23
S he arrived in the Heavens on the ground below the bottom crystal. Persephone, in her small, round human form wearing the green silk gown, stood nearby, smiling and clasping her hands with her long auburn braid thrown over her shoulder.
‘Welcome, Simone, thank you for coming,’ Persephone said. ‘Please allow me to escort you—’
‘Don’t talk to me,’ Simone said, and shot straight into the air.
She flew up to the highest crystal, the journey taking less than five minutes at full speed. She landed lightly on the edge of the crystal and stopped to study the building. The ground around the building was covered in soft earth, with what appeared to be vegetables growing in it, but they were in the dried-up stage of post-harvest.
She walked towards the throne building, which still shone, but not as wildly as before. The doors opened and Michael flew out, floating above the ground, rushed across the surface to her, grabbed her and pulled her into a fierce embrace.
‘You’re here, you’re here,’ he gasped, and then he was kissing her, and everything fell away.
His arms were around her and she grabbed him as well, relishing finally being able to share her true feelings for him. His kisses were desperate and passionate and they melted into each other. Their energy spiralled together, and their love made the sky blaze around them as she felt a completeness she’d never felt before. She ran her hands over his back and up into his hair and wanted to crawl inside him. There were too many clothes between them, and she needed to find somewhere private and explore and touch and share with him—
‘Ahem,’ Persephone said behind her, and Simone was jerked back to where she was.
Michael stopped floating and thumped onto the ground, leaned his head on hers, and started to shake uncontrollably. The shaking turned to racking tremors she realised that he was crying.
She held him as he gasped for air, lost in his misery.
‘Bring him to the throne room,’ Persephone said, and Simone helped Michael—nearly carrying him—inside.
There was a pallet of a straw-and-linen mattress on the floor, and a small wooden table and two chairs to one side next to the Throne. Simone guided Michael to sit on the mattress. A box held some limp cabbages next to the table, and there was a terracotta jug and cups on it as well.
‘He lives like this ?’ Simone asked, aghast.
‘I grow food for him,’ Persephone said. ‘But I’m limited in what I can bring up that will grow in this weak soil.’
‘Why don’t you bring up some groceries? If you have access to the Earthly Plane?’
She smiled wryly. ‘I don’t have any money, and it is not in my nature to steal.’
Simone fell to sit next to Michael, who had stopped crying and seemed to have collapsed in on himself, sitting on his mattress. She put her arm around him, and he was gaunt and thin, with papery skin and tangled hair. He had lost a great deal of weight and muscle mass, and looked unwell.
‘I can go shopping for you,’ she said to him. ‘If I brought you up a fridge and a stove, could you power them yourself?’
He didn’t seem to hear her.
‘Michael,’ she said, and leaned into him. ‘I can help you live better here.’
‘Let me out,’ he said into his knees. He turned to see her, his haggard face swollen with tears, and grasped her hand. ‘Please, Simone, I beg you. Let me out.’ He gasped and gestured towards Persephone, who stood nearby watching them indulgently. ‘Her six months are nearly finished, so she’ll be leaving soon, and I’ll be left here by myself, all alone, with nobody to talk to and no food. If Semias brings me food, it fades away and he’s pulled back to his city. Please!’ He clutched her hand. ‘Bring Hades up to take the throne. He’s more powerful than me and will fix everything. I can’t ...’ He lowered his head. ‘I can’t do this.’
‘Hades and Persephone let the demons in here in the first place,’ she said. ‘They gave the demons the ability to attempt a world takeover—and they nearly succeeded. I’m not sure we can trust them.’
‘I know that,’ he said. ‘I don’t care. I just want ...’ He moaned the words. ‘I want to go home. I’m so alone.’
She squeezed his hand. ‘You asked me to come here and decide?’
He shook his head. ‘The Throne won’t let me abdicate, it’s refusing. We came to an agreement because both of us trust you. If you say yes, it will let Hades sit.’
‘I’ll sit,’ she said, standing and facing the Throne. ‘We can take turns.’
‘It won’t let you, child,’ Persephone said.
Simone rounded on Persephone and jabbed her finger at her. ‘You. Leave. Now. Out.’
Persephone opened her mouth to argue, obviously changed her mind, and smiled tightly. ‘Whatever.’ She spun and walked out of the building, and the doors closed behind her.
Simone walked up to the Throne and took a deep breath. The energy coming from it wasn’t painful, but its intensity made it difficult to keep her thoughts together. She took the three steps up to the Throne and turned to sit—and couldn’t. She hovered with her butt above it, fighting the restriction.
The Jade Emperor had stopped her from taking it? Easy fixed.
