Chapter 5.
Penelope
Not a day passed in the Underworld that I wasn’t needed to put out a fire somewhere.
Dressed for success, I made my way through the long hallway, gliding along the golden floor to the front door.
The handles twinkled as the old butler opened them for me and I stepped outside into the same old night.
I wasn’t sure why I kept expecting it to be different. Everything was always the same.
With a sigh, I caught my reflection on the golden floor. Despite the darkness, all the excessive metal shimmered and shone with enough intensity to blind. Anyone new to the Underworld would probably admire the stuff but after a century, I’d seen enough gold for a lifetime.
Typical humans and their insatiable greed. We only asked for a small fare but they kept arriving with as many riches as they could.
Pondering, I stared up at the dark ceiling that doubled as a sky.
While it wasn’t quite as dark as the nights in the Overworld, there was no beautiful moon or stars to watch over us.
And even worse, there was no sunrise. The one thing I missed most from my past life.
I’d never feel the gentle warmth of the late afternoon sun on my skin or the blazing heat in summer.
The sacrifices I made for power.
With a deep breath, I made my way down the stairs where my carriage was waiting. Drawn by six black rams and made entirely out of gold, nobody would ever mistake who it belonged to.
After a short ride, my chariot came to a brisk halt at the Terminal where the souls disembarked from their ferries. I climbed out, careful to avoid the deep mud. My heels were not made for that.
The rams trampled their hooves impatiently and raced off as soon as I was out, bleating as they disappeared into the surrounding green mist. Six nymphs greeted me with a bow, each greener and paler than the other.
At some point, they probably had been beautiful but almost nobody could withstand the corruption of the Underworld.
“Your Greatness,” Molly said, greeting me with a weird, jittery smile on her face.
That was never a good sign.
“Status?” I asked, holding my hand out for the daily file.
Molly handed me a clipboard as she and the other nymphs fell in line, following me closely along the pier. “Your Greatness. Umm… Everything is running as it should but—”
“Did you get the numbers from the Docks?” I interrupted, flipping through the document quickly. As expected, there were all kinds of emergencies and disasters rearing their ugly head. I suppressed a sigh. If only someone did their duty, this wouldn’t be nearly as hard.
“Yes, the dead are still arriving faster than we can handle them. Mistress, there’s something—“
“How many jumpers so far?” I stared down at the water of the Styx, not pleased by the murky colour. There was nothing worse than human pollution.
“Seventeen, I got the report from Styx’s temple earlier. They’re not happy with it.”
“I’m not happy with it either. Tighten security, I don’t want to lose more souls.”
Molly nodded hastily. “Will do but there’s another matter to address first. You have an unexpected—“
Before she could finish her sentence, I spotted a commotion near one of the bays. Workers were stopping to look at something and seemed distracted by whatever it was. No wonder nothing ever got done around here.
“Someone better tell me what’s going on!” I demanded, rushing into the mass. My heels clicked on the wooden planks and the sound warned the workers to get out of my way.
At the centre of the commotion, a familiar figure turned around and waved amicably. “Hello!”
Foam formed in my mouth. What was she doing here? She’d only been in the Underworld for a week and she was already here to criticise me? This was a joke.
Without any regard for the workers, I stormed through them until I was face to face with the mousy woman. “What’s the meaning of this?”
She held up one of my red files and gestured around. “While I went through the reports of last year, I noticed you kept highlighting the Terminal and Harbour as one of the main issues for the overcrowding so I thought I’d come see for myself.”
Surprise laced through me, settling some of the anger. “You… read the reports?”
“Yes, it took me a while to get through them all but I think you’re right.
I’ve only seen one ferry unload and the entire process is just chaos.
Are there supposed to be so many passengers per ship?
That doesn’t seem right.” She turned to look at one of the many temporary holdings and hummed.
“I checked the charts earlier and there are still souls here from last week so why do we have more new arrivals?”
Before I could answer, Molly jumped in with one of her own charts.
“Don’t blame us. We’re bringing people at an accelerated rate across but only because there are massive overcrowdings at the Docks.
We have no choice but to ferry them across or there won’t be room for new arrivals.
We can’t have the dead linger at the threshold. ”
The new Hades nodded. “So you’re saying the problem is with how fast my people are processing the new arrivals here at the Terminal?”
My assistant hummed as she looked at me for guidance, her bewildered and confused expression reflecting my own feelings.
“Yes,” I snapped, finally finding my voice again.
Maybe she took me off guard by showing up here but I wasn’t going to let her pass the blame.
“The whole process is terribly inefficient and even when we get the souls from the Terminal into Holding, the three judges take way too long deliberating. Sometimes it takes them a whole day to reach a decision. Do you know how many souls arrive in that time?”
“Approximately three-hundred and twelve,” Mousy said with a smile. “I read the charts.”
“Right.”
“So we’re in agreement.”
I stared at her, not sure if I was hearing things correctly. “We are?”
“Yes. The Terminal and Harbour are clearly problem areas that I need to sort out immediately.” She straightened her back as she strode towards one of the loading docks where a ferry was about to board.
I broke out of my stunned demeanour and chased after her, eager to see her response.
While I knew my side wasn’t running as optimally as it could, there were plenty more issues with her minions.
Despite the many flashing lights and signs, the response of the terminal workers was incredibly slow.
Most of the agents didn’t bother getting up until the ferry had passed through the channel and the ferryman needed to request permission to dock twice.
Throughout the whole process, I expected a barrage of questions and remarks but she watched the entire thing in silence while diligently taking notes.
After all the souls were unloaded, she made a final scribble and nodded. “I think I have enough for now. This was very helpful. Thank you. I’ll get out of your hair now.” She turned around, took a couple of steps, and twirled back around. “Oh and just so you know, I volunteered for the position.”
Her remark left me even more stunned than before.
In all my years, only a handful of gods and demi-gods had visited willingly but even out of those few, none of them would give up the luxuries of Mount Olympus for the depressing darkness of the Underworld, especially when the Hades position didn’t give anyone actual power.
So what kind of person would volunteer for the job?
Intriguing.
I still wasn’t convinced about my new counterpart but maybe I was judging a book by its cover. Maybe she was different from all those before her.
With a hundred thoughts running through my mind, I looked at my rippled reflection in the murky water of the Styx.
I couldn’t remember the last time the river was clear and clean.
Maybe it was an idle dream but if the new Hades truly proved to be different, maybe there was a chance to restore the Underworld to its former glory.