Chapter
Five
Switched
The Underworld, admittedly, doesn’t really hold the kindest reputation for mortals, even ones that happened to have immortal souls. Hades couldn’t easily claim my soul, since it currently was attached to a body. It was only when it was actually separated from a living thing that he could do anything with it, but that didn’t really matter. Despite knowing what it was now, my soul still seemed to think it was mortal, and still had the mortal fear of the Underworld. Traditionally, Hades wasn’t really a god to fear, since he was willing to make deals with mortals who actually manage to make it to his throne room, although there was usually a condition. But that was only because he needed to maintain order within his realm. It was bad enough Zeus couldn’t seem to keep the balance between the living, but if the dead got in on the chaos, well…there’s no telling what would happen. Beyond that, the one time I actually met the guy, I didn’t get a bad impression of him. I mean, hell, he wasn’t mad at me for accidentally unleashing a soul from his realm, just a little concerned about what was going to be done about it.
Traditionally, mortals didn’t really have anything to fear from the realm and her king, but the fact remained that this was the land of the dead, the one place mortals, for the most part, were trying to avoid at all costs. I mean, sure, eventually one will grow old enough to learn not to fear death, but that takes decades to come to terms with. Once there, as far as I can tell, it wasn’t so much a bad gig (even if getting there is becoming more and more of a hassle as the population starts to soar), but that didn’t matter. The soul was trained to forget the pleasantness of the Underworld, and retrained to fear it. The entire place set a mortal body on edge, and I think it was made to be like that.
Otherwise, every mortal living on the surface would be trying to get down here to visit with loved ones who had passed, and Hades would have such a time trying to keep order and prevent anyone from taking a soul back to the surface with them that he’d probably have an aneurism..
Gods, of course, can come and go as they pleased, within reason. They obviously can’t resurrect a soul, not without Hades permission. But they can visit loved ones who had passes, which was convenient for those gods who tended to fall in love with mortals, since, in general, bad things happen to them. Most gods, of course, move on once they lose a mortal love, but that doesn’t mean they don’t like to check on them from time to time. Eros explained that to me once, how the gods, while most not really truly experiencing love, still end up giving a piece of their hearts to mortals they take interest in, and that interest remains with them, even if they loved on completely. Hyacinth, for example, will always be on Zephyrus’ mind, and not just because of the curse Apollo put on him.
Of course, the gods who do actually fall in love end up more or less forgetting their interest. For example, the only time Zephyrus would even think of Hyacinth – or even Iris is he actually loved her – would be to compare Maddie to them, in the sense that Maddie would always come out on top. I don’t think Eros actually did love anyone before Psyche, but he also told me that our situation was a little different. Then again, he had described all this before we found out that the souls had been split, such that he described it as me being Psyche, so it wasn’t like he had even actually been in love with anyone else.
But since learning I did in fact have a separate soul, the way I looked at it, especially now that I did know that he loved me and was just looking for her (and not pining for her like I thought), was that I had a piece of Psyche’s soul, so the principle was the same. Yes, I was a completely different person, but because I owned part of Psyche’s soul, his heart didn’t ache for the other Psyche. It was a complicated mess, one that I hoped was going to be sorted out soon. And certainly not just because of the whole ‘love’ issue.
The first time I had been in the Underworld – in this life – it had been a struggle to build my resolve to actually go about the trial. My heart had felt weighed down, and I felt completed disgusted by being down here. Most mortals generally did, so it took a quest for them to actually travel through. They needed a purpose to be there, basically. And my purpose was to prove that I was worthy to be with Eros. That helped greatly until my purpose changed. Once I decided I needed to see Persephone, everything became easier.
This time, despite the fact that Eros was right there with me once we entered the Underworld, my body couldn’t help by have a small freak out once it realized where we were. It was a good thing he was already holding me, since my body completely shut down for about a second, just long enough for my vision to go black and my knees to give out on me. Eros actually didn’t seem all that concerned that all my weight was suddenly against his arms – he just merely caught me and pulled me a little closer until I was reactive again.
