A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing - Chapter 2

Hermes de-boarded Charon’s boat on Hades’ shores, a windless corner of the Underworld. Charon groaned, making Hermes’ eyes water with his foul breath, and held out a three-fingered hand. 

“Well what’s the point of this?” asked Hermes, waving his Golden Bough sardonically.

Charon groaned again, louder, so Hermes flicked him a gold coin. 

“Maybe go buy yourself a hot bath and a mint tea,” said Hermes, brushing his blonde curls from his eyes. 

Charon’s boat drifted back the way it came, his strange boat somehow able to navigate the twisted River Styx.

Hades was force-feeding dates to Persephone as Hermes entered his simple home. 

“I just want you to stay with me a little longer, dear,” Hades said as his wife squirmed in frustration. “Nephew, tell her. Tell her that Demeter can suck my—”

Persephone swatted a date away, “Do you really think your brother—”

“And father-in-law,” interrupted Hades.

Persephone frowned, “Do you think he would tolerate an endless famine?”

Hades stopped trying to force dates down her throat, and Persephone moved to the other end of the couch, folding her arms. Hermes stood there awkwardly.

“It’s good to see you, nephew,” said Hades. “Have a seat.” 

“It’s good to see you as well, uncle,” said Hermes, bowing with a smile, and taking a seat at a small table by the couch. He pulled a wine bottle and a scroll from his goatskin satchel. The wine he poured into one of Hades’ glasses, the scroll he unfolded. “I have a message,” he said. “I, Artemis, daughter of Zeus and Leto, driver of the chariot that carries the moon—”

“Oh my god,” said Hades. “Can you get to the part where she asks me for something. She’s always so formal with requests. Or should I say demands.”

“She wants her boy toy back,” said Hermes, rolling up the scroll and taking a slow sip of wine.

Hermes saw Hades’ dark eyes shift. Persephone looked at him. 

“Isn’t this an old message? She already has him,” said Hades. Persephone clicked her tongue with her teeth in annoyance. 

“What?” said Hades. Persephone said nothing. 

“She wants him back in his,” a pause, “proper form,” said Hermes with a wink.

“Of course she does,” said Hades, “and I wanted to be the lightning bearer but here I am. You probably don’t like delivering messages all day, and Prometheus probably doesn’t like the eagle who tears out his liver. Things are the way they are. There are rules, which I’ve already bent for her sake. My wife,” another curse, “has a way of convincing me.”

“Look, I’m just here to deliver the message,” said Hermes. 

“All I pointed out is how we met,” said Persephone, taking a sip of wine from Hades’ glass. 

“That was different,” said Hades.

“How?” she asked. 

“Well you weren’t some creature hated by Gaia; and I tricked the system with the system itself. I didn’t change the very fabric of nature.”

“So you admit it was a trick?” Persephone smiled. “Was tricking my mother such a noble thing? It seems like rules only matter to you when—”. 

“Oh shut up,” said Hades. “You love it down here, and we’ve already had this conversation.”

“No, I love you,” said Persephone. “I hate this place so full of misery. I miss the sun.”

There was a pause. Hades looked at Hermes expectantly.  

“Artemis is prepared to cut you a deal,” said Hermes. “She says she will do any one thing you want if you can make this happen, provided it’s not to wage a war on her family.”

Without missing a beat Hades replied, “Well then she will need to find a painless way that Persephone and I can remain together forever. No more curfews from her mother.”

“That’s impossible,” said Hermes. “And could very well result in a war with her family.”

“Well I’m not asking her to wage a war on our family. And it is our family.” He looked at Persephone and muttered, “Even my niece doesn’t see me as a part of the family.” Persephone laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I hope you would do this for me if you were in her shoes," said Persephone.

Hades paused for a long time, the silence only broken by Hermes’ slurps. “I will find a way to unite his soul to his body provided she can find a way to hide him from the world for the rest of his miserable life, and only if she fulfills my wish. A lover for a lover.” 

“She also demands that you—”

“Of course she does,” said Hades, standing up, “I swear to uphold this bargain. I swear it on the River Styx.”

The ugly river’s current rushed, and Charon was back with a wiff of smelly air. Hermes boarded, grimacing next to the hunched grotesque that ferried him away. Hermes turned back and saw Hades lean in to kiss Persephone. And she allowed it.