THE FOREST OF THE FURIES WAS A QUIET VOID AROUND ME.

Diamonds blinked in the inky sky above my head, and swirls of chilly winter winds lapped about at the hem of my cloak. I wrapped the thick, velvety cloak tighter around myself, my breath misting in front of me.

The hour was ungodly, wicked, and all things sinister.

I braced myself, squaring my shoulders. Just a peek, I told myself. Just a glimpse. What could be so wicked - so possibly wicked... that it lay locked miles and miles under the earth in the corner of a forbidden forest at the edge of the world?

The moon had come out to play tonight.

The White Tower was a figure of dread, standing lonely in the moonlight, like a supreme deity watching over her children. Somewhere far away, a bat called out to its mate. There was something in the air, something malicious, beckoning me closer and closer and closer to something hidden deep in the woods.

I circled the tower once. Twice. Again. And then again.

It had no door.

There was no door. No window. Not a single opening that could suggest them leaving or entering the tower.

Not far in the distance, golden lights cast their reflections in the dark sky. I walked a little bit closer, the black of my clothes blending into the surroundings. The temples were dimly lit, fires blazing in their scones. The gates were deserted, not a single acolyte or frowning, stone eyed goddess in sight. Something in the air whispered into my air.

Go back go back go back.

I breathed deeply, and walked past them, heading into the mysterious, empty darkness looming over the other side of the tower.

Somewhere high up above, Lachesis was singing again.

Go back go back go back, the voice urged, faster now, quickening - as if sensing it had very less time, as if something was coming for it. As if someone was going to shut it out. Very soon.

There was a gargoyle carved at the entrance. A huge, enormous dragon lumbered slowly, uneasily in the granite it was set in. The creaking of stone made me jump - just for a bit. My eyes strained to see past it, past the great, yawning darkness beyond it.

An immovable door of something solid peered back at me.

My hands reached out to touch - to feel - lingering over a tiny hole in the dead center of the stone.

A keyhole.

Without a key.

I willed myself to open it, straining hard to work past whatever defences Hades had put there in place. There was only one key to Tartarus, and that key hung around his neck every hour, every waking minute of the day. And stealing it from him would have only risked discovery. I shuddered once.

I had to work fast - to get in and come out before he woke. Another shudder ripped through my shoulders like an ancient scar at the thought of him waking up to find me missing. Before I got back by dawn.

The angst was an ugly thing that reared in my chest like a monster.

A soft click rang in the darkness as the huge door wordlessly swung open.

My blood ran cold. How?

Two things happened.

Noooo, the voice yelled into my ear, cutting short right as my foot crossed the threshold into the big, great darkness.

The stone dragon's eye flickered open. Only murderous, blazing anger gleamed in its pits, a red hot glow that shone like a coal in the darkness. The tiny sliver of light cracked through the stone as I let myself walk in through that endlessly tall door.

In front of me was the most beautiful room I had ever seen.

The walls were covered in tapestries woven in thousands of spellbinding, vivid colours - colours so beautiful, so intense, colours that were named and unnamed, colours which I probably never even thought existed before. The carpets were thick, heavy velvet, so deep and so plush that I could feel my foot sink into the rich fabric. A huge dining table made of the finest mahogany stretched out through its length, its surface so polished - even a blind man could feel the texture and speak of the thousand hours of loving labour gone into it. The legs of the huge furniture were intricate woodward - lattices and creepers and terrifying wood animals set in carved wood. More than a thousand candles shimmered from every nook and cranny, and above me, a glass chandelier swum in the air like an infernal, dreamlike ship laden with hundreds of tall, ivory white candles.

It was only when I stepped inside the hall that I noticed one more thing.

The singing from the Tower had stopped.

For a quick moment, a pulse of fear raced through my blood. A glimmer of uncertainty, of doubt. This was Tartarus. I should be scared. I should feel scared. Perhaps I should have stayed there, in that warm, inviting bed under the covers, right next to Hades' sleeping form with the bloodhound nestled into the space beside us.

I should have, but I didn't.

Because I was not a puppet anymore. I could not, would not, ever allow someone to tell me what I could and could not do. Ever again. Not my mother, not my father, not even Hades. I was my own woman - and this, this right here - was my next big adventure.

The silence in the room was deafening. Even with how deceptively beautiful it was, I couldn't help feeling that I was being watched. By someone, by something. The quietness in the hall was like a real, living thing - threatening to smother me like a heavy blanket, crushing down on my senses.

Somehow, the room didn't look beautiful anymore. It looked wicked... somehow sinister. The beasts carved in the wood seemed to be leering at me, their faces seemingly more twisted, more malicious. The ceiling seemed to press down onto my head. The candles seemed dimmer.

I looked around.

Far away to the left, a staircase loomed to a palace beneath the ground.

My feet seemed to have a mind of their own as they began to move.

The steps were endless, and atleast a thousand in number. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally emerged in a pitch black corner at the bottom of the earth.

Light. I needed light.

A tiny wisp of flame sparked in my palms. Surprised, I took a step back, expecting heat, but was instead surprised to find an icy coolness emanating from the deep blue flame lighting my palms.

