Where had Hades found this servant? The woman was relentless. “Very well,” Persephone said. She tried to calm herself by thinking about how the tour would do her good. The previous day, she’d been in no position to memorize landmarks or to understand the geography. If she were to escape the underworld, she needed knowledge, and it would be senseless not to take the opportunity this tour afforded her.

Xenia smiled and seemed genuinely relieved. “Of course. They will have the chariot ready for us, I’m sure. Please follow me.”

Xenia led Persephone down a maze of twisting corridors to reach the stables, using a different route to the one she remembered from last night. Once outside, Persephone glanced up. The ‘sky’ here appeared to be nothing more than a layer of bedrock, floating impossibly above them and glowing as though lit from within. Daylight in the underworld, this morning, at any rate, was as bright as a stormy day in the overworld. The whole effect was just as gloomy—the rock above them was brown and gray, striated in places with traces of quartz and other minerals.

An existential dread settled in her stomach. How could anyone gaze at such a sight and not feel terror? If it was a layer of Gaia’s earth hanging above them, there was nothing keeping it upright, nothing to prevent it from crashing down and crushing all their bones for eternity.

Furthermore, there would never be a day of blue skies here, nor the heat of a summer sun. The mural in her bedroom of the swans in flight now seemed impossibly sad, the last vestige of a lost world. Persephone shivered and wrapped her himation more tightly around her shoulders.

Near the stables, a groom held the reins of two black geldings, already harnessed to a chariot.

“Is black the only color she permits here?” Persephone asked.

Xenia waited patiently as Persephone mounted the chariot and then followed after her, taking the reins. “Her Grace has affection for all colors, but she finds that the other gods take her more seriously when she wears black.”

“The gods didn’t used to treat her seriously?”

Xenia smiled at her. “Forgive me for saying so, but sometimes I forget how young you are! We have been waiting for you for so long.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Oh, well... think of nothing of it, Lady Persephone.” Xenia flexed the reins, and the horses set off at a trot, which quickly turned into a gallop. Soon the spires of Hades’ palace were a distant memory as they passed through flat, open fields.

Small clusters of houses dotted the horizon, and as they drew closer, people walked out to wave at them or bow their heads in homage. They did not seem unhappy, despite being deceased.

“Who are all these people?” Persephone asked.

“Those who are neither particularly wicked nor particularly virtuous in life pass on to the Asphodel Fields,” Xenia said.