Page 208 of Styx

He came into this world with a wail so loud

Nike covered her ears

before cleaning and swaddling him.

When she placed Kratos on my chest,

I was startled to see that like me,

he had split eyes. Of all my children,

he was the loudest, the angriest,

and perhaps this was why he looked

the most like me. But where I wore

my rage with a repression,

Kratos embraced his. When

he was taken by his sister and aunts

to meet his grandfather,

I fell back into the comfort

of a deep sleep. Until I heard

the knock, knock, knock.

I turned to the balcony,

where the sound was coming from,

and there she stood.

Metis, in all her treacherous

glory. Gone was

her black shroud.

She now wore fine clothes

made of golden silks.

Upon her head was a golden wreath.

And I noticed the sword

by her side, an adamantine

atrocity, large and brutal.

But I knew from her face,

she was not here to harm me.