The Master Strategist

The Princess and the Psychopomp

Hyacinthus sagged in his chains, feet inches above the ground, his position a mirror of my own. A scar now ran down the left side of his face from his head all the way to the lip. It was healing, but slowly.

My wounds weren't healing so well though.

The scar from the flames ran across my right leg and thigh and my nose still bled rivers.

"What do they want from us?" Hyacinthus gasped.

It was the first time he had asked that in out long days of captivity. I think he knew the answer, but just needed to hear someone say it out loud, the reason for his sufferings.

"To get to them, of course." I say with ragged breath.

I see all the fight go out of him then.

"Why must we pay for those we love?"

"Love is the best weapon there is." I respond.

Seeing his pain and hopelessness, I decide to begin the story he so wanted to know.

"I wanted to see the being who lead souls to Hades...

The room was cold and dark, just as I liked it. The dead appeared to like it as well.

The corpse sat, wrapped in blankets, in the middle of the room.

A handmaiden of my mother. Short, curly brown locks. Tall, thin, small head, pointed chin.

Helen of Troy if I ever saw one.

I sat in the darkest corner, staring curiously at the dead, whose name I had not bothered to ask.

A spider crawled on my head. I did not kill it or shoe it away. I let it crawl on my skin, let it build its web in front of me in the hours I waited.

I turned my focus away from the dead and watched as the spider weaved into life a web which it would use to catch prey.

Most people thought of Athena when they saw spiders. Her tale of transforming a woman into a spider was legend. She's actually a cousin of mine, that spider woman, Arachne. My patron also cursed my family.

But I saw the Fates in Spiders. They were a beast with the power of all three. They made their silk, weaved and measured it, and cut it when they were done.

The thing they weaved was their own life. Their home, the place they caught their food. And often, with its destruction, the spider died with it.

But not always.

A tiny whoosh of air is what alerted me to him.

One moment the room was empty but for me and the stink of death. But now a man stood before the late handmaiden.

He wore a cape, blue as I could see through the small light which filtered through the window, and a curved hat. And there were wings on his shoes.

You probably want a description of his body and face Hycisthus, but truly, I never notice those things. Helen of Troy could look like the Minotaur for all I care.

His shoes were what truly identified him. Hermes, the messenger of the gods.

He stooped down to the body and a cuff on his wrist began to glow a deep blue.

Suddenly, the handmaiden rised, awake and alive! No, she was...blue.

A ghost, a spirit, her soul stood beside Hermes. He didn't even flinch.

The woman...her soul...look resigned to her fate, maybe even a little happy.

She had been a hard worker in life. She would not suffer in Hades. Her joy was well founded.

Suddenly, her soul seemed to fold in on itself, wrapping into a small glowing sphere.

Hermes pulled a horn of some sort out of his belt. It was long and thin, spiraling with ridges.

Slowly, the soul floated into it. Hermes then packed up to go...

"So that's how its done." I say.

He jumps and swings around towards me.

I take a step back, so as to avoid the spider web, and come around forward.

He raises an eyebrow. "Who are you?"

"Alithia." I respond, coming closer to study his cuff.

"Princess Alithia?" He asks.

I shake my head. "I live with the title of my birth parents."

"But you are officially given the title Princess."

"I am a tactician, a daughter, and a sister." I reply. "But as a Princess, I am useless. And I seek to only be useful."

He looks at me in curiosity. He is much taller, and his hat falls over his eyes a little as he looks down at me.

"So why are you useless as a Princess?"

"I am treated as a direct child by my family, but in terms of power I am not one to be offered to another royal. And I cannot sit on the throne. Unless my twelve siblings all perish, gods forbid."

"And I'm talking to a god. So please, forbid it."

He grins at me. "Earlier, you said that was how its done. What did you mean?"

"I wanted to see the work of the phychopomps." I explained. "Though I would have preferred Thanatos."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"He is a mystery. Everyone knows Hermes."

He sits down on the floor, beside the body. "Then tell me Alithia, who am I."

I join him on the floor. "Hermes is a trickster god, son of Zeus and a nymph, messenger of the gods and deliverer of souls to hades. Plus he has winged shoes."

He shakes his feet a little, showing off said shoes.

"Well I guess you have me all pegged out then." Hermes said playfully. "But are there any questions about me you seek answers."

I know my eyes light up. Interviewing a god. A god! "How is your relationship with your mother?"

He looks at me in shock. "My...mother?"

I nod. "The Nymph, Maia."

He looks at me blankly.

"You do know who you're mother is, correct?"

He shook his head. "Yes, of course. Its just...why my mother? Everyone asks about my father."

I roll my eyes. "He turns into animals to fuck people. And all those relations end the same way. But your mother...I wonder more of the mysterious than the golden boys."

He hesitates before. "Its good. I love her but I don't get to see her often. What with my trips to the underworld and...Hera."

I nod. "Why doesn't she just leave him? Hera, I mean."

Hermes sits up. "I don't know."

"Why does your father have such a strong...sexual desire?"

The trickster god blushes. "I...I..."

I sniff. "A god of the most base instincts, as I suspected. What is the Underworld like?"

He freezes. Then smiles. He comes closer, breathing on my ear.

"Would you like me to show you?"

"Wait, so you're just gonna end it there?" Hyacinthus cries out as I finish.

"You wanted to hear the story of how Hermes and I met. That was it."

"A truly touching story. A cute little couple you make."

The door bangs open.

We hadn't known she'd been on the other side, listening.

The light burned our eyes but they adjusted quickly.

Her one hand reached out and grabbed my jaw, shaking it. More blood dripped from my face.

"And I hope a loyal one, for my plan to work." She purred. "Oh, and Alithia, I don't know why I stayed with Zeus for so long."