My eyes scanned the sights around.

I was in a hallway lined with doors on either side. The more my eyes strained to look for the end of the corridor - the longer it seemed to grow. As if extending right out of my reach, filling with more and more closed doors.

I turned to the one closest to me.

There was no handle, no lock. No socket for a key. Bewildered, I let go of the tiny flame habiting my palms, which floated out of my reach, hovering towards the ceiling - where it grew into a flickering blue orb that followed in my footsteps.

I placed my palm on the door.

Soundlessly, it flew open.

Inside the room was nothing but dreadful, controlled chaos.

There were a hundred, atleast a thousand people pinned to crosses - soft whimpers rang around the room. Masked, stone sentries circled the room, their movements stiller than water. Any sound from the prisoners would lead to their quiet, mighty guardians picking up another nail from the huge pile in the middle of the bare room, which they drove right into the prisoner's hand or leg, further pinning them to the cross.

Clad in nothing but bloodstained robes, I watched as the vile souls begged for mercy. They were almost corporeal, but something transparent lingered about the edges of the tortured shades.

Most numerous of the prisoners are the traitors, Aeacus told me two days back. Those who turned on their families, beat their kin, left their parents out on the streets. Man is a cruel animal - there is no shortage of vile ones. Even if I had a hundred tongues, my Lady, I would still struggle to tell you all the vile deeds they do and the different ways we punish them.

Mesmerized, I watched the shades get their dues for a few minutes.

The second door yielded a room wreathed in fire.

And in that fire, I saw shapes. Hazy outlines of screaming, pleading men - led further and further into the depths of the flames by some unseen hand. A cloud of steam hovered over their heads as their skins peeled off, melting away to reveal grey, malicious faces, faces who had not resisted from committing heinous crimes.

I gasped silently as the flames parted to reveal their master - a creature that looked and moved like Charon, red fires glimmering in his eyes. His skeletal, crumbling lips moved as words in some twisted language poured out of his mouth. Words that I could, strangely, understand.

"Do your passions for the Dark Lord burn so brightly, Persephone? Or would you rather test your faith to a trial by fire...?"

I slammed the door shut, backing up against the wall.

The next room opened into a lavish chamber, Aphrodite resting on a golden couch clad in nothing but her skin. Men fell at her feet, goblets of wine in their hands as they offered up a cup to their deity. She knocked them with a flick of her feet, setting them off scampering to fill another vessel with wine. The pool of wine was huge, but the holes in their glasses were countless as they stumbled and rose and fell. The goblet never filled, and Aphrodite never smiled - instead, unleashing a whip of horsehair that etched scars on their backs. "Faster," she screeched, "quench my thirst!"

Her eyes found mine.

"Join me, darling," she invited. "Is your throat not dry from your thirst to swallow the world raw?"

Shutting the door, I breathed in heavily, hand faltering as it rested on the wall.

The person waiting behind the next door made me jump out of my skin.

"Persephone, darling..." my mother purred.

My heart began to hammer in my chest, beating wildly like a bird trying to escape its cage. Not her - not her. Not here -

There was a knife in her hand, and a weeping soul bound to the table behind her. Her hands dripped with blood as she slowly began to walk to me.

"Please, Mother."

Horrified, I saw that the person's back was in ribbons - carved out, and stripped down to raw bone where it glistened in the light - a flash of ivory in the darkness.

"He took you from me," the creature whispered. "So I served him right."

My foot went a step back towards the entrance.

The door slammed shut behind me.

"Your turn next, Persephone."

And then her knife was at my throat, sinking in deep, slicing past the jugular as blood dripped down to the floor. Her grip was surprisingly strong - how did it get so strong? - as I beat against her chest. There was only fury in her face and madness in her eyes as she dragged me to that dreaded table, knife glinting dangerously.

"Mother, I love you. Mother - let me go," I strained against her, even as her fists locked around me in a grip of iron. "Mother!"

And then she was gone - and I was on the table - hands bound, as a figure loomed above me.

My blood ran cold.

"It's been a while since I had some fun," Hades crooned, his icy cold fingers trailing across my cheek. Delight rose in his eyes as his hand caressed my soft flesh, feeling how it shook - how it quivered. His knife scraped across my cheek once, then twice.

"Hades," I panted, my voice even. "Please."

And then his fists were around my throat, choking me even as the knife pressed down harder.

"Admit it, Persephone. You like this, don't you? The danger, the raw thrill of it. Admit it, Persephone. You aren't going anywhere - not unless I allow it."

And then he was a sinner and I was a saint as hungry, freezing lips threatened to devour me - even as I tried to resist, the creature smiled, drawing me closer, choking me harder. I screamed as the thing pressed down harder, his smile growing wider as the scream ripping down from me rang in the hallowed, empty hall.

I felt like being dragged underwater, away and away from the living world into some dimension darker than the deepest black - a country thriving on hate and haunted by something wicked. I was gone in too far, my arms were no longer my arms and my legs were no longer my legs. My heart was no longer my heart but was his -

Hate bubbled up in me, a fury of destruction that threatened to rip my eyes out of my skull as the creature's knife nearly gutted me open-

And a resounding, huge flash of white light blasted out of my chest.

