Hera sputtered audibly as she opened her mouth to retort but was cut off by Poseidon’s chuckle. Her expression quickly turned to one of betrayal as she realized he had joined in. Once again, she recovered quickly.
“Poseidon, I’d love to discuss some recent… matters with you, of a sensitive nature.” There was a singsong quality to her voice that Erebus could also assume wreaked havoc on human men and probably most of the gods. Poseidon only raised an eyebrow at her in response, letting her continue. “If you were to come by my chambers this evening after the banquet…”
Poseidon cut her off with a quick shake of the head. Hera’s face didn’t fall like Erebus expected but quickly morphed into a disappointed but calculating expression.
“For the last time,” Poseidon snapped, leaning in towards Hera with a growl, “I am not going to fuck you to piss off my brother. If you want to play mind games with Zeus, you’ll need another pawn.” Hera’s eyes got wide, but she recovered her composure quickly, rolling her eyes as all touches of softness and wile left her face. She simply turned on her heel and walked off. Poseidon let out an annoyed sigh and looked at Erebus.
“Everyone here is playing a game. I meaneveryone.The Underworld is different, it’s…”
“Better?” Erebus replied with a remorseful tone as the gravity of his decisions kept rolling over him in waves. Poseidon shrugged.
“More straightforward. We all know you’re the most powerful one here.” Poseidon gave a little wave of his arm, gesturing at the great hall and all the gods gathered within it. “I’m not saying this to belittle that. But if there is anything that you’re not used to, it’s the mind games that take place in Olympus.”
Erebus opened his mouth to respond when Poseidon’s eyes flickered behind him. He turned around to find him face-to-face once more with another god; this time it was Athena.
“Erebus!” she cooed, grabbing his arm in a way that nearly mimicked Hera’s. “It’s beenages.”
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a conversation,” Erebus deadpanned, looking down at where she was holding onto him until she dropped her hand. Athena only smiled.
“Then I think we should change that, don’t you?” She took a step closer, and Erebus looked at her with disdain.
“You can’t be serious right now.” He let out a dark chuckle, one of his shadows curling around Athena’s ankle and tugging her a few steps away from him. She let out a small cry of disgust and tried to kick the shadow off her like she had stepped in mud. When it dislodged, Athena looked up at Erebus with a furious expression.
“I can’t believe you’d even care about Nyx, of all the immortals,” she hissed. “They say she turns souls to stone in Tartarus. Stone! How can you not even give mortals peace in death?” Erebus’s face contorted in rage, and he stepped forward, feeling his power beginning to ripple under his skin.
“Where did you hear that from?”
“I—”
“That’s enough.” Poseidon stepped in between them. “Athena, get lost. Erebus, let’s go.” He turned and grabbed Erebus’s shoulder, walking them both outside to get some air. As soon as the doors shut behind them, Erebus let out a roar of frustration and ran his hands through his hair.
“Can you believe that? What the hell is her problem! Goddess ofwisdom,are you kidding me?” Poseidon only shrugged.
“I suppose she thought it was wise to get a primordial on her side before a war.”
“By insulting my consort and making feeble attempts at seduction?” Erebus spat and looked at Poseidon in bewilderment, who slowly nodded his head.
“Yes. That’s how everything works here. I promise insulting someone’s wife and flirting with them would work with every god in that room.”
Erebus groaned, leaning his back against a marble column and staring up at the heavens.
“What have I gotten myself into?”
23
It was barely dawn when Erebus watched Helios depart from Mt. Olympus, sleep having evaded him all night. He had sat around with Poseidon in the great hall for another hour before he couldn’t fake interest anymore. Every interaction seemed fickler than the last; he had started to pine for the honesty of the Underworld. There was no need for pretense when the trappings of the mortal world had been stripped away. Each of the gods had slipped away to spare rooms, dark hallways, and corners of Olympus at all hours of the night. Erebus had observed them all from the darkness, sitting on the side steps of Zeus’s pantheon, watching as night fell and studying its essence. It felt different. This was Nyx working alone, and it pained him.
He watched as the gods played their games under the nocturnal cover, in awe at how little they perceived the night around them. It meant nothing to them, like it was always guaranteed and Erebus struggled with the idea that it wasn’t.
I wonder if it’s still night in the Underworld.His thoughts turned to his consort, to how she was handling his absence, or if she cared at all. Erebus watched the retreating darkness with a sense of unfamiliarity and confusion as he pushed himself up off the steps. He had to get out of there. It had only been a day, and Mt. Olympus was stifling him. His gaze turned out over the valley from the steps of Zeus’s temple where he was hiding, and Erebus made an impulse decision to visit the mortals below. Typically spending his time in the Underworld, he wasn’t used to being so close to the lives of man. As he slipped away and began the long walk down the mountain, he shed parts of his immortality as he went.
Erebus was in his body, and he let some of his more betraying features fall away, each step he took making him appear more mortal. His hair stayed dark and curled at his brow but lost some of its luminescence. A dullness took over his eyes. The slight gleam to his skin faded away as though blood ran through his veins, not ichor. By the time that he had finished his descent, he looked like any other mortal man—albeit a devastatingly handsome one.
It was a short walk to Litochoro, and Erebus was utterly lost in his thoughts, distracted as he turned his head over his shoulder to look up at Mt. Olympus disappearing into the clouds behind him. He passed men and their carts on their way into the square, the occasional woman sitting beside him. Erebus was distracted by every couple, each person he saw in a subtle act of intimacy. It seemed to hit him in the chest. He tried to distract himself as he stared at the olive trees and the red dirt road, studying intently how it clung to his sandals when he walked.
Before long, he glimpsed the great archway marking the town’s furthest borders, sentries walking up alongside the wall. There seemed to be more than usual, spears in hand, swords at their hips, even a few archers kept their eyes on the winding road as it disappeared into the horizon. Erebus turned to a man beside him, hauling a handcart full of fish.
“There seem to be more guards than usual here, no?” He raised an eyebrow, his gaze flickering from the top of the walls to the fisherman. The man looked up, squinting against the early morning sun before shrugging and dropping his gaze back down to the ground.
