“A show, you know.” Zeus squirmed. “The other gods… They need someone to lead them when this is all over. You know…” He was repeating himself, thoroughly flustered. Nyx savored it. She knew that he would never truly give her an ultimatum; he couldn’t. Her power outlasted him in every way. The only reason that she had requested to get him alone was for her own enjoyment in watching him squirm.
“You’re a fool.” Nyx raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to one side as if she was studying him. Zeus’s eyes snapped up to hers for the first time, and a little bit of fight appeared in his eyes.
Ah. The pride. You can always get a man to lash out when it’s their pride.
“I would think that you still owe me a little bit of respect. We can at the very least, chat as equals.”
Nyx exploded in an array of dark clouds, stars and magic flooding the small space, as her eruptions of laughter echoed around them. Zeus’s face got redder the more that she laughed, and he stood, both of his fists shaking.
“You listen to me, Night—”
“No.” Nyx silenced him in a moment. Her voice dropped an octave, reverberating around the room in its command that left no room for argument. Her magic slipped down Zeus’s throat, making it look like he was drinking tar. “You will listen to me,Zeus.You and your other gods are nothing. You spend all day looking at man and convincing yourself that you are great… but look at me, Zeus. Gaze!”
Her magic poured out of his eyes, and the God of lightning wept black tears. He gagged and sputtered, black spit getting caught in his beard. The night continued to spin around him.
“Are you so great now? God of lightning?” Nyx laughed, and it shook the room as she caused lightning bolts to streak across the ceiling. Zeus grew even more enraged, struggling to stand to his full height. When he finally did, he unleashed one great bolt of power and sent it up into the clouds around him.
Nyx’s power caught it and fizzled it out, like damp fingers pressing out a candle. Zeus’s eyes got wide in horror as he stumbled backward and fell over the bench behind him. Nyx’s dark power was still pouring from him as he struggled to catch his breath. She watched for a few more seconds… before it all vanished. In an instant, the night sky had disappeared from the room, and it was returned to its previous state. Nyx stood, in mortal form, politely in front of Zeus without a single hair out of place. Zeus was still lying flat on the floor, coughing up the remnants of black power that tinged his skin. Nyx flicked her ebony hair over one shoulder and straightened out a fold in her tunic.
“Erebus and I will be taking no sides.” Her voice was as calm and pleasant as if she was discussing the weather.
Zeus could only nod in agreement as he sat up, staring at her with wild eyes. There was a hatred beginning to brew there as he promised himself that he would not suffer such an indignity again. Nyx ignored it and turned on her heel, going towards the door.
“Oh, and Zeus?” She turned back around and gave him a smile that was dripping with the sweetness of ambrosia. “If I catch word of you ever sending your brothers to talk to Erebus again, I will feed you to Kronos.”
Zeus opened his mouth to scream… but Nyx was gone.
Part II
12
Nyx stepped out of the antechamber. The rest of the gods were none the wiser. They barely looked up from their side conversations and their wine, only seeing Nyx walk down the steps in front of Zeus’s throne. There was no expression on her face. She carried a look of such neutrality that they assumed nothing had come of the conversation with Zeus. It was only Poseidon who took another close look, his gaze flickering between the primordial to the doors that she had closed behind her.
Poseidon sighed deeply, throwing a glance at Erebus. Erebus was entirely focused on Nyx as she crossed the room to him. The pair avoided touching one another, but the way she stood near him betrayed their intimacy. Both began moving seamlessly towards the door, falling in stride with one another. Their movements were synchronized without effort and as they began fading away into their primordial bodies, the very lines that defined them blurred. The gods watched as Nyx and Erebus left, their eyes only then scanning back to where Zeus had disappeared to. When he did not appear, they resumed their gossip and their indulgences. Zeus did not come back to the throne room for the rest of the day.
Erebus resisted asking Nyx what had happened. The fact that she had walked out of the room without the Lightning God said enough; he knew anyway that it wasn’t possible to force Nyx to change her mind. The sun was already setting, and Erebus followed as they didn’t go back to the Underworld. Nyx was getting ready to bring nightfall.
