Her name was Kore, but it would not be for long.
The last time she wore it with pride was at that banquet on the shores of Lake Triton, where the Immortals used to gather, before the world was marred by winter and other tragedies.
Back then she was still a good girl.
Even that morning, Kore had come out of her cage without a word, following the guidance of her wise and beloved Mother. Kore remembered, that day, as the Immortals were all called on that fateful shore, watching herself in a mirror as Mother groomed her with her strong hands, and wondered if others would find her beautiful. Kore's deep green eyes shone like the sun amidst leaves, and her golden hair fell in gentle waves all around her shoulders, but it was just like the beauty of the Garden in which she had spent all her life. She knew not how to compare.
As Mother and Kore arrived on the shores of the lake, they received a warm welcome. It was a blessed time, when the Immortals were all still united, and the memory of the past War fresh enough to keep them all together, but distant enough not to weigh like a shadow.
Kore exchanged a few words with the other Immortals, especially those that would be closer to her in generation.
"It is good to see you back here," said strong Athena, her grey eyes full of appreciation and mirth. She too was still young. Young and unmarred.
"Ah, Kore. What a pleasure," welcomed her wise, ancient Hecate, who Kore loved because they were used to walk together, and Hecate would tell her all the ancient stories of the world before the Olympians.
"Kore. Can I go hunting in your woods?" Asked Artemis, an eager smile peeking through the dark bands of her hair. Kore started at the request, shifted her eyes towards Mother, who replied with a stern look. Kore smiled sheepishly, and the Hunter Goddess nodded in acknowledgment, turned and left, already chasing some other figment of conversation.
"Kore! Come here and greet me!" Echoed a warm voice from behind her. Kore turned and ran, jumping into the strong arms of Zeus.
"Father!" She chuckled as he lifted her in the air, laughing thunderously. Mirth and love sparkled in the eyes of the King of Gods.
"Ah, Kore! I never meet you too often!"
"Father… could you please put me down now? I am not a child anymore."
"This I can see, Kore," Zeus replied, laughing. But he did as she asked and sat her against the ground. "Look at you. Ah, the Fates have been kind with you. You are stunning." He laughed again. "Never wonder where you got your good looks!"
"One could wonder, indeed," replied the icy voice of Hera, walking next to Zeus, her hands crossed over her chest.
"Come on, now. This is an occasion of joy, let us not squabble…" he put his arm over his wife, and dragged her away from Kore, not before smiling at her over his shoulder. "I shall see you later!"
"Always so expansive," Mother chilly commented, coming to set her hands atop her shoulders, dragging her closer.
"What do you mean, Mother?" Kore asked, for she was curious, a trait that would be her ruin and her salvation.
"Your father thinks he owns everything he touches," Mother whispered under her breath. "Come, now. Sit down. Be a good girl."
And Kore obeyed, because at that time, she still was.
The banquet was remarkable. Not just for the nectar and ambrosia served, but also thanks to the laughter provided by a mortal entertainer, whom Zeus seemed to find amusing. The man, whom was called Sisyphus, danced and sang and told stories at the table of the Immortals.
Kore found him an oddity, with his crafty eyes and his sneaky hands. He seemed to be afraid of something, running against time. But she did not dare ask why. Her doubts were clouds in the spring sky, ephemeral and meaningless, and if they mimicked an important thought, it was by chance.
That was what had been taught to her, and at the time she believed it.
And thus, she spoke not, and sat at her place, and laughed in a choir with the other Immortals, and that might have been a day like any others, forgettable and meaningless.
And it was.
Until the Elder King came.
It happened late in the afternoon, when some of the Immortals had left the table. Athena, always the favourite, had already made good use of her privileges by taking the hand of her friend Pallas and disappearing with her into the woods. To do what, Kore had no idea. She knew she was supposed to know, but it bothered her she did not.
She did not know many things, and that made her itch.
She had grown and was not a child anymore.
Even Hecate was hesitant to…
Kore was shaken from these thoughts by the trembling noise of shaking earth. She had felt an earthquake once, but it had been a far-away tremor, and had passed under her feet like the snoring of some slumbering beast. This was close. Much closer.
Right behind her, in fact.
The Immortals' gazes all converged on the one point, next to Kore, where soil and sand shifted, opening like a maw. From the mouth in the earth came a cool wind, and echoes of a song Kore did not recognize, and then, taking long strides, a stranger.
Kore did not recognize the newcomer. Still, the entire table of the Immortals fell silent at his appearance. He was tall, broad-shouldered, shrouded in black clothes. Under his arm he held a shining bronze helm, in his right hand a long two-pronged spear. He was bald, and had no beard. Pale was his skin, and his eyes like two black beads, and yet a coveting golden light was inside them, like the shining that's imprisoned in the jewels deep in the bowels of jealous Gaea.
