Chapter Text
It was almost like any other morning in the quiet home of Aidoneus… almost.
The summer sun was relentless this time of year. The warm, golden rays of it slowly melted into Zagreus’s bedroom through the open shutters of his window, kissing his sleep-softened features. He lay in his bed, sleeping opposite the head of the frame and bundled up under soft, Tyrian purple dyed wool blankets. Lucky for him that his father was a wealthy merchant who was able to afford such expensive dyes. Around his room were various trinkets and clothes scattered wherever he found fit. His cherished shoes, an abandoned pair of bronze leather sandals, were tossed carelessly in the corner of the room. Alongside his red, silk chiton that he had worn the previous day.
He didn’t care much for cleaning anything since he spent most of his days outside his room, after all. Most of the blankets had fallen off his bed due to his messy sleeping style throughout the night, and were lying alongside the ground of his bed. In his adolescence, he always had a bad habit of kicking off all clothes that might have caused him to begin sweating on the rather humid summer nights, much to his parents’ disdain. He stirred a little, groaning from the light disrupting his peaceful sleep, and turned over to avoid the warm radiance from waking him completely.
He was never much of a morning person, preferring the dark, enchanting night much more than the luminous morning day. In his younger years, his mother would laugh when she would send a servant to wake him, only to find that her son had been slumped over in a chair with a papyrus scroll in his hand, occasionally snoring from the complete exhaustion he seemed to have gotten from merely reading a couple of words. His father insisted that he studied complex teachings of Athenian law and the roles of a man in their society. The scrolls felt more like a bore rather than any type of teaching Zag would’ve enjoyed. His mother would always comment on how similar her son and husband were. If not for his mismatched brown and green eyes and the seemingly active longing to want to train and practice sword-fighting (an activity his father did not allow), they might have gotten away with being the same person if possible.
Zagreus stirred again, this time for the loud thumping sounds by the entrance of his room. With the entire structure of the building being made of clay and stone, it was a nuisance that sounds were about to pass so quickly through the house. His eyes fluttered open in inconvenience, and with a grunt, he sat up slowly in his bed with a stretch. His messy black hair reflected the tiredness and rough sleeping of the night. He ran intricate fingers through his hair to make himself somewhat presentable. After noticing his lack of clothing from the tossing throughout the night, he hurriedly rushed to cover his lower body with his blanket.
He reddened in the face of the idea of a servant walking by his chambers and witnessing the sight of the young master barren of clothes, in his room. Not that anyone in the place would dare to admit, except his parents. (In which case, his father would not be pleased to have set eyes upon.)
Looking towards the entrance of his chambers, he noticed servants rushing by his door in scrambles and hushed voices, not seeming to care that they had woken the young master. Zagreus sat in his bed drowsily, staring at each person passing by. It was odd for the estate to be so busy in the early morning. Usually, the servants and Zagreus included were under strict guidance in the house to stay quiet and reposed when his father was around. He yawned again and was almost considering the grand idea of falling back asleep. His father’s nightly health tonic always left his limbs feeling like lead anyway, and a drowsy, heavy feeling that he usually loved to sleep through. After all, it was one of his few resting days from studying, and his father was away on his monthly merchant trips. Leaving his estate in the care of Zagreus’ mother, Kore.
After giving another hearty stretch with a small grunt, Zagreus decided to lean back into his bed with a soft thud. With a sigh, he turned over and let his eyes flutter shut. Moments later, one of the female servants stopped near the entrance of his door in a hurried rush.
“Young lord, I am terribly sorry to disturb you at this hour, but—” The young woman was cut off from speaking as another passing servant shushed her frantically before pulling her arm down the hall.
“Are you trying to have us punished? Leave him!” She whispered rather aggressively to the woman beside her, although she wasn’t doing a great job of staying quiet. Zagreus heard their steps rush away from his door and down toward the steps. He hadn’t bothered opening his eyes for whatever disturbance was going on. Not until he heard something strange from the lower region of the house.
It was a woman’s voice, shouting.
