The Silver Age under Zeus's reign. Delos Island, the residence of the goddess of shooting stars.
“Asteria! Asteria!”
Asteria tried to shut out reality. Turning over, she buried her face in the cloud-soft hair of her niece, Artemis, hoping the wailing would stop on its own.
The little boy Apollo threw himself against the side of their bed, seized a handful of silver-gold hair dangling over its edge, and desperately wiped his tear-soaked cheeks with it.
“Don't wipe your snot on my hair.”
Asteria's eyes flew open. She snatched her hair back in time, displeasure flickering in the lilac depths of her eyes.
“I dreamed Father was gone!”
The memory of the dream overwhelmed Apollo with grief. He burst into loud sobs, looking so helpless that it would have broken anyone's heart.
Asteria's heart, however, was made of stone.
Her elder sister Leto, one of Zeus's lawful wives, had always endured his treatment without complaint and had been forced to leave both children in Asteria's care. To escape Hera's persecution, Leto had fled to the ends of the earth, and no word had come from her since.
Zeus turned a blind eye to Hera's conduct. He seemed to enjoy watching noble goddesses fight jealously over him.
“But it was only a dream…” the goddess said, her voice as gentle as the sea breeze. She reached out to stroke her nephew's hair, though her movements were a little stiff. “How could the king of the gods perish? He is neither a demigod nor a mortal.”
“But whatever I dream will come true—I can feel it! Olympus treats your dreams as prophecies. As your nephew, I might naturally possess the gift of prophecy too!”
“Apollo, we need to sleep. Please stop disturbing us.”
Artemis poked her head out from behind Asteria.
“Father was fighting another god. He was swept into an enormous whirlpool and disappeared forever. How could Father possibly be defeated? He's the mightiest god of them all!” The little boy continued to weep.
“Zeus truly is the most powerful god of the Silver Age. His greatest enemies are imprisoned in the deepest reaches of Tartarus, that chaotic underworld where light never shines—a place even Zeus dares not explore recklessly.”
Asteria gently withdrew her fingers from Apollo's golden hair.
“A rushing river of fire encircles three curtains of darkness, like three boundless black seas layered one upon another. Inside them stand three barriers of bronze, forged by Poseidon himself. Beyond those walls the ancient Titans are held captive, guarded day and night by the Hundred-Handed Giants.”
“The Titans? Is our grandfather imprisoned there too?” Her niece looked positively intrigued.
“Yes. His name is Cronus. He rules over time and was once master of all creation.”
“Cronus and his brothers and sisters are the prisoners. Together, they are known as the Twelve Titans.”
“The Titans nearly won the war. What they hadn't expected was that Zeus would free the Hundred-Handed Giants and the Cyclopes. With those giants' help, he narrowly managed to turn the tide.”
“Were the children of the Twelve Titans imprisoned too?”
“Zeus pardoned all the Titans' children except one. That one was far too dangerous. Zeus joined forces with three Hundred-Handed Giants, and at last they managed to lock him in Tartarus's bottomless abyss.”
Without realizing it, her thoughts had drifted far away.
That particular god was Perses. As far as anyone knew, he had been surrounded by dense, bloodred mist since birth. No one had ever seen his true appearance.
Asteria remembered how innocent she had been as a child. That mass of blood mist often came looking for her. It was so strange and terrifying that she could only turn herself into a quail and burrow into the sand to hide.
Perses had never actually done anything frightening to her. He had merely watched her fear in silence.
Even so, he had become one of only two sources of lifelong terror for her.
She had actually been relieved to learn that he was imprisoned in Tartarus.
The other source, of course, was Zeus. The king of the gods was an incorrigible womanizer, and he had pestered her for years.
A bell suddenly rang out from the ancient realm. Solemn and sacred, it seemed to come from the Golden Age when the Titans ruled, piercing the mist of countless passing years to reach the three of them.
“The gods have called an emergency council. I have to go. I'll tell Zeus about your dream.”
The goddess immediately rolled out of bed. Searching for her headdress and earrings wrought from stars, she distractedly placated young Apollo.
Apollo was not wrong. During her brief nap, she had experienced precisely the same dream.
Prophecy was one of the powers of the goddess of shooting stars.
In her prophetic dream, Zeus really had fought desperately with another man, then fallen into an abyss and vanished.
…
Asteria left Delos Island and followed a road paved with the Milky Way to Mount Olympus, ascending the steps of the king of the gods' palace.
As the Muses passed her, they immediately fell silent, stopped laughing, and nodded respectfully.
The goddess returned their nod. Starlight shimmered among her silver-gold curls, dazzling enough to draw gasps of admiration.
She passed through a pristine white portico into the awe-inspiring council hall. The gods had already taken their places before the golden throne, arranged in a solemn semicircle.
Those of noble standing, such as Asteria, sat in the front row. To her left was Eos, goddess of the dawn; to her right was Selene, goddess of the moon, her face clouded with worry.