“Sorry,” I muttered as I stepped away from him in embarrassment.
He didn’t allow me to go too far, taking a firm hold of my hand. “It’s okay,” he reminded me. “You’re only mortal, after all.”
He seemed to be the only one who didn’t really press the issue of me being a goddess. Like me, he did believe that I had a different soul than the Psyche he had been chasing, but he never seemed to accept the idea that I was a goddess, at least not yet. I was, after all, still in a mortal body. Although I wasn’t sure if it was because he was waiting for me to believe I was a goddess or not.
But still, like last time, the feeling went away completely once I remembered why I was there. It was like it was okay to be in the Underworld if all you were doing was seeing either of the monarchs there or something. It also probably helped that Eros was able to take us directly to the palace rather than have us wander around for a bit, making the feeling way worse.
Of course, since this was another domain of a god, we couldn’t transport directly in. Even if we were just visiting Hades, he would view it as an act of war, and attack us, or something stupid like that. I never fully understood the concept, to be honest. So we ended up outside the palace instead. Cerberus glanced at us sleepily again, taking note that we were friends and not trying to do something stupid like storm the palace or anything. He shifted his butt once more so we could pass, and Eros walked by like it was nothing to pass a sleepy three headed monstrous dog. And I guess to him, it was nothing.
But to me, it would forever be just strange, given the fact that he had three heads. I patted one as I passed, still surprised at how soft such a fearsome dog could be.
The soul who greeted me before appeared as soon as he seemed to realize he had guests. “Ah, Mistress Psyche, Master Eros, what a delight. To what do we owe the honor?”
“You can probably guess. We’re here to see Persephone,” Eros informed him.
“Oh, naturally! I just, I don’t know, expect one of these times for you to throw me off just to get me in trouble, Master Eros,” Karpos told him, bowing slightly. “She is in her study at the moment. I trust you know your way around the palace?”
“No, Karpos, you’re free to ignore us,” Eros told him, smirking a little. “I’m sure you have better things to do right now. We’re good.”
“Ah, kind to servants,” I giggled slightly. “You really are perfection, aren’t you?”
He shrugged, taking the compliment. “They’re people, or in this case, were people. They shouldn’t be treated as anything less just because they happen to serve you. And I know for a fact that you dislike the idea as well, and not just in this lifetime. I’m sure you recall being a southern belle back before the Civil War, and how well you treated the slaves that attended you.”
“Actually, I do remember dreaming about that, and how my mother at the time got so mad at me for being kind to them, since she, and the rest of my family, believed that they were superior just because they were white. I wanted to be like them – I’m gathering that Psyche had this need to fit in more than anything else – but she couldn’t help but be a little sympathetic.”
“That all stems from her first life, I fear,” he admitted. “She had so longed to be like everyone else before I found her, but she had been so beautiful that no one but her father really knew what to do with her. So they all just sort of…ignored her for the most part, admiring and hating her from afar. So in her later lives, she did everything she could to be accepted. And her acceptance of everyone, despite their circumstances, just came from her desire to always want to help people.”
“I never want to fit in,” I said. “I always like the idea of being different. That’s the whole reason I liked the idea of living my life to a lower set of standards, since it’s unexpected of someone of my social status.”
He shrugged. “That is just a consequence of being Psyche Karalis as well as holding the soul of the goddess of reason and knowledge. You know you’re not better than everyone else, so you strive to live a life that’s deemed more acceptable. You also know that fitting in, while making your life easier, certainly wouldn’t be true to your own self. So you just do what makes you happy, and to hell with what everything else thinks.”
I winced. “If I did whatever made me happy, I doubt I’d be perceived as the ‘good Karalis’.”
“Not necessarily. What makes you happy is actually doing what is socially acceptable, and making people proud of you. You got good grades because it made you happy, right? Technically, everyone generally does what they do because it makes them happy, even people who do things only because it’s expected of them. Because it makes them happy to get praise.”
