LXXV: Temperment

-How long do you think she can hold out?- Bast asked her fellow captive goddess when Morpheus had left them.

“As long as a dream, less than a nightmare,” Enyo told her in a voice that only Bast and Lucifer were apparently capable of hearing.

-How long would your little spell take?-

“No longer than a breath, as long as the fall of a drop of blood.”

-I like a good blood sacrifice as the next goddess, Kali, but seriously, don’t you take it a little far?-

“Your kind eat your kittens,” Enyo pointed out.

-Only when they’re dead,- Bast snarled, her long tail fluffing up slightly.

“Or when they don’t belong to you,” Enyo reminded her.

The two deities looked at each other in silence for a minute or two, and then Enyo affected a small, shrug.

“Would you have let me drain Morpheus’Dreamer, if it meant freedom?”

-Of course,- Bast said, -she is not my Dreamer, I feel nothing but minor amity for her-

“It can still be done, Cat-Queen, if I were to drain the Dreamer and her Morpheus I could – ”

-Absolutely not!- Bast hissed, -You’re disgusting for even thinking it!-

Enyo’s eyes flashed into a brilliant gold, her hair flared from its dark curls into brilliant reds and oranges.

“I am what I am, little kitten, and I was here before you. Yama and Thanatos pay tribute to me, Di Yu grovels at my feet, Osiris came before me for new life when Isis sewed his pieces together. Every single entity of death, destruction, and rebirth answers to me. Do not presume to teach me of morality. ”

-And yet you are here, bound by a minor deity,- Bast countered slyly.

“He has the Chains of Lilith.”

-He does?- Bast asked, startled.

“Yes, he does.”

LXXIV: Deeper

The water was cold. Amy’s little brow curled into a frown as she took her first steps into it, listening to the Red Lady saying strange things behind her. The water was very cold. This was not what she had imagined when the others had told her she would be swimming in a beautiful lake; in her mind, beautiful and warm were pretty much mutually inclusive.

The Red Lady made a gesture and Amy assumed that this meant it was time for her to start swimming so that is exactly what she did. Amy prided herself in being the best swimmer in her grade; she always beat everyone at the races and could swim to the bottom of the pool and sit there for long enough to count to sixty. Her teachers and Daddy had always been very impressed. Of course, Daddy was gone now... there was no way she was going to let anything happen to Alyxa and Mr. Morpheus.

The further down she dove the darker it got, so Amy shut her eyes and just swam deeper and deeper. She could feel the air building up in her lungs, and a little further down she had to exhale and inhale. To her surprised there was no water that rushed into her lungs; it felt sticky, like candy that had been left in the sunlight, but it was exactly like air. The Red Lady was good at her job too!

Amy opened her eyes, to see if she could see the cave that she had been told about. There was no cave; she could see was a faint glimmer somewhere below her, as though she was swimming back to the surface. That’s probably it. Her little legs were tiring. And then the light engulfed her and she couldn’t see.

LXXIII: Preparations

They stood on the edge of the water and Michael shifted uneasily. It was so deep. Too deep. He could feel just how deep it ran, so deep that it made him want to wear his wings, just in case it seemed like he would trip and tumble in. He glanced over to where Medea was talking to Amy; the little girl looked quite nonplussed about the entire deal. Swim to the non-existing bottom of this lake? She could do that, or so she had quite readily told them. She had sworn herself blue and black that she was a great swimmer – apparently her father had taught her how to swim behind their house, making Michael wonder just where this child had come from and how she had ended up entangled with Alyxa and her Deity.

“So you understand, child, you are not to stop for anything, nothing. I will cast this spell on you, but it will not last indefinitely,” Medea was saying.

“What does ‘indefinitely’ mean?” Amy asked and Medea clicked her tongue impatiently.

“‘Forever’,” she explained, her voice short.

“Oh. How long will it last then?”

“About an hour, possibly two. It depends. So do not get distracted, swim to the bottom, and you will find a cave, you will go through the cave, and you will find yourself in Tartarus.”

“Once you’re in,” Achilles said, stepping in, “you will probably be approached by someone or something. Don’t be scared, tell them you wish to see Lucifer.”

“Tell them you are a Dreamer,” Medea told her, wrestling the conversation back into her own control, “now this is very important: tell them you are of the Living World. Do not eat or drink anything while you are there. Nothing. Not a seed, not a sip. Do you understand?”