Hestia met Tethys during one of the rare times my older sister visited the surface world. Tethys saw Hestia and fell in love at first glance. It was as if time had been rewound and the Tethys we lost to the ocean was momentarily back.

 

Hestia who wasn't the best with strangers latched as strongly on to Tethys as strong as her aunt did to her. Maybe the reason the two of them became as close as they did was because they truly saw each other instead of trying to make the other something they could not be.

 

Because of Hestia, Tethys's visits to the surface world became more regular. Each time she came to the surface, Tethys always brought exquisite gifts with her.

 

 

It was kind of sad to think that Hestia probably saw Tethys more as her mother than she did with Rhea. Hestia didn't tell me anything but she didn't need to for it to be seen. The servants of my castle whispered when they thought I would not hear them "She acts more lively with her aunt than her mother" They whispered softly.

 

 

"Look at how sullen She seems with her mother. It's almost as if she fears her. Such an ungrateful child. I would hate it if my own child loved another woman more than me." they whispered.

 

 

I had erased from Othrys many lower deities because of those words but it's like nothing I did was stopping those rumours. In the past, I had liked to leave Hestia alone in my castle when going somewhere else for important tasks and when Hyperion wasn't available to keep an eye on her. I had thought that with a true army of servants, nothing could happen to her but I had forgotten there were other non-physical ways to hurt someone.

 

 

 

I would find something went wrong in my absence when I had come back to his castle and instead of servants had found living screaming corals grafted on the walls like a grotesque mosaic. I would find Hestia missing, whisked away.

 

I had not been scared because I had felt the divinity of Tethys simmering in the air like a bad cloud. Tethys was many things and it was true that I didn't know her as much as I used to but one thing I was sure that she would never hurt Hestia.

 

 

What I didn't like in this kidnapping was the fact that cleaning my castle to make it look pristine had been a challenge in itself.

 

I hadn't asked any justification to Tethys when she visited the surface world with Hestia at her side their hands interlaced. I had seen Hestia dressed in an azure peplos with pearls placed intricately in neatly braided hair.

 

 

I had seen the smile on Hestia's face and that had been enough for me.

 

One day while Hestia was staying with Tethys, Rhea came to me. One look on her face had been enough of a reason for me to abandon everything else. I had brought her to the island where we had kissed for the first time and after erecting a barrier around it so that we could have privacy and no one could eavesdrop, I asked "What's wrong Rhea?"

 

 

Her gaze was fixed on the stars "Do you think I'm a bad mother?" she asked back shocking me.

 

"Why do you ask this?" I spoke.

 

"So I am a bad mother," she spoke softly.

 

"I didn't say that Rhea."

 

"I know you Kronos. You deflected and didn't answer because you didn't want to hurt me but your lack of an answer is still an answer."

 

 

 

"Hestia loves you. Do you think she would if she weren't?" I questioned her.

 

 

"Yes, I think she would. I love our mother when the truth is that she's not the best one. She's cruel, and selfish toward her children and strangers yet I love her. Didn't you love Ouranos?" she answered.

 

"I didn't and I thought you knew it, Rhea. I loathed my father Rhea. Everything I do is in spite of him".

 

"You're a good liar Kronos but at some point, when someone knows you enough, it becomes easy to see through them. You created a golden age and vowed to make sure that things were never like before when he was king. Doing all of those things because of him, isn't it love?"

 

"No, it is hatred!"

 

"Aren't they the same though? I can see through mortals and immortals alike as easily as it is to look at the sun. I just choose not to most of the time. I know that you hide things from me but I don't search what those things are because I trust you, because I love you Kronos. When I use my sight, Love, and hatred, they were all the same shade of scarlet."

 

The Daughter of Aether sighed "Sometimes trying to do something is in itself hard Kronos yet you do it but even if you try, others look at you as if you didn't. They don't see the struggle. They don't see you fight to do what they consider easy. I never told you but I inherited more than a dominion over the earth and nature from our mother."

 

She turned toward me "I inherited control over the concepts of family and motherhood".

 

Rhea continued "I'm supposed to know better than this but I, a deity capable of shattering the solar system with her will, capable of fighting toe to toe with primordial, somebody with the domain of motherhood can't be a good mother."

 

 

"Rhe-" I tried to say something but was stopped by Rhea.

