Pandora's Curse

“Hmmm...fascinating.”

The crashing waves rumbled and echoed against the cave mouth, the foam turning to purple and black mist into the miasma. The sky, a dark purple and black with wicked green flickers, rumbled ominously as though a challenge had been sent. Flinching at the soft, chilling hum in the poisonous air, he cringed slightly at the sound.

Not a good mood.

He sunk into the darkness, melting into it, barely able to see ahead but he knew these cavern walls like the back of his hand and the mind of a simpleton. The twists, turns and sharp corners which led way with wisps of black curling wisps of smog that moving tentacles of air that beckoned and coiled until he stood in an open cavernous room. The walls dripped water.

Drip

Drip

Drip

It was bound to make the sane go insane.

“My apologies, I did not mean to interupt you-”

He was cut off by her raising a finger to her lips behind her black veil and a soft shush echoed in the cavern like a snakes hiss.

Sssshhhhhhhh.

He shivered coldly, lowering his gaze. She was seated comfortably next to a small little oasis growing within the damp, miasmic cave walls. An oasis consisting of fungus, dead leaves and flowers and poisonous vines.

“Ki étsi kathómaste kai periménoume.”

He frowned, raising his head to look at her questioningly, though he avoided where her eyes would be.

“What are we waiting for?” There was no answer as she remained seated, staring at him or nothing behind her sheer, black veil which hid her completely from his site. “Is there a problem-”

“It appears...” Her voice was soft and cool like the end of winter wind but sliced through the cave, cutting all else out. “That Zeus, has a lot of faith. Póso axiolýpito.”

“I don’t-”

“Zeus has only opened the floodgates and now, Zeus has begun the countdown of his own fate.” She stood up slowly, the black around her, a dress but shifted and moved like a black fog. A ghostly dress that trailed as she stepped down off her throne of bone and onyx and into the darkness without waiting for him. He hurried after her, scrambling to keep up as she glided smoothly through the tunnels but he did not dare stand to close behind her or overtake her.

He had long since learned his manners when it came to his mother.

They entered into an huge open hollowed cavernous room and he beheld the sight of red.

Red lines all over.

It was like a booby trap. They were so thin he barely saw them until he shifted just slightly and they glimmered in the dim lightning of the blue fire in the middle of the room. The creaking of the spindles at work and he knew The Moirai were hard at work. She glided into the room, barely avoiding the red lines as though they seemed to make way for her instead. He continued to follow until she stopped near the middle of the room and she hummed quietly as she circled around, facing him but her gaze was on a barely there, red line. A red line that hung from its knot.

Cut. And dangling.

But much to his confusion the other half of the line that was cut was actually up and floating, swaying, like a worm. Reaching for the other half...

He knew enough about the lines of Fate the Moirai worked on and had seen it while growing up but he had never, not once seen this.

“It’s almost like,”

“Her fate has only just begun.” Her arm reached out, pale grey or porcelain skin and she placed a long, sharp, black nail beneath one half of the red line, letting it droop over her finger. She sighed deeply. “This route of her fate, because of Zeus has started the floodgates of the mind.” With a despondent nod, she dropped the line and let it dangle and try to reach the other half. “There will be war.”

War?

“W-War? H-how, what-”

“Zeus does not know the change of winds that come his way and for once, he shall be knocked down his throne. Unless his greatest creation saves his reign.”

“I don’t understand.” He muttered, flabbergasted.

“I know, my child. But contention has been strong these many millenniums. Someone is moving behind the lines, in the mist and now Olympus is in turmoil.”

“Someone is trying to destroy Zeus?” He frowned, brows pulling together. “But Zeus is impossible to destroy and the other Olympians, his children-”

“His children are at war with their own father and ruler. But it’s not just Zeus, it’s all the Olympians. The rivers of Olympus will run golden with their falling.” Turning past him, she chuckled coldly, sending spiders down his spine. “And I will gladly watch on the side as the Almighty Zeus falters for once.”

“B-But-” He ran after her but barely stopping when she suddenly stopped walking and half turned to him.

“My child, Hypnos, do me a favour?” There was no way he could ever say no or disobey his own mother. “I need you to reach out to someone for me. She has met this, Pandora before. She will need to keep further an eye on her amongst other things. This, mortal girl, that Zeus created, I think Zeus either was playing as a stubborn child or...creating Pandora, I believe there is more to it than even I thought possible.” She flicked her finger at him, a dismissive motion. “Find her and tell her I long since miss tales. It would be good to have company down here, even briefly.”

“Opos théleis.” Sighing heavily, he followed her to the end of the cavern and immediately faded to nothing.

She stared into the black expansion of her cavern without care, listening to sounds of her son drifting away to complete her task and she sat back comfortably in her throne, nails tapping along an old piece of bone from a human leg.

"Such a shame. So fragile these mortals."

With eyes that saw everything and anything, her hand curved and a black ball of miasma conjured in her palm, glossing over into a smooth round orb. An eye.

With the eye that stared sightlessly into nothing, she found the broken red line that tried to found the other half and she hummed softly. But what her son failed to notice was the knot that attached itself to another line. A bright red line that was sharper than usual red fate lines. A line that glossed over and shimmered a glowering crimson.

A Harbinger line.

With the broken line, the knot should've broken but it appears to not have. Which was quite unusual.

"A connection but completely out of nowhere. Your Fates were never met to be in line." Despite the query, her lips pulled upwards into a black smile and she waved away the orb until there nothing and she was left in the dark alone. "This will be fun."