a Queen of Butterflies

chapter 03: Hercules is not Greek, he's Roman

I gasp and I can hear Thanatos chuckle behind me.

"It's huge!" I say, surprised.

"I am well aware of the size of the building I literally live in", Thanatos replies

"Can you even say something that isn't dripping with sarcasm?" Lucas asks.

"Probably not and I certainly won't be trying just to please you, loverboy."

"That's not my name, Thanatos!" Lucas shouts.

I look away from the by now pretty heated conversation behind me and turn back towards the palace in front of us.

It's pretty big, looking like it contains at least four floors. The reason we couldn't see it sooner was because it was hidden inside a small crater and we had to first walk around the crater consealed with trees and bushes to find the only place you could enter it from, a small ramp leading down to the castle. 

The small valley looked like a giant, lush cave with trees, bushes and flowers covering almost everything and even from the edges of the crater that bended slightly over the valley, plants and vines were hanging down.

The palace itself was pitch black with jagged peaks spiking up like thorns, but it also had a ton of windows and it was also covered vines, making it look less threathening and more like it just belonged here, in this little patch of paradise.

I feel a tiny push in the small of my back, "Come on, we can't just stay here and stare, we're supposed to actually go inside." 

"Wait", I say, "You can't just make me go inside, I have no idea what to expect."

"Well", Thanatos says hesitantly, "You're a demigod wich means I need to tell king Hades who you are."

"Right, so I can expect some dude with hair made out of blue fire?"

Thanatos rolls his eyes so hard I'm affraid they're going to pop out of their sockets, "Yeah totally, and there's going to be some human skulls casually stacked up in the corners of the rooms and whatever other things you expect to see after watching that stupid Disney movie", the sarcasm is dripping from his voice.

"The songs are bangers though aren't they?"

"O my god Lucas, finally something we can agree on!"

I give him a high five and smile .

"It's gods by the way", Thanatos adds.

"Huh"

"You said 'Oh my god', it should be 'Oh my gods', plural."

"Oh yeah 'cause there's like, more than just one." 

Thanatos nods, "Anyways, where here now, you ready to go in?"

I look up at the imposing doors right in front of my face and swallow hard. "So there's not going to be any skulls stacked up against the wall, right?" I hate the way fear clearly squeezes my voice.

"Well", Thanatos says, a soft smile warming up his sharp features, "I guess you're going to have to go inside and see for yourself."

I slowly return the smile and help Lucas push open the huge black doors. The doors are beautiful, they have flowers carved into them, their stems twisting and turning to form delicate patterns.

The doors, though absolutely gigantic, are surprisingly light and swing open easily opening up into a large, light room. The room is rectangular and the ceiling is very high, held up by elegant pillars that, just like the doors, have beautiful flowers engraved in them. Unlike the outside of the palace, the inside is almost entirely white. The white is only broken by the  colored marbles in pillars and by the gorgeous, intricate mosaics on some of the walls.

I carefully walk through the room and look up at the ceiling extending meters and meters above my head, illuminated by hanging lanterns and giant windows.

On the right and left of the room there are two smaller doors leading back outside and right in front of me are two staircases curving around a different set of doors.

"Where do we need to go?" I ask Thanatos.

"Hades is generally inside of the gardens", he replies.

"So uhm..."

He sighs, "Right ahead, we're the only kingdom to have our throne room inside of our central garden."

"You can't be mad at me for not knowing where the gardens are in a palace I've never been in before."

He sighs even harder, rubs over his nosebridge and replies, "Of course not, please just get going now." 

I turn around swiftly and face the doors underneath the staircases. I stagger backwards surprised as the doors open up on their own and continue into the gardens.

I gasp for air. The central hall of the palace was pretty, the valley the palace is in was gorgeous but this place, the garden, it is astonishing.

The doors I just came out of are only two of the many doors coming out at the gardens. There were pillars supporting a small overhang of the roof and unlike the ones inside these ones are covered in actual flowering vines and I can see how the large central tower of the castle is seemingly hovering above the garden, barely casting a shadow since there are lights hanging from the pillars suporting the tower.

The fact that the tower was supported by pillars rather than standing directly on top of the garden walls made the garden look like it was outdoors whilst still shielding it from wind and rain.

Does it even rain inside the underworld? 

I aim my eyes forward and see a set of benches standing in a semicircle around an open space with two thrones in the back of it. I walk through the gap in between the two halves of the benches and enter the open space in front of them.

I'm not entirely sure what's supposed to happen right now.

 "Thanatos, who is this?" I spook a little upon hearing the voice call from behind one of the thrones.

"She's a new demigod I found, my king."

The figure steps out from behind the throne and I can finally see him, he's slightly taller than Thanatos and his muscles are more pronounced but he looks fairly similar to Thanatos.

Except for the wings part, I still can't get over that.

Actually, the longer I look at him the less he starts to look like Thanatos, he looks older, more tired and his skin, eyes and hair look a lot lighter than Thanatos'. This man looks more dangerous, more reserved and I can't help but tremble slightly upon seeing him.

"Any idea who's powers she took over?"

"Not yet, my king."

"Ah well, I guess we'll figure it out soon enough. For now, Thanatos, I would like for you to show her around in the palace and make sure she feels at home here. I need to continue working now."

"Of course, my king" I watch as Thanatos bends his head slightly at the king and leaves, pulling me with him.