The Witness

This is the sixth instalment in a series focusing on Greek mythology. This segment follows A Scent from the Surface. We return to a familiar location, a scene where Persephone has disappeared, or been taken….

Nefeli walked through the field of larkspur looking up at the sky and the clouds. They were her namesake of course — the clouds in the sky, each and every one. She loved her name, and she loved the clouds. There was a sort of kinship she felt with them, a safety in feeling as if they were somehow related. It seemed safer to feel close to the clouds than to actual family sometimes. Clouds simply came and went — they did not die. When she was nervous she would look up at them, imagining that she was floating from one to the next, and she was comforted.

She was not the Nefeli, of course. She was a mere mortal. She had heard stories about the cloud nymph, though, and she loved them. Her father, Agrias, had named her Nefeli because of her beauty and ethereal nature.

“You can float, Nefeli, you know.”

These were words that her father often said to her. She thought of her father now, perhaps back home in his carpentry studio, keeping himself occupied. Although they were farmers for their livelihood, Agrias had recently taken up carpentry as a new skill to learn, and he wasn’t half bad. She thought about the chair he had worked on and finished recently. Something to keep the hands busy. Something to keep the mind from thinking too much about life’s harsh tragedies. Her mother would have loved the chair.

Nefeli looked over her shoulder, still thinking that she was in a dream. She could not hear the footsteps of the two gods trailing her, but she could feel their presence. She stopped and pointed to a depression in the larkspur.

“This is where it happened,” she said, her voice strong and steady.

You can float, Nefeli.

Zeus approached and kneeled on one knee, he dropped his right hand and pressed it into the ground. He reached out his left hand. The Goddess, Demeter approached and took it in her right hand. Both gods closed their eyes.

They stayed in this position for what seemed like minutes. Nefeli watched the wisps of hair on Zeus’ arms flow back and forth with the wind and larkspur. She looked at Demeter’s brow, furrowed and tense. She suddenly thought of her mother, Thalia. She thought of her last moments before the plague took her.

You can float, Nefeli.

She looked up in the sky at the clouds trying to banish those moments from her mind. They were her sisters and brothers now — her companions. She could not cry in front of gods! How dare this memory come at this time!

Zeus and Demeter opened their eyes, Zeus getting off his knee to stand with Demeter.

“It was Hades,” Zeus said, his voice strong and steady.

Demeter looked at Nefeli and spoke.

“Thank you my child. Thank you for showing us. Take this as a token for your assistance…and your loss.”

Demeter produced a hyacinth from the palm of her hands and handed it to Nefeli. Nefeli took it in her hands and was floating with the clouds.