94. Styx Visited More Often Now
Styx Visited More Often Now
The halls of my palace on her riverbanks
were no longer as empty as they once were.
Since that day in Tartarus,
something had changed.
Ever since then, Styx took her evening
nectar and ambrosia with me.
She would ask me about my day,
and tell me about the souls she ate.
This used to scare me, but I understood
the rules of godhood better now.
I still did not know my gifts precisely.
But one day I walked
to the mouth of the cave the river
came through and found violet flowers.
I put them inside a pot in the kitchen
and carefully stole a thimbleful of Styx’s water.
When I added it to the flowers,
I watched as they turned a vibrant blue,
then a violent yellow and then the whole pot
melted into a mess of yellow metal.
And my halls smelled for days
of a strange fragrance I could not name.
If Styx noticed, she did not say anything.
But Pallas, my uncle, on one of his visits
commented upon it. ‘Have you been burning
Krokos in here? I keep smelling saffron.’
Krokos. That was the name of the first
of many, many flowers I would one day know.
It was also the first time this dark palace
began to feel familiar, like the home
I had once known.