Chapter 19: Execute
Zeus didn't expect Ganymede to be working overtime.
When his calls with other pantheon deities didn't work, Ganymede and Hyacinthus were responsible for organizing calls. By the time they were able to set up appointments, Athena had called him over to discuss the latest issue with Athens. A long debate had led to Zeus running into Eros and Psyche on their way to a family restaurant for dinner with Hedone. The waiters allowed him to pay for his family as long as he didn't step in.
It was nearly 10pm when Ganymede was still tackling the last phone call. Zeus blinked. Ganymede was slouching on Hyacinthus' chair, going through papers while sassing at the phone.
"Oh, sure, go cry to your Daddy, Sekhmet! It still doesn't change the fact that I have to deal with SOMEONE blabbing about Prometheus' release! Of course I know Zeus called you, that's why I'm calling! Isn't it adorable how you have to put up with a mortal speaking for an immortal? I could care less if you were expecting some nymph to answer your shitty lion breath call! Oh, curse me as you like, being employed by Dionysus AND Zeus is already a curse; I could get killed ANYTIME!" Ganymede leaned forward and tapped his fingers against the desk. "Did you know what Herakles told Dionysus? And Dionysus got Ptah to admit it while drunk? Yes, bitch, I know you've been seeing Ares while he was seeing Aphrodite WHILE he was simping for Persephone… Oh, you'll have the others convince Herakles and Prometheus to come? Good, good… Yes, We're planning on announcing Persephone's introduction to the Fellowship… NO, I don't want to know. Good night and thank you!" Ganymede turned off his phone and dropped his head against the surface.
Zeus pushed the glass door open.
"Wow…"
"I DON'T want to talk about it…" Too tired to be polite, Ganymede warned Zeus.
"OK… But I'm still amazed… And weirded out. You pulled out all those phone calls?"
"Most of them after Hyacinthus' shitty fiancé picked him up early for work." Ganymede checked the clock. "Ugh, and I missed the last train! Any chance you have an Olympian's blanket in your closet? I think I might be comfortable under the desk."
Zeus' expression softened.
Ganymede had put so much effort. As much as Zeus disliked admitting his own mistakes, accepting Ganymede's feedback were fortuitous. The other pantheons still didn't like speaking to him directly, but they were all ecstatic about Persephone joining the Fertility Fellowship. Zeus didn't bring up Ganymede's sudden text about Apollo lurking the office, but he had appreciated it.
Zeus felt at ease with Ganymede. It might have been just a few weeks, but as awkward as it was… Ganymede might be the closest thing to an actual friend he had. Who wasn't his brother. Or another paramour.
"Come on." Zeus pulled the seat and lifted Ganymede up. "You worked a lot. Just this once, I'll let you crash at my place."
"Lord Zeus, the day I step in YOUR house is the day I'm lifted off by an eagle…" Ganymede mumbled.
"That works." Zeus picked up Ganymede. The mortal was surprisingly light.
"What the… LORD ZEUS?"
Zeus ran towards the hallway window. A panicked Ganymede, now fully awake, buried his head in Zeus' shirt. Zeus felt a bit odd about it, but he still jumped out the window.
Being the deity he was, Zeus floated in the air. Taking the direction to his palace, the two flew above the metropolis of Olympus. Ganymede shuddered in fright, but finally decided to open his eyes.
Zeus was stunned by how Ganymede's eyes suddenly gleamed in wonder. Ganymede stared down at Olympus as if it were an ocean of stars.
They finally landed on the roof deck of Zeus' palace. He sometimes forgot how fast flying was for him.
"And we made it." Zeus put Ganymede on the ground.
Ganymede panted heavily. "OK. THAT was cool, and we DID fly to your palace, but I wasn't lifted off by an eagle."
"Trust me, I would have turned into an eagle for you…" Zeus sighed. "But I haven't transformed into an eagle in eons…"
…
Zeus sprinkled a dash of nectar into the glass of milk. Grabbing a beer can for himself, he brought the drinks over to the living room. Zeus never really knew why he had a foldable couch, but it came in handy. Ganymede had convinced Zeus to not give him one of the guest rooms.
Ganymede got out of the bathroom, now clothed in baggy sweats loaned by Zeus. What really made Zeus roll his eyes, however, was the laundry basket Ganymede was dragging down the steps.
