𝕱𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖑𝖞 𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖊 - a Leo Valdez slowburn

Chapter eleven

Chapter eleven. 

[Spill the tea, neglectful mother!]

""Welcome to the place

where everything seems vaguely familiar

and everyone's a bit peculiar,"

the shadows say to you."

Thanatos was a beautiful asshole, Hazel thought bitterly to herself as he warned her about her death. If she freed him, that is. And also Frank's death, so now both of their lives were her responsibility. She narrowed her eyes at the god. 

"Listen, Death," she said, drawing her cavalry sword. Arion reared in defiance. "I didn't come back from the Underworld and travel thousands of miles to be told that I'm stupid for setting you free. If I die, I die. I'll fight this whole army if I have. Just tell us how to break your chains." Thanatos watched her closely and then warned her again about her would-be honorable death, and also the Eternal Punishment of dozens of fellow Roman soldiers. That wasn't fair, but had Death ever been? Hazel mused. Not when he took Sammy, or her mother, or her. It had never been fair, and so Hazel didn't expect Thanatos to be now either. 

She caught the last words Thanatos said; "If you free me, I will do my duty. But of course, these shades will try to stop you." 

"So if we let you go, a we get mobbed by a bunch of black vapor dudes with gold swords." Percy shrugged. "Fine. How do we break these chains?" 

Thanatos smiled eerily at the three, although his focus was on Frank. "Only the fire of life can melt the chains of death."

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Where is Demeter in the summer, usually? Well, let me paint a picture for you. 

Olympus was fit for many of the Olympians, but not for her; she preferred the mortal earth over the godly Olympus. She had an island that she bought millenia ago, and sans the palace that rose up from the earth, there were only fields and forests for the eye to capture. 

If you arrived on the docks, on the left would be the biggest forest, which Demeter had named after her daughter, Persephone: Kore, which means maiden. Quite unfitting for a forest, but when had Demeter ever been good at naming things?

Slightly right to the forest you could see the beginnings of the strawberry fields to bloom, accompanied by fields sown with various flowers, which flared up in hues of pinks and purples. And then to the right of the floral fields began the various grains. 

At least twenty fields or so were covered with the stems of wheat and barley, little specks of nymphs watering the plants and waving at the goddess who stood on the docks. She smiled apologetically at them and looked further beyond, where her palace laid. 

It loomed up behind the wheat fields, covered with ivy and wall creeping plants; the goddess could spot at least ten rose plants creeping up into the huge windows that the nymphs must have planted there. The ceiling was made of glass, letting all the sunlight in from her brother's domain. Have you guessed from whose perspective this is written from yet?

"Mother, you're back!" a happy Persephone exclaimed, running towards Demeter. The goddess grinned at the sight of her daughter. "Hello Persephone," she greeted. "I have a task that has been bestowed upon us by a..." She narrowed her eyes to look for the right word, and then said, "By an old friend of mine."