For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?
By Asso
Chapter Thirteen
For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Hera turned around. She turned her back to Zeus. Her gaze lingered thoughtfully over the infinity of her groom's domains.
Over the sky. Over the sea waves, down there. Over the vast fields of the earth, there, far away. Over the mountain peaks all around; high, but not as high as the Olympus that everything overhung; lost against the blue of the sky.
Serious and low her voice sounded.
"But the problem, for you, my husband, remains."
She turned around. She looked intently at Zeus.
"Nothing, I'll say. I'll be your trustworthy and loyal bride. But you, my husband... you... what will you say, when you'll be required?"
Zeus returned the gaze of his bride.
His eyes were grave, but, in some way, tranquil.
Hera understood. The awareness of her silence had infused strength and self-confidence in her husband.
And the almost cheerful tone of his voice confirmed it to her.
"Only three gods can upset the world in the way it has been upset, my wife."
The tone of Zeus's voice became declaredly cheerful.
"Poseidon, Hades..." And he laughed openly. "... and me."
Hera raised an eyebrow. Somehow, she did not like the turn that her husband's' speaking was taking.
Zeus chuckled slyly.
"Hades is down there, round where he dwells, busy... in his business. And… well…" He snickered impishly. "…I highly doubt he will want to take part in the explanations. But, on the other hand, who could ever imagine that the tenebrous Hades, who never leaves his realm of death, may have been the cause of everything? Hades... it's Hades. He is there and there he stays, not giving a damn about the things of the world. Of anything, it were even the veritable end of the world. Poseidon... well, he will want to know. Much as he can be embedded in his liquid realm, surely he will want to know. He likes to be part of the high council of the gods and be participant of the events of the upper world. Not to mention that, according with the rather high opinion he has of himself, a god of his rank, as he would say, can't be in ignorance of what happens under the sky. And he knows not being him to have provoked all that uproar. And, just as well as the others, never he might suspect it's Hades. So... "And Zeus chuckled again. "... so, who remains, it is me."
Hera's eyebrow rose a little more.
"That is to say, my august husband?"
Zeus laughed loudly.
"Hera, my wife, could anyone ever ignore that the roaring voice that could be heard in the midst of all that tumult was mine?"
Hera's gaze became icy. And icy resounded her voice. She was beginning to understand and she was not at all happy with what, just glimpsed before, now she was beginning to grasp in the whole.
"In a nutshell, you will say that it was you who unleashed all that ruckus."
"That's right, my wife."
"But..." And her voice was an icy whisper. "...why ever?"
Zeus' roaring laugh sounded again.
"I could simply answer that it is my business, but I will say… never interfere between husband and wife! "
Hera crossed her arms on her chest.
"Ah, I see. In short, you would have unleashed all this ruckus because angry with me."
"Well..."
"A great honour, being able to push the king of the gods to such excesses."
"Oh but... my wife... you are capable of this and much more!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Oh... ah... I mean ..."
"What do you mean, my revered husband and lord?"
Zeus took a deep breath. He stood silent for a long moment, looking at his wife halfway between being apprehensive and annoyed.
Finally, he made up his mind to speak.
And, once again, he managed to find the right words.
All in all, his high title had indeed reason for being.
"Wife, only the wife of the king of the gods can lead him to such excesses. No one else would be capable of it."
"Ah, so it would be my fault?"
"I would rather say merit, my wife. Merit full of pride. Only the woman loved by the king of the gods can be able to bring the king of the gods to shake the world."
Hera understood that the fluid and enveloping web of Zeus was enwrapping her again, but she did not know what to do about that. That soft and warm cocoon was delightfully pleasant!
"I should feel proud, Zeus?"
"Yes, my wife. Proud and honoured."
"Proud and honoured!"
"Certainly. You are the shining emblem of what women are! Whether mortal or immortal!"
"I am...?"
"Yes. It's women who move the world, it is for them that men - gods or humans, it does not matter - live and act. For better or for worse!"
And so, it was done again.
Hera realized this.
Zeus had won.
Once again, he had won.
As it had been with Cronos.
As, after all and albeit with a sneaky deception, it had been with Hades, although this one, even though perfectly aware, - of that, Hera was certain and now, after what her husband had told her about it, even more than she had been before - had not raised an eyebrow regarding Zeus' fraudulent victory.
