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Humans got a lot wrong, some of it completely invented while the parts that held some grounding in truth were mixed up. The names were all wrong, Humans across multiple cultures all had their own names for the beings and places they referred to, but there were other things too.
It wasn't a three headed dog named Cerberus that guarded the entrance to the Underworld, preventing any spirits from trying to take an alternate route out than the boat to Peace, it was trio of guards capable of turning into large wolves whom would inherit the post from a guard before them and couldn't leave until they found another to convince to take their place. As Jed understood it, convincing someone to take their place got a lot easier once werewolves came about, given they'd have the joy of being a wolf with none of the pain of transforming, while it had been a whole lot harder before when the part of having to turn into a furred beast at least once a day sounded like an undesirable curse and not a dream come true.
And the ones they called Hades and Persephone were not uncle and niece, but aunt and nephew, and there was nothing remotely romantic about it.
Of the current rotation of gate guards, Jed was the oldest. He couldn't say for certain how much time had passed in the world of the living since he died and took up the job as a guard, replacing an exhausted looking man who'd cried when Jed said yes, as time in Limbo passed differently, but from what he could gather from Rafael who'd come next time in Limbo passed slower than on Earth. He hadn't cared all that much how much of that time had passed, he'd been alone and unimportant in life, in his opinion, but in death he had a whole spiritual ecosystem relying on him doing his job right.
"So we just sit out here until more get brought along?" Finch asked after the latest batch of spirits had been herded in, leaning against the gates once they'd closed. Jed had tried telling her not to, but after half a dozen times of her ignoring him he'd stopped bothering.
Finch, their newest, said the year where she came from was 2034, which hadn't phased Jed but had Rafael quiet ever since. Unlike Jed and Finch, Rafael had someone in the world of the living he'd hoped to come across when they were brought into Limbo and Jed had, regrettably since, enjoyed telling him not everyone who died ended up in Limbo: that the vast majority just went straight on to Peace. After spending what the trio calculated as being eighty years with Rafael, watching the guy check the faces of everyone the Ferryman brought in with hope and seeing it go out when yet again the crowd didn't include his brother, Jed felt awful about how he used to be.
In Limbo time, she'd been there for around three days and Jed was already missing Brutus.
Like with any newcomer, Jed wasn't too keen on Finch, but he was a lot nicer to her than he had been Rafael. He'd learned his lessons.
"Pretty much," he clicked his tongue, relaxing against the slope of an old dead tree that had been worn down over the years into the shape of his ass.
Rafael huffed, surprising his two companions. "Just be glad you haven't had someone try escape yet, I had that on my first day: it's horrible. Someone desperate enough comes along, tries to get past us, and they're always begging and crying, telling us about who they have on the upside who needs them."
The middle wolf looked down, upset by the memories of countless spirits who'd tried it. Their stories dangerously close to his own before he'd come to the conclusion his brother was long dead and gone straight to Peace, killing the hope he'd held onto for decades that he'd see him one last time.
Jed opened his eyes and watched Rafael, guilty for all the times he'd made fun of him for how their job impacted him.
Finch winced.
"Ouch, yeah okay I'm glad that hasn't happened."
"Yet," Jed corrected. "Hasn't happened yet. It will eventually. Either someone who heard it from someone else in there takes a swing at it, or some dumbass thinks they're the first who's ever thought of it will try."
They both frown at him for his word choices, but they're both young, even Rafael at over a hundred. Naive? Yeah, he's pretty sure that's the word for it.
"Is this another, we babies can't possibly understand, moment?" Finch asked then, making Jed question again if she could read minds. According to her, she'd just met plenty of guys like Jed before, which Rafael had chuckled then gone silent again. "How old even are you anyway? You both look my age and it's throwing me off."
Jed and Rafael exchanged looks, noses scrunched up.
"He's a few hundred or so. As for me, if you're from 2034, that would make me a hundred and nine now," Rafael answered, shrugging one shoulder. "Give or take. Never knew my birthday and this place doesn't really have a calendar, just the bell."
Their youngest perked up, "It was November if that helps?"
"A little, but it could have already been a year on Earth since you got here."
Finch's jaw dropped, "Wait, really?"
