❛THEY WOULD TELL YOU OF A KING WHO STOLE ME HELPLESS FROM MY SUNSHINE GARDEN.❜
They won't tell you about the woman who came to him sublime, lily eyes and lily lips. A king does not ask permission from his prize, but she, oh she, she knelt, kissing m...
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HALL OF HADES, THE UNDERWORLD.
HADES
THE NEXT EVENING FOUND THE COURT IN FULL SESSION, FILLED WITH MORTALS AND IMMORTALS ALIKE.
"Next!" Aeacus called out, his gavel banging once on the polished surface of his table, Rhadamanthys furiously scribbling on a piece of parchment beside him.
The crowd of shades at the back of the Hall shifted as Thanatos came forward, his face as somber and grave as death.
Slow, I grumbled to myself. They were so slow.
We had not left the room since the past thirty hours, sitting here past one entire day and night. I was working my judges to the bone, and tempers were running high. Charon gloomily looked over the surroundings from the shadows, his tipped hat casting a shadow over his face.
The shade refused to move as Thanatos angrily prodded at it with the back of his spear.
"Move," I barked at the man. "Unlike you, some of us have better things to do than sit here all day."
Beside me, Persephone shifted slightly. There was not a smile on her lips, but her hand quietly found mine and came to a rest on top of it. Her eyes flicked once, shards of glass shining in them - yet warm at the same time. Easy, my Lord.
I quirked my lips at her, a silver chuckle ripping from my throat as a forbidden smile appeared on her face. It was not beautiful in the way innocent things were - not like a flower, but deadly like a knife. There was a coldness to it, an enchanted thing that made me want to bend her over that throne and kiss her senseless till she forgot her own name.
The bite of metal on flesh brought my attention back to the shade dragged forward, the form of a young, well built man in luxuriously gilded armour, anger raging in his eyes.
"There's been a mistake. Let go of me now!"
"We make no mistake, deathless spirit," Hecate rasped from her usual seat in the corner, face half hidden behind rolls of papyrus. "Your fate was written long before you entered this world. Your crimes precede you - it is indeed no wonder for you to appear here."
"My liege," Thanatos muttered, "Tantalus." He prodded the man forward again, eyes flashing in threat this time. "Move!"
Persephone raised an eyebrow behind me, tilting her head.
"What has this... man done?"
"Tantalus..." Minor consulted the records in front of him, eyes narrowed in distaste. "Invited there by his father, the King of Olympus for a feast. Where he abused the hospitality of the gods, stole their ambrosia and jars of nectar - after which he betrayed the secret workings of the gods to his people."
"He lies!" Tantalus protested, face contorting in rage. "He lies - I never betrayed my father!" My jaw tightened as he took a step towards the throne.
