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“We have much to discuss, and not enough time. Titus and Octavia would prefer you believe that they created all the gods and goddesses, that even if they were not born of Octavia, it was their ability to create that led to the birth of the universe and the realms as you know them. That’s not true, but those of us who know better don’t care to refute them. We are called Titans, Titus and Octavia and Lairus and me. The Fates know better, though they will never confirm the existence of Titans. The status quo is fine for them. But I will never forgive Octavia for what she took from me.”
I wait, enthralled with her tale. Since my death, we’ve learned so much about the order of the world, from the true powers of the Scepter of the Dead to the existence of not one but two daggers that can kill gods.
“Lairus never wanted a child.” She smiles wistfully, looking away from me to toy with beads that hang off her silver skirt. “It was for that reason that I grew the moonflower. It would bloom for me, and I would tend to it myself while my husband chased the sun around the earth. It was the moonflower that you were born from.”
“What are you saying?” The question barely leaves my mouth. The world is spinning around me. If she’s saying what I think she’s saying, then I need her tosayit.
“I’m saying that I am your mother. You were born from my love of the moonflower, and so it is fitting that you would be the Goddess of Spring and flowers and earth. I returned one night to see the moonflower open, and you were there, just a babe, lying in the center of it. You loved to bask in my light, trying to reach out to catch me. Lairus knew. It was a transgression for me to create life, not because he didn’t want a child, but because Titus and Octavia wanted to be in charge of it. But I had found out about his tryst with Octavia, and so I leveraged that to ensure his silence so I could keep you. Titus was a jealous god. He was allowed his trysts but Octavia wasn’t allowed another lover.”
I finally step out of the water, but only so I can stumble to the sand and listen to her story.
“Lairus told her about you one night, as they discussed their spouses and complaints. Octavia came to me and said I had to give you up or she would kill you, as was her right as Goddess Supreme. Never mind that I was older than her and could have destroyed the earth and all she held dear, including her young son whose eyes were flecked with gold like the sun of his father. She and Titus had created the daggers already, and Titus had the scepter forged for their quiet, dark-haired son. Lairus would never agree to create opposing weapons, and so I had to coax my sweet, beautiful girl into her flower bed with a sleeping draught. I had to let Octavia decide what your fate would be.”
My heart is racing, trying to remember those nights, trying to remember her as my mother. Her story sounds like just that, a story, but something about what she’s saying feels right.
“You wept until I promised to lie down beside you. You were only five, still a child, and I had to leave you. I thought Octavia would take you with her, but she kept you asleep in that flower until she decided to let you out. For what purpose, I don’t know. A wife for her son, perhaps. I don’t know why she released you when she did, but she did. The next time I saw you, you were grown, having emerged from that flower as an adult goddess with no memory of our time together. I never forgave Lairus for telling Octavia about you…not because my husband chose to lie with another and father a child when he wouldn’t father one with me, but because his indiscretion robbed me of what I loved so dearly.”
“I can’t… I…” I cover my mouth with my hand. I don’t want to face this realization alone. I’m afraid I’m about to start hyperventilating from system overload. “Essos,” I whisper, and then he’s there, kneeling beside me. I don’t know how he knew, or if my words were carried to him on the wind, whispering my desperation for him.
“What, my love? What’s wrong?” Essos smooths my hair away from my face, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Esmaray take a step back. Alerted by the movement, Essos spins, ready to defend me, but seeing the Goddess of the Moon standing there makes him falter. He starts to rise but stays instead by my side.
“King of Death,” she greets coolly.
“TheDead—I’m God of the Dead. Why doesn’t anyone see the distinction? And more importantly, why is my wife trembling while you stand there?” Essos glances between the two of us. Indecision is all over his face; he wants to stay by my side, but he also wants to interrogate Esmaray.
“I made some revelations to Daphne that she will have to be the one to tell you about. I just wanted to offer my assistance. I understand your plan is to get my husband to help you by using his son. Lairus has known that Galen is his child since he was conceived. It was quite intentional that they had him. My husband will betray everyone, including Galen, to appease Octavia. It is in your best interests to ensure that your goals align with hers.”
“Does Lairus not care about my brother?” Essos asks, standing up. I slide my hand into his and use him for leverage to get up myself. Not once does he break his focus on Esmaray.
“He does, but for Lairus, Titus’s absence means that he can finally be with Octavia without your father meddling. If anyone were to stand in the way of that, he will forge a new dagger with her and use it to eliminate that threat to his happiness. Take this.” Esmaray tosses something at Essos, and he manages to catch it. He looks warily from what’s in his hand to the woman claiming to be my mother.
“What is this?” He holds it up toward the luminescence given off by the moon goddess, or should I say, Titan, hoping the light will filter through enough to discern the contents. It looks like a reddish liquid inside a small vial.
“It took the blood of two Titans to tear down the veil. The blood of two Titans will put it back in place. Be safe…” Esmaray hesitates, and I can hear the word left unsaid hanging in the air.Daughter.
She’s gone before Essos can question her further, and I’m left trying to reconcile the different tales I’ve been told. We go inside and walk slowly through the house, not saying anything to draw attention to ourselves. My husband waits till we’re in our bedroom before he starts to interrogate me over what just happened.
“Start over,” he says, running his hand through his hair.
“According to Esmaray, I’m her daughter, and she’s something called a Titan. It seems the God and Goddess Supreme are not the only ones with the power of creation.”
I’m standing beside Essos, but barely, as he tries to change the geography of the puzzle in his mind. There are revelations that came with this day that none of us expected. When I sway, Essos gathers me into his arms.
I let him undress me and bring me to the shower as I consider what Esmaray said. That she’s my mother. My origin story as a goddess was that I emerged from a moonflower, fully formed, an adult who went to Solarem University so I would learn of the other gods and different powers.
Essos pushes me onto the shower bench before squirting my shampoo into his hand. My eyes drift shut, and I let him lavish attention on me.
“It could make sense,” he muses, so quietly I can barely hear him over the sound of the shower.
“What could?”
“I always told you that you were more powerful than we thought. What if this is why? What if, because you were put to sleep in that flower the way you were, you were never able to realize the full depth of your powers? You were never aggressively ambitious, so it would make sense that they remained mostly untapped.”
“I wonder if your parents knew it when we were dating, and that’s why they were so opposed to us being together. Kai was pulled from the depths of the oceans for Helene. Posey, as far as anyone knew, was just another goddess. The same for Callie. What if my true parentage was why they wanted me to do the Trials? Our union could put us on par with them power-wise. Maybe your parents saw that as a threat. I don’t know how it works. Our being the children of Titans is certainly something I never saw coming.”
Essos’s hands still in my hair. “That feels devious, even for them.” He lets go of my hair and pulls the shower head over to rinse it.
“Does it? Or does it feel right? Just how powerful do you think our little pomegranate is going to be?” My hands fall to my stomach even as my head tips back so Essos can massage my scalp with the shower head.