"You don't know when to take a break, do you?" Zeus asked.
"Maybe, but I would have thought that the Lord of the Gods would have the cleanest laundry. I almost thought I dropped in a stable overrun with cattle dung." Ganymede swung the laundry basket on the ground.
Zeus snapped his fingers. Ganymede winced from the static shock keeping him from grabbing the laundry.
"It's not good xenia for a host to have his guest do chores late at night."
"Pulling that one on me, huh?" Ganymede looked at the thunder god. "Fine. But xenia doesn't stop the guest from returning the host's kindness. Your laundry goes in the machine tomorrow."
"That works."
Ganymede got to the drinks. He took a cautious sniff at the glass milk, it almost reminded Zeus of Cerberus. "Lactose-free milk… and moly nectar. The perfect condiment to neutralize the toxic effects of immortal beverages on mortals." Ganymede took a sip and grimaced. "Sour… You took a precautionary dash."
"Poison-detecting skills?"
"A must when you work for Dionysus. Even though he makes wine for all beings, the very seeds that he naturally secretes are toxic. The fruits themselves vary based on his moods. The madder he is, the more toxic the fruit are. Molly nectar helps dissolve the toxicity the same way adding water in your beer can dissolve. Same applies on other immortal beverages. Problem is, the molly nectar increases the sweetness or sourness of the grapes depending on how much toxins it kills. I'd recommend adding a tablespoon of cinnamon the next time you serve me milk."
Zeus smiled.
"How'd you know about the moly nectar?" Ganymede finished the milk to get rid of the grimace.
"My great-granddaughter Hedone." Zeus pulled up a picture on his phone to show Ganymede. "Psyche was turned into an immortal before she married Eros and gave birth… Apparently, being a deity of human origins can impact your baby's health. Hedone had to have a lot of moly nectar in her baby formulas before she could drink regular milk and baby food."
"Aw, that little cotton candy is SO cute!" Ganymede geeked at the picture. "It's like a baby satyr… Without the horns… And the hooves… And the kicking in your stomach… I mean, it's cute until it starts trying to kill you."
Zeus hissed. "Yeah, well, at this rate I keep breeding psychos and their children breed psychos… Ares just adores Hedone." Zeus put his phone away until it beeped.
He stiffened at the message.
Without asking, Ganymede peaked at his screen.
Gloomy bro: Asclepius will be executed tomorrow. Recordings will be broadcasted Monday along with Kore's announcement.
"Ganymede… How should I respond?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"Because you were right when it came to the IPOs… And if it had been another immortal who gave me your advice, I would have pissed them of…" Zeus admitted.
Ganymede's eyes glowed with the blush underneath them. "Oh…"
Zeus held his phone out to Ganymede.
Zeus waited…
Ganymede relented and started typing. "Okay… 'Hades… I know I am not the right god…' No. 'Hades… I know I am not the right brother when it comes to counsel. I don't know how to handle this situation myself. But after everything, I'm just gonna roll with it and trust your judgement. It might be cruel to many, but Asclepius' punishment might just be the lesson Apollo needs. I didn't bother to make him pay for his actions and I almost broke my family more than ever because of it.'"
Ganymede hit the send button.
"I might need to add something…"
"Family brunch is still mandatory." Zeus chuckled.
"'P.S: Can we still do family brunch? I promise my PA will arrange it.'"
"What was that for?" Zeus exclaimed.
Ganymede counted down to five with his fingers.
The text got a response back.
Gloomy bro: Did you hit yourself on the head with a thunderbolt?
Gloomy bro: You had more than ten years to make him pay!
Gloomy bro: I should warn you, Persephone will have fun at Asclepius' execution.
Gloomy bro: I'm open to family brunch, just don't do it last minute again or at a strip club. I'm engaged now. Tell your PA that.
Gloomy bro: Reassure me. You're not sleeping with your new PA, right?
Zeus tried to seal his mouth shut. His breath held as much as he could.
He finally released the laughter. "Oh my gods! He reacted the same way he does! How'd you know it was gonna work?"
"Experience. You give a semi-heartfelt apology, and end it with something that you'd obviously say. That way it doesn't sound like someone else typed for you." Ganymede put the phone down on the table. "Then you don't touch it until morning. Makes them think you needed a while to answer back." Ganymede squinted. "And I forgot… Milk makes us mortals drowsy…"
He fainted on the couch.
