Note that this chapter contains depictions of gender dysphoria, pedophilia, and rape which may not be tolerable for some readers. Please read with discretion.

After my meeting with God, I headed to my Caelum. I needed time to cool down, so I took a few weeks to focus solely on my duties as a goddess. When I felt to be in a less-hateful mental state, I returned to Hades.

The walk there was also quite calming. I was just walking without much thought, listening to prayers here and there like gently passing through thoughts. My brain and body were in a state of meditation until I reached the border. Another guard, different from Demitrius, was there.

"Good love, dear guard. My name is Luna, for I am the Moon Goddess. I was here a little over 2 human months ago. There are some matters I would like to discuss with his royal highness, Hades," I told the guard.

The guard was also polite. "Good love, dear Luna. I understand that you will not know my name, but I hear you can fly. If you can fly over me, I will gladly let you pass," the guard offerent.

I gave a polite smile. "Most certainly." I levitated up & was about to fly over them when I paused. "Noble guard, might I ask your name?"

" 'Tis Ashley, your highness,"they said with a bow. They stood back up and I spoke again.

"Pleasure to meet you, dear Ashley," I said with a curtsey. "And don't hesitate to speak freely and address me as Luna."

"The pleasure is all mine, Ms.Luna," they said with a head nod.

From that, I gave a curt head nod & smile before flying to Hades' castle.

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"Luna," Hades grinned, striding into the throne room where I had been waiting. "Follow me. There's warm, herbal tea, freshly brewed, in my study that I would love to share with you. If you wish, we can chat over tea."

I grinned in response. "I would love to join you for tea. What type?"

"Peppermint. I absolutely adore all things peppermint," Hades replied before walking out. I hurried after him to his study.

Once settled, Hades poured tea into two delicately painted tea cups. "Feel free to get more if you like, I know I will," Hades offered.

I thanked Hades and sat down. "Now, Hades, I hope you don't mind if I ask you some more questions; I am still curious."

He nodded encouragingly. "By all means go ahead. My only request is that you allow me to do the same?"
"Of course."

"Then ask away, my Luna," he said, sitting down and reclining in his chair.

I leaned forward. "What made your views change?"

Hades' head bobbed. When he responded, he sounded tired. "I figured you'd ask something like that." His eyes unfocused in thought. "Well, my Luna, I once befriended a man. See, I was down on Earth because I was stressed by how much work God was giving me, and wanted to have some fun on my own in a rebellious manner. So I went down to Greece, which I saw fitting as they worshiped me there. The man I befriended was a priest whom I met at a temple dedicated to me. He at first was appalled to actually see me with his eyes, but I assured him there was no need to be afraid, and that he could be relaxed around me. I spent a lot of time with this man, as he became my only friend. Later on, he introduced me to his wife. His wife wound up dying during childbirth.  His wife's death became too much to bear, and he died from grief. So, I took it upon myself to care for his children--I thought that was the least I could do. After all, he was my best friend, and I thought I ought to repay his kindness to me. 

"He had 2 children, the older of the 2 being his son, Eli, and daughter Rebecca was the younger. As Eli matured, I found myself falling for his intelligence, his kindness, and his dashing visuals. By the time he was a fully matured adult, around age 20, I had realized I had fallen in love with him. Eli, I found out, was the same way, so we decided to pursue a romantic relationship--in secret of course, because while same-sex love was allowed in ancient Greece, I didn't want to draw attention to us, and he didn't want to be chased after by other people who might be jealous that a man was having a romantic relationship with a god.

"Eli's younger sister, Rebecca, often felt dysphoria, desperately wishing to become a man. While I didn't know what dysphoria felt like, I loved her like a sister or daughter, so I did not discourage her when she--I'm sorry, I should say he--acted more masculine. They were almost raped, too, by a man who I inferred to be at least 40 when they were only 11. I wound up beating that man to the point where he could never walk again. Poor Rebecca was so traumatized they closed in on themself, not having the will to open up to anyone about anything again until they were 13. And for that reason, I wish I had done more damage than just prohibiting the pedophile to walk again, the evil bastard.

"When the children were frail, old people, I realized like all humans they too would die, and my time with them wouldn't last much longer. Desperately, I asked if they wanted to live again, in a better life, eternally. They did, wanting for more time to be together like me. And so I preserved their souls, knowing that I would make an afterlife they could come to, and indeed they are here today.

"So, my Luna, in conclusion: I fell in love with a man & learned homosexual and pansexual love is completely fine. The people I met all had different, complex minds capable of love, so I realized humans are not simple beings, and no-one ever deserves to be treated as nothing more than property," Hades quickly mumbled that the rich people of Greece had slaves and seeing that they had their own unique, beautiful minds he wished them all freedom. "Rebecca experienced much dysphoria and all he truly wanted throughout his whole life was to be a man, so I see gender queer people as people who deserve a different body that better suits them so that they may be in a better mental state, but they are not mentally disabled in doing so. Lastly, Rebecca was almost raped by a man that claimed to love him yet traumatized him, at only 11 years old, so from that I learned of pedophilia and how wrong it is."

"...." Holy fork. Hades really experienced these things, which I'm sad he suffered through, but goddamn did they open his eyes for the better. "Royal poopoo on a spoon... gee wiz Hades, you sure have lived a lot, both figuratively and literally. I'm sorry you had to see such awful things, but I'm also glad that you were able to experience beautiful moments along the way, and that your views have changed so here we are now. Thank you for sharing that with me, I'm very grateful," I commented.

Hades gave me a small smile. "No need to thank me. I already said I would answer your questions. Besides, I don't mind sharing my story." He took a sip of tea, and only then I remembered the tea in my own hands. "Now, if I may ask a few questions of my own, Luna?"

