“I beg your pardon?” Erebus blinked rapidly as he stared at the small smile that appeared on her face.
“The reason you have come to Zeus’s side. Nyx doesn’t care for any of this.” She waved at her surroundings. “I suspect I am only still here because it’s where I am at peace. The only thing the Goddess wants is… those she loves, close to her.”
The words cut through Erebus like a knife as he felt an anger rising in him, a few shadows pooling at his feet. He quickly subdued them and repressed the harsh reaction, not wanting to unfairly unleash his pain on the mortal woman.
“You speak with her often, then?” Erebus realized that this priestess might have a better line to his consort than he did these days. The woman gave a small shake of her head.
“I do not. She does not care much for the rituals of mortals.” She did not sound upset. “I speak with Hecate when she makes an appearance. The women of the Underworld are very invested in one another and the few women topsides who do not care for the world of Zeus.” She laughed as though there was an inside joke that Erebus was missing. He gave a small shrug, resigning himself once more to the ways of women smarter than him.
Erebus gave one long look at the marble statue of Nyx, looking in her eyes as though she was there.
“I’m afraid I’ve made the gravest of errors,” he breathed the words out like a prayer, a solemn oath said in the last temple of his wife. The priestess’s smile widened as she looked at him, nodding in agreement.
“I believe your talents are also best served in the Underworld, God of darkness.” She dropped into a polite half-curtesy, using his formal title for the first time.
“What is your name, priestess?”
The woman’s eyes got wide as she looked up at him.
“Makaria.” Her voice was barely a whisper when she said it.
“Makaria,” Erebus repeated with a nod of his head, his lower half beginning to dissipate into shadows. “I will never forget the service you’ve shown my wife.”
Erebus swept up in his own darkness, blowing out the remaining incense as he disappeared, leaving behind a stunned priestess.
???
Hermes leftHecate’s kitchen quickly after the harsh realization that they were all playing a very different game than they thought. Zeus and Kronos were the least of the immortal’s problems if Erebus and Nyx were unable to come together. He had sensed the gods gathering in Zeus’s great hall and departed quickly, speckles of stardust on his winged heels. Hecate sighed, feeling like she had aged a century in the past few days.
Immortals have too much time on their hands.She shook her head back and forth, leaning down to give her dogs a pat before returning to the utter chaos that was her kitchen. It didn’t take long, using her power, to reassemble everything the way it had been before Nyx and Hades unleashed inside her house.
Next time, power struggles must happen outside.She grumbled, preening once the last jar went back into its nook on the shelf. Hecate grabbed a mortar and began working out some of her frustrations, the fire sparking up higher in her hearth once more. She had only a few minutes of respite before there was a shift in the winds, a new wave of power rumbling through her home.
For god’s sake.Hecate nearly growled, slamming down the mortar with a crack and feeling her power ripple down her arms. The triple head of the maiden, mother, and crone flickered on her shoulders.Whoever is trying to disturb me once more—
“Oh! Clotho!” Hecate startled out loud, cutting off her own thoughts. She stared in awe as Clotho, then immediately followed by Lachesis and Atropos, appeared in her kitchen. They materialized in a shimmer like a fine mist, grim expressions on their faces. Hecate didn’t know the last time that she had seen the Fates leave their home, leave their loom unattended. Had that ever happened?
“It did happen once,” Atropos read her thoughts and responded out loud.
“Happened once.”
“Happened once.” Her sisters repeated her, and Hecate sighed, her hand flying up to her chest, rubbing a spot on her sternum absentmindedly as her mind spun.
“I assume that you are not here for me.” Hecate looked towards the doorway, half expecting Nyx to appear from the room upstairs, where she had been resting.
“You assume correctly.”
“Correctly.”
“Correctly.”
Hecate steeled herself, not used to the ominous way that the sisters spoke as one unit. She pushed the mortar far away from her and looked to her dogs, who were staring at the Fates with their tails tucked.
“I have spoken to her, and Hades tried to convince her as well,” Hecate prefaced their conversation. “We have tried to let her know that Erebus still loves her dearly.” The Fates shook their heads.
“It is not enough.”
“Not enough.”
