into our disintegrating palace,
he had only told us all was lost.
No one told us what had happened
to my Titan father after the Olympians
had won control in the Titanomachy.
I had thought about him often,
a God who made me, but I had never met.
The question of him always troubled me.
It visited me in my dreams sometimes.
You see, immortals cannot be killed.
So what happens to them after a war?
What happens to Gods who are defeated
but are cursed to remain alive after?
A grimace crossed Hades’ face
and the hand at his side tightened into a fist.
‘He is here. In the Underworld.’
‘My Father Is Here?’
Maybe the voice calling me was his?
Maybe that was why the light called to me?
Despite it all, I was a hopeful child.
Despite it all, I needed my father.
My heart clung to this idea tightly,
that the voice calling to me
was the voice of my father,
praying for help from the Underworld.
‘Please. You must let me go to him.’
There was a soft sorrow in Hades’ eyes
when he looked into mine.
But within a fleeting second it was gone.
And then he drew himself up
