This must be my thirtieth time eating dirt. Training under Megaera and Melinoe wasn’t exactly gentle, at first, it felt less like instruction and more like being tossed around on invisible strings, only to be slammed back into the ground like an unwanted sack of potatoes.
“Get up, little Veil!” Melinoe circles around me, not even bothering with a weapon. I spring off the ground like a predator chasing its prey, swinging a training sword, swiping to the right. She dodges with ease.
“Come on, you can be faster than that! Where’s that rage I’ve heard so much about?”
I seethe, feeling tired, my chest rising and falling heavily.
“Are you actually trying to breathe?” Megaera laughs from the sidelines. “You don’t have lungs, remember? Everything you need is right here.” She taps her chest, a reminder that my vessel was crafted anew.
Old habits are hard to break.
“I’m trying,” I reply, getting back into my stance.
“Focus, girl!” Melinoe taunts.
I glide through the arena with deliberate steps, remembering all the techniques that I had studied, honing in on Melinoe’s every movement.
“There she is… keep focusing!” Melinoe grin with excitment.
My next step feels like time itself hesitates, as if the world has forgotten how to move.
Everything slows sound dulls, and the space between moments grows heavy. I take the opening without thinking, driving forward in a straight, committed line, then at the very last instant I shift my angle, slipping beneath her guard instead of meeting it head-on. It’s a feint hidden inside motion, clean and precise. My wrist rolls fluidly as the blade turns over my palm, controlled like an extension of thought rather than muscle, and in the same continuous movement I guide the tip upward, stopping it just beneath her throat. For a brief, suspended second, silence and then time snaps back into place.
I look at Melinoe, and she can't help but smile.
“Gotcha!” I grin, but then I feel her hand slice right through my torso.
I gasp, feeling the warmth of my own blood spilling out as she retracts her hand. I stumble backward, tripping over my feet as I struggle to hold onto whatever life I had left.
I look up at them, about to ask for help, but then I stop. I am not the same person I was before.
I remove my hand from the wound, and to my astonishment, it is already healed like nothing ever happened.
Megaera approaches and offers her hand to help lift me up. “You did good, little Veil. Give it time; you’ll get used to your new body.”
“I… I just don’t know what happened. It was like time stopped…”
“That's your combat speed,” Melinoe said calmly. “You’re just not used to it yet. You’ll get faster.”
With a snap of her fingers, Melinoe conjures a cup of nectar.
“Drink it.”
I take it without hesitation and down it quickly, my eyes widening at the divine sweetness that floods my senses.
When I finish, I try to return the cup back, but she simply waves me off.
“Keep it,” she says. “It refills itself whenever it’s emptied.”
As if to prove her point, the nectar swells back into the cup on its own, golden and untouched.
I pause for a moment, then slip it into my dimension. “This is going to come in handy.”
I clap my hands together, shaking off the dust and debris clinging to my clothes as I clean myself up. Then I head out to see my mother for magic lessons, my favorite part of the day. Learning teleportation spells had to be the most incredible experience I’ve ever had. I almost wish I’d had this ability back when I was still human.
I take a single step forward.
Before my foot even lands, my body dissolves into a swirl of black feathers, scattering into the air like ink against wind.
And in the next moment
I stand inside my mother’s sanctuary.
“Well, look who finally came to visit!” she exclaimed, rushing over to embrace me, lifting me off the ground as though I were still a child in her eyes.
I was.
“I have a couple of books ready for you. I know you love to read, and I’m pretty sure you’ve got the basics down. So, these are more advanced.” She pointed at a stack of at least fifty books. I grinned from ear to ear. “Good thing I have snacks.”
“Well, your mother has things to do. The last thing I want is to upset Hades. Just call me if you need anything.”
I stood on my tiptoes and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Of course, Mother.”
She ruffled my hair before teleporting away.
I lifted off the ground into a lotus position, floating above the books. I grabbed a pillow and positioned it under my chin and lap. “Alright, where should I start?”
I spotted Advanced Elemental Spells and turned the pages, my mind absorbing the information like a sponge.
I don’t know how long I was there, but I had made it through half of the stack, when my mother checked on me again.
She floated up right beside me. “So, how much have you learned?”
I couldn’t help but smile as I began explaining the spells and techniques I had uncovered. “All this time, everyone believed you could only master a single school of magic. It was all a lie. The academy I studied at before… it felt more like they were teaching toddlers than future mages.” now that I was learning straight from the source” Half of these books mother wrote herself!”
I began explaining how I had learned to perform chantless magic. “Back when I was still human, we were taught that magic required visualization and spoken incantations. You had to speak the spell aloud, often with a staff or wand as a conduit. That was what they taught us… but it was all a lie. You don’t need any of it. You can cast magic with nothing more than your hands.”
“Show me!” she urged, her excitement palpable.
I raised my hand toward the endless night sky on her ceiling and made a gesture as if I were drawing back an arrow. An ice bow materialized in my grasp, with a shimmering arrow. I pulled back, aimed, and let it fly. The arrow rocketed off, scattering upon impact with one of the stars.
My mother beamed with pride and began to clap her hands. “Such a smart girl!”
“Thanks, Mother.”
“How many books do you have left?”
“About twenty. I’m sure it won’t be long before I finish them.”
She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I think you can stop right here; you’ve basically perfected your grasp on magic.”
I pouted. “But I want to finish! Some of these are your own writings, and I want to study more!”
“That’s what I’m afraid of, dear. Some of those I wrote... let’s just say they could carry dire consequences.”
“Mother, trust me! I wouldn’t do anything that could destroy the world, like creating a Void Gate!”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Veil?”
“Mother?”
“Can you create a Void Gate?”
...
“Don’t lie to me.”
well...
“VEIL?”
“YES, okay! I can, but I won’t!”
....
“You are done.”
“MOTHER!!”
“Fine, but I warn you: no world-ending spells, you got that, little lady?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.”
“Mother… how long have I been here?”
“Well, six months so far according to the mortal realm, I think, she shrugs..maybe”
...
The realization finally hit me.
“You’re still thinking like a mortal, little one”
I lean back..
“Apparently!”
“In the Underworld, time is more of a suggestion.”
“A suggestion?”
“Mmhm.”
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“That makes absolutely no sense.”
The goddess laughed again. “To mortals.”
She pointed toward the countless stars drifting above the sanctuary. “Most souls don’t need schedules.”
“Why?”
“Because they aren't going anywhere.”
The answer somehow made everything seem worse.
I stared at her, then at the ceiling, before turning my gaze back to her. “You realize that’s insane.”
Hecate smiled softly. “And yet you’ve been here for six months.”
“Six months?”
“Approximately.”
“What do you mean ‘approximately’?”
The goddess shrugged. “Could be five. Could be seven. Hard to say.”
I immediately stood. “I hate this place!”
“You love this place.”
“I hate the concept of time in this place!”
“That’s fair.”
“Now take a break; Hephaestus will be here soon. You finally get your weapon.”
“How will I know he’s here? What time will he get here?”
“You’ll know.”
“Mother…”
“Yes??”
“Just come and get me when he gets here, please.”
“I was going to do that anyway,” she said, walking off with a giggle.
Sighing, the god of time is literally here and yet there’s no concept of time.