Page 150 of Styx

the seed of a stardust tree.’

I stared at him.

Why would she need this?

It dawned on me in that moment.

Metis was collecting ingredients.

Asteria and I stared at each other.

Wordlessly, language became realization.

Metis was making a spell.

I Had Always Known She Was Different

Treated as an unholy secret

when she was born,

turned into a Goddess

by virtue of a strange fate,

I had always known

that Metis was destined

for other things. Like me,

she was born with ambition.

Like me, she was strange-faced,

But with white hair and yellow eyes.

All those years spent with Asteria and me,

as we worked and made strange things,

eels and starfoxes, crabs and starfish,

turning flowers into pastes

and learning a nameless art,

we always thought Metis and Leto

were simply sitting there observing.

Glad to be with us while we made

a strange alchemy happen.

Leto was observing.

But Metis?