Dhandi appeared dumbstruck as she stood in front of the now closed mouth of the cavern. Recalling the moments before it shut, Dhandi sniffled as she sank to the ground.
"Dhandi?" Amir echoed in her head, "Dhandi, the flowers won't last long. We need to hurry-"
"I know, Amir," Dhandi replied, sadly, "but they're still in there and-and I don't know if they're okay."
"Dhandi, they're genies. They've probably been through things worse than this and they've came out of it all right."
"Yeah, like there was this one time that this funny fat man took Eden from me and wished he was a giant," Dhandi manages a small smile as she remembers, "but Genie was able to stop him and the man turned into a cockroach."
"Yeah!" Amir replied, reassuringly if a bit confused by her "cockroach" comment. "If they can handle giants, they'll probably get out of this place."
Dhandi nodded as she reached into the bag on her back and stared at Eden's bottle. "She promised and I'm gonna hold her to it."
"Great," Amir said, with a tone of urgency, "but now we really have to get back to the golem."
Dhandi stuffed the bottle back in and jumped to her feet. "I hope Eden and Genie are okay."
-
The djinns watched as Hades paced furiously in front of them.
"Now, I'm not a violent guy," Hades said, calm but with evident rage backed up. "I hate violence. I'm just a god, trying to do his job despite it being completely unsavory and unsatisfying, but-"
Hades suddenly paused and stared at the djinns. "You know what? I'm just gonna cut to the chase." Suddenly, his calm tone turned into rage. "ARE YOU COMPLETELY MESHUGEH! WHAT MADE YOU THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO TRESPASS ON MY PART OF THE DOMAIN AND-"
"-AND STEALING MY NARCISSI!" The shouting was joined by Persephone who looked unhinged and angry by the red that would rival a tomato and the rather feral appearance her hair took on. Hades turned and looked at his wife. "Well, they had an accomplice, a little one in- anyway, they must pay for stealing my flowers and taking advantage of his poor security!"
"My what?" Hades appeared dumbstruck.
Persephone glared at him. "Well, if you had taken the time to ante up our security, this wouldn't happen so much."
"Hello," Hades snarled, "Underworld, land of the dead, that's security enough!"
"Oh, tell it to those sorcerers came down and took my flowers to make their stupid elixir!"
"I shall, Miss-Hey-Let's-Grow-Mystical-Flower-With-Freaky-Deaky-Restorative-Powers-And-Tell-Everyone-About-It!"
"Wha- How would you know anything about my social life if you're busy with your 'ooh, I'm gonna take over the freakin' Mountain'?"
As the divine couple bickered, Eden and Genie looked at them and each other.
"A bit of marital tension we have here?" Genie asked. The pair of gods turned and glared at him icily. The Genie of the Lamp shrunk back a bit. "Uh, just out of curiosity. You two seem like a good, um, couple."
"Ah," Persephone sighed, wistfully, "if only it were like that."
Hades rolled his eyes.
"I was young and creating flowers for Mother," the goddess continued, as Genie and Eden summoned a floral chintz couch and a couple of cozy armchairs and sat down, taking notes as psychiatrists, "and then he came back in his black chariot and asked to run away with him and get married-"
"What the!" Hades yelled, getting annoyed. "I kidnapped you! You were kicking and screaming the whole way down!"
"But you were so romantic then. Nowadays, it's all 'can't go do stuff with you, bubala, 'cause I'm too busy trying to take over Olympus!'"
"Hey, I'm trying to get in my bit for the hostile take-over of cosmos! I don't have time for your idea of that lovey-dovey schmaltz!"
"Wha-I'm down here for six months out of the whole freakin' year with a bunch of DEAD PEOPLE because of YOU!"
"Okay," Genie spoke up in a foreign accent as a squat elderly lady in thick glasses, "that's great. You are letting out your conflictions out in the open, giving us a chance to explore it. Now, with the help of yours Dr. Ruth Genieheimer and her lovely assistant, we will confront these problems that get in the way of a healthy relationship." Eden waved at them in a black pantsuit and a pair of very large, black cat-eyed frames and holding a pencil and ledger.
"Who said I wanted a relationship?" Hades pouted.
Genie firmly grabbed the Lord of the Underworld's earlobe and pulled it down. "Denial only makes it worse, Yingl. Now, we'll start with you. HELGA! Start ze MACHINE!"
-
Dhandi peered into the sarcophagus. She reached her tiny hand in. The clay is stiff and cool against her fingertips. She ran her fingers down its body. She stopped at its hand and rubbed it gingerly. A tiny, gentle smile peered in between her lips.
