Echoes of the Underworld (Part 8)

"PERSEPHONE, MY DEAR DAUGHTER, YOU'RE HERE!!"

"MOM!? What are you doing here?" Persephone asked, confused, taking a step toward her, though not moving completely away from Hades.

Demeter didn't wait for an answer. She ran, ignoring the pain in her side, ignoring the ruins, ignoring even the Lord of the Underworld himself. She only had eyes for her daughter.

"I'm here to take you home, my love! I crossed the entire underworld to come find you, daughter! We're leaving! Right now!"

She tried to take her by the arm, but Persephone pulled away, gently but firmly. I saw her eyes drop, looking guilty at first... but then they rose, with a more determined expression.

"No, mother. I'm not leaving."

Demeter blinked. The smile froze on her face like a poorly sculpted statue. The air grew thicker, the tension palpable.

"What did you say?" whispered the goddess of the harvest, even though she already knew the answer.

"I'm not going with you. This is my home now."

"No! No, don't say that! This can't be happening, I must be dreaming!" Demeter cried desperately. For a few moments, she seemed to believe it, until a few seconds later she spoke again.

"He's responsible for this, isn't he?! He brainwashed you!" Demeter turned to Hades with sudden fury, a fury that no longer seemed to be that of the desperate mother she had seen before, but rather that of a woman who had been wronged. "You manipulated her! You took her away from me! You locked her in this dark pit like an object!"

The shadow around Hades rippled again, but this time not of its own accord, but as if responding to his emotions rather than his will. Demeter must be pissing him off... big time.

"Careful, Demeter," Hecate warned in a low voice, trying to defuse the situation as she watched the aura begin to tremble around her.

"SHUT UP, WITCH! THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" Demeter shouted, then pointed at Hades. 'I won't let you continue to corrupt her! I'll get her back even if I have to destroy every corner of this cursed hell!"

"ENOUGH!' Persephone shouted, and her voice echoed with an impossible echo, as if thousands of voices were speaking to her.

Everyone looked at her, myself included.

Persephone was breathing heavily, I could see that her eyes looked moist, she seemed to be on the verge of tears but managed to hold back and stand firm, and her body seemed to be vibrating, probably from all the energy she must have been building up.

Oh yes, I don't know if I've already explained this, but the gods on that aspect are like self-recharging batteries. When they want to, they can recharge their energy either to enter combat or perform some kind of action that requires a lot of energy. To recharge, some charge their energy as if they were anime characters, while others can recharge their energy automatically when they are in their zone of influence or domain. Hades, for example, the reason he seemed to not use any energy here is because he literally recharges automatically as long as he remains in the underworld, making it almost impossible to defeat him here. At most, you can hope to knock him out, which is what I tried to do but failed miserably, or vaporize him completely, but that's only possible if you're astronomically superior in terms of power, which is not my case.

The reason I know so much about this is partly from learning through experience and mostly because when I learn a skill or use it, the system gives me a little text explaining something I should know. Anyway, back to the drama...

"He didn't kidnap me, Mother. He never forced me or locked me up. You misunderstood."

Silence returned.

"Then... then why are you here?" Demeter asked, her tone now sounding more hurt and confused than angry. Although to me, her voice sounded more like a plea. Think about it, Demeter was a mother who couldn't understand why her daughter chose exile over her embrace.

Persephone lowered her gaze for a moment. Then she raised it, this time looking directly at her mother.

"Because I chose it."

The word seemed to hit her harder than any spear, as the expression on the goddess's face broke my heart. She and I couldn't be considered close, but that didn't mean I wasn't moved to see a mother's heart break. After all, Persephone's words were a direct blow to her soul, and she took a step back as if she had been stabbed.

"I'm sorry, Mom, but I chose the Underworld. I chose this kingdom. And above all, I chose Hades."

"But why...?" Demeter stammered, her voice breaking.

Persephone held her mother's gaze. There was no hardness in her eyes, no resentment. But there was a firm determination, tempered by centuries of silence.

"Because I couldn't go on living in your shadow, Mom." Persephone's voice was soft, but every word was clear, as if she had rehearsed them all her life, perhaps preparing for this moment. "Because I couldn't stand having you over me all the time, taking care of me, watching over me, deciding for me."