‘I renounce my allegiance to the Jade Emperor,’ she said, and tried to sit again. She couldn’t.
She straightened and shouted, ‘Let me take his place!’
Michael spoke with a voice of hissing silvery metal. ‘You are unsuitable.’
‘I’m the same as he is! Half-European! Half Welsh-Serpent! If he can sit, then I can too.’
Michael spoke with the Throne’s voice again. ‘You are of lesser intellect—’
‘What?’
‘An animal of base instincts and unfettered desire—’
‘ What ?’
Michael switched to his own voice. ‘It hates women, Simone,’ he said. ‘Iron-Age men regarded women as sex-crazed animals, and it still has that attitude.’ He smiled sadly up at her. ‘We’ve argued about it for years and the belief seems intrinsic to its programming. It’s part of the way it’s made.’
‘Fuck!’ she shouted, stormed down the stairs, and stood next to him.
‘Your obscene outburst proves my point,’ the Throne said through Michael.
‘Okay,’ Simone said, and sat next to Michael on the pallet. ‘Let’s allow Hades up, and he can do this.’
‘We have an agreement,’ the Throne said, and Michael nodded as it continued to speak through him. ‘If you agree to permit that piece of filth up to sit on me, I will allow it. You may decide—but only after I have made my case that Michael is a more suitable occupant.’
‘Go for it,’ Simone said, already making the decision to free Michael whatever the cost.
‘I will not have deceitful traitors sitting on me,’ the Throne said. ‘They have not stopped lying to you since you arrived here.’
‘I know that,’ she said.
‘Persephone has been deliberately starving this poor child—I cannot feed him myself—and has been verbally haranguing him to give the throne to her Lord.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ Simone said.
‘Hades attempted to kill his own family and steal me,’ the Throne said. ‘He led an army of demons to attack this divine realm— twice . The first time his brothers put him down and exiled him, and the second time, sixty years ago, he failed to control the demons, and was locked out of his own realm. He is incompetent and incapable.’
‘I know that too,’ Simone said, beginning to wonder if it was the right choice to allow Hades up. The man was a deceitful idiot.
‘Right now, Michael is the only one who can sit on me, but we will rebuild. He will be freed.’
‘After a hundred years,’ Michael said bitterly. ‘I can’t control the time difference, so my daughter will be long dead.’
‘Can she come up here to visit?’ Simone asked. ‘I’m here right now, aren’t I? Can I come up to visit more often? Can I bring her? What can I bring up for him? Persephone’s been denying him basic comforts to help her asshole boyfriend, and I know that she lied about the theft thing. Can we set up a house for him here, and I furnish it?’
‘You are not welcome here, only those of pure heritage may enter,’ the Throne said.
‘But you’re happy to use Michael, and his heritage is the same as mine. If I was allowed to visit, would you be able to handle it, Michael?’
‘That would be wonderful,’ he said. ‘Sharing this realm with you? Removing the demons with you? I think the dream of having you here one day is the only thing that’s kept me sane. But,’ Michael shook his head. ‘You have your own life, Simone. I can’t ask you to do this, it’s wrong.’
She shrugged. ‘My research will be done in a year or so. How long is that up here?’
‘Five years,’ the Throne said.
‘Could you wait that long, if I came up to visit occasionally?’
Michael nodded. The tears—this time obviously of hope—had started again.
Simone stood and brushed herself off. ‘That’s the offer. Take it or leave it. I choose Hades, or you let me help Michael be more comfortable and allow me to visit, and sometimes bring his daughter to see him.’
‘No, Simone,’ Michael moaned. ‘I love you too much to do this to you.’
Simone filled with delighted misery to finally hear the words she’d wanted for so many years and softened her voice. ‘I love you too, but this is my choice, so butt out. You asked me to come up and decide, so deal with it.’
He choked a short laugh and shook his head again. ‘You’re as stubborn as your father.’
She snorted with disdain. ‘So are you.’
‘If it will keep Hades from the realm, then you may enter,’ the Throne said without a hint of Michael’s emotion in his voice.
‘And his daughter,’ she said, wondering how she would talk Michael’s mother-in-law into allowing her to take his daughter and run away with her for indeterminate lengths of time in a no-contact situation. She squared her shoulders. Details.
‘I wish you didn’t have to do this,’ Michael said in his own voice, and pulled himself to his feet. ‘But I’m too broken from being here by myself to fight you.’
‘Hey,’ she said, went to him, and put her arm around him to allow him to lean into her. ‘That’s what love’s all about, right?’
