Page 44 of Styx

When I had found this sanctuary, years ago, I never thought it would also become the place where I found my first ally. The palace of my father, Coeus the God of Intellect, was not far from here, which meant that the cave fell precisely halfway between Oceanus’s palace and the house of Coeus, and so, Styx and I began to meet regularly inside this secret place we had decided to share. Styx asked me what it was like to be a Goddess and I led her outside to show her the stars that I could melt at my command. I asked her about her water gifts, and she told me because she was the eldest child of two of the old Titans and despite her father never blessing her, there were some powers that were innate to who she was as a water deity. She had taught herself how to bend water to her will, how to raise a small cyclone if she wished, and how every river and stream had been built by her father with her advice. But with Kronos’s decree, Oceanus had stopped asking for her help and she could feel her few self-taught powers slipping away. I understood. For after Kronos’s words, I had watched how the River Gods seemed much more powerful compared to their nymph sisters, who were now relegated to menial tasks like maintaining the life within their rivers and making the riverbanks prettier. The best they could hope for was a good marriage or to serve a Goddess. I could not imagine Styx doing either. There was a quiet power inside her, like a precious amber stone hiding within, a secret that no one else could see. And yet, every time she was with me, I felt it reverberate.

I Had a Secret Too

At my birth, my father had made me

Goddess of Oracles and Falling Stars.

With this gift also came the voices in my head.

Gods do not work with time in linearity.

We do not have death to march toward.

These voices were from Oracles scattered across time.

They told me stories about who they were.

That they had prophecies about posterity.

That they needed me to guide them.

When I was a child, I spoke to the voices

openly, until my mother pulled me aside

and told me to speak to them in my mind.

Not long after, once when Hyperion

set the sun and I watched it

gleam burnt marigold across

the turquoise ocean, I heard a call.

Asteria. I rose from my bed.

Asteria. I followed it

to the white sand outside my room.

Asteria. And as Nyx painted the sky and Selene,

the Moon Goddess, danced across the dark,

I saw it. The star that called

my name. It was bright red

like a ruby. When I reached out

and plucked it from the sky,

it spoke. ‘Plant me amongst

the violets and watch me grow.’

I did as I was told,