“But what about those people who are miserable because they have certain expectations to follow that aren’t really true to themselves?”
He shook his head. “Eventually they either learn to be happy with it, or else they end up cracking under the pressure. Nothing’s ever really black and white, Psyche,” he told me, laughing slightly.
“I…suppose,” I said, not entirely too sure how the hell we got on this topic to begin with.
He tapped me on the nose, still smirking. “You’re happy with who you are, I imagine.”
I shrugged. “More or less,” I admitted. “I mean, to be honest, I feel like I’m just now starting to find out exactly who I really am. All these years, and I’m just now finding out.”
“Psyche, you’re only eighteen. If there was actually someone who knew who they were at eighteen, it’d be a miracle. No one really knows who they are until they find themselves here, with no further chance to change themselves. Even us gods don’t exactly know why we really are, since at any given time, something could come around and change us completely. I wouldn’t worry about it so much.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re immortal, Eros. I’m mortal; I don’t have all that much time to figure out who I am, you know. Comparatively speaking.”
“Comparatively speaking?”
“Well, when I was down here the first time, I was forced to go through judging to get on this side of the Underworld. The judge there told me that they weren’t expecting me for another eight years, so I kind of get the idea I’ll live to be almost a hundred.”
He looked a little embarrassed. “Actually, from what Persephone has told me before, it’s actually exactly a hundred. That’s the default they give for people who have the potential of becoming immortal at some point. Atropos never, ever gives anyone any details on when someone’s going to die, nor of the circumstances, but she sometimes gives clues. When asked, if a person’s going to become immortal, she gives the date of their death as exactly their one hundredth birthday.”
“Doesn’t that clue you in? That’s a little unusual.”
“Well, it would, exact the only people who know about the date are in fact Hades and Persephone, and the judges are given minimal information. They only get the stuff when the person actually dies. So Hades and Persephone probably knew you were going to potentially be immortal, but I’m assuming they didn’t know why.”
I frowned at this. “I suppose they thought I was going to be like the first Psyche and become a goddess because I married you?”
He grinned at the concept. “Probably,” he admitted. “It certainly seems more likely. I mean, as far as I can tell, Persephone allowed you to be reincarnated because she expected you to remain mortal for the most part. The weaving of the thread of life happens after the soul gets chosen for reincarnation, after all.”
“Makes sense. So basically you’re telling me I have a while to figure out who I am.”
“Of course. But then again, you’re a smart girl, Psyche. You might figure it out before any of us.”
I blushed a little as he squeezed my hand. I didn’t want to ruin the mood, but I couldn’t help but think I might not get a chance at all with Psyche’s threat, and the possibility of Aphrodite bidding her time. Psyche wanted to take over my life. I wonder what would happen if she successes?
I was a little surprised to learn that Persephone did have her own study, but I suppose in a palace of this size, it was inevitable. Mom had her own office, used mostly when she needed to do some work with the varies charities she volunteered with, but for the most part, she just hung around the more public parts of the house, liking to be in the thick of things. I thought Persephone might as well, but then again, she certainly looked and acted much younger and more responsible then Mom ever did. She reminded me more of Papa, to be honest.
We found the door slightly ajar and inviting when Eros lead me to it. He knocked slightly before peeking in to find her as one would expect someone in an office – leaning over a desk while writing furiously on some paper. Naturally, she jumped a little, not expecting guests, but managed to avoid smearing anything.
She whirled on up, looking doubly surprised to see it was us standing there. “Oh Lord, give a girl some warning, please,” she told us before standing to greet us. “This is certainly a welcome surprise, though! What are you doing here?”
“Looking for answers,” Eros told her sternly.
“Are we interrupting anything?” I asked a little worriedly.
She waved me off. “There’s actually a lot of paperwork involved with ruling the dead,” she admitted. “I help Hades out with some of it, or else he gets bogs down. Trust me, it took me centuries to get him to agree to it, and even then, he doesn’t quite trust me, even if I do a better job at it than he does! But this is always stuff that can wait, trust me. What answers are you looking for?”