He listened more attentively, suddenly realizing that the cry was from his mother. There were other voices of maybe two or three men shouting, and audible smacks could be heard. Zagreus shot his eyes open and rushed out of his bed. He scrambled around his room in a desperate attempt to find something to cover himself with. He found a wool tunic on the ground and threw it over his head and over his body. He then rushed out of his bedroom and headed down the clay stairs, not caring for his disheveled appearance at the moment. He was aware that it was considered odd for the young man of the house to be seen walking around in his nightly tunic, but he found that there was no time to waste, and he simply couldn’t be bothered by proper etiquette at this moment.
When he reached the bottom, he noticed that many servants had already beaten him to the commotion and were blocking his view, whispering amongst themselves, and some were even sobbing quietly at the sight. Usually, he was kind to his servants and would pass simple greetings to them throughout the day, but at the moment, he couldn’t bear to just sit back behind a crowd of them, as his mother was possibly in danger and was not being helped by the servants. He slid in between them with apologies and grunts, earning a couple of frowns and scoffs from the unlucky ones that he put more force into passing until he finally reached the middle of the room, where she was held.
She had been sprawled on the ground with her own hand on her cheek, covering her face from the crowd and the men who towered over her figure. Various pearls and golden bangle jewels lay broken and smashed beside her, most likely from being stepped on and ripped off from around her neck and hair. Red marks were beginning to form on her pale cheeks from the men who stood angrily above her. The servants, along with Zagreus, watched the display in horror. It was a grave crime to attack a noblewoman, especially in their own home.
Zagreus couldn’t tell who they were, or whether he had seen them before. They weren’t soldiers, and they smelled of cheap wine and filth. They looked like a group of bandits, but they shouldn’t have been able to make it this far into the city without help from soldiers. His mother was curled up into herself, trying to protect her face and body from any more lashes that were to come. One of the taller-looking men was about to slap her once again before Zagreus ran forth, tackling him into a column, nearly cracking it into halves. Everyone watched in horror as the two men threw punches in an attempt to stop the other.
“No, stop! Zagreus!” His mother pleaded loudly.
Zagreus put all his strength into each punch as best as he could, even if it was hurting his knuckles in the process. The man was physically more muscular and taller than Zagreus. He noticed that his blows were not making much of an impact on his body or face. The other two men decided to leave his mother and to help their leader fight the younger, inexperienced master of the house. They all shoved him off their leader and held him up as they each gave a couple of punches back to back towards Zagreus, causing him to wheeze and fall to his knees on the ground. He cursed his father for not putting him into training for hand-to-hand combat, only allowing him to do sword-fighting and lessons of Athenian law. It was considered “unethical,” for a young man to learn such “useless and vulgar activities.” He groaned from the growing pain in his abdomen, praying that they didn’t cause any type of bleeding from their punches. The muscular and brute-built man picked him off the ground by his neck, only to punch him down again in the face, causing a small trickle of blood to begin spilling from his nose.
He fell towards the ground again, watching the blood hit the floor from his bleeding. The two other bandits snickered and approached him, picking up his arms and holding him back against the wall. In his daze and confused state from the punch to his face, he began coming to his senses and began kicking at space and shouting curses at the men holding him back.
“Fucking hell! Let go of--”
A harsh punch to his face again caused him to go silent. The servants all cried and screamed in horror at the young master being attacked in his own home. His vision began to blur, and he could barely hear any sounds entering his ears, other than the screams and the sound of his blood rushing past his ears. His nightgown was stained with blood from his mouth and nose, and he groaned and looked towards the muscular man with murder in his eyes. For a split second, the man’s smirk faltered. In that moment, he seemed to feel a strange, overwhelming amount of sorrow and pain when he met the eyes of Zagreus. Not wanting to look weak in front of his men, he faked a smirk and spat a bloody tooth in Zagreus’s face as he walked towards his mother and pulled her up by her arm, forcing her to stand.
“Wife of Aidoneus, Kore, by order of my patron, you are hereby placed under house arrest until a trial is set.” The burly man announced loudly toward the crowd as he held her firmly by her arm. Her eyes widened in shock as she stared at the man grasping her arm tightly.
