39. Styx Picked One of the Red Flowers
Styx Picked One of the Red Flowers
and looked at it carefully.
Then she turned to me and asked,
‘I assume that these are your creations?
What called to you to create them?’
I nodded. ‘It was almost like
the prophecy voices I hear,
but different. It felt like a dream
but it was not, it was…’
But Styx was already walking
toward the violet flowers
beyond my crimson creations.
She paused there for a long time.
Her face was torn between
wonder and thoughtfulness.
‘Do you remember
what happened to Ouranos?’
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘After Kronos
cut off his manhood, his blood sprang free
and where it landed, it gave us the giants,
and the Furies, and ash-tree nymphs.’
Styx gazed down at the violets.
‘And these have been here for
as long as you know?’
I picked through her trail
of thoughts and realized
what she was suggesting.
‘You think that these violets
are born from divine blood?’
She had a faraway look
in her eyes now as she stared
from the violets to the sea.
‘I think ichor has done
stranger things than this.’
Then she turned to me.
‘And I think you were right
to keep this strange garden a secret.’
She did not ask the question
of what my crimson flowers were for.
And yet it told me that no one else
but Styx and I should know
that I made them.