"Is it hard enough?" Amir asked.
"Yes," Dhandi replied.
"Good. On the forehead, you take a stick and write that word. You remember what it is?"
"Yep."
"You must get a fire going. Place one of the flowers on the golem's chest. After you write the word, you burn the other flower and say the incantation; my soul will be led to the other flower."
"Does it have to be big?" Dhandi asked.
"No," Amir replied, "it doesn't. It can't burn up too fast or you won't have enough time. Get going."
Dhandi pulled her hand out of the sarcophagus and began to pick up sticks. She looked at the different sizes, but, reminded of her task, she resumed her hastened pace. She didn't even notice the rustling in the limp grass.
She set the sticks down, piling upon the pallid soil. She knelt down beside it, closing her eyes and concentrating on the tiny ball of light that was forming in front of her. The ball roughly the size of an orange, she motioned it down to nest in the bed of kindling. The flames of the ball bit into the wood and crackled crisply.
As the small fire was growing, Dhandi stood up and rushed to the sarcophagus. A stick in her hand, she reached over to the golem's forehead and began scratching at the hard clay.
Scrit, scrit, the sounds of wood against dried clay could be heard. Dhandi pulled her hand away and blew the dust into a tiny cloud, revealing the crudely carved MAA'ET. She then pulled the bag off and undid the hook that closed the flap. Inside, nestled next to Eden's familiar pink bottle, was the pair of rather waning Persephone's Dawns. As if holding a baby bird in her hand, she lifted one by the bulb and placed it on the golem's chest, lying trumpet up.
-
"So, what are you gonna do?" Genie asked Hades and Persephone. The couple looked at each other as if they were about to eat cow dung.
"I'll...try to respect your personal things," Hades squirmed as he grumbled, "and...ugh, take of them better."
"And I'll try to take interest in your hobbies more," Persephone replied, uneasily. "I mean, it could be fun being an anarchist."
"Good," Eden said, "a very good start to the road of healthy relationship-building." She noticed Genie motioning her to leave. "So, you go and celebrate your newfound skill and we'll just find our way out-"
"Hold up, babe," Hades interrupted her. "There's still the manner of condemning you and your accomplices for breaking and entering and stealing and generally being PAINS IN MY SIDE!"
"Hades, honey," Persephone smirked, "they're djinn. They do as their masters commanded. We can't do anything about it, otherwise there's gonna be red-tape and lawsuits against the Underworld. In any case, the one that we should punish will be down here any moment."
Hades rolled his eyes, upon hearing this. Eden stared, bewildered. "Come again?"
"Oh, the little mortal that was with you. I can only assume she's gonna used them to revive someone."
"There's a catch!" Genie shouted. "That Mozen-punk had something planned, I knew it!"
"Of course," Hades grinned, "the Persephone's Dawn can resurrect those from the dead, but at exchange of the resurrector's own life. I mean, you can't get something for nothing these days."
Eden dropped her jaw, the onlookers, except for Genie, aware of the fury rising up in her green body.
"So if I were you, I would pick up a headstone for the kid on the way back up-" Hades looked at Eden, inquiring. "Oh, so the kid's yours, huh?"
Eden shot a poisonous glare at the god. Hades winced.
"Whoa, if looks could kill."
Persephone slinked towards Hades and stroked his chin. "Honey, why don't you just let them go?"
Hades turned and looked at her with his "are you out of your mind?" pout.
"Like there's any difference," the goddess countered with a shrug. "They're not of use down here anyway and beside, we need to...connect."
Hades clicked his tongue, slightly intrigued by that innuendo but still feeling deprived by his unfulfilled lust for torture. The djinns crossed their fingers as the Lord of the Underworld turned his focus back to them.
"Fine," Hades fumed, "get your tails out and stay out or become permanent residents, I don't care."
Hearing this, the djinns sped off towards the entrance as it opened its mouth. As they approached their exit, the sounds of plates crashing and bickering could be heard from the depths of the Underworld.
-
A cloud of smoke hovering above her, Dhandi quickly pulled the lid shut and rushed back to the side of the small pyre, its kindling near exhausted. Grabbing more sticks as she ran, she knelt back down and fed its flame. The fire hissed happily like a contented asp. She dug back down into her bag and pulled out the remaining flower. She looked at it, thoughts mingling in her brain.
Was it going to work? Would Amir even be happy, or would he even be Amir? What of that man that haunted her dreams? Would he leave and haunt Amir? Would he even leave?
"Dhandi," Amir spoke up, as did the depleting fire, "go ahead."
