Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
It was strangely appealing.
Enough that my fingers itched to reach out, to run over the skin to see if it was as warm as it looked from afar.
What the fuck was that about?
“I’m sure it’s nothing I haven’t heard,” I assured her, passing her the notepad, and watching as she jotted down the title and author.
It was going to be my first fictional book.
I figured it could be a sort of research, figuring out how the humans viewed Hades. I could combine that with another non-fiction book on him if I could find one, then compare how Hades would feel about what the humans thought of him and his woman.
“So, what was Hades supposedly like?” I asked as I pulled back the pad, finding her softly rounded script there.
“Fearsome,” she said immediately, not even having to think about it. “Stern and unbending. But also, in some ways, very fair. His role was always about keeping balance. And unlike the other gods, he didn’t screw around with the humans. He just kind of stayed in his own lane.”
“And what about the demons?” I asked. “And how he punished the humans?”
“Oh, now, see, you are trying to entwine traditional Christian and Greek myth beliefs together. See, Hades wasn’t like the devil, like Lucifer is portrayed. Hades wasn’t a fallen angel. He was simply a god with a job. And the underworld wasn’t just hell. The underworld was where all humans crossed the River Styx on their journey to the afterlife.”
“Wait. The underworld isn’t hell?”
“No. I mean, yes, in some ways. There are parts of the underworld. There is Asphodal Meadows. This is where the average humans went to live out their afterlife. Then there was the Elysium Fields, where the very distinguished enjoyed eternity in paradise.”
“What about the wicked people?”
“‘Wicked’ is a very Christian belief as well. But there was a place for punishment. Tartarus. That is where the very bad receive punishment. But we are talking the Titans or like, I guess, dictators, and those who cannibalise others, that sort of thing. Not your average, every day bad humans. There was less nuance to the underworld than there is to hell.”
“So what about demons?”
“Oh, that’s a little tricky. I mean, yes, there were… demons. They were more inclined to refer to them as monsters, though. Again, not the typical punish-the-bad-guys-in-hell sort. More like the kinds of demon monsters you see in horror movies. Some of them, anyway. Others were like sprites. Just tricksters and such. But as far as the whole demons who rebel against good simply for the sake of evil? No, that’s not really how it worked in the myths.”
“So, in the underworld, Hades didn’t have a team of demons?”
“No.”
Fuck.
What did that mean, then? What would happen to me? To all of us, if we couldn’t go back home? Were we all stuck on this wretched human plane forever?
“I see I ruined some sort of storyline you have in your head,” Charlotte said, giving me a sheepish smile. “I would say I’m sorry, but I’m not. If you are going to go with the myths, I’d really prefer it be accurate. For educational purposes.”
“I need it to be accurate as well,” I agreed, my head spinning so fast, I was feeling a little sick.
What a basic, human sensation.
I didn’t think I would be capable of it.
Just like we couldn’t get drunk or high, like we didn’t really need sleep even though we engaged in it.
The only “high” we got to really experience was an orgasm. And since I had no interest in the human women, that hadn’t been one I’d really been able to experience in a while.
Reaching for the pen, I jotted some of the more important things I’d learned from her so far, just so I had them to reference and bring back to Ace eventually.
“I have another… odd question for you.”
“I like a good, odd question,” she told me.
“If you were to pit the current ideas of gods—“
“I mean, which gods? The human race has hundreds of current gods they worship.”
“Say all of them. If you were to pit them against the Greek gods, who do you think would win?”
“Oh, that is a big question,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “Honestly, I think I’d need some time to think about that.”
“While you’re thinking on that. What about this: could both the old gods and the newer gods coexist?”
“Huh. That might be slightly easier to answer. Maybe. I think… maybe. I think there would be wars and destruction beyond anything humankind has ever known. But since gods are, by nature, immortal, I imagine they would eventually have to come to some sort of understanding.”
“But not before all that war and destruction?”
“I mean… what god do you know of who doesn’t have a pretty big ego? The whole ‘I am the only one’ kind of thing. That would be tough to overcome for a couple decades. Maybe a couple hundred years. What’s time when you’re immortal, right?” she asked, smiling.