gnossienne
n. the realisation that you didn't actually know someone as well as you thought you did
- - - - -
'Look, I never wanted to be a half-blood.
Let's start from the top, shall we?
My name is Cassandra Jackson, but everyone usually calls me Ca...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
We walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor. There was no ceiling from what I could see, just the cavern roof. I suppose they didn't have to worry about rain down here.
Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armour, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered us, but I could feel their hollow eye sockets follow as we walked down the hall, towards the big set of doors at the opposite end.
Two U.S Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at us, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests. I did not want to find out if they were loaded.
"I suppose we should knock." I murmured, eyeing the grenade launchers.
A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.
"I guess that means 'entrez'," Annabeth said.
The room inside looked just like it did in my dream, except this time the throne of Hades was occupied.
He was the third god I'd met, but he was the first to strike me as godlike.
He was at least three metres tall, for starters, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length jet black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiates power. He lounged on his throne of fused of human bones, looking graceful and dangerous as a panther. Hades had the intense eyes of mesmerising evil charisma.
"You are brave to come here, Children of Poseidon." He said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply foolish."
Percy took a step forward and I followed, wobbly on my legs. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests." He said.
Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appear in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment was stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment. I shook my head as my mind started to wonder what horrible things you'd have to do with your life to get woven into Hades clothes?
"Only two requests?" Hades spoke. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."
This was going just was well as I had expected.
I glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades. It was beautifully shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. I wished Queen Persephone was here. I remembered in the myths she could supposedly calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. Her visits created the seasons, not the tilt of the earth as all my science teachers believed.
