secrets beneath the foundation

Bloodwing's crimson eyes glimmered a deeper red; his tears ran dry long ago. The Tapestry of the Fates revealed the dawn of New Steelhead in centuries to come after his own kin had brought the glory of the Age of Steam to a screeching halt. Another Pyrrhic victory in his eyes.

"Even in Ascension you mourn where your own loose tongue lead to your banishment", spoke the Fates in one voice. "You have this entire orb to yourself."

"It is not the same!" He roared. "Is there NOTHING I can do to save the save the werewolf?"

"We bade you to stitch closed the tears you had already made, which you did. We offered your daughter the chance to unwind her thread from the thread of another cloth, and she refused. The Sheriff is not your family."

"He was my brother-in-arms! Ask any Spartan that marched into Erebus if their fellow soldiers are not family! The Son of Hades does not..."

"You speak your belief, but not the Truth. You are not the Son of Hades."

"Explain!"

"We shall not show you. It is unseemly to show one their origins..."

"This is my Kingdom and my Court! SHOW ME!!!"

The tapestry shimmers, and the flash of whirling blades cut through the absolute darkness of the Underworld sky. Great birds shriek and bloody feathers circle in angry winds. Sparks erupt high into the air as a white neko hacks away at the link of a chain so massive she could walk through it as a gate.

The iron crashes against the jagged rocks of the mountain. The neko leaps over the sliding metal effortlessly as a silhouette the size of the mountain itself rises from where it had lay outstretched.

The shape rose, to the size of a tower, perfectly proportioned as a human male. Bloodwing saw burning red eyes open to illuminate a pale visage and unkempt locks of crimson hair, and facial features reflecting his own on a scale that made his own powerful new form seem small. A deep voice, calm and compassionate, echoed through the barren ravine.

"Who are you challenges the wrath of Hades to free me?"

"I am Persephone...and by his will I come to..."

"WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?" bellowed the demon.