Hades

Chapter Nineteen - The Wish, Part One

Chapter Nineteen: The Wish Part One

Uxi hurried down the well lit palace-tiled Great Hall, the footsteps of her subordinate under-demons (who were not so much demons as shadows brought to life by her master to assist with the Underworld’s manual labour) echoing behind her. In her hands she held an hourglass – the answer to Honda’s questions, and the catalyst to many more questions to come.

‘Okay fellas, we’re done here, so let’s wrap it up and get back to work,’ Uxi called in her briskest voice, which wasn’t very brisk at all, because she didn’t like the creepy otherworldly creatures which Hades summoned out of shadows. To her relief, the demons began to disperse back to their normal duties.

‘Oh dear, this isn’t good. This cannot be a good thing,’ she muttered under her breath as she walked. She’d had a bad feeling ever since Honda had first told her he’d met a human girl, and it had nothing to do with protective big-sisterly instincts.

Sweet golden eyes looked up at her with hope as she entered Hades’ office, and Honda swung his legs off her desk and approached her in unconcealed eagerness. She held the precious hourglass behind her back.

‘Well Uxi-san, did you find anything?’

Uxi braced herself. ‘Honda, love, you had better sit down.’

‘What’s the matter? Couldn’t you find anything about Treielle?’

Uxi thought she’d found rather too much.

‘Honda,’ she said, ‘have you ever seen your  hourglass?’

‘My hourglass?’ He considered. ‘Ah you mean my life hourglass…I guess I’d forgotten I had one. I’ve never gone in the Great Hall. Why?’

‘Your hourglass would look a bit different to the others because, well...you’re already dead.' She tried to smile in comfort. 'Usually when all the sand in an hourglass has run into the bottom, that person’s life force runs out too. This is when we turn the hourglass over, and it goes on its way; it just vanishes like one of your magic tricks. But yours…even though all the sand has run into the bottom your hourglass is still here, as is your soul. This doesn’t happen very often.’

‘Okay, I think I understand. But what does this have to do with Treielle?'

Uxi sighed, and slid onto her desk next to him.

‘You said this girl knew you could turn into a cat, before you even told her. Haven’t you ever wondered why that is?’

Apparently suspicion and mistrust were not part of the boy’s vocabulary, for he shook his head in confusion.

‘What has she told you about herself?’

‘Nothing much,’ Honda said. ‘She always talks about me; and the Boss too lately. She said she has a big sister-’

He stopped speaking as he noticed the alarmed look on Uxi’s face.

‘She’s been asking about Master? So she knows everything?’

‘Y-yes.’ Honda hung his head. ‘I’m sorry Uxi-san, but I’d told her most things before Boss even ordered me not to. It’s weird, but when I’m around her I don’t feel like I have to hide anything. She’s so easy to talk to.’

‘Alright, love,’ she sighed. ‘I think you need to know something. I couldn’t find Treielle’s records, but with a little help I managed to find her hourglass.’

‘Okay, so what’s wrong?’

Uxi hesitated. She felt awful. ‘I’m sorry Honda, but all the sand inside it has run out.’