Persephone was walking about in a field that at one point had been used to plant crops. She wasn’t exactly sure how she knew, only that it felt instinctive to her. However, there were no crops here. The soil was dry and dusty, and the only thing growing here now were thick choking vines covered with thorns. Persephone did her best to avoid walking into the vines, not wanting to tear her dresses to shreds on them. The wind blew ominously from behind her, and in a moment of panic, her foot caught onto a vine. Persephone fell forward, landing in a thicket of vines, her clothes beginning to tear and some small gashes appearing on her face. 

Persephone got up and wiped away the small amounts of blood that had collected on her face, now facing in the opposite direction on how she was moving. An inky black sky greeted her from this direction, and as it touched the horizon, Persephone realized that it was impossible to see through. It was a black wall, and her eyes widened in horror. 

‘It’s coming towards me. That black sky is coming towards me!!!’ 

Persephone’s face contorted with fear as she turned around and started to run. It was hard to run through the vines and their sharp thorns, which tore the bottom of her dress to shreds, but she knew that she couldn’t allow herself to get caught by that inky blackness. Something deep and primal inside of her told her to be scared, and told her to run. She tripped on another root, again, and fell this time onto the cold, hard ground, but pushed herself up as quickly as she could and kept persevering forward. 

It was gaining on her. She could hear it. She could hear not only the low, but audible scraping noise it made as it dragged the ground into itself, but she could also begin to hear voices in that darkness. They started as faint, unintelligible whispers, but she was starting to make sense of them through the noise. 

“BLASPHEMER!”

Persephone didn’t know what the voice meant. She hadn’t blasphemed anyone, and she wasn’t even sure she could at this point. Could a god blaspheme another god? Was that even possible? 

“FAKE! BLASPHEMER! HUBRIS!”

The voices were growing louder, and almost seeming to respond to her thoughts. She couldn’t really understand what they were talking about though. There was no way she was a fake. She had no hubris. Yes the voices were saying these things with such hate, such vitriol towards her that she felt her heart begin to shudder. Even if she didn’t believe what was being said, the voices did, and that scared her. 

The vines were beginning to clear out now, and Persephone could run a little bit faster than before. She didn’t dare look behind her, not wanting to know if she was gaining or losing ground against the black wall as she looked ahead. Past the dead fields was a mighty forest ascending into the sky. If she could just get there, maybe the forest would protect her from the void screeching behind her. Maybe the forest would tell her that everything was okay and cradle her in its arms. 

But just as soon as she thought that, suddenly it was gone. She couldn’t see anything except for pure darkness all around her. She hadn’t been fast enough. Persephone screamed as the voices grew louder and louder in her head, overpowering her thoughts as they blamed her and insulted her. She tripped over something in the darkness and tumbled forward, falling down and down as it felt like the ground had disappeared from underneath her. 

Amongst the cacophony of screaming voices, one voice cut through them, and said one word. 

“Lyra.”

---

Persephone bolted awake with a shock as she looked around the room. Night had fallen upon Olympus and the room was only lit up by a small lamp that hung near the door, burning with oil that never ran empty. She got up and shook her head, trying to remember what the dream she just had was. It had left her consciousness quickly, and as Lyra looked in the mirror-

‘Wait. I’m…Lyra.’ Lyra pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t still dreaming away. The pain was fresh and sharp, and she winced, but it confirmed it. Lyra tried to think about who she was, but she groaned as her head felt muddled. 

‘I’m Lyra…I’m Persephone…I’m mortal…I’m a goddess…everything is all messed up. Why does it feel like there are two different people inside of me? Why do I…feel so weak in comparison?’ Lyra felt like while she was still there, something was holding back a different part of her. She was standing on top of a massive dam, and while it seemed like it was holding as long as she didn’t think about it too much, it could still burst if she wasn’t careful. 

‘That doesn’t matter for now Lyra…try to remember what happened.’ To her surprise, she could remember pretty much everything from the past several weeks with a clear head. Her daily sessions in front of the Dryad Tree, her repeating her mantras, Demeter putting her deep into trance to make Lyra attracted to her, the visit from Hermes, basically everything. She gasped when she focused and felt power flowing through her as well. 

‘So…that was real. Okay, we’ll I’m now a demigod I suppose. But more importantly, I’m awake, and aware, and I’m Lyra. That means I can get the hell out of here.’ Lyra almost bolted out of the bedroom door, but her feet stopped before she could grab it. She looked down and realized that she was still in her night clothes, and not properly dressed. She groaned and shook her head and tried to walk forward again, but couldn’t. 

