She landed on the floor with a thud, her headache making a surprise comeback at the sudden movement. Much to her surprise, through, it wasn’t hard stone beneath her, but rather a plush, soft rug. She propped herself onto her elbows and looked up.

Spread before her was an expansive set of rooms. She was in some kind of main living area, the floor covered in a large rug and several chairs beyond that. A fire place stood central on the wall in front of her, leaping flames eating the logs within. On the left a doorway was propped up by a pile of books, and she could see shelves beyond. To the right through an arching doorway was a large bed, canopied and hidden from view. All of this, though, paled in comparison to the windows, one on either side of the fire place, for one specific reason: outside, it was dark.

Risa scrambled to her feet and ran to it, momentarily forgetting why she was there in the first place. She pressed her hand to the glass only to jerk it back immediately, shocked to find that it was cold. There air in the underworld had never been cold and the sky had never been dark… so where was she?

She backed away a few steps, looking around once more. Leo wasn’t there, and she assumed that was who she was sent to see. At least, that was who she wanted to see. But maybe— Hades? She felt her hands start to quiver and her head throb at the possibility. She heard something from the room on the left, with the door propped open, and thoughtlessly took a step back.

She contemplated going back through the portal, telling Eva that the room was empty, and hiding until Leo showed up, but she doubted that would go over well. She was going to do it anyway, until she heard a gentle, low humming accompanying a shuffling of papers.

She knew that tone, Risa realized with a start, that voice. She had only heard it like this once, but she recognized it nonetheless. “Le…o?” She called out hesitantly, and the humming stopped. Hardly a second later, he appeared in the doorway.

“What are you doing in here?” He looked at the empty wall behind her as though it would explain why it let her through. “It was Eva, wasn’t it? I specifically told her not to bring you here unless—” he trailed off, looking at her, but Risa was too busy being relieved to find Leo there and not Hades. “Unless something important happened. What is it?”

His tone demanded answers, but Risa had too many questions. “Why is it dark outside?” She asked. “Why is it cold?” She tried to hold the waver out of her voice. “I— where are we?” She couldn’t decide which was worse— that the answer be a further depth of the underworld, or back home. Either would shake her, and she was shaking enough on her own.

“We can discuss that later,” Leo said, though from the look in his dark eyes there would be no “later” if she didn’t tell him why she was there. He motioned to a chair with an incline of his head, and she sat down.

Leo came and sat opposite of her, leisurely stretching back in the chair and crossing his legs. He looked absolutely formidable when he did that, as though nothing in the world— or underworld— could reach him. He entwined his fingers on his knee, just as he had the first time she met him sitting on the throne. He was the perfect picture of the King of the underworld, even if he wasn't.

“So tell me what happened.”

He left no room for debate and so Risa took a breath and brought herself back to the original reason why she was here; she had succeeded in releasing a spirit. She said as much, and Leo, already still in his seat, seemed to turn into a statue.

“Already?” He finally said after a noteable pause. “But…” he looked her up and down in a way that he never had before, and Risa found herself squirming in her seat. “But you are still part human.”

“Is that a problem?” She asked, thinking back to his similar reaction when she went through the portal.

“Evidently not,” he continued, head cocked slightly to the side as he thought. “Or rather,” he mumbled, “it might be the answer.” He looked Risa up and down one last time before pushing himself up from his chair, long legs uncrossing gracefully, and went towards the room he had come from. “Come with me,” he commanded, and Risa followed obediently.

He slid between the door and the frame with a thoughtless ease that came only from repetition, while Risa carefully picked her way around the few scattered books on the ground. “Excuse me…” she mumbled by habit as she pushed her way in, sticking her head around the door first before entering completely. Leo was already settled over a large wooden desk, someplace he clearly spent a great amount of time considering the mound of papers there. Across the room were several well-organized book shelves, tall rolling ladders attached to the tops.

Risa followed Leo to the desk, looking down at the papers he was staring at. There were countless notes scribbled across them but they hardly made any sense, and no words stuck out to her above the rest. “Why,” she began, pausing to organize her thoughts, “do you think being human has anything to do with… anything?” Her ending was weak, but he would understand. Leo leaned closer to the desk, long hair hanging in his way, but he ignored it completely and picked up one particular paper from the mess.

“Because none of the previous Queens have been.”

“I’m sorry?” She said, unable to follow. Leo snatched up another paper and compared the two.