#nonnie.copy

Oh you’d fit right into the House of Hades. The endless gloom suits you almost too well. The quiet halls, the muted torches, the whispers of the shades, it’s as if the Underworld itself made room for your melancholy.

It’s hard for most to believe you and Zagreus share blood. He burns with restless defiance, while you flow with quiet sorrow, fire and water, each mirroring what the other lacks.

Still, that doesn’t change the fact that Zagreus treasures you above all else. He’s not a difficult man to get along with, especially when he tries, and everything he plunders from his numerous escape attempts (gems, keepsakes, ambrosia, etc) becomes yours the moment he thinks you might like it.

Some whisper that your gloomy nature comes from your father. Zagreus refuses to believe that for even a moment. Hades is nothing like you! You’re kinder, calmer, infinitely more pleasant to be around.

He hates it when others compare you to anyone, to your father, to himself, even to Nyx. You are you, and that’s all that matters. He would do anything to make sure you see the worth in that.

There are times Zagreus finds thoughts weighing too heavily on him, things he can’t say to Achilles, or to Nyx. It’s in those moments that your grounded nature steadies him, anchoring his reckless soul before it burns itself out.

That said, he’s still stubborn as ever. You might have his ear more than most… might.

If something makes you smile, he’d do it in a heartbeat. Truly. No hesitation.

He tries, oh gods does he try, to make you smile. With gifts, with news from the surface, with ridiculous gossip from Olympus. When all else fails, he may even resort to the desperate tactic of tickling you. (Please, for his sake, don’t be immune. It would devastate him.)

Dry banter between you two is a House of Hades staple. To onlookers, your exchanges might sound like thinly veiled insults, but anyone who truly listens can hear the affection tucked between every word.

Some might imagine Zagreus feeling threatened by a sister who might one day surpass him as a more fitting heir to the throne. But the thought has never once crossed his mind. You’re his little sister. If you wanted the throne that badly, he’d personally drag Father off it and sit you down in that oversized chair himself.

Mention wanting anything around him, and you’ve sealed your fate. Nectar? Gems? Easy enough to plunder. A relic from the surface? Trickier, but he’ll find a way. Perhaps a deal with Charon, or a favor from Hermes.

And if you speak of wanting to see your mother? The tone of his fights with Hades changes entirely. He’s not just struggling for himself, he’s fighting for you. For your chance to know her. For your family to be whole again.

Whenever he’s cast back into the House after defeat, he doesn’t tell you how it went, though he knows you already know of it from the administrative records. He doesn’t want to burden you with more fractures in the family. Instead, he fills the air with stories. About his travels, his victories, the shades he met along the way.

If you were related by blood, you would most likely be Melinoë’s younger twin. Two souls saved by Hecate. From the moment of your rescue, it was clear: only one of you would rise to strike down Chronos and restore order to the House of Hades.

Melinoë’s wrath burns like a wildfire, fierce and all-consuming, yours flows like magma beneath the earth’s crust, quiet, slow, but unyielding. Her fury against Chronos is raw and visible. Yours, buried deep beneath layers of grief and calm, as it simmers endlessly.

You share a tent. Melinoë always takes charge of decorating it, though she’ll pause if she notices you wandering about the Crossroads instead. The first thing she ever commissioned for the Crossroads Renewal Project was a bench beside the Fountain of the Dead, a place where the two of you could sit together whenever she returned from her nightly attempts.

She refuses, absolutely refuses, to let you join the fight against Chronos. You’re better suited to aid the Crossroads and Headmistress Hecate, to ensure that life continues here while she faces the dangers below and above. Because if something were to happen to her… then you would be the one they must rely on.

Of course, she doesn’t plan on failure. Failure isn’t an option. Chronos didn’t merely steal the throne of Hades, he stole your family before you ever had the chance to know them.

Melinoë isn’t always good with words. But her efforts to make you happy are endearing. She throws herself into the Crossroads Renewal Project with enthusiasm, brings home trinkets and keepsakes from her journeys, bottles of nectar and ambrosia, and even carves out time to go fishing with you.

She knows these are fleeting joys, brief respites in an endless struggle, but she clings to them nonetheless. Every gift, every smile, every quiet moment beside you gives her more reason to keep fighting. If not for the shades, if not for the family she never met… then for you, her one true constant.

Artemis asks about you often when she and Melinoë meet. Though the goddess rarely visits, when she does, the three of you gather in the moonlit glade to sing together, your voices rising and fading like the night breeze. Melinoë swears those moments are the closest she’s ever seen you come to peace, and she treasures them more than she lets on.

She hides her doubts from you as best she can. You’re counting on her, they all are. But the one person she fears disappointing most aren’t the shades of the Crossroads, or even Headmistress Hecate… it’s you.

So she fills the silence between battles with stories, tales of monsters she fights and shades she meets. Her storytelling skills are questionable (to Odysseus’ eternal dismay), but she’s trying. And with every retelling, she gets a little better.