Zeus tossed a bedsheet to shield Ganymede from the cold.
He couldn't afford for his only friend to get sick.
…
Asclepius sat all by himself in the white room.
He didn't know what time it was. It felt eternal. He had it coming, though…
He just felt ashamed at his own failure to help his daughters…
The door opened. Asclepius looked up, expecting the rulers to announce him his execution method.
Two growling leopards nearly pounced at Asclepius, frightening the demigod of medicine. Only the double-leash pulling them back kept them in place. Their master stepped in before the door disappeared in the whiteness.
"Oh, not you…" Asclepius choked. He wasn't chained, but the terror of the other demigod's presence was enough to petrify him on the spot.
Dionysus bent down and unleashed the leopards. The beasts stayed in place. Dionysus straightened his wine-red cape coat with black panther fur trimmings. It was hard to tell if he was barefooted or not with the black vines coiling around his lower body. His red top hat's band was decorated with pomegranate flowers and asphodel. His purple hair was braided in the Minoan style.
"Have I ever told you why I'm such a cat person? And leopards?" Dionysus stroked his Indian leopard and snow leopard respectively. "I never understood either. Just a bunch of cats with spots, right? No biggie, right? I mean, tigers have stripes! Then, when our retinue went East, I got to witness a leopard fight a tiger… The tiger won, chasing the leopard out of its new territory… Then it got too close to a mortal village… I did get a scar on my sides trying to protect it from a hunting mob… Then the leopard attacked the hunters and ate all of them. It was the first leopard to have ever followed me." Dionysus scratched the back of his snow leopard's ear. "He died years ago, though. Old age. Used to call him Leo for short… I guess I really like leopards because of their chaotic natures. One day, they'll be good creatures, the next day, they'll be monsters. Like me."
Dionysus hugged both leopards at once. "You like them, Asclepius? Waghoba sent them to me as a birthday present this year. The yellow one is Butter, and the white one is Cream!"
Asclepius shuddered even more when Dionysus stared back at him, leaving the leopards alone. "Aw, what's the matter? Does it surprise you that Uncle and Auntie asked if I'd be interested in killing you? I filled the paperwork in advance. Won't be published though to the press. And my madness already bugs the cameras as I talk. Our conversation won't be recorded. The only thing everyone will see is the demigod of medicine breaking down in madness before the demigod of wine… and you eventually beg for death…"
"I was already afraid of you the moment you started giving wine to mortals…" Asclepius said. "It kills them!"
"Not my fault my clients don't read the labels." Dionysus admired his glitter polished nails. "I do warn them. They just don't listen. But it's not like you're the judge for that, right? I might have accidentally murdered people with my wine, but you didn't accidentally disregard the rules of life… I'm amazed how stupid you can be for a doctor. You honestly think death is avoidable? I mean, I'm ten. You're what, two centuries older than me? Even I know I'm gonna die."
Asclepius lowered his head.
"I'm not going to give you the privilege of my begging. My own father already used it against me…"
"Oh, so THAT'S why you were the mole for the purple doodoo!" Dionysus snapped his fingers.
Asclepius snorted.
"But why would the demigod of medicine need to beg before his father, the god of medicine?" Dionysus knelt down to be on the same eye level as Asclepius. Butter and Cream joined their master's side, hissing at the culprit.
"Apollo had enough kindness to bless me with a rod when my talents in medicine spread throughout the pantheon… I even created a species of snakes just by stomping the ground with it. The mortals called the new breed Aesculapian… Probably because the snakes became my symbol, my daughters could transform into them… Though for some reason… My youngest daughter Panacea… She couldn't transform into an Aesculapian like Hygieia, Iaso, Aceso, and Aegle. The moment she transformed… A farmer crushed her with a rock, thinking she was a viper… I did all I could to bring her back… that I broke my rod.
"I revived Panacea, but she was still a snake… I convinced my wife to take our daughters away from our pantheon… I didn't want them to face what awaited me… Apollo was angry that I broke his gift, yet amazed I defied death…" Asclepius broke down in sobs. "Apollo encaged Panacea… Gave it to his mother as a mere pet… Promised me that he'd cure Panacea if I told him everything about my patients… And revive those he needed…"
Asclepius was met with Dionysus' unimpressed glare.
