When MYTHS Become Real

If you’ve never been to then Underworld, then lucky you. If you’re one of the few that have seen the afterlife and lived to tell the tale then you have my sympathies. The place is endless with the Asphodel Fields being the most prominent and totally depressing. But it gets worse after the gates into Punishment. The barbed wire is more for keeping the prisoners in their little hells and to keep any of the brainless dead from accidently wandering in. For me, it was way too easy to slip in.
The air got hot and stank of sulfur and the darkness seemed to press in on me making me feel almost claustrophobic. So maybe it wasn’t the best idea to be on my own but I took a deep breath to steady myself and ventured deeper into the Fields of Punishment. This was definitely not where I wanted to spend my weekend. The tortured screams made my skin crawl but I bypassed them and followed the crackling orange light in the distance.
After about an hour of walking I felt sick to my stomach. I had to swallow back the puke that made its way up when I passed a man tied on a rock with a giant bird pecking at his insides. I dashed around his rock in an attempt to get away from the gruesome scene and nearly ran into an inferno but I stopped in my tracks just in time. Suspended in midair so that it hung like a pendulum was a wheel of fire. The man stuck to the spokes was burnt with black patches of skin and soot all over him. He was almost naked but thank the gods he at least had boxers that didn’t seem too burned up.
“Are you Ixion?” I asked.
“Do you know anyone else strapped to a ring of fire?”
I shrugged and almost choked on the smell of roasting flesh. I could feel the heat from several feet away. “No. But I didn’t know about you until a couple of hours ago, either.”
I looked up at the man warily. I couldn’t tell what color his hair was because of all of the ashes speckled in it and his skin was either pink or charred but his eyes were an intense golden color. He seemed to be in his thirties and at one point was probably important. Now he was sentenced to burn for eternity. My eyes narrowed up at him. “So what did you do to end up here?”
His lion-like eyes narrowed and the flames reflected back dangerously. “You’re nosy. That’s a dangerous trait, girl.”
I blinked and shrugged again. “You obviously pissed off a god. It’s not like I’ve never gotten on anyone’s bad side. I just haven’t earned rotting here.”
He glowered at me as he slowly cooked on that wheel. “I was a king once and the gods even invited me to Olympus. Hera was incredibly beautiful and I wanted her. Unfortunately, I wasn’t subtle about it and Zeus figured me out. That night, he tested me to see if I would try anything with her. He fashioned a replica of the queen from clouds and sent it to my room. Needless to say, I didn’t pass.”
Okay, TMI. He was a dog but still, he was stuck to burn? “That sucks, dude. What they did, tricking you like that, was messed up. It’s like he set you up for failure and that’s just cruel. You were an idiot to actually fall for that crap, but your punishment was really stupid. Was Hera of all people really worth it? They got you good”
Ixion glared down at me. “You know nothing, girl. And it is you who has been tricked.”
I held up my hands defensively. “Hey, I agreed that what the gods did was wrong, didn’t I? And if you’re talking about Mnemosyne, I came looking for you. The gods may be complete buttheads but I’m going to stop her from taking it out on their kids. Leave us out of it for once.”
There was a tsking sound as the Titan in question stepped around the flaming wheel. She frowned at me and wagged her finger like I was some naughty little girl. “Oh, Naida, that’s not how the game works.”
I was steaming mad. “This isn’t a game! It’s my life, my friends’ lives. And I’m going to pu an end to you before you hurt anyone else.”
“How do you propose to do that?”
I fumbled for a second. I had no clue how to reverse the memory loss but I wasn’t going down without a fight. I ripped the barrette out of my hair and it opened with a satisfying whoosh. “Whatever it takes.”
Mnemosyne quirked up a dark brow. “Oh, you think you can stop me?”
Without warning she threw a handful of daggers at me. I parried with my sword but before I knew it, she threw more. It was a knee-jerk reaction to throw my hands up and tighten my fists to create an ice shield but it didn’t work without water. Even the air was devoid of water because it was so dry around such a big fire. One of her daggers embedded itself in my right shoulder and I felt my entire arm go numb almost immediately. My sword shook in my hand and I let out a string of curses.
Mnemosyne cackled like a witch from an old fairytale. “This is too easy, Naida.”
“Then let’s spice it up,” I snapped. I winced as I yanked the dagger from my arm and tried to throw it back at her.
Okay, I’m not an athlete to begin with and throwing with my left hand was just pathetic. She simply sidestepped the oncoming weapon and pulled a glowing ball the size of an orange from her dress. Even from a couple of yards away I could feel the water flowing in it. She shot it at me and I instantly used my control over water to send it hurling back. The ball met with the orange and red flames and a cloud of steam erupted. I coughed at the toxic cloud that tried to invade my senses.
My head felt cloudy and I felt things that I should know slipping away. What was I even doing here? The handle of the sword slid from my grip and I looked around curiously. “Wha-”
“Now no one will be able to stop me. And here you thought you actually had a chance.”
I glared at Mnemosyne and the fog started lifting from my brain. That water and the steam were from the Lethe. I had to focus. I refused to let my memory be wiped clean.
Mnemosyne slowly started making her way to me and I didn’t fight back. She thought that I was down for the count and I was going to let her believe it for just a second. She crouched down next to me when she got to my side and ran her knuckles along my cheek. When she was complacent in thinking I was clueless, I grabbed the knife she held in her hand and slammed it into her chest. Her eyes widened for just a moment and she gasped.
“You have no idea what you just did,” she whispered.
“Make them remember. All of them.”
Mnemosyne’s beautiful face was twisted in agony. “They will. Soon. It will wear off without me to control it. Although they might not all like what they remember.”
My brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean.”
Before she could answer, Mnemosyne’s body shuddered and disappeared.

Notes

again, i apologize for taking forever to update. thank you for commenting, daughter_of_Artemis tmcar1 and The_Bright_One. Bright, your advice kinda helped (until i got distracted) this is NOT the end. and i will try to update sooner than i have been doing but i make no promises because i work all the time (gods help me)