❛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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THE RETREAT, MOUNT OLYMPUS.
PERSEPHONE
HERA TOOK ME TO A LONELY HILL SLEEPING IN THE BACK OF OLYMPUS.
Sitting on the steps with nothing but Hades' last gift to me in hand, I looked at the sunlight dappling over the morning peaks with painted gold.
Such radiance. Such brilliance. And all of it lost on me.
The first time she'd led me to this wide, open mansion, Hera had flung the doors open, her eyes sparkling with joy like an unrequited lover. Cheeks pink as a winter apple, she turned to me, grinning.
"No one knows this place exists. I come here whenever Zeus pisses me off. Which is often, by the way."
The floors were a deep green granite, the shimmering veins of silver shooting through the tiles like a cracking star. The first time my foot touched them, I shuddered. So cold. The floor was so cold.
She'd gone on opening the windows, drawing back the curtains - leading me in like an excited girl in a candy shop. It was two stories high, her retreat - embellished with quiet, gurgling fountains scented with fresh pine, vanilla white candles glowing in the corners. In the center of the hall, a deep pool of water shimmered darkly, steam wafting from it. There were all but five attendants, Hera's nymphs - who lived in the smaller, servants quarters. They didn't talk, not unless you spoke to them first.
Which was, frankly, a relief.
"The place is glamoured. No one can find it. And even if they manage to come close, the mansion tricks them into thinking they forgot their way, so they'll go right back where they came from. It's been more than a hundred centuries, and my husband hasn't discovered it yet," my aunt said quietly, stroking my arm. Her touch - the gentleness of it - made me want to tear my hair out and weep. "Demeter will not find you here," she lowered her voice.
And then I felt my body lowering itself into that deep, deep pool - wishing it would just end that excess of misery that yawned like a deep pit inside me. Wishing it would just go away for once.
And then I lay there in those waters for the rest of the day, fully clothed, my eyes closed.
Atleast - atleast they kept the windows open. All time, all days. Something about the feeling of seeing that place locked up - locking every lock - shutting me in... something about that made me want to throw up, to hurt, to break things that locked me in. It had happened once when I lay down in my chamber, uneasy sleep haunted with my mother's eyes washing over me - before waking up screaming, that thudding, reeling feeling locking me like a grip when I saw that closed door, those shut windows -
Feeling that oppression was a poison, and the only antidote was... nothing. Staring at the floors, doing nothing.
"You may go wherever you wish," Hera explained softly to me that night. "But not without Artemis and Athena," she nodded to my old friends, who nodded back. "And whenever you come back, this mansion will always be there to serve you."
