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Skeletal fingers drummed a slow, steady tempo on the mansions balcony, filling the silent air with the sound of chess pieces clattering against the board again and again, four at a time. He gazed unfocused across the manor grounds the gaping blackness broken apart sporadically by torches evenly staked into the rocks like an acupunctured back, the ceiling coated in hundreds of clusters glowing worms, blue light galaxies made up of thousands of living stars. One of the few things in this place that could be counted as such. The rocks of the cavern had been unnaturally carved and twisted into the shapes of nature, trunks of granite and pumice with branches of limestone and quartz, gilded leaf and gemstone flower bud spraying kaleidoscope bursts of color in time with the torches flicker. It was a beautifully pallid imitation, mirroring its maker. Cold, eternal, lifeless life.
The reverie was broken by the sound of foot against stone as the other living resident of the caves walked, near silently but only near, out onto the balcony. She was short next to him, able to comfortably rest her arms and head on the high railing that his skeletal frame towered over. She was in every way he was not, tan skin rather than bone pale, a soft face that all but glowed with light and laughter instead of angular skin ill fitting and stretched over bone, and two twinkling hazel eyes rather than floating sea-green pinpricks, dully illuminating a hollow skull. He shifted his gaze downwards, looking at her with unabashed affection upon his unnatural face.
"You know, you don't have to return tomorrow, they don't depend on the harvest like they used to. Some would probably even welcome the extra week of cold." His voice flowed out deep, as though the cave itself had woken up for this conversation.
"I have a job to do still, we both know that I can't stay here forever." She said quietly, drawing her gaze up to the glittering stalactites and the soft earth and endlessly wide sky beyond it. It felt comfortable down here now, centuries of existence together carving out a pleasant familiarity between them, despite how they had first met. As much as she loved the surface and the freedom it brought, she couldn't argue that there was a certain kind of loneliness that crept up on her while she was topside.
"Mmm, I know." His free hand unfurled and he begun to idly spin a small coin between his fingers, flesh growing and rotting in moments to keep the copper coin in motion. The ancient coin had been polished to a fine sheen, casting sparks of light as it spun, a square hole planted in the center and 半兩 being etched into the obverse showing a very distant origin. After a few moments of silence had passed he pinched the coin between his thumb and index, holding the hole over her head, holding for a moment her beauty as a renaissance painting in copper frame. Then the subject stepped back, out of picture and into reality again, an eyebrow raising along with a smile.
"Still holding onto that, after all this time." She teased, her voice tinged with nostalgia. The second time they'd met she hadn't come with any coin to pay the ferryman, and had only gotten passage after presenting him with that coin, she had found it discarded on the riverbank, not lawful tender down here under normal circumstances. Of course she was far from normal circumstances and thus with a puppy-tear look and honey-smooth voice to explain why she just absolutely had to cross the river, she was, begrudgingly, taken aboard. After the ride he had given the coin back to her, still having no use for it, and she'd given it to him along with a reminder to let people know when he was expecting company.
"It was a gift was it not? Why wouldn't I hold onto a memento like this?" A skeletal smile tugged at his lips. The
coin vanishing with a swift hand motion as he turned his back to the rail and headed back into what she had once called a "foul manor", a manor that was now her home as much as his. He purposefully slowed his stride slightly to allow his shorter companion to keep pace as they walked, holding hands as they made their way into the dining room and sat down at a table of polished obsidian, though neither was particularly inclined to eat, each for their own reason. In the center of the table was a bowl of pomegranates, a single one split open and a handful of seeds pulled out the remains stuck in an eternal stasis, heartbeat red flesh and fibrous white albedo preserved as a memory and a reminder both.
Their first meeting had been antagonistic at best, the second a cavalcade of inconveniences as they tried, and failed, to apologize to each other, several more would pass before anything resembling a friendship let alone a relationship, would begin to take root, but despite that for some unknowable reason they'd been drawn together time and again. The tipping point had been when she'd arrived to see a lone pomegranate tree growing amidst the rocky gardens, the first and only plant to take root in this deepest part of the underworld. It had borne fruit some time later, and four seeds taken had sealed her fate- four months of time she had to spend below the earth. Four months of time she got to spend with him.
He caught her eyeing the fruit bowl and smiled wryly. "At the least you'll be able to eat fresh food again, no?"
"You have saf- er, surface food brought down here for me whenever I ask. I've never starved down here."
"Ah, but it doesn't taste the same does it? You know I suspect it has something to do with the air perhaps..."
She let out a huff. "That was millennia ago, you just have to remember everything, don't you?"
"Only what is worth remembering, and if it involves you..."
"Shut it you." There was no anger in her voice, just the hint of a blush, as she rapped her knuckles lightly against the shimmering inkiness of the table. She looked down at her reflection clouded and dark in the volcanic mirror, then back up at him with a sad smile.
"I'm going to miss you, you know. When are you going to come all the way up with me instead of just walking me to the surface?" It was a question she'd asked hundreds times before, invariably the same answer would follow.
"I have a job to do as well, even as this underworld shrinks year by year."
"Surely you could leave it to Thanatos or Atropos, they're more than capable. Not to mention Cerberus and Orthrus and Kunoros-" He raised his hand to stop her before she listed the rest of the guard dogs dozen children. You wouldn't think you'd have to neuter a three-headed guardian of the underworld, and yet-
"I mean when was the last time you had a break, really?"
"One thousand nine hundred and ninety three years ago, give or take a few months, and during that "little break" a single carpenters soul slipped out and we suddenly had a new God on our hands." He responded dryly.
