Homonculous |Marauders Era

Chapter Eighty-One

For a moment, no one said a word and no one dared to move in the Hayes household, and for some reason, despite the serious tone of the room, Elspeth was waiting for someone to laugh. She was waiting for someone to tell her that it was all some elaborate prank and everyone was simply joking around. However, while she liked to think she had a pretty decent sense of humour, such a joke would be crossing the line. If what she had been told was true, Elspeth had just been informed that she was adopted, but not only that, she was a goddess on top of everything.

Her eyes trailed over to where Caelan broke the silence with the sound of his crying before he quickly excused himself from the room and left upstairs. She couldn't remember the last time she had witnessed her father cry, leaving her to swallow the lump that was already developing in her throat. Pushing herself up, Elspeth could see everyone in the room visibly tense up as if they were waiting for her to attack them or something along the lines.

"I-I don't know what to say," she said quietly, " I don't know if I should be happy or...or feel some other type of way. Why...Why did you all decide to tell me now? Why did you wait until now?"

"I do not believe there is ever a good time to discuss such a sensitive subject, Elspeth, " Persephone told her. "For years, we've all tried to figure out a way to go about this moment, but only more time came to pass. In a perfect world, you would probably never learn of this and live a happy life only believing that Caelan and Sorcha were your biological parents."

"So what made you all decide on telling me?" Elspeth asked. "I would have never guessed otherwise."

"You don't give yourself enough credit," Hades interjected, " because you have grown suspicious numerous times. You're too smart for your own good, Elspeth, and there have been multiple occasions where we needed to intervene before you hurt yourself or others."

"Hurt others? What do you mean by that?"

"We have overseen your upbringing to make sure there were no incidents, after all, a goddess under a mortal guise is not something easy to hide. You hold power beyond what your peers are capable of and even what your parents are capable of. If you decided to break your mortal guise under duress, you would expose yourself as a goddess and we simply couldn't handle that. Which is why we've made sure that you've sworn yourself to secrecy with keeping the family alliance alone."

Elspeth was starting to feel nauseous, no matter how gently Hades spoke and tried to explain things, she felt incredibly overwhelmed as she tried to process everything.

"You said mortal guise," she said, " does that mean I don't even look like what I think I look like?"

Making her way over to the mirror, Elspeth had always appreciated her looks, never complaining that she took after her parents. However, Persephone and Hades came to stand behind her and within seconds, her appearance started to change. Her brown hair turned white, just like Hades, her skin became paler, her eyes grey just like his as well. But the longer she looked at herself, she could see the soft features of Persephone develop as well.

Suddenly, she covered her eyes with her hands and turned away from the mirror.

"Am I the goddess of anything?"

Hades inhaled and exhaled slowly, the conversation was all too familiar. " Your birth name is Macaria and you are the Goddess of Blessed Death. Elspeth, please, try to understand-"

Suddenly, he stopped talking when Elspeth's hands dropped down from her face and her arms wrapped around her body as if she were trying to comfort herself with a hug. A sobbing noise escaped from her lips as she slowly shook her head but then, a harsh laugh caused everyone around her to jump.