Earthworms are cute creatures. Their little hardworking twisting bodies bring life to the earth with the tunnels they painstakingly create as they eat decomposing matters. Their work is of upmost importance to nature and life itself and she never forgets to thank them when they pass by her.
They bow in return, the cute little things.
The things wiggling back and forth, waving at her from their bloody hold in the boy's skull, are not cute. They are downright horrifying. They dare to take on her bellowed pink worms' appearance and Persephone is offended on their behalf.
They wave again, mockingly.
Persephone flickers her attention to the crowd of humans and supernatural beings that stands by her meadow. They are a far more pleasant sight compared to the despicable monsters prowling inside his mind. "Bring me your mother," she repeats.
"I will not," the sulfuric boy grits out. His teeth are barred for everyone to see and oh, he is ugly.
A breeze brings her his scent. It has barely changed since their first meeting, sulfur fuming under the surface of his skin. He is a volcano ready to explode and engulfs the world in a darkness so impenetrable nature itself will shrivel and enter the Kingdom of the Dead.
The worms twist in his head.
Persephone tuts. The flowers, confused by the sound, do not translate it but still their dance. She chanced upon such abominably horrendous souls when she was walking the halls of Tartarus. She had not, however, thought possible to find a soul so close to extinguishing itself in the Human realm.
"It is not your choice to make," she comments. "You have heard my decree. Now go forth."
"It is not the deal we made!" he hisses. He looks sharply behind him a moment later, surveying the people who accompanied him to her pit.
They stare back, so humanly confused by the divine exchange they're witnessing. The Moon Rabbit, lying lazily by their feet, does not flinch when he feels her gaze on him. He remains where he is, black irises trained on the boy she chose. A magnificently dying flower rests atop his head and she is perhaps jealous of the treasure he holds so calmly.
"Persephone!" the boy calls. His wild chopped hair floats eerily with a caress of the wind.
She spies the worms drilling in his brain, oozing dissonant thoughts and disenchantment. Spiders crawl in cracks and nooks, snatching thoughts and ideas as they pass to add more prizes to their walls of catches. They spin their web and entrap everything he is, turning beautiful things into obsessions and flaws into decorations he cannot hide. It is a wonder how they could survive when he emits so much toxicity. Yet, as he stares at his family, these terrible beasts retract out of sight, crawling deep inside, where the light cannot touch them.
"It is not the deal we made," Persephone concedes. "But your mother possesses something precious that you do not."
He squints. Thoughts boil in his head, mistrustful and angry. Worms twist into a vulgar dance. "What is it?"
"Courage." And a drop of pure magic circulating in her blood and mingling with her body, altering it. Persephone does not mention the way she shines and how her light almost made him look pretty for a second as he walked down the hills. He is beyond daft if he doesn't recognize how his mother affects him. "You reek of fear, Hayashi Issei."
He squares his jaw. A fire that reminds her of her Lord's blazing fury sets in his eyes. Sulfur engulfs them.
Her little flowery dancers halt their mad waltz. She stills her breath.
The scent he exudes reminds her far too much of... her lord's.
Hades.
She can't control herself.
Life strains every tunnels, every ways and paths it can find around her. It pours downs from the sky, solidifies from the air, climbs the roots of old trees. It answers her call for assistance. She drains everything she sees and yet… she suffocates.
The boy stills. His body is contracted in a futile effort to retain the magic passing through as it hears her summon. His throat visibly constricts violently and he whimpers. Tears well up in his eyes.
Tears.
A boy.
A mother.
A meadow.
Ah-
Persephone puffs at the cloud of fury and it is dispeled, leaving behind a fleeting weight. His emotions, like the worms and spiders that plague his mind, are heavy. They fight her hold, trying to take over her meadow with their toxicity. In the end, she is mightier and they die down, retracting into the boy.
She breathes again. Had she had a body, perhaps her reaction would have been disproportionate. She reasons her dampening mood with facts. He is just a boy. He is just a boy and she is the one acting like a child, now. How utterly improper. He is obviously not her Lord. He will not hurt her. He will not degrade a gift forcefully taken and easily thrown away.
The boy swallows his tears.
"Pardon me. A… memory overcame me," she whispers. Her flowers meekly move to translate her words.
