Persephone shook her head, perched high up and out of reach but perfectly well able to see as Cerberus snapped and growled and whined at himself, one set of ears back in a threat, another quirked with confusion, the third pressed down flat avoiding the snapping fangs of the first. . .

Hades approached the huge dog fearlessly, hands out but not holding collars or chains, merely empty, and she could see his mouth move as he crooned to the great guardian - created, once, by someone who no doubt never thought of a dog's simple mind trying to comprehend self-yet-other in such a way as Cerberus lived - and stroked his necks.

Cerberus calmed slowly under his master's hands, heads lowering and beginning to move in concert once more, tail wagging as all three sets of ears perked and muzzles snuffled and pressed at Hades' chest, panting happily as he stroked them, and Persephone smiled.