As it was, now, with her.
His web of dark lies would once again conceal the truth.
However...
Hera turned again and let her gaze still wander over the vast sky beyond the columns of the Olympic palace.
However...
Her voice sounded soft in the air.
"For better or for worse, husband?"
She turned around. Her large eyes stared intently at her husband.
"As Hades with Persephone?"
Persephone strayed her eyes away from those hypnotic eyes.
She had never seen them before.
And yet... she had seen them.
That night.
The night of her incomprehensible restlessness, after the apotheosis of her consecration.
She remembered seeing them.
In her mind.
As if they were calling her.
From the recondite depths of herself
Those eyes.
Those empty eyes...
And doleful...
And mesmerizing...
Those eyes that were staring at her now.
All of a sudden serious and grave again, Zeus returned his wife's gaze.
"As Hades with Persephone, my wife."
Hera nodded. Turned again towards the sky. Murmured softly.
"I see."
She stood silent for some instants.
Then her soft voice let itself be heard again. From behind her shoulders.
"But she, my husband and lord... she ... Persephone... where is she?"
Persephone turned slowly.
Low eyes. Head bowed. Faint voice.
"Your realm, my lord?"
She turned back again.
She raised her face with feeble strength.
She looked - she dared to look - at those eyes of a timeless nothingness.
She dared to ask.
"What is your realm, my lord?"
And she dared again.
"Who are you, my lord?"
And again.
"Why..."
Her voice trembled perceptibly.
"... why did you bring me here?"
Zeus snorted hard.
He was loosing his patience.
Because his wife was bringing to light, one by one, all the nodes that the comb of his shrewdness had necessarily to smooth. Without knowing how to do.
And this... this was intolerable, behold!
He played the role of the one who doesn't understand.
"What do you mean... where's Persephone? You know very well where she is, wife!"
Hera did not let herself be intimidated. She knew very well that, when her husband behaved that way, he was looking for some useful suggestions. In his own way, of course. Because he was what he was. But he was doing it. And, after all, she was his wife. It was her duty to be by his side. And also... and also her pleasure!
Pleasure! PLEASURE! PLEASURE! For the bowels of Cronos!
Because… damn! It was true! Zeus, her husband, loved her and she... she... damn it!... she loved him!
Beyond all her ambitions, which - she did not deny it to herself - had played not a small role in her giving herself to him as a woman and as a wife… she loved him!
Sometimes it came her to wonder if that cold fish of Athena was after all right in in letting it be understood, without much compliment, as it was her use, that, in her opinion, she, Hera, was... was a goose!
She spoke softly without turning around.
"Yes, I know it. And..." She turned back to her husband and looked at him purposefully. "...and I will not say anything, but ..."
"But?"
Zeus's voice was impatient.
As well as that of Hera resounded quiet.
"But the fact remains that she has disappeared. Perhaps not everyone, not right away, will notice it, but her mother... "Hera's voice hardened a little."...the one in whose womb you have injected the seed of Persephone ..." Then her voice softened again. "... she can not fail to notice it."
Zeus stood looking at his wife with a frown that actually denoted all his uncertainty.
And his wife gave no respite to him.
"And she will want to know."
Zeus' expression darkened even more.
He spoke.
A low roar.
Of impotence.
Of unexpressed request.
"Yes, she will want to know."
"And you, my lord ..."
"I..."
Still a roar. Almost a roar. Or, perhaps, a roaring request for help?
Hera smiled.
A big, sweet, knowing smile.
"You, my lord… you will foam at the mouth by rage."
"I... I will foam at the mouth by rage?"
"Sure! Who dared? Because it will be evident to everyone, and first of all to her mother, that the hooked fingers of an unknown and cursed kidnapper has been the cause of Persephone's disappearance. But who dared to commit such a crime? Who! Who dared to steal Persephone from her mother? From you, my lord? From you, the King of the Gods?"
"Yeah. Who... who dared?"
"Woe to him, woe to anyone who dared to do it!"
"Yeah... sure. Woe to him!"
"Your fatal wrath will fall on him!"
"Sure, sure! My wrathful anger will fall on him!"
"You will unleash to the four winds Hermes, your lightning-quick and crafty herald and observer, capable of arriving anywhere in a flash, to find out who may have been."
