Depths of Tartarus
2020 Words
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“You like the food?” asks Eleanna.
“Yes, my lady,” he says after swallowing.
“Eat well, you need all of the nutrition you can get if you want to be as strong as your father. Lord Enzo is a very powerful man, you know. Everyone looks up to him.”
“Yeah, I want to be like him!” He smiles at her as he chews.
“And that means you have to listen to me, Dany. I know how to make you strong. Unlike your mother, my job is to fight when the strongest enemy of our people appears. It is my heart-felt duty to protect everyone. You have to be strong, Dany. You are the God of the Sea and you hold a great responsibility. But right now, you're still weak—I'm not gonna lie.”
“But Mother said it's okay to be weak.”
“No, it's not okay to be weak. If you're weak, you cannot protect anything you have. If you're weak, you won't be able to protect your mother and your sibling. You must become like your father, or perhaps, stronger than him. The only way you can do that is by doing what I say. Do you understand, Dany?”
She hands him a jelly dessert on a small plate. The look on his face says that he's craving for it.
“Yes, my lady,” he says, accepting her offer. “Thank you, my lady.”
“Good boy.”
She half-smiles before drinking her cup of tea. The naive little boy is occupied with his meal so he didn't see her face. But even if he had, he won't even know what it means. He's just a boy.
Later in the afternoon, Aiko comes back to pick up her son in Eleanna's office. Then the first words she got from her are, “Dany will be sleeping in a room among the young deities from now on.” as she sits at her desk.
“What?” asks Aiko, afraid to raise her voice. Her son is afraid to look at her.
“You heard me, my lady.”
“But he's my so—”
“I know and so are the other young deities in training. Like them, he'll be joining a training program much like how Olympus and Asgard in the past trained us. And don't you think it'll be the best for him? He's gonna be interacting with his peers. It's an important part of childhood after all.” Aiko looks worried and clearly not in favor of Eleanna's idea. “I understand that you're a caring mother, Lady Aiko but you are the mother of a god. You know that we deities train as early as we can so that we can do our duties. Letting him realize his purpose is the greatest thing you can do as a mother of a god.”
“It's gonna be okay, Mother,” says Dany. “I'm gonna become strong as Father.”
“No,” says Aiko. “I'm your mother. I must always be by your side.” She's trying her best to keep calm. Thinking of getting separated from her son is more than she could bear.
Eleanna says, “We will allow you to see each other once in a while. There will be a schedule for your visit just like the other parents of the young deities have. It will be enough and will be for the best. After all, you also have tasks to do, my lady. It would be best if you work on that without looking out for him. And don't worry, he's in good hands.” She sighs for a moment and notices that Aiko has nothing to say against her. “I assume you understand everything and hope to cooperate with us, Lady Aiko. We both want the best for Dany. You heard him say it himself.”
“But he's still a child,” Aiko reasons, almost growling as she stares at the floor. “he doesn't unders—”
“Treat him as a god, my lady. Not some weak little boy or he'll never grow stronger.”
“I'm gonna be fine, Mother,” says Dany. “I promise.”
Gritting her teeth, Aiko says, “Fine.” and embraces him. “Be a good boy, okay?”
“I will.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Mother.”
Eleanna rolls her eyes before tending to the remaining piles on her desk. Dusk came about and it's time for them to rest. Aiko goes with Eleanna, escorted by guards on their way to the room of the young deities. Aiko is holding Dany's hand as if this is the last time they'll do. They stop in front of a moderately-sized door.
“We're here,” says Eleanna.
“I'll see you again tomorrow, okay?” says Aiko to Dany. She kisses his head.
The guards open the door. It is obvious that the young gods in their pajamas just settled down. The room is wide and the beds are double-deckers. All of them are young boys of different races. They act accordingly sitting on their beds as they pay their respects to Eleanna. She narrows her eyes at them.
“Boys,” she says. “what did I tell you?”
“Sleep early,” they say.
She raises one eyebrow and all of them lie down on their beds, closing their eyes.
“But first, let me introduce you to Dany, the God of the Sea.”
They murmur,
“God of the Sea?”
“Like the power of Poseidon?”
“That means he's one of the Three Pillars of the Realm.”
“He must be so powerful.”
“I wish I was him.”
Eleanna continues, “This is his mother, Lady Aiko, the Goddess of Teleportation. I want all of you to treat him nicely.”
“Yes, my lady!” they say.
She gestures for Dany to go inside now.
“See you again, my son,” says Aiko, kissing his forehead. Then she turns to Eleanna to ask, “What about his things, my lady?”
