a Queen of Butterflies

Chapter: 08 Daughter of... I'm sorry who?

I race after through the hallways trying to keep up with the king of the Underworld. 

I'm so confused, we went through to many doors and we took to many staircases.

After around fifteen minutes of us straight up walking through the corridors Hades swiftly turns around leaving me to slide across the floor trying my best to not crash straight into our beloved king.

"Welcome Nola, this is my little work area, up in the tower", he looks proud.

I'm confused as hell, "The... tower?" I try to rethink our steps but I have no idea if we actually took enough staircases or not, "That's just not possible. We went dòwn every single flight of stairs. Right?" I can't remember anymore and I feel horrible and weak and disoriented and I hate myself for all of it.

Hades frowns, "Yeah, this all pretty much confirms what I was thinking already", he notices the fact that I don't look all too well, "Are you doing okay?"

I shake my head. I think I'm going to be sick.

"Fuck, I think you're picking up on my magic. Fascinating."

"What do you mean 'fascinating'?" Anger courses through my veins and starts to push away the horrible feelings I had before, but only to leave fear -strong, stinging and painful- behind. I start panting heavily and the entirety of the palace starts to spin around. I stumble forward and right before I'm about to hit the floor, everything goes black.

I wake up on a leather couch and sit up. I do it quickly but the world doesn't start spinning anymore and everything is right side up again.

"What just happened?" I am well aware of the sharp edge of my voice but I don't do anything to remove it. I passed out and this kìng can know that I hold him accountable for it, "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything", He studies me carefully, "The fear, probably also uncertainty and maybe even hatred or anger, wasn't me. You did that, to yourself."

"Why would I do such a thing... to myself?"

Once again this place has succeeded in confusing me.

"It was horrible! On top of that, how could I have done such a thing to myself?"

"It is pretty simple actually, your divine ancestor is Hecate."

He says it like I should know who Hecate is, but I have absolutely no clue, "And who is this Hecate person exactly?"

"Hecate", Hades sighs, "is the goddess of magic and witchcraft, protector of the crossroads and keeper of the keys. I never much liked her but she was a good friend of my wife."

"That still doesn't explain the fact that I felt horrible just a minute ago."

"It kind off does, being related to the goddess of magic means that your own magic is constantly trying to protect you from other types of magic. So when you entered my tower, some of the magic left behind from me just being here daily set of your magic's alarm bells. Your magic tried to stop it but the magic that an untrained demigod subconsciously uses is, naturally, no match for mine and therefore, you inflicted my magic onto yourself. Does that make sense?"

"No... You know what, never mind I'm still tired."

A smile tugs on the corners of Hades' mouth, "Would you like something to eat? I can send a nymph to go grab it for you."

"No", I reply, "I'm fine but thanks for asking either way. By the way, how did you know I was a family member of Hecate, I mean before the fainting and everything?"

"You were constantly blinking."

"Huh?"

Wow! Really intelligent response!

"As if you were trying to get me into focus, like I was blurry to you."

"Huh?"

"You're repeating yourself godling", he is starting to get slightly aggravated.

"Well, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to respond to you saying all of these vague things that I still don't understand", if Hades can get aggravated, so can I.

"You can see traces of magic and since I'm the god of illusions you can see my illusions, even when I'm not actively using them."

I take a second to think, "I suppose that does make some sense. That's why I just got confused in the palace! I could see behind the magic and because I saw things that weren't there I completely lost my sense of orientation", Oh gods, I'm rambling.

"Exactly, like I said your confusion, mainly towards which directions the stairwells led,  just proved my theory right. Overall navigating the palace shouldn't be all too difficult though. I know it might seem complex but on the main floor, the only you need to be able to navigate on your own, the only thing you need to worry about is some doors that appear as invisible to others. The changing furniture shouldn't be a problem either because for as far as I know it's not an illusion, the furniture is actually swapped."

"there is one more thing", I ask, "Did you actually only count on the blinking to determine that I was this hecat-person's-" "Hecate", Hades interrupts. "- Yeah, that's what I was saying but like, there has to have been something other than the blinking. Right?"

"There was, a dead give-away really, but I didn't pay enough attention to you to notice the first time we spoke I only realized right after."

I'm intrigued now, "What was it?"

Hades smirks, "You sure as Tartarus aren't that patient are you. Well, if you insist on knowing, your eyes."

"My eyes?"

Ah... confused once more

"Your eyes", he clarifies, "It's the one thing gods can't change about their appearance and the one thing all of their mortal relatives and chosen champions have in common, their eye-colour. The only one who could change her eye-color was Hecate. Don't ask me why, but it's true"

"But Hermes has Violet eyes and Ada's are blue?" 

"That's why I didn't pay al that much attention to your eyes, they are never an exact match in colour with your divine ancestor, violet is in fact just a particular shade of blue and for example Giulia's eyes are green but nowhere near as green as my brother Poseidon's are. But yours, are a dead give-away."

"Because no other god or goddess has two different colored eyes?"

"Exactly", Hades nods.

"But how come Thanatos or one of the others didn't notice anything?"

"See well that's the problem", Hades begins, "If you'd ask them, they'd probably say your eyes are a sort of starry grey in colour."

"Huh?"

Hades looks like he is able to kill me right about now, "You know what", he mutters, "I'm not even going to spend time on this."

He continues at a normal tone, "Remember your magic, how it tries to protect you at all times?"

I nod.

"That's what it's doing right now, protecting you and your identity from anyone who isn't god of illusions and therefore can't look straight through it."

"That makes... sense I guess."

"Good, you know everything you need to know for now", He starts walking me out of his office, "I want to work on your magic with you twice a week, once on Tuesday and once on Friday. I'll find a spot where we can practice safely. Understood?"

"Yep", We're standing just outside the door and I'm about ready to leave when Hades adds, "Oh and tell the other halfbloods I want to see them at the lake. It's time for another round of combat practice."