Her little sprout is clearly torn. She is entirely regretful when she sees the worms digging into his mind and finding all the negative emotions they can find in his tiny skull. For such a small head, he holds a mountain worth of rocks and dirt his worms feast upon. This time, it is her doing that brought them out.
"Why do you want my mother?" He finally settles on a soft question.
Persephone hesitates. A strange emotion, biting at her resolve, lets the truth spills from her dancing servants. "You need her."
He relaxes his shoulders, hanging them low, and yes, he knows that as much as she does.
"My Blessing will consume your body. If I split it between the two of you, it will be beneficial for all of us. We live in a world where humans who hold Sacred Gears get entangled in strange business all too easily. "
His anger and fear retract into his heart. An emotion that tastes like autumn rain lands on her. Persephone doesn't know what the name of that emotion could be. Humans are overly complicated, sometimes. She decides it is a good emotion for her cause, although she holds no love for autumn and its glacial temperatures.
"I also might need your assistance to take care of my garden and I do not think humans possess the capacity to be at two places at the same time," she offers reason next. Reason can justify the worst decisions and make them look like sensible ones. Reason can also hide remorse and other rather bitter emotions.
"I just need to not be away," he scoffs. "It's not like I have other places to be."
Persephone laughs at his logic. "You are a silly one, Hayashi Issei."
Each attempt he makes to change her mind cements her decision.
She needs the woman.
His mind is plagued by worms of self-destruction that made enchanting him all too easy. She only had to pluck a thought from the grasp of a spider, an image of a fox-girl that festered in his mind, to lure him into doing her bidding. Kunou, Kunou, Kunou…. His spirit was flooded by her name, a mighty river roaring to life after the last debacle of winter's ice. She broke the fragile dam that protected his will. The banks of his reason were flooded by the memory of a little girl with a fluffy tail.
Her magic enticed him almost too easily.
He forgot pain, hunger, cold. His will was hers.
The trees around her throne her shiver as she remembers how good it was to feel through her ephemeral doll. Her spiritual form, strong as it may be, cannot fulfill her need for touch. A warm, breathing body yields such satisfying results.
A warm, breathing body is precious. To say she was shocked when he accepted to jump off a cliff so easily is an understatement. Humans, animals… they all have the drive to survive and live. His lack of desire proved worryingly useful for her. It is worryingly useful for any beings with a drop of magic at their disposition.
He has ugly monsters in his mind and they are tainting his soul.
Apollo would laugh and either heal or destroy him, depending on the mood his beloved twin left him in. Persephone herself is not a healer of the mind nor is she a benevolent being who gives without expecting something in return. Breathing humans never were her priorities.
Feasible it would be to enchant him into abandoning his mind and body.
Persephone rejects the thought.
She is not Hermes. Her brother's yearning for deceit and tricks has never attracted her. Her Lord's attachment to twisted wordplay and secretive loopholes sickened her as much as it amused her, once upon a time.
However, he is the Lord of the Dead and she is not.
Furthermore, the Dragon inhabiting the boy's soul is too sharp a being to be tricked by her. This outcome, she accepts.
Hayashi Issei crosses his arms. "I'm not silly. You're the one who is changing our deal now, Miss Persephone."
She lets the accusation slides over her. He is young and does not know better yet when it comes to insulting gods and goddesses. The boy is much like a young spout, tender and fragile. Had he been older and colder, she might have dabbled in a path that would have destroyed him. His body would have been hers and his soul, her Lord's.
The paths she might have taken are useless, for she has made a decision when she laid her eyes on the boy in the strange place where humans cremate the body of their loved ones. Persephone, Persephone, Persephone… tends to the young so they may break free from the soil and survive the last frost to bloom. Never has she strayed from her course, never will she stray.
And the flowers he brought her are more than pleasing to her senses.
"Go to your mother's side. Let her be the judge of my demand, Hayashi Issei," she orders calmly.
The boy balls his fists. She wonders if he will be stupid enough to argue more. Her mind is set and she is far more patient than he is. She has all the time in the world and he doesn't. In the end, he chooses to be bright.
He nods sharply. He offers her his back as he drags his feet back to his family.
