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“PUT IT IN THE WEAVING basket.” They tell her together from where they have been standing behind her in a creepy row again. Ariadne wanted to burn it into ash and ember, but she put the thread into the basket thrust at her. She wanted to leave eventually, after all. She reviewed her body and sighed at the sight of the thread over her heart, full of knots like clots.
“If I unknot this, will it make the thread stronger or weaken the connection?” Ariadne decided not to turn around and see if they were still watching her. They had begun to smile when she put the Minotaur’s thread in the basket. She didn’t want to know why or have to see it.
“Will it make a difference to you?” One of them asked, drifting forward to study her face, once again ignoring personal space like it didn’t exist.
“Yes. I love Dionysus and I worked hard to hold onto him. If it means weakening the connection, then the knots are just going to have to hurt.” She told the Fate, angry at first and then sad by the end of the second sentence. Whatever the Fates were, she wasn’t sure they knew what love felt like and that probably explained more about the state of the world than it didn’t, come to think of it.
“Then it would grow stronger.” The Fate told her. “Your desires will make it so.”
Ariadne paused, fingernails tugging at the outside of a gnarly knot as a new terror took root. “If we had a fight and I was really upset at him, it wouldn’t weaken or come out would it?”
“No. Your ability to do this is because you are in our place of power only. Outside here, you will only be able to sense these things and workings will cost you greatly in time and energy.” The Fate told her. “Stop delaying and tie yourself to your lover so we may have our home free of guests for a while.”
Ariadne snorted. “If you didn’t stop time when you had one, it wouldn’t seem so long.” She pulled the knot gently, untangling it slowly, thread widening as it came free.
She lost time, tugging gently and petting the string free of knots and watching it for any new knots, knowing intuitively she was pulling them free in Dionysus as she worked on herself.
As the threads came free, she willed them into a weave around her heart like a protective shield and comforting blanket. Whimsically, she patterned it with ivy that he occasionally wore in his hair instead of grape vines. Gently, slowly, she worked until she was exhausted, eyes burning and hands trembling.
She decided she had done everything she possibly could and stepped back to examine her work with blurry eyes. “Perfectionist.” A Fate told her before shoving her, and Ariadne was falling toward her waiting body.
* * *
ARIADNE jerked awake, finding herself being held by a terrified looking Dionysus. “I need so much wine.” She groaned, blinking up at him, too tired to lift her head.
“Ariadne!” He choked out. “You’re awake.”
Dionysus held her like she weighed nothing, as if she wasn’t his equal in height. He stroked her face with the back of one hand, yellow ring surrounding his eyes now his dominant eye color. “Are you okay?” He searched her face for any sign of discomfort or pain.
“I-” She stopped and considered the question, taking stock. “I am now.” She told him, laying her head back on his chest.
Ariadne eyed his new ivy crown instead of his usual grape leaves and wondered if she was at fault. “You’ve switched form grapes to ivy.” She touched the waxy leaves with the tips of her fingers. “How long was I gone?
“No more than half an hour.” Hades assured her from out of sight behind Dionysus’s frizzing mane of hair.
“No, I was gone half an hour.” Persephone corrected. “I have no idea how long the Fates were holding onto her.”
Ariadne snuggled into Dionysus’s chest, not wanting to think about the answer to her own question. “I need to never go back there.”
Dionysus held her tighter. “That won’t be a problem.” He told her. His hand trembled as he picked up a long strip of glittering silver hair. “You’ve gone completely silver.”
Ariadne looked up at the god holding her and smiled at him. He smiled back, worry softening the feral look to his yellow eyes. “I love you. You always have the right number of teeth. Always. Sometimes they get a little pointy, but that’s sexy.” She sighed dreamily.
Instead of taking the compliment, he turned to the other gods with an alarmed expression.
Persephone put a gentle hand on Ariadne’s arm. “We need to know what happened.” Ariadne gave the Queen of the Underworld a blank look, mind tuning the words out. Persephone sighed and tried again. “You’re almost dead from energy loss. We need to know if the Fates were angry at you for some reason or have taken to eating guests. It’s important.” She added pointedly to the glaring Dionysus.
Ariadne blinked, the action taking longer than it should have. “Ah.” She blinked again, movement strangely heavy. “They did something strange with time. Something about the future, past and present being the same.” She struggled to focus, exhausted and beginning the shake from it. “It’s like they exist outside of time.” She murmured, distracted by the thought.
Dionysus leaned down and kissed her, sending a flush of warmth through her. He pulled back and she inhaled, suddenly without the need to fight off sleep.
“Dionysus!” Persephone scolded for some reason, but Ariadne’s lover was unrepentant.
“What’s mine is hers.” He shrugged, tightening his grip on her.
Hades dismissed them both, intent on answers. “Is the warping of time how you lost energy?”
“I don’t know.” She admitted. “It might have been from weaving the threads of fate.”
There was a dead silence as everyone in the realm of the dead stared at her in horror.
“Just mine.” She added hastily, then reluctantly, “Mostly. They wouldn’t leave until I learned.”
Persephone began to nod slowly. “You’ll be a goddess of fate in the future. They taught you how to use your powers. Personally, Ariadne thought they just wanted her to not come back or interfere with the games they played.
“The Minotaur was using was using our connection to escape his confinement.”
“The rules of the dead don’t apply to the living.” Dionysus said quietly. “But your fate is no longer tied to him?” He carefully asked, face full of wonder.
Ariadne rubbed her chest. “Not anymore.”
“Good.” He put his face next the hers and rubbed his cheek against hers. “Mine.” He told her in an undertone, making her squeak.
Persephone groaned. “I should have known I could be inviting you two to be all lovey lovey when I asked you to visit.”
Hades slid an arm around his wife’s waist. “Ah, but they already met your terms, didn’t they?”
Dionysus stiffened and stopped his nibbling of Ariadne’s ear to look at the Queen of the Underworld and turn on his puppy dog eyes.
“Fine.” Persephone threw her hands in the air. “Fine, far be it for me to argue with the Fates themselves. I’ll send the ambrosia to your room.” She flipped a hand at them, the other pinching her nose and half hiding her smile.
The sensation of thick water slid over and off Ariadne, making her gasp and Dionysus leer. “Thank you.” He broke away long enough to thank the rulers of the Underworld sincerely, before turning on his heel and bolting to their shared room. Ariadne clung to him, laughing into the warmth of his neck.
* * *
WHEN THEY MADE IT TO their room, the cup of ambrosia was already on the nightstand. Dionysus set her down on the bed and picked up her hand. “I thought about it, I did. If you don’t want to go back, we can live in the mortal realm. Full time.” He kissed the palm of her hand.
“And if I want, we can live on Olympus full time?” She clarified, watching his expression closely.
“Either way.” He said simply.
“Your family in on Olympus.” Ariadne pointed out neutrally.
“They can visit.” Dionysus assured her. “Or not.” He shrugged, setting her hand back into her lap and leaning back to await her decision. He reached over one handed and handed her the cup of ambrosia. “Thinking is thirsty work. Have a drink while you decide.”
Ariadne chugged the drink and tossed the cup to the side. Dionysus stared at her, mouth hanging open. She smirked at him, and walked her fingers up his arm. “Probably Olympus. The mortal realm wouldn’t be nearly so understanding of all the screaming.”
“Am I going to be doing a lot of that then?” Dionysus asked breathlessly. As her hand reached his neck, he arched it into her touch.
Ariadne looked him in the eye and then pushed him flat against the mattress. “Yes.”