Page 3 of His in the Dark
HADES
F rom the largest window of the tallest of towers in my privacy I can look out over the realms of the Underworld. Its arched facade is picturesque as I gaze onto all that I rule. Every soul I’ve met and assigned their fate resides beneath me.
I know of the rumors about the place where I dwell. Some of them have a kernel of truth. There are realms where souls go to be tormented, tortured and live forevermore in pain and agony of thoughts they can never escape. There are realms filled with many fears from their mortal lives—fire and darkness and hunger and cold. Tartarus is one in which screams carry across miles. The mortals that conceive of Hell would recognize those places, and some might even say that that is all the Underworld is.
They are wrong. Not every soul deserves to be tormented. Most souls are far more innocent than they know. When souls are judged, some of them deserve peace in the Underworld. Elysium lies on the other side of my world. There are realms with fair weather and greenery and other souls to smile at one another, to live in harmony and want for nothing. Where peace is the only existence. My court has made many judgments and the number of people who deserve Hell is far smaller than the number who deserve heaven. As it should be, souls enter the Underworld through the River of Styx, they are judged and they meet their fate. Some may venture to the mortal realm, daring to risk where their judgment will lead them next… but only once they pass through the field that erases their memories.
I cannot do this alone, but my word is judgment. I am just and my decisions righteous.
The others who decide fates are considerate. But though they are the ones to weigh the deeds of the souls before them, this is my realm, and thus my final authority. It is my responsibility to see that they are not too quick to choose. In the realms that stretch out before my window in shadow and light, there are many regions for souls to go, and it is ultimately my decision to let them continue, or change their judgments.
All souls will cross my path and I will find justice for each and every one of them.
I know my judges took the necessary time. I know how it passes. Other gods choose to ignore the way ages rise and fall, but I do not. I see how it shapes the souls that come to stand before my judges. What they’ve been through and their perceptions do not always save them from the hells of this place, but I grant mercy where I can find it.
Many of the judges are wise, with experience behind the morality they find they must do. There is no greater evil in them, but there is more time, and more choices to make. That is the way of life for mortals.
They come, they go. Their souls remain for centuries. Very few destroyed. That is for The Fates, the three who clip the golden threads.
As I know, my grip on the iron rail tightens, I do not rule alone, but I am King of the Dead, Ruler of the Underworld.
And in this room of stone and fine cloth that covers the furniture, with dim lights of torches that crackle with the hiss of fire, I find myself quite lonely. I find time to be stagnant, moving yet not changing. I find this task that I’ve been given to be one of my own Hell. One I will never escape either.
Because we are all given what we deserve.
Although one soul who was judged today would undoubtedly disagree. His scream echoes off the ancient walls as I close my eyes and search for it. Most of the sounds can be ignored, as they are only the sounds of life as such carrying on in the Underworld.
Other sounds are reassurance that the worst souls who have been delivered to me are where they belong. They are a comfort to me as well as a reminder of what I suffered, though I do not allow my thoughts to travel to those memories if I can help it. The Titans ruled with pain and unjustly ruled with greed and sloth. They are no more and as I remember the pits I came from, I shut down the tortuous memories of solitude and craze. There is no need at the moment. Not when I am reflecting on another day of judgments and another day of ruling all that is mine.
If all goes according to my plans, more will be mine in a short time. I am not often impatient, but now that I am so close, it is impossible to ignore.
Because of her. Because of the one soul I must have. She must be mine in every way.
A creak behind me pulls my thoughts away from the stream of souls entering into the Underworld and back to my rooms.
“Fair and just, am I not?” I say, and turn. I knew from how Minox’s footsteps ricocheted with a heavy weight that it would be him, and it is. Minox is one of the three judges of the dead and my right-hand man. I trust him above all others. His black robe moves around him for a moment after he stops and inclines his head. The hood covering most of his face but his sharp black eyes shining brightly. When he is motionless, it is harder to distinguish him from the shadows around him. In contrast, the guard he has brought with him is much more visible. This is not because the guard wears bright clothing, but because he does not have the patience to remain still before me. He tries, but he fidgets.
“My Lord. Zeus beckons you.” His voice blends with the shadows, too. The timbre deep and his tone barely heard. Many souls who stand before Minox fear him for this reason, but there is more to fear from a person who pretends to be something they are not.
“And what for?” I ask, arching a brow and daring the God of Thunder, The King of Gods and the ruler of Mount Olympus to call me. His arena is quite the opposite of mine. For he may play in the mortal realm but I rule after death and for all eternity.
With that thought, I watch more souls step foot on the Asphodel Fields.
Minox’s eyes flicker to mine, but they do not stay on my face. Perhaps he did not look at all. It could be a trick of the light. “He would not say.”
“I cannot leave.” I raise my hand in a dismissal of these summons toward both of them, knowing that the guard will understand my meaning, and begin to turn back to the window. “But send word that I will scry this evening,” I add and adrenaline races through me.
I know very well what he craves.
“My Lord.” Minox’s voice stops me. I turn back to him, my hackles rising. Minox has the standing to disagree with me, if he wishes. I count on him to do so when he believes it is necessary. But I do not care for the tone in his voice. “He stressed that it was urgent.”
My eyes narrow as I stare at the man who knows I am his liege.
Irritation burns inside of me, a dull anger at the slowly passing time. I do not relish the feeling.
I answer easily, “There is nothing that cannot wait, and I have little patience left for his beckoning. You may go,” I give the command to the guard, not Minox.