Zeus was, unsurprisingly, the first to recover. If Kore expected him to yell at the newcomer's bold appearance, she instead saw a large smile appear upon Zeus' face.
"Brother! I did not expect you! What a pleasant surprise, come, sit with us! Poseidon, scoot over, he needs a seat."
The thoughts inside Kore's head had all coalesced like morning dew collected on a large leaf, and she could not believe that the question shaking her to her core could be dismissed as a fantasy of a girl. Did Zeus have another brother? And why did she know nothing of him?
The newcomer stopped. Slowly, a thin smile appeared upon his face, and to Kore reminded of a wrinkle in the trunk of an ancient tree.
"Ah, I apologize. I did not wish to interrupt your fun. I am not here for your banquet, as much as I would like, brother dearest." His voice was deep, low, and yet had a sharp quality to it. It could be, thought Kore, the voice in which gemstones and gold and silver shared their secrets, deep under the deepest roots of trees. The newcomer pointed his two-pronged spear at the Mortal, Sisyphus. "I am here for him."
"For him?" Asked Zeus.
"Ah, o Unseen On-" began the Mortal, only to be interrupted by the soft, stern voice of the newcomer.
"Silence. He has tricked Thanatos with that silver tongue of his. He is a thief and a liar, and thus he should have been judged. I have been looking for him, and I am here to collect what is mine."
The newcomer took a step towards the Mortal, who wailed and threw himself at the feet of Zeus.
"Ah! O Father of All, please have mercy! Did I not entertain you with my songs and dances? Did I not…"
Kore chuckled, despite the tense situation. If he thought to sway Zeus with such ridiculous plight…
Indeed, Zeus's brows lifted. He looked more shocked by the gall the mortal had to beg him than the entire situation.
"Should I deny my brother and his rights over some silly dance? Brother, he is yours. Devise a fitting punishment."
"Duly noted," replied the newcomer, again with that odd smile upon his lips. Kore was drawn to that strange smile. She was used to see Immortals smile, laugh even. The newcomer seemed shrouded in a veil of stern solemnity of which she ignored the reason. It drawn her to him, with all the strength of an unsolved mystery.
The newcomer lifted a finger, and from the ground beneath the feet of the mortal iron chains sprouted, like ringed roots. They coiled around his legs as snakes might have done in Kore's garden, and the mortal was dragged down the hole from which the newcomer had appeared. He let out one last pained wail and was gone.
"I do have something special in mind for him," Zeus' other brother said. "I will let you know."
"Are you going already?" Was there sorrow in Zeus' voice, now? Something that Kore was not used to hear, nor would she, not yet.
"I must," the newcomer said. "My domain reclaims me. And as this accident has proven, not all my subordinates are as trustworthy as I would wish."
Zeus sighed.
"Another time, then. Poseidon, sit down again, your seat is not necessary anymore."
"Once again I apologize for the interruption," the newcomer said. "Please resume your activities."
He turned and was about to leave.
Kore had followed him with his eyes since the moment he had appeared. And maybe it was chance, or maybe it was the will of Ananke, but his black eyes fled over hers for a moment.
They stopped.
Came back.
The newcomer stood still next to her.
Kore was so captured by the sight, by the sharp curves of his lips, his cheekbones, the thousand gold lights that seemed to glow in those bottomless eyes, that he did not feel Mother's hand gripping her shoulder.
"Who are you?" Asked the newcomer. He lifted the hand that gripped the spear, and with one finger came closer to brush aside a strand of golden hair.
Kore was frozen, and yet her heart thundered in her chest, louder than a thousand deer galloping in panic down the hills.
Kore opened her mouth to answer.
She could answer this.
This unknown Immortal had asked her a question.
A question she could answer.
"She is my daughter," Mother answered for her.
The black eyes of the newcomer did not move to meet Mother's.
"She takes her good looks from the father, then."
Kore had to call on all her self-control not to chuckle.
The world had just gone mad.
This… stranger… was talking back to Mother.
And why did she want him to keep talking?
His voice was a purr.
He was so close.
If she lifted her hand, she could touch him.
"I gather your business here is finished?" Mother venomously replied.
"Maybe. Maybe not."
The man blinked.
Something seemed to shift inside him. He squared his shoulders and withdrew his hand. The moment had passed, and the sun was once more veiled by clouds.
"Another time, then." The newcomer said, in an echo of Zeus.
He turned and left, disappearing into the shadow.
The earth shut behind him, and all was just as it had been, barely a few moments before.
All, except for that charge of deer inside Kore's chest.
And the memory of those black eyes.
She did not speak of him, nor ask Mother who he was.
Mother took it as a good sign.
A fatal mistake.