"Oh... oh yes, of course I will do that."
"And he will search everywhere. Everywhere! But nothing he will find out."
"Eh... oh yes, nothing he will find out."
"At least under the light of the sun."
"Eh yes... because Persephone is no... is no longer under the light of the sun."
"Yes. She is... elsewhere."
"Yeah. Elsewhere."
"But, on the other hand, how might Hermes ever think of looking for her there? How could he think of looking for Persephone where she is? In the realm of death and nothingness? How could her vivid light ever be entrapped in the dark light of the Lord of Nothingness?"
"Mh... yeah... sure, impossible, really."
"Hermes' search will be fruitless, unfortunately."
"S… sure. Un… unfortunately."
"And at that moment, when it will have to be acknowledged that every search will have been in vain, you will curse the one who has dared to perpetrate such a misdeed."
"O... o... of course, I'll do that!"
"Your terrible curse will fall on him. A curse that will make him, even if unknown, the most miserable and wretched of beings."
"Certainly!"
"Well knowing, in your immense wisdom, that no curse, not even yours, could ever scratch one of the other two Great Ones. Neither Poseidon, nor... Hades."
"E... exactly."
"So, this way, you will do, my husband and lord, won't you?"
"Yeah... sure. It is exactly what I was thinking of doing."
"I did not doubt it, my lord."
"Ah, here."
"Poor Demeter..." And here Hera's voice turned being coloured by a tenuous yet undoubted smugness. "...will have to resign herself. No one will ever be able to reveal to her where her beloved daughter ended up."
"Yeah." Zeus' voice rang a little unconfident. "Yeah. Sure. No one."
Helios was driving his chariot high up in the sky.
His chariot.
The bright chariot that brightened everything.
Again.
After the obscure darkness that for long, endless moments, had enveloped everything.
He was driving his chariot back along the bright paths of the sky.
And he was thinking.
He was thinking.
About the darkness that had everything wrapped up.
About the dark storm that for long moments had held back his celestial run.
He was thinking.
About what he had seen.
And about what he had not seen.
He had seen Persephone, uselessly sought from above by her mother, by Demeter, rashly approach the grim forest that was the prelude to the realm of the dead.
To the kingdom of... of...
He had seen her go into it.
He had seen her penetrate - incomprehensibly - into the thick and obscure tangle of its immense twisted trees.
And then… he had seen her run desperately out of it.
And he had seen the earth open up behind her.
Even in the middle of the leaden darkness that had fallen everywhere and in the din, in the ruckus that had poured over the world, he had seen.
He had seen the immense and obscure cleft that had chased after her from the forest, as if to swallow her.
He had seen her disappear into the abyss that had opened beneath her.
He had seen all this.
But he had not seen anything else.
He had not seen how she had been drawn into the abyss.
He had not seen who or what had grasped her.
Because... yes... because she had been grabbed.
Mighty arms, though invisible, had grabbed her.
A mighty vehicle, though invisible, had transported her... down.
Under the earth that had closed impenetrably above her.
But he, Helios, hadn't been able to see of whom those arms were, what the means was on which Persephone had been dragged... underneath.
However, although his eyes had not seen, his mind had done it.
His mind had seen.
He knew of whom those arms were, the arms his eyes had not seen but his mind had.
He knew what the... kidnapping means was.
He knew…
He knew who was able to conceal himself from anyone's sight. God or man or beast.
He knew who possessed such a power.
He knew… who had snatched Persephone from the light of his bright heavenly chariot.
Who was he who, from his obscure forest, threshold of nothingness, had cast his dark shadow to swallow the vivid light of the daughter of Demeter and Zeus.
He knew.
But...
But he would not reveal anything.
He would remain silent.
It was not... it was not wise to meddle in the business of...
Of Hades!
The voice, sombre and dark, rose again.
In the disquieting surrounding nothingness, it resounded into Persephone's ears.
Low and deep.
Gloomy.
And yet courteous, too.
Gentle.
"You know where you are, Persephone. You know what my realm is. You..." The ghostly eyes behind the helmet lit up with a dark glare. "...you know who I am."
It was like this.
Persephone knew very well where she was, who the lord of that kingdom made of nothing was.
She knew who was concealing himself behind that helmet.
And she said it.
With a firm and sure voice.
With pride.
