Soul Between Lives

-By J. S. Edwards-

After the brief tour, Alex was standing on the ground floor looking up the stairs leading to the back.

"Where should I start?" There were so many shelves and he wasn't sure where everything was or how it was all organized.

Persephone smiled and pulled him along, "You saw the book I was reading yesterday right? Let me take you to that section."

Angel let out a silent cheer and became increasingly excited the closer they got.

When they arrived, Persephone stopped and spun to face Alex with an excited look of her own, "This is one of my all-time favorite stories." She gestured at the books, sweeping her arm as if to include the entire row, "It's been going on for hundreds of years and the author still manages to surprise me!"

Alex was taken aback. He simply couldn't imagine such a long story. He looked from the books back to Persephone as she continued.

"I still can't believe how Juliet finally admitted her love for Jack and even now carries his-"

["Ah no! get her to stop talking! Ask her about Mount Olympus!"]

Alex flinched from being yelled at in his own mind and didn't react fast enough for Angel.

["Quickly!"]

[Fine! Fine. Just stop yelling.]

Persephone was still passionately going on not noticing his discomfort, "And when he was nearly killed in the duel I-"

Persephone shut her mouth and fixed him with a stare, "What makes you ask about such a thing?"

Her sudden seriousness made Alex hesitate, "I just." he swallowed to buy time to organize his thoughts, "It's just that back on Earth I'd heard that the Greek gods all lived on Mount Olympus. And now that I'm here I'm living in Zeus's house and its just plaster, wood, bricks, and stone. And I wondered why."

Persephone stared at him for a moment longer before she responded, "Mount Olympus may have been Zeus's private realm, it still is, but it also required a lot of power and resources to keep running." She turned and started walking between the shelves, "After Athena took over, it was decided that those resources would be put to better use elsewhere." She took a deeper breath and sighed, "Its the same story with most of our airsh.i.p.s and other magicraft, magitech and soulcrafting."

Alex had followed a few steps but stopped when he heard her say "airsh.i.p.s" and the rest.

Persephone spun back around to face him, "Most of what we have has all gone to the war effort. It may not seem like it here because we are kinda out of the way here, but Gaia, Nyx, and many of the others are fighting to keep our borders secure." she started walking back to Alex, "Now, was there something you were interested in reading today?"

"I mostly just wanted to find out more about the world." He looked around at all the books, "Where would be a good place to start?" He wanted to ask about the airsh.i.p.s but decided to save it for later.

Persephone nodded with a small frown, "Let me take you over to our history section." She turned and started down the aisle, "You should also learn more about our laws. Its all in the same area."

Alex followed along as she led the way, glancing at the more eye-catching covers but being unable to read any of the titles. At the intersection where stairs interrupted the shelves, a large tome with a sparkly gold encrusted cover bound with golden thread was prominently displayed on a marble pedestal. Persephone walked right by it but Alex stopped and stared with wide eyes.

Persephone walked back when she noticed Alex was transfixed by it.

Alex's eyes tore themselves away from the tome and pleaded for her to continue. Such an amazing looking book, he had to know more about it.

Persephone bit her lip and grabbed him by the hand again, pulling him further up the steps and down an aisle where she wouldn't be overheard.

"You have to swear that you won't tell Zeus," she lightly laughed as she continued, "though I'm sure he's long since figured it out."

Alex nodded, making a zipping motion across his mouth, "I promise I won't say anything."

["Alex, you."]

[How can I not want to know an interesting story behind such a book? Besides, you're the one that said I need to learn more about his world.]

Persephone finished looking around for any nearby eavesdroppers before she spoke, "Zeus used to be pretty wild after he became king. He was so wild and unruly that we even tried to overthrow him once. When that didn't work Themis helped us trick him."

Persephone stopped to check for other people listening in and leaned closer to Alex, her lowered voiced bidding him to do the same. "She wrote a code of laws, the very same ones bound in that codex. She knew that Zeus was displeased that people disobeyed him as soon as they were out of his sight. So she presented her laws and explained how the other gods would obey him more easily. That if he ruled them with the laws, if he upheld the laws, that they would obey him in the name of the law."

Persephone smiled mischievously and checked around again, "He threw himself into upholding the new laws which meant he had less time to cause other trouble. And even though it was his own special dictatorship, at least it was more predictable than it was before." she finished and took a few steps back giggling quietly.

["You look like an idiot Alex."] Angel said in a bemused voice.

Alex shook his head to clear it, "That's quite the story." He subconsciously pulled out the book his hand was on in an attempt to cover for the way he was just staring at Persephone.

Persephone wasn't fooled and drew closer still smirking as Alex pretended to be absorbed in the title. "Oh, that's just a book where the author was trying to be witty and original. It's about how the concept of nothing new or original is ever being written because everything has already been written about, is wrong."

Alex looked at her before opening the book and flipping to a random page.

"I'll save you time and summarize for you. The author claims that people oversimplify what qualifies as original, such as stories being the same because something happened in them."

She grabbed the book from him and flipped to the first chapter, "I'll skip to the only witty part." she clears her throat and starts to read, "There's a story where nothing happens. What's that you say? It's not a story if nothing happens? News flash, nothing happens all the time!"

She snapped the book shut and placed it back in its spot on the shelf. "It was funny for a moment." She took Alex by the hand again, "I brought you to this section because nobody ever reads the books here. Let's go back."

Alex resisted her when she tugged on his hand. She was stronger than him so it really hurt, making him grimace.

"Why can't I read any of the words here?"

"I can understand you. We're speaking and I understand you as if we're speaking the same language. So why can't I read any of these books?" Alex gestured at the bookshelves, "All the titles are in a foreign language to me."

Comprehension spread across Persephone's face, "Ah, that's right. You wouldn't understand that yet huh." She noticed Alex's frown, "Relax, I'll explain that to you. First, let's find somewhere nice to sit down." She pulled on his hand again and they started walking down the aisle once more.