Forward and Backward

Forward and Backward
Penelope, the Weaver of Hope.

Persephone, the Destroyer of Men.

Aseras, Giver of Life.

Triskletos.

He’d head it enough times, but he hadn’t thought much of her epithets beyond the softer ones. He’d erased the memories, taken the power, he thought, but  there was no mistaking this one. The one she’d picked up in that life where she had remained behind with Hecate’s brat. 

Harbinger and Persephone. He could feel her power heaving and thrashing around them as fire rained from the sky from Rhiannon. Mages screamed as his spells broke against hers with cracks of thunder that shook the earth.. Then, their spells met and held. 

“Impossible!” He grit his teeth.

She shouldn’t be so powerful in the mortal world. It was part of the rules she set for herself. She opened her right hand and the Harpe snapped. She cast an explosive ball of dark fire that seared and sent him flying back with the force of it.  Ducking a spell aimed at her, she ripped a mage apart with a flourish of the Harpe, reducing him to a black puddle and continued to march on him. 

Naos threw out his hands, pushing Penelope back a few steps with a wall of power and will. She skidded back and ran forward, angling her shoulder into the next wall of power and broke through. The barrier broke over the shoulder of the phantom armor growing more visible by the moment. 

A mage jumped out, and she cut him down with a flick of her wrist and turned him to ash with a jet of fire. A crack of thunder shook the ground and tore open a trench. Her gaze was focused on Naos, yet she cut through whatever mage got in her way, shoving her weapons in their chests, blood filled the air with fire and ash.

What the hell was this? Even with the epithet, this shouldn’t have been possible. She shouldn’t have been able to take life like this, yet she moved without abandon. Maybe Harbinger’s part to play in the destruction the’d caused hadn’t been as large as he thought, or life in the mortal realm had tainted her beyond repair. Blood splattered, people cried out in agony and terror. Spells missed her or were deflected as she moved closer and closer still to him. 

On the other side of the beach, others had appeared, more brats of the gods, he was sure. The mages tried to cut her off.

“Leave her!” Naos hissed. “I will deal with her. Kill everyone else.”

Naos kept her at a distance firing spells at her each more vicious than the last. She blocked with one weapon and attacked with the other, and said nothing. Not a taunt, not a sneering word. 

Murderer. From her shoulders a trail of golden fire rushed out like wings. He heard the caw of a kite and his gut dropped.
She couldn’t have retrieved her real form. How? When? 

A warning from Pythia from so long ago bubbled up from the back of his mind. 

Then, in her fury silene rang. Eyes burning, she charged forward into the darkness tearing it to pieces in memory and mourning to take the last of Her mercy and grace from the Direwolf.



Leandros opened his eyes to the soft breeze of a wind he couldn’t exactly feel, but it ruffled his hair, so it had to be real. The sky was dark like night, but glimmering with constellations and a small sun somewhere high above. One streaked across the sky in the shape of a kite.

“Penelope…” He sat up, frowning and looking around, not entirely sure why he felt something off about where he’d fallen. 

He had to get to her before she went too far. To his left was a large door made of two doors arched together. His heart lurched, but the panic faded for a moment. He looked around and saw nothing else but gently swaying tinkling shards of glass. Something rumbled and he stood and hurried to the door, pulling it open and falling forward into darkness. 

He sat up with a cough and agony in his chest. His hands were shaking, but he was alive. Something exploded and Rhiannon roared. He looked up and found himself on a ledge not so far from where he must have fallen in. 

Bits and pieces came back to him as he got up. There was no way to climb, but this was the underworld, wasn’t it? He took off in a direction and felt the darkness bend. 

He wasn’t the young, gentle entity who had never seen the abyss before or not understood it. Every island had a connection to the underworld because every god needed access to the Fountain. He ran up and out, climbing stairs until he could see down to the beach. Why Delphos’ access led to the tower, he didn’t know and he didn’t care. Rhiannon breathed another spray of fire between the warrior who had come, likely from the islands, and the mages. A figure cloaked in fire was cutting through the ranks. He could smell the blood on the wind.

From the left, a group of uniformly armored men rushed forward. Among them was Seidon and he laughed, wondering who else who had come. He climped over the side of balcony and  felt his body stretch and reach, shifting and taking flight. 

Rhiannon banked and roared as he dove toward the beach. He had to get there. He had to be the one to kill Naos in this life. 

Forward and backward. Undo and redo. If this was going to end the cyle, he had to do it because Naos had killed him on this beach and thrown him down into the abyss to rot.

He shifted again near the edge of the beach and fell, landing and rolling, close enough to rush just in front of Penelope. A rush of black fire spilled for and out of it, materialized a large, broad shield. He gripped it and held it as the bolt of deadly light landed on the shield. The shield sung and the gems glowed.



Seidon ran onto the beach from the gat in the forest. The small group of shifters and warriors he’d been able to gather together from the islands quickly ran out towards the group of mages. He tore into the first one he reached with half shifted claws and teeth. It wasn’t efficient, but it didn’t matter. All he had to do was get enough of them out of the way so Leandros can kill Naos and end this nightmare once and for all. 

Blood and fire whirled together as Penelope moved, light-footed and sure. In her wild hair, resting against her brown, gleamed a diadem of onyx, gold and blazing sapphire. She struck with the Harpe and defended with her spear, cutting closer and closer to Naos with single-minded ruthlessness. 

“Fuck! Penelope, no! Triton!”

He heard Triton come up behind him, cutting through a creature as he did. 

“Penelope!” Triton yelled, cutting through a creature. “You’ll ruin it!”

And they’d never get out of this loop, never live peacefully.