New Allies and Frenemies

[I'll just say this: The perspective of each individual is just that. A perspective. It may or may NOT be the truth.

For example, in the last chap, Persephone said that Korecres devoured his unborn twin of Zeus's blood. It could be the other way around, or it could be they merged together. Odd eye. Wink-wink.

Here we go!]

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For the woman, it was a dark place filled with remorse.

A soundless cave for penance. A cage of her deepest regret.

She shackled herself in her own chains, waiting, for the time of her awaited damnation. Waiting, for the punishment of her unforgivable sins...until he came. Her young master.

She remembered sitting beside the river of oblivion, watching the countless hollow faces of the damned as they were swept by the black torrent.

She remembered a little boy standing on the other shore. A beautiful boy who almost made her forget her sins as her lust burned. She could recall every passing second as the boy met her eyes and innocently smiled.

Time seemed to freeze as the boy stepped forward and into the river Lethe. The woman sprung up onto her feet in alarm, her mouth opened to scream a warning. It was said that the river Lethe had the authority to rob the memories from all mortal souls, and all would be carried by the flow of the forgotten past and onto their next life.

A hand clamped onto her shoulder. She whirled around, furious that someone had distracted her. For a split second, she saw the goddess Lethe, daughter of Eris, the goddess of strife and discord. The goddess shook her head slowly and pointed at the boy, before returning to mist.

The woman's mouth fell wide open. The boy was walking on the river's surface.

With every step, the boy drew closer, without fear or doubt. Her mouth felt like sand, and her dead heart was beating so hard, she could feel it rise up to her mouth.

Finally, the boy reached the shore with a proud huff. His bright mismatched eyes of crimson and azure shone in the semi-darkness, lighting up the woman's previously black-and-gray world. The boy reached out his hand.

"Hi! My name is Korecres! Call me Korry! Let's be friends!"

Like that, her lonely prison was no more, torn apart by the voice that shall one day, carry the fate of the world. A voice still young, yet so vivid. The woman suppressed a sob.

There was no one there to point out how absurd the name 'Korry' sounded in ancient Greece.

"Why?", the woman croaked out in a jagged voice she hadn't used for centuries."Why me? I'm a monster."

The boy, Korecres, cocked his head to the side, an adorable yet strangely regal-looking scowl of bewilderment on his face.

"Of course not. A monster would never look so sad."

The boy stepped forward with a determined glint in his eyes and clasped her hands in his.

"You hurt so much. You want to be punished, so you wouldn't feel your own pain deep within. I...I can help you."

With these words, Korecres tugged at her restraints in earnest, struggling against the unyielding strain of the Stygian iron chains that were forged in the River Styx.

"Stop, child. It's no use. There's no way you, a young boy, whether you are a demigod or a godling, could possibly shatter them. It would be most wise to give up."

"Then, it's a good thing, I'm a fool!", the boy replied between gritted teeth.

"Perk up your ears for my motto is this: Give up on trying to make me give up!!!!"

With a roar, Korecres struggled. Unrelenting was his will as his joints popped, his muscles tore, and his bones cracked. Blood spurted out of his mouth as the countless vessels under his skin raptured from his self-destructive exertion.

"Stop! You'll die! Stop, you stubborn fool!"

"Nice...to meet you...too!"

The boy brushed off the woman's desperate pleas with a chuckle between pained coughs. He tugged, and tugged, and kept tugging.

And with one final tug, he broke her shackles...and set her free.

The woman caught the boy in her arms as he staggered forward, tears streaming down her cheek.

"You fool...! You stupid boy...!", she sobbed. The boy raised one mangled hand and brushed the tears off her cheeks. He smiled sheepishly.

"What's your name?", he asked.

"Medusa.", the woman answered softly, with a hint of shame.

"...Dusa?", Korecres asked back in a sleepy voice.

The woman giggled.

"Dusa it is."

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Nine years had passed, and the sniveling baby grew up into a sniveling little boy. Me.