Persephone takes this time to observe and mull over her thoughts. The boy, had he not been so unsightly to look at, would have received her Blessing alone. It was not an optimal solution, but she was ready to accommodate herself to his worms and spiders and overall tainted mental soil. Thankfully, the woman he calls mother appeared and her plans changed for the best. She can now split her Blessing in two and create two distinct powerful beings. There was no good in creating an overly powerful beast that could explode in her grasp. To think she was ready to settle for something that would destroy a young sprout on the long run… have her years in the Kingdom of the dead affected her this much?
"You don't need to say yes. Miss Persephone really wanted me to ask you, but you really, really don't need to agree," the boy assures softly.
Persephone turns her attention towards the Hayashi family.
Silly, silly boy. His mother will say yes, because she is his mother, and oh, Persephone knows a bit about mothers and their insane drive to coddle their children and protect them from the world till the end of time.
Persephone watches how he acts around his mother, kind and tender as he explains to her that 'Miss Persephone' would like to bestow a green thumb upon her. Even his wording is gentle, offering –begging- her to look the other way and refuse. Gone is the sulfuric boy whose mind was set off by the most peculiar details. Gone is the wild beast, rabid and scared. Gone are the horrible worms and poisonous spiders.
Persephone knows she has made the right decision as she spies on their interactions. She didn't ask if his mother would accept her grace. She demanded she be part of the deal, or he would get nothing himself. The simple fact that he preferred to spit her blessing for his mother's well-being tells her a story that pleases her interest.
She has no need for a volcano.
This restrained fury, almost pacific front, however… could be useful. He could grow into a sturdy tree, with the right help.
She flickers her attention to the woman who sits so proudly at the side of her ugly boy. The woman stands between day and night, between fear and courage. She rests in twilight, oscillating between emotions that lift the darkness surrounding her progeny. Her body is weak, regenerating slowly thanks to a drop of magic circulating brightly in her veins, yet her mind is sturdier than the ancient bedrock that was purged from the rivers of the Kingdom of the Dead.
Shrouded in the darkness and sulfur her offspring emits, she is a beacon of light and pleasant dreams. The worms invading her son's head do not dare to show the point of their tail in front of such brilliance.
Hayashi Issei's mother nods resolutely, refusing to back down and thus, Persephone has found herself a new Blessed human. Her bravery is pure beauty to behold.
The woman and the boy walk side by side in her meadow, a duo of weakness and strength. They approach her throne of rocking roots slowly.
The calm front they form together, the spicy humus' scent they exude as their scents mesh together... is a pleasant reminder that her capacity to foretell is as sharp as ever.
"What do we have to do?" his mother whispers softly.
Hayashi Issei stares at her vessel questioningly, echoing mutely his mother's question.
Persephone hums. "Bleed on my vessel. For this task, one pink petal you must pluck and with it draw your blood you shall."
(Cryptic wording is not her favorite way of communicating, but traditions have to be respected.)
The worms wiggle in his skull and blood, blood, blood, mom, mom, mom, no, no, no, they chant. Persephone would perhaps enjoy the song if it was so annoyingly repetitive. The boy has no talent in music, it seems.
"We have to bleed on the urn and- let's start with the bleeding part," the boy stumbles on his words.
He pricks his index with the petal she chose for their ritual. The flowers slide out of the way, encircling his foot as he steps forward in their bed.
Slowly, he drags his bleeding finger across her vessel's surface.
Sulfur engulfs her. Persephone reigns on her powers before she does something regrettable yet again. Her attention is caught by the way his brown hair shines softly, reflecting the cold rays of the Moon. Thankfully for their survival, the boy jumps back to his mother's side quickly. She watches as he pricks his mother's finger tenderly.
The flowers move in haste to arrange room for their human forms when they finally advance towards her.
Hayashi Hikari's blood mingles with her son.
Persephone breathes again. The spicy scent of fresh humus envelops her and isn't it quite the fitting environment for the seeds she will plant in them?
She hears the whispers he exchanges with his mother, warning her of supernatural beings and their suspicious ways. He is a cautious little thing, that Hayashi Issei. It's not a bad thing to be so, but she feels insulted nonetheless. She doesn't kill the people she blesses. The acrid smell that he produces does entice her to end the life of something that clearly yearns for death, but she has some self control. What festers in his mind, she cannot destroy. She will wait and let kinder hands do what she cannot.
