“There you are, Erebus.” Her voice took on a wistful tone.
“You sound like my mother.”
“You don’t have a mother.”
Erebus only laughed quietly in response and took a few more steps toward Nyx, as though he was testing the waters. She raised an eyebrow, and he stopped where he stood. After eons together, they hardly needed words to communicate. They didn’t speak verbally to one another for centuries until the humans had popularized it.
He knew that he had hurt her with his last attempt to push the issue with the god’s growing contentions. Equally, it had wounded his pride that she had brushed him off so quickly. They had found middle ground to continue theirworking relationship,but the changing boundaries of their dynamic were slowly driving Erebus insane.
“Have you spoken to Hypnos recently?” Nyx shifted the subject. She spent more of her time with Thanatos in the Underworld, while Erebus often frequented Hypnos in the realm of men.
“He’s well.” Erebus shrugged, the pleasantries between them made him uncomfortable. He knew Nyx like he knew himself and speaking to her casually, without the traditional intimacy of their conversations, writhed in him like a bad itch. “Everyone sleeps eventually.”
“And everyone dies eventually.” Nyx’s voice got sharp. “Yet, they fear it now. Thanatos is overrun. Do you know they pray to these othergodsto keep him from their doorstep? Thanatos!”
“I know.” Erebus sighed inwardly. He knew how badly Nyx was hurting over her children, especially Death, and how their reputation was being mutilated in Greece.
“He existed before any of those overgrown children. No better than the titans, all of them.”
“It will pass. The realm of men is fickle.” Erebus answered the same way that he always did.
“Yet, you want to join them in their squabbles.” Nyx’s temper found its way to the surface. “If it’s so fickle, why do you care?”
If Erebus could have gone pale, he would’ve.
“That’s different.”
“Enlighten me.”
“You don’t enjoy the light as you have so often reminded us all.” Erebus cursed himself as soon as he said it, knowing that he was pushing it a little too far. Nyx’s power started leaking from her body, waves of black sparks rolling over her pale skin. Erebus rubbed his hands over his face and shook his head.
“Darkness—” Nyx’s voice dropped, taking on a deadly echo that happened when her power was boiling up inside her. Erebus shook his head. She only called himDarknesswhen she was serious or… intimate. She had called himDarknesssince time began and only referred to him as Erebus once mankind had started.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was quiet, sincere. “I didn’t come here to dredge this up once more. You know how I feel about this. The gods and the titans are on the brink of a war and that will affect the humans. They disrespect you these days with their insolence.That’swhy I care.”
Nyx was silent. The only sound in Tartarus was the burble of the river behind them. She turned around, putting her back to Erebus as her eyes followed the water again. He watched her shoulders relax and her power slowly ebb away like the waves.
“I don’t care if the gods respect me. I don’t know why you care what they think, either. You’re so eager to leave behind all that we’ve built.”
Erebus sighed and took a few steps closer to Nyx, stopping when he was just out of arm’s reach from her. He could feel the heat of her body rolling off her in the cool depths of the Underworld, pushing him a little bit more towards insanity. The tension between them was cleaving him in two.
“You spend a lot of your time now in Tartarus.” Erebus attempted to redirect the conversation. “Would you not come up to Elysium? Asphodel? Spend some time at the Gate.”
“Do you know what they say now about Tartarus?” Nyx turned around and faced him. Erebus saw the tears in her eyes.
“Not… Not recently.” His voice got quiet as he realized once more that there was no escaping this topic between them.
“The gods say it is the darkest pit of hell.” Nyx’s voice was stone; her mouth was set in a thin line. Erebus watched as some of her power began rippling over her skin once more.
“It… It is.” Erebus cocked his head in confusion as he looked down at her. “I thought that was why you liked it.”
Nyx shook her head. “You don’tgetit. They say that like it is something to be afraid of. They’re talking about Tartarus like it is the deepest pit of hell, the place where only the world’s worst go. An eternal pit of fiery damnation…or something.”
“They will learn eventually.” Erebus shrugged, debating with himself over moving closer to Nyx still.
“My precious Tartarus,” Nyx sighed, her voice tinged with notes of melancholy. “It’s the darkest level of the Underworld, yes. It’s not a punishment. It’s peaceful. I built it, Erebus. I built it for the souls who were the most tired, the most traumatized.”
“A refuge.”