‘Fine god okay anything to get out of here. I’ll wear clothes that are fitting okay.’ Lyra internally complained, not questioning about the clothes fitting her in any way. It took her a bit to put on a dress she wanted to wear, although when looking down she blushed at how the dress emphasized her cleavage. She walked back to the door when another powerful urge struck her, and she swallowed dryly. 

‘Fuck! All of her triggers and instructions are getting in the damn way. I can’t smell those flowers…no matter how good they smell…because if I do I’m never gonna get away. I’ll be stuck repeating those mantras and I’ll lose myself again!’ Lyra stood in place, her face showing signs of great effort as she fought back against the part of her brain that was actively trying to betray her. She knew that it would be over if she smelled the flowers, and yet she also knew how wonderfully they had smelled and how much part of her wanted that sensation to envelop her again. 

A foot moved forward. Her hand reached out. With a swing and another foot forward, she was outside of her bedroom door. Lyra panted as beads of sweat fell down her forehead from having to fight her conditioning. But now she was out of her bedroom, it was the middle of the night, and there was no more conditioning she was going to have to run aground on.

‘As long as I don’t alert Mommy…I mean Mom…I mean Demeter that I’m trying to escape, I should be good. I can finally get away from that crazy bitch. No more of me being her daughter…I’m…Lyra!’ Lyra moved across the room as quickly and as silently as she could, looking for the way to get back to the outside world. She had remembered seeing the portal that connected to Demeter’s temple quite a few times, but in the dark, it was surprisingly hard to locate. 

She realized why as she walked past it a couple of times. The portal was up against one of the walls, deactivated. It was just a couple pieces of stones without Demeter’s divine power flowing through it. Lyra shook her head and groaned, but stopped as she realized this probably meant that Demeter was still asleep. If the portal had been opened and still running, it meant that Demeter’s divine power was still flowing into it. 

‘But without Demeter’s power…I’m not going to be able to get this to open, and I can’t get out of here. What the hell am I supposed to do about this? Without the portal being open I can’t go home…if only there was some way…’ Lyra gasped as she realized there might still be a way to open the portal. She had never done it before, and only remembered the few times she actually used her divine power without knowing how to control it, but she gulped and placed her hand on the top of the portal, where a large gemstone was inserted. 

Lyra closed her eyes and concentrated on her body. Once she did, she could feel her body thrumming with power, although at a pretty low level. She started trying to build up and concentrate the power, first in her chest, causing her breath to hitch as she felt it grow and grow. She wasn’t used to it yet, and almost lost her concentration from the surge of power, but calmed herself. She wasn’t going to have long to do this, and she had to get it right now. She pushed the power out of her chest up into her shoulder, and then pushed it along her arm. It was a strange and alien sensation, feeling it move around in her. Almost like it really didn’t belong inside of her. 

‘Must be because I’m considering myself a mortal right now. Back then, I wasn’t in my right mind. I basically considered myself a goddess. But I don’t really know what I am truly now. I can figure that out once I get away from here.’ The energy got to the palm of her hand and she tried pushing it into the crystal, but grimaced as the energy refused to move and catch. She tried again, groaning a bit, but with no dice. She didn’t want to try too hard and break the portal, and let herself exhale from the concentration. As she did so, she felt her grasp on the power loosen, and then flow into the crystal slowly, causing it to begin to glow a purple light. 

‘Alright, don’t force it in. Now to get this to open where I want…’ Lyra didn’t really know what to do now that the portal was activated, so she just tried to think of home. Maybe now that it was being powered by her divine power, it would respond to what she wanted. She thought back on the village she grew up in, her parents, and the temple of Demeter. The memories were fuzzy, but she was able to grasp enough of them that when she opened her eyes, she could see the temple where she had been kidnapped in the portal. Without a moment’s hesitation, she walked through it. 

Her footsteps echoed on the cold stone beneath her. The sun was just starting to rise outside, and it was still quite dark. Lyra shook as she felt the portal close behind her, before breaking down and crying on the temple floor. Her chest heaved as she sobbed loudly, finally feeling safe to break down.

‘I can’t…it’s so hard to remember anything. Anyone’s faces. Anyone’s names. That bitch was trying to erase who I was. She was replacing me, and I just got away in time…’ Lyra continued to cry as she slowly staggered over to the temple door, walking on unsteady feet. The tears in her eyes were making it hard to see, but she was going to be able to get away from her. 