(The boy might be oozing toxic wastes, as long as he remains at a good distance, she will hold herself accountable. How he is not dead yet is a mystery she doesn't wish to investigate. He better gets better soon… or else.)
His mother tilts her head to listen to his warning words. Her bald head is protected by a lovely ochre tuque. Clay is not compatible with all plants and sprout, but it is kind to the few that can encroach themselves in its malleable core. Her little sprout could indeed be a fragile chrysanthemum, to live so well by her side. The color that will adorn his bloom is the real question. Yellow for immortality and strength or white for death and despair? Only time will tell.
Persephone wishes she could tell her grandfather Chronos to make haste. She wants answers now.
Her sprout and his mother look at her vessel, their not-so private discussion finished.
His mother opens her mouth and breathes in deeply. "I do not give you power over my name, I simply present it to you, goddess. My name is Hayashi Hikari and it is not yours."
Hayashi Hikari is a quick learner. That's a pleasing sight. Her flowers dance.
Chrysanthemum boy puffs out his chest and his mother the clay mimics his gesture a brush of the wind later. Fearful and fearless. Almost beautiful.
"We seek your Blessing, Persephone, goddess of Spring and keeper of souls," Issei enunciates each syllable carefully.
Persephone smiles. Her flowers waltz.
"I thus bless you, Hikari Hayashi and Issei Hayashi."
The goddess pours life into them, caressing their veins and limbs, seeking life and finding it. It resonates with the outer world and its infinity.
First, she brushes Hayashi Hikari's eyes tenderly, slowly. She finds the channels life can travel through. She lets her own force opens the path. Life will know how to do the rest, how to dive into the freshly opened rivers. Nothing can stop an ocean. She opens the human woman to the world she sees, to the beauty and ugliness of magic and life. "You, Hayashi Hikari, receive my eyes. May they guide you and teach you the ways of life."
She watches the woman open her eyes for the very first time and marvel at her newfound sight. Humans are so limited and now she is so limitless.
The boy is second, a heartbeat later.
"You, Hayashi Issei, receive my hands. May you understand the growth of life, respect it and protect it."
She brushes his arms and is almost burned by the sheer energy the Dragon and the thing encroached in his right arm emit. She is not tender nor gentle with her next actions, for she cannot be. Life overtakes her completely as it pours itself into the boy, devoured by his ravenous body and unsatisfied beasts. For such a vermin riddled boy, he is very apt at attracting life.
Hayashi Issei trembles.
"Miss, what's happening?" he asks, voice quivering.
She hums. Her blessing blooms over his hands, coating the dreadful limb he sold to the Dragon with vivid colors. The limb another being inhabits twists and turns to accommodate her gift on his right arm.
The boy is infinitely prettier now. His pale skin compliments her design awfully well. It is a bit sad that he cannot see the masterpiece he sports.
"You are pretty now," she comments.
He scrunches his little brow adorably, like the little rabbit that hops to his feet. The bunny stares at her and she stares back, amused. It has not left the boy's side since it first laid eyes on his fallen body, it seems. Moon Rabbits do not accompany men, yet it took a fancy in this particular fearful child of men. She smiles and her flowers sing.
The bonds he created foretell the blessing she would bestow upon him.
She is but one goddess on the string of his destiny, she feels.
He is not just another bead she collects to thread them on her string.
"You really are prettier, Ise," his mother comments. She knows how to appreciate masterpieces and Persephone can't be prouder of her choice.
Persephone laughs. The flowers at her feet do not know how to convey such an emotion, so they attempt to shine brighter in an attempt to fit her mood. She yearns for hands that could caress each and every of them tenderly. Such good companions they are for her time in prison.
They need a reward. "Pat my flowers, Hayashi Issei."
The boy, torn between fretting over his beautiful arms and fretting over his mother's cryptic comments on his newfound beauty, looks up. He blinks. "Pardon me?"
"Pat my flowers," the goddess repeats patiently. He frets yet his worms are out of view, which compels her to not be a source of worries for him. He can generate enough monsters on his own. "They have accomplished a great task."
