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Ariadne knelt down and silently poured a cup of left-over sacrifice blood onto the ground. ‘Mom,’ she muttered out loud, ‘Pasiphae, queen of Crete, come to me.’ She hoped her mother would accept the offer. It was the only way of raising the dead as far as she knew.
When she felt a hand going through her hair, she looked up. ‘Just mom was enough,’ the women in front of her said. Even in death she looked magnificent. Magnificant and powerful.
Pasiphae gave Ariadne a gesture that she should get up, so that she could look at her. ‘You look pretty, if a little plain.’
‘No questions about not being veiled?’
‘It suits you.’ She didn’t smile. ‘Is there a reason why you called on me?’
Ariadne shrugged. ‘There are always reasons. I wanted to make peace with you.’
‘Make peace?’
‘Yes.’
Pasiphae raised her eyebrows. ‘You took care of me and your brother. You showed me respect.’
‘I am sure you know I can’t have been respectful all the time.’
‘Of course not. In a house where I couldn’t expect respect from anybody, why would you be an exception?’
Ariadne straightened her back. ‘I thought that it was awful and disgusting. I hated it.’ She looked away again, not entirely sure what ‘it’ was. ‘But it wasn’t more awful and disgusting than the rest. I didn’t hate you more than the rest. You needed someone to take care of you, so I did.’
Pasiphae tilted her head. ‘I saw your disgust. Still, you ran the palace. Kept the food cooking, the servants working, and your siblings safe. Kept me safe.’
Ariadne threw your hands into the air. ‘You appreciate it, but what choice did I have? Sit down and sulk? Let everything become a mess? I gave you the bare minimum.’
‘Many people would’ve let everything become a mess. And many people would not have done that bare minimum.’ She grimaced. ‘The rest of your family, for example.’
There was a silence between them. ‘You didn’t deserve my anger,’ Ariadne eventually said. ‘I realised that. Recently, I commenced rituals to asure a better afterlife.’
Pasiphae put her hand on her daughters’ shoulder. ‘It would explain why my soul is lighter.’
‘Can you get into Elysium, now?’
‘I already was in Elysium.’ Pasiphae laughed at her daughter's surprised look. ‘Perhaps it was Hades’ way of showing his repulsion to Zeus and Poseidon. Yet, this time, it was in my favour.’
Ariadne looked her mother in the eye. ‘I didn’t see you in Elysium.’
‘You went to Elysium?’
‘I have been dead.’
‘But you got back.’ Now, a little smile broke on Pasiphae’s face. ‘Perhaps you are even immortal.’
‘Of course you can see.’
‘I knew from the very start.’ Pasiphae straightened her pale robe. ‘I hope that your husband, because there must be a husband, is better than mine was. Then you’ll be better off than me and I will have succeeded at raising one of my children.’ The ghost of the queen closed her eyes for a moment, as if she heard something. ‘I am not angry with you, Ariadne. Your curses never hurt me. And I am glad you got out of that awful place.’ She chuckled, although it sounded more like a sob. ‘Thank, thank the gods, that you are away from that… that abhorent hellhole. Be thankful for that every day, Ariadne.’ She closed her eyes again and let out a light gasp. ‘I have to leave. I forgive you, Ariadne.’
Ariadne looked at her mother with her mouth a little open. ‘I forgive you too,’ she said. ‘For everything.’
Pasiphae looked at her. ‘May we speak again some day.’
‘May we speak again,’ Ariadne mumbeld, while the spirit of her mother disappeared, back into the Underworld. Only the smell of stale blood stayed behind.