Eros glanced at me. “Well, you seem to be the expert on souls, and we might have an issue with one.”
“Might? From what I gathered, it was definite. Unless you’re telling me that you didn’t think that Psyche was actually going to take over her life? If so, then shame on you for looking at her with rosy glasses, Eros! I know you loved her and all, but even you had to suspect there was something severely wrong with her!”
He glared at her. “You said so yourself that Psyche placed the part of her that loved me into this soul, and that’s the part I care most about. But it’s been three months, Persephone. I know you haven’t exactly been paying attention since you’ve been…busy running the Underworld,” she glared at him although he hadn’t been using an accusing tone, “but I know I for one was starting to think she wasn’t going to do anything at all. I mean, even three months is a bit long for Psyche, you have to admit. Maybe, as a soul, she didn’t actually have the power to threaten Psyche like she said she would.”
Not Persephone looked stern. “What happened?” she demanded.
He went through a list of what happened at the wedding, adding details he hadn’t informed me about yet. I felt myself sinking further in despair about what I was going to do to correct all this. Never mind the damage within my family – I’m sure Phoebe would eventually forgive me – but it was all filmed, and there was no way that they weren’t going to use any of that. Everyone was going to know what a horrible person I was.
The worst of it, though, was the way that I had apparently talked to Eros. I had said such nasty and hurtful things that I wasn’t at all surprised that he had been so mad at me. Persephone was glaring. “And you just let her? Eros, why didn’t you come to me about this once it started happening?”
“Because I honestly thought Psyche was getting revenge on Phoebe! She has plenty of reason to. It didn’t even occur to me until she told me she didn’t remember any of it.”
She gave me a dry look. “Seriously. You think Psyche is capable of any of that? Alarm bells didn’t go ringing the moment she actually had something to say about why Nathan Greene shouldn’t marry her sister? Good Lord, Eros, haven’t you been watching her her whole freaking life? Some soul mate you’re turning out to be, I say.”
“What? I mean, I originally thought that she might be possessed, maybe by Mama, but she wouldn’t have that capability with a mortal holding an immortal soul. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t think souls had that sort of power so long as a living soul is still in the body.”
“Wait, what’re you implying?”
“It’s actually fairly obvious, Psyche,” Persephone told me. “At least I’m assuming based on what Eros is telling me. You say you don’t remember anything about your sister’s wedding?”
I shook my head. “No, I woke up this morning and thought it was Saturday, to be honest.”
“But do you remember being in the Reincarnation Chamber?”
“I had a dream about it,” I admitted. “Sometimes I have those.”
She frowned. “I hate to break it to you, Psyche, but that wasn’t a dream. You were actually there?”
I balked. “What?” I demanded. “How?”
“I’m curious as well,” Eros said sternly.
She sighed. “Psyche’s soul was created from her soul, so they actually vibrate on the same frequency. As such, she is actually able to inhabit Psyche’s body and kick her soul out, since there can never be more than two souls in one body. But she can’t stay in there for long, luckily.”
“There can only be one soul? But what about when Hedone overshadowed Phebes?”
Eros chuckled dryly. “Hedone wasn’t actually in Phoebe’s body. Basically, she was giving her visions of something pleasurable while forcing her to say and do things. Overshadowing isn’t the same as straight up possessing. Which I honestly never thought possible.”
Persephone rolled her eyes. “Obviously, or else you’d have figured it out. It’s the only explanation as to why Psyche would ever act weird, and the first Psyche doesn’t even have to be that strong to actually do it. I’m sure she was bidding her time, observing Psyche to figure out the best way to ruin her life. And she was clever enough to figure it out, it seems.”
“One little thing, and my life is in shatters, and my father is disappointed in me.”
“Oh, the horrors,” Persephone said sarcastically. I blinked at her, on the verge of tears. “Oh, wait, this is you we’re talking about. Sorry.”
