Chapter Six

Her first month of servitude was spent exclusively in the Underworld, and much of that was in the god's chambers. After her first night in his bed Meg saw no point in being prudish, he had claimed her and after she extinguished her anger she found she quite enjoyed the waves of pleasure he could send coursing through her veins with only a flick of his tongue. Other than the waves of pleasure Meg found she no longer felt anymore, she didn't care what happened to her. It was as if she were empty inside, just a mere shell. Good, she told herself. If I do not feel then I cannot be hurt anymore. She swore of men, not that that posed much of a challenge. Who was she likely to meet in the Underworld?

There were other changes that she had noticed in herself. Already slim she had lost more weight in the Underworld, the food was tasteless and she ate only to keep herself sustained. Her skin became as pale as the moon as it gradually lost its sunkissed colour. Hades tried to dress her in sombre blacks and greys but Meg put her foot down and insisted on wearing vibrant colours, she found she didn't care about arguing with the god. He was hardly about to kill her, he seemed to enjoy having some form of companionship. He was rarely out of the Underworld, he chose not to spend his time on Olympus getting drunk on Ambrosia, instead he oversaw his domain. Or that was what he told Meg, but she doubted him. Several times he had hinted that he was tutoring her in the art of seducing, helping her realise the talent she held with her body, her eyes.

As Hades bathed himself Meg stretched out on his oversized bed and pushed herself to her feet. She saw no point in loitering under the covers by herself, and whilst she enjoyed the god's touch she did not want him to think that she enjoyed his company. He was tying her thick hair back when the god emerged from his bathing chambers; teasingly he unplucked her hair from its bindings.

"That's what I like about you babe," he gestured to the made bed. "You don't hang around like other girls. You get in, you get out – everyone is happy."

"Hm." Meg shrugged; she would hardly have said she was happy. "Being drugged so someone can claim you…what could make a girl happier?" The bitterness slipped out of her voice, although she had pushed the anger aside it did occasionally resurface.

"Oh babe do not be like that, I did it for your own good." Hades appeared at her side and sensuously rubbed her shoulders, lowering her peplos ever so slightly. "You enjoyed yourself did you not? Besides you are hardly going to marry anyone within the next thousand years, did you truly want to remain a virgin that long? More importantly working for me, did you think you would remain a virgin?"

"So I am just another tally on the wall?" Meg hissed pushing him away and straightening her clothes, she was halfway to the door when she felt the snaky tendrils of his arm around her, pulling her back towards him.

"Look babe, I'll level with you. You are attractive, you are beautiful. But that was not why I had to deflower you. A woman such as yourself, I could use your talents greatly in the next three years." He led her from his bedchambers and up to his small throne room. He gestured to the circular table with the map and figures. "I am planning…a little revolution shall we say? I am tired of being bound to the Underworld; I think I am due a promotion." Meg arched an eyebrow and wandered around the rim of the table, she had never been allowed this close to it and she looked at the carved figures curiously. Two in particular caught her eye, the first was a carved stone figure of Hades; his arms raised in triumph, a broad smile on his long pointed face. The second was a figure of her, she scoffed at the pathetic simpering look on her face and she held it up and looked at the god in disbelief. "Believe me babe; you will be dying to be in my bed in three years' time." Sighing she rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"And what, oh oneness is happening in three years?"

"I will be moving up in the world. Literally. Zeus will fall from power, and I shall take his place."

"You? Ruler of the gods and mortals?" Meg didn't even bother suppressing the shuddered that ran through her.

"Hey, hey," Hades scolded looking suddenly angry. "Tell me Megara, how do you enjoy being in the Underworld? You have not seen the mortal world for over a month now, do you miss it?"

"Of course!" Meg snapped at him, "but I am hardly here by choice!"

"You had a choice Megara. You chose to sell your soul to me. You chose to come with me –"

"I did not know –"

"Then you are a fool." Hades shouted and Meg took a step back as she watched his greyish-blue skin turn into a molten golden-red colour. "Whether you knew what you were agreeing to or not you still chose to be here. I however did not. I was tricked into ruling the Underworld and I have been down here for centuries! How do you think I feel being stuck down here while my counterparts drink themselves into a stupor?"

"But surely you can be up there with them?"

"No. Because somebody has to watch over these wretched mortals. Souls who continuously try to escape, or their living counterparts who foolishly come down here in search of their loved ones. Fools who try to steal from the river Lethe to make themselves forget, or to make others forget so they may benefit. I have to work Megara, unlike my useless brother." Meg looked doubtful, but she realised she was trapped. I cannot break my word to him, he is a god. Her position suddenly seemed far more volatile and she sat on the edge of one of the circular windows and looked down into the river Styx below.

"What does this have to do with bedding me?" She asked stonily crossing her arms over her chest.

