75. The Dream
The Dream
I saw myself walking along
my father’s dark underground river.
It pulsed and stormed, ink black,
as though threatening me.
But I stood upon its banks
glaring back at it unafraid.
And then, from the abyss,
a large divine face emerged,
the water’s violent waves
helping it rise to the surface.
It was the face of a God I did not know.
Bearded, handsome, but with a glint
of cruelty in his eyes. Soon,
the rest of him emerged
until everything around him
was dwarfed. The river,
the riverbanks, myself.
His hand pushed upward
and I realized he was pushing
at the floor of Oceanus’s palace.
As his hand pushed, the palace
walls began to fall,
and fall,
and fall…
Until finally I awoke,
feeling like his hand
was wrapped around
my own throat. A piercing cry
of fear escaped my lips,
waking Asteria next to me.
‘Styx?’ Asteria asked with worry.
The look on her face
reflected the fear clawing at my heart.
‘Asteria,’ I said breathing heavily,
‘I did not mean to wake you.’
She shook her head.
‘Tell me what you saw.’
Asteria knew the aftermath
of a prophetic dream well enough;
her own came frequently.
‘I…’ I struggled to find words
as she handed me a goblet of nectar.
‘My father’s palace…
Something is…
something is coming, Asteria.’
She waited patiently as I gathered
my thoughts. ‘It was a God I did not know.
A God emerged and he destroyed—’
The fear closed my throat again.
I took a deep shuddering breath.
‘Something is coming for us all.’