Page 25 of Styx

I had carried within me for years.

My father’s sea-blue halls

filled with tension.

I could feel

all my sisters behind me,

their fretting

only adding to my anger.

Of course, I would have to fight

for our futures all alone.

Kronos’s next words boomed

across the silent hall,

a hidden violence in every word.

‘Who is this insolent child

that dares to speak while

I am speaking!’

But I was not afraid of him.

I had lived a thankless lifetime

in the shadows whilst

my father handed the rivers

I had helped him make

to my brothers, and I had been

midwife to my mother.

I would not back away

and let myself be trampled

by an uncle I had only just met.

It was as though an uncontrollable rage,

one of never being seen,

spoke through me now.

I raised my head in his direction.

‘I am Styx, the oldest child