A Million Worlds Apart

The Offer

As the first week passed, Patton started to really gain his feet in the Underworld. He'd even fallen into a little rhythm by the fourth day.

Patton would wake up in the morning and get dressed, then have breakfast with Logan (with the food Janus would bring down, of course). After breakfast, Logan would take him around the City---or Elysium, it depended on how Patton was feeling---and they'd chat and kiss for a while before coming back to the palace for lunch. When they finished, Patton usually ended up sitting in on the judgements of the souls, and made it his mission to try and get Logan to crack a smile---except on the more serious ones.

Once that was all done, Patton would chat with Virgil, or Janus, or Remus---whoever was around. Roman occasionally popped in, which Logan was not happy about, but both Patton and Virgil were happy for the interruption. The Furies also would say hello, though they were usually busy---with what the torturing, flirting, and all. Then Patton would explore the Underworld library a little before dinner, which was always fun. After that, he'd have dinner with Logan, and they'd chat and kiss a little more before the two of them retired for bed.

By the end of the week, though, the situation above rudely reminded him that it existed.

"You are not going to believe this," Virgil announced, walking into the library. "This guy Tantalus---he's a son of Zeus---got invited to dinner with the Olympian family, and he had the gall to ask to bring home ambrosia and nectar."

"He sounds entitled," Patton called from his place on the ladder. "Lemme guess, Zeus zapped him?"

"Oh, no, no, he let it slide after saying no. The problem was, Tantalus got sore and invited all of the gods to eat dinner at his place, right?"

"Mm-hmm, I'm with you so far."

"Guess what he cooked up."

Patton shrugged, pulling one of the books off of the shelves. "Some old cow who died and rotted for a few days?"

"His son Pelops."

Patton nearly fell off the ladder. "His what?!"

"His. Son. Pelops," Virgil repeated. "The gods brought him back to life, me and Janus got the honor of dragging his soul down here after Zeus vaporized him, Logan decided to punish him by sticking him in a pool surrounded by fruit and always making the water and food a little too far away to reach, yada yada yada---but you haven't heard the most insane part."

"Cannibalism, right?" Patton said, climbing down. "I got the gist."

"Nah, all of the gods realized what it was," Virgil told him. "Except for your mom. She ate part of his shoulder."

Patton choked. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. It was because she couldn't stop worrying about you." Virgil gave him a pointed look. "She's pretty distraught, you know. Might be good to at least let her know where you are."

"No," Patton answered automatically. "She'll just barge down here, take me back, and lock me up again."

"She hates the Underworld. She'd never come here."

"Still. It's better if she doesn't know where I am."

"So you're just going to let her believe that you've been kidnapped?" Virgil asked. "Let your own mother believe that you're being held captive by some maniac? That's the better option?"

Patton exhaled. "Virgil, do you have parents?"

Virgil blinked, surprised. "I mean... Erebus and Nyx sorta count? They're primordial deities, though, so they're not really around much, and I do have a shitload of siblings. I was kind of just spontaneously created when the concept of mortality was created, so..."