━━ ❝ 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 to shine like a star you must burn
like one ❞
•--• ✹ •--•
[ i. completed / edited
ii. previously called folklore
iii. extended summary inside
iv. book 1 of the greek tragedy series ]
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━━━━━━━ Imagine the largest concert crowd ever seen, a football field packed with a million fans but no noise or light.
Kind of when like Cassie bought Taylor Swift tickets and Taylor couldn't perform, but at least she got a refund.
If you can picture that, you have a pretty good idea what the Fields of Asphodel looked like.
Annabeth, Grover, Percy and her tried to blend into the crowd, keeping an eye out for security ghouls.
She couldn't help looking for familiar faces among the spirits of Asphodel, but the dead are hard to look at. Their faces shimmer. They all look slightly angry or confused.
They will come up to you and speak, but their voices sound like chatter, like bats twittering. Once they realize you can't understand them, they frown and move away.
The dead aren't scary. They're just sad.
At one point a young girl with dark curls and dark skin bumped into Cassie, the ghost fluttered away in a frenzy before Cassie could say anything.
They crept along, following the line of new arrivals that snaked from the main gates toward a black-tented pavilion with a banner that read: JUDGMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION
Out the back of the tent came two much smaller lines. To the left, spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punishment.
Even from far away she could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music non stop.
The line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls- a gated community, which seemed to be the only happy part of the Underworld.
Beyond the security gate were neighbourhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history, Roman villas and medieval castles and Victorian mansions, every good feeling swirled in the air of the place.
Elysium.
She immediately knew she wanted to go there when she died.
In the middle of that valley was a glittering blue lake, with three small islands like a vacation resort in the Bahamas. The Isles of the Blest, for people who had chosen to be reborn three times, and three times achieved Elysium.
"That's what it's all about," Annabeth said. "That's the place for heroes."
Cassie thought of how few people there were in Elysium, how tiny it was compared to the Fields of Asphodel or even the Fields of Punishment.
So few people did good in their lives. It was depressing.
They left the judgment pavilion and moved deeper into the Asphodel Fields. It got darker. The colors faded from our clothes. The crowds of chattering spirits began to thin.
