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like smoke.
“Stand,” she demanded in an even and authoritative tone.
Tristan stood, holding his head high and his shoulders straight.
Devon had to give him some credit — he wasn’t wavering under intense scrutiny.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Thanatos and Hecate as they silently appeared at the other side of the dais. Thanatos winked at Devon before turning a serious look to Tristan.
“Do you know why you have been summoned to my court?” she asked. Everyone in the
room—immortals and souls alike — waited with bated breath on this response.
The river deity did not fold under the pressure.
“I have some ideas, though I had assumed our Goddess was above petty transgressions,” he
stated, staring down Devon with each word.
Devon internally snorted at the man’s attempted jab at Persephone.
“Aside from whatever you consider petty transgressions, there have been some concerns brought to my attention. One that I was privy to before anyone spoke of it to me. What exactly is happening at Cocytus?”
Tristan’s face took on a look of confusion before he wiped his face clean of any expression. It was fast, but Devon caught it and he was sure Persephone and everyone in the room had, too.
“Everything has been going as it should be, my Goddess,” he asserted, yet his eyes darted
around the room.
“Both myself and Hecate felt a disturbance in your part of the river. You were near Devon when he was triggered by an amplifier.” At this, Tristan’s eyes moved to Devon’s, a flash of shock there before it returned to the blank expression.
“I do not know what disturbance you felt at the river,” he said coolly. “I had some of my guards patrolling and nothing was brought to my attention. As for an amplifier, where would someone who hardly leaves their river find someone with that power? Would that person not have been found out long before this?” He continued with his eyebrows raised. “Oracles with amplifiers are not well known for being stealthy or great at hiding their talents, in that a majority of the time they mentally break.”
As Tristan spoke, Devon caught Thanatos blinking in and out of existence, and back again, from the corner of his eye. Persephone must have caught that as well because she held out her hand to stop Tristan from speaking further as Thanatos retook his place at Hecate’s side.
“What is it?” Persephone asked.
Devon readied himself for whatever Death had found out. Something in Thanatos’ demeanor
told that this was no small situation. That something big had happened in just the small amount of time they had been in the throne room.
Thanatos moved to Persephone with the reverence one would their beloved ruler, kneeling briefly before rising again. When she nodded for him to approach, he stepped up to the throne and whispered in her ear.
She pulled back abruptly at his words as he nodded and moved with the grace of a well-trained
soldier back to Hecate’s side.
“My apologies, Tristan. I know this is important, but we have a problem at the gates. You understand, of course.” Persephone did not wait for a response and she motioned Devon to follow her.
Without pause, her guards became moving shadows, swirling around Tristan as the river deity disappeared in the blink of an eye.
“What happened?” Persephone asked as she moved to her feet, readying herself to jump as the shadows flowed around her.
“The gates. We’ve got gorgons, harpies, centaurs, giants—you name it — not letting the souls through. Charon has stopped moving them down the river since they have the left cave entrance and the gates are overrun. There is a buildup of souls starting, not to mention another increase in the incoming soul population. It’s small right now, but will become catastrophic quickly,” he explained. He held himself like a soldier relaying information to his commander, absolute stillness to emphasize the seriousness of the situation.
“That has never happened before. They always stayed at the cave entrance, and never in large numbers. How? Never mind.” She shook her head and turned to the remaining guards that awaited her orders. “Hold Tristan until I figure out what is going on.”
Before anyone could respond, she was gone in a cloud of smoke and shadows.
