15/10/20
-Eleven-
Demeter
She stares at the inkless parchment, ruminating in silence.
The morning is a clear one, even clearer than usual, and provides a splendid view of the fields of Enna from the little cottage window. However, as she looks out absentmindedly, the peculiar discomfort roiling in the pit of her stomach tugs unpleasantly, worse than it was when she'd awoken that morning.
Demeter frowns, smoothing her hands over the thick hair woven across her head, holding them to the sides of her forehead. She breathes deeply, attempting to soothe the unease tightening her chest.
It's only when she hears the singing of nymphs does she raise her head.
"Kore," Demeter whispers, and hurries outside, leaving the door flung open behind her and her letter unwritten.
The grass is soft beneath her bare feet and she smiles as she watches the nymphs emerge from the trees, huddled and laughing. Chuckling to herself, the goddess approaches the group slowly, looking for her daughter's vivid red hair amongst the dullness of the nymphs'.
When she doesn't find what she's looking for, her calm is instantly thrown aside and replaced by vicious panic.
"My dears," she calls shrilly, "where is Kore?"
Cyane seems to be the only one who hears the question; her eyes, shining happily, suddenly take on an edge, and she rushes forward. "Good morning, my Lady," she says. "We thought Kore returned to the cottage as she wasn't with us when we arose this morning."
Demeter's heart halts in her chest. Ice-cold dread spreads outwards from her stomach, creeping to the tips of her fingers.
"She has not returned." Her words are sharpened by a mounting anger.
Cyane gasps, finally drawing the attention of the other nymphs. They stop tittering and peer over curiously.
"My Lady?"
"What's the matter?"
"Is something wrong?"
Demeter glowers at them, shoulders heaving. "My daughter," she says quietly, dangerously, "who I trusted to your care," she takes a step menacing forward, "is missing."
The nymphs pale in unison.
"Missing?" Hercyna repeats. "We thought she must have come back before-"
"She has not," Demeter interjects bluntly.
The ensuing silence is like flesh to an open flame, and the goddess' fury flares to an inferno. "How could you lose her?!" she shrieks, arms flung out in disbelief. "How could you possibly have lost her?!"
"Mistress, we're-"
"Be quiet!" Frenzied, Demeter throws her gaze across the surrounding fields, as though expecting to see her daughter to appear from thin air, laughing. Turning back to the nymphs, she looms over them, power crackling tangibly as she seethes. "If Kore is not located within the next hour, I will send each and every one of you to the pits of Tartarus."
With expressions of terror, the nymphs scatter.
…
Mount Olympus is a cesspit of depravity and decadence, so far from the purity of Enna. It's a place the harvest goddess seldom condescends to visit; the disappearance of her precious Kore, however, is a happening she considers grave enough to warrant her presence in such a place.
Those foolish nymphs had searched until noon – so had she – and no trace of her daughter had been found. It was as though she had ceased to exist entirely.
Why?
Had she left of her own volition?
No, Demeter thinks decisively as she strides through prim gardens filled with nymphs, Kore loves me too much to leave me.
That must mean she had been taken.
The sun beats down harshly as this thought settles like a hunk of lead in Demeter's gut. Her daughter had been taken from their home, stolen from her.
Her fury starts builds once again; a gratifyingly familiar sensation to her.
"Demeter?"
The goddess is snapped from her volatile reverie in an instant, begrudging the interruption. She swivels and meets the unyielding gaze of Athena.
Forcing a polite smile, Demeter greets, "Athena."
"I didn't expect to see you here," the war goddess says, hands folded together demurely. "May I enquire as to the reason behind your visit?" She's smiling, but her eyes seem to gleam cold.
Demeter shakes her head. "I'm afraid I am pushed for time, my dear," she says, taking a step backwards. "I have important matters to attend to."
"Is that so?" Athena bows her head slightly, lips pressed into a thin line. "No Persephone?"
"No," Demeter replies crisply. Then, softer, "not today."
"I'd like to see her again."
A flutter of the balmy breeze catches a curl of Demeter's hair, sending it wayward from its intricate braid. Frustrated, she huffs and forces it behind her ear.
"I don't-" Her words are swallowed by a gasp as a stab of hot, sharp pain spears through her midriff. She stumbles slightly, but manages to steady herself with difficulty, thinking of Kore.
Panic reaching a dangerous summit, she turns and, without looking back at Athena - under whose gaze she feels increasingly discomfited - stalks away.
…
"Well, I must say I am surprised to see you so far from Sicily."
She has rarely ever seen eye to eye with her sister, but now, as the harvest goddess stands before the queen of the gods in the very seat of her power, she feels more perturbed than ever. Demeter's hands are knotted together, fingers interlaced and knuckles white. Her mind scrambles for an acceptable reply.
Hera laughs, a ringing sound not entirely pleasant. "So quiet, sister," she simpers. Then, tilting her dark head, "no Persephone?" The question is tinged with a delicate sort of vitriol. "I was under the impression one never came without the other."
Demeter meets her eyes. "Kore has not accompanied me today."
Hera nods, lips puckered in mock thought. "Ah yes, Kore. I forgot you have your own name for her."
"Kore is her name."
"No it's not," Hera snaps, expression hardened.
Mercifully, before either goddess can speak again, the doors swing open to reveal Zeus, an expression of mild curiosity on his face, and a gilt chalice in hand. He strides into his quarters and looks to his wife. Stooping, he plants a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"Darling," he says, "why don't you leave Demeter and I alone for a while?"
Hera looks up at her husband with wide, glassy eyes. Slowly, her hand lifts as though to be placed against his cheek, but she drops it abruptly. With a final, icy glance at Demeter, she glides from the room, shutting the doors softly behind her.
