Chapter Text
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
If I had known what Father meant at the time, I never would have left his side. I should have stayed and fought with everybody else, but I don't know why I fell short. I was a step too late and I put myself here. Were the Fates playing tricks on me? Was this some kind of absurd karmic retribution? For what?
“A rising threat?” I had stupidly asked him a few days or nights before it happened.
Father nodded, his usually dour face even grimmer than usual. “The recent reports from the Shades in Tartarus match the abnormalities you reported in your security logs. Still, whatever is about to emerge now goes beyond these fragmented sightings. Nyx and I sense something on the horizon. Something that cannot be stopped.”
It sounded weird to me. Nyx knew, but they were both unsure. I saw some odd things here and there but didn't think much of it. Not until this.
“And you want me to go poking around? You say it can’t be stopped, so what’s the plan, Father?”
He had sighed, rubbing his temple with his bejeweled fingers. All those gaudy rings glimmered in the face of his stress. For once, I sensed it wasn’t because of my own incompetence. “I want you to venture into Tartarus, boy. Find this…imminent threat. I know it comes from there. And whatever you decide to do while you are there, I urge you- under no circumstances do you engage. Should you encounter a threat, even a singular hostile that I did not hire, you are to report back to me immediately.”
Usually, I would have probably let my curiosity override my judgement. Let my spear and instinct lead before Father’s orders. The graveness and desperation in his tone urged me to heed him for once. Perhaps he was being cautious for my newborn sister’s sake. Perhaps I was too. I listened. I nodded, then I left.
In Tartarus, things were the same as they always were. Screeching, echoing, deafening agony in a hallway of endless doors. A few trapdoors here, an angry shade there, flames, dust, cobwebs, the like. It was my duty to find things that did not belong. A few shifts ago, I had. I had reported them to Father, yet I did not investigate. Not until he told me this.
Father sent me there to investigate the source of his unease, and that is precisely what I did. Mother had only recently delivered little Melinoë, and I had seen her, sleeping soundly in her crib. Sounder than Hypnos on most days.
I figured Father was being paranoid. Perhaps he didn’t want to take his chances with his second child, the way he did with me. Of course, I wasn’t jealous.
…no, maybe I was. Not that it matters anymore.
I turned a blind eye far too many times over the course of my shifts. I prodded as he told me and reported everything, but it amounted to nothing. My investigations weren’t reckless enough. The one time I listened to him.
When I realised what Father meant, I stumbled over my feet. Tartarus had warped inward. I found Satyrs who had no business being there, using channels I had no idea existed, just to go underground. Underground where? Not a clue. Reality distorted. I thought it seemed peculiar. I should have followed it.
I was in the middle of an ordinary shift when I suddenly felt something change. The Underworld itself shuddered and wavered like it never did before. Not even when all of Olympus came to visit.
Something was wrong. I abandoned whatever battle I was fighting and thrust Varatha into my own throat. Into Styx, I drowned myself and bobbed until my eyes flew open and I dropped myself on the steps to the House.
What awaited me was supposed to be Father and the rest of the gods in discussion.
I managed to hold my voice back and crouch down by the steps when I saw a Titan- tall, towering over Father- his entire frame nothing but cracked onyx with streaks of ominous gold. Sands flew from his eyes and his voice echoed in a way that sounds so maddening now.
I was too distracted by those around him to recall what he said to Father. I saw everyone I had ever loved, frozen in time and action, all of them a second shy of striking, even mild Dusa.
Thanatos, Megaera, Achilles…Mother. I couldn’t see Nyx, but I assumed she had been taken if they were all this powerless.
And Father stood in the middle, bowing his head.
I had to act. Gritting my teeth, I nearly rushed to move forward, but something caught up with me. I heard an echo in my head and my vision turned golden. Then, black.
When I was finally allowed to move, air rushed into my lungs all at once, like I hadn’t taken a breath in decades. I crumbled to my knees and coughed weakly, my throat aching where I’d attacked myself. For me, it was mere seconds. For him…for the Underworld…I couldn’t be sure.
I collected myself and then, for the first time, I heard the Titan speak. I used to think Father was intimidating.
“Well now…it seems Hades had hidden away a wildcard. Pray tell, what is your name, dear boy?”