"Wow… how pathetic." Even the leopards seemed to growl in amusement. "Hello! If he doesn't swear on the Styx, a god will never keep his word! You honestly thought the purple doodoo was going to cure your kid? Just because you do what he wants? Demigod of medicine? More like demigod of doormats!"
Butter's tail wagged.
"Back off, Butter! I ain't offing him by turning him into a scratch post! I'm not cruel enough to execute him via inanimate metamorphosis."
Metamorphosis.
For many, death was better than Tartarus. For a few, metamorphosis was scarier than both. It was considered the ultimate death. No shade to go in the underworld. No body to bury. No bones for the vultures to chew. Metamorphosis could have you turned into a plant, animal, or inanimate. A god's curse. A deity, nymph or satyr could recover as a metamorphosis was basically similar to hibernation, but mortals?
If a mortal was metamorphed, it was the ultimate death sentence. The one-way street. No cure.
Asclepius' own grandmother Leto had metamorphed Niobe into a weeping rock on Mount Sipylus after the scandal with their children.
Asclepius paused…
"Dionysus, do I get a last request before I die?"
"Depends… what's my benefit?"
"Apollo had me spill the dirt on my patients, but he's too delusional to care about his."
Dionysus' eyebrows perked. "YOU were his doctor?"
"Fifth tile under my bed in my house in Thessaly. The passcode to my safe is my daughter's name…"
"Let me guess…" Dionysus smirked. "You die, I get Apollo's medical records… And in exchange, you want me to help your kid?"
Asclepius groveled on the ground. A silent kneeling was his remaining shot.
A chain was unclasped.
The air in the white room was thickening. Asclepius tried holding his breath.
"You sure you won't look at me? I swear on the Styx that I'll do it. Your last request is good… So I decided that I know how I'll execute you! Now you'll understand why I hate Phoebus Apollo so much!"
Asclepius couldn't look up. He heard the leopards running away.
"Well? Didn't your daddy teach you manners? But then again, he doesn't have any!"
Roots grew on the white floor. Asclepius panicked when some of the roots transformed into Aesculapian snakes. He backed against the wall.
Dionysus wasn't a small child dressed like a future pimp anymore.
Her height made her crouch. Her horns scratched the walls as black thorns and grapevines formed a wreath on her head. Her purple locks waved like a hurricane, with wine drops of all colors smearing the walls. Her whole body was of vines intertwined like human muscle tissues. Her eyes were purple vortexes that shed tears of liquid ecstasy.
She emitted an aura…
Asclepius lost all his saliva the moment he gasped.
"You… You're a…"
He fell on his knees again. The roots covered his feet. As the air thickened, Asclepius found it harder to breathe.
"F…F… Fer…"
His whole body fell.
Dionysus reattached a pendant around her neck. The aura disappeared.
"No… Apollo can't find… You were hidden…" The roots began to gag him. The snakes slithered, suddenly merging into a larger snake. The snake burst into purple bubbles.
"FYI, everything is all in your head, Asclepius. Last time I revealed my true form, I took care of the pirates. But I don't plan on turning you into a porpoise. I'm just toying around with the meat." The fertility goddess snapped her fingers. "Butter? Cream? He's all yours."
Asclepius couldn't scream as the leopards pounced on him.
Meanwhile
Pan had to think of another idea to distract Persephone.
The 'May-I-Have-Pomegranate-Juice' trick wasn't going to last. But that was the best Plan A he had to keep the Queen of the Underworld from seeing Dionysus' stunt.
You moron, you should have stuck with the leopards!
The guards by the execution room's door were undaunting. Pan's eyes darted at the one-way window of the execution room. Butter and Cream were ripping through Asclepius' flesh. Dionysus was shrinking to her regular size, but the slow return transformation was weakening her.
Pan gasped.
"Something wrong, sir?" One of the guards asked.
Of course!
Rule of paranoia Silenus had applied while raising the boys: never take them to a hospital affiliated with Olympus. Silenus was especially paranoid about the idea of Dionysus under the care of Olympus' paramedics. Bad case scenario, it would have revealed Dionysus as a child of Zeus.
That ship had sailed.
Worst case scenario, they would find out Dionysus was a fertility deity. And rat it to the Olympians.
"Just stressed." From his shirt, Pan pulled out a flute. A unique flute he'd made out of reeds.
"What's that?" A curious guard asked.