Jed nodded, picking up a stick to draw into the ground with. Concentric patterns mostly, and out of habit Rafael was already watching him work. It used to bother him, until he found out Rafael knew nothing about werewolf culture and didn't know the markings were Seven Bloodline runes dating back to their species' creation: after that Jed had practically forced Rafael to watch and learn them, learn all their meanings. A doctrine he was now repeating with Finch, who'd told them on her first day she'd also known nothing about werewolf culture before dying, only knowing that she turned into a wolf once a month and sparking what would have been a hysterical rant from Jed about so many young werewolves not knowing their history had Rafael not been too buried in his grief to find amusement in it.
"Tyler, who Raf here replaced, used to ask people who came in what the year was. A couple answered, most just ignored him," he grinned a little at the memories and made a sweeping rune linked to Rafael's lineage. "He seemed to think there was at least a month between bell rings. But then he was also convinced he was going back upstairs one day, so take from that what you want."
Back upstairs being, of course, the world of the living. If spirits weren't able to go, Jed had no idea what made Tyler so adamant he as a guard would. I just need someone to replace me, he'd always told Jed and Brutus, any day now someone's going to agree.
Eventually someone had, Rafael Waithe, a six foot one ball of earnest curiosity and typical werewolf temper for Jed to butt heads with while Brutus hovered nervously near by. Good times.
Finch slumped.
"So our best clue on the time discrepancy," Jed wrinkled his nose at her wording, "is from a delusional guy who'd probably been in the job too long?"
Rafael hummed in agreement, leaning down to finish one of the markings and earning himself pleased smile from Jed. As fun as Finch was turning to be, Rafael being quiet and brooding was unsettling.
Jed moved to draw more, focusing on the Seven Bloodlines and intending to work back until he figured out where the Tarrayo's branched off, and Finch took a breath to ask something else, when the bells rang again. Instead of the once they were familiar with, signalling the arrival of all the dead since the last bell toll, this one rung out for longer at a deeper resonance.
Their youngest frowned, not knowing what the new bell meant, while their eldest jumped and then scrambled wildly with the stick bouncing from palm to palm as Jed tried to catch it.
Rafael laughed, out loud, for the first time since Finch arrived with her bad news.
"What? What's going on?" Finch eyed Jed, moving off the gates and edging closer to Rafael as the two watched Jed rush around trying to make their small camp look presentable. Blankets that hadn't been moved in years were picked up, slapped around to get out eons of Limbo's dust out of the fibres and wood shavings from Rafael's carving hobby were kicked about uselessly so that the path through the gates looked at least a little neater than before.
Rafael smiled down at her, something teasing sparkling in his eyes. Finch liked this new Rafael she was meeting suddenly, and she smiled back.
"Every now and then you'll hear that bell, it means a god's visiting," he told her, watching as her eyebrows shot up. "Yeah they're real."
"And what, Jed's really into worship?"
That surprised her, since Jed didn't seem the type to respect any authority that wasn't his own. Although, she reasoned, it had only been a few days from their perspective since she'd met the guy, there was a lot she didn't know.
Rafael looked giddy. "Yes and no. Most gods Jed doesn't think much of, but there's definitely one he worships-"
Rafael was cut off by the slap of a rag smacking into the side of his face, exploding in a plume of gray Limbo dust. He coughed, swiping at his face as it fell to his feet, and Finch looked to where it came from, a mischievous glint in her eye: beginning to understand what Rafael was telling her.
"Jedidiah Tien, are you crushing on god?"
Jed glared at them both.
"Both of you shut it," he ordered through gritted teeth. His expression only had Finch laughing.
"Oh my god, well, I guess we should say your god," Finch gasped, "that's adorable. Who is it?"
Jed kept scowling, "if you're not going to help me clean up, can you at least get the gate ready to open again?"
Instead, Rafael crossed his arms. "What if it's not even him?"
Finch mouthed 'him', and watched without interrupting.
"Who else would it be?" Jed fretted, drawing up short. "Oh crap, you're right what if it's just Hope again? Or Jen?"
Rafael patted Jed on the arm, "next time we see them, I'm telling them you said that."
At the idea of either goddess knowing how disappointed Jed had been by the idea of seeing either of them again, the eldest wolf reached out and grabbed Rafael by the shoulders.
"They can never know. Raf, I swear, you cannot tell them-"
"Tell who what?" A new voice interrupted.
Finch had prided herself her whole life on having fast reflexes, but nothing she could do would compare to the speed Jed turned to the newcomer with. The voice was deep, befitting of the huge man standing at the docks just beyond their gates. She'd thought Rafael was a big guy, but this one was something of a tank. Although men never took her interest, Finch had eyes, and the man in question was several layers of conventionally attractive, muscles, height, clear skin and a set of intense eyes to finish it all off. A grin worked its way onto her face as she looked between the man and Jed, then up at Rafael who nudged her playfully.