 

 

 

"Don't try to give me your pretty words to make me feel better Kronos!" Her voice softened "Can you just listen?"

 

"Yes," I answered softly.

 

"I thought that because I had this domain, I had to have children and maybe with it, I thought that for once, I would be able to do something right. Everything seemed to be going perfectly. I had found the one that saw me in my entirety and instead of being disgusted or reduced to wisps by my presence felt love. The moment I met all of you, the Uranides, I knew what you felt towards me," she told me.

 

"I had thought that with me having found you, everything else would follow as I wanted. I thought that I would be the best mother possible, that I would love them with my everything and they would do the same to me, but that's not what's happening. I love her Kronos, all of me does but love isn't enough. I try to stay grounded, focused, limited at the level of reality you live in but it's hard. It's like being suffocated. I try to bear it because of hestia and you. Once I made an error with our daughter. I gave her the blunt of my attention and it hurt her Kronos. Either be an absent parent or hurt your own child by your mere presence. What kind of choices are those? I act as if I don't but I hear most things happening on Gaia when I'm on her body. I hear their whispers about Hestia and me. What hurts the most is that they're right."

 

Rhea opened her palm and in it, a red Thread appeared. "This is our daughter's love for your sister." The red thread was thick and wide. It seemed to be interminable.

 

"This is her love towards me". The initial red thread had been replaced by another one of the same colour. Even though they were of the same colour, they could not be more different. This thread looked frayed and as if it was bleeding. With each drop of red, the thread became more sickly-looking.

 

 

 

"I think that…maybe…it would be better if I stay out of her life as much as I can. She loves Tethys and Tethys loves her. She isn't scared of Tethys like she is with me. Hestia and I are too different." she said.

 

 

"Is there a chance of anything that I say change your decision?" I asked my wife.

 

 

"No, there isn't," she replied.

 

We stayed in silence. The gaze of Rhea was turned back towards the false sky me and the other Uranides maintained in the air by our presence.

 

 

"I'm not sure if I still love Ouranos but I know that I know that I did in the past." Even though she was still watching the sky, I knew that Rhea was listening. "Ouranos had never been truly kind to us. The only kindness that he gave us was not throwing us into the stomach of the Pit at birth."

 

 

I chuckled "his reason was that we weren't ugly discolourations on his so-called perfect world like our siblings the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires. I thought that more than that, maybe in his dark heart was a silver of care for us because he had spared us. I thought that I could find a way to make him love me, to change him. I ignored how he'd harmed my siblings and me always trying to find an excuse for him. Maybe if I hadn't done this, Father would not have been angry I thought. Maybe it happened because Iapetus provoked him I said. The thing is that each time he's hurt any of us, each time I saw one of my siblings suffer, it became harder to love him. One day, I did the stupidest thing I could do…I went to him and confronted him alone. I screamed at him until my voice felt raw and I felt empty inside. Ouranos waited until I finished before smiling at me. He tried to strike at me two times. The first one was almost enough to end me. I was protected from the second one by my siblings who interposed themselves between it and me. If Gaia had not been alerted before, all the Uranides would have died because of me. We had to hide in the entrails of Mother to escape his wrath until Mother came to us with a plan and you know the rest, Rhea".

 

 

"Maybe I still love him" I continued "but that love is one of a child naive of the realities of the world, a child that had to die so that my siblings and I could thrive."

 

 

"Did I ever tell you that I despise completely our mother’s love?" Rhea told me.

 

 

"No, you didn't but it is a surprise, You're her perfect child, after all, the favoured daughter. That's how she refers to you and how most know you. Our mother's not so different from Ouranos. The difference between her and him is that she sees us as extensions of herself. She cares about us but love? You're probably one of the rare beings in creation she loves except herself," I answered.

 

 

"Is it truly love though? Do you think she would love me if I wasn't what I was? Would I be Rhea, the favoured daughter if I wasn't strong and hadn't inherited everything she wanted me to? Am I strong because I'm Rhea or am I Rhea because I'm strong?" she asked me.

 

"For me, it doesn't matter. You could be mortal, a foul daemon, a foreign deity, as long as you would be the Rhea that I love, nothing else would matter. In the end, you're Rhea because you're Rhea, not because of anything else," he said to her.

