Amortal Song

8. Lady V

Calypso

The ground opened up around us, sending us tumbling downwards, Arden and I still clinging to each other and Odysseus' outline was flickering in and out in the darkness. It was like our original fall down into Umbeunter but scarier almost. I didn't feel the lurking shadows or the sharp claws slicing into the skin of my ankle but I could hear the screams. I had the vague idea we were passing through and seeing glimpses of the many levels of the underworld, seeing different glows of color coming from different platforms I couldn't see.

But I heard the sounds.

The loudest screams came from a place illuminated with a crimson red, bloody and dangerous. The sound of clanking chains and wailing sounds echoed around the walls enclosing us, filling my ears with the sound of the tortured. I tried to push the sound of my mind but it stubbornly stayed, filling me with the horrid thought that maybe some of them were like me at one point, and amortal, except they had fallen short of immortality. I hated to think that I might join them as I thought about the bridge.

There weren't many spiriost on it, even though Neortis had said those were the spirits. Thee were too few, to fill the centuries of amortals who must've tried to escape. Arden couldn't be the only guide for those amortals. There were more and I had the sinking feeling that none had ever escaped.

The wind whipped in my ear, not icy-cold like before but stale, humid air. It didn't help my thoughts, making my skin crawl even more and adding to my horrible thoughts. I was tempted to ask Arden when it would be over but I had the feeling he didn't know either, the way he was holding me tightly giving it away.

I looked to the side and saw Odysseus' falling, purple figure, still flickering in and out. His eyes weren't focused on us, instead looking straight down at the abyss surrounding us. I didn't have to read his mind to know what he was thinking about- his Penelope. The name had always bothered me, even on Ogygia when every waking moment he spent talking about the life he wanted to go back to, but the idea that he was only helping me because he wanted to get back to Penelope disgusted me.

I wasn't in the wrong for tricking him.

Was I?

Too wrapped in my thoughts, I was shocked when I looked down and a landscape of flowers nestled on a platform right beneath us.

"What is that?" I said loudly to Arden so that he could hear me.

"I don't know. It's...new. I've never seen it before and my father hasn't told me anything about any new deities. This should be the Field of Whispers or Whisperie as it's formally known among the gods."

He sounded genuine enough and I twisted around to look at him, the same glinting fear in his eyes that I felt in mine. I looked at Odysseus, who still wasn't meeting my gaze and was settling into a dive to land on the platform. His blinking purple flashed like a strobe light as we came into contact with the flowering fields, landing in a basin of water that drenched me from head to toe, like the biggest bird bath. I blinked a few times, my limbs aching from the hard impact as I pulled my soaking hair out of my face.

Arden reached out his hand to help me stand, cautiously gazing around the landscape. The landscape bloomed with a multitude of flowers, brighter and more vibrant than any I had ever seen and more fragrant than any perfume. The scent wrapped around us, sweet and almost unnatural for something so beautiful to grow in such a dark place. I bent down to pick a yellow daisy by my feet but Arden caught my arm and muttered, "Don't."

"Why not?" Something about the flowers was so entrancing that I bent down again to try and pick them. Arden jerked me up quickly, pulling me tight to him and clasping my wrists tighter so that I was pinned against him.