Presrphone

Elsewhere in the realms, back on Earth House was growing and changing in unpredictable ways. We wouldn't know what we would go home to or even how long we had been gone. It was a day and a night here but what does the subjective time mean back on a tethered but unrelated plant? It was like Steven said, that was just going to be something that we would have to deal with when we got home. In another room of our little cottage Karen and Robbie were looking over books and adding to them samples of the plants and herbs they found here in the God realm. Like me, they added books to their satchels and jars for samples of all the things they collected. While they put a bush and its dirt into a jar and shrunk it back down to fit in Robbies satchel Robbie was looking out the window and he saw a woman walking down the path next to the cottage, she looked more rested and full of health, it was unmistakably Persephone. She walked away from the cottage and closer to the mountain's cliff, the new question was, who is the woman she was talking to? "Karen, come here. Who is she talking to over there?" Robbie whispered to her as he waved her over to the window. Karen's tiny face reflected in the window next to Robbie. We had all taken our human forms on again, more out of habit than feeling that we needed too. "I'm going out there!" Robbie sounded excited as he went to the bedroom door and disappeared.

"Hey there Persephone, who are you talking to?" He called out to her as he walked up. She turned to him startled. "Oh no one, I was talking to myself. It's a habit." She replied, it made sense to Robbie. She was often stuck in the afterlife with no one to talk to but Hades. She could talk to the dead but they were more often than not stuck in a cycle of memory, then a brief moment of reality only to turn back into the last memory, desperate to feel alive again. Next to Persephone there was only the sheer cliff rising up behind her. "I enjoyed dinner, talking to you and your sister was the highlight of my year." She complimented the two on their interest in plants. "It isn't often I meet humans that know as much about plants and healing tinctures and potions." Robbie knew it was meant as a compliment but everyone knows our family and our position in the magical community, how do so many overlook us? He wondered to himself not wanting to offend her. He spoke up before she could say anything else. "You are more sensible than most Gods." He was correct of course but he also knew that she had been human at one point, she was assumed into Godhood. "I was human, a long, long time ago. I was born in a small Greek village to the Goddess Demeter and a human man. I was born human but my divine heritage was too tempting for Hades who had been in love with my mother before me. I think he married me out of spite." She went on to explain the truth about how she came into her position. Robbie wasn't surprised that it didn't match up with the stories being told in history books. Humans had a habit of watering down stories and even among the magical community Gods often kept truths to themselves. Family business should stay family business. It was a truth we understood, even with all the beings living under our roof we keep some information to our family. Case in point, no one knew about our closed telepathic link. There were rumors about how we communicated but the assumption was that we had an expression that kept us linked, it was an assumption we never corrected.

"I have to ask, do you know anything about our situation?" Robbie pressed Persephone for information. He did it in the most Robbie way a person could. His questions were full of compassion and still firm, I think it is in his eyes. When he asks a question his eyes demand an answer but his voice is still and calm, the combination gives his longest interrogation results that none of the rest of us could accomplish. "I can't tell you anything that other Gods haven't already talked about." My brother could tell she was giving him mostly the truth. He had one last question before he returned to bed. "Aren't you represented by pomegranate seeds?" She smiled and told him that the pomegranate is her favorite food and the seed represented her promise to rise again and bring spring into the world with her. It was at that moment through our connection we all felt a sudden moment of realization! Part of the mystery just unfolded, when there in the moonlit night Robbie pulled the three seeds out of his satchel. Persephone dropped any pretense she wore. "Where did you get those?" She snapped the question at our brother and we all felt the alarm in her question.

Robbie explained the events that took place and that the top of the chest opened and the three things that came out of it. We all watched through our brothers eyes as her face grew pale for a split second, then as if on demand she regained all of her composure. "Do not use this here, do not for any reason show it to anyone here!" Persephone handed Robbie a bag, the top was open and it was full of pearls. I felt a rush of thoughts from our silent group. "That's a way into the underworld!" I couldn't tell who had said it, it felt like it was a realization that a number of siblings had at the same time. They were correct of course. She used the pearls to leave the underworld, we had every reason to assume it worked both directions. Robbie closed his hand around the bag and it vanished into his satchel. She politely thanked him for the conversation, "Thank you for your visit, it's nice to meet living beings from the human world. I hope you have a good night." She acted as if nothing happened and she left up the trail to the main palace. Robbie came back into the cottage, naturally we all joined him in the main room.

I summoned the candle and its crystal candle stick out and turned it to indigo. I had learned what it was capable of doing. As the light filled the room all noise from the outside world stopped and it became impossible to see out or in the windows. Robbie pulled the bag of pearls out and put them on the table. We all looked in. "There is a note!" David reached in while he was talking. "I don't know everything, I was given these a long time ago by whoever sent the chest to you. I only know that this could free a lot of us trapped by the Gods." "That is all the note says." David said when he finished reading the note. He folded it back up and put it on the table next to the pearls. I dumped the bag of pearls into my hand and counted them, "It looks like there's not just enough for all of us but some extra, maybe just in case?" I said holding my open hand full of the shiny objects. Whoever or whatever planned this out seemed to know it was directed at us. "The question now is who, or what being is behind this?" Larry addressed everyone in the room, no one answered but there was an excited squeaky response from the kitchen. A gray mouse was on the counter and found a bowl of grapes and crackers. "Who brought the gray mouse with us?" So Steven and I filled the rest in on what was happening back home with House and our extended family.

We all decided to get some sleep for the night, so I dismissed the candle and its base. It flashed out of sight and a tiny spark flew to the bag at my side.