 

"My father and you are the only ones to think in such a manner." She stopped sitting and laid on the grass. Kronos copied her actions laying at her side, millimetres away from her. Their hairs behind them were like dark constellations and their sights focused on things beyond the false sky of Gaia.

 

"Hey, Kronos," she called.

 

"Yes, Rhea?"

 

"Thanks for loving me" she finally told me.

 

"You know that you don't need to thank me, Rhea. I wouldn't be here on this island with you if I didn't already know this and didn't feel the same," I declared to Rhea.

 

 

 

Their fingers intertwined "You could have simply told me love you too." Rhea said to me.

 

"I know," I said to her.

 

A comfortable silence surrounded them. There were many other things that I could be doing, important things for the benefit and security of Othrys, my kingdom. They were important things that right now didn't matter to me. Only Rhea did at that moment.

 

"You never spoke of your Father before today. I don't know what he thinks of me or even Hestia. You said that he would unlike Gaia still care about you even if you were not born as strong as you were and inherited enough from both of your progenitors to stand by yourself amongst primordials" I said to Rhea."

 

"My father," Rhea began "is the best father anyone could ask for".

 

 

"Even though he's the offspring of Time and Necessity, I have never met anyone more gentle, more understanding. He tried with everything he had to be the best father possible. Even though he never talks about it, I know that growing up with Parents like Fate and Time wasn't easy yet instead of being like them or reproducing what was done to him, he did the contrary." She turned towards me "maybe it is another reason why I love you."

 

 

"You still haven't told me why we've never met directly or indirectly. Does he disapprove of our relationship?" I asked her.

 

"Would it matter for you if it was the case?"

 

I answered honestly "No, it wouldn't".

 

"My father doesn't disapprove" Rhea finally answered. "He only cares about my happiness. As long as you ensure it, he would never consider harming you. If it puts your mind at ease, I asked for his permission to court you and he accepted" Rhea added.

 

 

"You courting me? Wasn't that the contrary Rhea?" I said to my wife.

 

"Maybe you were in love first but it is I who planned and acted so that we could be where we are today and I had the help of the others," Rhea answered him.

 

"I don't believe you. I would have known especially if the others were implicated" I told her

 

She answered me with a question "Why do you think that day everyone important, none of your generals, none of your siblings were there, that they were all conveniently busy. Even if that was the case, you know that we made sure that the centre of Othrys is always inhabited and thus protected by two titans but you were the only one. They also told me when the ideal time was that I should put everything in place."

 

 

"I'm going to make them all age a million years in a second" I murmured.

 

"You won't," Rhea told me.

 

I turned towards her "You forget who I am dear wife but tell me, why wouldn't I?" I asked her.

 

Rhea lifted two fingers "Because of two reasons dear husband. The first one is that anyone and I mean in existence that knows of you Kronos knows that you would jump into Khaos’ stomach in the depths of the pit before ever actually hurting those you consider family and the second reason? It's because you're smiling. You're prettier when you smile. The gold of your eyes flows like a tempest and you look more attractive than a god of beauty".

 

 

I ignored the warm feeling in my guts as if nature spirits were dancing in my stomach "So if I understand, you don't think that I'm normally pretty?"

 

Rhea adopted on her face a thinking expression onto her face before looking him in the eyes "Hmmm, yes, this is what I meant, you're an ugly deity with a receding hairline, a bad goatee and a body that looks more frail than a skeleton".

 

Our gazes stayed unwavering in each other before I chuckled and Rhea snickered as if a spell had been broken. Watching the playfulness in the eyes of Rhea, seeing her laugh, I felt a weight remove itself from my shoulders.

 

Someone as bright and beautiful as Rhea should never look sullen or sad. It was akin to a sun without light, an earth without life, a world without Khaos. Something unnatural that shouldn't exist.

 

 

"The other reason why you or Hestia never met my father is for the safety of both of you. Even amongst Primordials, there exists a vast difference in power and level of existence. You may have been able to withstand for a little while the true form of your father because of your domain but you wouldn't be able to with my father. Even if he had tried to take a more mortal form, you wouldn't have been able to interact or even understand him and I couldn't ask that of him. Limiting himself to this level of reality would be like trying to fill a cup of water with the sun, something naturally impossible." Rhea told me.

