Joo Ree-Ha has been considered strange ever since she was a little girl. She spends a lot of time alone. She is interested in things no one else is. She often gets looked down on for being different. One day she crosses into a dark alley and sees a...
I leave the library and go to the bedroom me and the freak are sharing. I pushed the heavy door open and looked around the room. I gasped. Surrounding the bedroom was everything from my old room back home. My gothic posters, my dark wallpaper, my drawers filled with my own clothes, my own bed, and furniture. I walked around the room, watching in awe.
"Do you like it?"
I turned and saw Taehyung standing in the doorway. "I thought since you'll be living here now, I duplicated your things from your home with a little spell." He shifted his feet around nervously. "Wow", I say. "Um, thanks. Don't be offended by this but, I didn't think you actually cared." "Well, you're my fiance", he says gruffly. "I should be able to give you some special treatment shouldn't I?"I nod, still a bit suspicious. "Will you be joining me for breakfast tomorrow?", he asks. I nod. "Good", he says, and leaves.
I put my hands on my hips and look all around the room. Literally everything in my room from home was in here. There wasn't one thing from my room that was missing. Then the door burst open. "Her Majesty!", Kathleen says and bows. "I was just looking for you, I-"
She stops when she sees the change in the atmosphere. "What on earth happened in here?", she says. "This was the apparent 'surprise'", I say. "He brought all my stuff from my room at home." "Goodness", Kathleen says, looking around. "What could have goaded His Majesty to do such a thing? He is no good being." I shrug. "I dunno, maybe Aphrodite's son Cupid shot him with one of his arrows." I laugh at my own joke. Kathleen looks at me seriously. "I hath no words for what has become of His Majesty. But you must remember, he is still a heartless monster." I roll my eyes. "Well, of course, I know that. And I still have no intension of marrying him." Kathleen nods. "Good, then we must be swift because the wedding is in four days, and we still must get the ingredients for the potion."
I nod and follow her back to the library. She was right. Taehyuung was a heartless monster, and he deserved what he was going to get. But I couldn't help thinking about what he did for me back there. Why would he do something nice for me when he has been treating me so badly?
Kathleen opens the book. "Okay, so far we have the vial of saliva from Cerberus and the pomegranate from Persephone. Now we need to figure out this next ingredient riddle." I study the riddle in the book.
This next ingredient is small, from the Fields of Asphodel. It is the fruit of Tantalus, but he is unable to eat it. What is it?
"Another fruit?", I groaned. "Okay, okay, let me think." I tried to think. But I couldn't remember everything from Greek mythology class. "Maybe this can help", Kathleen says, handing me a thin book. "It is on the legend of Tantalus." I take the book from her and flip it open.
Once upon a time, fair-haired Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and harvest had a daughter with Zeus, king of the gods. Her name was Kore. The god of the Underworld Hades, spied her from afar. He fell very much in love. So one day, when Kore was picking flowers, Hades took his helm of invisibility, and captured Kore to make her his bride. Kore naturally was upset, but she learned to adapt and changed her name to Persephone. When Demeter discovered her daughter was missing, she fell into deep despair. Eventually, her despair turned to devastation. Her sadness affected the crops, for they all failed, and the sun, Helios, was covered by snow clouds. The world began to starve, and many grew hungry, for there was barely any food left in the world, and they began to freeze, for there was no sun to give warmth. Mortals began to resent the gods and those who were favored by the gods like Tantalus, king of Corinth, grew angry. So angry, he hatched a mad plot, to shame the gods. He took one of his sons, Pelops, and cut him to pieces. And boiled him into a stew. And he attempted to feed his son to the gods. But, being the gods, they knew immediately what Tantalus had done. This angered Zeus, and he used his mighty thunderbolts to kill Tantalus. He sentenced Tantalus to spend an eternity in Asphodel, Field of Punishment. He is chained to a river, with grapevines above him. When he reaches for grapes, the vines go high, above his reach. And when he stoops to take a drink of water, the water recedes. He cannot eat or drink, and he is very, very thirsty and hungry.
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"Damn", I say. "This Tantalus dude is one messed up guy. Imagine, cutting up your own son." Kathleen nods. "Yes, the king of Corinth was not the wisest of kings." "But, at least we got the answer!", I say excitedly. "It's a grape from the Fields of Asphodel!" As soon as I said it, the riddle on the page changed into, "1 grape from the Fields of Asphodel."
"I'll go get it first thing in the morning", I say. "Why wait?", Kathleen asks. "You still have some time before you and His Majesty depart for bed. If you hurry, you can get it and make it back in time before His Majesty can realize you were gone. I bit my lip, knowing I was taking a terrible risk. But if it means that I get my freedom back fast, then I had no choice.
