Valencia, 1490...

15 years had flew fast like wind and flowed like water marking the day Persephone was displaced from her homeland. She had come to terms that she wouldn't be able to ever again return to Athens. The memories would hurt her sometimes, but she knew that the past had better to stay where it was to not affect her much in her present and future.

She had decided that she would whether die in Valencia, or return to her homeland only when the Ottomans would be gone. No, she didn't hate them, even for being the reason of her suffering. She was simply terrified of them. And to think she was friendly with them when younger...

How naive and innocent she was then! Those and everything she had ever love had been robbed from her forever, by them. How she wanted to leave the house for once even and see what Valencia had. But she had hear there were Ottomans amongst the inhabitants.

Only once she needed to hear this from Ludífimo and refused to ever think about going down there if there were Ottomans, even if they weren't conquerors but humble and weakened. The trauma had pierced her deeply.

Until they were gone for good, Persephone would root in Renrink's house and not move it. Besides she had what she needed to feel calm and safe right there, her little personal garden where she could chill out after a long day of work. And her daughters.

Despite the massive pain they had given her, it felt and was worth it. Persephone had come to terms that it didn't matter they were not from a pure and loving union.

They were still hers. As their mother she had the duty of protecting them until the end, even not hesitate to throw hands if anyone did as much as to lay a finger on them. Even to her little Athena...

Just because she could remember all examples of being a loving parent from her own parents, Persephone had no idea how would those amplify to 3 at the same time. Surprisingly only as babies they had the most difficulty of taking care of them, after that for a few years things became slightly easier with control and discipline.

"You are lucky the daughters of yours are calm and quiet most of the time. My son was more energetic than all 3 of them at the same time, at least before the illness hit him."

Cerdia was a huge help. She would advice further mother on how to take care of her daughters as babies. From showing how to hold them properly so her and them would be comfortable, to helping her understand if their crying meant that they were hungry or uncomfortable, in pain or simply throwing tantrums.

Each day she would bring together with her in the garden food for the babies and temporarily handle them for the exhausted Persephone. Even though the skeleton was grateful the pig woman was helping her so willingly, she didn't want her to bother. No really, she was an old lady, grandma.

"Cerdia, I appreciate your help, but you don't have to bother yourself each and every single day." Persephone had told her one time as she was walking in the garden with slow and heavy steps holding food for the babies.

"I might be 126 years old, but the serenity this place has and your daughters make me feel more alive. It has been so long from the last time I felt like this..." The head maid had replied with a calm smile and took one deep breath to inhale the wonderful aroma of the flora surrounding her.

"Yiayia!" Aphrodite would chirp happily in her cutest Greek when she would see Cerdia entering the garden and with her wobbly legs try to run up to her first and better, while her other 2 sisters were simply walking. The triplets then were 1 and a half year old.

They got to know Cerdia for only 3 years. There came the day where the head maid suddenly collapsed while at work, breathing all heavily and with difficulty, plus small particles of dust coming off of her. As she was, they brought her to the nearest room with bed and put her lay there.

The one who was in charge of the house when the Renrink was absent happened to also be his trusted doctor. He checked on her and simply announced that her old age had finally caught up to her. It was only a matter of time until she dusted.

For the next hours, all the monster maids would kneel around Cerdia and shed tears. The pig woman had apologised to them all if with her behavior she had harm them emotionally in the slightest. But she had been forgiven by the monster maids long time now. She might was strict and serious, but not in the bad manner.

Especially on her last 3 years. Much to the maids' surprise and confusion, they would see her helping more obviously the others to be courageous and many times stand up against the human maids if they were assaulting them, cutting a lot more slack and not judging negatively as often.

No comment for the human maids, who were most likely throwing a party on the other side of Renrink's mansion to celebrate the pig woman's death. Persephone would look at Cerdia from the opening of the door, just silently crying and trying not to sob.

She wouldn't walk in and instead allow the other monsters mourn her first. However Cerdia refused to give up her essence to the monster afterlife. She thanked the monster maids for all the years they spend together, but she wanted all of them to tell a last goodbye. Which also meant Morana.

Persephone, she meant. Just as the skeleton woman had never told her name to anyone except Cerdia, Ludífimo and his buddies, the head maid pretended that she didn't know that and simply refered to her by that name. Ironic name, but with the way she acted it was suitable and all other maids learned to call her that.