"People come back to life all the time now though, it was a miracle two thousand years ago now it's just "modern science" and whatever else, I remember this one kid who-"
"I'm allowed to be generous now and again dear, but those fortunate few are deliberate, I still need to hold the gates shut for the masses."
She sunk back into the chair, finger tracing outlines of flowers on the black glass. This was always the reason, excuse as she saw it, even with the shrinking of both their duties they remained devoted. She could stay longer as well, spring would come regardless now, even without her to drag it along, but she was as steadfast as him. While the slivers of responsibility remained they would carry it out.
"It's so much warmer up there now, I can't believe what they've done to the place. By the time I show up spring is half unfurled and it feels like mid-summer."
"And yet down here it's too cold for you. I think you may just love complaining."
"Only when it involves you, of course." Her eyes raised to meet his, shining with hidden smile.
"Of course." He broke into a thin grin, and her smile cracked wide open with laughter. It carried the sound of new green leaves set rustling and robinsong and forming rainclouds, it was still his favorite sound even after thousands of years of hearing it. He burned the sound into his memory, the next eight months would pass with agonizing slowness.
She settled from her laughter and paused for a moment before speaking.
"Can I ask you something?" He nodded his affirmation. "Why midnight, uh- I mean, why do we only go up when its nearly midnight?"
"If I have to lose you for eight months, I won't waste a second while you're here."
"Mmm, but we could be together up there as well, its close enough to the underworld right? And besides, when was the last time you saw a sunset?"
He paused at that, rolling back through centuries of memories like a grand film reel. "It would have been 1881, when you stayed an extra two months because of a spat with Demeter and I had to rush you to the surface before someone battered down the gates."
She looked away in embarrassment, she hadn't thought her absence would make much of a difference then and had been proven resoundingly wrong. "Well, come up early with me tomorrow, we can watch it together instead of you shoving me out the door."
"Very well, its a date then I suppose."
"We've been married for how long?"
He waved his hand. "Long enough."
"And here I thought you remembered everything."
He stood and she follow suit, a flick of his hand vanishing his chair (not hers however, she couldn't abide the hard stone furniture he constructed and had brought her own down instead) and collapsing the table into a pillar, holding the bowl of fruit atop it still like a modernist art piece. He moved to her side grabbing her hand to pull her up from her slump in her chair. Hand in hand as they walked to their bedroom he looked over to her.
"Two thousand, six hundred, and fifty one years, and two hundred and seventy eight days." He broke into a grin. "As I said, everything with you is worth remembering."
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The light of the overworld crept into view, the cavern walls growing in color and definition as they walked side by side. She knew the path by heart but he always saw her to the top regardless, she'd gone alone once, and had naturally had her only accident in centuries by tripping on her own dress and cutting up her hands catching her fall. He'd been at her side instantly and was adamant on going with her, not that she'd refuse the company.
As the light grew her dress seemed to burst into colors before his eyes, a firework against a once-black sky. Her dress was layered with petals of sour cherry and hyacinth and daffodil, flowing like water, while the shining green of new growth peeked out from beneath the flooding color. More flowers were braided into her hair, rows of purple and yellow irises sprouting out of auburn soil. Her sharp, elvish ears were adorned with the finest riches of the underworld, golden hoops and emerald studs matched the make of the ring on her left hand. The thin, sharp leaves of a willow twisted along her right arm, while locked in the other was his own arm, petals withering into ash where they made contact. Standing next to her he seemed completely out of place, full black suit and tie looking more prepared for a funeral than the coming spring.
They stepped out into the light together, lingering for a moment on the caves lip while their eyes adjusted. As they walked into the evening sun grass withered under his step just as new life burst out under hers, she broke of to run ahead, reveling for a moment in the fresh air and freedom while he watched on in sadness tinged bemusement. As she spun he waved his hand and the rocks shifted slowly, gradually rumbling into the vague shape of a bench. He shrugged at the poor work, there was only so much he could do up here after all, he sat sat down to watch her frolic, turning the rocks into a vibrant garden with her step. Once her dance was over she came to sit next to him, both watching as the sun drifted lazily and inexorably downward.
After a moment he pulled a small table up, more of a crude pillar really, and rested an elbow on it, chin in hand he drug his eyes across the light, thinly spiraling clouds, like distant will-o-wisps barely hanging on against the cool end of winter winds. From seemingly thin air he pulled out a clear cut-crystal bottle filled with a clear liquid, the rays of sunlight sending scattershot prism rainbows across his pale face.
"Hm?" The light and motion snapped her out of her quiet daydreaming as she looked over at him. He placed the bottle on the table and then another party trick of two cordial glasses springing into his hand from nowhere. Placing them down he turned to meet her eyes.
"A drink, to a new spring and the months I'll be without you." He removed the stopper from the bottle and began to pour. "It's hollyberry liqueur, an inedible plant made into a drink, not food. Perfectly safe."
He gave a reassuring smile as she took the glass, tilting it slightly and observing the liquid within slosh gently with the motion. When his glass was filled she offered a silent toast, their glasses kissed together for a moment and they drank. It smelled like the starting of winter time and the flora taste had a light spice to it. They savored it in silence as the sun finally started to shirk away and bring the night, the distant mountains fading into blue as starburst rays turned the sky into a painters palette, gobs of orange and yellow smeared across the purple-blue evening.
She leaned her head against his shoulder, taking comfort in having him so close for the time being before she spoke. "So, why hollyberry specifically?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure." His head slumped on top of hers, both watchin the spikes of light become nails, then needles as night began in earnest. "I suppose that it simply reminds me of you."
He wished the sun could hold out a little longer, even as the moonlight washes over them. Eight months isn't so long in eternity, but they could have forever together and he'd still wish for more time.