Moon! Sun! Sky! Join true—join sure—join swift!
Create warrior and lover, playmate and friend.
Do not leave my Goddess companionless, lonely with no end!
The sky above the grove came alive with currents of glistening magick ancient as the Divine—unending Energy bound to obey the Earth’s command. It multiplied and divided, pulsing with the light of creation so brightly that even Mother Earth and the Goddess Nyx had to shield their eyes. Then the currents swept up, up, up to the fading moon, and up, up, up to the rising sun. The moon and the sun blazed, pulsing with the joining so beautifully that Mother Earth thought it seemed that the sky kissed first the moon, and then the sun.
There was an explosion of light above and around Mother Earth and Nyx, and then all was still.
The sun continued to rise, silently, distantly. The moon faded into the heavens.
Mother Earth had just begun to frown and was considering how she would penalize both moon and sun for not fulfilling their vows when she heard Nyx’s surprised gasp.
Mother Earth shifted her gaze. She had been staring up, expecting a being to float down from the sky. But her expectations had been incorrect. The beings were already there, kneeling before Nyx.
In shock, Mother Earth watched as two godlings fashioned from the joining of the sky and the moon, and the sun and the moon, lifted their faces and gazed with utter adoration at their Goddess.
“They have wings!” Nyx exclaimed.
“And there are two of them,” Mother Earth said, furrowing her brow in consternation. “Nyx, this did not go exactly as I had planned.”
“I think they are perfect!” said the Goddess.
3.
SHE WOULD BE A MIGHTY ENEMY …
Newly created, Kalona opened his eyes. His first sight was that of Nyx. He didn’t know her name then. All he knew was that her beauty arrowed into him and lodged somewhere so deeply that it made him unable to speak.
She approached him first, though he was hardly aware of the other being kneeling beside him. She held out her hand to him and said the first words he ever heard: “I am the Goddess Nyx, and I welcome you with all of my heart.”
Her voice was sweet and musical and soothing. Kalona took her slender hand carefully within his own much larger one, noticing the unique beauty of their contrasting skins—his darker, burnished, rougher, while hers was soft and pale and utterly flawless.
Still, he couldn’t seem to speak. Her smile had his blood heating and his body feeling flushed.
“And what is your name?” she asked him.
“Kalona,” he blurted.
“Kalona. What a beautiful name! Your wings are the silver of a full moon. You must be the son of the moon,” she said.
“I am,” he said, without stopping to wonder at how he knew it. “And I was fashioned for you.”
Her smiled blazed, and Kalona could feel his heartbeat increase.
“Goddess Nyx, I am Erebus, son of the golden sun. Hence the reason my wings are not the color of moonlight. I, too, have been fashioned for you.” The other winged godling stood. “Excuse me, brother, but I cannot allow you to keep the Goddess to yourself,” he quipped as he stepped around Kalona, gently pulling Nyx’s hand from his before Erebus bowed with a flourish of golden wings.
Nyx turned her luminous smile to Erebus and her delighted laughter seemed to sparkle in the grove around them. “Erebus! I welcome the son of the sun with all of my heart as well.”
“Lovely Goddess, have a care for how much of your heart you give away. You give Kalona all—you give me all. Surely one of us will come up short?” Erebus’s golden eyes flashed as mischievously as his smile.
Kalona frowned at Erebus and found himself having to grit his teeth against a feral growl. He should not dare to speak to the Goddess thus! Kalona would have liked to knock that cocky smile from the godling’s face!
“I do not think you should begin this relationship by admonishing your Goddess, young Erebus, especially as I can see it incites your brother’s ire.” Kalona hadn’t even noticed the other being until she began to speak, moving forward so that she positioned herself between Nyx and himself and Erebus, almost as if she thought the Goddess needed protection against them. Kalona narrowed his eyes at this lesser woman, ready to correct her, to tell her that Nyx would never need protection against him! He would never—could never—hurt her! But the woman’s eyes caught his before he could speak, and a warning in their dark depths silenced him.
“Kalona, Erebus, please greet my friend, Mother Earth. You must thank her, as it is she who enabled your creation!” Nyx said breathlessly.
Erebus’s smile was charming, his voice deep and gentle, as he bowed to her saying, “Great Mother, I greet and thank you, and I ask that you forget my first, mistaken attempt at humor. I assure you that my intention was not to admonish my Goddess, though I admit to finding it amusing that I was able to so easily incite my brother’s ire.”