“Selene has fallen in love with a handsome mortal and wants to ask Zeus to grant him eternal life…” Eos whispered into the shooting-star goddess's ear. “I told her long ago that it was impossible. Mortals cannot live forever unless they sleep forever. Falling in love with a mortal is hardly different from falling in love with a corpse.”
Nearly all the gods had arrived. The pure white palace doors closed, leaving only a few empty seats.
“Do you know where Ares, the god of war, has gone? His seat is empty.” The dawn goddess kept glancing back. Unable to see the man she loved, she finally asked Asteria.
“You're the one having an affair with him. Why would you ask me?”
With another toll of the bell, the council of the gods began.
Zeus, king of the gods, sat upon his golden throne, flanked behind him by his wives Themis and Hera.
Poor Selene rose impatiently, eager to petition Zeus for the gift of immortality.
Suddenly, the pure white palace doors were forced open with tremendous strength.
Hephaestus, god of fire, burst into the hall, dragging something behind him.
He limped to the center of the great hall, his steps heavy enough to make the floor seem to reverberate with each one.
He was beside himself with rage, apparently beyond reason. His lava-like eyes burned furiously, as if he wanted to set the entire world ablaze.
“Great lord of the gods, my esteemed colleagues, take a guess! Guess what I've caught in my net!”
The gods exchanged bewildered looks and murmured among themselves, unable to imagine what had happened.
The enraged fire god flung the golden net he had been dragging onto the floor before him, displaying its contents to all the gods.
The gold mesh was densely woven. Each strand was finer than a spider's silk, yet stronger than anything else in the world.
Inside the net was a mass of pale flesh… No, in fact it was a man and a woman, both stark naked.
“Ares! Aphrodite!” Eos shrieked. She could scarcely bear her lover's betrayal.
When the gods realized that the war god and the goddess of beauty had been caught in an illicit affair, laughter broke out throughout the hall.
“I only wish I could be disgraced like that!” one male god joked.
Asteria quietly enjoyed the spectacle before turning her gaze toward the golden throne.
Themis held her scales, her expression as solemn as ever. Hera's face was drawn as taut as a bowstring at the public humiliation of her eldest son, Ares.
Zeus could endure no more. He rose from the golden throne and motioned for silence, ordering the fire god to take his wife away. The affair would be dealt with later.
“Today was not meant to be a council day. I summoned you urgently because there has been a disturbance in the deepest reaches of Tartarus.” He raised his thunderbolt staff and announced the latest news to the assembled gods.
“The Titans…”
The deities could no longer sit still. Fear appeared on their faces. This was clearly much graver than the goddess of love's infidelity.
“The Hundred-Handed Giants have not yet reported back. We know nothing of what is happening there…” Zeus again signaled for quiet. “As for whether Olympus faces another war, only the goddess of shooting stars, who commands the power of prophecy, knows the answer.”
“My dear Asteria…” He spoke her name with a softness like a sponge. “Please tell everyone whether you have glimpsed the future in your dreams.”
An incomparable chill swept through Asteria. Called upon by the king of the gods, she had no choice but to rise beneath the gaze of the entire assembly.
The shooting-star goddess's platinum hair shone like the Milky Way, adorned with ornaments of stars. A mysterious radiance swirled in her lilac eyes.
Whenever the gods gathered to make decisions, Zeus would ask Asteria whether she had perceived anything of the future.
Because she could glimpse the secrets of the world in dreams, she had saved him a great deal of trouble and helped him avoid many dangers.
Zeus relaxed on his golden throne, admiring the graceful bearing of the woman he desired.
Asteria wore an innocent, sincere smile as Apollo's cries raced through her mind, along with the prophetic dream she and her nephew had shared.
In the near future, Zeus would fight another man, fall into the abyss, and finally disappear.
If she concealed it, would that allow the prophecy to come true and free her forever from his harassing declarations of love?
“My dear goddess of shooting stars, what sort of future did you see?” the king of the gods urged gently.
“Your supreme position is unassailable…” Asteria maintained her gentle smile. “The Hundred-Handed Giants still stand guard in Tartarus. The Titans grow weaker by the day in that lightless place. Today's disturbance is merely their last desperate blow.”
“Cronus cannot possibly lead the Titans in a return to power. He is already too weak even to stand.”
“Noble king of the gods, my dear colleagues, that is my prophecy.”
The gods brightened and began showering him with flattery.
Zeus looked rather pleased with himself and cast Asteria a glance overflowing with affection. Hera watched Zeus with a rigid expression, a flash of disgust crossing her eyes.
Having told her lie without so much as a change of expression, Asteria calmly returned to her seat and waited for the meeting to end.
Several more tremors shook the depths of Tartarus, but the gods of Olympus went on laughing and chatting, paying the disturbances no attention whatsoever.
The fire god dragged his golden net into the hall once more, demanding that Zeus dispense justice on his behalf.
The gods were utterly carried away by the delight of the scandal. The revelry lasted until the following day, when the heartbroken Eos drove her golden chariot across the sky, lighting the heavens with her rosy fingers.
Then upheaval came.