“Don't worry, we will provide for everything he needs.”
The door is now shut. Eleanna and the guards leave but Aiko spends another second to look at it. She's worried about her son. After all, he has never been in a place with many people.
Back in Elysium, Mila and Aurelia are utterly shocked by what they are seeing. The ceiling of the bathhouse is painted with golden bl**d. Rhadamanthus's limbs are scattered in the hot bath. Other souls are being tormented, chained in Tartarian Steel. They cannot slip away from the cursed metal.
“What happened here?” asks Aurelia in horror.
“It's Acheron and his kind's doing,” Mila growls. “If I see him again I'll rip him I half!”
“That's rhe riddle isn't it?” asks Aurelia, looking above.
“Yeah, and I already know the answer to that.”
“You're too smart, Mila. This is supposed to be a challenge and you're treating ot like it's nothing. Poor Guiseppe.”
“I don't think he's trying to win this. He's just buying time, I bet.”
“Time for what?”
“Nothing good. So, ‘Where it would take nine days for the anvil to fall’—means Tartarus.”
“Nine days? Is that true?”
“Of course not. It's just a myth in the old times.”
“Okay, so what's the next clue?”
“That ‘is’ the clue.”
Aurelia swallows and her voice is dreadful when she says, “We're gonna go to that creepy place again? The last time you took me there is when a titan woke up.”
“You can stay if you want to.”
“No,” she says with a braver voice. “I'm going to help you fight if it comes to that.”
“That's nice but I'm gonna be a lot stronger down there—you know this.”
“I know but the enemy knows that too. They might be planning something to take you down.”
“Alright then,” Mila smiles. “let's go.”
“What about the mess here?”
“I'll fix it later.”
They make their way back to the gates of the castle and before they could ride on Mila's cloud, their feet suddenly become too heavy to lift. Their eyes widen at the right of their perished sister—walking from the bottom of the staircase to get to the castle.
Her hair—they're reminded of how straight and dark it was. Her long eyelashes as she looks down to watch her every step. Like the pale moon, her skin shines from the light. The blue chiton that she always wears is shining and twinkling like how the sunlight strikes upon the vast sea. How could they forget about her?
“Mila,” says Aurelia, her eyes widened as her. “that's—”
“Danae...”
Their sister passes by in between them like they do not exist. The twins just had one more glance at their dead sister.
“Sh... she...,” Aurelia stammers. “I never knew that both of you look exactly alike, Mila.”
“No, we're not,” says Mila, stepping on the cloud and turning her face somewhere to hide her sorrowful face. “She's far too beautiful compared to me. I would never be as good as her.”
Aurelia could not say something to make her feel any better but just stay quiet on the cloud as they fly back to the exit of this realm. None of them try to break the silence and just bask in the grief they have been reminded of.
So, here they are flying in the dreadful air of Tartarus. The low and long snores of the titans are making Aurelia feel the hairs on her forearms tingling. She doesn't like this place at all.
“Are you sure they won't wake up?” she asks in a whisper.
“I'm not sure,” says Mila as they go deeper into the fiery abyss. “They could wake up anytime.”
“Mila!” she complains.
“What?”
“Stop scaring me!”
“I'm not and besides, we can handle them. We're the descendants of the people who imprisoned them here. We can do it again.”
“I'm not sure about that... my legs...”
“Stop worrying.”
“It's easy for you to say...”
Mila's skin becomes obsidian black. Her horns start to appear. Meanwhile, her sister is sweating too much but it evaporates as soon as it drips.
“Maybe you should just stay up here,” says Mila.
They land on the knee of a titan where there is a hanging fortress. The ghouls bow to her as soon as they see the goddesses. Mila notices the mess in this place. The towers have holes and the yard is full of crumbled bones of the ghouls. They're still “alive” although in pieces.
“What?!” Aurelia reacts violently. “No, I'm coming with you!”
“It's gonna be very hot down there that not even you can bear. I'll be fine. I'm just gonna check if—”
Loud screeching interrupts their conversation. At the distance, a swarm of flying creatures is fast approaching. The creatures have leathery wings, razor-sharp teeth, and claws. In other words, they are oversized bats.
“What are those?!” asks Aurelia in a yell because of the noise. She's gripping her Mjolnir tighter.
“Giant Bats, of course!”
“They're violent?”
“Yes, but not to me, they don't!” Mila inhales then shouts, commanding the creatures, “TURN AROUND!!!”
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- Writer
