BROUGHT TO THE HALLS
OF NIGHT WHERE YOU WILL
EXPLAIN YOUR PURPOSE
FOR THIS INTRUSION.’
I winced at the wordintrusion.
But before I could acknowledge
the message, a hurricane of darkness
swept me off my feet,
turning everything around me
into a swirling abyss.
The Goddess of the Night
It was as though a black river had attached itself to every pore of my skin. It was unforgiving and hot and I hated it as I struggled to breathe through it. Fortunately the feeling did not last long as I was left on a smooth, cool floor, gasping in the musty air. Like a sentient being rather than fog, the black river seeped away as if it had been dismissed. As my eyes cleared from the dark abyss, I saw where I was. This room was shaped like a dome. Around it a hundred altars smoked with prayers from distant mortals far away. It seemed like there were no windows here at first glance, but I realized that the giant arched windows did exist as the glitter of thousands of stars gleamed through them. A throne made from a million diamonds shone from the centre of the room. And on this throne, her head adorned with a coronet carved from the glowing heart of a dying star, sat the Goddess of the Night, Nyx. Her face was youthful but her eyes were ancient, a glinting pair of onyxes the colour of her skin. It did not take a second glance to determine what I already knew. She wasfurious. Perhaps the rumours were just rumours. Perhaps Goddesses were as unwelcome as Gods were here. And I was not even a Goddess. Just the child of two forgotten Gods.
‘COME HERE, CHILD’
Her voice was softer than it was
in Kronos’ cave, but I could still hear
every monster of the night it hid inside.
I shuddered, a cold in my veins.
I knew she did not like uninvited guests
inside her realm, and I had disobeyed.
Slowly, I stood on my own two feet,
and began to walk towards her, inch by inch.
I summoned all my courage.
But as I was walking,
I saw him, the dark-robed
figure with a kind face at her side.
It struck me in this moment
that this was the boy
who helped me with Cerberus.
But what was he doing here?
Why would he be
