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Zoe paused. “I don’t know where people came from, either.”
“Long ago,” said Apollon in his deep, gravelly voice, “before our time In Sanctuary, before the Great Temple Epoch, and before the Hulaic Epochs before that, it was the time of the goddesses and gods. Kyria and Anthros already had fourteen children together, seven sons and seven daughters. Kyria was proud of their Fourteen Scions and loved them with all her heart. But as Anthros watched their heirs grow in power, he was displeased.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Zoe interjected. “Why would he mind? You want Lio and me to be as powerful as you and Mama.”
“Anthros didn’t trust his children the way your mama and I trust you and Lio.”
“So Anthros was mean to his own children, too? Not just other people’s?”
“He told Kyria they must not have any more children, because he must keep order among the gods. Kyria was sad, for she wished for more babes to hold in her arms and raise into strong scions. Her children were grown, and her husband left her lonely. So she decided to use her own power of life and growth to make children without Anthros. In secret, she crafted life from the soil, creating seven more daughters to cherish. She hid them from her husband.”
“Just like the mages of Kyria kept us Eriphite children safe from the Order of Anthros.”
“Just like that. But Kyria needed Hespera’s help then, too. When Kyria’s daughters grew into womanhood, she was so delighted with them that it grieved her not to share her joy with her husband. She was sure once he saw the beautiful children she had made, he would love them as she did and welcome them into the family. Promising her husband a wonderful surprise, she dressed her daughters in gowns befitting goddesses and presented them in Anthros’s Hall, where each one cast spells to show the great talents for healing and growth their mother had given them.”
Cassia drifted closer to Apollon and Zoe. She paused behind a tall shelf. Under a work table across from her lay the statue of a golden, sleeping lion.
“Anthros must have been proud of them!” Zoe said.
“No,” Apollon replied. “He dishonored his wife’s precious gift.”
Zoe gasped. “He dishonored a gift?”
“He was angry at Kyria for disobeying him and outraged she had created life without his help. He decided he must make an example so no gods would ever challenge his rule. Before Kyria’s very eyes, he cleaved her daughters’ divinity from them, striking away their goddess-given power. So sundering their magic from the sacred soil they were made of, he divided them into spirit and body. Their spirits he banished from his Hall, casting them into Hypnos’s realm and decreeing that his brother should bind them there for all eternity. Their bodies fell lifeless before Kyria. The other gods and goddesses had never seen a punishment so terrible. They called it mortality and learned to fear Anthros anew.”
The lion statue stretched. Cassia jumped and pressed a hand to her mouth. The enormous cat stood up and fixed her with a reflective gaze. Knight bared his teeth.
“That can’t be the end of the story,” Zoe protested.
“Of course not,” Apollon assured her. “Death is never the end of the story.”
The lion yawned at Knight and padded away in the direction of Apollon’s voice.
“Kyria was full of grief,” Apollon said, “but too frightened of her husband’s anger to challenge his ruling. All the way in Sanctuary, Hespera heard her fellow goddess weeping, and her heart was moved by Kyria’s pain.”
Cassia caught her breath and walked onward.
Apollon’s voice was much closer now. “Hespera hastened to Kyria in secret. She found the bereaved mother crying over the lifeless bodies of her daughters.”
Shrouded figures surrounded Cassia. Statues, half-formed or unrevealed, stood draped in white sheets.
“‘Why has my brother Anthros, your husband, done this terrible deed?’ Hespera asked Kyria.
“‘He thinks my daughters hideous and unnatural,’ Kyria lamented.
“‘Nothing that lives is hideous or unnatural. Your children are wondrous, and so too is your love for them. Do not despair, for there is yet hope for them.’
“‘They are handmaidens in your brother Hypnos’s court, now. Even if you could convince him to release them, Anthros would only strike them down once more.’
“‘Leave Hypnos to me. I will spirit your daughters away, and Anthros need never know. He will not hurt them again, and he will not punish you.’
“‘If you take my daughters to Sanctuary, I cannot visit them. Anthros would find out.’
“‘I will soon make a place for them where you can come and see them grow and work their magic.’
“And so saying, Hespera carried the lifeless bodies of Kyria’s daughters to Sanctuary. Into the bodies Kyria had made from the soil, Hespera placed a heart and filled it with her own blood. Hypnos was angry, but he could not hold those of his sister goddess’s blood in his realm. He had no choice but to relinquish the seven women’s spirits to Hespera. They returned to life, strong in magic and the will to survive. But they were no longer as powerful as goddesses because of the wounds Anthros had dealt them.
“Hespera called upon Kyria’s brother Demergos and his wife Chera to help her make a safe home for the women. Demergos gave them fertile fields, and Chera gave them pure, sweet rain. Hespera grew thorny plants and created fanged beasts to guard them, and she named the world Akanthia.”
