“Listen to me.” Poseidon’s voice was dark and stormy, and there was something in his eyes that made Erebus’s shadows start to appear. He stopped short of Erebus, both eye to eye as shadows met the waves behind them.
“I’m all ears,” Erebus growled, feeling threatened by the chaos that the god had brought to his door.
“Everything is not as it seems.” Poseidon shook his head. If Erebus knew better, he would say that the god seemed paranoid. “Whatever you do, donottrust Zeus. You’ve chosen this side, and it’s something I hold myself responsible for—”
“You are hardlyresponsiblefor me, Poseidon. You’d do well to remember who’s the most powerful one of us.”
“I am trying to own up to my part of this if you would listen. Damn it!” Poseidon took a step back and cursed under his breath. He took a deep breath and looked over at Erebus once more. “Zeus is assembling his allies in the mortal realm, at the base of Olympus. War is starting. Your presence has been requested, and I’m trying to warn you.” Poseidon’s voice dropped to a low hiss, and Charon visibly perked up as he listened in.
“You’re here to warn me that Zeus is a tricky bastard? That’s hardly new information,” Erebus snapped, already annoyed with how many people were trying to insert themselves into his affairs.
Poseidon shook his head. “He’s a bastard, but he’s not to be underestimated. I’m warning you now, Erebus. Whatever happens… do not trust Zeus.”
19
Erebus stared Poseidon down, looking at Charon over the god’s shoulder. There was something sinking in his gut and making him unsettled. He was already tense after his fight with Nyx, especially paired with the eternal night that she was plunging the Underworld into without him. Poseidon wasn’t one for idle threats. He might have been partnering with Zeus, but there was something in Poseidon’s eyes that made Erebus wary.
“I’m serious.” Poseidon’s voice dropped and he took another step towards Erebus. The waves of Styx started to pick up behind him, sensing the god’s anger. “There is no going back now, but whatever happens, do not believe a word that he says.”
“What is this?” Erebus snapped, his shadows rising with the water. “Did you not convince me that this was a good idea? Now you think I’m going to fall to Zeus’s side like some lap dog?”
Poseidon only shook his head. There was an expression on his face that Erebus couldn’t quite place, looking somewhere between regret and frustration. Charon watched on, unmoving, occasionally looking over his shoulder at the waves. Potentially wondering how much work was waiting for him on the other side of the river the longer that he watched.
“No… no, I don’t think that. I only wanted to warn you. There is more than one war at foot, Erebus, and you’d be wise to think about what matters most to you. Whatever it is… keep it at the forefront of your mind.”
“Now—” Erebus’s voice was exasperated as a shadow wrapped itself around Poseidon’s ankle.
“Enough.” Poseidon shook his head once and dislodged the shadow, the waves erupting behind him. In the dark of the Underworld, they looked like clouds, crashing and breaking the surface. “I’ve said enough.”
The God of the sea turned and walked back down the pier, giving Charon a respectful nod before he stepped off the edge. Erebus nearly chased him down, but he was gone in an instant. Poseidon disappeared among the water, and it immediately calmed down as if he was an offering it had been waiting for. Erebus paused for a moment, attempting to dissect all the different thoughts running through his head.
He stood there, in the center of the pier on the river Styx, staring out into the abyss. For once in his never-ending existence, Erebus didn’t know where to go. He knew that he needed to follow Poseidon and join the other gods and immortals at the base of Mt. Olympus. But Poseidon’s warning stuck in his mind on loop. What mattered most to him? It was Nyx. He could answer that without a moment’s hesitation and leaving the Underworld with things the way they were broke him.
Charon walked over to Erebus, clasping his father on the shoulders and bending down to meet his gaze.
“Are you having second thoughts?” Charon’s voice was smooth, quiet. He had a way of speaking that acted like a balm. Erebus shook his head.
“I’ve agreed to do this and I will.” He stood up to his full height, rolling his shoulders back. “Poseidon is right, though. I can’t leave just yet. I need to speak to your mother again.” Erebus sighed as if he knew he was headed out on a fool’s errand. Charon only nodded, his face impassive—passing judgement was never his job. He looked over Erebus once more, sucking on his teeth and resigning himself to whatever conclusions he came to with a small shrug.
“If you need a ride to the other side, you know where to find me.” Charon walked away without another word before sliding into his boat and pushing off from the pier. He did it so quickly and gracefully, if Erebus didn’t know any better, he’d call Charon a ghost. By the time he had blinked, his son was gone, and Erebus was off to find his wife.
He dissolved out of his mortal form immediately, letting his form crash into an explosion of shadows. He sent them out in every direction, scouring and combing through the Underworld’s blackness. There was an uncanny feeling as Erebus’s power mixed with the eternal night, and he only paused for a moment to wonder what peril this was causing the Underworld’s other residents. He hardly noticed it. What he did notice was how it felt so ill-fitting now, that his shadows could be pouring through the obsidian waves and feel displaced. It was true, then. He hadn’t made a mistake earlier. Nyx had tossed the Underworld into night and brought the darkness with it, leaving no space for Erebus. She might as well have exiled him.
Unless that’s exactly what she was attempting to do.
Erebus’s inner monologue was unnecessarily cruel although it may have been correct. It didn’t take long for Erebus to find Nyx, however, somewhere beyond the horizon of Elysium. The fields of Elysium were still empty, giving her some semblance of peace outside of Tartarus. He materialized once more, calling his shadows back to him, not wanting to show up in front of her once more and appear confrontational. Erebus knew that she was in the ether above him, could see her ethereal form just barely outlined in the darkness and the clouds, so he waited. The primordial God of darkness sat down in the grass fields of Elysium… and waited.
Time was a difficult concept to an immortal. There was no way to tell how long Erebus waited. He was lost in his thoughts, staring off at the blades of grass as they moved, entombed in the night that had not once ceased. Finally, there was a shift in the wind, and a small column of black smoke poured down from the open skies. Erebus waited with bated breath… and Nyx stepped out of it. She kept her distance, not moving towards him, her expression perfectly blank as if she was etched out of stone. Nyx was barely hanging onto her mortal form, her hair drenched in starlight and her peplos tied with strands of moonlight. She took Erebus’s breath away.
He stood on shaky legs, letting his shadows envelop him, wrapping around his shoulders and pooling around his feet.
“Nýchta,” he pleaded, Erebus sounding broken and small. He looked at her with a lump rising in his throat, his eyes filling with tears as he reached a hand out towards her. “I love you. Please… There has never been anything for me but to exist as an extension of you. No part of me can survive without the magnitude of you as my home. I know you’re angry, but please…listen to me. I’m doing this for you. Everything I have ever done, in each lifetime I’ve lived, is for you.”
Erebus felt the crack in his chest grow wider as Nyx stared at him, unmoving. Her eyes glowed entirely white, and comets shot out from her fingertips, her body composed of an entire nocturnal ecosystem and radiating with power that Erebus knew no one alive or immortal could match. She stood, unmoving, transfixed, as if he was talking to a marble statue in a temple. Erebus had never felt more mortal, pleading with an unmovable god as his pleas fell on stone ears.
“Please…” Erebus tried again, dropping to his knees as he buried his head in his hands, pulling on his own hair until it hurt. “I must go. I have to see this through. I cannot stand the thought of those gods running amok and sullying your good name. I… I just…”
Erebus’s voice trailed off as he looked up at Nyx with tears running down his cheeks. He sucked in a sharp breath and shook his head, standing. She didn’t move.
