Page 4 of Meduso
My eyes widened. This was a revelation to me. I had no idea my mother and father possessed the power to hear our conversations from opposite ends of the palace. I knew they were a god and goddess, but I imagined their powers had limitations. Now I found myself attempting to recall all of the talks I had with my sisters, hoping that there was nothing too shameful I had told them that my parents would be discouraged or angered by.
“Father. I’m sorry. I…”
“Save your apologies, boy. Let this be a lesson to you. When you serve Athena, you are to be loyal and faithful to her. Never question her motives, thoughts, or actions. Do you understand, Meduso?”
“Yes, father,” I obediently replied.
“Because if you defy her or any other god or goddess for that matter, you will bring shame upon yourself and to our entire family. She will treat your actions as treason and our entire family will suffer retribution,” he explained.
“I understand, father. I will be a devout servant to Athena. I promise.”
“The last thing your mother or I need is for Zeus or the other Olympian gods to think we are against them! Those sowed seeds of doubt will lead to our demise!”
I nodded and scratched the back of my head in nervousness. Though Phorcys was my father, even I was intimidated by him.
I will never forget when I was little, Euryale and I both snuck into his prohibited weapon room and play fought with some of his obsidian tridents and swords. When he found out we had crossed him, we were summoned to the throne room. The red flames in the room turned to black and blue. Phorcys’ eyes changed to deep red. He grew to be five times his normal size as he hovered over us, shouting. “You will never defy me again! Do you both understand? And you, Meduso! I will send you to the Underworld early if you ever disobey me again!”
After that scolding, I did my best to avoid him as much as possible. Whenever we were together, I kept my head low and said as little as possible. This was the relationship we had throughout my entire life. I was constantly walking on eggshells around him.
“Father… will you please tell me about the mortals? Are they like me?” I inquired.
It was difficult for me to picture what anything on the surface looked like since I was only exposed to it once for a brief amount of time. After all, I had been isolated to the deepest depths of the ocean and this palace for almost seventeen years now. I had no visualization to base my thoughts off of. However, my father and mother claimed that I was a mortal, so I pictured other mortals to have the same physical characteristics as me.
My sisters and I looked far more different than our parents, our Graeae servants, and the other creatures I’ve encountered in the ocean depths. Our skin was pale, milky and smooth. Our appendages were of the same silky material and consistent throughout our entire bodies. My hair was golden yellow, and I had hazel-green eyes.
My father chuckled at my question. “Yes, Meduso. They look like you. You and your sisters are what some call humans, except your sisters are immortal humans. They will live on for eternity, like your mother and me. You, on the other hand… well, we don’t need to repeat this story once again, do we?”
“No, I understand.” I did not care to hear my father clarify the difference between a mortal and immortal for what would seem like the thousandth time. I was reminded of it on a daily occurrence. I would age quicker than my sisters and would eventually die. My soul would flow to the Underworld and eventually into non-existence, oblivion, or whatever that meant. I was still unclear of what that outcome looked like.
“Good. Well, why don’t you settle down for the evening? Tomorrow your sister, Stheno, will take you to the surface to meet Echidna. I want you to be well rested and to have your wits about you when you do walk the surface,” my father stated. “I want you to take more opportunities to roam the land and get used to it. After all, it will only be a matter of time before you are permanently living up there, serving in the temple of Athena.”
“Yes, father.” And I did as he instructed. I went to bed earlier than usual that evening, although it was difficult for me to sleep with all the new excitement going on around me. I would be experiencing what the surface was like more often now. It would be a whole new world to me. It would also be my first time meeting my sister, Echidna. The uncertainty of what to expect kept me awake, staring at the luminescent aquamarine ceiling in my room.
My thoughts drifted to everything my father had mentioned to me, especially hearing him say: It is important for you to know that mortals… they are obedient to the gods. Just what exactly would I be expected to do on the surface? What would Athena and the other gods demand of me? I tossed and turned, eventually dozing off into a slumber.
Chapter 2
“You foolish brats! Give it back to us!” Deino screamed.
“You will be eternally damned to the Underworld for such cruelty!” Enyo declared.
My sister, Euryale, and I were in the Great Hall of our palace the following morning. Euryale stole the single eyeball of the Graeae and tossed it to me. She and I decided to have a little fun with Deino, Enyo, and Pemphredo, our three servants, and technically our sisters, though we often never referred to them as such.
Together, the three of them were known as the Graeae. Each of them hooded in black cloaks, with traces of their gray, knotty hair able to be seen. They too had similar physical features to my sisters and me, but their skin was more droopy and tougher, like an animal’s hide. They were decrepit and much older than us.
Deino, Enyo, and Pemphredo were inseparable. They had no choice, having to share a single eyeball among them as a means of sight. Without one of them in possession of their eye, they were permanently blind. As a result of this, they kept the eye close to them, so as to not lose it. However, whenever Euryale or I saw an opportunity to snatch it from them, as a joke, we did it.
I tossed the eye back across the room to Euryale, over the Graeae’s heads. “Catch!”
Enyo reached her hand up, hearing that I had thrown the eye in the air, but she was unable to snatch it back from us.
“You will be punished for this!” Pemphredo yelled, as she kneeled on the ground, feeling around on the floor in a desperate attempt to somehow find the eye.
Euryale then threw the eye back towards me, but a different hand managed to grasp it. It was my oldest sister, Stheno. She held the eyeball out to Deino, who grabbed it, regaining her sight.
“Thank you, Stheno!” Enyo cried. “Your brother and sister could learn a thing or two from you!”
“Yes! Rotten little sea scum!” Pemphredo followed in with.