"Surely you should be proud that the future king of the Gods was the one who claimed your virginity? The one who tutored you in love?" Meg snorted once more and rolled her eyes. "Very well, since we are being blunt…I will need you to use persuasion to bring others onto my side. If I send you to the Minotaur, you offer him yourself. You do whatever it takes to bring them over to my side."

"I am not a whore!" Meg gasped and jumped to her feet in outrage, "I –"

"You are what I tell you, you are!"

"No." Meg crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Hades furiously. She watched in horrified fascination as Hades became the shade of molten lava once more, she could feel the heat radiating from him but she refused to give in. Let him kill me, she thought looking down at the river of souls below her. She found her eyes searching for the soul of her father, but she was too high up and the number was too great to try and distinguish one soul from another. When she turned around she saw that Hades was slowly returning to his cold shade of grey-blue once more, he smoothed back the flame on his head and smiled sadistically at her.

"Meg. Babe…my sweet little Nutmeg. I do believe you are forgetting one teeny, tiny…just a minute little detail."

"And what would that be oneness?" Meg's voice dripped with sarcasm, she could not force herself to be compliant. She was too furious.

"I. OWN. YOU." Hades grabbed her by the neck, in the blink of an eye they were no longer in his circular throne room but rather beside the river Styx. "If I say fetch me some apples, you fetch me the ripest bunch of apples you can find. If I say bow down and worship me you bow down and worship me! If I tell you to sleep with the Spartan army –"

"I would rather die!" Meg shouted at him trying to tried to prise his fingers off her neck, her air was being cut off and she was increasingly finding it hard to breathe. She cried out as she was thrown backwards, she looked down in time to see the sea of souls rising up to welcome her to their depths. She struggled to the surface for air, gasping for breath as the thousands of souls literally clawed at her, trying to drag her down. She felt her body gradually growing weaker and as she looked down she saw why. Her limbs were no longer supple and firm, instead her flesh had sagged and wrinkled with age, her skin was no longer unblemished but covered in deep sun spots. Before her head was dragged down completely Hades plucked her from the river and pushed her onto the stone floor. Gasping Meg fought to regain her breath, to try and calm her rapidly beating heart and to compose herself. "I am not a whore," Meg gasped. "If you had not drugged me I would never have slept with you. I only do so no because what is the point of refusing?"

"What is the point in refusing me this?" Hades hissed, "I own you Megara. I can force you to offer yourself to whoever I want. Think upon that. PAIN! PANIC!" He bellowed and the two imps instantly appeared, tripping over their pathetic little feet. "Take her to her chamber, leave her there." Carefully Meg climbed to her feet and shook the creatures of her arms as they made to grab her.

"I can find my own way, Master." She spat at Hades' feet and stormed off to her chamber. She didn't know the way, yet her feet led her there quickly enough. She sat on the edge of her bed and stared in dismay at her hands. They were still wrinkled and spotted, she blushed at her vanity but she couldn't help but fear she had lost her looks. What else did she have now? She had no freedom, no soul…she barely owned her own body. My beauty was all I had left. She blinked back tears and ran the fingertips of her right hand against the skin of her left. It was no longer smooth and soft, but thin yet tough – almost leathery.

"You will go back to normal, perhaps in a few hours – maybe less."

"What do you want?" Meg snapped, she couldn't bring herself to look at Hades.

"I think perhaps I was a bit unfair. I did not make myself clear," smoky black swirls appeared in Meg's vision and she turned her head away. "Babe just look at me. Your face is fine," blushing she forced herself to look at him. "I am not sending you to bargain with people just with your body. When I first met you I will admit that did cross my mind, however you are a smart girl. Perhaps a bit too mouthy, but I like that in a woman." With a click of his fingers tendrils of smoke appeared in mid-air and Meg stared in fascination, one took on the shape of a woman with striking curves and a high hairstyle, she recognised it to be herself. Several other tendrils took the shapes of men, the one at the front of the heaving crowd was clearly Adonis and she turned her head away blinking back tears. "Megara if you do your duty your servitude will hardly have to be that. I will reward you greatly. The power I could give you over men, you could take your revenge on that pampered child!" She looked at the tendrils of blue-grey smoke once more to find the Adonis figure at her feet, pleading with her. The Smoke Meg shook her head and turned her back.

"I do not want revenge," Meg's voice was cold and empty and she waved her hands through the tendrils to make them evaporate. "I want to forget."

"I am afraid I cannot help you there babe," Hades patted her shoulder, "I will leave you be for the rest of the day. Pain and Panic will come and collect you in the morning. We have work to start." Meg nodded but didn't say anything; she was too deep in thought. Hades might say he couldn't help her, but he didn't realise he'd already given her the key she craved. The river Lethe, she thought to herself staring up at the heavy door which would keep her prisoner. If I drink from it…I'll forget. But was it worth it? Forgetting wouldn't set her free; she would still belong to Hades. But it would stop the pain. Curling up on the silky black sheets she buried her face into her arms and weighed up her options. Would she be better off for a thousand years not knowing why she had sold her soul to Hades?