When the skeleton woman was brought in too, the pig monster asked with the voice that was left in her throat for all of them to exit except the skeleton. When alone and Persephone kneeled next to her, the pig woman asked to hold her hands. When that happened, she spoke to her.

She told her that even after gone, she had tried to take care for as much as possible so she would keep having an as comfortable as possible life. That, when she wouldn't be here anymore. She told Persephone that she had assigned to take her place as head maid of the monsters the one who would give her the least hard time of them all.

She had also taught her how to treat Persephone and her 'retarded' state. She warned her that if the monster maids wouldn't give her problems, they might were still not as able or willing to defend her against the human ones.

Persephone had to defend herself, by herself, but the head maid trusted her she would manage. Especially, she would have to toughen up not just for her own good, but for the sake of her daughters too. Lastly from her warnings and advices, she told her to of course keep her act in the best of her powers.

Especially around Master Hades, if she ever encountered him. Also, think on how to introduce her daughters in the house. They wouldn't stay forever in the garden. Eventually they would want to see more of their environment. And become maids too.

As her breathing got even heavier, the pig woman thanked Persephone for appearing in her life and making her last years more interesting and almost no miserable. She had changed her for the better and helped her escape from the veil of Grief that was causing her to be so cold and serious to the others.

"I will be strong. I will endure. For me and my daughters, I will find the way for us to keep living. I will have you forever in my memory Cerdia." Persephone had whispered as a few sobs escaped her right after.

"So long, young friend."

2 hours later Cerdia had finally dusted. In pain, but smiling. She could already hear Portus calling her to reunite with their boy Bacino, to the last and forever common residence all monsters have.

~

Persephone would talk about Cerdia to her daughters fondly. Athena and surprisingly Aphrodite too couldn't remember her and she was the one who would swarm Cerdia more, especially if she asked for piggy-back ride. She would welcome her presence with more excitement. But her and Athena, they could understand she was dear to their mother.

A very good monster woman who had helped her in her time of need. Only Artemis had a faint memory of the head maid, that being her giving to her hands her first book with fairytales. Despite in Spanish, she had accepted the gift with serious interest and it had stayed in her.

The heart of the garden had become a little terrestrial paradise. The trees were tall with leaves that were spreading and giving plenty of cool shadows for one to rest beneath them. The fruits of the trees that could produce such were full of health and juice. You knew they were delicious and sweet even by just looking at them.

The bushes were constantly producing berries and on the wooden walls that were separating the heart from the beginning area of the garden, big bunches of purple grapes, almost ready to fall off by how heavy they showed to be, were decorating them. Coexisting with the ivy plants left and right of the gate.

The pond, the endless source of water needed for the garden, fixed by Ludífimo and his buddies, had accepted in its waters lily pads and other aquatic plants on its shores.

Even the wooden house had caught flora upon it. On its walls were climbing other ivy plants and near its base were lilies, dahlias, pansies, poppies and many other colorful flowers. Each and every day birds were heard singing as they had their nests and attending to their babies. Buzzy bees and wasps were going around to gather nectar.

This was the place Persephone's daughters were born, their first environment to meet and explore. Despite triplets, the girls had no similarities. Not just in character, interests and pupil colors, even their skulls were slightly differently shaped. The only thing they shared was the fact they were females.

Aphrodite looked the most like Persephone. Deadspit, aside from her fully light blue pupils, while her mother had mixed colors of both cyan and pink. She had her grandpa's pupil color.

She was the most playful and cheerful out of the triplets, reminding Persephone a lot of her younger. The small animals in the garden would be attracted to her everytime they were seeing her and hearing her.

Even the dangerous ones, such as wasps, scorpions and a snake that had its residence somewhere in the garden were acting like tamed house pets, allowing her to gently touch and caress them. Almost having the charm of sirens one could say. From a very young age she would already show magical abilities similar to Persephone's.

And perhaps a little more. When crawling as baby and later walking as toddler, the moment she would exit the house and touch the ground, flowers were blooming from where she had stepped and passed. She had proven to be listening a lot better to the plants than Persephone.

Often she would be seen hugging trees and plants to hear them, as she claimed, telling her what they had to say. Whether that was some wind gossip, or their exact needs. More than her 2 sisters, she showed the biggest interest in taking care of the plants and garden, following mother's footsteps.