 

"I see" I replied to her. We stayed in a comfortable quietness. Aether, the father of Rhea was even with everything Rhea just told me still weaker than Fate. Could I truly fight against fate when in the grand scheme of things, I was nothing more than a speck of dust before the primordials? No, I could not allow myself to doubt. 'You already did the impossible' I repeated mentally to myself. You can and must do it again.

 

I broke the silence between my wife and me "Regarding Hestia, even if I don't like it, I'll support your judgment Rhea" I told her.

 

"I know you hate it and I do too but I have to think about what's best for our daughter even if it hurts me. With Tethys and you, she'll be safe and happy. Nothing would hurt her. She'll grow up surrounded by love that I could never truly give her. That's all that matters to me and I'm sure it's the same for you," my wife Rhea said to me.

 

"I'll take care of her Rhea, I promise," I told her.

 

"I trust you. I know you would never hurt her" Rhea said to me before closing her eyes and using my shoulder as a pillow.

 

"Yes," he said softly "I would never".

 

 

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the dread and self-hatred surging in me. I prayed to Khaos that I would never have to break my promise.

 

Time according it its nature swept over everything and brought the world ever forward. Hestia had now been alive for twelve years. Like all things did, my daughter had changed.

 

 

Hestia grew in beauty and in strength under my care and the Tethys and the other Uranides.

 

Growing under Tethys had turned the young shy and meek girl into a strong and cold woman. Sometimes, when I looked at her, I could only see a twisted reflection of myself.

 

 

Before her beauty, mortals and immortals threw themselves into their end for a chance to capture her attention. It was all for nought. It did nothing.

 

A part of me understood the reason for their infatuation with Hestia. Hestia didn't need to say it but it was clear seeing her growing that she was different from the rest of our kin.

 

It was as if she was more divine than the other Titans. The inside of Her golden eyes glimmered with flames in geometrical shapes that seemed impossible. Her skin looks less like divine flesh and more like a canvas in which white stars wretched in agony. Her voice was the command that bent reality and made the world itself shape to her demand without the use of divinity. She was more and everyone knew it.

 

All the people of Othrys even those who hated originally Hestia because of her lineage or her avoidance behaviour as a child loved her. They sang her name, they worshipped the ground she walked on. "Our Princess, our Lady, our Queen," They called her.

 

 

They couldn't see like me the indifference, the apathy in her eyes. They couldn't see how uncaring she was even if they split blood in her name.

 

 

It made me remember a deity that only cared about his siblings and nothing else, that could watch the world burn and not bat an eye as long as his loved ones were safe.

 

 

 

It scared me when I knew it shouldn't. I knew that Hestia loved me and my siblings, that she would fall on her own hand before thinking about hurting us yet the prophecy of Koios and Phoebe haunted me.

 

 

Any prophecies uttered by them had never been wrong but I wished that this time, it would be the case. I was an immortal deity with endless endurance yet I felt old and exhausted.

 

 

To celebrate the twelfth name day of Hestia, it had been decided that the event would occur in my castle, at the centre of the kingdom of Othrys.

 

Anyone from the kingdom of Othrys from the lowest mortal to the highest immortal was invited to the celebration. Atlas had volunteered to ensure the security of the feast in honour of in his words "his favourite cousin".

 

 

Hyperion and the other Uranides had chosen to personally organize everything so that the feast may be a success. Tethys had said that she would be late to the feast but she would be there due to the fact that she would have to quickly deal with important matters before coming to the surface.

 

It seemed at first that everything was going nicely. Guests drank jovially cups of nectar. Finely made Ambrosia was served to everyone. People were singing joyously under the effects of the beverage and praise flowed from every direction.

 

 

Hestia, the reason why everything had been organized was sitting on an erected throne at the side of my siblings and me, her indecipherable gaze fixed on the crowd.

 

A loud boom and an explosion of light broke the merry atmosphere. I found the reason for the interruption quickly even though it would be more accurate to say that the author revealed himself.

 

It was Astraios, the son of Krios. He looked drunk. A wide berth had been formed around him. I turned towards my brother who was running his hand through his hair in annoyance. The elder Titan sighed "I'm going to take care of it".

 

 

The Titan’s form rippled in snowflakes reappearing before his child. The Titan put a hand on the shoulder of his child "You've drank too much and shamed yourself before all. Let's leave."

