Chapter Text
It was so strange. All creatures of terrifying stature and shape simply cowered before him; the man didn’t need words to command respect. They reached a wall with a severe face engraved on it. It opened on its own.
“Don’t mind the decor.” The inside of the house was dark with small dunes of sand, paintings and marble busts of the stranger himself. As he turned to her, Melinoe took a moment to look at his real figure for the first time, short and well-kept white hair (hers was wilder), a white and gold tunic with an hourglass on it (didn’t people use sun-dials instead?), an overall greyish black skin tone except for his golden feet (like her?) and the girl couldn’t help but notice they were not touching the ground. He was levitating. Like a ghost, but he was far from one.
Back to his face, the man had crossed his arms and wasn’t saying a word. He was just looking at her... oh- “Y-you said we could help each other (calmly now) what did you mean?”
He smiled and suddenly two chairs came into existence, gracefully lowering himself on the larger seat he said, “Sit if you wish, I find that my guests are usually more comfortable to discuss this way.” The goddess did as told and awaited his answer “Good, now, you are in a very peculiar position. You perceive yourself as the goddess of ghosts do you not?” she nodded “and yet, you do not utilise all of which that entails. Yes, you are surrounded by the dead and you have a lovely collection back at the...”
“Glade.”
“Yes! Well, it is commendable to be able to form a small tribe in such a *inhale* precarious situation.” “Thanks.” “But alas it is only natural for a capable goddess to wish for more, that’s where I come in. As ruler of the underworld, I would be delighted to have you as my... help. So how would you like to expand-”
“But! Just, hold for a minute, Hades is meant to rule the underworld, where is he?!”
“Fighting the war up above! The Olympians- his brothers called for his aid! He had to leave the underworld to someone!”
“But who- what were you to each other, why you over anyone else to rule? To rule his entire kingdom!”
The “ruler” gripped onto the arm of his chair and leaned closer to the witch “We were close. Associates.” taking a breath “Closer. Than anybody. Except... for one person.”
He got up and started floating again, he looked less threatening that way “Melinoe, I understand you aren’t fully trusting of me, and you are correct to do so but there is one person very few knew of, that was Persephone, queen of the Underworld.”
“I thought the Underworld didn’t have a queen.”
“It is not public knowledge! This is for her protection of course, the queen was a secret to most, but I have always known. In fact, why don’t I show you?” He gestured for her to get up and follow. Again, she did as told.
They both entered a dusty room with a large rocky bed, a single window and a large rectangular object covered with a tarp (strange), but what was deemed important was the small object the man was holding. It was a visage of a woman, long blonde hair, green eyes and an old yet kind face. Persephone the queen, wife of Hades, evident by the soft pillow next to the boulder one.
“If I hadn’t had a close relation to Hades, I wouldn’t know of his wife.”
Although she couldn’t deny the obvious, the situation still irked her. “...Did the house always look like... like it does now?”
If he was offended, he didn’t let it show. “No, Hades allowed me to “make myself at home”. He knew he and the queen would be gone for quite a while. Allow me to demonstrate.”
They stepped out into the grand hallway again, and with a snap of his fingers all his paintings disappeared. Like... magick.
They reappeared just as easily.
“As I was saying, you- we! Could be of some benefit to one another! Alas, regardless of my knowledge, I can be of no substitute for the service you can provide. After all, one can sail the seas but only Poseidon controls it.”
The services she could provide... “And what-”
“Allow me to show you something!”
“WHA-” The nearly familiar gold and black hues shined around them, and the witch was lifted into the air. With a blinding flash of light, they appeared somewhere else entirely.
