Chapter Text
My name was Kore and I brought the spring.
I was young when we first met, but not as young as They would have you believe. They still called me maiden then, but I was a woman, I knew what I was doing.
You know, it’s funny, I used to idolise them. They were so powerful, so bright. For a long time, I thought they could do no wrong. I clearly did not know them very well.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t had relationships before him; I had. Until Demeter found out about them. People will tell you that she was just trying to protect me. Ignore them. They don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. Demeter was not a mother to me and I was not a daughter to her. I was just an asset, something that she could assign to do the work she didn't feel like doing. She was never outright cruel to me, but she definitely did not love me.
I was a convenient tool for her usage, and for too long a time I remained blissfully ignorant of that.
I remember the first time I sensed something was amiss. It was when I began to court Apollo. He was sweet, patient, and he was so very proud of each beautiful sunrise and sunset. And I was proud of him for it.
One day she caught me smiling at the sunset and frowned.
“Why do you smile?” she asked as if I was forbidden happiness; as if I did not have my own life; as if doing so required her permission.
The next morning, she made sure that I had missed the sunrise, I wonder if she was jealous of the gift that Apollo had given me. From that point on she made sure I was always inside when Apollo was painting the sky.
She kept me busy, she sent me to plant flowers and make them grow, the very next day she would send me to harvest them. The day after that she would send me to Hermes, to sell them.
That was her mistake because Hermes and I got along like a house on fire. I would arrive with my wears, and we would haggle over the price. We spent days on end arguing, and I enjoyed every second of it. He was so clever and witty, such a charmer, but he was just as flighty as I and eventually we would grow bored of arguing over prices, we soon moved to other topics.
I had not yet realised the pattern, so one day I came home skipping and smiling.
The next time she sent me, Hermes was not there.
Nor the time after that.
Nor the time after that.
She would still send me for flowers. But after Hermes, she began to send company with me, three water nymphs. I suppose she was trying to appease me either that or spy on me. They were nice enough, but I did not know them, I did not like them, I did not trust them.
They were with me when I first saw it.
It was beautiful.
And this may sound like the ramblings of an old woman, but I knew.
I knew somehow that this flower was mine.
I called the nymphs over, I didn’t know any better.
“Look,” I said, “look here, at this flower”
“Oh Kore, you don’t want that.” They smirked at each other. “Don’t you know? That’s a lonely flower”
They giggled and tittered at me.
I didn't care. It made sense to me.
A lonely flower for a lonely girl.
So I plucked it, entwined it into my hair and continued in my task.
The next time we went out, there were three. I picked them all, entwined them in my hair, next to the first.
The time after that there was a whole meadow of Narcissus flowers.
The girls stopped giggling.
I smiled. Picked one. Entwined it in my hair.
I would have put them all in if I could fit them. But no sooner had my fingers brushed the second when a great rumbling began.
I had thought the flower was beautiful, but then I saw him, and no word of a lie I forgot how to breathe.
He held out one pale hand, eyes dark.
What could I do but take it?
People will tell you that I screamed. That I cried. Ignore them. They don't have a clue what they're talking about.
They say he seized me like a prisoner
In truth, he seized me like an opportunity.