 

 

 

Astraios batted away the hand of his father. If things were silent before, now it was worse as if time had frozen.

 

The apathy that had been in the face of Krios was turning into cold anger. The guards that hadn't acted due to the status of Astraios as a Titan surrounded him now with tight grips over their weapons.

 

The Titan looked around him at the unsaid threats and laughed. "I won't repeat myself again" spoke softly Krios. "Let's leave son before you make me unable to protect you from the consequences of your actions."

 

"Consequences Father?" he slurred. He poured his drink of nectar on the foot of his father. "I don't care about them. I can not continue to see everything that I do and stay quiet, I Can't be happy knowing we're celebrating Hestia!" the titan hissed while pointing a crooked finger at my daughter.

 

"I see, you said you don't care about consequences you said?" I finally spoke. I turned toward the guards "Seize him and throw him in the dungeons. He will stay there cut away from the stars he so dearly loves for a century so that he may face the consequences he doesn't fear."

 

The guards began to advance toward him. He turned towards his father who was now facing away from him "You're not going to say anything?" he asked the Lord of the South.

 

 

Krios stayed quiet and began to move away from his child walking toward his throne. A word was whispered softly "Stop" and everything did. I felt Time standstill, the wind stopped in his tracks, the earth stopped moving and shadows and their owners were paralyzed

 

I turned towards the only one that would be able to do such a thing. Hestia's eyes hold an almost indecipherable glean to me. What was reflected in the eyes of my daughter, could almost be taken as a curiosity.

 

 

With a light pressure of her heel, Hestia glided from her throne to her cousin "You said you could not be happy while seeing me being celebrated. Why?" she asked.

 

"Don't bother with him, Hestia. He's just a fool, a drunk fool. It's just the nectar talking" I said to her.

 

The gaze of Hestia didn't leave the Titan of second generation "No Father, it is not the rumblings of a drunk fool. I can feel and taste what he really does feel inside Father like his emotions were mine and there is only one thing in his heart…hatred, one so deep it could swallow the stars and not only aimed at me but at you uncles, aunts and Father."

 

I lifted my hand to halt the guards. "I'm now interested Astraios. Congratulations, you now have the full attention of me and my siblings. Make it count".

 

 

 

The titan of second-generation gaze clashed against Hestia's. "You want to know why I hate them, why u hate you Ô dear cousin? I hate them because they are cruel monsters playing the roles of benevolent deities! I hate them because they care about nothing except themselves. They don't truly care about this kingdom, they don't care about their subjects, they don't even care about their children!"

 

"It is just that, a tantrum because you didn't think that you had enough attention?" Iapetus spoke softly. "You truly are a spoiled child. You were born with everything luxury imaginable. The strength and the light of the stars in your veins come from your father who gave them to you while you were in the stomach of your mother. Everything you have was given."

 

"A tantrum? A tantrum?" he repeated as if he could not understand what had been said to him.

 

"It is not a tantrum. Today is the birthday of Hestia and look all of you are personally there but when it was Leto's birthday, none of you were there! When Styx gave birth, none of you came. I saw the devastation you, directly and indirectly, created just because you could. I saw your lies about bringing civilization order and protecting the denizens of this kingdom when in reality those things were done because of fear. When Prophasis, your own grandchild was kidnapped during an enemy raid, you didn't care my lord" he spat.

 

"We still don't know what kind of torment he must be going through. When Epimetheus ask-, no begged for your help, you didn't care. Even now, I can only see on all of your faces indifference. How can I not hate you? How can't I hate her? What does she have that we don't?"

 

His gaze went back to Hestia "You're not one of us and will never be. You're something wrong, twisted that shouldn't have come to the world. I wish your mother could have gotten rid of you while you were within of her".

 

 

Hyperion's fist fell on his throne and from it erupted a boom that threw most guests away as if an invisible force pushed them "THAT'S ENOUGH, GUARDS!" screamed Hyperion.

 

Flames were flickering all over the castle. The temperature was going up. The ground, the silk, and the clothes were liquefying and being burnt away. I could feel the ominous glare of the stars in the cosmos. Screams erupted from the guests that tried and failed to put out the vicious flames. The horrendous smell of burning meat became omnipresent. From the clouds rained embers of fire. Only I and my siblings were absolved from their voracious appetites.