Elysium. The colosseum to be exact. The tall one had brought her to a more reclused part of the seats, where there weren’t any creatures or warriors bouncing around. In the centre, there was now, instead of the previous warrior and bull, five pink balls releasing pink butterflies into the air, one in the very centre of the arena and the others spread out around it. A single man with a heavy sword attacked one the balls on the periphery, swinging his weapon with expertise, he attacked any butterflies heading his way, constantly looking around for any danger whilst continuing his assault on the pink bulb. The bulb, having taken enough damage, disappeared in a blue flash, the warrior turned around to see a massive barrage of pink heading his way. Flail the heavy sword he did but there was nothing he could do to save his afterlife. He turned into the blue flame she’d seen them turn into before and was again subdued by the butterflies. Fully vanquished by the impossible odds, and yet Melinoe couldn’t help but comment.
“He could have done it if he had continuously swung all around and walked backwards-” the godling looked up to her host “then he would have more space to work with right?”
The older being seemed rather speechless for a moment “Ah, well it is to be expected you would have some insight on how to avoid enemies. The woods of Erebus are rather dangerous are they not?”
“Yes, they’re... not easy to navigate.” She was still nervous around him but was getting better at not showing it. “Why are you showing me this?”
“Well, if we are going to work together it is of utmost importance that you understand the wants and needs of the different ghosts and creatures. For example, you see that skeleton over there?” He pointed to a bomber skeleton she recognized from Asphodel and once in this realm as well. There was a bit of space around him even though the arena was full to the brim, creatures touching shoulder to shoulder. Clearly nobody wanted to be next to the guy holding a dozen explosives. “They don’t trust him, he is a problem. Your job would be to handle certain disputes that the residents cannot solve themselves. Any ideas?”
Melinoe was already working out different possibilities before he finished speaking. Handling fights was something that happened a lot back home, specially, when someone new was introduced. Always a different idea, a different view, a different logic and they would at each other's heads, yelling at the supposed stupidity of the other. It always depended on the situation, sometimes she would ask them directly what the problem was, other times she would ask someone else to explain since the fighters tended to be biased, and sometimes she would just get them off of each other until they managed to cool off and become civil, but what never worked was trying to take full control of the situation, she had learned to make them think it was their idea to stop fighting, it was their conclusion, their resolution that they had come to on their own. It rarely was but it was truly the better way to go about it.
The witch took a large piece of fabric off the wall next to her, it was a beautiful blue tapestry, she would blend perfectly with the walls. Making a sort of cloak around herself, Melinoe expertly climbed the sides of the reclusion they were in, looking back she couldn’t see the stranger, only a vague light of his usual colours. That’s why nobody had called attention to them, they were invisible, but this next part Melinoe was sure she could do without any help. She perched herself on the curved stone, it curved upwards up to the pediment, which allowed her to climb on it and grab onto the ledge of the wall just above the many shades in the stands. Thankfully they didn’t notice, too focused on who was gonna jump into the arena next to notice anything, just like she thought they would be. Keeping the cloak from falling off, she went around the arena, slowly, until she arrived behind the skeleton who was in the top row now inches away from her.
Turning around still holding onto the ledge, the goddess fixed her cloak in order to let it fall just about enough to cover her flaming feet and moved it close enough to the bomb’s fuse. As soon as she heard it sizzle the girl knew it was time for the easiest part of her plan.
“OH GODS, EVERYBODY WATCH OUT!” She yelled like a harlot, and it worked wonders, everybody turned around, and hearing the sizzling, the ones in the same row immediately pushed the bomber onto the next row, which promptly did the same thing and the next one after too until the skeleton fell into the arena. Upon falling all his bombs scattered and exploded two of the pink bulbs. Everybody cheered at the commotion and laughed at the now defenceless skeleton running around the arena trying to avoid another swarm of butterflies.
He wouldn’t last a minute. She needed to hurry back to the host.
Gripping her way to safety, Melinoe landed in the enclosure and walked back towards his invisibility trick.
“Well done, my girl, I am most pleased with your performance~” Melinoe giggled, satisfied to see him pleased with her.
“Although, I admire your ability to adapt, it would be to your advantage if you made yourself known, that way the residents can come directly to you with their requests, but they need to know your face in order to do so!”
