And so passed a 100 years. Persephone, certainly not Zeus's youngest child anymore, still retained her position of everyone's favorite through her innocence, humility, and charm. She made friends, of course, but not as many as a person might expect from everyone's favorite goddess. Nymphs were her closest companions of course, and she was surprisingly warm to her half and step siblings. Being a goddess of nature, Persephone was fond of Artemis too, though the huntress was a couple years older. And with Artemis came her brother Apollo, who was only allowed to be in Persephone's presence by the promise that Artemis would keep a watchful eye on her flirtatious twin. Her best friend, amazingly, was Eros, the son of Aphrodite. She would teasingly call him Cupid, as the Romans had named him. Being that he was the offspring of Aphrodite, it was no surprise that Cupid's powers were of the same nature of his mother's. What did come as a surprise, though, was that Demeter let her Kore be friends with a deity of love. But it was soon evident that he would not age into a man, and Demeter let it pass.
Persephone spent a hundred years in careless bliss, eternally a child, naively unaware of her mother's unfair constriction. But this year was different. This year was the year when her conscious memory took form. She would remember everything from this year on. Demeter loathed the time. She'd wished her little Kore be dead before she could become impure. At 106 years, her little girl would not be so naive anymore.
While Demeter decided to almost lock up the girl when she had the chance, the other goddesses decided now would be the best time for Persephone to begin her learning. Elementary, of course, but everything starts from somewhere. Aphrodite tutored Persephone on performances, how to befriend everyone and anyone. Mother Hera, who tolerated Persephone most out of all her step children, taught the girl both how to be gentle and cunning, teaching her methods of how to get her way. Though she was put in isolation anytime she was with her mother, that didn't mean that Demeter didn't train her. Persephone was the goddess of spring after all.
Demeter started her with menial tasks, which still took time for her to learn. Oyi! Her mother could raise a whole field of grass with only a lift of her hand, and here it took Persephone 6 days she to get a couple blades to stand tall without turning brown. On the 7th day she rested, doing no spring work at all but rather, had fun following around other goddesses.
Also special about this year was that this was the first homecoming that she was going to clearly remember, and Persephone was really excited for it. She used her charm, (Hera noticed) and had Hera assign her the central role for the main presentation, and asked Aphrodite to help her create the best performance. All of it was, of course, planned behind her mother's back. Demeter was on the other half of the world, giving spring over to summer, when Hermes reached her with the itinerary for the homecoming ceremony. It was probably from this exchange that a famous line came into existence: "Don't kill the messenger!"
Persephone was in her room, practicing her recital with Cupid when her mother charged in, literally breaking down the door.
"Persephone Kore! What exactly are you doing?!" Demeter screamed as she strode in, making Persephone freeze and Cupid scurried under the bed.
"Mother!" Y-you've returned so soon! I wasn't expecting you till days before the homecoming!"
"And you assume that gives you permission to make decisions for yourself! You will not participate in the ceremony!"
Demeter would have forbidden her to go at all, but not even Hades could refuse an appearance, without repercussions, at least.
Persephone pouted with big, watery eyes and grabbed her mother's hand to have her sit on the bed.
"Mother, do you not remember the first time you saw me? Do you not have my all my first things; my first laugh, my first tear, my first tooth, stowed away in a chest? Do you not relish them?"
The look on Persephone's face and her choice of words made Demeter soften as she sighed calmly and stroked her daughter's face.
"Of course I do, my dear."
"Do you know the feeling you get when you remember them? Well I want that too, Mother. This is my first homecoming and the first year I am officially going to remember. Please let it be special for me." To appeal to her mother, Perse fell on her knees.
"Just this one has to be extra special, Mother. Then after they can be as bland and unmemorable as, as something I don't even remember,"
Demeter laughed at her daughter's words and pulled Kore up to sit on the bed.
"Oh Kore! Just this one, then."
"Oh, and by that I meant the Homecoming celebrations. I will not take any lack of celebration and grandeur for my birthday. I mean, have you seen a birth more festive than mine?!" Her declarations succeeded in lightening the mood and Demeter caved in.
"I-is it s-safe to come out?" Cupid whimpered from under the bed.
"Yes, you can come now Eros." Demeter said, laughing still. "And what are you doing for the ceremony?"
"W-Well..."
The rest of the evening, the kids showed Demeter their dances for the ceremony.
2 weeks passed and it was finally Homecoming, most of the original six gods had arrived to their castles on Olympus. All except Hades. Persephone was too young to bother wondering, and Demeter was all too grateful for Hades's absence. He wasn't even there when the parade began. And it really was a gorgeous performance. This year's theme was spring as Persephone was playing the central role. Flower garlands and flower shaped synchronized dancing were spread about the main castle. The presentations were over and the gods took to their thrones. Persephone led the gift giving this year and everyone came after her. Soon, Hades's absence became the elephant in the room. While many of the adults were taking it lightly, Zeus was very clearly in no mood for it.
"Who are we waiting for?" Persephone asked the twins.
"Uh, Hades? Duh!" Apollo answered.
"Give her a break! She's almost 106, she doesn't remember anything from before this year that isn't consistent. And Gaia forbid if Hades is ever a constant in her life!"
"Why? What's he like?"
"Hades's the God of the Underworld! If he touches you, you're bound to be forever trapped in the Underworld as his slave!" Narcissus scared the young ones with horror stories of the Underworld.
"Don't be silly! We're gods, we can't die!" Harmonia chided Narcissus. "But, yeah, you do have to be careful around Hades. He may not capture you, but he's not the most friendly either. He's like Aunt Hestia. No wonder they're really close. Like brother and sister, close."
The discussion continued for only a little bit and then the food officially came out, much to everyone's delight. There was pure food from every part of the world, and tasted much much better than food that was conjured up. Persephone was intent on making her "first" Homecoming as memorable as she could and planned to have as much fun as possible. She even ignored Demeter's requests for her to stay calm and careful. She was merry and cheerful and played with all of her friends as much as she could, late into the evening. Most of her friends had left and by now even Demeter had wandered off, leaving Persephone moping around the halls. That's when she suddenly caught sight of a person storming by, and she decided to secretly follow him.
The grumpy old man turned out to be her father.
Zeus was serious, and furious. It was one of the rare times she'd seen her father so solemn. He'd never even been this serious when Hera was screaming at him. He was always so jolly, even at the most absurd times. She was almost scared that he'd yell at her if he caught her. But Zeus was distracted by his determination to complete the task he came to do. She followed her father into a room that not many bothered to go in, hiding from her father behind one of the many pillars mazed around the circular room. Persephone watched as Zeus lit a fire in a giant chalice, then collected some leaves from an indigo plant growing nearby. He tossed the leaves into the fire one by one, slowly turning the fire blue as each leaf went in. Persephone had to quickly cover her mouth from screaming as her father tipped the fire in front of him, but the fire didn't spread. She skittered over to another pillar from which she saw the blue fire lying in a heap over a neat circle. The flame cackled and sparked, then turn by turn, a blue beam erupted from the fire till there emerged an entire column of blue fire.
Apparently, it was the gateway to hell.