55. Tethys’s Chambers
Tethys’s Chambers
I knew how much my father
loved my mother the first time I saw
the chambers he had built for her
above his great winding river.
When she told him the prophecy
of all the children she would bear,
he gathered the pearls of every oyster,
plucked sapphires from the seafloor,
and found the brightest marble from
as far as he could go into the earth’s core.
He returned and built her this part
of the palace, every room made
of rich marble, carefully carved
windows spilled light everywhere
inside, and the sapphires and pearls
reflected the glow of the sun
into her chambers. My father knew
that to be wedded to him was also
to be wedded to his spending his time
underground as this was where his river ran.
So he built my mother the opposite,
a place of sunshine and warmth
where she could birth their many children
in a peaceful place full of light and breeze.
But today as I ran into these chambers,
I saw only the storm gathered above.
Darkness shadowed the room,
the sapphires looked onyx,
and even the pearls a threatening grey.
My mother was lying in her bed
and to my surprise, Asteria’s mother, Phoebe,
was there, holding a cloth to her forehead.
When Phoebe moved,
my eyes widened as I saw why.
It was only us in this room.
My mother’s womb was swollen
with a child she had sworn
to Kronos that she would not have.