‘I can’t even stay in the village either…she’ll find me. I won’t even have time to be reunited with anyone…I have to run away once I get some food…run to another temple. Maybe Athena or Hera or even Hades if I needed to. Once she can’t touch me I can get better again. But…I’m never going to be able to go back…am I?’ Lyra continued to cry as she walked out of the temple, realizing that there was probably no way she was ever going to be able to leave the protection of another god to go back home. 

Lyra sniffled and looked down the path towards the village. There was lots of plant life that had come back, and the road looked lively compared to when she had last been on it. But as she walked forward, she realized something was wrong. Her crying stopped as she looked down, and realized there were no footprints on the dirt path, nor any wheel marks in the earth. The path diverged after Demeter’s temple, but this was one of the only ways in and out of the village. If the village had been doing as well as…she…had mentioned, there should have been signs of foot traffic. 

‘Oh Gods…what is happening.’ Lyra began to run forwards, running towards the village. She was finding it difficult to actually see the village ahead, because the plant life continued to grow more and more as she continued. It wasn’t just grasses and flowers anymore, now there were thick bushes, tough brambles, and large trees blocking her view. It was almost like an entire forest had suddenly sprouted out of the ground. Eventually, the path was starting to become overgrown and Lyra had to stop running. 

‘Where is the village? Why is there an entire forest here!? There was never a forest here! I’m never going to get through this in time!’ Lyra screamed as she weakly slammed her balled up hand into a tree trunk, hoping someone would hear her. But in this dense forest, there was no way her scream was going to echo or travel any far distance. She slowly walked back up the path, thinking about what her next move was going to be. 

‘The sun is just starting to come up now…I could travel past Demeter’s temple and get to one of the towns. Maybe I could say I was from the village and see if anyone has heard about what happened. Maybe I could beg my way to get passage to a temple of Athena or something. There’s no way I’m going to be able to navigate that forest…’ Lyra had gotten back to the temple and rested herself on one of the pillars on the outside. 

‘It’s going to be a long and hard trip…and I have no supplies…but I also have no choice. I have to leave. I have to get out of here!’  Lyra picked herself up when she heard the temple doors open themselves up. She froze in place as out stepped the one figure she hadn’t wanted to see. She was in a dark green dress that Lyra hadn’t seen before, but it was the same one that Demeter had worn to torment Thea. 

‘Dammit Lyra, run!’ Lyra yelled at herself, but she couldn’t get her legs to move. She was caught, and something wasn’t letting her get away. As Demeter approached her, Lyra began to pant as that fear was starting to manifest as a burning need between her legs. Her legs began to shake and threatened to buckle as Lyra couldn’t help but admire the way the dress hugged Demeter’s curves, or how it really emphasized Mommy’s breasts.

“Well well, I had thought this would eventually happen. I’m not mad at you, my lovely daughter. I'm just so…disappointed in you. Was your life really so bad that you had to run away from home?” Lyra glared at Mommy as…she bit her tongue. Blood pooled a bit in her mouth but the pain was enough that she was able to focus on it and not on Demeter’s conditioning, which was slowly encroaching her conscious mind again. 

“I’m not your daughter Demeter! Just let me go! Stop fucking with my head and just let me leave!” Lyra yelled back, but Demeter simply laughed back at her. The laugh sent shivers down Lyra’s spine. Demeter wasn’t just laughing…she was laughing at Lyra in a way that made her heart sink a bit. That Demeter had found what Lyra had said so utterly foolish. 

“Let you go? I have no idea why I would ever do that, Persephone. You have so little to go! Soon you’re going to be my lovely, perfect daughter, and there’s nothing you can do to stop that. Even if you wanted to get away, you’re not like them anymore. You know that. Persephone, you just simply aren’t a mortal anymore.” Lyra closed her ears as her knees finally gave out. She so desperately wanted to touch herself and just lose herself to the growing madness in her pussy, and just block out whatever Demeter was saying. She opened her eyes to see Demeter standing over her, and felt her heart stop beating. Demeter’s grin was large and wide, like she was a predator who finally had her prey cornered, and her eyes were shining with a sort of excitement that struck fear in Lyra’s heart. Demeter was truly crazy at this point, and Lyra was just in the way. 