"Something that helps me calm down." Pan sat down. "You don't mind?"
"Eh. As long as it's not a remix of Apollo's songs, I'm good." The guard shrugged.
"Or the King's praises about his bride's charms." The other snorted.
It started with a small note… Then deep ones… The guards wobbled in drowsiness, softly smiling at the music making them dream of freedom… Of forests… Of nymphs and satyrs dancing through the trees… Of mortals at festivals…
The snoring made the music stop.
Pan hid his flute and rushed to the door. Butter and Cream were nuzzling against Dionysus. Just the latter's fingers wiggled while he struggled to breathe.
Cream whimpered.
Pan had a hard time lifting his sibling. Good thing Butter lied down so the little satyr could push Dionysus onto the leopard's back. Using some loose vines, Pan strapped Dionysus.
"Cream, what's that in your mouth?"
Cream swallowed some sort of organ.
"Whatever… We got to go, now!"
Pan and the leopards quickly moved through the hallways. Whenever he heard a voice approaching, he paused. Fortunately, the Underworld Corps employees moved to another direction.
"Oh, good! The stairs… HAAAAH!" Pan yelped.
Ariadne was glaring at him, hands against her hips.
And Hades stood just behind her. It didn't look like he had just stumbled in…
However, Ariadne gave an angrier glare at the unconscious Dionysus.
…
Hades and Persephone had a lot of expressions right now. Worry was the biggest one, however.
They had to move Dionysus out of Underworld Corp ASAP and rehydrate her as they did with Persephone in Hades' pool. A cleanup crew wasn't required, however. Ariadne had memorized by heart the ingredients she had used to cure Dionysus the first and second times. And Hecate had an arsenal of the material.
"Dried moly stems?"
"Always."
"Blackthorn juice?"
"I have the 20 galleons jug."
"Hawthorn branches?"
"Are you serious right now? I got it, but what else do you need?"
"Nettle leaves? Sunflower pollen? Ground witch-hazel branches? The milk of a first-time mother cow? I know we're good on my spit."
Hecate grimaced. "You spit in your remedy?"
"Not the second time. I think that's why I couldn't deal with her horns. And I don't know how much in cups. I just randomly put the dry stuff in a mortar then added the grounded stuff into the boiling juice and milk. Moly stems were of the same amount as the nettle leaves. Half a sunflower's pollen. And three branches of witch-hazel!"
"Good balancing, but it'll work better in measurements? Both times you made it, did you have him drink it or soak?"
"Drink."
"He'll revive faster if soaked."
Silenus held Pan close. Persephone nearly bit her nails. Hecate morphed the pool's water into boiling cow's milk. Dionysus whimpered. Hecate dunked the entire contents of the blackthorn juice jug into the milk. Grey bubbles began to sizzle. Hecate summoned ten dry moly stems, ten nettle leaves, two sunflowers' worth of pollen, and six grounded witch-hazel branches. Ariadne moved fast as she grounded the ingredients in a mortar half her height. At Hecate's order, she dumped the brown powder into the pool. Sizzling grey bubbles now became boiling brown bubbles. Dionysus gasped. His skin was rehydrating.
"Spit." Hecate said.
Ariadne gurgled in her mouth. Her spit landed in the pool.
The now orange potion was rumbling.
"RUN FOR COVER!" Ariadne ran behind a pool bin. Hades whistled. Cerberus pounced to shield them.
All that came was a bright light. The orange potion exploded into vapor. Soon, the pool room was filled with a light blue mist. Everyone cautiously stepped away from Cerberus.
A hand, perfectly covered in skin, rose from the empty pool.
A cured Dionysus lifted himself up.
"Why am I at the bottom of Uncle Hades' pool? Again?"
"Dio!" Silenus and Pan ran towards.
"Oh, thank Gaia!" Hades exclaimed.
Ariadne was the first to reach out to Dionysus… with a punch on the head.
"YOU DORK! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? I TOLD YOU NOT TO MORPH BACK INTO YOUR TRUE FORM!" Her scream matched her burning hair, horns, and glowing eclipse eyes. "DO THAT AGAIN, AND I'LL MAKE SURE TO REVIVE YOU WITH DONKEY EARS!"
Dionysus sneezed, replacing Ariadne's flames with crocus flowers to decorate her black hair.
Persephone giggled at the scene. "Bless you."
