Trista, out of her scout uniform, prepared herself for dinner. It had been good to catch up with Hades a bit before it was time to work. After the ferrying work was through, he had invited Trista to a casual dinner at one of the tallest towers. She wanted to look her best, especially since she was considering a confrontation of Hades's feelings. I want to know how serious he is and what we are going to do about…us, she thought. There were rules that prevented this sort of thing from occurring—was Hades willing to break them?
Fluffing her hair and straightening her bun, Trista wished she had Serena's disguise pen. She would transform into a beautiful maiden, worthy of Hades's love. She sighed. Maybe I should ask for one for Christmas…
Dashing off to the tower, she prayed that the night would go all right.
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Underworld dinners are unknown by living people; however, they usually consist of rare, ancient fruits and the occasional lantern fish. Cerebrus chased after the dragons that would try to escape from the dark gates; these ended up caught and cooked as a delicacy. Also, dark grains grew in the fields beyond the river; these were harvested and made into pasta in starry shapes.
Tonight's meal consisted of the rare dragon and some of the dark pasta, and in the second tallest tower of the Underworld castle Hades and Trista were dining by candlelight.
"Shame Cerebrus can't have any," Trista remarked.
Hades replied in his deep, dark voice, "It's not that he can't; he prefers catching the beasts over eating them. He is satisfied with the bones."
"Hmm…" was all Trista could say. This is slightly awkward, she thought. A dinner, silence, candlelight…
A knock echoed through the room. "I thought I told you not to disturb me," Hades growled.
The door opened, reveling Kito, Hades's assistant. He bowed. "Sorry, sir, but you have a visitor. He insisted on seeing you and would not take no for an answer."
Trista looked at Hades. "Who would come to see you?"
Hades sighed. "I have a feeling I might know whom…did he say his name?"
Kito shook his head. "Just said that you two go way back."
Hades muttered a curse. "Figures," he said. "I'm sorry Trista, but my brother doesn't know good manners."
"Your brother?" Trista asked.
"Yes, Charon. He guards the very gate of the Underworld itself. You don't see him because you use your time-space door to get here, so you bypass his gate."
"Yes," a new voice replied, cold and demeaning. "I must say, it is rather irritating." The voice came from a man behind Kito, about Hades's height, with the same dark green hair and velvet red eyes. "It's been so long," the man continued. "Perhaps you have forgotten my rules?"
A bit of the memories were coming back to her. What she remembers about him, however, weren't very pleasant. Hades interrupted her thoughts. "Charon, would you at least like some dinner? We can pretend to be civilized for once, can't we? It's only been…"
"957 years and 26 days? Not that anyone's counting…" Charon replied. "Sure, why not dinner?"
"Kito?" Hades inquired.
The man bowed. "Yes, sir." He ran downstairs.
"I meant to ask you something anyways, Charon," Hades said.
"Oh really?" Charon replied as he sat down.
"Yeah—a couple days ago we had a breach of defense here. Dragons were about to escape to the other world. Your old buddy the Grim Reaper tried to destroy the Scouts. Now why is that? And why were they almost successful? Were you not guarding the gates?"
Charon shrugged his shoulders. "The Grim Reaper has his own ways—I do not pretend to know what he is always doing." Hades kept staring at him. "It's been quite some time since he and I conversed, actually. I knew there was some sort of commotion, but by the time I knew what was going on, everything was already chaotic. You have to remember, I have five gates to guard, not just the main one. Any of the dragons could have escaped through the other four. I'm just surprised it didn't happen earlier."
"Five?" Trista inquired.
"You really should explore the Underworld a lot better," chided Charon. "After all, it is your duty. Perhaps I can give you a tour…"
"That won't be necessary," interrupted Hades. Perhaps he remembered, too, Charon's previous behavior. "Leave her alone. I was planning to give her a full tour soon, when the business slowed down and all. It was busy earlier because of the Reaper. And back to my original point—guarding all of the gates has never been a problem for you before."
Before Charon could answer this, however, Kito had returned with dinner, and Charon began to eat quickly and rather messily. Hades rolled his eyes.
Ignoring Charon's obnoxious eating habits, Trista asked Hades, "Where are the other five river gates? I only know the Stix Gate."
"Yes, that's the main one, since all of the souls come through that Gate. The other two are like backdoor or secret passageways. They are actually supposed to be closed off, but when a soul dies unexpectedly, they come through one of those gates accidentally. The rivers go like this—" Hades began to draw a small map with a nearby scroll and pen from a desk in the room.
A/N: .com/albums/n308/moonlight_duchess/?action=view¤t=
Trista nodded. "Oh, ok. So the two arcs across the top, those must be…"
"The Lethe river on the left and the Acheron river on the right. The Lethe river, the river of lamentation, leads to heaven and goes around it. The Acheron river, the river of woe, leads to hell and goes around it. The river in the middle, of course, is the Stix river. The bottom left river is the Cocytus river, the river of forgetfulness. Souls who have been forgotten before they have died are said to roam here. The bottom right river is the Phlegethon, the river of fire. That is where the dragons were born. The boxes you see are the gates—one for each river."
"That's all very fascinating, Hades, but I'm sure Trista would like to see it for herself," suggested Charon.
Hades stated coldly, "I believe I can handle it, thank you."
"Okay, then," Charon replied. He rose, having finished his dinner. "It was good to see you, I suppose—you need to get out more often, though. Learn a little more about greeting your guests and such."
"Look who's talking," Hades barked.
Charon ignored his brother. He bent over to Trista, took her hand, and kissed it. "And it was lovely meeting you again, my dear. Try to stop by the gate every once in a while, all right?"
Not knowing what to say, Trista just nodded. Charon smiled as he turned around and walked out the door.
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Later that night, Trista paced in her quarters.
Well, so much for a romantic night, Trista thought irritably. I suppose I should inquire Fate as to when a good night would be.
She was beginning to remember more and more about Charon, and the more she remembered, the more she didn't like him.
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He had been almost the same perfect gentleman that Hades was, a long time ago. Then something changed him. He began to be distant and spiteful. He ruled the Underworld with an iron fist, torturing souls as he pleased. He rode a great golden dragon, with red eyes and a spiked tail. When the Silver Millennium came to an end, he led the charge to destroy the moon. Most people mistook him as Hades, however, and threatened to kill Hades. When the truth was revealed that Charon was the one behind the attacks, the attitude towards Hades did not change. They believed he was as evil as his brother.
Trista went to Charon, sent as a last resort to make him change his ways. He agreed, but wanted a simple kiss from her. She had given in, simply because she was naive and knew no better. He tried to take full advantage of her then—until Hades rescued her. He had been walking through that particular part of the castle (she suspected he was spying on his brother) and fought him for her honor.
Hades won, and thereby also won the title of the King of the Underworld. Charon was demoted, and from that time forth, Charon resented his brother.
It was a sad little history, but that was the way things were.
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A/N: Link is in the story now. Copy and paste link to see the map.