at the curious woman with a quirked eyebrow.

"Something wrong?" he asked, though it sounded much more good natured than she had expected from the hulking man.

"What're the weapons for?" she asked rather childishly.

He looked her up and down and replied, "for the tournament."

The blonde's eyes widened in excitement and she turned to Graham with a huge smile on her face, "tournament."

"Excuse us," the brunette said to the blacksmith and pulled Emma aside, "every person in Elysium has already lived and therefore cannot die, you, however, are still a very fragile human who I am assuming would feel rather disconcerted when you are instantly transported to the fields of Asphodel."

"You have got to calm down," the blonde whispered back, "I meant we could watch."

"Oh," he replied as his shoulders relaxed.

"I would need to train before I could compete anyway," she called over her shoulder, already running off.

Graham allowed his face to fall into his hands and let out the biggest sigh yet.

A/N Hope you guys liked it, let me know what you thought XD