While I was initially shocked by the ridiculous fact that my parents were actual gods, making me an offspring of divine blood, I adapted to the whole (bizarre) situation quite quickly. Right now, I was having my daily stroll in my father's realm.

I walked along the steep cliffs of Titan's hand, an enormous slab of rock that jutted above river Styx, with my royal guard I had personally scouted tagging close behind.

It took two years for her to attain that position. Two, long years of close scrutiny and harsh criticism from my mother and several furies, and a dozen soul-binding oaths.

It was just last week when she had, at last, earned the 'honor to protect the prince of the underworld', as they put it, and rightfully so. ...Dramatic much?

Anyway, I prepared a bouquet of Pansies I myself had bred (with the help of my mother, of course) for my guard's great effort. Oh boy did she cry!

"Dusa, play with me?"

"Master-"

"Korry."

"Young master-"

"Korry."

"...Master Korry."

I called her Dusa since her name (if I was not mistaken) reminded me of a certain tragic monster with a face ugly enough to petrify all living organisms. Dusa, unlike her name, was a very attractive and feminine woman with purple hair that reached the ground, and a long, athletic pair of legs. Oh, and did I mention she has these alluring bronze-colored eyes?

At first, Dusa wasn't very open to the idea of showing her eyes. She always wore a snakeskin blindfold whenever someone was around. It only took me a forty page-poem presentation in front of my father's royal palace to make her stop her habit.

Who knew the normally stoic and cool woman would look so cute when she's flustered? Heh, embarrassment is the best medicine to break through thick shells.

...Is it just me or do I sometimes feel like she's staring at me as a snake does to a fat mouse? I definitely noticed the way she would ogle at me whenever I went to the river Styx for a swim. Could it be...?

I glanced up at Dusa. She was as cool and collected as ever. I shook my head, blaming myself for my shameful thoughts. I was about to suggest that we play 'hide and seek' (a forbidden training of tactics, warfare, and stealth, disguised as a children's game) when suddenly, three shadows appeared in the sky.

"Young Lord. If we may..."

A hiss-like voice. The Furies of Hades. With their leathery wings as black as night, dark-blue skin, and unusually large pupils of bloody red, they strike an intimidating figure. However, if you looked closely, you would notice the gold bats I made for them, nested snugly in their ash-colored hair, and the subtle way their snake-scale tails would wag when they see me.

While they were feared as the chthonic goddesses of vengeance, to me, they were the three aunts who took care of me while my mother was absent, the same good-natured women who aided me on my 'adventures' (aka exploration) around my father's palace.

"Ah, Allecto ('Unceasing Anger'), Tisiphone ('Avenger of Murder'), and Megaera ('Jealousy'). You three seem to carry an urgent message, by the looks of it. What is it?"

"Your mother is looking for you. She said that there was a change of plans, and there is something you must attend for your honor."

"And what could it be?"

"I'm afraid I'm not informed of the specifics, but rumor says that there will be a...banquet tonight, on Mount Olympus."

"Hmm. I see. Very well, please lead the way."

The Furies bowed as one. I noticed Megaera snarl at Dusa, while Allecto and Tisiphone ignored her existence entirely. Indeed, they live up to their name. I smiled wryly. At least they weren't trying to tear each other apart like the first time they met.

I sighed.

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"You are to come with me to Olympus as the new godling."

Those were the first words my mother threw at my face in front of the palace gates.

I blinked, thoroughly confused.

"I'm pretty sure I'm still mortal, mother dearest."

"Oh hush! You will grow out of it, I'm sure. You are my son after all. After a few adventures, you'll wipe the floor with that former demi-god. I'll prove that...that Peacock wrong!"

"...Wait, what was that you called Hera!? And, please don't tell me you said that to Dionysus. Also, I'm pretty sure one does NOT 'grow out of mortality'."

"She dared to question your parentage! She mocked me by declaring that the 'rumored godling of Hades' is not mine! She even slandered my love, my devotion to my lord! How dare she!"