"No one, nothing, it's nothing we were just talking," Jed rambled, stuck between staring at the man as he paced closer to him, and the blanket badly folded in his hands. "We were wondering who the bell was for and Rafael thought maybe it was for Hope, you know how he is with her..."
Jed trailed off as the newcomer reached out and put both hands over his, silently taking the cloth Jed fiddled with away, and refolding it with an air of calm contrasting the buzzing wreck Jed had turned into.
"I indeed recall, and I'm afraid you will all have to suffice with me," he smiled at Jed once he was done folding, head tilted to one side. "Is that okay?"
Finch snorted at Jed's dumbstruck expression, drawing everyone's attention to her.
The newcomer's smile shifted but didn't dim, looking no less happy but the twinkle in his eye when looking at Jed was gone. "Oh, someone new. Pleased to make your acquaintance, my name is Ben."
He reached out a hand for her to shake, but didn't move an inch away from Jed, unintentionally making Finch shuffle forward to accept his handshake. She didn't mind, as it gave her a closer look at the bright flush of Jed's cheeks.
"Pleasure's all mine, dude, I'm Finch."
His grip was firm, but he didn't try deliberately to squash her hand as she'd known some try to before.
Ben nodded to Rafael when their handshake dropped, one Rafael returned.
"As regretful as I am I didn't get to talk with Brutus again before he left, it is good to see you still here Rafael," Ben greeted, then teasingly, he looked back down to Jed beside him. "And you, Jed."
Ben's tone dropped, soft and intimate, and Finch retreated back to Rafael with wide eyes. He rose his eyebrows at her, fighting a smile, as if to say 'I know, right?'.
"I was worried when I heard a guardsman had changed," the god admitted, voice quiet and all for Jed. "I wasn't sure if..."
Having strung together courage and his senses again, Jed shook his head. "No, no, not me. Can't get rid of me that easy."
Jed held Ben's gaze, the pair smiling softly at one another. Ben lifted up one hand between them, and from seemingly nowhere a gathering of gold dust whirled around in his palm, and an iris formed from it.
"As if I would ever want to."
Finch's jaw dropped and put a hand over her heart, exchanging looks with Rafael again. She'd always been something of a secret romantic, mostly concerning her own relationships, but the sight before her was adorable, and although there was an undertone of teasing to it, she was enjoying whatever was going on in front of her. Rafael leaned down to whisper to her, just as Jed accepted the flower.
"They do this every time, but they're not together."
She frowned, "what?"
Rafael's answering look was tinged with regret. "You'll see."
Although none of the wolves had prepared the gate, the giant iron structure groaned and clanged as it set into motion, startling the people standing just outside it. It grated a deep groove into the ground as each door opened, following the scars of a million other unveilings before, and shimmering into view came a solemn looking woman in a tattered blue and black gown seemingly made from scraps.
"Nephew," she greeted, voice blank.
Ben straightened up and Jed hid the flower behind his back.
"Aunt Lynn."
Finch blinked at the woman who supposedly was her boss, staring openly until Rafael elbowed her side. With some effort, she looked away and down at her feet the same as her brothers in arms were.
"Come quickly now, you should know better then to be here," she scolded, disapproving even though neither her tone nor expression seemed to change.
The new guard peeked up at Ben, watching him deflate and nod. She watched as Ben subtly brushed his fingers against Jed's arm as he passed the werewolf, then across Jed's stomach until the other man was out of reach and Jed seemed to lean into it before Ben was gone.
Without looking back Ben walked through the gates to where his aunt stood, seeming so small for such an imposing man, and when the goddess' hand gripped his elbow the pair disappeared in a flurry of blue, luminescent dust. As always, to the wolves outside, Limbo beyond the gates looked like an empty wasteland, with only escaping spirits visible to their eyes.
Jed watched every second of it all, staring even when the gates closed again and there was nothing left to see.
Rafael cleared his throat. "She was fast this time."
A long, painful silence followed, a complete role reversal from the previous few days. Rafael seemed torn between going to Jed's side or backing off, and looked down at Finch with a familiar expression of grief.
