I realized as I looked at him,
this boy-God-King,
whatever he was in these realms,
that at one point in his life
he had been just a Godling like me.
Before he was King of the Underworld
he used to be just like me.
And perhaps he too recognized
loneliness well.
‘Why Did You Come Here?’
His question was quiet
but I could feel the curiosity
and the fire behind it.
I folded my arms around myself.
A sudden feeling of cold
was inside my very bones.
‘I thought I heard my mother.’
I said this quietly,
‘Behind those doors.’
He turned and looked at the doors,
the pool of soft light
that flowed from them.
When he looked back at me
his dark-bright eyes were softer,
and he spoke more gently.
‘That is the world of the dead.
Your mother is not there.
She is an island in a stormy sea.’
‘What of My Father?’
When the messenger had flown
