Misery Loves Company

Lost, Not Found (Part II)

Hopelessness.

The feeling pressed in on him from all sides when Will came to consciousness. It weighed at his limbs and pressed upon his eyelids so much so that it was a great effort to peel his eyes open.

When he managed to, Will almost wondered whether he was unsuccessful after all; a dark fog swirled where he laid, impeding his vision.

The fog seemed to weigh him down, holding his limbs to the ground like shackles. He tried to move his head, noticing he seemed to be laid next to a river bed, the sound of rushing water close to his ear. The river bank was made of obsidian pebbles pressing into his back. He appeared to be in a giant cavern, glowing stalactites hanging from the ceiling so distantly they appeared like glittering stars.

'Hopeless '

'It's Not Worth It. '

'Just Give Up.'

Again that aura washed over him, Will slid his eyes to where it seemed to radiate from, startling as he saw a figure watching him from a few steps away.

She shuffled closer till the details of her face became visible. Pale, colourless skin glittered like moonlight in the dim of the space, stark against black locks of her hair flowing to her hips. A silken dress hung off her shoulders, hugging her figure, its bone-white beading creating swirls and patterns across the material. Even without the diadem in her hair, Will would have recognised she was a Goddess.

"Where am I?" Will's voice was rough and quickly stolen away by the churning river.

"I'm surprised you don't know, your soul is entwined with the Prince."

The Underworld then.

He, a child of Apollo, was in the Underworld. Shit.

The thought of being so far away from the sun had his skin crawling, the shadows around him seemed to stretch and his heart beat frantically in his chest.

"I thought the Underworld was closed?"

"To your Prince perhaps, the monsters who call his kingdom home have loyalties that are easily swayed."

"And you, you're loyal to Akhlys?"

She hummed, "You don't know who I am."

It wasn't a question, but a pointed, resolute statement.

Will opened his mouth to assuage her, not wanting to offend a Goddess but she continued, "Very few do. I am Aporia, Spirit of Want, Difficulty and Powerlessness."

Well that explained the aura of hopelessness that pressed down upon the riverbed, why it felt too difficult to move, to think clearly.

"Sister to Akhlys, Lady of Misery." She told him.

Well shit.

"And my sister wants something, as such it is my desire to help her."

"She wants Nico."

Aporia nodded, "But she will have him soon, it is only a matter of time. No, from you, her desire is quite simple. A drop of sunlight is all we ask for."

"I-" Will's thoughts felt too far from his mouth to verbalise.

"We do not see the sun as you do, son of Apollo. But we still yearn for it - especially my dear sister in Tartarus. All I ask for is a sun globe, infused with a drop of your power and I'll let you go."

Will tried to shake away the haze in his mind, around his limbs, upon his tongue. But even that movement felt too distant, too weighted.

"You would swear it?" Will's powers felt like they had been cut off and allowed to float back to the surface, returned to the sun. He couldn't tell truth from lie as he usually might. Powerlessness , that was Aporia's domain.