Some people claimed that they remembered being born. He didn’t. He just remembered becoming aware. He never knew why he had been brought into being. Had Khaos been inspired to create life or had she just become lonely? He never asked. He was just happy that he had been made. Birthed? Created? Again, he cared little for those kinds of details.

He remembered ( opening his eyes to see... )

Sometimes, she liked to make him chase her, staying just within his sight so he'd keep up the pursuit. Sometimes, she liked to dance across the sky with his hand in hers. And sometimes, she liked to keep him on his toes and tried to hide somewhere within the darkness that would take him a while to find her. Though he always would because he was the darkness. But it was fun to try, and it made the catching that much more fun.

( Which should be any minute now. )

(Note: After this.)




Nyx could admit it: she was a little nervous. It was not that she thought her children would misbehave. In spite of their aspects, she'd taught all of them manners and demanded that they were used. Even when there wasn't company. After all, shouldn't your family be treated with at least as much respect as a guest?

And she certainly wasn't worried about her husband. He was charming. Occasionally too charming, but that only happened from time to time with pretty goddesses that didn't understand that he was not flirting with them. Nyx set them straight very quickly. But that would not happen tonight because she knew he viewed their guest in the same light that she did, so his charm would be entirely paternal.

( Nor was she overly concerned about the girl upon whose arrival she awaited. )

Hel had ridden Helfest hard for hours. They had shot out of the stables, past the mansions of the dead, over the gates, and finally across and out of Niflheim. Through villages and isolated woods, without a care for who might succumb to the pestilence the steed might spread. So what if they caught the sickness? It meant more soldiers for her father, and he was going to need them. For the same reason she had taken to saddle and rode off without a word, not that she had anyone to report to. She was the Dread Queen, and her actions were her own.

Hearing Helfest's labored breathing, Hel slowed him down, and stopped altogether beside a lake. She turned him loose that he might drink and graze as he would. For herself, she sat down, staring at the sky for a moment. It was a downfall of being who she was- a ruler could not just succumb to her emotions and break down whenever she felt like it. Now, under the cover of night where none could see her, she gave in and began to sob.

( Hel had never had an easy life. )