The creature's face melted away into a castle of blood and sand, and it was no longer my mother or my king, but a thing made entirely of hatred and darkness that was thrown on its feet, anger blazing in its eyes.

"Why, you bitch-"

"You lay a hand on me, you lose that hand," I hissed. Streaks of blinding light travelled over my palms like electric sparks, and for the first time - I saw fear in the creature's eyes.

I bolted as it scrambled to its feet behind me, ripping the door free and nearly shaking it out of its hinges.

The corridor was awake and alive, and sounds of terrible, dreadful things rang off the walls as they seemed to beat against their prisons, trying to get out.

And at my feet, there was a river of blood ankle deep.

Come closer, little one, a voice lingering in the shadows beckoned me closer. Come to me, little bird.

A fever of madness beat in my skull, the invitation drawing me closer and closer to the voice. It came from above me and below me, from my left and my right, from inside me and outside me - and my feet were wading through the waves of crimson towards the end of the corridor, to prisons locked deep, deep underground.

"Persephone, no!"

Something, someone - a mere mortal interrupted my hungry pursuit. Annoyed, I waved that voice away as I searched for the voice, looking deep inside myself to ascertain where it came from. Miles and miles I walked as the irritating, tiny voice called out again.

"Stop - no! Stop, Persephone!"

I turned around, and a sleek eyed wildcat was at my feet, wrapping itself around me - stopping me from going ahead. My hand reached out to stop her as the delicious, sleek voice called out once again to me, leave her be, rose. Come here... closer. To me.

And then a scream burst my eardrums.

"Persephone!"

As if someone had thrown a pail of ice cold water on me, my concentration broke.

Hecate's face was whiter than bone, all colour drained out of her cheeks, her hands trembling as she shook me violently, her voice a hiss in my ear.

Gods, no.

My exploits had been discovered.

And she had walked in through the gates - the gates which I had left open.

"Get - out - run. Go!"

Her clothes were in shreds, there was sweat matted in her hair. And around her - around us - there were-

Her spell hit me hard, like a blow to the cheek as Hecate gritted her teeth.

"Run!"

And that was when I saw it.

Nearly a thousand shades milled around us.

Faces white with hatred, yet filled with an evil look of delight.

Behind them, Titans made of stone chuckled in a cell, their chains clanking loudly - and the horror of realisation dawned on me as I realised where my trance had led me.

To the deepest level of Tartarus. The Last Circle of Hell.

Inches away from unlocking the door closest to me.

"Out - now," a snarl ripped out of Hecate, "stupid girl - run!" and even as she pushed me off towards the other end, fury gleaming in her eyes even as the colour left her cheeks, the shades around her clawed harder. One began to slither an arm around her neck as the other began to twist itself around her leg. Her eyes pleaded with me, begging me to run as the beginnings of darkness threatened to carry me away and make me prisoner.

Her magic was already gone. And she had used it all up to find me. And I knew for a fact that if I left, she would die.

"No."

A stream of green, destructive magic erupted from her fingers, hitting a dozen shades as they began to claw at her face. Panic reared its ugly head in me as I hurried over, and the shades let out a huge, angry moan. Angrier than ever, the shades returned, and there were hands around my hands, my legs, my throat - more hands ripping at Hecate's flesh as she shot spell after spell, her power crumbling away.

"No-no-no-"

A cruel eyed Titan lumbered over, his steps making the ground shake worse than an earthquake. His manacles dragged on the ground behind him, but the chains holding him in his cells were broken.

There was a sword in his hand and revenge in his eyes.

More anger. More fire.

My rage burst out of me like a volcano as the white light reappeared, slamming me back to the wall, blinding my poor, weakened eyes which had adjusted to the darkness. Around me, a hundred shades curled off from the force of impact, drifting off into death. The man spat out blood, wiping his lips as he snarled.

"I will kill her first. And after I let Kronos out, I will make you pay, Persephone."

His hand reached for his sword as I spat on his face, rolling out of his way as the Titan's fist reached out to grab me. Hecate screamed as the sword shot high into the air, right for her heart.

Noooooo.

A cloud of black swirled out of me as blood poured from my ears, sending me to my knees. Unlock me, bird, the voice whispered. The darkness took a shape of its own, monstrous and dense and never ending, reeling up to meet and cut the malicious demon into half. Let me out. My eardrums burst as a shriek rang into my head and wormed into my brain - the metallic sound worse than that of nails grating on rust. Unlock me unlock me unlock me. A huge gust of wind threatened to break my skull into pieces as my hand shot out to steady myself.

What - what happened?

I sensed something else, another presence - a huge, swirling powerhouse brimming over with deathless magic. Inky black darkness swept over me, screaming into my blood, sending shockwaves into some deep, hidden reservoir of power inside me. It rose up to meet its equal, twining and screeching into the night. The darkness was so thick - so dense - it had no beginning and no end.

And then, the corridor was empty. The shades were gone. And that - that creature - it was gone too.

A white hand wrenched me out before I slipped into another reverie, and storm grey eyes shaken by worry desperately searched mine for an answer.