Her heart dropped. Her face? Her eye. Oh gods, her eye must have turned red and black by now. She couldn’t let that happen, she couldn’t let them see her, she needed to hide, they would be terrified-
“My girl.” It stopped her mental spiral, but not the tightening on her heart. “Come now, you have ways around this, yes?” He took a hold of her hand which she just now realised had been half covering her wretch of an eye. “They have both appeared green before, it shouldn’t be an issue.”
“I-I-I need my s-syringe. *swallows* It will change the colour... and a longer dress! They look and it doesn’t take long to hear the grass burning!”
“Ah...” This reminded the man of a conversation he had a few years ago...
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“What are you doing here?”
“I need to speak with you about a vision I had a very long time ago. I have been seeing more of it recently.”
In the house of Hades, stood Chronos in a mostly destroyed house, broken pillars, shattered bottles of nectar and ambrosia, an entire family and their close associates just outside in the garden he supposed his daughter in law made in the depths of Tartarus. Not the deepest depths, no, the deeper part was where they had kept him for all those eons.
“Speak plain or get out!” The other man in the room was also cadaverous in appearance, likely due to his own god received punishment, he had bandages around his stomach, a blue flaming hand and long blue hair. It seems he had come directly after being let out of his binds; in truth Chronos was pleased he had been released in the chaos of war and had chosen the right side.
“The girl, their youngest daughter, she must be released.”
Chronos pondered over his statement. The titan of time had calmed down since his initial escape and the first thing he did was trap everybody in the house in a moment in time. Except his son. His son would suffer for what he did, would see the underworld become unrecognizable to him and left forever to ponder on his mistakes. When Chronos attacked the house, Hades had tried to run with his daughter, being the only one Chronos had spared thus far. But he couldn’t get anywhere. His servants caught him and Chronos fought him until he was weak enough to be subdued to magickal chains. His son had gotten weaker. The girl, however, couldn’t be trusted either, Chronos wondered if he should make an ally out of her but thought it was better to play it safe and not have any more traitorous gods running amok. He had no wish to raise another child anyhow.
But here he was, the titan of foresight himself, telling Chronos to release her.
“And tell me, Prometheus, what will become of her?”
“She will be our greatest ally in this war.”
It wasn’t entirely nonsensical, but the titan was still sceptical.
“And if things don’t go your way?”
“They will. But you mustn’t keep her here, you must let her go.”
“Go? Go where?!”
“Far away from here, where the war influences her the least. Melinoe, goddess of ghosts, needs to interact with her divinity without the stress of it all. That way she will grow to love humanity. Enough to go to war for them. Not that the shades would give her a flattering idea of Olympians anyways.” Prometheus finished shrugging, not needing his foresight to come to that last conclusion. His pained expression painted a clear picture.
But for the first half, Chronos was nearly rendered speechless. The titan of foresight hadn’t lost his nerve. “And pray tell, why can’t we keep her. Here.”
The other titan paused, to him the answer was clear as day, but the daylight could be blinding if you had spent so much time in a cave. Alas, Chronos needed an answer.
“...She needs to learn to love.”
The titan of time was a force to be reckoned with, a mastermind with a brilliant plan, the only deity able to provide order to the world before his insolent children stepped up.
And yet, the fact is, he couldn’t find a counterargument to Prometheus’s smoking gun. It cut deep somewhere buried inside. It cut something the elder had thought far gone.
“Fine.” The father caved.
“We will see her when the time is right.” The words brought no comfort.
As such, one of the oldest beings in existence let go of his granddaughter in the woods of Erebus, near the river, as if she had just washed up by chance. The girl was wrapped up in a blanket so the average creature would not notice her, she wouldn’t be attacked, but the shade of a once living person would notice it was out of place. The expectation was that one of those dead would take her in and become her loving family. It sounded increasingly dubious the longer he looked at her. What if they treat her poorly? What if some other god finds her? What if the moon came down in sincere curiosity? Even if it all went well, she couldn’t know what Chronos had done to her family, it would surely disgust her enough to want him gone. Even if he never told her; she was the spitting face of her parents! Anyone would recognize her as the princess and promptly tell her.
