“You are a force of nature. You’ve made yourself into a storm that rages all the more as it feeds upon itself.” She lets her warm hands rest on my cool ones as she continues. “You don’t need the fog anymore. Think of who you could be without it. You expend so much of your energies, keeping it firmly in place. You’ve gotten so used to operating at half power you don’t even remember what it is like to truly unleash.”
“That is what everyone else was saying, Mr. Salvatore. Darkness spiraled out of her chest. It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen before. She is the Goddess of Night, right?”
That being said, Ed was no stranger to the oddities of Nox. His own tale was one of unexplained mystery. Not only did The Fates not work here, but he had never seen them again. Nevertheless, out of all the gods he had interacted with, he had never been more unsettled than meeting Nyx. He had heard the many rumors about her and found it smart to fear what other gods feared.
The crowd held their breath. One of the reasons mortals came to Nox was to be in the presence of a goddess or god, but watching a man burn alive was not what many had bargained for. Even many of the well-adapted bartenders quivered. Horrors of this kind were not typical. Nicholas stopped checking his phone and watched with full attention.
She stood up tall and leaned her head back, letting out a scream so loud it could be felt. A small spark ignited on the tip of her nose, causing her entire body to burst into flames. An inferno of energy exploded from her chest. She had become the light she sought. She became the power that struck fear into others.
The air burns my skin and pierces my airways. Normally, I’d travel through the night or with the aid of my wings. However, I am too tired to command much of anything at all. I must walk and wander as if I am another soul seeking the unknown exit. I am seeking the comfort of a past life and normalcy. What could be more mortal than that?
I heard the echo of childish laughter on the wind. Tensing, I scanned my surroundings, but relaxed when I realized it was just the remnants of a memory triggered by the sight of my blood. I was unique among the gods until that day long passed. It was a memory that filled me with warmth and ultimately revealed the answers to an eons-old mystery.
The air burns my skin and pierces my airways. Normally, I’d travel through the night or with the aid of my wings. However, I am too tired to command much of anything at all. I must walk and wander as if I am another soul seeking the unknown exit. I am seeking the comfort of a past life and normalcy. What could be more mortal than that?
I stand and stretch my body, feeling my joints crack and connect. I reach for the gray sky and let out a howl to let the Underworld know I am alive. I expand my wings far and wide. They sting, and I flinch. Not yet, I am not able to fly just yet, but I already knew that. I am far too weak in both body and mind.
“Hello,” I say again, but no one responds. Yet, I don’t feel alone. This house has life inside of it, despite the decomposition. The Underworld is full of hard to explain energies. At times it is best not to force an explanation. Energy has a funny way of eventually explaining itself.
“Unfortunately, the sight of him covered in the lion’s skin scared everyone and the stories of his heroics grew even grander, which caused him to get a bigger head and become more insufferable. And of course, every time Alcaeus did something amazing, Zeus wouldn’t shut his big mouth about it for years!”
The air burns my skin and pierces my airways. Normally, I’d travel through the night or with the aid of my wings. However, I am too tired to command much of anything at all. I must walk and wander as if I am another soul seeking the unknown exit. I am seeking the comfort of a past life and normalcy. What could be more mortal than that?
I decide to plant my feet, force my blood to pump and pound, my muscles to constrict and contract. There is an ache in my knees and weight in my head, throbbing pains. My physical body has not been used in some time, and it howls for me to continue to drift amongst the shadows.
“It was around this time that Zeus and I started going through a particularly good period. I don’t know if he was distracting me on purpose, but I wasn’t paying much attention to the mortal world. Not long after the snake incident, Alcaeus’s mother set him in the woods, apparently hoping to avoid my wrath. Had I known about it, I would have taken his life and been done with him.”
This was a predicament I did not expect to find myself in. A Primordial and a God of the Pantheon at a convention. My mind reeled to find the punch line to that joke.
