206. A Ceremony
A Ceremony
It was the opposite of a feast.
The remaining Titans gathered,
but there was no joy, no chatter.
We knew what was coming.
When I finally saw Pallas again,
he did not hold me nor I him.
We barely acknowledged each other.
Zelus came with me, now that
he was mended. Gold scars
seared across his arms where
I had stitched them back.
Bia, her Goddess in full bloom,
joined us at the centre of Mount Olympus,
as did Nike and Kratos.
My children seemed distant,
different somehow from
how I had raised them.
Only sweet Bia held my hand
and stayed by my side.
Next to Zeus’s throne were
wretched adamantine cages
holding Gods soaked in their own ichor,
defeated and broken.
My uncles, once so proud.
Pallas and Perses’s own father, Crius.
Asteria’s father, Coeus.
My heart ached for the two elder Gods
who had only shown me kindness.
I remembered their smiling faces.
Now they sat huddled behind bars.
I looked away, unable to see this.
It was a stripping of dignity.
And in that moment, I could only think
how grateful I was that neither
my father nor Pallas
were in those cruel cages.
With a pang of love, I glanced at my consort,
but he refused to look at me,
his eyes gazing at the cage
his own hands had built for his father.
It was as though all the warmth
had been drained from his body.
All Titans seemed duller now.
I noticed that none of the Titanides
were there. My heart thumped
What had happened to them.
Finally, Zeus spoke.
‘Friends!
Welcome!
And be glad you chose
the side that was victorious
for it could be you in these cages.’
He used his thunderbolt
to smack at Coeus’s cage.
The old God jolted.
I blinked back tears.
It was in his palace I had spent
so much of my childhood.
‘First, we will give gifts
to those who joined us.
Your loyalty has not gone unnoticed.
To the Titan Gods. Your realms
will be smaller, your powers fewer,
but you will still rule parts of your worlds.’
Some gift this was.
To have less and lose family
felt like a pyrrhic victory.
Zeus continued,
his eyes roving over us
until they landed on me.
‘Every nymph who stood with us
is now to be a Water Goddess.
Their realms the sea or river.’
Ah. So this was why I saw
some of my sisters here,
Amphitrite, Doris, Clymene.
Perhaps there had been more
Oceanids who had chosen like me than I had realized.
‘But for Styx, whose consort
Pallas has been essential to our victory,
and her children Zelus, Nike,
and Kratos so powerful on our side,
I anoint her, The River,
whose waters every God
must swear an oath to.
She will be the great river
who tends to the dead
as their souls come to the Underworld.
Her name will be on the lips
of every God, of every mortal.
She will be revered and feared by all.’