Hope this chapter isn't complete crap. So, drop a review -, throw confetti, or just stick with me!
This chapter was written with a little quicker pacing, so I might pop back and edit it later. I'll try to post more regularly maybe once a week updates so I don't atrophy my writing skills. Thank you for reviewing and liking it makes me feel less like I'm writing into a void.
In the depths of Hades' temple, shadows whispered secrets to Emily as she grew in her abilities. The crystal ball was easier to manipulate now, allowing her to call forth shades from the Underworld. More often than not, the shadows provided useful information about the patrons visiting the temple.
Emily's attention was drawn from the hissing shadows when a new woman entered the temple. The red-haired woman pranced into the dark temple with far too much enthusiasm to be brought to Hades temple on a business trip.
"Can't a servant of the underworld catch a break?" Emily mumbled, casting a wary glance at the red head who was likely only going to cause her trouble.
"Hey, Ems! Your aura's like, totally popping. Let's chat, sister!" The woman twirled a lock of hair across her finger.
"How do you know my name?" Emily watched the red head carefully. Something felt off, like she was being dissected by a carnivorous house plant.
"Oh, honey, I know everyone with fate lines as bright as yours. Name's Calliope by the way." The red head winked playfully.
"You know, beyond these temple walls, there are way bigger secrets just waiting to be spilled and better destinies begging to be discovered. Fancy a little adventure into the unknown?" Calliope motioned for Emily to follow her outside the temple.
"Nice try. But Hades told me not to leave the temple." Emily shook her head. The last thing she needed was another complication in her plan to go home. All she had to do was stick to the script and Hades would fulfill his side of their agreement.
"That is so like Hades. He is so clingy with new hires. But I can't believe you are just trusting his word; it's totally unreal he's Hades. I mean, don't you want to go home?" Calliope placed a manicured hand on her hip and waited for Emily to act exactly as she predicted. Nothing ever surprised Calliope anymore. The world was just a bunch a looping patterns and repeated lines and it was so boring.
"Of course I do. Wait, how do you know that?" Emily's eyes widened. How on earth did this girl know that?
"I'm Apollo's number one seer. I'm literally the best in the business. No one knows like I do." She giggled at Emily's perplexed expression. She'd seen this scene play out earlier and it still amused her how every word said was exactly the same. Nothing ever changed, just another repeated line.
"Say I do believe you, can you get me home?" Emily's throat felt dry. Was she finally going home?
"Of course. I mean I could if I wanted to." Calliope shrugged at the question and laughed her tinkling bell-like laugh. She already knew she wouldn't help Emily that way but it didn't mean she'd say it outright.
"Then I suppose I could follow you outside. We aren't going far, right?" Emily was drawn in by the clever glint in Calliope's eyes and found herself pulled to follow the seer outside the temple.
"Does the distance really matter?" The red head shrugged and began waking without pause. She knew Emily would follow her all the way. There was never any point to looking backwards when the future never changed.
Following Calliope's lead, Emily eventually found herself in a forest not-so-near Hades' temple. The air was thick with enchantment, and the surrounding laurel trees stood tall, almost like ancient sentinels. When the leaves of the trees moved, Emily swore the rustling almost sounded like whispers.
"Behold, the Verdant Veil, Ems! Isn't it magical?" Calliope danced ahead, her footsteps barely touching the grass.
Despite the breathtaking beauty, Emily couldn't shake a feeling of unease. The laurel trees seemed too alive, as if the branches were reaching for her with curious fingers. Even the rustling of the leaves were sounding more and more like words.
"Magical, sure, but there's something about this place. Feels like the trees are alive and watching us." Emily nervously glanced around.
"Oh, Ems, you've got to lighten up! These trees are nothing to worry about." Calliope dismissed her concerns a little too quickly and Emily wondered what the seer actually knew.
As they ventured deeper into the heart of the forest, Emily couldn't shake her unease. Something was very wrong and she was beginning to feel like her life was in danger.
"Calliope, are you sure about this? It's like the whole forest is watching us." While Emily did want to go home, she felt that something was off.
"Darling, the secrets of the cosmos are always a little unsettling. Embrace it! We're on a journey to unlock your fate." Calliope moved carelessly between the branches and seemed unperturbed by the uncannily human looking expressions of the trees she moved between.
Calliope's dancing steps led them to a secluded glade, where a small pool sat stagnant. The still waters reflected the shifting patterns of the sky. The reflected stars almost seemed to ripple across the pond like small fish.
"Welcome to the Verdant Veil's Nexus Pool, Ems! It's a special place where destinies converge." Calliope pointed to the pool, her mouth twisting into a mischievous grin.
