Kallistrate was never a darling of the altars. Raised in Sparta and rumored to be Hades' blood, she learned early that survival is a craft. Her gifts-hearing the dead, bending shadow, keeping her spine steady-make her a useful problem the gods can't ignore. When she's sent to Ithaca to marry Prince Telemachus, she finds a court rotting under a hundred hungry men and a queen who refuses to bend. Ares trains her at dawn. Athena tests her at dusk. The island's dead crowd her name with pleas, and every rite becomes a battlefield. But Kallistrate is no one's spectacle. With Penelope at her side and Telemachus at her shoulder, she turns custom into strategy: sacred lamps, feast-day oaths, the old challenges that remember who a king is. As omens sharpen and a beggar with storm-bright eyes kneels at a dais, Ithaca's halls brace for the reckoning. A lyrical retelling filled with political intrigue, found courage, and slow-burn devotion, The Shadowed Song of Ithaca asks what it costs to keep a home-and whether a girl made of shadows can write her own ending. For fans of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint, Jorge Rivera-Herrans and mythic romantasy with sharp edges. Content notes: violence; death/grief; gods' manipulation; trauma mentions; court/political tension, mentions of assault (NEVER graphic), men being intimidating.

In this sequel AU to The Shadowed Song of Ithaca-set in a world where the events of the Telegony is canon-Kallistrate is no longer just the shadow-born bride who learned to turn rites into weapons. She's a queen, a mother, and the island's steward-asked to keep lamps lit while grief keeps its own hours. When a raft from Aeaea brings a boy with a sea-bitter name, xenia collides with vengeance, and an old story forces Ithaca to decide what kind of home it intends to be. Kalli's rites cleanse what blood can't; Telemachus learns the weight of mercy; Penelope refuses to let sorrow rewrite law. The gods are not idle-Ares sharpens, Athena blesses, Hades watches-and the road to Circe demands a reckoning where love, fear, and debt are all told the truth. This is a short, lyrical spin-off about crowns worn quietly, justice argued cleanly, and a family that chooses one another even when fate prefers spectacle. It asks what we owe the dead, what we offer the living, and whether a woman made of shadow can carry a house full of light. For fans of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint, Jorge Rivera-Herrans, and mythic romantasy with sharp edges. Read order: follows The Shadowed Song of Ithaca; stands alone as a contained sequel AU. Content notes: bereavement and grief; non-graphic violence; gods' manipulation; tense family dynamics; mentions of assault (never graphic); political/court pressure; children in peril-adjacent scenes (safe); one intense witch duel.

The wars are over, but the story isn't. Ode to the Daughter of Death is a collection of quiet hymns to the life Kallistrate and Telemachus built in the shadow of Olympus-a mortal marriage that endures gods, grief, and time itself. Across the years, their home becomes a kingdom shaped by devotion: Penelope's wisdom still steering its halls, Odysseus' memory haunting its shorelines, and their children growing into the myths that will outlive them. From the reckless tenderness of young love to the calm ache of old age, these stories trace the heartbeat of Ithaca-the laughter that fills its courtyards, the olive groves that remember their vows, and the gods who cannot quite let them go. Ares is still as sharp as a blade's edge; Athena still watches from her high, silent perch; Althea still learns how to wield both blade and mercy. Between feasts and funerals, miracles and mischief, this is the song of what remains when legends rest-the love, the lineage, and the mortal courage that dares to keep living.