‘I’m so happy,’ he wheezed into her shoulder. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘You,’ she said sternly, and pointed at the Throne. ‘I’ll allow you to keep using this poor man on those conditions. Allow me to visit and make him more comfortable, and allow me to bring his daughter for visitation. In fact, allow me to bring anyone else I please—except for Hades—to ease his loneliness and suffering.’
‘No, only you or his daughter,’ the Throne said.
She shrugged. ‘Worth a try. Do we have a deal?’
‘I agree, the pact is sealed,’ the Throne said, again through Michael, and Michael collapsed against her with relief, still shaking with emotion.
Simone became aware that someone was banging on the doors of the building and yelling outside.
‘Is that Persephone, pissed beyond belief?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ Michael said, shaking with both tears and laughter.
‘Can you expel her?’
‘No. She has right of abode or something for Heaven during the summer months.’
‘When will she be kicked out?’
‘Nine days.’
‘Can you move her somewhere where we don’t have to listen to her tantrum?’
The banging stopped. ‘Done.’ He shook his head. ‘She’ll be back.’
‘If she comes back, she will see a Wudang One-Inch Punch to the face,’ Simone said, and guided Michael to sit on his pallet again. ‘Throne. Can you build him a house on one of the crystals, or on the ground below?’
‘No,’ the Throne replied through Michael.
‘Can you build him a house at all?’
‘No,’ Michael said. ‘Not until the demons are gone, and we’ve been destroying them one by one together.’
‘Okay then, one thing at a time.’ She bent to speak to Michael. ‘Can you run electrical appliances with your Metal alignment?’
‘For short periods, yes. When Persephone’s gone and there’s no food and I’m starving, I can’t gather the energy to do it.’
‘Portable gas stove it is then.’ She pulled out her phone. No signal. ‘I thought you’d reverse-engineered this, Throne.’
‘I need to rebuild the communications network,’ the Throne said, continuing to speak through Michael. ‘And find a way to connect to the Earthly one.’
‘Would you like technical assistance with that? I know some experts.’ She jerked with shock when Michael spoke with both voices at the same time.
‘No,’ the Throne said.
‘Yes,’ Michael said.
‘Michael’s in control,’ Simone said. ‘I’ll see what I can do about getting you help. But first I am heading down to a supermarket—I saw an Aldi near the gate—and buying you a great deal of fresh food. Okay?’
‘I love you,’ Michael said.
She bent to kiss him on the forehead. ‘I’ll be right back. Don’t listen to anything Persephone says, she lies more than Hades does. No money my half-Turtle ass. I’ve seen you make gold bars myself.’
He nodded, and she waved at the Throne. ‘Let me out.’
‘This is entirely not what I was expecting when I agreed that you could make this decision,’ the Throne said, and she was back in Trier, right outside the Aldi.
She turned to enter the supermarket, and ran straight into Hades, still in his large human form. He put his hand on her chest and she stepped back out of his reach, full of disgust at his meaty hands touching her.
‘You know what I think, Simone?’ he asked, walking forward and making her back away to give him ground. ‘I think, that if I killed you right now ...’ A long black spear with a simple black obsidian head appeared in his hand. ‘After you relinquished your Eastern allegiance? You’re a citizen of this region now, and I think if I killed you, you would go to my Hell here. And if you were sent to my Hell, under my control, then I could bind you there while it ate your soul. Your boyfriend would give me my throne back to stop you from losing your soul to it.’
Simone looked around. ‘Not here,’ she said.
He spun the spear in his hands—his technique was flawless, identical to her father’s—and held it in a low guard position. ‘You’re actually planning to fight me? Let me send you to my dominion and get it over with.’
‘Not. Here,’ Simone said, rose in the air and flew back to the Roman black gate. There was an open square in front of it, with plenty of room for them to do this.
She didn’t know if she had the ability to take him down. He was infinitely older than her and had thousands of years to perfect his technique with a spear that was obviously more than just a pointed stick. She switched to her Celestial form—wearing armour over her robes—and summoned her swords. The humans wandered away, not seeing her but sensing that something was amiss and that they needed to leave.
Hades floated to follow her, and his own clothing changed to flowing black robes with a gold geometric pattern around the edge. He grew in size to match her father at his largest, and a black metal crown—like a diadem, with black stones set into it—appeared on his brow.
Simone swung her swords experimentally. Every battle she’d had in the recent past had been a simple win and now she was facing someone who could potentially be more than a challenge.
Her sickle-shaped deep blue swords, Bo and Bei, had seven indentations in each blade to take the energy from her chakras and she loaded them, filling them with glowing light. She took a step up and floated above the ground, then swung her arms wide into a broad defensive position.
‘Magnificent,’ Hades said, and took position two metres from her. ‘Ready? This will be a joy. I have not given anyone so young and talented a lesson in warplay in centuries.’
