Ashes |Leo Valdez|

Prologue

17 Years Earlier

"Master?" Nyx called out, wondering why exactly she had been called into service when she should have been tending the night. It wasn't like night time ran itself, you know.

Around her, the Abyss was silent. She didn't dare even think of her masters true name, for fear of the name giving him more power. Quietly, she waited, busying herself with watching the constellations chase each other on the cave walls, a reflection from her dress.

His voice sent chills down her spine as he spoke to her. There was very little that the mother of death and darkness feared, but he made the cut. "My sweet child. War is coming. The sky is awakening. You must be prepared." The voice, as dark as oil and more slick than rain, caused Nyx's knees to shake.

"Prepared for what, master?" She questioned, trying her best to keep her hands from trembling. Fear gripped her heart, but she was able to suppress  the tremor in her voice.

His laugh rumbled loudly, crashing into her in a way that made her grip her dress tightly in her hands. "My, my. The time of the gods is ending, and my time has finally come. Their chains grow weak, and their faith in their children dwindles. Hermera will soon betray you, but do not worry, my pet. Just as I know what is to come, I can promise you the destruction and revenge you will so readily crave."

Nyx wrung her hands, a worried expression flitting across her face. Hermera was her best friend: her sister. She would never betray her, right? But what if she did? The dark seed the Abyss had planted took root quickly in the heart already so used to darkness. She struggled to breathe as thoughts of betrayal wrapped her brain and squeezed her soul. "How do I stop this?" She begged, star like tears forming in her eyes.

The dark, cold laugh rumbled around her. "Follow my instructions closely, Nyx. This world is ill prepared for the war I intend to rage. But first, I need two things. Or should I say, two demigods." Nyx's look of worry and fear turned to that of confusion. What could he possibly need two demigod's for? They were beneath him even more than the other gods were.

"Why?"

The air around her grew cold, chilling her from the inside out and making her teeth clatter. "One for a soul more pure than pure, another to grow my strength beyond reason. Have you not read the prophecies lining the walls of the temples since before the dark days?"

As if she could not hold it in, the prophecy poured from her, just as well known to her as it was to any other god.
"From death and darkness a hero rises,
With no true power of their own.
By their choice a side will falter,
To end in fire or in stone.

The Sky will crumble into Darkness,
And leave destruction in its wake.
For the gods of old and new will fall,
And their power this half-blood shall take.

But be wary all who seek to hinder,
What has been foretold.
For neither good nor evil can reach a heart,
Within another's hold."

Nyx finished quietly, waiting for what her master could possibly want with a prophecy nearly as old as her. "Do you mean the time has come for the prophecy to pass?" Her words were but a whisper as both fear and excitement battled within her.

"Yes, my pet," the words should have been kind and reassuring, but they sounded cold and slimy, raking a shiver through the goddess. "But there is a verse unknown to all but myself, for I scrubbed it from the minds and walls of all with what little strength I had in me long before it could be known. It has always been obvious, since my imprisonment, that this prophecy was for me alone and so I stole the verse in which my instructions of freedom were held." Nyx held her breath, waiting for him to state these hidden lines of the prophecy, but the Abyss held his secret a little longer. "I have been patient. Waiting. Hades has feared this prophecy, for he knows a hero rising from death and darkness could very well be his own spawn. Perhaps he has since forgotten the prophecy, or let himself believe it to no longer applies to him, for a woman is now pregnant with his child and she has been left unprotected."