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"Very good!" My enthusiasm elicited a satisfied grin from the God of the Underworld.
"It's so delicious because we grow the lemons for the lemonade ourselves in the garden," Persephone now joined in with pride in her voice. Alongside her husband, the gardens were an essential part of her life. Certainly not unusual for a Goddess of Spring.
Hecate rolled her eyes, a little annoyed, but then poured herself a lemonade and dropped onto the sofa beside me.
She tasted the bright yellow, refreshing liquid, raised an eyebrow in surprise, and nodded approvingly.
"Phony, I see you used my magic potion to soak them," she noted with satisfaction. Her friend beamed at her and nodded. "They taste fabulous, don't they?"
"Good," Hades interrupted the two women's conversation. "Enough chatting about the lemonade. Let's move on to you, Myrina."
While I had just been relaxed following the banter, I was now sitting on the pillows as if I had been stung by a wasp.
"You have to know that as soon as a person or any other being dies, it sheds its body like a piece of clothing. Only the soul can make its way to the underworld," he explained patiently.
"Do all the dead come here? To this paradise?" I asked curiously.
Hades shook his head sadly. "Not all souls make it through the gate."
With sadness in his eyes, he pointed over to the river. "The so-called cursed souls will remain trapped in the Styx until the end of the worlds. They have lost all goodness and devour any creature that ventures into their waters. So, keep your distance from the riverbank. Even I wouldn't be able to get you out of there alive."
I felt the blood drain from my face at the thought that I had been standing next to the infamous Styx from Greek mythology the whole time.
"So, only souls found to be of good people or beings make it here?" I tried to distract myself from Styx.
"No." He looked at me penetratingly. "Every being who still has a spark of good left in them makes it to the world of the dead. For all those who still show no remorse, they go straight to Tartarus. Everyone else can stay here as long as they behave themselves."
Hecate cleared her throat and muttered to herself: "A very controversial concept, in my opinion."
Without paying attention to her comment, he continued.
"That means you have to be careful. Not all the souls you meet here will be friendly to you."
"What does that mean exactly?" I wondered. What could a disembodied soul do to me?
"If it was a human soul, there would be few consequences, but in the case of dead magical beings, it would be different," he explained. "Although they are dead, they still carry some of their magic within them and can use it. The magic is connected to their soul and therefore cannot die like their body."
"Oh. But you can't magically conjure yourself back to life?"
Hades shook his head. "No, you can't escape death once you've entered my realm."
That still didn't sound good; even the daggers on my belt no longer felt like protection but more like toys. How was I supposed to defend myself against magic? Fortunately, Hecate was with me, although I wasn't sure if she would save me at that crucial moment. I should have reconsidered my decision about Tanael.
Although he was my enemy, he had also saved me several times. However contradictory this aspect of our relationship might be, I just knew I was safe with him!
"And how do I find Alex? My fiancé? I won't be able to see him without his body, will I?" I tried to steer the topic in a different direction. I had to rely on Hecate and her help for the moment.
Hades smiled. "He may no longer have a body, but your soul will still be able to see him," he replied in a gentle voice. Almost as if it was something absolutely sacred he was proclaiming to me.
"My soul?"
"Yes, exactly. If two souls were connected during their lifetime, be it through friendship, love, family ties, or even enmity, hatred, and resentment, then their souls can recognize each other in the realm of the dead. You see the other person as you remember them and not as they looked at the time of their death."
I opened my eyes in surprise. "So, he won't have any wounds?" I asked hopefully. The meeting itself was already emotionally charged enough, so his stab wound would only confuse me all the more.
"No." Hades shook his head. "It even goes so far that a soldier who dies in war and his former wife still meet as young people decades later when they meet again in the realm of the dead. Whereas, in the case of their mother, her children will meet the old woman she was last in their presence years later."
"Isn't that magical?" whispered Persephone. "I've witnessed such encounters in the realm of the dead many times, yet it remains a miracle. Souls are so special. They contain worlds, life, emotions, and the universe."
