Once Upon a Winter's Spring

6. The Vanishing Lady

The next morning that came wasn't as golden as the one that came before. The moon still faintly lingered in the clear sky. Kori was awaken almost at midday only when Eros called for her.

"Kori, have you seen this!?" his voice called and Kore rolled out of bed, dragging her feet to his voice coming from the window.

The love cherub was flying outside her window, awed at the vines sticking along the tower wall.

Kori jolted awake seeing the vines still there.

"They're still here! Oh Cupid do you see? I call them moonflowers. They only open at night."

"Yeah ok, but aren't they dead?"

Kori rolled her eyes.

"You could at least pretend to be happy for me," she pouted, throwing her face on her hand, her elbow resting on the window sill. "They were quite alive last night."

While Kori was busy whining, Cupid noticed something interesting.

"Hey Ko, let down your hair?"

Kori tossed him a questioning brow but rolled her eyes and decided to entertain him, letting down her hair.

"By styx, these vines are so dead, they could pass for your hair!" he teased.

Kori had enough. She pushed down on the windowsill and roughly heaved up a vine, using it to swing herself out of the window launching at the wide eyed cherub and bringing him down to land.

"That. Was. AMAZING!" A voice squeaked their way. The two friends turned to find the daughter of Hephaestus gleefully walking towards them.

"Oh Thalia! So glad you ran into us!" Kore intertwined her arms with the nature nymph and the two girls twirled in their embrace.

"You see these? I call them the moonflower vines. I made them up last night, but there's still so much to be done. And mother won't help me and you're a deity of nature yourself. So..."

"You want my help?" asked Thalia, who just a few years older than Kori but had long worked under Demeter.

"Would you please? That would be such a blessing!"

"Well, only if you help me get over my fear of heights."

"You have my word!"

"As you have mine. So, I assume these moonflowers only work at night?"

"You are correct. But mother has no interest in helping me."

"SoOo, then how do we do it if Demeter won't help?"

"We could... go behind her back?" Kori twisted her words along with her fingers. "And it's not like I'm doing anything illegal, we'll technically be doing our job!"

"Oh, you're clever like that, aren't you!?"

"Well, not exactly. We obviously can't use the front door without mother knowing."

"Why don't you use these vines? Like how just now you climbed down?" Cupid suggested.

"B-but, I couldn't!" trembled Thalia. "I'm scared of falling!"

Kori grabbed her shoulders and spun her.

"Eros's right. I promised to help you get over your fear, this will totally help! We'll just need a secret word for me to know when you're here."

"How about: Kori, oi, let down your vines?" Cupid started.

Kori laughed. "Oh that's not subtle at all. But I like what you're thinking."