Page 243 of Styx

must swear an oath to.

She will be the great river

who tends to the dead

as their souls come to the Underworld.

Her name will be on the lips

of every God, of every mortal.

She will be revered and feared by all.’

Is It Still Called Victory If No One Celebrates It?

Neither my children’s faces

nor Pallas’s face lit up for me.

My sisters did not seem

to delight in their wins either.

Instead, we all stood stoic and still,

our eyes on Zeus. A palpable fear

rose amongst the tired Titans

as he turned his attention

to the Titan generals

he held in the cages.

‘Every Titan who stood against me’ –

his voice was cold and callous –

‘will be taken to Tartarus.’

This we had expected.

But what he said next

devastated every one of us.

‘You may have wondered why we chose

Olympus as our seat of power.

This mountain sits atop

the deepest of Tartarus’s caverns.

We have asked a favour from the old God:

He says he will help us with these treacherous Titans.