Now, I had a good guess what happened. My mother had always made it a point to say that I'm her son. That while I'm a demi-god, I'm hers, for she had cleansed me of my impure taint given to be me by 'that thing', she used to phrase with disgust. That was her greatest insecurity, as well as her weak point.

Perhaps it was due to her fear of me wandering out to discover the 'truth', that she had drilled into me time and time again that the time for my grand reveal was still not ripe, and the chance would come once I set off on an adventure of my own.

Despite her best efforts to keep my existence a secret, words are known to spread. Sure enough, a rumor spread out that Hades had a son with a mortal woman, and that my mother had stolen the child from her and claimed him as her own. I've suspected that Persephone wasn't my biological mother for multiple reasons, me being mortal as one, and that rumor only cemented my belief.

One time, I've actually tried to confront my mother with this...revelation. She didn't take it well. Not at all.

"Oh, my poor, lovely treasure. If it weren't for that...thing...you would've been born as a god!"

She had grabbed me by the shoulders so tightly it hurt, weeping golden tears of blood, repeating those exact words over and over and over again. Then...then...

"You are mine You are mine YoU ArE MiNe YOu aRE miNe YOU ARE MINE YOU ARE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!!!!!"

I shivered. Some things are best left forgotten in memory lane.

"Why so sudden? More importantly, I thought we were to lie low until I've matured."

"You have, my dear, you have! In addition, your dignity was tarnished by those fools! We must show them what you truly are!"

"A godling born as a mortal?"

"No! The most splendid hero the world would ever see!"

My mother's hollow eye sockets lit up with her purple ether-induced flames, filled with feverish passion.

"A hero, a son, the Queen of Olympus has always craved for, yearned for, and shall never have!"

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When Hera first heard the rumor surrounding Hades' latest affair, she had scoffed in contempt and pitied the faithful wife that was Persephone. While Hades was incredibly faithful as a Greek male god, he was still one of them, she thought.

Hera despised infidelity more than anything else. Cheating on the eternal vow of sacred marriage was akin to spitting into her face. A mockery of how she, the goddess of marriage, would never have the perfect baby she yearned for, while the whores got what she wanted instead.

Dirty robbers. Filthy harlots and wilful traitors, all of them.

Her heart bled while her foundation, her core, her origin as a goddess screamed in agony at the sight of her beloved husband cheating yet once more.

Alcides.

Just the name made her body quiver in ferocious rage. A baby, the product of infidelity who dared to drink her milk, the milk filled with incredible power meant for her promised child that she shall one day be embraced in her arms! The mockery, the insult, the utter blasphemy!

That was why Hera felt great sympathy for Persephone. At first.

Oh, the disgust when she found out that not only had Persephone had let the harlot who seduced her husband go unpunished, she had adopted the product of infidelity as her own, going so far as to sacrifice her own eyes for whatever blessing she put upon him.

Did she have no shame as a wife!? Was she even worthy to be a mother!? To think that her standards would be so low!

Hera had also heard that the boy had awakened Zeus' potent bloodline via Persephone's blood ritual. It only served to pour more salt on her already festering wound.

An ideal son...

Hera's fist smashed against a marble column, obliterating it into dust.

What Persephone did was a direct confrontation with Hera's beliefs, a slap to the face to everything Hera believed was 'Justice', a clash of opposing ideals.

If she did what Persephone did, it would mark her defeat as a woman. An act of complete surrender to her husband's wrongdoings, an act filled with disgrace. No, she could never allow that! Never!

Hera recalled the joyous smile on Persephone's face. The elation coursing through her every move, the jubilation in her every step...

It was as if Persephone had everything she has ever wanted and wished for. Hera had never seen the queen of the underworld so filled with love, even at her wedding with Hades.

The Queen of Olympus gritted her teeth.

Tonight. Tonight, she shall evaluate the worth of the boy Persephone cherished so much. And if he was not up to her standards as he most certainly wasn't...

A cruel smile lifted Hera's lips.

She shall make Persephone pay.

Dearly.