Page 253 of Styx

The ferryman, Charon, was as quiet

as he was kind. And Hades was true

to his word. He never came between me

and my work. I grew to love the silence here.

This mouth of the Underworld

where my river flowed from

almost resembled the cavern

that Asteria and I spent our girlhoods in.

Asteria. I thought about her often.

About her sister and her mother.

I had heard Phoebe and Leto served

at Zeus’s leisure. Poseidon too

held many Titanides hostage.

Hades was the best of three brothers.

He had not taken a single Titanide

and he stayed within his realm.

Pallas and I were closer now.

The chasm between us slowly healing.

It would never be fully healed,

but we were both learning different ways to love

inside this strange place.

Perhaps this ending was hard won.

But in ending there is a beginning.

And in beginnings there is hope of a new dawn.

Epilogue

When I was born, my grandmother prophesied

that I would not be beautiful,

and that this would mean I would lack power.

My grandmother was wrong.

It was true that I was not beautiful,