Her little Blessed one bends down slowly, complying with her request. However… He pokes more than he pats. He grazes more than he caresses.
Her flowers still bends wantonly forwards and swirls in pleasure when they get a touch, the cute little things.
His mother kneels by his side, knees digging into her flowers' bed. With careful movements, she offers the back of her hands and her knuckles to the flowers, flicking petals and smoothing leaves. She is doing exactly what her son should be doing.
Her flowers almost uproot themselves out of happiness.
Persephone smiles fondly at her beloved subjects. She doesn't enjoy the company of humans often, but this one, she might grow fond of quickly.
"When you wish to use my blessing, you must call it forth. πρατά," she informs them. "When you have accomplished your work, simply say ἄνυσμα. It will free your human senses of my presence."
Issei tilts his head. He exchanges a look with Hikari. "What does your blessing do? No, I mean- what can we do with it?" he stumbles on his words, but Persephone understands him nonetheless.
Her flowers twist. They do not know how to show her amusement yet. Has she not told him already? The boy might be a tad slower than she first thought of him. "Your hands can impact the flow of life."
He opens his mouth. He inhales. He clamps his lips shut. He squints. Persephone doesn't need to watch his expressions to know he is confused, but it is entirely too entertaining to watch to even think about training her attention on something that is not his squishy little face.
"If you impact the flow, it will impact the things on its trajectory. If you open up the flow, anything that is alive will probably grow stronger or heal faster." Hikari surprises her yet again with her wits.
The boy perks up at the word 'heal'. His eyes, the color of dry soil, express all he thinks about as he gazes at his mother.
"Yes." Persephone does not point out he can do the opposite too. She has always preferred life over death.
The boy, starring at his hands then at his family, seems to share her preferences. He is getting cuter and cuter.
"If you wish to help your mother recuperate, you may use my blessing. I will show you what you can do," Persephone offers an olive branch and she knows she has conquered the boy to her side the moment the words spill from her dancing servants.
"Do not attempt anything without me for now. You have the power, but using it incorrectly would bring misfortune," she warns next.
He needs guidance and she needs to monitor his education. He could very well make fantastic plants bloom without her being present and that's not an outcome she can accept. She needs to be there. She needs life to be around her after her dreadful last conversation with her Lord and if she can't move towards it, then life will come to her. She didn't manipulate a boy into jumping off a cliff, which was not very nice and also a tad traumatizing, just to end up with nothing.
"What about mom? What is her blessing?" the boy asks, yet again starting to fret. He holds such an erratic heart.
"It is wise to have a guide," her attention and flowers turn towards Hikari the fearless, first of her name, "and that is why you have been gifted my eyes. You see what he cannot. Your eyes now see the life that inhabits the world and the way it moves around you." Persephone halts and thinks of her next words. She needs to be a good teacher for these previously non-enlightened humans. Her gaze is attracted by the numerous veins that run deep inside the earth, bringing life to the surface. "Do you see the veins? Do you see the webs? Each and every of these strands is a flow of life. Perhaps… you will also be able to impact it, if your talents bloom. Be a good ally for your son, Hayashi Hikari."
Hikari nods. She stares at her son's arms and Persephone knows she truly has opened her eyes to a magical vision. "I will be. Thank you for your thoughtfulness."
Don't thank me. Bring me more flowers. Persephone keeps her thoughts to herself. For now.
The boy and mother are clearly too awed and too tired to think straight at this point. She has a long list of preferences and, after weighting the pros and the cons, comes to the conclusion that well rested minds strive to please more than fatigued ones. It also gives her more time to think about the color scheme she wants to plant around the brook.
"Go and rest, humans. Tomorrow will come quickly," Persephone advises.
Issei and Hikari get up slowly. Dirt decorates their knees and they look incredibly silly, smiling so much. The boy, for once, shows no signs of anger or sadness and if that is not an upgrade from the moody mess she led to this meadow, she doesn't what is. The woman just shines brightly with positive emotions and it is a treat for her eyes. The Moon Rabbit tilts his head, magical flower still somehow attached to his fluffy little head.
