Page 129 of Styx

it was Styx who opened it.

‘We must talk,’ I told her urgently.

She nodded and left the room.

We headed to the balcony

that overlooked a silver moon

nurtured by my mother, the clouds

reflecting its glow against a midnight sky.

‘Styx,’ I asked her, ‘do you know

what fear feels like?’ Styx stared at me.

‘We are immortal. What do we have to fear?’

I took a deep breath. ‘Do you remember

when we first met in the cave,

and I got trapped underwater?’

Styx nodded, our first meeting

was seared into both our minds.

‘I pictured an eternity,’

I began softly. ‘I pictured an eternity

trapped there, in the water,

with no one to free me or speak to.

I imagined never tasting nectar again,

never knowing love, or seeing the sunlight,

imprisoned forever underwater.

We may be immortal, Styx,

but there are still ways to hurt us. What is

immortality if we have to spend it alone?’

‘Asteria, I had known loneliness

a long, long time before I met you.

I know its pain well.’

She reached out and took my hand.

‘As long as we are together,