With courage.
"You are Hades."
Her voice grew louder.
"And this..."
Her arm rose to indicate with a wide gesture the nothing around.
"... this..."
And even stronger her voice sounded.
"This is your realm."
The deep voice, low and manly, made itself be heard again.
The answer. The answer in response to her words.
An answer that Persephone would not have expected.
And proffered with a soft and gentle tone. With inside – evident - a clear note of appreciation and admiration.
"I knew that proudness and courage couldn't but be one with your peerless beauty, Persephone."
Persephone looked up to watch with a surprised and befuddled gaze those other eyes, which now seemed to smile an amused and subtly mischievous smile from behind the slits of the sallet of the black helmet.
Those eyes, that look, which, though kindly, seemed to want to make fun of her, triggered something inside her.
Something...
A pride...
An audacity...
Greater than those unconsciously shown before.
Which she did not know she possessed.
She spoke.
With even higher voice than before.
With strength.
With self-assurance.
With...
With authority.
Conscious of doing it.
"I know who you are, but I do not know how you are. Take off that helmet, so that I can see not only the eyes but the whole face of my captor."
And, at that point, a strange thing happened.
Those spectral eyes, his eyes, the eyes of Hades, widened out in pure wonder.
The same that rang clear in his voice.
"You... can see me?"
Persephone stared at those eyes wide open in surprise.
"Of course I can see you. Why shouldn't I ...?"
"You can see me? Not just hear me? "
"But... of course! I see you! Perfectly! I do not understand why I shouldn't... "
"And can you see where you are? I mean, can you see the chariot where you and I are?"
"But... but of course I can!" Now Persephone was more than ever surprised. "I see it distinctly!"
"And the horses, too?"
"The horses?"
"The horses, yes. The steeds that are attached to the chariot."
Almost by its own will, Persephone's confused gaze turned to look at the black, mighty steeds that were still, suspended in the void, attached to the chariot they had dragged down deep in a mad race.
Then her bewildered and uncertain eyes moved swiftly back to Hades, whose eyes now looked as being waiting for her response in anxious expectation.
"Of course I see them." Persephone's voice was pervaded by her disorientation and puzzlement. "Why should I not see them?"
There was silence.
Long moments of silence.
While Persephone looked intently and even anxiously at those eyes - those dark wells behind the helmet.
While those eyes narrowed, staring at her with acute intensity.
Then, finally, the black figure moved.
Without any sound being emitted from it, it slowly lifted its iron-clad arms.
He brought them to his helmet.
The iron black-gloved hands gripped the helmet.
They lifted him up.
Up.
Hades' face appeared.
To Persephone's full sight, it appeared.
Demeter was flying.
Under the vault of the sky, she was flying.
And was looking.
And was searching.
And nothing, she was able to find.
Persephone! Persephone, my daughter! My sweet, beloved daughter! Where are you?
And a sudden - horrible - thought overshadowed every other thought in Demeter's mind.
Kidnapped! Yes! Kidnapped! Persephone had been kidnapped! Something... someone had kidnapped her!
Persephone... who... who took you away from me?
Someone...
Who... who...?
Of whom was the face that at that moment was watching her Persephone?
Of whom?
Which was... how was that face?
Raven hair.
Short.
Above an alabaster face.
Persephone looked at that face.
She scrutinized it.
Its severe mouth.
Its pale lips, fine yet full.
Its high cheekbones.
Its nose, straight and mighty.
Its strong-willed chin.
She watched the thousand wrinkles that furrowed its high forehead.
Deep wrinkles.
As time.
She looked at that marble face.
Raw-boned.
With no beard, nor moustache.
Not young.
Not old.
Timeless.
And handsome.
Like those eyes - dark deep wells - that seemed to conceal arcane knowledges.
Obscure beauties.
Those eyes.
Which were staring at her.
Don't you dare to turn your face on her, monster! Whoever you are!
Don't you dare to turn your unclean eyes on her!
"This is my face, Persephone. Hades' face."
Persephone roused suddenly from her ecstatic observation at the sound of that voice.
His voice.
Strong. Deep. Harsh, too.
Yet, somehow, also soft.
Courteous, once again.
"And this..."
The arms wrapped in black iron moved. The hands lowered. They tendered forwards the black helmet towards Persephone, to show it to her blatantly.
