"Let me get this straight, you want me to traverse the plain of the dead, just so you can talk to your dead wife?" Emily rubbed her nails into her temples. She sat at a high marble pillar with her crystal ball centered on a purple table cloth.
"Yes. I miss her so dearly." The man across from her was another ornately decorated aristocrat from Thrace. When the man pressed his hand into his chest, Emily resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the insincere gesture because the man's eyes remained dry throughout the entire conversation.
"Yes, but you want me to call her, just so she can tell you where you put your wallet?" Emily couldn't believe this man would rather offer her gold than take a proper once over of his estate. Such a spoiled man.
"Well, she did die before I could ask." The man crossed his arms.
"Are you sure you don't want to look around the house a bit? These things do tend to show up in the strangest places." Emily didn't know why she bothered offering an alternative. It was clear this man was eager and desperate for an immediate solution.
"I need to know this now. I live in a palace. You cannot expect me to search all my rooms." The man's voice increased in volume before returning back to its nasally pitch.
"No, no. You're right, summoning the dead spirit of your wife is definitely easier." Emily rolled her eyes and reached to touch the crystal ball. She had yet to figure out exactly how the ball found who she wanted to speak with when she searched the underworld, but somehow the ball had yet to fail.
"Thank you, now can we please get on with this. I have important business in Thrace." The man gripped his knees in an attempt to stifle his impatience.
"Let us join hands. You brought a personal item from the deceased?" Emily grinned at the offered bracelet. The emerald stones on the glittering gold band were gorgeous. She didn't imagine anyone dead would mind if she wore it.
Emily placed the item on her table and started her chant. The words were not really a spell so much as an overly loud pleading with the magic inside the ball to act as Hades indicated the item would.
"Oh Hades, king of the dead, bring forth the spirit we seek. Beyond the veil we doth peek, to end this man's life of dread." Emily's blonde hair rose like slithering snakes poised to strike. The table shook and the crystal ball rattled against it. The ball glowed a deep blue before lifting on its own into the air. Within the ball the bloodless face of a woman was reflected.
"Are we speaking with Celeste?" Emily looked into the eyes of the spirit hoping she summoned the right ghost. She didn't need a repeat of last week where she summoned forth the wrong relative due to mix up in personal items.
"Who else would it be? Oh you have got to be kidding me, this louse wants to talk with me? Couldn't even wait for my body to go cold before you—" The spirit's white eyes were dull and her skin blue, but her expression was undoubtedly filled with rage.
"Excuse me, I have some questions to ask you." Emily did not want to hear the end of that sentence based on the sudden tint of red dusting her client's cheeks.
"Did he tell you how instead of burning my clothes he gave them to that whore he's been seeing on the side? No? Of course he didn't." The spirit continued in its tirade unwilling to relent despite Emily's multiple attempts to direct the conversation elsewhere.
"I see. Well, Archimedes would like to know where he misplaced his wallet. Would you happen to know where that would be?" Emily started again. Surely, the ghost lady would calm down eventually.
"I might." The spirit's lips quirked into a single devious line.
"Great. And where might that be?" Emily knew that tone, clearly the spirit wanted something in return for this information.
"Why should I tell him, huh? He didn't even bother to give me a proper burial." The spirit rolled her eyes and stretched magnanimously.
"It was a ridiculous request. How was I to justify burning all of the fine clothes I bought you." The male gave an annoyed growl.
"See. Always thinking of himself. That's why I'm not telling him bupkis." The woman pointed an accusatory hand towards her obnoxious husband.
"Celeste. Please. Be reasonable." The man wrenched his palms together in pleading.
"If he went back home and burned all of your clothes would you tell him where his wallet is?" Emily thought strategically, if the clothes were burned then the spirit's obstinacy would subsist.
"Oh no. Not good enough." The spirit shook her head adamantly in refusal.
"What about if he had the woman he gave your clothes to also burn the clothes he gave them plus some of the lady's too?"
"I might be willing to tell him where the wallet is." One dull eye creaked open in interest at the offer.
"Great. Then once you burn all her clothes plus that other ladies' togas we can find your wallet." Emily smiled at the shocked expression of her patron, it served him right. A promise was a promise, even to the dead.
Inside Apollo's temple many of the seers were appalled by the decrease in worshippers. None had expected the temple of Hades to rise so dramatically in esteem among the public. Many of the younger seers had foolishly dealt with the issue by petitioning Apollo for powers similar to renowned seer stationed within the temple of the dead only to be cursed by sun god for such impunity.
"Too many of our worshippers are going to that false seer stationed at the Necronomicon." The seer speaking had once been the most beautiful of women in Greece, but age had long since dulled her beauty. What remained was only a shadow of her former youth.