In actuality I have no patience left for his beckoning. Zeus thinks of himself as all-powerful, all-seeing, because he spends his days on Olympus. That is all well and good, but I am not lesser because the Underworld is my domain. There is balance in the realms. One cannot exist without the other. There can only be so many mortals alive at any one time, and so many gods. The number of souls never lessens. Our world is finite and includes all life.
When the silence hangs between us, the guard allows an expression of worry onto his face. But he nods, and after a few more moments, he clears his throat. “Yes, my Lord.”
He turns and leaves. Minox and I listen to his footsteps as they get quieter, then fade to silence. It is a silence I do not entirely trust, though I know what it is supposed to mean. The breeze of my realms makes a quiet sound across the window. I wait, pushing down my irritation. I will not let it get the better of me, other than to send a terse reply to Zeus.
“My Lord.” Minox is far more careful now than he was before. Others may not be able to hear the minute differences in the way he speaks, but I can. We’ve spent long enough together for me to discern them. “Is it possible he’s privy to your night endeavors?”
“That the gates for the realms have been opened?” I assume. A deal was made and I took advantage. Finding her in a vulnerable position.
Minox nods.
I am fair and just, but I weigh how much truth I want to give him. If I wanted him to have all of it, my answer would be simple. But there are some things that I cannot let others be privy to no matter how close they have been over the years.
There are some things that must belong only to me.
Like her. Persephone .
Even thinking of her name provides a pleasure to my tongue. The image of her, wanting and needing and all that I can do for her thrills me. Her gorgeous locks around my wrist as I fist her hair and wide eyes begging me for more. I need her on her knees bowing before me and agreeing to all that I desire. She is my one gift to free me of this torture.
Minox has not taken his eyes off me. I know I have not given him the information he wants through my expression. I am too skilled in controlling myself for that.
“Possibly,” I finally answer although I cannot know for sure.
He unfolds his hands, then refolds them. I would think it was a nervous gesture if I had not known him so long. Instead, I know it to be a gesture of consideration. He is weighing each of his words, more so than he would for any of the souls he has judged in the days that have come before.
“Is that not an act of war, my Lord?”
I allow the smirk to come to my face. “Also possibly.” A thrum of delight echoes in my blood. It has been so long since war has cast fear and shadows on all the realms and through an imbalance in the world. I reminisce on such freeing times.
More silence spreads between us. I watch Minox standing there with all the familiar shadows of my private rooms behind him.
“Zeus was there for you at the end,” Minox ventures. “He took you in when others would not.”
Emotion swells in me. It is dark and unwanted, and if I did not have such lengthy experience with it, I might react outwardly. But I do not react in any way that Minox can see, although I feel the memories as vividly as if they were still happening. I spent days in darkness in the pits where my father left me. All of the gods lived a life of blessings, but I was alone for years, nearly going mad.
Perhaps I did venture into madness… perhaps I still lay there in this hour.
That is how I know true torture. Of course there is pain. There is cold and hunger and even burning flesh. But all of those things can be survived. A soul can suffer those things for an eternity as long as they have the hope that it will end and they will have the comfort of other souls again.
I did not have that comfort, and that is why I reserve isolation for the most vile of souls who come before my judges. I know that pain so well that I cannot inflict it on anyone but the very worst. Those who deserve to fall into madness, hoping for a voice to answer them when none will ever come.
Minox is right. Zeus did come for me, in the end. And we triumphed together, along with Poisidon who rules the seas. Each of us given our own realms and the humans to wonder on Earth, merely play things to the Gods.
I feel it now, that hope of something more, swelling sharply in my chest and bringing a tightness to my throat that I cannot tolerate in myself. Not now, when I have enough power to keep all my realms ordered as they should be.
My gaze falls on Minox as if none of the memories had made any impression on me, as if his words had not stirred any feelings within me.
“Zeus would be a fool to wage war over what I am after. There are conversations and deals you are not privy to.”
“My Lord?—”
“You will do as I command, Minox. I will not go to Zeus tonight. Tell the guard to carry my message. I will scry when I am ready.”
Minox lets out a barely audible sigh and turns away, heading for the door. He leans out, talking quietly to the guard I knew would be waiting outside. “My lord,” Minox says from the door, and bows. He steps back into the hall to let Cerberus enter the room.
I feel lighter, looking at my companion. His paws pad across the floor to me, all three heads of the beast who is my dog, bow before me as he whines for my affection and I bend down to let him put one of his three heads in my hand. The door closes, and I lower down fully to my faithful companion.
“You were there, too, my sweet boy.”
I notice the tinge of blood on the muzzles of Cerberus’s heads. I wet a cloth and lower myself again to wipe it away. When I have cared for my dog I glance at the bed that dominates this side of my room. There are new chains attached to the wall nearby.
Cerberus wags his tail, pushing another of his heads into my palm. He has six sets of ears, and he wants all of them scratched, and all three of his heads stroked. I indulge him, as I always do.
“I will have my queen, Cerberus.” Cerberus lets out a quiet bark as if in agreement. As if he knows of her beauty and her power that will change the world forever more. I know it in the marrow of my bones. “Anyone who stands in my way, in my realms or any other, will perish at our hands.” I continue stroking Cerberus’s heads and let my mind wander. From here the screams from the darkest depths of hell are not loud but they are still audible. “I have earned her. She has been promised. She is already mine.”