Princess of Roses

Chapter 25: Where Have You Been?

Gemira

The room starts to blur. My vision goes black, the ground vanishing from under me and I have a moment of panic before the world rights itself again. Clutching my chest with one hand to settle the beating in my ears, I look towards the right. Then blink as I find we're now in a starry black dark blue space.

"For you to understand what I mean, I believe we should start at the very beginning." She waves her hand, and the dark blue space is replaced with a view of the underworld as it was. "We were in a gathering of gods, when I first realised something was amiss."

"What was it," Theo turns to his mother. Then frowns. "Why don't I know about this?"

"Just watch, and you'll understand," she tells him, pointing at the space again. "You were quite young when it happened. Neither your father or I wanted to burden you with it."

"I wasn't..." He's quietened by a gentle shush.

Persephone points again. "Watch." The scene starts to move.

The courtyard is decorated in flowers, hanging lanterns lining the walls along with them. There are several circular tables in the room, set for eating, but also a long rectangular table floating above the scene. Seated at the table are different gods with domain over the souls of the dead.

"How many souls have passed into your domain," one of them questions. She's dressed in a long flowing black robe, attendants at her back with a plate for cigar.

"Twice as many as the last," the man beside her says with a sigh. A frown contorts his face, fingers tapping along the wood in front of him. The light from the lantern washes over the golden crown upon his head.

"What's the problem?" Persephone asks, tilting her head to the side, "I thought we'd already established that the recent plague meant this may happen."

"We did," he says, "but the problem is that there are souls which did not arrive." He takes a drink from his chalice right after.

"Missing souls?" The goddess with the cigar lays it down on the outstretched silver plate. Standing up as she points a finger at the man, "What in all hells are you doing?" She glares at him, the blue accents on her robe fluttering as she sits back decisively, stare boring to the side.

"They did not arrive, and I cannot chase souls which simply disappeared Izanami," he tells her.

"Well I for one," says another goddess, chalice in hand and a grin spreading over her lips, "think this is absolutely delightful. All the grief you gave me at our last gathering and yet you've lost souls."

"I did not lose the souls," the god says back, turning his glare towards her now, "And don't think I haven't heard of the abundance of souls that have crossed over into your realm. Yet it doesn't seem you've been doing the work."

The goddess grins widely, sharklike in its nature and for a flash it seems half of her face is blue, but then the vision is gone and all that remains is a beautiful blonde woman. "Those that traverse into my world are not your concern, you should be more concerned about..."

Persephone pauses the scene, a frown coming over her face. "I forgot just how annoying that was," she sighs, lips pursing. "I think the situation turned into an argument after that, but you can likely understand the main idea."

I'm not entirely sure why gods would argue like children, but I suppose age isn't really an indicator of maturity. I didn't understand all that was shown, however... "There weren't as many souls passing through as there were dead?"