At this moment, the Queen of the Underworld Persephone appeared abruptly in the grove.
She looked at the mess covering the ground, her gaze sweeping quietly over the two culprits before her, and spoke with undisguised displeasure.
"My garden has been turned into this state by the two of you. How could I not come back?"
Caught red-handed, Lorne couldn't help but show a sheepish smile.
Just as he was preparing to defend himself as usual, the sound of armor plates scraping against each other came from outside the garden.
Obviously, with the [Labyrinth Barrier] destroyed by the All-Law-Breaking Talisman, the commotion he and Melinoe had caused had inevitably drawn some attention.
"What are you standing there for?!
Get her inside now!"
With Persephone ahead of them frowning and beckoning,
Lorne snapped back to his senses, immediately grabbed Melinoe up from the ground, and darted into the elegant building Persephone had indicated.
Passing through a delicate beaded curtain, a faint floral fragrance drifted to his nose.
The warm-toned furnishings inside, entirely at odds with the Underworld's atmosphere, along with freshly changed velvet bedding, all confirmed that this seemed to be one of the Queen of the Underworld's private chambers.
Lorne carefully opened the empty wardrobe to one side, hauled the unconscious Melinoe inside with him, suppressed his presence, and hid quietly.
Very quickly, accompanied by that Queen of the Underworld's cold, sharp scolding, the Underworld guards who had rushed to the garden to investigate the situation retreated with their tails between their legs.
About a quarter of an hour later, light footsteps entered the chamber, and a calm voice followed.
"Come out. They've already left."
Hearing the permission, Lorne only then pushed open the tightly shut wardrobe door, quietly crawled out from inside, and scratched his head with a sheepish grin.
"Sorry. I've caused you trouble again."
"No need to be so polite. Sit down and let's talk."
Persephone responded with indifference, then set down the solid wooden tray in her hands and gestured for the visitor from the world above to take a seat and sample the offerings.
However, looking at the few exquisite pastries and a jug of fragrant fruit wine on the tray, Lorne couldn't help but feel a twinge of hesitation.
'Food from the Underworld probably shouldn't be eaten carelessly, should it?'
Seemingly having read a certain someone's inner concern,
Persephone gave Lorne a sidelong glance and let out a faint hum.
"Don't worry. These were all made and brewed by myself from my own garden. They won't have any adverse effects on you."
Then the Queen of the Underworld paused, her voice dropping low.
"Besides, I've already suffered for that mistake once. How could I possibly let you fall into the same error again?"
Hearing that trace of sorrow mixed into Persephone's tone, Lorne felt his heart soften.
He immediately took a seat at the table, set aside his concerns, grabbed the pastries and fruit wine, and buried himself in eating and drinking, not forgetting to compliment the Queen of the Underworld on her culinary skill.
"These osmanthus cakes are sweet and glutinous. The taste is really wonderful. The fruit wine is tart and refreshing with a faint floral fragrance. Did you add wild honey?"
"Mm."
The frost on the Queen of the Underworld's face gradually melted.
She smiled and nodded, her gaze softening as she looked at the person across from her, and gently instructed.
"Eat slowly. No one's going to fight you for it."
"I haven't tasted pastries this delicious in a long time. I couldn't hold back for a moment there. Please don't laugh at me."
After polishing off an entire jug of fruit wine and most of a plate of pastries, Lorne wiped his mouth, and a light, cheerful smile spread across his face like a child returning home.
The warmth emanating from every gesture of the person across from him made the Queen of the Underworld increasingly satisfied.
She rose and began clearing the dishes from the table while scolding him with a faint reproach.
"Since you already escaped from the Underworld, why did you come running back?"
"Naturally because I was worried about you..."
The concern buried in Lorne's heart spilled out before he could stop it.
Then a faint flush of embarrassment crossed his face.
"And I said I would come back to see you. I promised."
Persephone smiled at this, warmth rising in waves within her eyes.
"You're a man of your word. Nothing like that glib-tongued Sisyphus."
"What happened to him?"
"Not long ago, Charon came to me in tears. He risked everything to ferry your group out of the Underworld.
But after Sisyphus was dragged back, he actually denied owing the debt, saying something like he had no money, only his life, and that as long as Charon could beat Thanatos, Charon could do whatever he liked with him."
"That really does sound like that fellow's style..."
Lorne gave a helpless, wry smile, silently mourning three seconds for Charon, who had drawn water with a bamboo basket only to come away with nothing.
Sisyphus was through and through a slippery rascal.
He had outwitted plenty of gods. Charon was hardly the first.
And besides, Lorne estimated that this time being caught, there was an eight or nine in ten chance he wouldn't be getting out again.
