The Queen of Darkness

Prologue: Deception

This is neither a confession of fault nor expression of remorse for what I have done. The events that began this cascade of misfortune were not my doing. I suppose this is merely a story of how one's greed and pride poisoned all that were borne by her. Her true nature should never have truly been a surprise to me. Many of the gods, though all-powerful, are really quite simple and similar in nature. They are all born of the lust of their godly ancestors, and grow to be prideful in response to the worship of man. Many, like my dear Persephone, hide their greed until they are in the face of what they think they deserve.

Despite what your stories tell of me, I am not the personification of hate and malice. When you humans hear the name Hades, it is not me you are afraid of, but the knowledge that death will eventually come to you. I am the punisher of your sins, yes, but are you not the one that is at fault for behaving such? I am hated for things I have not done because I am the one that holds you accountable.

Persephone, on the other hand, deserves your hatred. She is not, and has never been, the doe-eyed girl that the tales talk of. She sprang from the seed of Zeus, and carries the explosive electricity of his power in her very being. She is the lightning and rage of the first spring storms. Demeter was never the one to make your earth barren in sadness. When Persephone is angered, she is the drought that causes your crops to fail and your people to starve. How was I to have known when I stole her away? In her, I had only ever seen her mother Demeter. Where Zeus was darkness and anger and death, Demeter was light and happiness and birth. It was truly her father's nature that made Persephone into who she was at her core, and not the nurture of her mother. She was deceptive, even in the beginning.

"This is all yours?" She whispered to me upon setting eyes on her new home in the Underworld. Her eyes were wide, and her tone frightened, but I saw the slightest upturn of her mouth into a smile. I saw darkness in her eyes that day. It frightened me, but I had been promised a bride. I realize now that it was Zeus that gained the most in having his daughter stolen away to the Underworld. I gained nought but centuries of chasing a girl that only had her eyes set on power.