Even with his endless doubts, the grandfather let go and did what he did best. He let time take its due course.
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Now he knew. Nobody would know she was the princess if she was hell-bent on hiding everything that would connect her to her lineage! Melinoe would never know her true parents and she would join the underworld to avenge all those wronged by the gods. Patience was truly a virtue.
“My dear girl, if you wish to go home, I won’t force you to stay.” Chronos put on a smile and pulled out a small golden device that looked like a wristband with the symbol of an hourglass. “You can secure this to your wrist. Whenever you are ready to come back, just whisper into it “O’ time, O’ time, would you spare me a moment with your kind.”, I will come at my earliest convenience.”
In less of a panic, the all grown girl took the device and attached it.
“Thank you...” hesitating for a moment "Would you maybe bring me back home? It’s a bit of a walk from here and on the surface, I feel-” before she had time to finish the sentence, Melinoe was whisked back to the exit of the familiar woods.
“Do call!” And just like that, Time... her boss, disappeared.
Walking back was a strange sensation, everything felt so surreal. With so much on her mind the goddess of ghosts trekked back to her abode using all the techniques that had become familiar to her. Soon enough, she was home and somehow pumping with more energy than ever.
“Melinoe! Where were you? You’ve been gone for a full day; we were worried sick!” Arachne spoke and it was clear she had been home for a while. The others hurried to her side to ask her much the same, her health, her whereabouts...
“And what of those four in the corner?! They disappeared around the time that you did but they returned lik-like they had been summoned by the devil!” Egerio spoke up, he was famous in the place for being vigilant and meticulous.
“I’m sorry?”
“Y-yeah! Something of a green circle glowing and they- regenerated!”
“I think I saw that too!” Another shade said, but only after the other had spoken up.
Melinoe needed to tell them, but if she wanted to convince them, it would be smart to show them her new workplace in Elysium! Except to do so she needed to change her look from Chthonic to approachable. “I will look into it and be right here, just need toooo- go grab a few things!”
And so, she sprinted to her tent to go get her syringe and a longer dress. The essence of the liquid that changed her eye had to be at a constant boil or else it would lose its colour changing properties. Just hot enough to trigger the alchemical reaction. Fill the syringe directly from the miniature cauldron, don’t give it any time to cool down. Place the open circle at the end of the tube around her eye, for accuracy; stare directly into the two needles, the open circle was hot, but the burning liquid made her go blind for a few seconds. Enduring the pain for a few seconds until her eye recovered, one perk of her divinity was definitely the damage resistance and accelerated healing. Nobody knew this was the actual process for her eye and nobody had to know.
“Niiiiice.” Except for one shade who just happened to be her roommate.
“Dora, you always enjoy the most morbid things. It makes me wonder if you were exceptionally malicious in life.” Her words had no real bite; it was just the banter she had become so used to.
“I HAVE DONE HORRIBLY NASTY THINGS BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION. BOILING WATER IS NOTHING!” Dora also had the odd ability of turning into a proper scary looking ghost whenever she wanted. It worked well for her bit, she wasn’t truly able to scare Mel anymore, but the witch decided to play along with her friend anyway.
“Oh no! Don’t tell me anything, you dreadful spectre!”
“Ooooh dreadful spectre? I like that~” Back to her original form then. Melinoe couldn’t help but giggle at her antics.
Choosing a longer turquoise dress, she was finally ready to go out and bring all her friends to a different world. Melinoe was excited. Yes, excited. The sinking feeling in her stomach had to be excitement or else she wouldn’t be able to do it.
It will be fine once they’re all happily in the lush green fields. Perhaps she should call the man, she had hidden the device under her sleeve, so no one would notice. If he was here, it would make convincing them much easier. Then she would work with him and everything would change for the better.
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...Right?