Artemis was the most serious one. With her slightly sharp jawline, she looked like a really deep in thought grandpa Néfus, but with grandma Rótha's pink pupils. Despite she could too understand the plants and animals, she didn't seem as interested to them. For the only reason she would open her ear holes to them would be if they had to tell her some long and interesting story.

She loved those, whether being narrated whether in books. Cerdia had stocked books somewhere in the house just for the triplets in case Persephone wanted to ever take one and read it to them. They were all in Spanish though and despite the skeleton woman had learned a lot better the language she hesitated to read them out loud.

Artemis might not had a 'green thumb' despite she could encourage the plants to grow, or she might was showing to be distant with the animals around her, looking at them with more hostility than fear, but her talents in magic were lying elsewhere.

She had from the typical magical powers of the common skeleton monster, but had also a great connection with water. After about 8 years old she would practice a lot to the pond of the heart of the garden, to the point she had learned sending it to all directions, that way watering all the plants in seconds and gently.

Everytime Aphrodite would annoy her by emitting her excitement way too close to her, or nudge her to play while she was trying to read or relax, she would often splash her with water, leading to a chase around the garden.

Most 'evil' smiles were coming from Artemis in such moments as she was running around to escape a whiny and pouty Aphrodite, before Persephone hold them both in her embrace and calm them down.

And then there was Athena...

Right after her birth when she had given her first cry, indicator that she was alive, she became almost completely silent after that. She wasn't showing pain and tears, she wasn't crying to express needs. Her eyesockets had stayed empty far longer than of her sisters.

In that 'empty eyesockets' month Persephone had struggled greatly to even hold her close to her, look at her. Because unlike Aphrodite and Artemis, Athena looked like no member of the family of Sófrons back at Athens. As if luck wanted to taunt her, she was given a daughter that looked like... him.

No name. She refused to think of him with any name. Everytime she would wake up in the night to calm down whether Aphrodite, whether Artemis as they were still babies, everytime she would give a look to Athena's crib, staring to the ceiling with her expressionless eyesockets, awoken from her sisters' cries, she was quick to turn her head away.

Her trauma slapping her as hard as him to get her into being submissive. But she couldn't bring herself to leave her laying without giving her a hug too. After hugging her other 2 daughters, slowly she would hold Athena gently and still without looking at her, would hold her close to her chest.

And despite she was every time afraid, she was also being rewarded for showing affection to Athena, equal to Aphrodite and Artemis. Because while Athena was motionless like a corpse, a few seconds after feeling her mother holding her, everytime she would feel her soul beating in her ribcage, she would slowly hug Persephone back.

That until she was falling asleep again. The skeleton woman was seeing it, Athena needed her love, why couldn't she just offer it without fear? Why did she have her as reminder of him?

"From your daughters, Athena needs your love the most. She has clearly inherited her other parent's appearance and diseased and emotionless state. She needs your presence to develop proper response to her environment. If you push her aside, you will give her the same fate of that corsaire. He did what he did to you, which was cruel, but he had never experienced love from his parents. Not being present for Athena will possibly make her just like him, both in appearance and behavior. She comes from him and you, but she is not only him. She doesn't have to stay like this. You can make her more like you. You can see her growing up being a happy girl, but through her you will have to face the past. Have faith and patience." Cerdia had advised Persephone after she confessed to her that she would find herself feeling uneasy and worried around Athena, feeling that already she was a bad parent.

A scared one. The girls were just 2 weeks old then. After the conversation, Persephone tried twice as hard to care for Athena, hold her as confidently as possible and keep eye contact with her, as that was important too.

Her efforts would pay off, as already a month of her life later Athena started showing the first proper emotions. As the triplets' mother was playing peekaboo with them and she had her head turned to Artemis, unexpectedly she heard giggles from Athena.

She didn't do so for just seconds, she was giggling wholesouledly and behind her half-closed eyesockets Persephone could see dark green pupils nailed at her. At last, positive emotion and response.

Persephone would try to involve her in any activity possible around the garden or when spending family time. She would hold her girls in her embrace and tell them memories from her homeland, the people, very little details about the Ottomans and a lot about her parents.

And a little more often than Aphrodite or Artemis she would hold Athena closer to her, both to learn getting used to her and for her to not feel left out.

"And what did our grandparents look like?!" Aphrodite had asked. Persephone described them to her and of course, shortly after, her and Artemis turned to look at Athena confused.

"And who does Athena look like?"

