Her words spoke volumes and Carlos, ever the curious one, couldnât help but ask. âTrapped in Olympus? But, I- most people would say that being stuck in the Underworld was meant to be the bad part.â Persephone was something different for sure, and it was messing with the teenagerâs head a little bit. Her promise made him give her a small smile but he remained doubtful. âI donât know. I donât want to hurt anyone. I never really did, but Iâm capable.â His thoughts drifted back to Harry, guilt eating at his insides. Heâd killed someone; heâd fought on the Isle, of course, they all had to survive, but heâd never thought heâd be able to commit such a heinous act. He balked. Cruella would probably be proud.
He didnât know what the goddess had called him, but the soft touch to his hair was indeed more comforting than heâd ever really known. No one had been so⌠so motherly to him. He didnât move away; if anything, he unconsciously took another step closer to the kind woman and gave her another small smile. âI⌠Thanks, I guess. Um, IâŚâ He glanced behind her again at the giant dog, fear threatening to take over his heart, and he forced himself to watch Persephone instead. âCan you tell me if any of my friends are down here? Iâm hoping they arenât but it- I think Iâd like to find them, if they are.â
âYes trapped. My mother, she never wanted me to leave her side. She had this, obsession, with keeping me pure and fearful. No man was even allowed to look at me.â Persephone sighed at the memory. âI heard that Hades asked my mother for my hand, but she laughed at him. So one day he rose up form the Underworld and stole me away with him. He was never cruel too me, nothing like the myths tell, he courted me - if you understand what that means. Dated. We fell in love, Zeus knew where I was the entire time, my father, he cared little. He saw me happy, he saw Hades at peace for once. Then my mother found out. She cursed the mortals realm with famine and cold, stopped crops from growing. Killed mortals. Worshippers.â
âWe knew my mother was trying to get her own way, to claim me back where she could lock me away for the rest of eternity. So I asked Hades to bind me to him and the Underworld. To bind me to him, we married under the gaze of Zeus and Poseidon. To bind me to the underworld, I ate off the pomegranate - the fruit of the dead. Six seeds.â Her lips tightened as she recollected the rest. âI was brought before Olympus and asked to choose, I was surprised by this, but grateful. I chose my husband. Demeter was furious, claimed there had been a trick, that I had lost all leave of my senses. She was outraged to hear that I had bound myself. She promised more destruction upon the people of Greece and father had to compromise. Six months with her in Olympus. Six months in the Underworld with my husband.â
âAnd thus the vicious cycle of being torn from my love for half the year began and your mortals seasons began. When I am in Olympus, my mother letâs things grow - Spring and Summer. When I am in the Underworld, she kills the land - Autumn and Winter. Hades nearly missed our sonâs birth because of the forsaken cycle. I fear that had Hadie been born in Olympus, my mother would have never let him leave.â Hadie had been born mere hours after the Autumn equinox, not long after her return from Olympus, her half-sister Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth had came to her aide to stave off labour to give her time to get home to Hades.
âWe are all capable little one, even me. We are what we choose to be, and I choose to be a wife, a mother, the only one capable to making things grow in this realm. I am capable of great destruction - if you ever meet my husband, ask him about the vines. But remember if you slip up, that doesnât make you bad, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again. No one is perfect.â She assured him, styx, she had nearly suffocated Hades with vines the first time she got mad in the Underworld, not realising her powers of Spring would work in the realm. She wouldnât have killed him, but it would have hurt.
As he stepped closer, her arm rested around his back, hand resting in his hair comfortingly. As similar way to how she held Hadie when he was close. Her face leaned down, nose pressing to his hair lightly; as if to reaffirm that he was safe with her. A small gesture she felt to help sooth the teenager. âI havenât heard about many of the children. But give me their descriptions and I will ask around some of the lost souls for you.â