".. this is the helmet the Cyclops gave me. The kunée. The means by which I managed to enter unseen in the Titans' encampment and destroy all their weapons, thus allowing Zeus and Poseidon to defeat Cronos. Because, see Persephone, it grants to him who wear it the gift of invisibility, both for the one wearing it and for what the one wearing it is using. Like my chariot. And the steeds that pull it."
Persephone widened her eyes in the sudden, arduous comprehension.
"But..." Hers was an acute exclamation of wonder. "...but I have seen you! I see you! As I see the chariot! And the horses!"
The alabaster face did not move a muscle.
Only the unearthly eyes showed something.
Something that was no longer wonder or surprise.
It was a thought. An inner question.
A thought, a question ... serious. Important.
Full of significance.
Persephone could guess it. Or maybe, more veridically, she ... could feel it.
Persephone realized it.
With wonder and... and with apprehension, she realized that she could feel that thought. That question
Perhaps because it was her own thought, her own question.
Or perhaps because... oh Uranus! Oh Gaea!... perhaps because she... she and that horrible and frightful god, that god, vituperated and hated, that god who had kidnapped her, who had stolen her from... from life!... because she and he... because her destiny...
All the fears, the obscure premonitions, the incomprehensible omens that had accompanied her since that evening, since the evening after her apotheosis...
Everything. Even the strange absurd thoughts that had crowded in her mind as her insane feet led her to the forest...
Everything reappeared suddenly in her brain.
In a confused and overwhelming whirlwind.
That his voice interrupted abruptly.
And she didn't stay surprised when the black shadow in front of her gave voice to that thought.
His and ... and hers!
She didn't stay surprised at his question.
"Persephone ..." Hades retracted the helmet and hung it on a spike of the chariot. His unearthly eyes stared at Persephone, who was breathing hard, holding her breath in waiting for the question she felt - she knew - that he would pose. "... why have you approached that forest, the forest that is the threshold of my dominion? Why have you come into it? Why have you exposed yourself my power?"
Persephone swallowed hard.
Without speaking, she stood staring wide-eyed at those other hypnotic eyes, unable to respond, to give voice to what she could not - she did not want to! - admit.
A deep sigh. Just so. Hades, the god of death, the king of the underworld, sighed visibly.
Then he turned around, turned his back to her.
She now saw his broad shoulders, clad in the black armour pauldrons.
And his nape. Covered by his short raven hair.
But it seemed to her she could see that face of him, that alabaster face, painful and gaunt, so different from the perfect faces of the other gods.
So darkly, sinisterly, attractive!
She could imagine - she could see - those lips, pale... and full, that severe and expressive mouth, as it spoke.
Gravely.
In a low voice.
"When I saw that you were approaching the forest, that you penetrated inside it, almost inviting me to act, I thought that Zeus was honouring our pact."
Persephone's head snapped up. She couldn't restrain herself, though anxious - fearful - of what Hades would say.
"What? Your pact? "Choked was her voice."Between you and... and my father?"
Hades turned, looked at her. A shadow... yes, a shadow of anxiety on his marble face.
A shadow of anxiety in his voice, though firm.
"I was not informed by my brother of either your birth or the ceremony of your consecration. It was a coincidence - or maybe... maybe it was the will of fate - that I, after time immemorial, turned my eyes to the world - to your world, Persephone, to the world of life and light and heat - and that so I could see you. You. In the splendour of your... "Hades' voice became a sort of low sigh."... of your beauty." The voice of the god of nothingness lowered even more. His eyes veiled with a strange shadow. "On that evening where thoughts, never had before, disquieted my spirit."
Hades broke off. He turned again. He spoke to the emptiness that surrounded them.
In a low and soft tone.
He spoke to Persephone.
And to himself.
"Perhaps it was those bizarre thoughts. I do not know. Those thoughts, which never I had had before, which came to unsettle my soul, a soul that never had known any upset. I do not know. Those thoughts, which spoke to me... which spoke to me about something I did not know. That I do not know, Persephone."
Hades turned back again.
He stared at Persephone.
A look she would never have believed he could have.
That she would never have believed it could exist.
"And I dared to think it were possible someone could teach it to me, Persephone."
Hades stood silent again.
Persephone did not dare to breathe.
She was stunned.
