Blankets part 2
Sally
As the woman spoke, my mind swelled with different thoughts and emotions. The fear for Percy was still there, just now mitigated by the woman's plea to keep her daughter safe. Part of me was honored to have a deity come to my door pleading for her child's safety and upbringing. The other part was terrified of what that could entail. Poseidon warned me about the lives of his children and their mortal mothers, often accompanied by tragedy. I swore to myself I would go to Tartarus and back to avoid those fates for my son and me. But even I wouldn't be so naive to know we could avoid all of it. These thoughts haunted me, always in the back of my mind—both terrifying me and giving me strength—the strength to do all I could for my son and the fear of what could befall him.
When I would hold him in my arms, cradling him to sleep, just for his little nose to twitch before the light drool fell from his mouth and his oceanic eyes closing to the realm of Morpheus are the memories and images that kept me going. Seeing the mother in front of me doing the same with her daughter made up the large swirl of emotions and thoughts, empathy. Empathy for a mother in need, a mother who desperately wants to fix the mistakes of her past children with this one but knows she can't. I turn my head to look at Poseidon, seeking guidance and a possible escape from my mind. His dark eyebrows furrowed as his eyes seemed as haunted as hers throughout the speech. His trident was still out, but his grip now loosened. The tropical storm outside had now been abated, and a high wind was all that was left in its wake.
He sensed my stare and turned towards me. His chiseled face was now warped in grief, maybe not at the woman's situation but with her words. He'd told me stories of his past lovers and the tragedy that comes with the psyche of a god. At the very least, his eyes held a message, "Let her continue." So I did.
"Blake's Father, Anik, was Athabasca, a native of inner Alaska." She looked down and chuckled. "If you said he was Athabasca, he'd rant about how that's not his people. His people were Dena." She looked back up at us, her eyes full of warmth as she spoke about the man. "He first found me by the cliffside looking over the Yukon River, and I was so lost in myself that somehow a mortal snuck up on me. At first, I wanted to smite him, embarrassed at my failure. Then he talked to me and pulled me away. He told me his people's way; it was so similar to the old ways and the way of Gaia that it left me entranced. Over time, we grew to love each other. When we found out about Blake" at this, she slightly nudged the baby's cheek. Her eyes became glossy with unshed tears. "I've never seen him so happy; his smile could have lighted my whole realm." she smiled sadly. "Then my husband found out after Blakes's birth, and my own Elysium became a field of punishment." She looked back up at us with a sneer as she said, "That bastard Erebus, killed him. He used my hounds to maul him. My Anik was barely recognizable. She said, her voice and demeanor laced with grief.
Tears started to fall slowly down my face at her words. My heart broke more with every word she spoke. Poseidon was looking at me with an emotion in his eyes that I couldn't put into words during her speech.
"I lost my Elysium and sanity all at once in that moment. Alaska became draped in complete darkness at that moment. No light could penetrate my grief for those few minutes. Then I heard my daughter's cries, and it brought me back. I realized that I may have lost my love, but Blake lost a father." Tears rolled down her face as she continued. "For the next week, I sat with her, using my power to cloak our auras, hiding our presence from everyone but chaos himself. And I wept for so long and so hard I could've filled the deepest trenches in Pontus kingdom with my tears." Her own tears now falling freely down her face as she spoke. "I realized I couldn't hide the both of us together, and without Anik, my sanity was no longer stable. I prayed to Father Chaos to help me, and he sent me here.' She looked directly at me, her red-rimmed eyes holding so many emotions as she looked into my own.
"What's your name?" I ask abruptly
"My name is Nyx," she responded.