“What about your real daughter? What about the real Persephone? Do you think she wants to live in a world where her mother has replaced her? You have a daughter Demeter!” Lyra tried to reason with her, and Demeter’s grin faltered. Her eyes blinked. They clouded with uncertainty and doubt. Lyra hoped that was finally coming to terms with how insane of a plan she had made and done. But then, in a flash, Demeter’s grin came back, and she chuckled in a low tone, before grabbing Lyra’s neck, pulling her up, and slamming her against the temple wall. Lyra cried out in pain, but Demeter didn’t seem to care, and looked at her with a purely sadistic expression. 

“That daughter? The one who courted the King of the Underworld behind my back? Who entreated her father to marry Hades without my permission? Who let herself be kidnapped by Hades’ chariot? No, Lyra, you stupid, stupid girl. That daughter is dead to me now. I don’t even know if I can recognize her anymore. I don’t need to. You’re going to be my new daughter, my new Persephone. A daughter so perfect that the only person in the world she’s ever going to need is her Mother! For affection, for love, for sex! I will be the most important person in your life! You are never going to need to ever entertain the thought of ever leaving me again, daughter.” 

Lyra coughed as Demeter let her go, causing her body to fall and slump against the ground. Her mind was swimming with fear as she looked up at Demeter, who gleamed as she towered over her. 

“You’re insane. You’ve gone completely mad! You think anyone is going to be able to overlook this!?” Lyra shouted at her, making Demeter laugh again. She hated that laugh, that laugh which said so clearly how pathetic Demeter found her. 

“Oh you really do know nothing about the Olympians if you think I’m to be punished for this. Hades will certainly try but really, I’ve done no major transgressions. You think Zeus himself hasn’t ruined the lives of countless mortals because of his inability to remain faithful to his wife? What about Poseidon? Or Apollo? Do you know how much heartbreak and pain the gods have caused? Compared to them, what is one mortal girl being turned into a God, especially one that has no one left to miss her.” 

‘No one left to miss me? Oh Gods…oh Gods no. That can’t be what she means. She couldn’t have done that!’ Lyra’s blood had run cold as her heart started to beat faster. Demeter chuckled as she looked at the pained, and terrified, expression on Lyra’s face. Demeter crouched down, getting a closer look as tears began to stream down from Lyra’s face. She wiped away one of Lyra’s tears using her finger, her sadistic smile now showing an obvious famiscile of warmth, but she didn’t need to be convincing. 

“Come on now child. Ask me that question in your mind. You’re never going to know peace until you do. Ask me, and I’ll answer, truthfully. There’s no more need for this deception.” Lyra felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest. Her palms were sweaty and cold. She couldn’t stop the flow of tears from cascading down her face. She felt like she already knew the answer, instinctively, and was just looking for some kind of confirmation. 

“What…what did you do to the village, Demeter? To everyone…?” Lyra’s voice was a weak gasp compared to where it once was. Demeter once again wiped the tears from Lyra’s eyes, before holding Lyra to her. Lyra felt the strength to fight back had long since left her body. 

“I didn’t need your silly attachments getting in the way of my plans, Persephone. I did initially help out of the village like you wanted, and brought Thea to prove it, but only to assuage what little doubt in your mind you were able to muster. The minute I was able to, I destroyed your village. I caused a forest to rise in its place overnight. I killed everyone who ever knew you. Thea, your parents, anyone who ever had passing interest in you as a wife. I strangled them, I poisoned them, I grew vines from the inside out. Some died more peacefully than others. But they all died.” 

Lyra once again burst into sobs. Demeter hugged her closer and patted her back, trying to soothe her. Lyra couldn’t help crying as hard as she could in the arms of the goddess who had taken everything she had ever cared about away from her without her realizing. Demeter rubbed her back and petted her hair, and Lyra sank more and more into Demeter’s embrace.

‘She’s just…manipulating you Lyra…but…I can’t…everyone I know is gone Mommy…I can’t do this anymore Mommy…’ Lyra could feel herself giving up. Her heart was shattering into a million pieces, and all the people who were giving her the power to continue to fight back were just gone. Lyra…felt herself beginning to tumble and spin over and over again the deep black darkness of her mind. It was like being in the nightmare again, and she couldn’t help but keep falling and falling. 

“Persephone.” A rock. Something to grab onto. Persephone grabbed it, not looking down into the endless maw of her mind. She couldn’t tell if the word had been spoken by Demeter or by her own mind, folding in on itself. She didn’t care. Persephone at least had someone. She had her Mommy. What did Lyra have now? Pain, agony, despair? 

