Page 8 of Invoking Ruin

Until the point where they all fall into Tartarus.

There is nothing lazy about the way they plummet down, down, down, disappearing into the blackness where Tartarus, the infernal prison of men and gods alike, rubs up against the Void. Despite the brightness of the Pyriphlegethon, it’s impossible to see more than a few meters ahead of where the rivers converge and fall.

And I have to follow them down.

I hover at the edge, listening to the lick of fire and the lamentations. There’s a reason no one takes this path to Tartarus. I should head back and find a safer route, but the odds of running into someone are much higher along the official pathways.

Imprisonment, or getting lost in the Void?

Either way, I don’t like my chances.

Taking a deep breath, I step off the edge, letting the winged sandals flutter more and more slowly as I go lower and lower and lower. If I miss the tiny landing, I’ll fall forever, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to fly back up. Too late now.

This had better be worth it.

Nothing but blackness greets me. The Pyriphlegethon is fading fast, and the wailing of the Cocytus grows louder and louder until I think my ears might bleed.

Is that the stop? I can’t see far, and what I can see all looks the same. Glinting black rock, obsidian. The landing can’t be this far down. I’ve missed it. I shouldn’t have come this way.

All at once the Cocytus pushes me. Cold, crying water slams me forward, and I crash into the dark ground. I gasp, lying there, not sure where I am or what happened. When I chance a look up, a god stands in the puddle of water dripping from my wet clothes.

“You should be more careful, Ruin.”

Cocytus, the god of the river of lamentations. His voice is just like the hollow screams of the dead. In the dark, I can barely make his image out. More outline than actual flesh and ichor. I push myself to a sitting position and scuttle backward to give us space. The helmet topples off my head and clatters on the ground. I snatch it up.

“How did you know it was me?” I ask.

He fixes me with an empty, black stare. “We are ancient. Time has made us wise to the tricks of the Olympians, or those seeking to use those tricks for their own ends.”

I bite my lip against a harsh retort, my mind spinning. I could try to use my powers of compulsion to convince him to forget about me, tell him to turn around like nothing happened, but if it doesn’t work…

“What now?” I ask him. “You run to your masters?”

Cocytus gives a hollow scoff. “Hades and Persephone are not my masters.”

No, true enough. The rivers belong to no one but themselves, existing outside the strict hierarchy most gods abide by. Even Lethe enjoys full autonomy, so long as she keeps to her shores. Which she never does.

“Then what comes next?” I prod.

Cocytus is already turning away from me, back towards the waterfall and his waters. “Do not return this way, Ruin. I will not save you a second time. Follow the glints. They will lead you into Tartarus the proper way.”

I push to my feet, trying and failing to dust myself off. “Why did you save me the first time?”

He pauses, and for a moment, I think he might turn around, to aid or harm me, I can’t say. Then he shakes his head.

“It will annoy Persephone when she realizes her realms can be so easily penetrated.”

Ah. His daughter, Minthe, was once Persephone’s romantic rival. Many parents will go to great lengths to spite their children’s enemies.

I chuckle to myself, then laugh as the sheer absurdity of my situation dawns on me. I’m immortal, and I very nearly died. If Cocytus hadn’t known I was there, or he hadn’t wanted to trouble Persephone, I more than likely would have kept falling forever. Trapped myself, all out of a desire to avoid imprisonment.

Cocytus is right. I won’t be coming back this way.

“Glints,” I mutter to myself and turn around. What on earth could he have been talking about?

But then I spot them, little flickers, glimmers in the darkness. Lights, perhaps? Impossible to say, but I put the helmet back on my head and follow them.

My feet crunch under broken volcanic glass and Chaos knows what else.

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