“Do you think I’d have left you? My men? Men loyal to me?” Erysichthon’s voice met silence.
No sound but the wind reached him. The forest grew darker with each passing second, yet they remained hidden from him. He would need them. He would need their help for his plan to work.
“I come to you now, seeking your allegiance.” He paused. Perhaps it would be better not to ask too much of them. Not yet. Better to tempt them with words, soothe their wounded pride.
He spoke clearly, his words ringing out. “I would see you avenged. See us all avenged.”
One shadow moved, then another, separating from the trees and moving towards him. They were cautious, wary… He could not blame them. It was a strange existence, this in between. And they were as trapped as he was. He’d chosen his fat
e, forbidding Kadmos and Barak from performing the funeral rites that would send him into the Underworld. But these men had not. Their bodies had been left to rot… A circumstance they might choose to hold him accountable for, if he were not careful.
All of them were trapped here, for one hundred years. One hundred years of living without life. Only then could Charon would give them passage into the Land of the Dead. It was decreed by the Fates.
“My lord Erysichthon,” one spoke, his voice gravelly and rough. “The war is over. No battles have been fought. How then, did you meet your end?”
“Taras? Taras, my friend.” He paused, happy to see one of his personal guards amongst them. He continued, speaking earnestly. “Demeter cursed me. She saw me die a low death. One unfitting the king of such a great people. It is through Olympus’ part that we stand here, souls adrift.”
“Yet you speak of avenging our deaths?” another asked.
“Against the Gods?”
Erysichthon held up his hand, comforted by its solidifying appearance. The dark was thickening, and so were they. “One God. The very God who closed his realm to you. The very God that took Persephone from me, that turned Demeter from us all. Hades…”
“You would fight Hades?”
“I know you all.” His vision sharpened as the night fell heavily. “I see you. Taras, Sartirios, Panoptes. I know you, know the strength of your arms…”
Panoptes spoke, “I’d not thought to use my strength against the Gods.”
“What have you to fear?” Erysichthon asked. “What can they do to you? That has not already been done?”
There was a hushed murmur then, and more shadows joined him. The forest was thick with them, so many souls – embittered and betrayed. An army. His army.
“Your wives and children are left without protection. Demeter has seen the crops fade and wither. So their bellies are empty as well. When I begged for her aid, prayed and sacrificed all, she would not hear me. We must make her listen.”
Taras spoke then, “And this will change?”
Erysichthon nodded. “If Persephone returns to me, Demeter returns to us. There is nothing impossible, nothing beyond our reach.”
“And Hades?” another asked.
His voice was hard, bitterness tingeing his every word. “If we rule the Underworld, what need do we have for Hades?”
The murmurs grew stronger, questions filling the night.
“How would you overthrow him?”
“What will become of him?”
“What will become of us?”
“What will Demeter do? Olympus do?”
He held up both hands then, waiting for them to fall silent before he spoke again. “He brings death; we are already dead. In truth, he has no power over us, not anymore. If we send him to Tartarus, would not those souls he’s imprisoned rise up? Would they not delight in his eternal suffering? And when they join us, he will fall. I cannot return you to the land of the living, but we can rule the Underworld. Elysium, Asphodel… all would be within my power. If you choose to serve me.”
Panoptes shook his head. “And Olympus?”
Erysichthon smiled. “Will have no choice but to seek an allegiance. We will control one of the three realms. With Hades imprisoned and Persephone my wife, they will yield.”