Feeling inexplicably exposed, Demeter stares at the closed doors for a while longer, avoiding Zeus' gaze. As the air in the room thickens, the same sharp pain she felt earlier sears her stomach, jarring her back to reality.
After a beat, Zeus breaks the silence. "What can I do for you, Demeter?"
Taking a bracing breath, the goddess looks at him and tells him. "Kore is missing."
Something peculiar flashes across Zeus' face, but it disappears faster than she can process it.
"Missing?"
"Yes, Zeus, missing." Agitation and despair form a solid lump in her throat. "My daughter could be anywhere for all I know." She fruitlessly supresses a dry sob. "Anywhere."
"Well," Zeus says, raising the chalice to his smirking lips, "we know she's not here."
Demeter balks at him, open-mouthed. "What?" Indignation, sudden and violent, rises like wildfire. "Do you think this is amusing? She is my daughter, your own offspring-"
"Persephone is an adult. She has likely left of her own free will-"
"No!" Demeter cries, pointing a trembling finger at him. "She is happy with me!"
Zeus quirks a brow. "You have smothered her since she was a child."
"How dare you say such a thing? You have never taken an interest in her!"
Zeus slams his chalice down, ambrosia spilling and splattering on the floor. He moves towards her; she thinks for a moment he might strike her, but instead he strides by her – his scent settles in her with an uncomfortable familiarity – and slides open the doors to his terrace.
The wind is gentle, nothing more than a wavering breeze, but it does little to pacify Demeter's ire.
With his back still facing her, Zeus asks in a tone of forced calm, "what do you expect me to do, Demeter?"
A screech tears through her throat so brutally her eyes fill with water. "I expect you to be a king!"
When the king of the gods faces her, his eyes are golden fire, his hair an aureate halo about his head. "Do not presume to understand the reach of my position, Demeter." He doesn't shout, but his voice is booming. "There are things even I cannot do."
"The reach of your position?" Demeter barks a derisive laugh, narrowing her eyes at him. "I doubt any reach you may have; you couldn't even summon the energy to reply to my letter regarding your daughter's induction as a virgin goddess-"
"That's what you wanted? For Persephone to take the oath?"
The storm in her eyes recedes slightly, confusion taking over. "Of course," she says. "I think the letter I wrote to you made that perfectly clear."
Zeus is silent for an instant; his eyes seem faraway. Eventually, he looks at her, a smile touching his lips. "Perfectly."
"So why haven't you-"
"May I remind you of your own previous sentiment, dear sister," he cuts in, arms spread in grandiosity. "I am a king. I have many demands on my time." He takes a few steps closer to her, expression turning inquisitive. "Was Persephone aware of your aspirations for her future as a sworn virgin?"
Demeter says nothing.
With a chuckle, Zeus shakes his head. A few golden stands of hair fall loose over his forehead. "At least the horror of permanent chastity can be dismissed as a motive behind her disappearance." Then, he peers at her with a wicked glint in his eyes. "Her own horror, at least."
Angry, confused, and suddenly too exhausted to quarrel, Demeter takes a breath. "I want my daughter back," she states simply. "Only with me is she safe."
A cluster of birds have landed on the terrace and are chirping blithely.
Demeter imagines burning them.
"There's little I can do," Zeus replies.
"Then I will have to do all I can."
The god-king tilts his head, his question clear.
"The land shall remain unblessed," Demeter says, cold, "the harvest shall be barren, the mortals will starve, and they shall die." She watches with errant gratification as Zeus' jaw tightens and ticks, something close to apprehension veiling his handsome face.
"You cannot do that, Demeter-"
"Yes I can. And I will."
"You-"
"The harvest is mine, I am the harvest, and I can take it all away," she snaps her fingers together, "faster than you could ever imagine." She takes a step back, her power pulsing strong within her. "And without the mortals, we have nothing. You'll have nothing Zeus, just like I have nothing." Bowing her head, she adds, "unless, of course, you assist me in finding Kore."
The god isn't attempting to hide his fury, but its effect is dulled by the worry that has now descended into the contours of his face. He raises a hand and wraps it around his beard. "You've clearly made your decision," he murmurs.
"Oh no, Zeus," the goddess smiles, "my decision is unmade as of yet. It is yours upon which the fate of the gods rest."
For a final time, she holds his gaze, hoping with every fibre of her being that he understands the sincerity of her words. Then, eager to leave Olympus, she starts towards the doors.
"Please accept my gratitude for receiving me so graciously, my Lord," she says as she walks, the formality brimming with spite. "I hope to hear from you very soon."
And with a final bow, she is gone.
…
It may be because of her daughter's disappearance; it may be because of her arduous exchange with the ostensible king of the gods; it may even be because of the chill that sullies the usually warm Enna breeze on this particular afternoon.
Whatever it may be, it's her reason for killing them.
They lie strewn across flowers and rocks beneath the beating sun; several merely look as if they might rise from a deep slumber at any moment, others look frozen in their eternal woe.
Broken and desecrated.
But she doesn't care.
They were, after all, just nymphs.
Before she moves away, Demeter glances back at the empty eyes – they remain open – of sweet Cyane. The little nymph leans up against a tree, face tinged as blue as her pretty eyes, arms limp at her sides. There is the gentle suggestion of terror in her now slack features, but she's still lovely.
Not as lovely as her Kore, of course.
She smiles into the sun.
So I'd never originally intended on writing a chapter from Demeter's PoV, but I felt it was very important for us to gain a little more insight into her personality and conduct at this particular point in the story - please do tell me what you think!
As a side note, I'm sorry again for the wait between chapters; I'm an adult (don't want to be) with a full time job. I just want to let you know that I am completely dedicated to this story and do have plans for it, so will always try my hardest to deliver the best I can x
Reviews are welcome, as always ~