 

 

I turned towards my right to the only one I thought could do such a thing but found nothing but surprise in the eyes of my brother Hyperion.

 

 

The voice of Hestia was soft as if she had just whispered yet it rumbled like thunder and instinctively I summoned my scythe. An old dread that I had thought long forgotten resurfaced in my stomach. "You didn't lie at all."

 

She lifted her left hand and pushed it toward the sky as if grabbing it. "What is she doing" Hyperion whispered.

 

 

In the sky, a new star came to life. If before they thought the heat was uncomfortable, now it felt hellish as if one of the lower hells of the Hindus had replaced Othrys.

 

 

She closed her palm and the star in the sky compressed until not bigger than a basket. "Goodbye cousin Astraios" Then a spear of fire blasted from the sky on the still form of the titan of the second generation. It swallowed him in a white light and dug deeper until Gaia herself wailed in agony and it came out the other side of her body.

 

 

The spear of fire slowly but surely disappeared. I had expected to see the badly burnt and in agony but still alive form of my nephew. My expectations would be wrong.

 

"Astraios" Krios whispered after a moment. Astraios was a titan. Nothing less than a primordial should be stopping him from regenerating "Stop this. It went far enough. Where are you child of mine. Show yourself. You will be forgiven. Stop playing the fool and show yourself".

 

"He can't answer you, uncle. He's gone forever," Hestia told him.

 

"Iapetus, where is he!?" Krios yelled to his brother. Iapetus had dominion over souls be they mortal or immortal which meant that he could surely find where was Astraios’ soul.

 

 

My brother closed his eyes. A soft silver but appeared on his eyelids before disappearing. He opened up back his eyes "I'm sorry brother," he whispered. "He's gone".

 

 

Silver tears flowed from the eyes of my older brother. He turned toward Hestia "Why did you do this? What Did he do to you to the point you hated him enough to erase him completely from his existence? Why Hestia?"

 

 

Her head leant slightly on the left like a puppet being played with by a marionnetist "Why are you crying, uncle? I saw in his heart and I knew without a doubt that if he was left to his devices, Othrys and our family would have surely been swallowed and destroyed by his hatred."

 

"How can you ask me THIS HESTIA?" At the end, his voice shifted taking an early resonance like the sound of arctic howling winds. "He was your family, your cousin, my son," He whispered at the end sounding defeated.

 

"I only did what was necessary uncle. My only regret is that it pains me to see you suffer like this" she said sounding almost apathetic and with a blank expression like a doll.

 

Necessary she had said. This word was one I hated with all my heart. Necessity was just another word for cruelty. It tried to justify it when in truth, it could never be.

 

 

 

The word Necessary talked of emotion-draining duty and of shoulders-aching burden. I looked around at the devastation that had been created by Hestia. I felt the mind-breaking pain that coursed through Gaia that she shared in distress with everyone linked to her.

 

 

Necessity. A word that I should not have drifted away from. I stood almost painfully from his throne. I ignored the gaze of my siblings and walked through ashes and burnt flesh and molten gold to my daughter.

 

 

"May I hug you?" I asked her.

 

 

A smile bloomed on her face and she nodded. I took her in his arms with all the love and care I could muster. I took her in his arms as if she was the most precious thing in Khaos.

 

 

With my head on her shoulder, I whispered this to her in her ear so that only she could hear his words "I love you Hestia and I always will."

 

"I know Father, I love you too," she answered.

 

Necessity, a word that I hated and loathed from all of his being. I opened and stretched my mouth and with it bit into the flesh and sinews of the neck my daughter beheading her and swallowing her head. I ignored the jets of ichor, of the ichor of his daughter on his skin and continued my grotesque feast. Around Me, my siblings and my guests looked at me In horror.

 

 

Necessity, something determined, existing, or happening by natural laws or predestination; inevitable, a word that I hated.

 

I had dreamt enough. It was time to wake up and do what was necessary for my family even if it hurt, made me feel as if I was dying.

 

 

My eyes and veins were the gold of the union of the Earth and the Sky. My strength was one that was endless. My powers were those of the precept of Time. I was still a weak god scared of the future and the endless advancing of time.

 

My father was right. Crowns were heavy things indeed. I closed my eyes, ignored the raindrops flowing from my eyes and bit.