Elmar breathed in and then held his breath. His mana flowed to his organs and he let out his breath slowly. He felt the pain of them trying to be reshaped, and he aborted the mission immediately.

“What? Can’t handle the pain?” Asked Rozimer with a raised eyebrow. “Do you think I keep myself looking young and human without effort?”

“It feels like someone is cutting me up.” Said Elmar, holding his stomach. His intestines were the hardest to change. It appears that they rebelled against him every time he tried.

“Well, you have made no progress whatsoever with your elven transformation. Gray skin is not seen on elves, not even Litch elves.” Said Rozimer. He stood up and then poured a glass of water for Elmar. “Drink this.”

Elmar drank the cool liquid. It seemed to calm his intestines somewhat. Even though he was not making a perfect elven transformation, he had moved onto worker elves. They were shorter, however, and so he had to make his intestines shorter too. Hence, the cutting pain in his stomach.

“If you think this is bad, just wait until you start shortening the limbs themselves. Or the veins and arteries. And making the eyeballs smaller and…”

“You are not helping.” Said Elmar, stopping Rozimer from painting a worrying picture. “I’ll go back to skin pigmentation.”

“You can ask your father for advice. Didn’t you say he can turn into giant rabbits? That is by far more complicated than what you are trying to do.” Said Rozimer with a shrug.

“Can’t you tell me how to go about it yourself?” Asked Elmar, hopefully. Rozimer was a master at this, and he was sure that he knew the answer to his problem.

“I could, but then your father might smite me. Go to Hades. Heck, go to Persephone if you prefer not to ask Hades for anything. Surely, she is quite the magician herself. Her being a goddess.” Said Rozimer, looking at the door.

Elmar limped towards the door and went searching for Hades. Persephone wanted him to move on. She had made Hades grant him a onetime chance to go to the Underworld after his death. But Elmar didn’t want to die.

He found Hades painting a sleeping Persephone. It was strange to consider these people to be his parents. The parents he remembered had let him be abandoned at an orphanage.

Hades smiled when he saw him and brought his finger to his lips. He then pointed at the sleeping woman on the couch.

“She looks peaceful, does she not?” Whispered Hades.

Elmar admired the woman who, in a former life, was his mother. But he was curious. Did he have siblings?

“Am I your only son?” Asked Elmar, sitting down on a chair, Hades made appear out of nowhere.

“No, there are four others. But people stopped worshiping them and they died. Persephone never forgot or forgave for this. Even when I try to tell her that death is the natural end of life, even for a deity.” Said Hades. Then he resumed painting.

They stood in silence for a while, Elmar lost in contemplation. He had siblings, sort of, and they were now dead. Were they in the Underworld? Helping Hades sort the souls? Or did they help Persephone with whatever she did, even as spirits?

“What is Persephone a goddess of?” Asked Elmar. He felt embarrassed not to know such a thing about the woman who had given him life. At least the first time around.

“The dead, life, grain, and destruction.” Answered Hades. “A girl after my heart.”

“Destruction? But she is so peaceful. She likes life.” Said Elmar, thinking that Hades was playing a joke on him.

“She is the personification of spring. Without spring there is destruction, famine, and death. People tend to forget about that. If it is not for those two golems and the odd worshipers in the universe, she would be dead, too. And then the snows will reign.”

“You spread her cult all over the different worlds, did you? Why didn’t you spread your children’s cults too?” Asked Elmar. Hades stopped painting and looked at him.

“For the same reason, I couldn’t save you. No one wanted to worship them. You were to be the god of summer, but summer came before you and summer came without you. Why worship you? Now it is easier. You don’t need to be worshiped to live. I take it that is why you are here? You still don’t want to move on?”

“I am too young to die.” Admitted Elmar. There was something akin to disappointment in Hades’ eyes. Elmar wondered where it had come from.

“You are a good boy, no, a good man. The Underworld will treat you well. But what can I help you with? Ask and I will do my best by you.”

“I have problems with skin pigmentation transformation. I can’t seem to do it at all.” Said Elmar. Hades snorted.

“Just remove the toxins from your skin. Like you would with either green or black tea. Well, the process will be harder and more painful, but if you get a good feel for each impurity and do so as if you are washing it away with warm tea, you will get the transformation done.” Said Hades, and then he waved Elmar off.

Elmar stood up, grateful that Hades had not masked his explanation with a riddle, and he went back to the entrance hall to try it. One of Persephone’s eyes cracked open, and she stretched her limbs.

“I don’t blame you for the children.” She said, softly.

“Maybe I blame myself and like to believe I deserve for you to blame me as well?” Asked Hades, his head hanging low.

Persephone stood up, and she cupped Hades’ cheeks in her hands, making him look at her.

“I don’t blame you for the things you didn’t do. For the things that you tried to prevent. Never doubt that.” She said, and then she left the room to spend time with her son, her last remaining one.

Hades looked at the unfinished painting, and he began to add grain stacks at the top. Then, in a split of inspiration, he filled the space next to Persephone’s head with a pomegranate.  

His brother, Zeus, was right. He was a fool for love and a fool for family. Perhaps that is why he had been satisfied to only be known as the one who presided over death, while his brothers boosted domain over life.