Page 242 of Styx

The old God jolted.

I blinked back tears.

It was in his palace I had spent

so much of my childhood.

‘First, we will give gifts

to those who joined us.

Your loyalty has not gone unnoticed.

To the Titan Gods. Your realms

will be smaller, your powers fewer,

but you will still rule parts of your worlds.’

Some gift this was.

To have less and lose family

felt like a pyrrhic victory.

Zeus continued,

his eyes roving over us

until they landed on me.

‘Every nymph who stood with us

is now to be a Water Goddess.

Their realms the sea or river.’

Ah. So this was why I saw

some of my sisters here,

Amphitrite, Doris, Clymene.

Perhaps there had been more

Oceanids who had chosen like me than I had realized.

‘But for Styx, whose consort

Pallas has been essential to our victory,

and her children Zelus, Nike,

and Kratos so powerful on our side,

I anoint her, The River,

whose waters every God