Hot
From the moment she stepped off the train and into the sweltering heat of a furnace, Persephone knew something wasn't right with Hadestown. Had it been like this when she'd left? The goddess wracked her brain trying to remember, but the unnatural heat gave her a headache, so she stopped trying.
Instead she gazed around her in dismay at the workers attending the massive foundries. They poured molten steel and shoveled coal into furnaces without rest, and while the shades didn't sweat, Persephone herself was roasting.
What was the point, she wondered, of all this? Was Hades trying to prove something to the Olympians in competing with Hephaestus' forge, perhaps? That didn't sound like her husband, but she had to admit she didn't know what he was thinking these days.
But when Hades explained it to her—hotter than the sun, and brighter, too—she understood. He was trying to make her stay for good, and despite the heat, shivers ran up her spine.