It was an incredible sight. Erebus knew that if the mortals could ever watch it—and see it the way that he did—it would certainly change their minds about exalting these child-gods. Nyx was moving through the skies, only the slightest outline of a body apparent in the clouds. Her form was a dark outline against the fading, pale blue sky. She shook her hair and stars began pouring out from it. Stardust and sparks came tumbling from around her shoulders, circling her with light that could only exist in darkness. Her eyes slowly turned white with moonlight. Nyx blinked constellations from her eyelashes, her diamond tears turning into the greatest of stars in their universe. Erebus watched in perpetual awe as Cetus, Centaurus, and Scorpius emerged where she wept and went galloping into the sky. The constellations, one-by-one, took their place in the heavens. They were still barely legible against the dusk, but Erebus could see them. He could see every part of Nyx as she transformed.
Nyx’s hands went to her face as she wiped away her tears, flicking them away as they descended as shooting stars back towards earth. She rolled her shoulders back as if easing some unknown tension, and darkness began rippling from her body. It poured from her womb, from her breasts, and split her back—and Erebus watched once more as Nyx gave birth to nightfall. The blackness started tracing across the sky like an oil spill, soaking and drenching the earth. Nyx’s face contorted in a silent scream as her power spread all over the cosmos, pushing enough strength from her body to cover the entire world in night. The blackness kept going, the edges pushing over the horizon.
The stars and constellations were still settling into position as nightfall finalized, the last of the light chased away. It was in these few moments in the total obsidian atmosphere of new night that Erebus listened. In her nightfall, it was the sounds that he sought out. The sound of humanity as they released a collective sigh, as fires were stoked, and people went to rest. The sound of mothers relaxing as children fell asleep. The sound of animals, plants, and even the rivers beginning to slow down and release their pent-up heat from the day back to the sky. A collective sigh back to the heavens.
Once the dust had settled, only then did Erebus summon to look up at Nyx. She didn’t look tired, not remotely, but rather bored. After nightfall, she always looked energized but now she just looked bored. The last of her black magic was unfurling around her in wisps of smoke as if she had just been on fire. Nyx blinked a few times, the moonlight leaving her eyes as they returned to normal.
“Nýchta?” Erebus moved towards her in the sky, extending a wave of shadows towards her. There were still a few holdouts over the earth, the last lights of evening, and Nyx always sent out one final wave of power to finish the job. She blinked a few times and looked up at Erebus. There was something in her expression that he couldn’t place. She wasn’t tired—the concept was laughable—but there was something in her gaze that made Erebus question what had happened in the room with Zeus.
“Can you finish the job?” Nyx nodded out towards the horizon, where the last embers of daylight were floating around the Helion’s dust trail. It took all of Erebus’s strength to not react visibly. She took such pride in her work, Nyx hardly ever asked Erebus to tuck in the final elements of nightfall. The last time that she had was the day that Hera destroyed her temple and she wanted to get back to her acolyte’s souls.
“Of course,” he kept his smile warm, “I would be happy to.” Nyx nodded and Erebus moved towards her, pulling Nyx into his arms before she could protest. He felt her soften slightly as he pressed his lips to her brow.
“I’ll finish up. We’ll talk later. Go see Hecate.” Erebus winked at her, knowing that Hecate was the only other person who Nyx would talk to. He rightfully assumed that bond had only grown in the year that their relationship had been further estranged.
Nyx gave him a soft smile, kissing his lips once and disappearing in a cloud of starlight. Erebus watched as the last of the light faded and exploded, a dark wave of shadow, and grew… and grew… and grew… until he blanketed the earth.
???
There was a soft breeze,and Hecate looked up from where she, predictably, had been working at her kitchen table. This evening, the kitchen smelled like cinnamon and rosemary, and her dogs were asleep in front of the fire. Her home was a sacred space, and she possessed the innate ability to know whenever anyone arrived on the property. There were no footsteps as the black energy moved down the hall towards the kitchen, affirming Hecate’s suspicions. She smiled when she felt Nyx’s presence and knew that things had improved between Night and Darkness, but there was a tense atmosphere around Nyx when she entered the kitchen. Hecate knew about Zeus’s summons, and with the energy that Nyx was radiating, she was now surprisingly concerned about how the meeting had gone.