Incredulous.
Overwhelmed.
And she hung from his lips.
From his harsh voice. And profound.
And wonderfully endearing!
"When my gaze rested on you, on your incomparable beauty, I dared to think that it could be you to teach it to me."
Once again, Hades was silent. He crossed his arms wrapped in iron on his iron-covered chest.
One more sigh.
Then…
"So, that very evening, I did something I had not done in ages. I, Zeus and Poseidon possess a power that only we have. The throne that is reserved to us in the high assembly of the gods, in Olympus, is ready to receive us, at any moment and from any place we can be in. So, I left my kingdom and reached Olympus. My throne."
And so it was true! It had not been absurd and frightening fantasies, hers, of that night!
She... she had perceived - maybe ... maybe she had even seen for real inside her! - him, Hades, sitting on that throne! She had sensed... his presence!
She had really seen his netherworld eyes!
His fascinating netherworld eyes!
She had perceived all this because ... because...
Oh fate! Oh fate!
Why just he? WHY JUST I?!
The voice of Hades - the arcanely sweet voice of Hades! - burst into her confused and stunned mind.
That voice... that voice...
Why did she have to find that voice... so enchaining?
"I confronted Zeus hard-nosed. He had never excluded me from the social life of the high world, even though, in his heart, he, like all gods and demigods, was happy to know that I preferred to stay away from that world. That time, however, he had done it. Why? The only logical reason was that he feared fate had in store for me something he did not want me to have. And that something... that something, Persephone, I wanted to think it was you."
Oh Uranus! Oh mighty progenitor of us all!
To Persephone it almost seemed she was suffocating.
The god of death! THE GOD OF DEATH! Why? Why?WHY?
"I cornered Zeus, Persephone. He should not have opposed what I was thinking of doing, on penalty of a fratricidal war between him and me. And he, like me, knew that the winner would not be guaranteed. I did not have precise answers from him, but I know Zeus since ever. I know him well. And I knew well what his unspoken answer was. I left, well knowing that he would not oppose what I would do. A tacit pact had been sealed between him and me."
A breath of a voice, a faint breath of a voice, the voice of Persephone.
"And what you intended to do it was to kidnap me."
The alabaster face bowed.
A confirmation gesture.
The uncanny wells of those empty eyes seemed to want to elude Persephone's gaze.
The voice of the lord of the underworld sounded anything but strong and sure.
"And what else could have I done, Persephone? I ... I do not know any other means. I... I don't know how… how to woo. And then... when ever the celestial creature that you're could have accepted whichever sort of approach on my part? On the part of the gloomy, vituperated, avoided, feared, horrible, cruel God of the Underworld? And, besides that... "
Once again Hades was silent, before resuming in a firmer voice.
"Your mother, Persephone. I am antique, my young goddess, as antique as the world you know and even more. I know all about it and about the gods that govern it. And just as I know well your father and what he is, in the same way I know well your mother. And what she is."
Another short, expressive pause. Intense and tense.
"I would never have been able to convince your mother, Persephone. It's not next to a man, Human or God, that she thinks it may be your destiny. She thinks your destiny is to be her daughter forever. And nothing else and nothing more."
Hades gazed intensely at Persephone, as he spoke.
"Disrespectful of whatever it may be I do not say your yet unripened desires or your aspirations yet in bud, but also simply and even your will."
Persephone gasped.
She opened and closed desperately several times her mouth as if looking for air.
She panted.
The truth!
The raw truth!
The raw truth of her relationship with her mother!
Of her... unhappiness.
How harsh it was to hear it crudely thrown on her face!
And... and by the most improbable of beings who could have done it.
By Hades!
"So, Persephone ..." Hades' voice was now firm and sure again. "... I decided that the only means for..." A hesitation. A manifest hesitation. "... for having you it was to kidnap you."
Unexpectedly, at those words, Persephone shouted.
With indignation.
With a vibrant voice.
With blazing eyes.
"And you did it!"
Hades remained completely gobsmacked.
The great Hades stood astounded. Unable to speak.
And maybe…
Was it guilt and shame what could be glimpsed in those eyes of him, beyond the world?
"I…"
He could not finish what he was desperately trying to say. And did not know how to say.
"You did it, o god of nothing!"
Persephone's eyes looked like two ice-blue embers. Her voice was fire.
