I wish we had more time.
The darkness responded.
“I should’ve known that your faith would be shaken with just a little free fall.” It was Hecate’s voice, deeper, but full of jest.
“Hecate!” Aeëtes cried out for her, still falling, but trying to situate himself in midair as he did so. He desperately looked around for her, trying to catch even the smallest glimpse of her hair or eyes to right him. There was a great, blinding flash, and everything around him was illuminated, as if the sun had suddenly rose to its midpoint.
Before Aeëtes could process a single sight around him, the soft earth rose up to greet him, and he landed on it gently, as if he had only tripped over a stone. Aeëtes was on his back, and he blinked rapidly, shaking his head to try and make sense of his surroundings. He pushed himself up to his elbows, taking in the landscape around him. They were in a field of some sort, with a forest tree line not far off, and a river running through it.
A bright light, like a shooting star, appeared in the hazy sky and began falling down to the earth where Aeëtes sat. He watched it, transfixed, and as it got closer, he realized that it was Hecate. Her entire body was encapsulated in a red flame, and her skin was crawling with red snakes, emblazoned on her skin like living tattoos. She was dropping from the same height that he had fallen from, albeit, doing it much more gracefully. When she landed, she did so on her feet and sent a massive tremor through the earth beneath him. Aeëtes jumped up to his feet and ran to her, completely unfazed by her appearance, sticking his hands through the flame to cup her face and pull her to him.
He could feel Hecate smile into their embrace, but Aeëtes couldn’t stop; he kissed her until he needed to breathe. When he finally pulled away, Hecate was laughing, but she stroked his cheek gently.
“I should have warned you,” she smiled, “but it was a little fun to watch.” She winked and Aeëtes could only shake his head in wonderment. He had a feeling he knew where they were, solely based on the fact that Hecate seemed morealive.Her eyes were brighter, and her countenance seemed lighter. There were also the manifestations of her power, which were all-encompassing and written all over her skin, surrounding her in flame.
“Where are we?” Aeëtes asked, finally sounding a little bit more like himself, now that he caught his breath. He looked around again. It could have been anywhere in Greece, but there was something…different about it.
“This is the Underworld, my love,” Hecate nodded towards the forest and the river. “We’re on the edge of Asphodel and Elysium. That’s Lethe.”
“Why are we here?” Aeëtes was only slightly overwhelmed, which was a rather impressive response when you suddenly dropped through the earth and into the Underworld.
Hecate rolled her shoulders once and took a few steps away from him, peering up into the sky as if she was looking straight through the hole that they had fallen through. “I had to draw Hera away from Colchis. Fights between gods don’t end well if they happen in the mortal realm.”
“They end up fine for the gods,” Aeëtes shrugged, but Hecate only turned to look at him.
“Exactly,” she chided. “It wouldn’t have gone well for anyone else. Your mother included.”
“Do you think she…?”
“She’s fine,” Hecate affirmed, stepping back towards Aeëtes and grabbing his hand. “I sensed her before I pulled us down here. Now, look, Hera will be pulling through any moment. It takes her a little bit longer to get down here than me. Do not interfere, do you understand me, Aeëtes?”
His brow furrowed as he angled his body towards her, wrapping an arm around her waist and tugging her to him. “I don’t like it, Hecate. It’s too simple. After all this time, you’re just going to drop Hera into the Underworld and fight it out? Why not do this before?”
Hecate chewed on her lip, a flicker of insecurity appearing on her face. She let out a long sigh, “It was about honor. I didn’t want to fight Hera head-on. She is sneaky and underhanded, and this isn’t going to end in a way that brings about a simple resolution. And… I was worried about you.” She said the last part in a rush, looking away from Aeëtes as if she didn’t want to see his face. He lit up. “I still don’t know what’s going to happen to your curse. We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it, but before, I wanted to try and find every possible way to break it. Curses, witchcraft, spells, they have a life of their own, Aeëtes. Taking out Hera won’t necessarily break the curse, even though she created it. Now that we know about Clymene, I don’t know how I’ll break it but…we have to stop Hera first. It has to take precedence, she—”
“She’ll destroy the mortal world in pursuit.”
“Yes.” Hecate let out another long sigh. “There’s more.”
“Go on,” Aeëtes said gently, reaching his hand through the flames once more to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear.
Hecate seemed pained, leaning her head into his embrace. She paused for a moment, letting her eyes fall closed, before she continued. “Like I said, curses have a life of their own. Defeating Hera doesn’t mean that it’ll break the curse, but it also means…”
“Tell me.”
“It also means that it could kill you.” Aeëtes sucked in a sharp breath but didn’t respond, imploring her to go on. “It’s why I wanted to break the curse, first. I… I don’t know if I loved you, but I cared about you from the moment I saw you.” Hecate let out a small hiccup, and a few tears appeared on her cheeks. “I had to try and break the curse before engaging with Hera in a fight to the end. Which this will be. She’s too petty to let it be anything else. That curse ties you to her in some way, which means fighting her could break the curse, not affect it, or kill you.” She flinched when she said the last part, as if it physically pained her. Aeëtes said nothing for a few minutes, his arms keeping Hecate close to his body. There was a soft breeze that moved through the fields, as if it was pushing them together. They stayed there for a moment, witch and demi-god, a creature of the Underworld and a child of the sun.
When Aeëtes spoke, it was full of charm. “Who cares if it kills me?”
“What?” Hecate pulled away from him in shock, fear blanketing her features. “How could you say that?”
Aeëtes shrugged, his smile now stretching from ear to ear. “I’m already in the Underworld, aren’t I?”
“Y-yes, but…”
“And you’re the necromancer, aren’t you?” Aeëtes slid a finger under her chin and tilted Hecate’s face up to his. Her expression was bewildered, tears flowing freely now. She could only nod in response. Aeëtes’s smile softened as he leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead.
“Then what does it matter if I’m dead? I’ll still have you.”