“I know you’re hurting, Persephone. But Mommy can make that all go away for you. You don’t have to be Lyra anymore. You can just be Persephone, my beautiful daughter with a loving Mommy who will always take care of her. There’s no point in maintaining yourself any longer. No one knows who Lyra is anymore. If you become Persephone, there’s no proof of your existence as Lyra in the world. Just say the words, my daughter, and I’ll rescue you from this. You won’t need to suffer.” 

Persephone looked into her mother’s eyes, her own red and bloodshot from crying. There was no fight left in them. They looked completely defeated. 

“Please…Mommy…” 

Demeter chuckled and grinned. It wasn’t a grin of soft warm love. It was the grin of a madness, of someone who had finally won. Persephone couldn’t care to tell the difference. 

“Of course sweetie. Mommy is here for you.” 

---

Persephone yawned loudly as she woke up in bed. She had sworn that she had just had a bad dream of some kind, but thought little of it. Mommy had told her that she might suffer from bad dreams as a result of taking in so much ambrosia at one time. It was a part of growing into the divinity, and doing it quickly tended to have some side effects. But it was the start of a new day, and Persephone was excited. Mommy had said she had some kind of special surprise planned, and she wanted to make the most of it!

Persephone immediately walked over to the closet and opened it, thinking about what she wanted to wear today. It had to be something gorgeous, something that would fit her status as a goddess. Especially if that surprise means that Persephone was going to have to meet people. She needed to look her best, not just for her own sake, but also to make her Mommy proud. She eventually chose one of her pure black dresses. She quickly put it on and admired herself in the mirror. The material was soft, but wasn’t like the silk that was common with her other outfits, and the dress had lots of frills and pleats as it went down made of more of that soft material. But the real reason she had chosen this dress was because of how it made her breasts look. It was both strapless and quite low cut, and she knew that her Mommy loved how those dresses made her cleavage and breasts look incredibly sexy. It was her own little surprise for Mommy. 

She walked over to the Dryad tree in her room to do her daily routine…before realizing that she felt no need to do it. The flowers smelled good and she loved to sniff them as much as she could, but they weren’t putting her into a mindless trance anymore. 

‘That makes sense doesn’t it. They must only work on mortals. I’m not a mortal anymore, I’m the Goddess I was always meant to be. It is such a beautiful tree though…oh!’ Persephone realized that she felt something inside of the tree now that her powers were much stronger. There were two souls buried deep within the tree, and she closed her eyes to manifest her divine power. Soon she was going to be able to do it like Demeter, but for now, she needed more practice. 

“O souls in the Dryad tree, here me. I am the goddess Persephone, daughter of Demeter. I will listen to the words you wish me to hear.” Persephone smiled as the two souls became a lot more clear, and she could hear them. They cried out in anguish and sorrow, and Persephone felt a frown come to her face. 

“You two must have done something horrible to end up in this fate? How have you transgressed, oh souls?” 

“Our daughterrrrr….we didn’t love our daughterrrr enoughhhh….”

“Lyraaaaaa…I’m so sorry Lyraaaaa…I should have been a better fatherrrr…” 

Persephone felt a single tear fall from her face, and she wiped it away. These two must have been turned into the Dryad tree because they weren’t good parents. That made sense to her, since her Mommy was so devoted to being a good mother for her. 

“Oh souls, I cannot ease your pain. Maybe one day I’ll make an entreaty that your souls can be released to the Underworld once your punishment has been deemed sufficient. I’m sure your daughter Lyra is doing well now. If I ever meet her, I’ll make sure to give her a proper blessing as a goddess should.” Persephone looked confused as the two souls seemed to cry out louder in response to that, but she assumed it was just because they were currently trapped, and released the divine power holding the magic together. Soon there was quiet in the room again, and Persephone opened her bedroom door. 

“Good morning Mommy!” She said loudly as she ran over and hugged her Mother who was currently putting up some kind of decoration in the big room. Demeter laughed as she turned around and hugged her daughter close, before looking down and hungrily eying Persephone’s chest. 

“Good morning to you too Persephone and wow…you’ve chosen such a marvelous dress for today…I’m so glad. It’ll be perfect.” Demeter hugged Persephone a little closer, sliding a hand between the two and gently grasping at Persephone’s breast, causing her to gasp. 

“T-thank you Mommy. When is my surprise?” Demeter smiled at how eager her daughter was. 

“In just a bit, darling, I want to make sure everything is ready. It’s going to be a big day for you after all.”