Dhandi took a deep breath and let the flower slide from her hand. The limp leaves caught fire first, the string of glowing embers working their way up the stem. The bulb crackled and popped, its juices hitting Dhandi in the face had she not flinched. The trumpet of the flower smoked and shriveled, a deathly scent rising from the pyre. Coughing, Dhandi recited:
"Sun rises and sets, creation's way...
Soul's ready, the vessel chosen...
Amir, his name and worthy one...
Truth upon his brow, rebirth his heart...
Clay into flesh, water into blood...
My life breath for this form's...
Lead mine to his, the worthy one...
Amir..."
Dhandi grasped her throat. Something was tightening around her lungs and she couldn't breathe. Her vision went out of focus as she collapsed on the graveyard soil. She could see a fuzzy green blob hovering above her, a sky blue one right beside it.
"Dhandi!" it said. "Dhandi, no! Don't leave me, baby!"
-
"Amir?" Dhandi looked around in the desert sands. She spotted a small figure by a windblown palm. "Amir!"
The girl ran towards him. The boy was lying beside the palm, clenching his stomach.
"Amir," Dhandi grabbed his shoulders, "what are you still doing here? I did the incantation and...Amir, you're gonna have a body again- what's wrong?"
Amir looked up at Dhandi. "He won't let me."
Dhandi's eyes widen. She knew what he was talking about and the roar of power behind her confirmed it as she and Amir ducked the blue fireball crashing into the palm. Dhandi brushed herself off when she found herself, staring at the maliciously smiling young man in dark blue.
"So, cutie," the young man smirked, perversely, "this is what you and your boyfriend were conspiring about then? Naughty kids, we'll have to put a stop to that."
Dhandi met his remark with a confident stance. The man grinned, his hand glowing.
"Wanna play ball?" His hand shot out and a malignant blue fireball hurled towards her. Dhandi cupped her hand and her own mage light rose and sped out, like a humming bird. The opposing lights crash together, the blue light grinding against the orange light violently. The orange mage light split like melon against an axe and the malevolent ball of light careened rapidly towards Dhandi.
The child leapt as it explosively created a crater in front of her. However, she had little time to rest as the man was retaliating quickly. Dhandi ran as debris and sand kick up with every blast discharged from the young man's hand to the point she was covered in dust.
"That's all you're gonna do, rabbit?" the man asked, leering at the massive cloud that formed. "I mistook you as more of a threat. Oh, well." The man ran in, hand glowing with that malicious power.
Dhandi's eyes, in that cloud of dust, darted about their sockets, wary of the menace that lurked nearby, even such to not pay heed to the crater that laid in front of her. She yelped, nearly falling in. Her ears picked up the sound of sand crunching beneath the soles of boots. She fell to the ground, careful to not make a sound.
He approached, his footsteps stopping. He could not see that familiar brown and orange that he'd associated his quarry with. The young man snarled as he stepped forward, but stopped, seeing the crater. Would be folly for him to fall in, as he reminded himself upon balancing on one leg.
Suddenly, something swung against his leg, toppling him over and into the crater. The young man coughed as he scrambled to readjust himself.
Then came that faint hum of power and the glow of orange. From a corner of his eye, he found her, standing above him with a dangerous look on her face and a massive ball of mage fire just at the tip of his nose. He turned and looked at the Dhandi. Here he would have made one of his abrasive remarks, but, instead, he merely smiled.
"Leave Amir and me alone," Dhandi said, her voice shaking, "forever."
-
Amir stared up at Dhandi, covered in dust and stumbling towards him. The boy, shaking as he got up, held out his arms, allowing the girl to collapse into them.
"He's gone, Amir," Dhandi said, in great relief in spite of feeling drained. "You're free."
"Dhandi," Amir sighed, holding her out at arms length and looking at her weary but confident expression, "I'm sorry."
Dhandi, baffled, opened her mouth to ask why, but Amir's small hand shot out and pressed against her nose and mouth. Dhandi struggled as she tore at Amir's arms, the boy's face expressionless and cold.
She couldn't breathe.
-
"Dhandi!" Eden shook her mistress, desperately. "Please wake up!"
Genie stood there helplessly, unaware of what, or rather who, was stirring in the sarcophagus a few away.
-
A/N: OOOOH, getting to the climax. Thanks everybody who managed to stay tuned in with me.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mozenrath, Dhandi, Eden, or Genie. Actually, Hades would be considered public-domain, because he and Persephone have been around for ages. However, his character and image in "Hercules" belongs to Disney.