I could hear voices around me but they were muffled as if I was underwater. I could feel hands over my body maybe trying to bring me warmth.

 

 

I could almost see and catch a glimpse of shadow silhouettes around me. They crowded me and enveloped me in their embrace.

 

I could feel myself being moved, pushed softly away from my sin, from where was my daughter, a daughter her golden ichor erupting like a geyser from her neck, the ichor of Hestia, her flesh, my own, the taste, something I could never forget but how I wished he could.

 

Something paradoxically both warm and cold touched the right cheek of my face. I leaned in the comfort the gesture brought him. "Kronos" a voice called softly. "Look at me," the voice said.

 

"Please," the voice begged and I obliged it. My eyes met familiar green eyes, the eyes of my sister, of Tethys. In the corner of my vision, I could see we were not in the great hall anymore where Hestia’s birthday was taking place. I could also discern the shape of my siblings.

 

 

She just said one word "Why?"

 

I forced myself to utter the words "Because it was necessary" I answered.

 

Her hand left contact with my skin as if she had been burnt. I felt weak. I supported myself on one of the obsidian walls with my. I ignored the sad, pitying gazes of his other siblings and fixed my gaze on Tethys.

 

I could see in her eyes disgust, anger, and hatred as if she was facing her stranger and not her little brother and it stang.

 

"Have you forgotten?" I asked her. "Have you forgotten what Hestia represented to us? Have you forgotten the prophecy?"

 

 

"It was Hestia, Kronos. She was the deity that would prefer to take her own life over hurting us! Fate can be changed, fate can be broken. We did once with our Father" she spat.

 

 

"What can't you understand? It is a prophecy from both Koios and Phoebe. Their sight never led us astray before! Try to think Tethys!" I answered almost sounding as if I pleaded and begged from all of my heart but the disgust in the eyes of my sister didn't disappear. It remained like a dark mark on a white canvas canvas.

 

"Even our Father didn't do such a thing, Brother. He didn't try to hide his cruelty behind excuses. We already did the impossible yet here you are. My brother was many things but he never has acted like a coward".

 

Rage surged through me and filled me with strength. How dared she? How dared she? "You talk of cowardice? Alright, let's talk of cowardice. Of everyone here, I'm the only that acted and did what needed to be done. I saw How she erased Astraios from existence like a primordial as if Khaos' essence itself had touched him. I saw how in a possible future, she could turn against us and chose to act now before it could be too late. You call me a coward when I had to hurt my own flesh, my own blood, my only child that I loved? I'm not the coward here! I disregarded my emotions and did what needed to be done instead of trying to pretend as if Hestia would not have been the end of us!"

 

 

"Don't say you loved her when the truth was that You didn't love her. If you did, you wouldn't have done it Kronos," she told me coldly.

 

Mnemosyne tried to come between us "I think that we all need to calm down after what happened. Let's try to stay calm before something non-retractable is said".

 

"Stay where you are Mnemosyne" Tethys warned her codly. "Talk and don't continue to lie about loving Hestia," she said to me.

 

 

"Lie?" I hissed. "I'm the only one who truly loved her. I was her Father!"

 

"And I was and am her mother! I was there because your wife didn't care. I was there for Hestia when she learned to write. I was there for Hestia when she cried! I was there for Hestia when she was happy! I was there when Hestia called me mother because the one who should have been was always absent. It was I to whom Hestia gave her first makeshift gift of flames and pearls. She called me mother and I called her daughter. She loved the ocean almost as much as I did so I had asked her to stay forever with me in the ocean, to link herself to it so we would be together forever. Do you know what she said?" she asked me.

 

 

"She said she couldn't because it would make it harder for her to see you. You were her reason to disregard what she wanted and how was she rewarded? you've hurt her more than even our Father has hurt us." Her pupil slanted taking a snake-like appearance "She said no to me because she loved you and thought you did the same."

 

She turned and began to walk away "Where do you think you are going to, Tethys? Othrys needs you, especially in that moment. I need you" I admitted at the end.

 

 

She didn't turn back but stopped in her tracks "Did you forget what we promised to each other in our youth? To always be there for each other. I did it for us and you can't imagine how it hurts but it is for us, for our family!"I yelled at her.

 

"Sometimes, I wished we either had stayed in that cave or that we all had perished against our Father. At least, in those moments, I would be able to honestly say I love you to any of you. Now, The ones I promised to protect have changed becoming mockeries of what they once originally were. We have become people that our younger selves would spit on. In the end, it doesn't matter."

 

She turned to face all of us "The Ocean, the Earth, Othrys, us, nothing matters. I'm tired of caring, sacrificing myself to the point that I let myself become twisted just…just for this".

 

 

She addressed Phoebe and Koios "I hope your prophecy was right so that all of this, all of this may be turned into ashes and embers".

 

Her body began to lose its shape "Goodbye sisters, brothers, no Lords of Othrys.. May we never meet again," and with those words, she disappeared.

 

I closed my eyes fearing that if I let them open, tears would spill from them. The weight of the sky on my shoulder felt as if it had doubled. Focusing, I understood quickly why.

 

 

Tethys had disconnected herself completely from Othrys and by renouncing her crown, she renounced her duty to bear the sky.

 

I willed the disappearance of the tears I knew wanted to spill from my eyes. Crying could come after. I opened my eyes and turned towards my remaining siblings "Our enemies will learn of the disappearance of Hestia and Astraios, with Tethys leaving as well, I know what they'll think. They'll be like hellhounds on a dryad bone. We need to show that we're still as strong as before."

 

 

"Kronos," Mnemosyne almost begged me. "Don't you think that we should instead try to find a way to make Tethys come back instead of caring about that?"

 

I left the support given t by the wall and began to walk slowly away from my siblings to my chambers. "Leave if you want like Tethys Mnemosyne or stay. I won't force any of you. If needed, I'll do everything by myself." I ignored the gazes I felt on my back. I would do what was necessary. I would do what was best even if those things did hurt me. This was for my family. Even if it meant that they would hate and leave me, as long as they were happy and safe, that was all that mattered.

 

 

After all loving somebody meant being Ready to receive their scorn and disdain, as long as what you did for them helped and made them happy even if this happiness was without yourself.

 

I finally arrived at my quarters and with great effort opened the door. I walked to my bed and sat on it. A mirror in front of the bed showed my reflection.

 

There was Ichor everywhere on my form. In my hair, skin, clothes. Murderer those stains painted me as. Monster they rightly judged me as. My eyes, my golden eyes, her golden eyes looked at me with Hatred, one I could not bear.

 

My head went downward. Finally, Alone away from all, I, the youngest of the children of Ouranos broke down and grabbed my head between my two hands. I whispered to a zero I knew would not answer "I'm so sorry Hestia".