"Whatever you like--as long as it isn't vulgar," I assured.

"What are your views like, Luna? Are they the same as mine? If so, what made up your mind? If they are different, how so and why?"

I took a sip of my tea. "My story takes us back to my time as a human. When I was 11 and my sister turned 13, she had a Trecedim, like a coming-of-age ceremony. She was beautiful on her Trecedim. All the noble men seemed to think so too, as she danced with every single male in the room. A week later, news came that Hortesia was arranged to marry a man within a week. I'm surprised it happened so quickly, as usually it took months to prepare noble weddings and for the lady to receive lessons for marriage, but it happened. They were married, and only a month after the wedding, Hortesia told me she wished she hadn't married her husband."

"Well why not?" I asked her. "He can't be that bad," I said, throwing a rock into the lake in front of us. When we wanted to talk to each other about what was troubling us, we came to this lake. We had been coming here since we were young and never cared to stop, seeing as this lake had enough stones to cast into the water mindlessly to let out our frustrations.

Hortesia sighed. "Oh, but he is." Plop. "How would you like it if you married a man twice your age?" She sat down on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest. "Every night, he comes home reeking of alcohol. At first I thought nothing of it, and that it might only be stress from marriage as I was stressed too. But then he started talking about the women he had sex with before coming home. Now any good woman wouldn't be okay with her husband doing that, so when I tried to talk to him about how he shouldn't do that..." Hortesia trailed off for a moment, trying to catch her breath and her strength. "H-he, he beat me!

"Last week when he came home smelling of alcohol as always, he complained how he 'couldn't get it up for others in anticipation of some 13-year-old vagina' and how it was my fault and I needed 'to take responsibility very soon'. I didn't know what he meant at that time.

"Then last night, I was asleep when he came home." Hortesia paused, picking up a rock, turning it over in her hands. "One moment I'm sleeping soundly and next thing I know--" her hands stopped fumbling with the rock as she struggled to get the words out through forming tears. "He raped me. It was then I figured out what he meant last week when insinuating I needed to take responsibility soon."

My heart dropped.

My sister let out a sigh. "Luna, that bastard of a so-called husband raped me!" She angrily cast her rock far out into the lake (which I applauded). "Rape can still happen during marriage. Especially from pedophiles."

"What's a pet-oh-file?" I asked.

"I just heard it from talking in the streets, but commoners were using it to describe these older men who were trying to hook up with young and teenaged girls. I assume it means someone older who likes someone younger in a negative manner," she explained, to which I nodded in understanding. "Anyway, I don't know if you know what rape is--GodI hope you don't, you're not even 13 yet but hey I'm young too--but know that it is not okay. No one deserves it. Not me, not you, or some gypsy out on the street."

Hades nodded in sympathy as he sipped his tea. I inferred he used the method of seeing into another's thoughts to see my flashback so that way I wouldn't have to say what I was remembering aloud.

"Good golly miss molly I am so very sorry to hear such a thing. Women were treated harshly for millennia, I'm glad that things started changing for them come the 20th century."

"Me too," I nodded in agreement, "but it's a shame it took thousands of years and many women protesting for anything to happen. The Native Americans though--"

"They seemed to know what they were doing. Such a shame those European colonizers thought they were inferior and shoved them to one small portion of the United States."

"Rumor has it there's a girl from that area who knows all about us and is able to put our story to paper."

"Oh really now?" Hades smirked sipping his tea.

"Haha, anyways," I sat forward in my chair. "Would you be interested in hearing the rest of my story?"

"Most certainly," Hades gave a quick nod, signalling me to continue.

"The story of how I came to view those in the LGBTQIAP+ community as perfect just the way they are: once upon a time, I lived in Ancient Rome in one of the highest houses of nobility, right next to the Caesar's family in status. So we had a plethora of servants. I had 3 as a young girl and throughout the rest of my time living.

"My father believed all his children should be educated as we were of a high class. So I had the fortune of being literate. I read the Bible and attended bible school, and even though the teacher was always teaching otherwise, the most believable thing in the Bible to me was to love everyone no matter what and that God supported all love (which I now know is false). And so I never viewed LGBTQIAP+ love as anything wrong. But wait, there's more.

"I fell in love with another woman. Her name was Ruth, and she was one of my servants. It would have been wonderful if we were to have married. I could have raised her status from slave/indentured servant to noble rich lady. I think that's also where my hatred towards slavery comes from, knowing that the one I loved who did nothing wrong ever in her life was forced to live among the lowest of lows. Besides, no one ever deserves to be treated as property and their life is practically meaningless, ever, period, no cap.

"I never saw anything wrong with wanting to change your birth gender. I often didn't feel like a female, being how I was raised going to school like a boy and explored the streets like a young man. But I also hated my birth gender at times between my tutor discriminating against me and seeing it everywhere, how women were almost always treated as nothing more than creatures to give birth to heirs. It made me quite dysphoriatic at times, and I wouldn't be surprised if Hortesia were the same way.

"On another note, a second shot at life for all creatures... you know, I never thought about it, but it's in so many ancient and current deity systems. Like the Greek God Hades--hello, you, who obviously exists--Roman God Ocrus, Celtic God Arawn, Buddhist and Hindu God Yama, Hawaiian God Milu, and others that I'm unable to recall off the top of my head. I don't know why an afterlife has never occurred to me, but I see nothing wrong with it." I let out a quick laugh. "Maybe it's something I'll bring to the forefront of my mind soon for my own gens."

Hades smiled, standing up. "I'm sure it will, Luna. And please do consider. Imagine you, being the goddess of an afterlife too... man, would that give God a run for his money, more so than you already do, in the authority of all of Caelum."

Soooo what y'all'z think?