The crushing weight of sorrow pressed down on me as the news finally sank in. My hands instantly flew to my enlarged stomach, as if to protect my unborn child from an invisible enemy.
They had succeeded, the dastardly humans had won; how, was only known to the Fates. They had succeeded in killing my mate, my husband, my king.
He was gone; the king of the sea was gone! I sank to the floor slowly in a daze, too astonished to speak.
Proteus knelt in front of me and took my hand in his; his dwarfed mine but not nearly as much as Poseidon's had. I looked into his eyes, the deep endless blue of the Aegean stared back, nearly the same shade as my husband's had been.
I felt such a strong pang at the thought that I would never see his eyes again. I couldn't hold the sobs of agony back then. They wracked through my small frame, shaking me with their force.
I hunched over my baby; to think that he was the only thing I had left of my king. Nereus moved from behind the throne to embrace me. We stayed like that, wallowing in each other's sorrow and pain till my sobs subsided to haggard breaths as my gills tried to pull air out of the water.
I felt Triton's tail rub against the walls of my womb, as if to comfort me. A few leftover tears leaked from my red eyes only to disperse into the water as I thought of the blissful life my son and I had been robbed of.
Suddenly, a cold fury filled my being as images of the humans reveling in their victory came to me.
When Nereus felt me stiffen, he released his hold on me, as did Proteus. They, no doubt, felt the same rage as I did at the slaying of our king. I rose then, and swam to the sarcophagus of my beloved, on which his trident rested. I grasped the cool handle of it, and felt a power course through my being, as if Poseidon was there grasping my shoulder in an encouraging manner.
I knew then that the humans who had perpetrated this heinous crime against the gods would not live to enjoy the spoils that this war had brought them. A red haze covered my vision and I swam forward to find and extract revenge on the vile creatures that had brought this atrocity onto mine and me.
But suddenly, I was jerked to a halt by a hand on my upper arm. My head snapped around to see who was impeding me in my revenge. Nereus held my arm in his weathered but strong grip.
"What are you doing?" I all but shouted at him. Didn't he want to avenge his king? Didn't he feel the same sense of overwhelming loss as I did?
"My Queen, while the humans deserve each and every punishment you plan to dole out to them, you must be mindful of your current state," he said with a stony expression.
It dawned on me then what he was talking about. I wasn't in any way fit to go to battle, not with Triton ready to be born in less than two months. I crumpled, all of my energy wiped. Even the promise of closure had been ripped from me just like he was.
"I think it would be best, if I were to retire now," I whispered in despair. I turned to swim towards my rooms, leaving Proteus, and Nereus to wonder if I would recover.
Hours later, lying on my bed, I curled into myself as I whispered a solemn oath to my son, "Your father will be avenged; I will not rest till their souls rot in Tartarus, as such is the punishment for any who disrespect the gods."
This thought in mind, I drifted off into a restless and nightmare filled sleep.