Time's Darkness

Chapter 5 - Surrounded Entirely by Death

The great doors were locked. And they weren't just stuck, I pulled as hard as I could. I knocked hard, but there was no answer.

I sighed, darkness it was. Although my control scared me.

I put my hand out, palm up and a black key formed slowly but it shifted  around.

I grabbed it quickly, irrationally thinking it would disappear and placed it into the lock. I turned it and the door creaked open. Shadows flowed out toward me with an evil edge to them but somehow I knew that they would not harm me. I was in my element now, for the first time, I was safe.

"Who are you?" a soul said. Was he like a butler or something?

"Ebony Colt."

"And you're alive. Who are you to come here?"

"I need to see Hades."

"Mortals aren't allowed."

"I'm his daughter."

"You think that changes things?"

"Yeah."

"You'd be right. Come on," he sighed.

I followed the soul as it floated like how mortals thought that ghosts did. He lead me down the main hallway and then we turned and then I saw him. Even though I'd never met my father before, it was unmistakably him.

"Master Hades, I have someone here to see you."

"Not now, Norman. Persephone's decided I must finish this before she comes back."

"Master Hades."

"What?" He said as he turned around and tried to blast the soul. I defended him easily with my blade, which could easily absorb Hades' small anger flare.

The soul screamed after the fact.

"Who do you think you are?" he roared.

"Take a wild guess," I snapped. I hadn't put my sword away. I was ready for another attack.

"Jasmine?"

 "I'm not my mother!"

"Ebony?"

"Genius."

"What do you think you're doing here?"

"You said that the next time I needed help, I should come to you."

"What do you want?"

"You know. You made sure my mother did."

"Charon is accomplished in darkness. He will teach you. You may stay as long as you want as long as you don't break any rules."

"Rules?"

"Don't mess with punishments, stay away from Tartarus, don't go in the Styx, don't eat the pomegranates."

"So normal stuff. Okay."

"And, Ebony," he said in a nicer voice.

"Yeah?"

"Kronos escaped yesterday, just so you know."

"Yesterday? But Hermes said-"

"Hermes knew it would happen. He jumped the gun. You can't tell anyone."

* * *

So I didn't. They already knew he was out so there was no point. I trained like hell for the next month and learned to master the darkness. The amount I could use increased and I was finally able to use my horse. He was made of darkness and had to be summoned using underworld darkness. He was Comanche, a famous horse from the American expansion era.