Hecate summoned a vial and bent down to collect some of the potion in it. "This still requires a LONG conversation."
Which did end up happening. Minutes later, they were in the dining room. On their side, Silenus and his children were stiff, their heads lowered. The gods facing them just had expressions of concern. Only Ariadne, who sat at the side closest to Dionysus, kept glaring angrily.
"So, I'm the middle of checking the shades census while Persephone waited with Pan for Dionysus to finish executing Asclepius, and I find Ariadne waltzing through Underworld Corp's security system as if we no longer have badge-scan doors anymore!" Hades spoke. "She didn't even say hi, so I followed, and I find her running into Pan trying to sneak Dionysus out. Dionysus is in bad shape… Oh, and two guards were unconscious! I don't even want to know why Ariadne beats Cerberus at tracking! I'm more concerned about why you tried to sneak my nephew out in critical condition. You realize we could have contacted our medical team?"
"Actually, we were probably gonna go to by general pediatric in Giza…" Dionysus was silenced by Pan covering his mouth with his hand.
"GIZA?" Hades exclaimed.
"Why must you see a doctor in the Egyptian pantheon than here?" Persephone exclaimed.
"Kore, do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to go back to any hospital or doctor on Olympus?" Silenus snorted. "My retinue members couldn't even get a flu shot without the Olympus rumor mill spreading around that MY fellow satyrs had rabies! And that was before Zeus' stunt that put the anti-Olympian ban on Nysa thirty years ago! Last thing I needed was for my children to have their healthcare jeopardized. So yes, I've been paying Heka for their services to be Pan and Dionysus' primary doctor!"
"Oh yeah, Heka!" Hecate snapped her fingers. "Hadn't seen them in a century, but I read their recent essay on their IPO's blog for flesh ailment and organic probiotics. I suppose it makes sense… but it just further adds confusion. Necessity aside, why couldn't Pan just tell Persephone and Hades that Dionysus needed to see Heka? With Isis' contact info, we could have called Heka over."
The Nysaen party chuckled nervously.
Hades' eyes darted at Ariadne. Her composition was still calm, but she still looked angry. Ariadne's wrath almost reminded of Persephone's, only the demi-Titan constantly showed it. For a nine-year-old, she was angrier than the average.
Yet for a nine-year-old, she had known how to cure Dionysus when he could have nearly died from his true form. This was her third time… And she was at her angriest at Dionysus for transforming.
"Silenus, I can understand your reasons." Persephone got up. "My mother did what she thought was best for me as well. Some weren't right… I know that she did it because she cared about me…"
"I'm nothing like Demeter!" Silenus bolted up from his chair.
"Silenus, that's not what Kore was saying!" Hades stood up to defend his wife. "She did not say you WERE like Demeter, but that she could UNDERSTAND your reaction as a parent!"
"Why, you…"
"Pops, you're going to say something that you shouldn't!" Pan tugged the old satyr.
A fist pounded roughly against the table. Nearly all the gods stepped back when cracks showed up on Hades' fancy table. Ariadne's fist loosened and her fingers tapped impatiently against the surface, creating scorch marks.
"A…" Dionysus held his hand out to her.
"I told you to not do it." Ariadne tapped her fingers. "I told you SINCE DAY ONE. I could understand for the first two times, but you just HAD to do it? Like this? For show?"
Dionysus didn't speak back. His eyes were ridden with guilt.
"You're just sitting there while the others are arguing for you? You're just not going to say anything until someone else does it for you?"
"Not like this…" Dionysus shook his head.
Ariadne stormed out of the living room. Dionysus stood there, ashamed with himself.
"Ariadne, wait!" Silenus called out, worried.
"I'll check on her…" Hades patiently said.
…
Hades remembered having mixed feelings when Persephone first brought up about Ariadne. He was naturally against sun gods in the Underworld and didn't truly trust Helios' legacy.
The child's calmness last night at dinner. Her bossy handling of the new Maenads. Her quick instinct telling her Dionysus was ill. Her anger…
Hades found Ariadne crying on his front steps.
The blue colors of the Underworld made her hair shine like endless stars. Fitting for her sorrow…
"Ariadne?" He gently approached her.
She didn't turn to look back at the Lord of the Dead. She just glanced at him with her tear-soaked eye.
"Are you feeling OK?"
"No, Lord Hades."