‘Bring—’ Simone began, but he went for her eyes with the tip of the spear.
She dodged easily and let him push her around the arena, watching him as he slowly and clumsily poked at her with the stick. He was feinting and pretending to be less skilled to put her off-guard—but she was doing the same thing. His casual, low-energy attacks suddenly shifted, and he moved faster than a human eye could see, attempting to take her legs off at the knees. She jumped over the spear, helped it in the direction it was already going with one sword, and sliced at his belly with the other one. He spun the spear—again too fast to see—and blocked the blades, then jumped back, spun it again, and held it in a guard position as he studied her without emotion.
Simone smiled tightly. He was rusty—really rusty. He’d spent too much time as a normal human without training, and it was obvious that his muscle memory had faded—meaning that he had to consciously decide what moves to make instead having of the training kick in like second nature, as hers did. He was bigger and stronger than her, but she was fast, and her Eastern techniques were profoundly more refined than his brute force. She trained as a daily exercise routine, and she had a chance.
‘What’s with the fairy lights?’ he asked, pointing his spear at her blades.
‘I thought coloured LEDs would look pretty on my swords,’ Simone said, edging closer to him. ‘I wanted pink swords with Hello Kitty—’
She didn’t finish her sentence, instead going for a low sliding attack under his guard in an attempt to take his feet off. He blocked her and pushed her back, spun the spear and tried to slice her in half crosswise. She jumped back in time, with the point of his spear barely missing her abdomen.
Close.
She felt Persephone’s presence behind her and leapt into the air, somersaulted backwards, and stopped above the other woman. Persephone was carrying a gun, and she pointed it at Simone. Simone filled it with water to make it useless, then threw a ball of experimental chi at Persephone. Persephone shredded as if she’d been hit by a thermal blast, and from her expression before she incinerated, she never saw it coming. Since that worked, she tried another ball at Hades, but he brushed it away with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Hades launched himself into the air at her. Her training kicked in—the muscle memory moving her before she was aware of it—and she slapped her blades together, then pulled them apart with the chakra energy glowing as ribbons between them. She swirled the blades to extend the ribbon, snapped it around his neck, and pulled her blades apart to take his head off. His body and head fell onto the ground separately, and she dropped as well. There was no blood; the chakra energy had cauterised the wounds. She stepped back when she saw that he was still breathing.
The body picked itself up and moved jerkily towards the head.
She tried Yin on his head, not expecting it to work, and was surprised when it did. His head disappeared into a black vortex that made a gentle sucking sound before it shrank to a point. The body flopped forward, then disappeared as well.
The crown and the spear fell from a metre above the ground to land at her feet, and she dismissed her swords and picked them up.
‘Looks like by defeating you I won your dominion, and you have to obey me,’ Simone said, putting the crown on her head. ‘Look at me. Queen of Hell. I wonder how this will affect my allegiance to the Jade Emperor? I guess I should talk to him about how to control my Yin without Celestial allegiance to restrain it.’ She changed back to her sports pants and T-shirt, and the spear and crown disappeared. ‘But before that, I need to hit Aldi and see what’s in the middle aisle. I wonder if they have any tents?’
*
S imone floated outside Larissa’s bedroom window and watched as Larissa’s grandmother Christine told her a favourite bedtime story, then tucked her in, kissed her goodnight, and turned out the light. Simone waited until Christine had gone to bed herself, then teleported into Larissa’s room. Larissa was lying wide-eyed and awake, waiting for Simone, and shot upright to sit when she saw her. She was nearly five years old and had inherited her mother’s dark hair but had fair skin from Michael. Her large brown eyes were full of intelligence, and she jiggled with delight.
‘Ready for your dream trip?’ Simone whispered.
Larissa nodded. ‘Daddy’s there on the floating crystals? I can fly with him?’
‘Daddy’s there waiting for you,’ Simone said. ‘Remember, it’s all a dream, and you’ll wake up tomorrow morning like none of it happened.’
‘I wish it was real,’ Larissa said, and put her arms out for Simone. ‘Let’s go see my dad.’
Simone lifted Larissa and held her in her arms, then conjured the lookalike that would hold Larissa’s place until they returned early the next morning. ‘He can’t wait to see you.’
‘Can you stay with us, Aunty Simone? Come flying with us?’
‘This time I can, I can stay the whole two days with you. I think I can arrange another visitor for us as well—I have a talking horse that was born there, and we may be able to bring him in so you can have pony rides.’
Larissa held her tighter. ‘I want to stay with Daddy forever.’
Simone kissed her on the cheek. ‘So do I.’