We stroll through the gift shop while waiting for the tour to get started. Eventually, we hear our tour guide call everyone out to the staircase. She stands a few stairs up so that everyone can see her. "Now, dearies, my name is Gladys. We are going to go up to the second floor, where I will show you some of the entertainment rooms and meeting spaces. After that, we will peek at the office space, but we won't go in... don't want to disturb anyone going about their job, right? Very important work is done here!"

She motions to the crowd. "Now, come on and follow me," she encourages as she turns to ascend the grand stairs, taking the right-hand side when they split. Emily and I hang toward the back of the tour group. I am not sure what I expect to find at the Palace to help us, but it seems to be the logical place to be.

Gladys leads us down a wide corridor, the paneling and marble gleaming as it did in the foyer, until we get to a room on the right with tall double doors reaching up nearly to the top of the high ceilings. We flow into the room to discover it is a billiard room. She begins a spiel about Hades loving to play billiards and makes the crowd laugh at a story about how he got sharked once, much to his great amusement.

"Another fun thing about the Palace," Gladys announces, "is the existence of hidden stairways!" She reaches up and pushes a flowered tile beside the fireplace mantle, and a faint click releases a section of paneling that swings inward. She pushes on it to reveal the staircase inside. It is blocked off so that it can't be used, but the tour group titters amongst itself in excitement anyway. Nothing beats a secret passage in a Palace!

When the group shuffles down the hall to continue the tour, we tag along reluctantly. As Gladys pops into another room, Emily grabs my arm and pulls me to the side, half hiding us behind a tapestry and column.

"We need to find something useful!" she whispers. "This isn't helping."

"What are we looking for?" I ask, hoping she has an idea.

"I don't know!" she answers, dashing my hopes. "Something that will help us find Paul." I sigh and lean against the wall in frustration, thinking about the wandering dead I'd seen. What would happen if we didn't figure this out? And what about that blackness I'd sensed but hadn't taken the time to investigate? Things are going to get serious fast. I pinch the bridge of my nose, not wanting to think about all of it, and am surprised to feel the wall move under me as I lean against it. I gasp and push off the wall, which opens a panel we hadn't seen before. We look at each other in surprise; I had found a hidden passage!

Opening the passageway wider, we hurry inside and then close the entryway behind us. A nearby wall sconce crackles into existence, lighting the area. We see stairways heading both up and down from the landing we stood on.

"Which way should we go?" Emily whispers.

"I don't know," I answer, "but I think we should stick together, no matter what we decide."

Emily nods as she begins to dig in her purse. She pulls out an obolos and hands it to me. "Heads we go up, tails we go down?"

I flip the coin, catch it, then slap it into my other palm. Tails. "We go down." The stairway down looks sinister, descending into darkness, the treads well-worn in the middle. We both hesitate, lost in the spooky feel of the moment. I hear Emily whisper, "For Paul," as she steps on the first stair down into the inky blackness. It descends in a spiral, quickly turning out of sight. We both put out hands out, touching the walls on either side. Just as I think to stop and return for the torch, Emily takes another step.

To our relief, when she does, other sconces along the stairwell spring to life. Now, we have light to travel by, even though we can't see the bottom due to the staircase's spiral nature. We continue our descent, and I attempt to judge how far we've gone but lose count at about fifty stairs. Still, it goes on, and I quickly realize that we are well into where a basement, or even beyond, might be in the Palace.

I nearly collide with Emily when she suddenly stops and holds up a hand. She puts a finger to her lips, indicating silence, then points to her ear. I strain to hear what she does but can't make anything out. I motion for her to keep going, and I hear indistinct voices in a matter of moments. As we continue, they get louder and clearer. We are obviously coming up on an exit of some kind.

As we round what becomes the final turn in the stairs, we end at a landing and a blank wall. The voices are clear now. One, a male, sounds frustrated and desperate.

"I keep telling you, I'm a moneyer, not a counterfeiter! I don't know how to make what you want!"

Emily gasps but quickly covers her mouth. She mouths Paul to me.

"I have given you everything you need. All you have to do is enchant the money so that it can leave the Underworld," replies a firm, commanding female voice. "If you print the bills as instructed, they will pass inspection in the real world. I just need a moneyer's magic to be able to use the bills."

"Why do you need this kind of money, anyway?" Paul demands.

"It costs money to build temples! And we must have temples in order to keep Hades' worship alive. He is dangerously close to being forgotten. Once that happens, think of the chaos that will ensue!"

"Forgotten? Do you mean Hades' Underworld as we know it will cease to exist? What will happen to the dead?" Paul asks.

"We don't know," the woman answers. "They could take over the Land of the Living, or be taken care of by other religions' beliefs. But who wants to risk it? Hades is in such a deep depression that he has given up. I, as his wife, have not."

Emily and I share a wide-eyed look. The woman is Persephone herself!

"And, as your cousin... your very distant cousin, I might add," Paul says, "you expect me to do what? Create money to buy worshipers?"

"We're not buying worshipers," Persephone protests, "we are buying supplies and labor to construct temples for worship. You know, a 'if you build it, they will come' kind of thing. It's completely logical."

Paul sighs. "And, if I do this, you will return me to the Land of the Living before the month is up? I do not want to be stuck here for eternity while living."

"Yes, of course. I understand what it means to be stuck here, you forget," she reassures him. "I promise to make sure that you return and stay in the Land of the Living as often and for as long as needed so that you are not stuck here."

"Okay, for Hades' sake, I will try to do what you ask. But I don't know that it can be done. Obolos are created in the Land of the Living for a reason. Creating money here, in the Underworld, then trying to get it out will be a challenge."

"One I am sure you are up to, cousin. You are the best we have. It all hinges on you."

~

Author's Discussion: It seems that Hades will cease to exist once there aren't enough worshipers to keep his name alive. What kind of temple would entice you to visit and remember his name?