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In the darkness of the chambers you share with your lord husband, you rub tender skin and sigh. The young bud of life in your belly is starting to sprout.
...Or, less poetically, your baby is along to the point where he's starting to kick, and quite enthusiastically at that. With as much energy as he puts into it at times, you can imagine that in a year or so he'll be running along the halls of the House, chasing after Cerberus as fast as he can. A little hunter... hm. "Zagreus" could be a nice name. You'll have to change it a bit if he is in fact a she, but you have a feeling.
A feeling is all you have to go on; the Fates say nothing of your child-to-be. Except... except that he cannot, in fact, be.
Ah! You've gotten yourself in over your head in so many ways. First letting Zeus steal you from Olympus to live down with Hades, now trying to bear a child Hades is fated to never have... were it anyone else, you would think them tremendously courageous, and also fear for their future. Since it's you, you know there is no courage involved. You could not stand it upon Olympus. And if you fall in love with a man and foolishly let him enter you, thinking you will not get with child because he is never fated to have one, it is not courage, just natural consequence, when your belly swells with life.
(When you first told Hades of the little one, his stoic expression had become stricken for a moment, and his reaction had been enough to loose the frightened tears you'd kept trapped in your chest until then. He had cupped your cheek with one hand and let you weep on him, apologizing for his thoughtlessness. You had both trusted too much that the Fates' words meant there would never be a child at all, not even in potential.)
Your only hope now is that the fact that there is a potential child means there is some loophole to the prophecy. Perhaps Zagreus is not meant to be an heir or to die--perhaps he will not be bound to the Underworld like Hades is, and is meant to live upon Olympus? If that's to be the case, you hope he takes after Hades only, so your mother does not recognize her grandchild. You imagine she's not very pleased with your sudden departure. And you hope he can tolerate that so-called paradise better than you did.
The thought makes you laugh. Considering his temperament is likely to be somewhere between yours and Hades', thinking of how Hades speaks of his brothers, you don't think Zagreus would like Olympus very much at all.
But there must be somewhere your child can live...somewhere, somehow...!
There is a great splash from the main hall. Something large has just emerged from the river Styx.
You were already awake, but at this, you jolt upright. Hades left a few hours ago, bidding you to sleep without him, but Nyx is here, as is Cerberus. ...And Cerberus is whimpering. Not in fear but in mourning. Whatever has come is not a threat, then.
You approach the bedroom door and ease it open a crack.
"...trapped. Even with a keepsake from Persephone, I only lasted a few hours on the surface."
Hades... tried to leave the underworld?
"My daughters would not lie," Nyx responds in a subdued tone.
"Bah!" Hades thunders, though he drops back down to a quieter volume in the next moment. "I did not say they were liars, Nyx. Can they not be wrong even once and make a mistake as everyone else? If all their prophecies are correct--if I cannot leave the Underworld or have an heir--then Persephone's child..."
Silence. Even the little budding life in you has stilled, as if straining to learn more of his own fate.
"...When will it die? Will she come to harm?"
You jerk away from the door.
"They have not said anything of her or the child, Hades. Or if they have, it was not to me. I know as much as you in this--"
You close the door on Nyx's voice. You wish to hear no further. When Hades enters your shared chambers, you stay under the blanket and keep your eyes closed, reacting as little as you can to the brush of his fingers on your brow. Let him think you're already asleep. You don't wish to hear any further on how he's already given up on your child.