"Issei!" The older woman calls, all grey emotions and creaky bones, gesturing at the Moon Rabbit and the delicate flower weakly standing between his two long ears.
The boy turns sharply towards her urn. "We have a flower. A Glorygold. It's dying and we don't know how to take care of it," he admits quickly.
She eyes the Moon Rabbit and the way it balances a much beloved prize on its head. Its affection for a magical and medicinal plant is all too normal, considering its species. Moon Rabbits pound medicine for the immortals of the Eastern mythology and they have a strong affinity for anything related, directly or indirectly, to their precious pounding materials.
She mourned the flower when it was not offered to her. The boy –or his family as a whole- was too clever to let such a prize leave their clutch.
"Place it atop my urn," she commands.
Issei does as he is told, from fluid movements to snatch the flower sitting atop the Moon Rabbit to stiff jolts as he walks into her circle of attendants. They know they better not hurt her little humans and he should know he is under her protection for as long as he holds his promises dear, the silly, immature youth.
Finally, the Glorygold dances in her grasps.
A vein that creeps down the tree she uses as her throne thrills in her grasp. She tickles it and it vibrates and widens, widens, widens. The energy it discharges rains down directly into the Glorygold and the poor babe rights its stem with a prideful swing. It warms her urn as a thanks and Persephone couldn't be more pleased with the proud little flower.
Careful hands take ahold of the Glorygold seconds later. Hayashi Issei is not that slow, it seems.
"Bring it to me when it shows signs of weakness," Persephone offers. Warmth is hard to come by in this dreadful dead winter and the idea of letting go of a source of dancing warmth is too sad to be allowed to fester.
The son and the mother nod in unison. They drag their feet back to the older human, Glorygold in their grasp and Moon Rabbit hot on their heels.
She lets their joy and excited conversation be what they should be- private. She goes back to the inside of her urn, tuning out the outside world for a moment of peace. The boy has tired her immensely with his own tired mind and foolish monsters. She hopes he will be calmer when his feet and thoughts lead him to her meadow again.
(Tainted minds are not her business. Tainted souls… are. She dearly hopes she will not have to meddle with his spirit. Sacred Gears and their inhabitants always make a mess of an otherwise easy task. Her strength is not what it used to be and the Dragon's strength is strangely potent for a being that has been imprisoned for centuries.
A part of her still burns at the memory of his energy against her.)
She feels each footstep her little humans hammer against the ground, climbing a hill to find rest and peace.
Goodnight, Hayashi Issei. Goodnight, Fearless Hikari. May your dreams be full of flowers.
This wasn't in my plans. I wrote this in a few days and I decided to not call it a chapter, because it is not. It is my thoughts, conveyed by Persephone and Issei. I wanted to dwell deeper into Issei's mental well-being because, as some of you may have noticed, he has not been doing so well. He is doing better now that his mother is doing better, but it doesn't mean that everything is good and jolly now. It takes time. It takes efforts.
I've been thinking about the news these days. Actually, I've been following 'COVID-19' since it 'first' appeared on Western news outlets in January.
I am now in semi-confinement to comply with the social distancing put in place in my country. I study from home and hope for the best. Some of my family members are in countries were the situation is looking dire or is dire, no point to try and make it look pretty. I never thought it would get to this point, honestly. We're facing an epidemic and we will face a recession after it. It's rough, want it or not. 'Just' staying at home can be rough. I feel like a tiger in a cage, sometimes.
Wash your hands, people. More than that, enjoy the sun your loved ones can offer you and manage your own inner garden. If you're in a tough place, don't hesitate to reach out to others. Earthworms are cute. Worms the like of Issei's are not, Persephone can assure you.
Take care and be safe.
As usual, I hope you had a good time reading this interlude. I appreciate all your lovely comments and reviews. It warms my heart to know you like my slow paced and sometimes hard to read story. ;) The next chapter will be out in a few days! I will answer all the new questions and comments you have made then.
Some music recommendations: Tchaikovski's 'Pas de Deux' and 'Hymn to the Cherubim' are a personal favorite, if you feel like listening to classical music. It brings me to another realm, I swear.
Unlike Pluto is a wonderful artist with beautiful lyrics ('Revenge and a little more' is another personal favorite).
03/04/2020
