“You heard Hera.” His companion shrugged, unsheathing his sword. “Kill them all.”
???
Nyx’s screamechoed throughout the deepest parts of the Underworld. It shook mountains and made rivers stop. The very firmaments of darkness trembled, and the world alternated between day and night.
When she heard the first stone fall, she watched with growing annoyance. Hera was petty. Nyx knew Hera would come for her temples on the warpath for popularity. It wasn’t until she saw Hera’s lackeys pull their swords that she went hurtling towards the Fates. She beseeched them and tore at her hair, threatening to plunge the world into darkness, but even Nyx knew that she was not to interfere with their will. Yet, the Fates respected Nyx’s authority and power over all of them, and they knew that Hera was to blame. They cut the acolyte’s strings of life before the women could be defiled, letting them slip into the Underworld like falling asleep.
In the mortal world, with their weapons drawn, the priests approached the women and watched as they fell to the ground before anything could touch them… dead. They felt a cold burst of air and left with their own stories to tell—that Nyx had pulled her acolytes from them at the last minute. She had come after all.
Nyx was at the gates of the Underworld to greet them. She ushered their souls from Charon under the blanket of her blackness, cradling them in her warmth and keeping the bright lights of Asphodel from their tired eyes. A great wave rolled over the meadows, and Nyx took her acolytes to Tartarus. She pressed kisses to the brows of her faithful, thanked them for their work and devotion, and brought their lips to Lethe. Their memories of Nyx and their faithfulness expunged, and she wept as she turned them over to the night to recover. It was all that she could offer them now.
As she wept and watched their disappearing spirits, the darkness amplified and circulated around her as Erebus took a mortal form. He stepped out into Tartarus, looking up into the sky and peering around at Nyx’s immaterial form.
“Come to me,Nýchta.”
Silence.
“Come to me.” His voice dropped lower, sending a ripple of authority out into the abyss. The night responded to him as it personified, Nyx materializing in front of him. Her eyes were wet as she looked up at him through tears.
“Erebus…” Her voice cracked as she stepped towards him. “T–Those women… They t–trusted me…”
He took a few steps toward Nyx and embraced her, his arms wrapping tightly around her body as she curled into reflexively. It was one of the reasons he coaxed her into a human form, where she could feel small—like her burdens could be carried by someone else. By him.
“It’snotyour fault.” His voice was unforgiving as he leaned down, whispering the words directly in her ear and squeezing her tighter to him. “Hera made a command, and the Fates followed through. We’ll never know what for.”
“I should have protected them! I s–saw the temple was f–falling…”
“You don’t give a damn about buildings.” Erebus interrupted her, pulling back and cupping her face with his hands. He let his thumbs stroke her cheeks with a gentleness only Nyx would ever see from darkness incarnate. “As soon as those women were in trouble, you did everything you could.”
“It wasn’t e–enough!”
Erebus’s heart broke as she collapsed against his chest, and he moved his arms around her back. He hated seeing her like this. Nyx was one of the most powerful beings in existence, and she doubted her own abilities half the time.
“It was. TheFatesintervened as much as they dared out of respectfor you.Foryouracolytes, they pulled them from the mortal coil and delivered them to you.”
Nyx didn’t respond, confirming for Erebus that he had made his point. After he waited a few more moments, he maneuvered them down onto the ground. Erebus pulled a tree of shadow from the earth and leaned against it, letting Nyx shuffle between his legs and lay against his chest once more. His hands traced patterns on her back and played with her hair, resuming small ministrations all over her body to keep her calm.
There was no one who knew Nyx like Erebus, who was able to help bottle her power, refill her reserves… In those moments, she wasn’t beholden to the title of night incarnate. She was simply the consort of darkness, at peace at his side. Nyx could surrender her soul and every bit of her tension to him, knowing that he would tend to it with care until she had the strength to pick it up again. Such was the burden of powerful women and the demands the world thrust upon them, the price for daring to be both feminine and strong.
Erebus didn’t know how much time had passed when he saw Nyx’s feet begin to evaporate. Slowly, ever so slowly, she succumbed to her immortal form like she was waking up from a dream. He followed suit, disintegrating into darkness until the two of them were one in the cosmos of Tartarus.
“Hera will pay.”Nyx’s voice echoed only in Erebus’s mind.
“Now is not the time to go after these gods.”Erebus cautioned, preferring to watch and wait.
“I care not what they do to temples, affairs of state, or how they seduce man. Hera will pay for calling for the death of my acolytes.”
“Nyx, Hera is young. She is impulsive.”
“And I’m stronger than her.”
Erebus went to speak, but there was a small crest of power that rang through the darkness. It was subtle but existed, nonetheless.
“One of the gods calls us.”Erebus chuckled, ever amused by how they thought they could call upon the titans.“Shall we indulge them?”
Nyx only laughed, and night and darkness went rolling over the Underworld to Mt. Olympus.
Once they had arrived, Nyx and Erebus assumed their mortal forms and descended from the black clouds that trailed them. They leisurely walked up the stone steps leading to the top, Erebus taking his position trailing Nyx’s righthand side.
