Hades and Persephone: A Fated Love

The Olympic Council

Of course the drama had to come to a bombastic end in Olympus, played out before the entire pantheon of gods and goddesses. Even the lesser deities had assembled in honor of Hades's summoning to the heavens. He took me in his chariot the next day.

It was the first I had been home in months, and the open air had become foreign to me just like the clouds and gold of Olympus. I squinted in the sun as Hades led me into the temple of Zeus, patient as if he knew our time was quite possibly coming to an end.

"Welcome Hades," Zeus said. This effectively corralled the assembly to order and they watched with vicious eyes to see which deity would be torn apart. I had a very good suspicion it was going to be me. "You know why you have been summoned. And you know why I have to ask you—"

"Give me my daughter back," Demeter seethed, interrupting the king of the gods himself. Zeus pierced her with a look but she was still fuming as she glared towards Hades.

"You have had Persephone for one year, and claim her virtue is in tact," Zeus announced before the entire counsel. The gods roared with laughter, as if Hades were a coward or a hideous creature not to have taken my virginity like a gauntlet to throw in this meeting.

"Yes," he replied, unbothered.

"You know then, that she cannot remain with you as your wife and she must be returned. Has your time with her satisfied your request to me?" Zeus asked.

"If I had her for one day, I would have gained enough hope to live by," he said. But Hades was not a desperate mortal, or one to be commanded.

"Fortunately," he began with a blank look towards my mother. "I am entitled to much more time than that."

"Then unfortunately I am not entitled to grant the earth any of my blessings," Demeter spat.

Zeus held up a hand and the court hushed once more, although Athena gave a wry smile that spoke a thousand words.

"I cannot argue with either," Zeus replied. He turned to the Goddess of Wisdom and gesture her to speak. With the permission, she removed her helmet and stepped forward, glancing between the three of us with sharp eyes.

"Neither of you can be fully satisfied. Persephone has not been wed to Hades. In exchange for this honor and the fruit she has eaten, Persephone should join him for one third of the year. The remainder be spent with Demeter. If," she paused and every god hung in her words. She stared at me, and I felt the focus shift. "This pleases the prospective bride."

Just like that, after none of the gods pausing to consider how I felt in this situation, the decision was finally mine. How much time to surrender with Hades as my husband and how much to spare for Demeter, my mother. I turned to him, considering his declaration about being grateful even for one day.

"Would you let me go completely?" I asked softly. His face was blank as he stared back, completely unlike the man who had warmed to me in the Underworld. I couldn't recognize anything in him except the sadness invisible to the rest of the Olympians. They didn't know him to his bones like I had come to.

The way he looked at me was private, as if he only intended the words to be heard by us.

"I would."

My mother made a hopeful noise beside me, and Zeus blew out an impatient breath. The room erupted with the sound of the gods roaring mockery at Hades for presuming I would be his bride, but I could have sworn I heard Aphrodite call me a fool and a child. In the madness, I couldn't look away from Hades whose eyes smoldered as if I had truly managed to bring him to his knees.

The King of the Underworld, destroyed by six words.

"Six seeds," I whispered. His lips twitched.

"What did you say?" Zeus asked. The temple silenced once again at the command of his hand, and yet all I could see was the friend I had made who understood lust and loneliness in equal measure.

"I ate six. I should split the year in half."