Great tears fall like heavy raindrops,
sliding along creases & wrinkles worn into the king’s flesh
by century after century, decade after decade,
( year after year of the same old grief, of the same old doubts. )
They splash off his chin, upon the paperwork below,
upon his dress shirt, & the cuffs of his sleeves,
( & when Persephone’s fingers entwine with his own & tug his hands away from his eyes )
they splatter upon her skin, too,
the warm & unending & bitter tears of a broken king.
Against the silence between them, the Underworld seems to moan,
& groan, wailing & crying, itself.
Bending against the weight of grief
of once more losing its queen for yet another agonizing season--
It was not only the king that found himself yearning so strongly for Persephone when she was away,
but the whole of Hadestown seemed, too, to desire her return more than any,
for it was Persephone who stood beside the workers & called them brother,
& had spared them the wrath of Hades for so many years. It was she who could hold the king’s hand & still call the laborers equal.
(& though the workers no longer built the wall, it was still much work to tear it down,)
& the foundries were a greater stress to destroy than they had been to build,
though was that not how it was to destroy old ways, too?
For Hades could feel it inside him-- the old habits, the old thoughts, being torn down,
ripped away from him in long, aching strips, crumbling with little grace inside of him. Brick by brick, it was the two of them that worked to send the wall around his heart tumbling down.
He hears her, then.
He hears her words, & feels her lips against his knuckles,
& suddenly the King feels, too, his own guilt.
A great, heavy blanket of regret
for all the things he has done & the things he has made her withstand. For what a wicked man he was, & what a horrid husband he must be, to have wanted Persephone to cry with him ( for he had, hadn’t he? ),
for wanting her to feel the same pain he had felt all those years.
But it was not fair-- it was not fair on her, to have her sunlight stripped away from her. It was not fair to scream & yell & cry for selfishness’ sake,
in the hopes she would abandon all that made her who she was
for h i m.
Oh, how easily Hades forgot she was not only the Queen of the Underworld,
but a goddess of spring, of rebirth, all the same.
& the earth deserved her love as much as Hades supposed he did, too.
It is her song that drags his gaze back up to meet her,
to see how her own face creases in grief,
& suddenly a great pain finds Hades’ heart & opens his eyes,
& makes him realize that o h --- it must have been these arguments,
so long & wearying, that have left such audacious marks across her gleaming, sun-kissed skin,
& suddenly Hades wants nothing more than for all this grief to e n d.
“Persephone,”
Her name finds his lips,
a whispered reverence on his tongue,
not all too different from a mortal worshiping at her shrine,
“My sun, my stars-- You--
I cannot let you do such...
s u c h a t h i n g ......”
From her hold does he pull one hand away, reaching out to cup her cheek within his palm,
( & oh his heart seems to swell to feel her skin, so soft & warm & welcoming, )
& oh it seems to break all at once to know the choice he must make, the yearly sacrifice that must come,
not for the world above. But for her.
Always for her-- anything for her.
“My darling, my love,”
His voice is barely a whisper,
something inaudible to any who care not hear,
as his thumb strokes against her cheek
& quakes under the weight of grief & love all mixed into one,
“My queen-- my dearest Persephone--
My... my heart b r e a k s t’see you go, but...
but it would shatter to see you yearn for the surface.
I could not steal that from you, not.....-- not after all we’ve been through & said,
not after our.... our p r o m i s e.
The sun & the skies & the freedom they bring?
My love, they are yours-- do not desert them for m e.
I only beg that you not forget your lover down below
when you bring the mortals their spring--”
A simple plea is all it is.
& Yet, how sad. What a cursed lot these two had drawn.
dailybridgerton
yousharknotpass
areudirty
prguitarman
turnnoffyourmind
blakekathryn
germansingergirl
theartofmadeline