Past

"Didn't Hades kidnap his wife?" I had a feeling that my trust towards Wikipedia was going to tragically change.

"That is far from the truth." He shook his head, and with a patronizing smile pinched my nose. "Judging from your expression, No, Hades didn't get kidnapped."

He soon laughed imagining the scenario as I did.

"Then? Is it confidential? If it is, you don't have to tell me." He looked at me pointedly, his brows forming crescent moons. "That was the formality part. If you don't tell me you would have to deal with puppy faces."

From his replying smile, I somehow felt that I looked like three-year-old ready to hear her bedtime sorry. By the way, I like my milk with cookies.

"Let's sit somewhere shall we?"

I nodded happily and skipped up the stairs that Will lead me by to a balcony. The moment we came through the doors, winter-like wind cocooned us. But the chills of the cold breezes were forgotten by the view of the river it opened to.

The river was like a sleeping cobra. It laid across the land in smooth curves, beautiful in the light, calm and innocuous.

Standing by me as I stood marveling the enormous river, Will said. "That's river Acheron, the river of sorrows." After taking my fill of magical view I sat down on the marble slab alongside Will.

"Welcome to your first class on Greek Gods." He fixed his invisible glasses over his nose.

"Good morning teacher."

"Persephone is the goddess of spring and vegetation which she inherited from her mother, Demeter, the goddess of agriculture."

"The events which lead to the feud between her and Hades happened centuries ago. She isn't part of the twelve main gods, and she felt that she wasn't receiving enough praise and worship from humans. In her pursuit to satisfy her greed, she decided to sed..."

Will abruptly paused before reconstructing his sentence. "She decided to marry one of the major Gods. Her options were very limited."

"Zeus, the god of the sky and thunder, is married to Hera who herself is one of the twelve and is infamous for her intolerance for her husband's lovers." Watching the smile form on his face as he explained made me ask.

"What does she do to them?"

Will shrugged. "She loves turning them into animals, sometimes kills them or irritate their children."

"Continuing, Poseidon the God of sea and earthquakes is married and so is Hephaestus the god of fire and metal work. He is married to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, who in turn is in love with Ares the God of war which makes him unavailable too. Then there is the unmarried Hermes, Apollo, and Dionysus. Lord Apollo and Hermes have countless lovers, but the former only has his heart set on one and Hermes isn't the marrying type. Dionysus due to his controversial birth of having a mortal mother mustn't have appeased her."

Talk about drama. They should star in a British silver screen series.

"This only left Hades, the most refined and dignified ruler of them all. Even though Hades refused her advances, she did not back down and claimed to had fallen in love with him."

"Hades even barred her from the Underworld and announced his disinterest before the council of Gods, but this only made her change her tactics. She stopped the growth of all vegetation and threatened to disrupt rebirth if Hades does not present himself to her and apologize."

"Fortunately, her madness was put to an end by Zeus, and her mother. This time too, it seemed that her greed had only increased. And so she targeted something small, something that wouldn't affect the world as a whole, but only Hades. She kidnapped the one Hades cared most of, and she was only a helpless demigod, a daughter of Apollo."

"She was a mother figure to Hades, and he considered her nothing less."

"She was about thirty when they met when she somehow managed to enter the Underworld and demand him to give back her late husband. Hades refused and asked her to leave, but she did not back down. Her visits became regular and they grew very close to each other, she even began to scold him." Will chuckled, seemingly lost in a warm memory.

So he was there at that time.

"But Persephone kidnapped her leading to Hades' fury knowing no bounds. He searched for her from hell to heaven, but when he found her, she had already passed. Lost in hatred of knowing how Hades cared for a mere demigod, Persephone she had starved her till she was only skin and bones when Hades found her."

"Fearing Hades' wrath, Persephone went into hiding, and even when he discovered her, he couldn't take any action, as the other Gods stopped him in the fear of tipping the world off balance with her absence. They themselves found it hard to forgive but found no other choice."

"After the incident, Hades has only visited Olympus thrice and passed by centuries in his palace, never leaving even to visit to the world of the mortals. He has hence distanced himself from every soul. That's what I thought until...."

"Elie, don't cry," Will said stopping halfway and came over to my side.

"Sorry." I apologized, seeing his flustered self. "I shouldn't have reminded him of those times." The guilt stopped my eyes from drying.

"Don't apologize it's my fault for telling you about it." He ran his hands through his air as he got to his feet. "Do you want...water?"

"Coffee maybe?" He paced around me, his helplessness showing by the creases in his forehead and he soothed my hair.

"I am okay." It came out in sync with the words of the soldier that walked in. "Your presence is needed, commander."

Will looked back at the armed soldier whose eyes depicted the urgency of the matter. "I will be right back." He halted turning back to me. "I can't leave you like this."

I shooed him away with my hands. "I am fine, you have to get back to your duty." Our positions were reversed, and finally, he left with a guard stationed with the job to ensure my safety and another to call Olivia to give me company."

As I rested my face on my palms, sketching the river in my mind, a warm breeze softly caressed my cheek and took away with it the last of the tears, like the tip of a thump wiping it away.

Will Hades forgive me?