The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 6.1 Going Home

Stories

She said goodbye to her mother at the mouth of the cave of Taenarum, crumbling under the weight of her sorrow and tears, and harboring guilt over feeling relieved when she finally stepped into its dark depths and its silence.

Hecate was supposed to meet her and lead the way, but Persephone had walked that path so many times she really didn’t need the dark goddess to guide her.

She grabbed a lit torch from the wall and started her descent, feeling a little spacey and out of reality, and wondered whether this is how all those postulants she appeared to in dreams must have felt.

The path looked the same as theirs too, something she had never noticed before, careful as she was not to fall behind Hecate’s quick stride. Everything was dark and quiet, so quiet. She’d forgotten how still the Underworld could be, compared to the world of the living, where the noise never ceased, not even in solitude.

The narrow path swept between large rock formations, who had been shaped and carved by underground streams, and their constant flow had covered them in rainbow layers of reds, ochres, blues and whites, almost like somebody had painted them on purpose.

The path was covered in soft silt. Persephone had to guess this narrow tunnel must have been a riverbed at some point, which now dried up. Its silky consistency cradled her feet without a sound, making her footsteps softer than those of a cat.