"Just look inside, and you'll be able to divine your path home." Calliope's smile grew as Emily approached the pool.
As Emily approached, a force seemed to pull her to look into the pool. But before she could reach the pool, the bank gave way beneath her, and she found herself falling into the waters. She tried to free herself from the water but was ensnared. A hundred images flashed before her eyes. She was barely able to comprehend what exactly the shifting forms were until one of the swirls started to take shape. She could barely make out the outline of what must have been a well and as she peered to the bottom she saw the face of a person, no a head, at the bottom. The image shifted to a grassy hill and then to a freezing wasteland and before she could look any longer she realized her lungs were burning.
Emily, struggled against the magical hold of the pool. She broke free to the surface just long enough to catch her breath and call out, "Calliope! Help me!"
"Sometimes, darling, our fates aren't everything we hope them to be." Calliope looked at Emily with a bored expression. It was exactly as she foresaw and it was so much more boring to experience in person. Calliope wished the girl would just drown already.
The sky darkened, and she heard a booming voice echo through the glade as she again fell underneath the water.
"Meddling in the sacred arts has consequences. You dare to scry in my sacred pool without proper ordainment?" Apollo descended upon the grove, his disapproval evident on his dark face.
Emily, caught between breaths screeched, "I... I didn't know!"
"Ignorance is no excuse. The cosmic balance demands order, and your unauthorized visions disrupt my craft," declared Apollo, radiating divine rage.
As Apollo raised his hand, the Verdant Veil itself seemed to quiet. Trapped and helpless, Emily watched with glassy eyes as as the waters showed her fate. She watched horrified as the waters showed what her body would suffer. She watched the waters show her fingers become covered in the same leaves which had waved her into the grove.
Realizing that she might die, Emily prayed for Hades to intervene. She called his name despite the water flowing into her mouth, but she only fell deeper into the water. She watched in horror as her feet began to shoot forth roots into the ground.
Just before he the spell reached her legs, a sudden crack split the earth open draining the water, and Hades emerged from the melted rock with a smug grin, ready to aid his little seer.
"Hold on, Sunshine! We wouldn't want this cosmic carnival turning into a tragedy, now would we?" Hades' voice oozed superficial charm. He slapped a hand across Emily's back causing her to cough up lungfuls of water.
Apollo glared at Hades. "This is none of your concern, Hades. She meddled with the sacred arts without ordainment."
"Spare me the divine drama. Can't a girl have a little adventure without facing a one-way ticket to Arbor-ville?" Hades motioned to the other failed seers turned trees surrounding the pool.
Hades approached Apollo, his blue flames pushing back against the gods impending judgment. With a snap of his fingers, Hades sent his blue flames towards Emily's transformed legs and burnt away the bark encasing her legs.
Hades turned to Emily with a smirk. "Consider this a favor, sweetheart. Next time, stay behind the red tape, or who knows what Apollo might turn you into – maybe a topiary?"
"You have no right to forestall her punishment, Hades." Apollo's cheeks were purple with rage.
Hades rolled his eyes at Apollo's fit. "Now, here's an idea. Instead of turning this into a divine drama, how about a friendly contest between our seers? Let fate decide who's got the better foresight."
Hades appeared behind Apollo to whisper the stakes of their little contest. "And if Emily loses, you can turn her into a shrub for all I care. But if she wins, you fork over an amphora's full of these prophetic waters."
"You will never gain access to these waters, Hades." Apollo motioned for the remaining waters to disappear beneath the ground.
"Oh, that sounds like the talk of a god who knows he's going to lose," Hades taunted, waiting for Apollo to take the bait.
"I'd never lose to a god such as you." Apollo looked down his nose at the smoky tendrils of Hades' robes which now encroached upon his territory.
"As they say, talk is cheap." Hades tapped a foot impatiently, waiting for Apollo to agree to his contest.
"Very well. Calliope, you will challenge the girl." Apollo nodded to Calliope, urging her to cease her twirling through the grove.
"I already saw this coming." Calliope giggled, as she skipped forward to accept the challenge.
With the stakes of their contest hanging in the air, and with Emily, now temporarily spared from her arboreal fate, was now a pawn in a showdown between the underworld and the heavens.
Fortunately, Pain and Panic, Hades' favorite minions, were already conspiring to rig the mystical contest in Emily's favor. Their beady eyes glittered with joy as they successfully switched the water from Calliope's scrying bowl with Lethe water.
"Hades is going to love us for this! Let's give this seer a vision everyone will forget," whispered Pain, rubbing his tiny hands together.
"But what if she can still see the future? Hades won't be happy," fretted Panic.
"Relax, what could possibly go wrong?" dismissed Pain, as he spilled most of the magical water they were supposed to bring back Emily to drink.