Many servants gasped and began whispering among themselves. The noble mistress was a kind and caring woman to all; it was a shock that she committed any type of crime. Especially since their family was considered the wealthiest family in the city. They would be the biggest talk of the city if word got out that she had done anything.
Zagreus stared in disbelief at the man who had spoken before him. His mother wasn’t capable of doing anything illegal. There had to be a mistake.
“No…”
The man turned around and stared at him.
“No?” He repeated.
“There is no way in all of this damned world that she should be charged for anything,” He shouted. “She hasn’t done anything wrong!”
The man glared at Zagreus as if he had just uttered curses to all the gods.
“That woman has been accused of doing many atrocious things around the city.” He spat a mouthful of blood off to the side.
“I could name just a couple if ‘ya want. While you were sleeping soundly under your wool blankets, your mother was plotting a scheme that stretched from the agora to the wheat fields. Ask her about the missing grain. Ask her about the treason."
Zagreus scoffed.
“Oh, really? And what other atrocities has my mother committed according to your patron?” The young master replied snobbily.
The man raised an eyebrow and growled before punching Zagreus harshly in the stomach. He began to cough up some blood from the impact. He screamed at the man again when he was able to catch his breath.
“So, you just came up with something to arrest her? Something as bloody stupid as that? You expect us to believe such a thing-- all of Athens too?”
He immediately regretted his words when one of the men holding him back kicked his leg twice as hard. He winced at the pain and groaned. It seemed that the only way they knew how to communicate was through violence. His mother fought back against the man holding her arm. In response, he shoved her back onto the ground. She fell with a grunt and looked towards the men with fear.
“Well, young Lord Zagreus. In better detail, multiple reports have been made saying she sacrifices the wrong animals to each god on purpose.”
“Sounds like rumors. She prays privately, such as each pious, noble woman in this damn city, and how would they even know whom she prays to?” He scoffed.
The man frowned and growled again. It was starting to sound like he was indeed lying on the spot.
“You do not question my patron, boy,” He spat blood to the side again. “Perhaps I should request that he put you under the same charge, no? And besides… your father wasn’t even a rightful citizen in Greece a couple of years back.”
Zagreus held back the urge to spit back in the man’s face from the number of times he had done so on the ground. A poor servant was going to have to be responsible for the mess. But besides the mess, he was also concerned about another thing.
“We have lived in Athens for years! My father has already been granted the right to citizenship by your ruler--”
“My ruler has decided to take away Kore’s citizenship for the crime,” He smirked and leaned in closer to Zagreus. “Makes the punishment much worse than what a citizen would get.”
Zagreus began struggling against the men once more.
“Why?! Why?! Even if she had done what you say, it’s not even considered a crime in the law! You have no right to barge into our home and accuse her of something she hasn’t done.”
The man laughed in his face once more. He was finding the situation much more amusing than anyone else in the room. The tension was weighing down on the atmosphere for others. Even the bandits began looking nervous amongst themselves. Perhaps they began losing their confidence over the crime they’ve just committed.
“If you’re so adamant that your mother is innocent, let’s hold a public assembly and see if she is worthy of keeping her head.”
The bruised man signaled the other two holding Zagreus back towards the door. They dropped him just as harshly as the man had dropped Kore, and he hit his head on the floor, causing a deafening ringing sound to increase in his head. For a moment, he lay on the ground with a feeling of a cloud around his head. He tried glancing in the direction of his mother, only to be met with the dark robes of a figure he’d never seen before. Maybe he was beginning to hallucinate from the blood loss.
His mother hurried over to him and cradled his head towards herself as she watched the men leave.
Once there wasn’t any sign of them returning, all servants scurried over to where Kore and Zagreus were. She ordered most of them to get supplies to help clean up his wounds, and the others to just take the day off if they wanted. Zagreus was already unconscious and lay limp in her grasp. Kore watched as the cuts and bruises from the punches began slowly mending on his face. She hurriedly tried wiping the blood away from his face in the hope that her hands would be able to cover the sight from the servants.
This day was going to be a living hell already. And her husband was away for the month, so he wouldn’t be back in time until the next month came along. She feared for her son’s life as she began quietly praying to the gods to protect his soul in the event of his departure if the time came.