"Without thinking in the least of what my will could be! Like my mother. Worse than my mother! Because, at least, she is my mother! You... you're nothing! "
The iron-clad right hand rose imperiously.
The otherworldly eyes sparkled dangerous.
The voice died choked in Persephone's throat.
She fell silent, her trembling eyes fixed on those glittering of Hades.
His voice, deep and sour - resolute and firm. And gloomy. And… arcanely sad. - resounded mighty in nothingness.
"I'm nothing, it's true. Just as nothing is what you and I are now in, Persephone. But…"
The hand lowered.
The harsh and scratchy voice lowered.
It softened.
"But you are not yet in the middle of my realm, Persephone."
The hand moved to indicate with a wide, slow gesture the nothingness all around.
"This is the vestibule, Persephone. The entrance. The nothingness that must be crossed to reach the true reality of my kingdom. "
The voice rose in tone. It was powerful now, though still low.
"You can choose, Persephone. You can go further. You can go further into the kingdom of Hades. Or you can decide otherwise. You can instead decide to return to your world, to your mother. You can decide. Now and here. The choice is yours. Whichever it may be, I will comply it. I'll take you down with me, deep inside, if you want it. Or I'll take you back there above, to your mother, to your safe world of ever, if it's this what you want. And I will bring you back to your world even if - once you will have crossed the threshold and savoured my kingdom and, if you will wish... me too - you will want to reject both. My kingdom. And me."
A pause. Short and powerful.
Like the last words of Hades.
"The choice is yours."
Silence reigned for a long time in that place of silence.
Stern and waiting, Hades stood staring at Persephone.
Unquiet and confused, Persephone stood staring at Hades.
Confused as never she had been.
Confused in the mind and soul.
Finally, she found the voice.
She spoke.
In a faint and uncertain voice, she spoke.
"The choice is mine."
"The choice is yours, Persephone."
And the tone of that voice was warm. The tone of the voice of the Lord of the Underworld.
Warm. And reassuring.
Much as incredible it could seem.
"And..." Persephone's voice, if possible, resounded even more tremulous and weak, but her words were clear. "... and you... you, my lord... you will... will respect me? You... you will not take advantage of me against... against my will?"
"I will do so, Persephone."
"But..."
Persephone would never have been able to say where she found such a courage. The courage to say what she said.
To the Lord of the Underworld!
And nevertheless...
With a trembling voice, of course...
Nevertheless she said it.
"But can I trust you, my Lord?"
Persephone leaped back before Hades' flaming gaze.
And yet, she did not desist.
Although she trembled like a leaf, she did not desist.
"You have kidnapped me, my Lord. You have already acted without taking into account my will."
The flame eyes lost all ardour.
The alabaster face seemed to become even paler.
And Hades' voice seemed almost made of the nothing that surrounded him and Persephone.
"It's true, I did it."
Then, that face regained puissance.
Like that voice, harsh and... fascinating.
"But I explained to you why I did it, and I know you have understood. And, Persephone..."
The voice grew mighty again.
"... the Lord of the Underworld never lies. There is no place for lies in my realm. And in me. And I know that you know it."
Yes. Persephone knew it.
The abominable God of the Underworld never lied.
He was the God of the place where lying was useless and vain.
That was his law.
Persephone was quiet for a few moments, not ceasing his and her eyes to stare at each other.
Then, in a more tranquil voice, no longer trembling, with gentle calmness...
"But why should I follow you in the depths of your kingdom, my Lord? Why should I choose to be brought by you... further down? Why should I ever accept the impossible challenge of ..." And at this point Persephone's voice trembled again. It trembled strongly. "...of..."
And she could not continue.
And it was Hades, who did it.
It was him.
"Of teaching love to The One who does not know love."
Persephone's breath was a faint, imperceptible sigh.
Hades' voice was a faint, imperceptible murmur.
"Sure. Why should you ever?"
He turned again.
His gaze sank into nothingness.
His voice seemed made of that nothingness.
Persephone seemed to see, to feel, that gaze of him, lost into that nothingness. She seemed to sense that nothingness.
The desperate nothingness of a hopeless loneliness.
Inside him.
Inside herself.
Inside his rueful words.
"For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?"
End of Chapter Thirteen
TBC
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Sure.
For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?