I Am Zeus

In the seam between all worlds, the dark remembered something had been removed.

It knew loss.

They came, one after another, as if the void had knocked and old neighbors opened their doors.

Nyx stepped first, night drifting from her shoulders like silk.

Erebus gathered beside her, a cliff of shadow.

Ananke unwound from a ring that wasn't there, a serpent-woman with a thread around her wrist that tugged against nothing.

Hemera slid in as the gentlest morning. Her light was not bright; it was permission.

Pontus rose halfway, a black sea.

Gaia swelled from a low green hill that grew from air itself. Roots hung where there was no ground to reach.

Tiamat leaned through a hot rim, sea and teeth and mother in one slow breath.

Apsu followed, younger water with a long memory of being first.

Nun lifted like a broad tide the world had forgotten to name.

Ymir scratched frost from his beard and made a valley by standing still.

Pangu rested his axe on the line between nothing and more.

Rangi spread above them without beams, a bare roof of sky.

Nyx looked down into the missing shape. "He is gone."

"Tartarus," Erebus said, not asking.

Gaia's face did not move. "Yes."

Hemera's light cooled. "Mortals are sleeping through it."

"They will not sleep through what follows," Apsu said. He tasted the gap like salt, then spat into it. The spit never landed.

Tiamat's crown hissed. "A pit with a mouth is still a mouth. He snapped at the wrong lightning."

"It was not wrong," Nun said. "It was chosen."

Pangu's thumb traced the haft of his axe. "The boy chose to swing. The world did not break. That is worth a nod."

Erebus turned, slow. "A nod for killing one of us."

"A nod for not flinching when the floor tried to bite," Pangu said.

Ananke's thread trembled. "The line that led to this was braided, not straight. Promises were made and not kept. Pride touched pride. The knot hardened. Then it cut."

Rangi exhaled as a small wind. "We can name the reasons until morning. The important thing is simple. He reached up. He will reach again."

Pontus moved once, a swell without shore. "So speak the choice."

Erebus did not hesitate. "We end him."

Tiamat's teeth flashed. "Good. That word fits in the mouth."

Apsu nodded. "Cut the river before it becomes a sea."

Hemera angled her head. "That is one option."

"It is the only option," Erebus said. "If a young throne can tear a root, our quiet becomes noise. Kill him."

Nyx's smile was small and not friendly. "You could try. It would be fun to watch."

Erebus's darkness thickened. "You approve of him."

"I enjoy him," Nyx said. "He is interesting."

Gaia stepped forward until her toes hung over the absence like a cliff edge. "You are speaking of my blood."

"And?" Erebus asked.

"And you will not kill him while I breathe," Gaia said. No sound followed her words; the void simply held them.

Ymir grinned through his beard. "I like simple lines. Mother says no."

"Mother can break if the hand is big enough," Tiamat said.

Gaia did not look at her. "Try it."

The pause that followed was not fear. It was math.

Ananke's thread stilled. "We are gathered to weigh. Speak your reasons, not your thunder."

Erebus folded his shadow tight. "He set a precedent. The low struck the old and the old fell. That story travels. It will wake others who like the taste of it. We kill the story now or we live inside it later."

Hemera's light touched the edge of Erebus and did not vanish. "Or we write a different ending."

Apsu frowned. "You argue like a dawn—soft, full of promises."

"I argue that blood begets blood," Hemera said. "If we crush him for daring, every throne with a young god will dare sooner. If we test him, we learn what he is."

Nun turned. "Do you truly wish to watch?"

"I wish to avoid messes I don't have to mop," Hemera said.

Ymir's laugh rang like ice breaking. "Test him with a fist."

Rangi lowered an inch. "Fence him. Draw a line across the high air he claims."

Pangu nodded without smile. "If he cuts at pillars, I cut back. If he builds, I lift."

Tiamat clicked a tooth with a nail. "He killed one of us. A debt stands. If not his head, then his house. If not his house, then a price he can feel."