Hades sat down next to her on the step. The child stiffened a bit. Hades pulled out a handkerchief and gently wiped the tears of Ariadne's eyes.
"I'm sorry you have to deal with all this. You being out of Crete is supposed to be a breath of air away from your family… And you have to deal with our mess. It's unfair."
"My life was already unfair." Ariadne sniffed. "Dionysus just… I know what he is. I know the trouble she can cause. I know how self-destructive he is… But if he hadn't been so insistent…" She bit her lip. "I just feel like I'd still be trapped if I hadn't helped Dionysus the first time, you know? And after knowing him… And my family… I just don't want to lose him. Dionysus puts so much effort for others, but not for herself…"
Hades sighed. "I can relate with that… Kore's the same way. She always puts others first… but in situations that harm her… The difference is that she now has friends who support her. People who grew to rely on her during the divide." The God of the Underworld chuckled. "And I still get excited whenever I think of my sweetness getting wrathful."
"Hey, I get the same thing! It's actual pretty funny when Dionysus goes mad on others… The 'crazy' mad, not the 'lash out your wrath' kinda mad…" Ariadne snorted. "What's with us having a taste for crazy friends?"
"Well, I guess crazy friends lead to crazy romances."
"Uh, no." Ariadne stood up, her head actually reaching Hades' height. "Dio and I are just friends."
"Hm, hm. And Persephone and I tried to be just friends after we met. Remind me again, how'd that work out?" Hades got up. "Let's go back inside. The others will worry."
"Don't change the subject!" Ariadne ran after the blue god. "At least you two have loyalty that survived a divide! The women of Helios' legacy don't exactly have the best record when it comes to getting a committed guy!"
"And I don't open to have the same amount of paramour activities as my brothers, and here I am pursuing a monogamous relationship with the only goddess who treats me as her equal."
Ariadne grunted. "Ugh… Is this one of those Greco-Roman divine words of wisdom that I'm not supposed to understand?"
Hades waited for the child to reach him at the front door. "You think I'm like my family?"
"Not really. Dionysus keeps talking about how you're a million times better than Zeus, and you're… surprisingly nice… I'm not really the best judge. With Minos, I don't have what you and Dionysus have… And Zeus probably doesn't give a damn about Dio… Ugh. It's one of those things we have in common. Terrible biological breeders."
"I know that feeling." Hades opened the door. "Mine swallowed me when I was six."
"Mine locked my half-brother in a maze and has him eat Athenians every year." Ariadne scrubbed her shoes against the welcome carpet. "Was your mom nice? Because mine isn't."
"The nicest. I miss her every day."
"Dionysus misses his…" Ariadne rubbed her hands. "And Silenus is awfully welcoming."
"Well, he did a good job raising Dionysus… He's not as… messed up as the majority of my nephews." Hades put a gentle hand on Ariadne's head. "Just because a good majority of your family's screwed up doesn't mean you're like them."
Ariadne looked up in surprise.
"But don't be too hard on yourself. OK, Ari? Just because you're skilled in a challenging situation, doesn't mean you have to face every challenging situation alone."
The demi-Titan smiled.
A purple kitten with green stripes suddenly pounced into Ariadne's arms. It gave her the big, pitiful eyes.
"Is that Dionysus?" Hades pointed at the critter.
"You REALLY need to work on your color palette!" Ariadne held the kitten up in the air. "I mean, seriously! It's easy for you to change into people no problem, but you can't look like an ordinary animal?"
The kitten stuck its tongue out, a goofy expression accompanied.
Hades sighed. "That's my niece for sure."
Ariadne snorted. "You're a goofball, Dorknysus."
"Ah, yes. Why do you call her 'Dorknysus?" Hades bent down to let the kitten jump on his shoulders.
Ariadne quickly took the kitten back.
"Hey! Not so fast, buster! Only I get to call MY dork like that! I don't go around calling YOUR sweetness like that!" Ariadne hissed.
"OK! OK!" Hades held his hands up in defense. "I won't violate the copyright!"
"Now you're just making words up!"
…
From the dining room, Persephone glared at Dionysus.
"So… when are you planning on turning Meli back into a dog?
"When the effects wear off?" Dionysus shrugged.
Purple and green glitter exploded in the hallway.
"DORKNYSUS!"
"WHY WAS MY DOG A CAT?"
"There it is!"