Demeter opened her mouth to respond, but Persephone raised a hand and continued:

"I know you did it out of love. I know you wanted to protect me. But... did you ever stop to ask yourself what I wanted? Did you ever think about my desires? My dreams?" The goddess's voice began to tremble, not from weakness, but from years of holding back emotions and keeping them inside, finally coming to light. "You raised me with your fears. You kept me locked up in perfect gardens, surrounded by flowers I couldn't touch unless you were watching. Always afraid that something would happen to me, that someone would hurt me. But you never realized that by protecting me so much, you were suffocating me."

Demeter shook her head slowly, her lips trembling.

"I just... I just wanted to take care of you..."

"I know. And I appreciate it. But that wasn't a life. Not for me, anyway. Don't you realize that, Mom? You were so controlling that the first chance I got to get away... I left Olympus. Not because Hades asked me to, not because he convinced me or used his 'fearsome' powers of persuasion. I left because I needed to be free, free from you. And because I needed to start being myself, for the first time in my life."

Hades looked away discreetly, as if those words hurt him as much as they hurt Demeter. Not because they excluded him, but because he knew he wasn't the focus of that decision. Persephone hadn't come for him. She had come for herself, and he knew it, but even so, it had ended with him finally getting someone, so he didn't know if he really cared that much or not.

"And here..." Persephone raised her arms slightly, as if embracing the Underworld, "here I found a place that is mine. Maybe it's not perfect. It's not bright or refined like Olympus. But it's real to me. Here I'm not your daughter, mother. Here I am Persephone, Queen of the Underworld."

Demeter fell to her knees.

She didn't cry, she didn't scream. She just stood there, paralyzed, like a broken statue of one of the most feared and revered goddesses of Olympus, her heart and perhaps her pride shattered.

The very atmosphere seemed to wither around her.

And yet Persephone did not back down. She took a step forward. And then another, and then another, and stopped a few feet away from her mother. She bowed slightly... and whispered:

"I am still your daughter, Mother, and I still love you. But I am no longer a child."

The echo of those words floated in the air, like a fly.

And for a moment, no one dared to speak. The silence was broken when Persephone bowed her head slightly and wrapped her arms around her mother, hugging her, which the Goddess of the Harvest accepted without hesitation.

The embrace was long, silent, charged with an emotion that needed no words. Demeter's arms clung tightly to her daughter, as if she feared that if she let go, the world itself would collapse again. Persephone buried her face in her mother's shoulder, and for a moment, both goddesses allowed themselves to forget everything that had happened, giving way to a hug of reconciliation.

I watched the scene in silence. There was nothing I wanted or should say. I knew this was their moment. All around me, the specters had vanished like dust in the wind. The very darkness of the Underworld seemed to have held its breath.

Even Hecate, always so reserved, looked away, giving the moment privacy.

Then, a deep, grave voice, laden with a solemnity I had never heard from him before, broke the silence:

"This doesn't have to be this way."

Hades took a step toward them. His spear was no longer a threat, having returned to a form more like a staff. His face, for the first time, showed something other than pride or anger. It showed... understanding. Perhaps even vulnerability.

"Demeter," said the King of the Underworld. "I do not intend to take your daughter away from you. I do not intend to separate them... I only want her to have the right to choose. To live as she wishes. To reign by my side, if she so desires."

Demeter looked at him, still embracing her daughter, not letting go. Her expression was a mixture of distrust and exhaustion. But she did not interrupt.

"I propose this: six months of the year, Persephone will live with you on Olympus, with her family, with the fields. And the other six..." Hades looked at Persephone, and his voice softened, "...she will return here. Not as a prisoner. But as Queen of the Underworld."

A subtle murmur ran through the temple, though no one spoke. Not even me. I felt that a very big decision was being made.

I noticed Demeter lowered her gaze and pressed her lips together. But she said nothing. Nor did she protest.

That silence was her acceptance.

Hades bowed his head slightly, respectfully. Then he turned and walked toward me, passing by me without aggression.

I could barely stand, and even so, I felt the weight of history moving in front of me. I had probably just witnessed one of the moments that would remain forever etched in history, when the four seasons began.

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