45. Sea Glass and Spellwork
Sea Glass and Spellwork
Styx and I collected all the sea glass
we could find on the shoreline
between our fathers’ palaces.
We arranged our colourful glass –
turquoise, amber, emerald, ruby –
in a circle, and I tried the same trick
that Styx did. I attempted to use
my feelings to transform
the sea glass into other things.
I closed my eyes and imagined
the emerald sea glass in my hand
was a sapling, a leaf, something
living. Something breathing.
When nothing happened,
I lifted a ruby sea glass
and tried to envision
my crimson flowers.
Again nothing happened.
‘It took me time too,’
Styx said with quiet encouragement.
‘Perhaps we should try it another way.’
I nodded reluctantly,
sighing in disappointment.
‘Perhaps I must use something living.’
I went into the cave and picked
up the flowers we had brought back with us.
I lifted one crimson bloom
and studied it carefully,
then ran back with it to Styx.
She handed me the ruby sea glass.
I closed my eyes and murmured softly
that the piece of sea glass
was now a scarlet flower.
A strange sensation filled
both my hands. Warm and kind,
full of awe and wonder.
I opened my eyes and looked down
At the piece of glass in my hands.
Except it was no longer sea glass.
My cupped hands held crimson flowers.
Styx clapped her hands in delight,
the happiest I had ever seen her.
‘Asteria,’ she breathed,
‘look at what you can do.
You took a piece of sea glass
and made it into something living.’
And whilst this was small
compared to Styx’s creations,
the fact that I had managed to create
without waiting for permission
from a dream or a calling
felt like powerful in a way
I had never felt before.
And the voices in my head sang.