"His seer possesses no foresight. She is a sham." Apollo stepped down from his lounge, swiping an annoyed hand through the air to dismiss the younger seers attending him.
"Of course Lord Apollo." The older seer bowed her head waiting for the god to dismiss her.
"How dare this girl attempt to represent herself as a seer. I did not anoint her and Hades certainly has no claim to matters of foresight." Apollo was pacing, his mind fixated on the insult.
"How do you wish us to proceed, Lord Apollo?" The old woman waited for the god's response.
"You shall do nothing. For now. It is past time I exchanged words with the lord of the dead to put to rest this most egregious oversight." Apollo glared at the earth beneath his feet detesting the very fact he would need to travel so far to meet someone so low.
"Well, it's not a very common sight to see Mr. Daylight downstairs. What brings you down here?" Hades was lounging against his obsidian throne, his smile sly and his yellow eyes slanted in calculation.
"You know exactly why I am here." Apollo's thick arms crossed over his broad frame.
"Oh? Do I?" Hades shrugged at the implication.
"Enough. You have the gall to play such games? Soothsayers are my providence and desperation yours. How dare you sanctify your own seer." Apollo stepped closer to Hades to make his irritation clear.
"Whoa there, I haven't crossed one toe over into your boring little slice of providence. Besides, my seer doesn't see the future so much as she gets a little help from those below in the know." Hades peeled the angry god's finger from his toga before disappearing into smoke. His smokey form rematerialized beside Apollo and Hades wrapped a long arm across Apollo's shoulders.
"You'd be surprised at some of the secrets these dead guys have." Hades smirked as the words left his lips. He had Apollo cornered because, while divination was Apollo's area, the dead were undisputedly within his personal jurisdiction.
"You are walking a fine line Hades. You represent her as a seer to those who frequent your temple. You overstep." Apollo wished nothing more than to throttle the fiery god, but was unable. Hades had not technically violated any of Zeus' edicts and it infuriated Apollo that he could not intervene.
"I'm not so sure I'd agree. Because my temple, my seer, all these things sound a lot like my jurisdiction. So, if I were in your sandals, I might tread a little more carefully, sunshine." Hades patted Apollo's cheek daring the god to pick a fight under his roof.
"Since you refuse to remove her abilities yourself, know that when your seer steps one toe outside your temple she will be outside your jurisdiction and within mine." Apollo snarled the words before stomping away from Hades' throne room.
"Do not forget, I gave you this opportunity to spare the mortal yourself." Apollo called out for his chariot. His face was dark with rage as he urged his furious horses faster. He left the shadowy underworld with the burning sun trailing his chariot from behind.
Emily was enjoying the air outside the temple when she felt Hades presence. It was a difficult sensation to explain, but Hades' presence always made the air both heavy and hot. When he entered a room no matter the size, it always became slightly more difficult to breathe, and even the normal noises which usually stirred in the background would go still as if they sensed his presence.
"Seems like business is booming. Really this place is coming along." Hades had to admit it was a genuine surprise to see his temple full of people. Sure, the prayers were the usual whiny drivel but at least people were bothering to give him proper reverence.
"Hades." Emily strained her neck to make out the outline of the god from the temple's roof.
"That's the name. Nice to finally hear a touch of devotion in your voice." Hades dropped down from the roof and plopped in place right next to her. He was grinning broadly, sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight.
"Hardly. If you don't mind, please cut to the chase." Emily swallowed thickly, her eyes taking in the predatory smile. She could feel something icky coming and no longer wanted to know what he wanted.
"Now, where is the fun in that?" Hades leaned down to place himself at eye level with the mortal. He wondered what had his little mortal so nervous, she had been faring better than most of his investments.
"For the next, oh I don't know. Let's just say for the foreseeable future you shouldn't step one toe outside my temple." Hades scrunched his nose up in an attempt to make his request seem less foreboding.
"Oh, and why is that?" Emily tried not to have her concern come through in the question but failed.
"Let's just say recent discussions have not ended as amicably as I hoped." Hades waved a hand forward to dismiss the topic before walking forward.
"How unnecessarily cryptic." Emily rolled her eyes and followed the god.
"What can I say, the gods work in mysterious ways." Hades shrugged.
"Fine. No more going outside." Emily accepted the fact that Hades wouldn't make any further disclosures on the subject and moved forward in their conversation.
"So have you been?" Emily looked up at his bored expression and wanted to immediately retract the question.
"The usual. Underworld is still gloomy as ever and full of dead people. What are you going to do?" Hades perked up at the change in topic and despite his nonchalant cadence, felt relief. He wasn't sure why the mundanity of having a mortal listen to his troubles was so pleasant but he supposed it was the absence of the horrified boredom which usually followed his company.