"Oops!" Pain looked at the cup now filled with only a few drops of the magical liquid.
"Here, Emily, you have to sip this to enhance your foresight!" Panic forced the remaining enchanted liquid into Emily's hand.
Emily looked at the few drops in the cup nervously before forcing herself to swallow the entire cup. Her vision, once clear, now filled with darkness. She watched as events of the past unfolded. She saw Hades, but he was younger, and he was standing in a grove with Zeus.
There were throngs of nymphs filling the grove and the were all vying for Zeus's attention. Despite their enthusiasm for Zeus, each nymph recoiled from Hades, too terrified of the god's burning blue flames to approach.
When her vision returned, she was left bewildered. Wasn't she supposed to see the future?
Hades watched as Emily rose to give her predictions; his minions had so far succeeded in bungling her competition. Apollo was left perplexed as to why his seer was failing to make even the most basic of predictions. Apollo exchanged furious glances with Hades, before realizing his seer's foresight had been tampered with.
Emily now grasping for anything to say to the awaiting gods swallowed anxiously. She only knew of one event that would certainly occur in the future.
"The underworld whispers of Hades fall into the Styx, a path unforeseen but inevitable," Emily declared.
On the other side, Calliope had stopped looking into her bowl and instead observed the skies. While Calliope could not afford to disappoint Apollo, she felt joy because she had no idea what would happen next.
"I predict rain! Nature itself will totally put on a show for us," Calliope smiled at the approaching thunder clouds.
As the prophecy for rain unfolded, Hades, grew more furious.
"Emily, are you even trying? Really, me falling into the Styx?!" Hades lifted his hands to his head in frustration.
Apollo celebrated his victory as the skies thundered and the rain started to pour down into the grove.
Hades gave an annoyed grunt and disappeared back to the underworld. Emily's eyes widened with terror. Was Hades abandoning her?
But before Apollo could restart his spell, and finish transforming Emily into a tree, Hades returned to the grove, his chiton dripping wet, and his flames extinguished.
"Cheating, Hades! That's not how prophecies work!" Apollo shouted, realizing that Hades had forced Emily's prophecy to come true.
"What can I say, I'm a master of my own fate! Who says the god of the underworld can't make a splash?" Hades celebrated briefly until he noticed his usual flaming blue hair was completely extinguished.
"Great. Just great. Do you have any idea how long it takes to dry and reignite this hair?" Hades lamented as his hair was no longer ignited.
"I'd think after your dip in the Styx you would at least return with a better sense of humor," Apollo taunted Hades, unable to contain his irritation at the Underworld Lord's meddling.
Hades, still soaked and furious, shot back at Apollo. "Coming from someone who had to play shepherd for a year that's rich. Your life is nothing but a joke Apollo."
Apollo, undeterred, continued to mock Hades. "Well, at least I don't smell like I was spat out by my father."
"Not that I don't have all the time in the world for this little tit-for-tat, let's just call it a tie. Balance in all things and all that mumbo jumbo" Hades rolled his eyes at the ridiculous insult, but his fists curled tightly into fists.
Apollo, noticing Hades sudden calm, swallowed his next words. He was not ready to fight with the god openly. To do so would not end well. "Very well, Hades. A tie it shall be, but beware of meddling any further in a mere mortal's fate."
Hades was still damp when he left the grove with his three minions trailing behind him reluctantly. Hades grumbled incessantly over the inconvenience of his wet hair and the previous mockery from Apollo. Emily and his minions trembled with fear, keeping well behind their master as the grove around them was now wilting from the heat radiating from Hades. As Hades moved through the grove his steps heated the floor so hot even the nearest rocks were starting to melt.
Hades, now bursting with rage, turned his wrath upon his minions. "You imbeciles! I wanted a clean victory, not this! And you, Emily, what kind of prophecy was that? My hair is still out and you nearly lost!"
Pain and Panic cowered before Hades' wrath. The two imps did their best to try to fan Hades flames back to life by rubbing together two twigs at a frantic pace above the god's head.
"We technically did get the water boss." Pain puffed out his flabby chest as he continued to rub the twigs together in hopes for a single spark.
"Yeah, but Emily drank it all." Panic glared at Emily. This was really her fault that their plan had backfired. If she had prophesied better, they wouldn't now be in the hot seat with Hades.
"Wait, you drank the water?" Hades' hair started to reignite and the blue flames now weakly crackled on his head.
"Yes?" Emily swallowed. She wasn't sure if it was good or bad thing that she drank the water or not.
"Well, well, well, you can see the future for real now, huh? Oh, Apollo is going to loathe that." Hades chuckled, his blue flames once again sparking excitedly on his head.