Nyx's eyes warmed. "He can feel plenty without our help."

Erebus looked at her. "You play."

"I watch," Nyx said. "And I play."

Gaia faced the circle. "He did not wake today hungry for you. He cast nets over his house, set law, leashed his own. If you step on him now, you make enemies you don't need."

"We do not need him either," Erebus said.

"You need balance," Gaia said. "You used Tartarus as a sewer. He rotted what you threw to him. Zeus broke the habit. Maybe thank him."

Apsu bristled. "Thank him for removing our drain?"

"For forcing you to clean your own rooms," Gaia said.

Silence opened like a hand.

Ananke raised her thread. "Enough speeches. We will not agree. We vote. The question is plain: death."

Pontus rippled. "Plain is good."

Ananke's thread split into many fine lines, each running to a hand, a fin, a claw, a wrist, a cloud.

"Speak."

Erebus: "Death."

Tiamat: "Death."

Apsu: "Death."

Ymir scratched his chin. "Let me think." He smiled. "Death."

Rangi, voice dry. "Death."

Nun's wave leaned, then settled. "Death."

Pangu's axe made a small sound. "Death if he cuts. Death not now." He glanced at Ananke. "That is not the line, I know."

"Choose," Ananke said.

"Death," Pangu said.

Hemera closed her eyes. "No."

Nyx: "No."

Gaia: "No."

Pontus watched, then said nothing. "Abstain."

Ananke's thread returned to her hand and the lines went out like embers.

"It carries," she said. "Death."

No light flared. The word floated and kept its edge.

Gaia's jaw worked once. "On what timing?"

"Not here," Ananke said. "Not now. We have chosen the word, not the hour."

Nyx clicked her tongue. "That buys him time to be even more interesting."

Erebus ignored her. He looked at Gaia. "You will stand in the way."

"I will," Gaia said.

Tiamat's crown dipped. "You will not always be where he is."

"I do not need to be always," Gaia said. "I need to be enough."

Rangi shifted, nearly a horizon. "He will hear of this—too late and all at once."

Hemera spoke softly. "He will also feel who said no."

Nyx grinned. "He will, if I tell him."

Ananke's gaze flicked. "You will do as you do."

Erebus lifted his chin. "When the moment opens, we end the boy."

Pangu sighed. "Simple things are rarely simple when they move."

Nun gave him a look that could have been a smile. "We will see how much river is in him."

Tiamat stretched, scales singing. "I want it done clean. If the word is death, I want a head to hold and a lesson to show."

Ymir rolled his shoulders. Frost fell off and turned to dust. "Or a fight that rattles the bones of the hills."

Rangi lifted. "Keep your storms out of my roof, then."

Pangu lifted his axe and put it down again. "No plans," he said.

Ananke's thread tugged once. "We part. The verdict lives without a schedule. Let the world shift. Let him try to stop it. We meet when the knot tightens."

They did not walk away. They simply were elsewhere.

Ymir became weather with bones in it. Tiamat slid into a sea that never asked consent. Apsu folded into a pool that was not a place. Nun settled into a calm that made other calms remember they were temporary. Rangi lifted. Hemera turned and took her permission with her. Pangu stepped through a line only he could see. Pontus sank with his eyes open.

Only Nyx and Gaia stayed a heartbeat longer.

Nyx peered into the missing shape and smiled like someone reading a line she liked. "He will preen when I tell him I said no."

"You will not tell him for pride," Gaia said.

"No," Nyx said. "For fun." She glanced sideways. "And for balance. He fights better when someone wants him to."

Gaia breathed. Flowers opened along the roots that had no soil. They faded when the breath ended. "He will need better than that."

Nyx's voice softened. "He has you."

"For now," Gaia said. "I am not a wall forever."

Nyx's grin thinned. "No one is."

They left.

The seam remembered the vote. It did not care. It had held other votes that thought they would last longer.

Far below, a young god on a high mountain drew maps on air with thunder, and a woman of night watched him from the corner of the sky and did not blink.