"What happened? I don't understand," Finch whispered, reeling from it all. She jumped when Jed suddenly spun on his heels and marched quickly away, following down the endless row of steel spikes marking the border of the underworld, and she wisely didn't speak again until he was barely a speck in the distance. "Raf?"
Rafael groaned, rubbing his eyes and returning to his usual place to sit, a bundle of dry leaves under a husk of a tree.
"From what I know, from what Hope and Jen have told me, gods kinda... bounce off Limbo straight back to life, we don't even see them unless they actively try and push through this barrier between life and death, which in my experience only three of them do because gods aren't supposed to. Something bad happens, I've never found out what but Lady Lynn is always quick to get their asses outta here."
Finch came and sat next to him, legs crossed and arms wrapped up self soothingly. "Hope, Jen and Ben are the only ones, and I'm quoting Jen on this, 'insane enough' to try sticking around. I've met Jen maybe twice, Hope a lot more, but Ben the most and that's entirely because of Jed."
He turned his head to look in the direction Jed had gone, knowing from experience that the other werewolf would eventually start appearing again the other side as if he'd trekked the entire circumference of Limbo- gods knew he'd done it several times himself grieving over Landon and Cassie's losses- and the time Rafael had to explain things before Jed got back and pretended like nothing happened was limited.
"Jen told me once that Jed's the longest running guard these gates have ever had, most don't even hit the two hundred mark and Jed's well on his way to being double that," Rafael paused, letting that information sink in for Finch. Jed's age had been vastly downplayed earlier. "She and Hope, and Brutus actually now that I think about it, were pretty sure Jed stays around so he can keep seeing Ben, and Ben forces through the barrier as many times as he does because he wants to see Jed. Staying for so long as a guard, risking his aunt's wrath, all so they can see each other one more time: never for more than a couple minutes if they're lucky."
Finch pondered her earlier thought about how romantic Jed and Ben's encounter was, how much of a sucker she was for the idea of it, and began to regret that thought. Although romantic, it wasn't a happy story.
She eyed Rafael curiously.
"You don't agree?"
He shook his head.
"No, I think it's a lot more than them just wanting to see each other again," he mused, telling Finch things he'd only ever told Hope. Rafael looked behind her, to where Jed was emerging from the blur of the far distance. "You ever notice Jed has a lot more colour than us?"
Finch blinked in surprise at the sudden question, and looked around them at the anemic landscape, tinged slightly blue. She and Rafael were much the same, bled out and in keeping with the tone. Her gaze fell on Jed's rapidly approaching, and against the wide expanse of their insipid blue-grey world, he did appear more... saturated.
The memory of the flower forming from gold dust in Ben's palm surfaced in her mind, followed quickly by the way Jed had hidden it from Lynn's sight.
"You think they're planning something," she breathed, face clearing.
Rafael nodded.
"I do, and I think they've been planning it for a really, really long time."
Their conversation ended when Jed stepped back into their make do camp, the flower gone and his skin just a touch warmer than before.
Jed regarded the pair, huddled together on the floor looking at him as if they'd been caught, and huffed.
"Come on, get moving. We need to get the gate lock back on, apparently she can open them just fine but can't be bothered to shut them properly," Jed growled, some ghost of his old werewolf self and the active Cerberus power under coating it.
As the oldest of them, holding Cerberus' power the longest, Jed's word was final, and both Rafael and Finch were compelled back to their feet. Either side of him, they reached for the massive lock on the gates, and with their combined strength heaved it back until a loud clang signified it was sealed tight.
Before Jed could move away, Finch reached out and put her hand on his arm, freezing him in place.
After a moment of hesitation, Rafael did the same on Jed's other arm.
Jed looked down at their hands, then up at each of their faces in turn with a small smile on his face.
"Thanks..." his voice barely there. "Come on, I'm figuring out were Tarrayo fits in the werewolf tree even if it kills me. I bet you're some offshoot of my family."
Finch scoffed. "One, you're already dead, and two, I'm jumping off that dock if I turn out to be your great, great, granddaughter or something."
"Grand niece, cousin seven times removed. I never had kids... I don't think... So I bet you're like my super removed cousin."
"That's so not a thing."
Shaking his head at them both, Rafael slapped Jed and Finch on their backs as he walked past them, tuning out the sound of their friendly bickering and settling back down where he liked to sit best. Listening to them the last few days reminded him of himself and Landon, the brother he'd wanted to see just one more time and ended up missing, and for the first time in just as long it didn't hurt.