Page 51 of Styx

I touched her hand gently,

holding the flower against it.

And that was how

the first starfish was born.

A creature Styx and I made together.

Reasons for Secrets

I had been raised not to keep them.

In the house of the God of Intellect,

there was no point in keeping secrets.

He and my mother would find out,

or Leto would draw them out of me.

But when my Oracles in my mind

chattered too loud and my mother

had taught me how to hide them,

I understood that my gifts were not

always understood nor welcome.

A gift of prophecy always made

Gods without such talents wary of me.

I could see what even the God-King

could not see, into posterity.

And so any new gifts I found,

like my gift of crimson flowers,

I knew well to hide them.

There was only so many unusual powers

Goddesses could hold

before the Gods put restrictions on us

the way Kronos had on Styx

and her sisters.

More Practice

While we had learned