Demeter came back to the throne room, followed by a handful of guards who clearly didn't know the meaning of guard.
Spirit still stood in the middle of the room, where Hades had grabbed him.
But Hades was gone.
Her heart in her throat, she could barely manage to choke out, "Spirit, where did he go?"
She could barely feel her feet as she walked forward. Numbly, she realized that Hades would never have been able to leave unless Spirit had let leave.
Spirit ducked his head to avoid her accusatory gaze when she reached him.
"Why did you let him go?" she demanded. "Answer me!"
"I'm sorry, Demeter," Spirit said simply.
"What do you mean by sorry?" Demeter asked flatly, a storm brewing within herself.
Spirit couldn't quite meet her eyes. "He threatened me. I had no choice. Maka stays with him."
Her daughter was in the company of a crazed god.
"Threatened you?" Demeter repeated, not believing what she was hearing. "He threatened you and you give away my daughter as if she's nothing?"
Spirit's protest was cut off by the sharp slap Demeter delivered to him. Her voice shook. "You were more concerned about yourself than your own daughter. That was a mistake. Go get her back."
"He will turn the world to ashes, Demeter. It would be an utter disaster."
Demeter was overtaken by a sense of calm, suddenly struck by an idea. "And that's your final decision?"
"It's not a decision, Demeter," Spirit said, looking at her pleadingly.
Demeter turned away, heading for the doors. "Neither is this."
At the doors, she paused. "I will show you ashes, Spirit. I will show you disaster."
She walked out of the doors and to the precipice of Mount Olympus. The view was as magnificent as ever, huge expanses of nature displaying its beauty at its finest. Demeter felt a moment of hesitation. She remembered her daughter, how she marveled at every little thing nature had to offer.
And then, she remembered that she may never see Maka again.
Reaching deep within her, Demeter searched for her connection to the earth. It pulsed like a little heart, giving life and energy to every single plant.
For a moment, she cradled it within herself.
Then, she snuffed it out.
Soul didn't know where he was going.
He barely knew who he was at the moment, the voices threatening to finally overwhelm him.
He forced one foot in front of the other, blindly putting his faith that he would end up somewhere safe.
He had no idea what he started but he couldn't regret it.
Maka had given him a spark of life he couldn't let go of.
The rules had changed. The old reign of the gods had ended and a new one had started.
All anyone could do was face it head on.
Maka sat up with a jolt, fighting off a wave of sleepiness. Something felt wrong but she couldn't see any danger. She must have dozed off and had a bad dream. She pulled up the scroll that she had been reading, which was dangling from her fingertips.
Reflexively, she glanced outside the large window beside the fireplace to see how far the sun had gone down.
Then she remembered there was no sun where she was. Sighing, she searched for her place in the scroll. But as soon as Maka found it, she put the scroll to one side.
It was no use. As much as she tried not to think about it, she couldn't help worrying about Soul and her mother.
She curled up in the chair, wrapping her arms around her knees. Soul had promised to be back soon but it had been at least two hours since he had gone to fetch her mother.
The Underworld had regained some of its creepiness since Soul had left. Whether it was because she had practically no one to talk to but Demeter for most of her life or because what happened earlier, she had genuinely enjoyed talking to Soul.
He had listened to her without judging her, without interrupting to give her unsolicited advice. He just heard what she had to say and was surprisingly good at lifting her spirits.
Her heart gave a little flutter when Maka thought of the way he laughed, rough and free.
Maka found herself hoping Demeter didn't give Soul too hard of a time. Stubbornness had always been one of her biggest traits and Maka was sure that Soul's strange appearance wasn't going to give her a best first impression.
Too impatient to be still, Maka flung herself from the chair, wandering the room. She was curious to see what was in the other rooms but she wanted to be here in case Soul returned with her mother.
Maka heard a crackle just above her head. Then, black powder started raining down on her face.
With a yelp, Maka took off the crown from her head. The flowers were dying. She looked at them more closely.
No, they just weren't dying. They were dissolving into ash.
As Demeter's daughter, Maka was familiar with the cycle of life and death in nature but this was entirely different. The death of one plant held within it the promise of another life, a new beginning.
But these ashes in her hands, Maka realized in horror, clung to her with the grimy feeling of death and disease.
Maka watched, helpless, as the flowers all succumbed one by one until there was only a single purple crocus left.
She cupped it gently in one hand, attempting to breathe life into it like she had seen her mother do on previous occasions.
It was no use.
The crocus held clung to life for a moment. Then it crumbled into ashes in her hand, falling quietly onto the floor.
Epilogue
Arachne stood in the shadow of Larissa's wall, the moon the only source of illumination. She longed to enter the city, rip the gods' temples down and install a temple of her own.
But the force field around Larissa, powered by the strength of the gods, prevented her from doing that.
"Considering going the way of our noble and lamentably late younger sister, Arachne?" Medusa called from behind her.
"Then who would help you with your scheming, sister?" Arachne didn't turn around, still examining the golden glow that emanated from the field. She sighed; it was still as strong as ever.
Medusa didn't answer.
Careful not to let her irritation show, Arachne quietly commented, "You could not call today a success."
"Are you that quick to admit defeat?" Medusa asked deviously, cocking her head to one side.
Arachne closed her eyes briefly. "It was not you who had to show your face as the enemy. You sat back in the shadows while your precious creation couldn't even kill a girl a fraction of its size."
"Admittedly that part of the plan was a complete failure," Medusa shrugged. "Things go awry sometimes."
"Awry?" Arachne breathed as she finally turned around, making sure to keep her face impassive. "Yes, things certainly went awry, didn't they? At this time, Persephone was supposed to have been dead, Hades was supposed to have taken the blame and we were supposed to be watching as the gods unleashed a war upon earth that none have seen in years."
"And now," she continued in a deadly whisper, "We are fugitives once again."
"Even as a child, you never saw the bright side of things," Medusa sniffed. "Did you not see the death Demeter rained down when she found out her precious daughter was kidnapped?"
"And did you not see how nothing else happened after that?" Arachne replied. "There was a little panic among the mortals, which was amusing enough, but no war."
"Perhaps not yet," Medusa said slyly.
"What do you mean?" Arachne asked.
"Think about it," Medusa smirked. "No plants means no food. And no food means very unhappy mortals. Who do the mortals blame when things go wrong?"
Arachne understood at once. "They will no longer go to the temples."
Medusa nodded. "And then the gods' protection will falter. We will be able to claim Larissa for our own and that will put the gods in a precarious situation indeed."
"And your snake?" Arachne pointed out. "It has a blood thirst for Persephone that even you can't control."
"When we take Larissa, Hades will be forced to unseal the gates and come out of his hidey-hole," Medusa said. "Persephone will surely follow him, whether out of regard for him or concern of her mother. Her death will break the gods into factions."
"Making it the easier for us to defeat them," Arachne finished.
Medusa grinned. "For now, my snake will have to content itself with wreaking havoc everywhere."
"This had better not fail, Medusa," Arachne warned. "I will not hesitate to turn against you."
"Nor I, dear sister," Medusa answered sweetly, turning away.
"But for now, we wait."