“So what exactly can be done about this?” Eros demanded. “I don’t like the idea of Psyche’s body being taken over without warning like that. What’s to stop her from doing it again and further running her life? It seems like a fairly easy thing to do.”
Persephone considered this for a moment. “I’m actually not that sure. I’ve never had to deal with this sort of situation. I may be Queen of the Dead, but there are still some things that aren’t in my knowledge. Of course, there is one person who might know, but I’m sort of afraid to ask. He’s still miffed at me about this whole thing.”
Eros rolled his eyes. “Please, Persephone,” he said, “I do know Hades well enough that he can’t stay mad at you for too long, especially when a soul’s on the line.”
She sighed. “I suppose you’re right. He’ll want to know, anyway, I’m sure. Don’t want to make him madder at me, after all.”
We followed Persephone out of her study and through the palace as she searched out her husband. I was under the impression that gods just instinctively knew where other gods were, but I guess that takes the joy of out it when you were married. Hades was actually in the throne room, listening to some soul’s complaint about how things were run. Hades looked a little bored with the matter, and I was gathering, from what he was saying, that the soul was one of those that were punished.
Persephone seemed to sense Hades was on the verge of snapping, since she outright interrupted the soul. “Excuse me, dear, we have a little problem.”
Hades looked surprised and grateful at the interruption. “Excuse me,” the soul said haughtily. “But I had an audience with the Lord first.”
Persephone turned to him. “Oh, you’re excused,” she said delightful. “I believe the answer you’re seeking is that, once you learn your place, my husband will reconsider your punishment. But clearly, you have a long way to go.”
He babbled for a moment as the guards moved to drag him out. “You know, it doesn’t look good when my wife steals my thunder,” Hades remarked to her. “I might start to look soft. But what sort of problem are we talking about?”
“Psyche’s problem,” she said, moving aside to reveal us.
“Oh joy,” he said, sinking into his throne. “If you ever make it back into my Realm, girl, you are definitely going to be spending at least a decade in some punishment or another for that one. But what happened?”
“She was switched. Psyche took over her body and made her do terrible things.”
Hades looked a little impressed. “Took over her body? So she was here, and we didn’t even realize it. Remarkable.”
“How is that remarkable?” Eros demanded. “Shouldn’t you be keeping better tabs on your souls?”
“Boy, do you know how many souls are down here, and how hard it is to keep the balance? I don’t pay much attention to that Chamber because the souls in there don’t cause trouble, at least not until now. To be honest, I’ve been more concerned about the way Psyche’s been masking her essence from us. I’m sure you’ve noticed that as well.”
“I have a theory on that,” Persephone admitted. He glared at her again. “I didn’t think about it until just now, so chill. But both Psyche’s soul do vibrate on the same frequency, but since Psyche here’s still living, her vibrations are a lot stronger, so we pick up on them rather than first Psyche. And she seems to know this, so she’s hiding.”
“That’s all well and good,” Eros said, “but how the hell do we keep Psyche from possessing her again? It was bad enough the first time.”
“Well, that’s easy,” Hades said, waving him off. “First of all, I doubt she’ll do it again now that we know she can do it. Psyche’s too clever for that, and she knows that we’ll be looking for signs. But really, it’s just a matter of a small frequency change.” He reached over and tapped his finger against my forehead, which confused me for a moment.
At least until I started to feel my nerves start to tingle again. It wasn’t the same bad feeling I felt before, but rather like I had just heard some terrifying bit of bad news and my blood had just turned cold. It didn’t last very long, and I just stood there confused for a moment.
“I didn’t realize you could change frequency’s like that,” Eros admitted.
He shrugged. “I’m Hades; I can do a lot of things people don’t realize. But for this situation, it’s easy because Psyche has a soul I created in the first place. It’s not a huge change, but it’s enough that Psyche can’t kick her out again.”