It needed all of her will and inner strength for the skeleton woman to smile and casually pet Athena's head, who seemed to nail eyesockets more intensively at her waiting for her answer.

"Athena took from her father, who's not here with us sadly. He left." She had replied.

"Father? What's that?" Aphrodite asked then. Ah yes, the girls having not seen nor hear of the concept of father in their 10 years of life, they didn't know.

"The one monster which helped in bringing you to this world. Through our connection and union, you were born."

"Wait! So we didn't come from seeds?!" Aphrodite asked again confused.

"That's what you get for believing anything Psyche says you naive fool." Artemis had scolded her.

Psyche was the one of the 2 ivy plants keeping the entrance of the heart of the garden locked.

Most Persephone had done to describe the father of the girls was in appearance. She had refused to say who he was, avoided to answer any other questions related to him and tried to distract her daughters with anything else. From that day on, Persephone would see Athena often staring at her reflection on the pond and touch her face, thoughtful.

As she grew more, she would often get dragged by Aphrodite to play games together and kinda accept to do so, just not emoting much. As Persephone was keeping an eyesocket on her girls playing in the garden, she would look at Athena and feel a clench in her soul.

For how long her little girl would just look like she couldn't enjoy life? She seemed to have no problem participating in whatever her sisters were doing, but was she enjoying them even to the slightest?

There were however those other times where Athena would join her sisters by herself, or sit in front of her mom as they were to the garden and kind of mimic Persephone when she would grow plants with her magic, as a way to practice and teach her children.

To say the least, the skeleton woman was relieved and happy Athena proved to be able grow plants too when she would show her daughters what to do. Or when joining Aphrodite to press their ear holes on the trees and hear the gossip. She had that inner mood and potential to follow on her steps.

Her green pupils would appear only when she was feeling a strong enough positive emotion, dazing off or in deep thought and as soon as somebody was talking to her, her eyesockets were going empty again. In such moments Persephone had to try very hard not to turn her head away from Athena and talk with her in a stable voice.

She didn't know for how much longer she could hide all of her emotions, or if she was hiding them at all those years. At least as it seemed the girls had been convinced that the reason their mother was looking at Athena with such uneasy expressions was because she looked like father and she 'missed him'.

Truly, how convincing and comfortable for Persephone her daughters were believing that...

Aside the difficulties the skeleton woman had to face Athena, life went by fast and happily for the most part. She still had to go for her maid duties of course and when the triplets were still young, she would have found it difficult to feel at ease of what would they do without her if it weren't for Ludífimo and his friends to 'babysit' the girls.

True life saviors, plenty of fun for her daughters to stick around them and as energetic as them, or, well, for Aphrodite at most. Persephone had her conscience calm knowing her babies were in good hands. Besides from their descriptions of what they were doing with the monkey monsters around the house, they had a great time.

Even for Artemis who preffered solitary activities and Athena who didn't seem enthusiastic for most things at first sight. The only times Persephone was afraid was when the monkeys would take the girls downtown. In such times, before going to work she would take aside the monkey monsters and of course lecture them about safety.

Then kindly tell them that if she was seeing as much as a scratch on her daughters, she would make the monkeys fertilizer.

Yes, when it came to her children, Persephone wouldn't joke, nor take things lightly. She trusted her friends that the triplets would be fine, but as a mother, not as wholesouledly as she would actually want. As long as she kept seeing her daughters coming back from town unscrathed and satisfied, she was fine to keep letting them go there.

Even if there were the Ottomans. She didn't want to pass down to the triplets her fears and allow them to figure by themselves if they could be used to their presence or just not fear them as much as her. But if she ever heard the slightest mention of her girls being too close to them when the monkey monsters weren't supervising, she would throw hands.

12 years old, the triplets started being introduced to the house and their job as maids. The other maids were already aware of their existence, they would see them with the monkey men. The monster maids would look at Persephone and shake their heads in 'understanding'. What for? That they could see the triplets were bastards.

That their mother on her retarded state was like an easy prey for anyone to take advantage of. They were wrong about believing that 'Morana' had been taken advantage of because she was retarded, but the violated part and that the triplets were bastards, they had gotten it right.

Such thoughts they kept to themselves and when their head maid wasn't around. But they were doing, nor saying anything to Persephone, nor the triplets, just giving bitter and sad smiles to the girls, greeting them with simple nods and waves, sometimes giving them gentle pats on the head.