Naturally he wouldn't be willing to bleed heavily for it.
As for the oath he had sworn on the River Styx, with divine punishment hanging over him, he feared it even less.
If Charon truly had the ability to defy the divine punishments of King of Gods Zeus, Underworld King Hades, and God of Death Thanatos, and fish Sisyphus out to collect the debt, then he wouldn't be stuck being a ferryman god scooping leftovers from dead men's mouths.
And if by some stroke of luck Sisyphus ever managed to escape confinement again, that shameless scoundrel would certainly change his tune the next time he needed Charon's services.
Once this amusing story came to its end, Lorne and the Queen of the Underworld shared a smile, the atmosphere between them growing even more harmonious.
When Persephone inadvertently noticed a stray crumb of osmanthus cake left at the corner of Lorne's mouth, she instinctively rose, took out a handkerchief, and stepped forward to wipe away that bit of food residue.
As her fingertips made contact with the warmth of that young divine being's skin and the contours of his face, the emotions the Queen of the Underworld had been suppressing in her heart surged out beyond all control.
Both hands cradled that face of bittersweet resemblance.
Tears shimmered in her eyes as she murmured softly.
"My little Zagreus..."
Being looked at and touched this way by a mother who had lost her child, Lorne immediately shifted uncomfortably, and in the end could no longer resist the moral reproach in his heart as he gave a wry smile and spoke. "I'm sorry. You seem to have mistaken me for someone else."
Hearing these words, Persephone showed no anger.
She simply raised a hand to wipe away the trace of tears at the corner of her eye, and sighed quietly.
"Of course I know you are not him. After all, as a mother, how could I so easily mistake my own child?"
Then the Queen of the Underworld paused, and deep sorrow spread across her face.
"And besides, knowing that god king's nature, how could he possibly leave loose ends once he made his move?
The Poros of long ago, my little Zagreus, neither of them exists any longer. What you inherited is nothing more than the [Possibility] planted by Hecate. This I understand more clearly than anyone."
Hearing these words, Lorne narrowed his eyes and spoke with genuine seriousness. "Could you explain all of this to me in detail?"
"That woman told you nothing at all? As expected..."
Persephone let out a scoffing laugh and shook her head, looking at Lorne before her with a tinge of pity, and asked gravely.
"Do you know that after the Titanomachy, the [Fate] woven by the [World] for the gods once experienced a divergence?"
Lorne's gaze flickered as he ventured carefully.
"Was it because Zeus devoured the primordial Goddess of Wisdom Metis?"
Persephone gave a slight nod, and began to reveal in a grave voice the secrets hidden beneath the darkness of night.
"From the primordial [Chaos] Khaos, three original divine beings were born. Sky Father Ouranos, Earth Mother Gaia, and Old Sea God Pontos.
They were the first generation of Titans, representing the incarnations of life and matter, charged with procreation and creation in the newborn [World]."
"The Goddess of Night Nyx was the last to be conceived.
She was the incarnation of rules, charged with defining the inevitable order of the [World] and weaving its inner [Texture]..."
Lorne listened quietly, nodding inwardly.
In the original texts of Orphism, Nyx was born from the primordial [Chaos] and was regarded as the supreme deity of the triple goddess, simultaneously possessing three different transcendent divine identities.
She could be Ananke the goddess of inevitability, Adrasteia the goddess of retribution, and Heimarmene the goddess of cause and effect.
According to the ancient divine genealogy recorded in the mystery cult's texts, she was the primordial origin.
Her three aspects corresponded to the three ancient gods Sky Father Ouranos, Earth Mother Gaia, and Old Sea God Pontos, together forming the inner and outer face of the world.
In the darkness of night she guided the [World] along its [Path], representing the inevitable fate of all things.
"[Matter] to create and enrich the [World]. [Rules] to establish and reveal [Fate]. This is how everything should have been."
Persephone fell into contemplation for a moment, then sighed quietly.
"But every generation of Titan God-Kings was unwilling, having completed the great work of creation, to simply fall into slumber and hand their duties and authority to the next generation.
So they always resisted the arrangements of fate, openly or covertly. Either through tyrannical means to suppress the growth of their children, or by swallowing them into their bellies... And yet both their rebellions against fate ended in failure without exception."
"Until Zeus appeared?"
Lorne supplied the turning point at the right moment as Persephone gave a slight nod and continued.
"In order to overthrow the rule of the previous Titan God-King Kronos and continue weaving [Destiny],
Nyx once extended her hand to help the previous queen of god's Rhea, allowing the newly born Zeus to escape the fate of being devoured, and quietly raised him for a period of time."
"And in the process,
Zeus successfully cultivated a harmless image, won the favor of that Goddess of Night, and from her lips learned the method of defying fate."
