Bonus Content - Hekate POV

Hey all!

Something from the Underworld side of Chapter Nine won last month's poll pretty handily, so here's a small scene where Hekate realizes how pissed off she is. Because it's Hekate, she handles this better than most people, but honestly I wouldn't want to be Zeus if they happened to meet with no one else around.

I hope you enjoy it!

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Hekate’s arm tightens on the array of scrolls tucked beneath it, the efficient clip of her gait bringing her ever closer to the library. Ordinarily her sanctuary, disturbed seldom, and at present host to the small legion of people that can be spared from the everyday running of the Underworld to solve a very unique problem:

What do you do when your guest is kidnapped from under your noses?

She isn’t sure which rankles more: that Dionysus was taken, or that it happened in a way they were unable to discover until he was already gone. Of course, the most important thing is that he’s no longer with them, but she can be irritated about more than one thing at a time, and the fact that someone had the audacity to conceal the presence of the kidnappers from both herself and Hades is one of them, right now.

She will certainly be inventing wards to prevent this, as her next major project.

Passing through the library’s doorway, she moves towards the center, where several of the shelves have been temporarily rearranged to accommodate a large table. Right now just about everyone is there: Hades, Hermes, Pyri, Charon, Alekto, Kokytos, Daeira, Lethe, Dionysus’s coworkers Minthe and Leuke and Ascalaphus, and even Styx, though she sits apart from everyone else at one end of the table.

Hekate drops the scrolls onto the table unceremoniously. “These are the only ones I had that should be relevant. But there’s a lot to go through; I hope you’re all prepared for several weeks of reading and taking notes.”

“It won’t be quite that long,” Hades says. “I will compress the time as much as I think is safe. But it will certainly still feel that long.”

Charon tilts their head. Hekate can tell immediately that he’s figured out the same thing she has: Hades is angry. Not at them, not at Dionysus. But at Zeus and to some extent Demeter, for bringing this situation about. He’s doing an uncannily—and unnervingly—good job of keeping that emotion contained, but she’s going to need to watch him. He’ll probably need an outlet for that at some point, and there’s only so many people who can handle helping with that sort of thing.

Hermes, the poor thing, is despondent and not doing a very good job hiding how anxious he is. “I just don’t see why we can’t go now,” he says, strain evident in his tone. “Surely you all know enough of the law between you to win an argument with the old man. As much as anyone ever can. I hate thinking about him being there, and believing we don’t care enough to come get him.”

Ignoring the twinge in her chest, Hekate shakes her head. “We’ve been over this,” she replies. “The best thing we can do for him right now is to prepare the best possible argument. It might prove to be flimsy shield against Zeus, but he doesn’t act in a vacuum, even if he does have an unfortunate amount of influence. If we can get people on our side, he’ll have to placate us.”

“...I would like to point out that it is unclear whether Dionysus would actually like us to interfere,” Charon says softly.

Alekto scowls. He never said so plainly. But who would want to be kidnapped? You saw the room. There is evidence that he struggled.

“And in either case,” Hades finishes, “Zeus will not allow me to say nothing about this. Not when he has firmly pressed Demeter into a corner and gotten her to do something he can actually punish her for, in his estimation.”

“Can he?” Pyri folds their arms, frowning. “I get that what she did wasn’t right, but why does he get to decide what happens because she interfered in our realm? That makes no sense!”

It is a very relevant question. In fact, it is the heart of the problem, in some ways. Dionysus has been dragged into this, but ultimately, anything Zeus might inflict on him is only proxy for getting at Demeter. She is the one that matters, by the thunder god’s estimation. She’s certainly the one he hates with a sort of perverse glee. Honestly, it borders on obsessive, and Hekate can only imagine what caused him to fixate on the woman in such a way. She can find pity for Demeter even in a situation like this.

That does not, of course, mean she’ll forgive her for what she’s done. If Dionysus doesn’t want to be in Olympus, Hekate is going to make damn sure he never has to go there again.

Maybe she’s a little angry, too.

“He doesn’t,” Hades replies, flatly. “But I don’t want to start a much larger conflict by simply insisting that it must be so. The only responsible route we can take is to bind him with the rope he has already given us. Even if he did so a thousand years ago.” He gestures to the pile of reading material, expression grim.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Hekate adds with a nod, feeling something tightly-knotted in her belly loosen just a little. She’s not alone. She has to remember that. Everyone is here to help, and with this many minds and eyes turned towards the problem, the solution must be something they can find.

The last thing she wants is another deific war, and unfortunately, sovereignty violations are exactly the sorts of things that start wars everywhere. But… she also doesn’t want Dionysus to be forced away from the Underworld, from her, and that species of anathema is perhaps… closer to the level of the other than she’d have thought.

She’s not sure what it says about her, that those harms are almost equivalent to her mind, and she doesn’t care. None of that matters right now.

Picking up one of the scrolls, she expels a sigh through her nose. “Let’s get started, shall we?”