Discord & Death

Based on the characters from Disney’s “Hercules” film & TV show

Chapter 2

Zeus wasn’t stupid. He knew that the day had arrived, and that the moment of truth had dawned. He himself would soon find out if the Fates would yield to his will. Despite the outer image of a God certain of his word, Zeus inside was well aware that never before had he challenged the will of the Fates. Demeter’s child had eaten 6 seeds of a pomegranate, spawned of the fetid earths of Tartarus, and therefore had condemned herself to Hades’ dark domain for half of a year; he knew that as well as the other gods, and yet he was hoping that perhaps he had the power to prevent it.

Hades didn’t deserve Persephone - he didn’t deserve anything in Zeus’ eyes - but the problem was that Persephone felt for Hades. Zeus couldn’t deny this; he’d seen it in her eyes the day when he had parted her from his wayward younger brother. He’d heard it in her voice, too, as she'd gently spoken to Hades, but why...? What was this strange twist of Fate that the dread sisters had spun into their tapestry? Why had they made Demeter’s child fall so outrageously in love with the Lord of the Dead?

Zeus kneaded his forehead and sat back in his throne, brooding alone in his Olympian chambers. He had banned Hades from Olympus for the past 6 months, never summoning him to the meetings of the council, and making sure that he was not invited to any celebrations. He had made his little brother a virtual prisoner of his own domain. And Persephone had hated him for it.

The Lord of Olympus rose from his throne and slowly began to pace across the room, his hands clasped at the small of his back.

He had never wanted to make an enemy out of Persephone, and he never thought he would. He didn't think of himself as particularly unreasonable - he only ever tried to be just - but, obviously, the youthful daughter of Bacchus didn’t see it the same way. The fact was that he couldn’t just let Hades get away with abducting her, no matter what the outcome was. By allowing Persephone to return to Hades, he was almost condoning his brother’s actions, and he couldn’t allow himself to do that. He was King of the Gods, after all!

But had Persephone really committed herself to the Lord of the Shades without persuasion? Zeus found it hard to believe that Hades hadn't forced the pomegranate seeds down her throat since he was a well renowned trickster. And yet the more he thought about it, and the more he watched the daughter of Demeter sit sorrowfully, staring at the world below, the more he felt that Persephone was true to her word – the word that she did love Hades. He just couldn’t comprehend it.

Walking out of his throne room, the doors yielding to his mere will, Zeus heaved a great sigh and resigned himself to the fact that there was no clear way to fix this mess. Perhaps it was all Fate and there would be nothing he could do about it. But he was Zeus, and he did not change his mind, nor his word, easily.

Clotho chuckled dryly to herself as the eye of Fate hovered before her, showing images of the King of the Gods. “It seems that Zeus means to defy us, sisters,” she hissed at her blind and aged siblings, gesturing for them to approach.

Lachesis and Atropos hobbled over to their sister’s side, their sightless eyes focused on the glowing orb. “It is expected,” Lachesis said, placing her thin, bony hands together whilst her crinkled mouth rose into a smile.

“It’s only natural that one who rules upon high should become so certain of his own influence, ”Atropos added.

“But we cannot allow even the Lord of the Skies and wielder of the Thunderbolt to disregard our authority.” Clotho grinned.

“You are right, sister,” Lachesis concurred. “He cannot defy the laws that were set in stone in the beginning of time, before Chaos itself manifested.”

“Persephone must be released to the Underworld,” Atropos stated unequivocally. “She has eaten six seeds and therefore must reside with Hades for the next six months, the first of many."

“And these six months begin another important era for this goddess of two worlds,” Lachesis added, rubbing her hands together, “But one of a longer duration... a period of gestation.”

“A new beginning...”

“And an era of both trouble and joy - of discord and death!”

“Then we must set Fate in order, sisters," Clotho decreed, "so that what we have woven will commence. We must send the Furies upon Zeus. They will haunt him like they once haunted his father; as they troubled Cronus with his guilt, so will they irk Zeus with his false words, until he releases Persephone to the deity some call Dis, others Orcus[?], but we Hades, the Lord of the Shades.”

“Then fly, Furies[?],” Lachesis commanded, raising her wizened hand above the hovering eye and moulding the will of providence to her command. “Come from your abode in the Nether World! A curse upon Zeus until he abides by the law of the Fates, and frees Persephone to the incarceration in which she wishes to be held.”

“Fly, you avenging beasts,” Atropos added, “Give Persephone to that which she has damned herself. Let her fall into Hades’s arms and embrace her destiny!”

Deep within the shadowy grottoes of Tartarus, the bat-like Furies heard the call of the Moirae, and their red eyes blasted open, intense with an inferno-like rage. Raising their large, slender heads from within their cavernous nests, a select few of the Furies crawled to the openings of their rocky, concave homes and looked out into the gloomy atmosphere of the Realm of the Dead. They lifted their bony skulls and cocked their heads this way and that, as if to listen to some distant sound.

