Aidoneus

Tophet

There had only be a few moments in Persephone's life when she felt fear. True, unadulterated terror. The first time was when she was about five and accidentally lost control of her powers and broke neck of a young boy she was sparring with. Then when she started losing control at the sight of Routkin's severed head. The next was when she had the vision of Sisyphus throwing the spear at her Father. Seeing Hades' lifeless and bloodied body chained against a rock. And now standing at the entrance of Tartarus. The last four were all because of that damned tyrant king. And he would pay dearly for each of them.

Cerberus stood beside her, watching her. The entrance to Tartarus was not what she expected given that there did not appear to be an entrance at all. The mountain was made of shinny black stone. But not stone exactly. Maybe slate? Whatever it was she had never seen anything like it before. The stone was smoothing and not scalable. The mountain's base abutting to the river of lava Hades had shown her in their tour of the underworld. "Phlegethon" she said recalling it's name out loud. The river of fire that flows through Tartarus. Was it that the river water is on fire or that it's an actual river of fire? She couldn't remember Hades' answer. In that moment she had been so distracted by him deep blue eyes. "Stop stalling" she chided herself. 

She didn't know why the sight of this mountain terrified her. But she had come too far and this was the only way. She scanned the black rock for an entrance or a cave but saw nothing. She looked at Cerberus who tilted his head as if to say he didn't know either. She turned back to the rock and noticed a bead of water in one area. Was that... sweat? She placed her palm against it, expecting to feel wet rock but instead her hand passed through the rock as if it was not there. She quickly withdrew her hand. Her heart racing. Taking a deep breath she again put her hand into the rock. She watched in horror and fascination and her arm disappeared into the black rock side. An intense heat meeting her finger tips. It was now or never. Boldly she stepped forward and into the rock. It felt similar to when she had traveled through the ether with Zeus and Hades, but less disorienting as she emerged into a dark cave. 

She was wrong, it wasn't just hot, it was almost unbearably hot. Sweat instantly ran down her back and it was oppressive to breath. Move, go! Her mind screamed as her body slowly responded. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark but it was still hard to see. She walked cautiously in a straight line until she saw a stream of orange light ahead. She made her way towards it till her foot caught on someone soft and large on the ground. She stumbled forward and froze. Waiting to hear something recoil or respond but nothing. It was too dark to see what it was so she proceeded again towards the light. As she got closer she saw a right turn that led to a stone ramp descending over the ledge. She couldn't see where the ramp led, but there was no wall on it and the searing orange of a sea of lava below stung her eyes. One slip on this ramp and it was a hot bath of death, but there seemed to be no other path. She cautiously stepped onto the winding ramp. Then another. And another. It seemed reasonably safe. She continued down slowly till she was under the floor of the cave she was just in. The ramp led to another plateau of black stone encased with black stalactites and stalagmites so she couldn't see inside. As she made her way the ramp became even steeper in it's decent. Her leather soled combat sandals provided little grip on this smooth surface. She couldn't tell if her palms were sweating from the heat or nerves, but they too provided little grip.

As she placed one foot down she felt her grip slip as she fell backwards on her rump, sliding down. Or more like falling. She shifted her bodyweight to the right to keep herself from sliding off the side. Fates please don't let her die in lava! She built up speed as she continued sliding the rest of the way. Trying desperately to slow but to no avail. The rock was too smooth. Finally she slid into the dark plateau coming to a stop inside the dark enclosure. Her heart pounding as she tried to re-adjust her eyes to the dark again. "Goddesssssss" a voice spoke from the dark. She froze. Unable to see what or who was speaking. "We have been waiting for your arrival, Praxidike". She couldn't tell if it was the same of a different voice speaking but she couldn't defended herself on the ground. Slowly she stood and squared her shoulders. "May I ask who you are?" she tried to sound brave but inside her mind was screaming to run.