13 Omake: Talent and Hardwork
It was dark, there was no candles, and the windows have been covered, there was no sound other the occasional swinging, until the door opened.
The beautiful woman that came in looked angrily in the room, opening her mouth to speak in an angry tone, no words came out when she saw the scene, her eyes widened.
*swing*
*swing*
She stood there frozen from the sight in front of her, the room was dark, all windows covered up in some manner of frabic, in fact a lot of the cloth and frabric in this place were of the highest of qualities, nothing that would put of place in her collection of her craft.
*swing*
*squeak*
*swing*
But none of those were what was on her mind,…but what was hanging in front of her, in the middle of room, next to a stool that was sitting sideways.
*Swing*
*Squeak*
It was silent for a minute, the only sound was a slow swinging, and the sound of the metal squeaking on the ceiling, it wasn't until she heard another sound from one side of the room,
*shrrrk*
The sound of metal being sharpened reached her ears, she turned to look, and found a man sitting on another stool, sharpening his oversized Scythe.
He was surrounded by three dogs with glowing fiery eyes, though looking at the most…she could see they were more intimately connected too a degree no three dogs could typically be.
On the arms of the recognized figured she could see tattoos of Selena in her tattoo form, either resting or felt she was not currently needed at the moment, could be anyone's guess to which is which.
*shrrrk*
The man has raven black hair, his sclera as black and his eyes glowing purple as it was at the first day she had met him, at this moment, he was surrounded by blue flames, though he was wearing a strange assortment of clothing.
The identity of the three forms were not lost to her
"Are you satisfied?"
She blinked in confusion when she heard his deep words, he did not sound angry, nor did he sound sorrowful,…just indifferent, finally understanding his question she could only reply with, "what?".
"Are you satisfied?"
He repeated himself, for a moment he stopped sharpening his blade to inspect his work, though as she didn't understand this action since he could've easily had Hephaestus do it, considering he is in his Kingdom.
Instead of answering him, she returned with a question of her own, "isn't Thanatos the one that collects the souls of the dead?".
His only answer was a eyeroll, she suppressed her irritation form the action as he spoke, "for a goddess that claims that she is the goddess of wisdom you sure love your assumptions, not feeling the need to confirm them,".
This time she scowled, but he did not stop, "Thanatos is the God of Peaceful Death, he is the god that collects the souls that die in their sleep, the ones tsickness, and to the ones in the battlefield that pray to him to make their deaths as painless as possible,".
"My first child, Melinoe, is the Goddess of Ghosts, so this isn't even her problem in the first place, there is the one with Violent death, but this is self-inflicted, and my other daughter, Macaria, she is the goddess of blessed death, as the god of Death, as in all death in general,…I'm the lucky one that has to deal with this".
His eyes for the first time met her own, the purple light in pitch black met her gray eyes, before he motions to the corpse, "this,…is probably as far away to being a blessed death as you can possibly get,".
She kept her scowl, "she was far too arragant,…she needed to be humbled," she wanted to say this was undoubtedly true,…but she couldn't place any emotion behind those words.
He raised an eyebrow, before resting his hand that wasn't holding a scythe on the dog that was the closest, petting and scratching it before speaking, "a prideful goddess should not be teaching lessons on pride when she should be learning them in the first place,".
Her eyes widened, her frown deepened as her eyes narrowed "and what is THAT supposed to mean!?" Her rage slipping into her words, the mortal claimed to be her better, it was a statement that needed to be dealt with.
His facial expressions did not change in the least, "tell me, Athena, who is more impressive, a Major Goddess that has a domain that involves in Weaving, naturally meaning her works would be always impressive…,".
He stood up and for a moment she though he would walk up to her and grasp as he did with Artemis and Apollo, but instead walked to the corpse, and grabbed the ropes and pulled them out.
The corpse, as if defying gravity, remained floating as if she was still being held up by the two ropes that were tied together…
It was when Hades had unwrapped the "ropes", that she realized what they were, these were the two tapestry that were used to judge who was the better weaver.
The only reason she came back here in the first place was that she wanted to take back her work that she had created.
Continuing on, without pause to finish his point, as her motioned ti one of the pieces made "-or a mortal girl, that did not have any remaining family to support her or any degree of divine blood, but still with enough talent and painstakingly-made hardworked skill, managed to reach into the heavens and match your domain-assisted artificial skill?".
He looked at her with a cold, indifferent expression, "in my eyes, she has more than earned the right to brag all she wants about her skill, you had the option to choose between Wisdom or Pride,…you chose the latter,".
"…while you did not kill her, you felt your pride wounded, and when she said they were equal, you took a staff and beat her black and blue to make yourself feel better, and unlike you, I can make a perfect assumption, that if you didn't want that tapestry back, you would not otherwise have come back, you would not think of her, and you would not feel any amount of guilt,".
He walked up to Athena, he was several heads taller, so she had to look up while he looked down, and with the same cold tone, he finished, "and so…I ask once more,…are you satisfied?,"z
It was silent for a minutes, before he sighed and went back to pick up his scythe, and as he picked up, she built up enough courage to ask, "…what are you going to do?".
He turned to her with raised eyebrows, "the same thing I do to most other mortals that died to similar ways like this, most did not have the time to accomplish anything that would validate Elysium or the Fields of Punishiment, so I will give them the same choice as I always do, she could either immediately reincarnate or she can eternally float in the River of Asphodel, where they will continously keep reliving their life, exploring the choices they have not made,…before making the choice of if they want to reincarnate,".
That caused her pause, and just as Hades was about to swipe at the corpse to cut the soul from the body, she quickly said, "wait!".
This caused him to pause, before looking back at her, waiting on her response, honestly she didn't know why she called out,…but now that she thought of it…it really was a shame someone this talented just died, especially to her actions.
She looked at him, "I need to alter this outcome,".
He blinked a few times at that,…and then started to roar in laughter
She waited for a few moments to finish, before he asked amused, "and what exactly do you mean by that?, you must know I'm not going to allow you to ressurect her back, that incident with that child of Apollo with his medicine already caused enough damage as it is,".
"I am aware, which is why I am going to alter her, I need to make it up to her, allowing her to live on for a long time, reforming if she were to die, to continue creating her works for as long as she wants it, is how I will do it, Uncle," she says with a determined glance, not willing to back off so easily, no matter who was in front of her.
He smiled bitterly and with amused, his eyes glowing, "by turning her into a monster? I don't think she wants your apology if that is the case, she would hate you for the rest of eternity, she would likely lash out against your mind children you love creating despite calling yourself a virginal goddess"
She closed her eyes, before reopening them, "but even so, this is a mistake I must rectify, if she were to hate me, then so be it,".
She reached out to the corpse,…and hades does not make a move to stop her, slowly the woman started to shift into that of an abnormally large spider with parts of a human.
All Hades did was watch, as he thought how this would affect the future, in the original version after the tapestry contest, Athena turned the woman into a spider immediately, now she turned her into a monster in a form of apology that would more than likely never be appreciated.
He will watch how this outcome will unfold itself.
The thing about mythology, is that most of the time, there really isn't a clear timeline, so whenever something is about to occur, unless it's something big, or incredibly obvious,…hades can't really be aware of it, as he isn't going to spent every waking moment waiting for events most of the time he can't remember to occur.
This was one of them, in my eyes anyway, the weaver just wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things at the time, so he only remembered about this myth once he felt her die.
I also tried to leave small hints on what is to come and the state of the world, hope you enjoyed them if you found them XD lol