I relaxed, not realizing I was so tense. But it was nice to know that I wouldn’t be possessed again, and be forced to do terrible things I didn’t even remember. “I do have one small question, though. When I woke this morning, I had a really terrible headache that progressed to the rest of my body before just disappearing. Does that have anything to do with being possessed?”
“It has everything to do with being possessed, Psyche,” Hades informed me. It was still so weird to be addressed by Hades. “That was your soul realigning itself to your body. Hurts like hell, but at least it’s temporary. I’m sure Psyche felt the same thing when she took over your body.”
I shivered slightly. “I never want to experience anything like that again,” I admitted. “That was just crazy.”
Eros looked a little surprised as well as ashamed at this admission. He ran his hand through his hair, causing it to stick up a little, but I didn’t blame him. He wasn’t there because he was beyond pissed at me, because he didn’t know what the hell was going on with me. I just reached out and gave his hand a squeeze before he could say anything.
But Hades continued to look a little worried. He glanced at Persephone. “But this is getting a little out of hand,” he told her. “It’s bad enough we had a soul escape without our notice, and now it’s possessing people. I think it might be time to actually check up on the situation.”
Persephone rolled her eyes. “You think? That time has come and gone, dear, and we were sitting here on our asses doing nothing to help for the past three months. I think it’s high time we owe them.”
He stared at her. “Excuse me? I wasn’t the one why decided to switch the souls to begin with! I had nothing to do with this.”
Eros chuckled. “I doubt this is the time for a lover’s quarrel,” he informed them as they glared at each other. “I doubt Psyche’s going to be doing anything anytime soon, so as long as she can’t possess this Psyche anymore, then we have plenty of time to figure things out, especially now that I know what’s going on.”
“So you brought me here just to make sure it didn’t happen again?” I asked, surprised.
“Well, actually, I just came here to confirm that’s what happened. I think this is the sort of thing that we need to take a step back from for a moment to really figure out what to do. I mean, it seems terrible now, but I have every faith that your father, at least, will forgive you in due time.”
“God, I hope so,” I muttered. “This is the worst part.”
“We’ll be definitely trying to find a solution. It’s my fault to begin with, and this moron over here probably is the only one with the power to actually do anything. Luckily, he’s on your side.”
“Very lucky,” he muttered.
She placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I’m still going to uphold my promise to help you, Psyche, I just haven’t because we haven’t had any information. I apologize that I wasn’t diligent enough, and I’ll make it up to you somehow.”
“Its okay, Persephone; I know running the Underworld’s challenging enough. I’m just glad you’re willing to help me at all.”
“Of course we’re willing to help,” Hades said, standing and towering over all of us. “None of this is really your fault, Psyche. Yes, you’re the one who ended up releasing her, but that wouldn’t have happened if Persephone hadn’t switched your souls and Aphrodite didn’t send you on that stupid quest.”
“Ah, sweetheart, are you lumping me in with her for the blame for this?” Persephone asked, looking upset.
“No, I’m actually placing the blame entirely on her,” he said sternly. “I actually understand why you switched the two of them, but Aphrodite really should have trusted her son enough to allow him to make his own mistakes. And she shouldn’t have given her a trial in my realm.”
Persephone chuckled, looking delighted that her husband was so pissed at her sister. “Things will be fine, I promise Psyche. At least now that we know what’s she is up to. You’ll see.”
I nodded at her, glancing at Eros. Well, things might not be perfect, far from it, but knowing that Eros did love me helped make things easier to take. “It’s just hard knowing Papa’s pissed at me,” I managed to get out.
“Which is another reason I didn’t want to stay too long in here. Its inevitable that one of her parents’ll check on her, and it’ll look bad if she’s missing.”
Persephone nodded before giving me a hug. “Best of luck, Psyche. He can’t stay mad that long, I’m sure.”
“We’ll keep working on it,” Hades agreed. “But for now, you’re safe, at least from the supernatural world.”
Eros carefully gathered me up in his arms again, me feeling awkward in such a position in front of both Persephone and Hades, before taking me out of the Underworld once again.
Cupid and Psyche Chapter Five |