The Taste Of Divinity

Ε Ι Κ Ο Σ Ι

"I believe congratulations are in order."

"Yes." Hades agreed as he reached for the papyrus sitting on his lap. A spark of something unnamed slithered into his bottomless gaze. Humour, some would call it, those who didn't know him. "And they are long overdue."

But are they, really? A voice asked him, the sound echoing in his head, never to be heard by another soul, she has only just agreed, after all.

Yes, she had only just agreed. It barely felt like a second ago when she escaped from his view and he was left all alone in that horrible place where not even the dead wandered. But it had been hours, he had been lost for hours. Perhaps, it was days, he didn't know.

He barely remembered his own name--his real name--when he stood so close to Tartarus.

Something had stopped him from succumbing to the call hidden in the roar of his father. Something had forced him to return to the palace.

There, confined by the walls he'd build with his own two hands, he'd forgotten and the black waters had left his lungs. There he'd felt a surge of pleasure as the sound of her sweet surrender flooded his ears and lungs, drowning him, suffocating him, saving him.

He was lost.

Gone.

And all it had taken was one word.

Yes.

One oath.

I swear by the Styx, the witness of oaths that gods make, as I say this. I will remain in your Kingdom and rule beside you, until the day I finally return to my home.

Never, he had wanted to tell her as madness consumed him, you will never return, not if I can help it.

"You will have to forgive me," Thanatos replied, dragging him away from the memory and the wretchedness of his thoughts, a sardonic tint to his voice. "I was unable to reach you."

"You are forgiven." Hades ignored the thinly covered insult and pushed the papyrus away, standing. "If that is all.  .  ."

"No, my friend. This was merely an excuse."

Aidoneus turned to his oldest friend, taking note of his clenched jaw and bloodless knuckles. "Is there a problem?"

Thanatos huffed, a sound that haunted the air like a bitter laugh. "Yes, I suppose you could call it a problem." He moved to the door and turned around to face Hades, his movements seemed tense, his words were hesitant. It almost seemed like he was afraid of the walls listening in. "Come, walk with me and we'll discuss. You'll need the fresh air."

His statement floated peacefully on the air, its ominous sound finding solace in the kingdom of screams and shadows.

Hades followed the winged God to the gardens, passing through the vibrant Elysian Fields and the Isles of the Blessed to reach the grey, silent fields of Asphodels. To the unaccustomed eye it would seem strange, how one climate bled into the other, how a tree that had grown in the middle always felt warmth on one side and a breeze on the other, how some of its leaves were lush and green and how others had fallen onto the earth, decaying as their home stood bare.

The asphodels had barely begun to smell when Thanatos' vein covered hand wrapped around the King's wrist. "Demeter knows."

Hades sighed but it was a mostly mechanical sound, a sound made out of obligation rather than need. "I suppose it's only natural that she would have learned the truth by now."

"Is that truly all you have to say?"

Aidoneus dragged a hand through his hair. "Tell me then, what should I say?"