195. I Began to Understand
I Began to Understand
Styx refusing to allow me to talk
to the dead or other immortals.
Pallas forbidding Thanatos
from speaking to me.
The way the boy’s dog
rose to life at my touch.
Why I loved the mortal dead
in the Asphodel Fields with their stories.
Pallas was speaking softly now,
his voice distant in my haze.
‘The capacity to bring the dead
back to life is something even Hades
does not possess, and neither does
Thanatos, who is death itself.
If Zeus found out…’
He did not finish his sentence.
‘This is why we had to keep it,
and you, a secret,’ said Styx softly.
She reached for me but I stepped back.
They had lied to me.
I stared at them.
‘Is there more?’
They exchanged a look
and hesitated.
‘There is,’ I breathed.
‘You will tell me now,’ I demanded.