Black Lily

8. water from the styx

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Nymphs will always assume the best of people, and the ones Tedros calls family were no different. They took his note to heart, set it aside inside the knot of an apple tree, and went off to play. Merlin knows he could use a break from his mother and a spell of meditation, they all thought collectively. And so goes those living Above, much more trusting than those who dwell in the darkness.

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Agatha awoke to a rapping at her bedroom door. She tensed and automatically reached for her trident..

"Wake up," Tedros called to her, his voice muffled through the heavy wood. "I want to show you something."

Tedros. Not an attacker, Agatha realized, I have to stop doing that. Agatha groggily rose from her bed. She grabbed her sketchbook and drawing charcoal, opening the door to be faced with a grinning Tedros.

Hyacinths of all colors encircled his head. "Come outside! I want to show you something!" He dragged Agatha out of the castle.

"Are those flowers? " Agatha pointed to the newly grown flower bed to the right of the castle entrance. "Tedros, how long did this take you?" The Queen of the Underworld closed in on the plant life, immediately bringing forth her sketchbook to capture the plants' likenesses. She quickly sketched one of them with harsh charcoal lines.

"You're left handed?" Tedros asked.

"Yes," Agatha absentmindedly replied while frantically sketching. "What of it?"

Tedros was learning more and more about the elusive goddess with each passing minute, but he had no response to give her.

"All the ground needed was a bit of love," Tedros told Agatha simply after the pair spent a couple minutes of silence together. "I woke up abruptly at 3AM, and thought, Why don't I use some of the water from the Styx? So I rushed down there, said hello to Callis — who looked rather surprised at my return — collected the water in an empty firefly jar, and nurtured the soil until it could support plant life." Tedros was beaming, unknowingly using more words in that moment than Agatha usually used in an entire week. His hyacinth crown looked absolutely vibrant.

Agatha's hand stilled. "You used water from the Styx?"

"Yes," Tedros replied unsurely, his voice wavering.

Agatha let out a gravelly laugh. "That's genius! I can't believe I didn't think of that."

Tedros lapsed into an information session of why he chose flowers of the anemone and carnation variety, how to dig soil with your own hands, and the importance of speaking encouraging words to flowers. He was in his element. Agatha listened raptly, hanging onto his every word.

The flower god sat beside Agatha, describing the anatomy of a flower. Agatha finally put down her sketchbook and just listened— no notetaking or sketching or anything. It was riveting. She watched his mouth move rapidly as he explained the intricacies of fertilizer and how the correct combination of minerals could help fix the Underworld soil and perhaps he could find some of the more elusive ones down here anyway because it was a cave, after all. He spoke about how the ground down here obviously wasn't cursed: it wasn't any different than the sun-dried soil Above. It had been neglected since its creation, nothing more.

"Love," he repeated over and over, "all it needs is love."

Agatha soon found that she really hadn't been doing much valid research of plant life above ground — as her sketchbooks piled up in the castle — all she learned was the shape of a flower, not how it grew or what it needed to thrive. I've been going about this all wrong, Agatha thought. I should have spoken to this god way sooner. Hours passed by, and Tedros kept talking. Agatha didn't mind, though she found herself focusing more on the kind glint emanating from his eyes. The deep blues of his irises matched the blue hyacinths around his face. She was surprised that none of the petals ever fell on the floor. Maybe they magically disappear.