‘Fly, you avenging beasts… fly…’

One Fury took to the air, spreading her gangly arms outward and gliding upon her wings of skin. She then raised her large, streamlined head, and crowed loudly, calling to her sisters to take flight. Her red eyes glowered with a menacing aura and her grey and purple scales made her blend in perfectly with her surroundings. She flicked her demon-like tail about in a gesture of dominance and watched as, slowly but surely, more Furies emerged from their hollows, pocketed in the rock faces of the Underworld. Cawing in response to their leader and gliding out on their powerful yet slender wings, the lone female soon had an entire legion of fellow Furies under her command.

‘Haunt the Lord of the Skies until he yields to the will of Fate’

They swarmed around the space of their nesting area where the Phlegethon flowed strongly, illuminating their encrusted underbellies with a savage, orange glow, listening to the disembodied voices of the Dread Sisters.

‘A curse upon Zeus until he releases the daughter of Demeter’

And then, all of a sudden, order came to the flock. As one, they turned and flew rapidly toward the exit to the upper world, which was at the Lake of Avernus, gliding effortlessly through the many twisting and turning tunnels of the Underworld, knowing their way blindfolded.

Meanwhile, sat with their legs hanging over the dock whilst they awaited Charon’s next shipment of souls, Pain and Panic were suddenly startled as the horde of rocketing Furies sped by, their calls echoing eerily about the Underworld’s rocky walls.

Panic looked at Pain, and Pain looked at Panic.

“You don’t see that kinda thing ever day…” Pain mused once the commotion passed.

Panic nodded, his jaws agape. "And I hope I never see it again," he mumbled.

Persephone lay on a small cloud, hovering above one of Olympus’ common rooms. She was currently alone, the other gods having duties to do. She hadn’t seen her mother all day, either, which was a rare thing. (Apparently the king of Crete still wasn’t worshipping up to scratch, so a bit of divine intervention was in order on her mum’s behalf to set him straight.) Sighing, she looked up to the sky. It was turning a pinky-red. The day had passed, and was sagging to a close, giving way to a menacing night. Yet again.

Persephone had tallied up the days she had spent here in her diary and she knew for definite that today should have been the day when she went ‘home’. But Hades had not come to collect her – hey, he couldn’t really come up topside to Olympus unless he was summoned – and Zeus hadn't mentioned anything about it. Nor had any other god for that matter.

It was then that Persephone suddenly felt a presence behind her. Her brow furrowed, and she turned her head about to see Hermes hovering there.

“Evening, babe…” he said gently.

“Evening,” she bleakly replied, not even trying to sound enthusiastic.

Hermes gave her a sympathetic look. “Still missing the ‘H’ man, I see,” he noted.

“Could you tell?” she asked.

Hermes laughed. “No d’oh, babe.”

“I should be down there by now,” she sighed, leaning her head on her hands. “I checked my logs a billion times. Today is exactly 6 months since I last saw him. It’s not just that, though – I want to be free again! I’m trapped here like a convict, and it's not fair.”

“I feel for you, Seph, honest,” Hermes said, taking up a laying-down position in the air whilst he hovered, “But Zeus makes the rules, and what the main god says, goes.”

“I know…” Persephone mumbled dejectedly.

“You’re at a disadvantage here, babe – if any other man had abducted you, and you’d fallen for him, there would still be a chance of it being okay, but seeing as it was the Lord of the Dead, well… you know what deep poo-doo he’s been in recently.”

“I can’t help it if I love him, Hermes,” she said honestly. “I didn’t consider giving up half of my eternal life to him lightly.”

“Understood, babe, understood,” he nodded, twisting his small, golden staff about elegantly in his hands, “It’s just not something anyone expected, especially not of you.”

“No one knows me properly, Hermes. Not even my mum,” she said, laying her head down flat over her arms and looking away.

Hermes watched her and flew infront of her eyes. “Seph, babe," he said, "I’m sorry for how things have turned out, but don’t lose heart. Just because you haven’t gone back today doesn’t mean that you won’t see flame-boy again. Trust me, he’s an exceedingly incorrigible guy. He’ll get round the rules.” And with that, he zipped off and left Seph to her thoughts whilst the night began to close in around her.

‘Incorrigible’. Seph smiled – that word just made her feel so much better.

To be continued…

* For anyone who is unsure, Dis and Orcus are other names for Hades, and the Moirae is another name for the Fates.

** The Furies were actually 3 avenging deities in myth, 3 goddesses (so nothing like bats, though they were said to have had wings), so I thought I could intertwine a bit of that here. Some inspiration for this came from a book I read, which gave a version of the Greek mythological saga where the Furies haunted Cronus at night.