"In the bloodline of each successive divine king, there would inevitably be a [Seed of Fate] to guide the inevitable transfer of royal power.
By devouring it, one could end the transfer of royal power and make oneself a part of destiny."
Lorne listened to Persephone's explanation, something stirring behind his eyes.
The secret texts of Orphism did indeed mention that Nyx had once been Zeus's foster mother.
By all appearances, it was most likely in the process of contact with that divine king that she had inadvertently let slip the secret regarding [Transcendence].
And the specific answer went without saying.
"So Zeus found that [Seed], his and the Goddess of Wisdom Metis's unborn son Poros, and devoured them both, mother and child?"
"That's correct."
Persephone nodded, and continued to elaborate.
"But in doing so, it also caused [Fate] to contradict itself.
Nyx, who maintained [Order], fractured as a result.
The part of her will that agreed to support Zeus transformed into the three Moirai, continuing to weave the [Patterns] of [Necessity].
The other part transformed into the triple-aspect Hecate, attempting to pry apart this corrupted [Order] and reshape a future possessed of [Possibility]..."
"But the God of Opportunity Poros, representing that [Possibility], hadn't he already been devoured and erased by Zeus?"
Hearing the confusion Lorne raised, Persephone gently corrected him.
"Strictly speaking, Zeus only erased the one option of Poros, not all [Possibility].
Someone brought that [Seed of Rebellion] out from inside Zeus."
Lorne's eyes narrowed, sudden understanding dawning.
"Athena?"
"Mm."
Persephone gave a slight nod, then spoke with a somewhat melancholy quietness.
"Later, guided by my godmother, this [Possibility] was poured into my child Zagreus. But the [Fate] that had already become set in stone was too powerful.
Zagreus's birth stirred dissonant ripples in [Necessity] and was ultimately detected by Zeus and the three Moirai.
My poor little Zagreus became a sacrifice in their struggle, dying an untimely death.
All of this I only learned afterward."
'No wonder the Queen of the Underworld harbored such deep resentment toward Hecate, viewing that godmother with such cold disfavor.'
'It seemed it was largely because her son Zagreus had become a sacrifice in Hecate's battle against the three Moirai.'
Just as Lorne was preparing to say a few words of comfort, Persephone turned a meaningful gaze on him and spoke quietly.
"However, things did not end there. Someone rescued Zagreus's [Heart] and allowed the flame to continue in the mortal world."
"Hecate?"
"No. Hecate had already failed once. She had already been targeted by the three Moirai and Zeus at that point. She had no opportunity to act at all. The one who truly acted was Athena. She rescued Zagreus's heart and quietly preserved a part of that child's mind."
"?"
"What's there to be surprised about.
If this [Possibility] were lost, her mother Metis would never again have a chance to break free from Zeus's mind. That Goddess of Wisdom naturally had reason to do so."
Persephone waved her hand dismissively, then the gaze she turned on Lorne filled with a tinge of sorrow.
"But no matter how hard I and Athena tried, my poor little Zagreus, like his younger brother Poros before him, ultimately could not escape the calamity that fate brought.
All he could do was leave this [Possibility] behind for you."
Hearing these words, Lorne fell into a brief silence.
He had a rough guess as to how that part of Zagreus's mind had met its end.
His own unexpected appearance had caused that destined infant to be born prematurely from the womb of the Theban princess Semele, thereby drawing Zeus's suspicion.
Just as Persephone had said, once that god king made his move, with the assistance of the three Moirai, loose ends were not generally left behind.
So the part of Zagreus's mind that should have developed into the future God of Wine, Dionysus had been completely destroyed by Zeus's thunderbolt.
And he himself, shielded by that part of Zagreus's latent consciousness, and relying on the special nature of his own existence which did not belong to this world, had escaped by sheer fortune.
"To think that after all this roundabout turning, my godmother has come looking for you once again, still wanting to draw you into this gamble."
Persephone reached out and touched Lorne's head, pity and sorrow showing on her face. "What an unfortunate child..."
Then, in the course of making contact with Lorne, the Queen of the Underworld paused slightly, and spoke with surprise.
"There seems to be Athena's aura on you. She's already found you?"
Lorne was momentarily taken aback, instinctively manifesting the [Bull] avatar.
"Are you referring to this?"
Persephone immediately nodded, her expression growing even more sorrowful.
"That's right. Back then, my little Zagreus had once transformed into a similar bull avatar, attempting to escape from the Titan gods who were attacking him.
But in the end he was dismembered and killed."
"..."
Hearing these words, a thunderclap split through Lorne's mind.
His expression changed drastically, cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.
(End of Chapter)