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    Night in the Pavilion.

    The massive, elegant columned dwelling lay surrounded by eternal night. Bands of silver swept through the glittering sky, but it was devoid of stars. None had been made yet...for Proper Time had not begun. God saw fit to keep Time in His own chambers, and in the Pavilions, but outside them, Time had no meaning or existence.

    Of course, that didn't stop some of us from wishing to see the void unfold into a bright and beautiful universe.

    Some of us had painted depictions of what we thought it would look like. Pluto's painting was of a cold, stark space, dark and forbidding...much as it was now.

    Mine was alight with the faraway glow of blue-violet stars and great Aquarian masses of water coated with icy, rocky shells.

    Jupiter's vision surrounded us with gaseous giants, storming with wind.

    And, of course, some of us didn't want to paint at all, considering it inane and not worth their time. They were the Nebulae, created to be our polar similars. Sadly, they didn't follow much of what God said—they were more black sheep than anything.

    Tonight, as many other nights had been, was a dear night to our Mother.

    Tonight she lay in childbirth, with the sixth of our number. We knew not what the babe's name was, or even what sex it was, but we all hoped it would live when it emerged. I'd heard tales of myself from Pluto...he often told me he had to give me the breath of life to revive me. I believed him, of course. He was the dearest of my siblings to me.

    I sat by the reflecting pool, dipping my toes and gazing down into the clear water. Little flecks of gold swam around my feet, which were covered in scales and little webs.

    Now, something about that—I had, from a young age, been unnaturally attracted to water. Aqueophilia, Mother called it. Pluto told me that when I was first bathed, I grew a tail and fins. Well, Lord of the Sea that I was, nearly from birth, I supposed I would have to grow one sooner or later.

    “Neptune—,” an irritating whine sounded behind me, “why are you so taken with water?”

    I turned my head to face Narcissus, one of the Nebulae. My mouth pulled in a crumpling frown.

    “Well,” I said deprecatingly, “I don't really know. Why are you so taken with yourself?”

    Narcissus’ face darkened, and my frown curled into a smirk. “What, does a manticore have your tongue?”

    Narcissus shook one long finger at me. “You—you—you—”

    “You sound rather like a myna bird,” I tittered. “Please, Narcissus. Don't amuse me much more, or I'll piss myself.”

    “Pluto,” Narcissus snapped, “come over here and teach your irreverent brother a lesson.”

    Pluto padded up to us, smiling benignly. He was my eldest brother, the Lord of Death. He had been born millions upon millions of years before me, but his eyes held a youthfulness that mine could never reflect, and I envied him for that. But as often as he came to my rescue, he was quite dear. I never wished to lose him.

    “Narcissus dear, don't give him fuel for his fire,” Pluto said, blinking silver eyes at Narcissus. “Why do you tempt him so? And you, Neptune, why do you dip your toes in the reflecting pool if you can't go swimming in it?”

    “I only thought to cool them,” I murmured and lifted my feet from the water. The scales faded into my skin with little shrinking glitters. “Besides,” I murmured, “there’s no excitement here.”

    Pluto smiled down at me. “Come, brother, ‘twill not be long before Mother’s babe arrives. What are you hoping for? Have you heard the babe is to be a Neutral Dark? You will be teaching him or her in a thousand years. Not so long from now.”

    I frowned, thinking. Why do I have the feeling that Mother’s child will mean more to me than just that?

    “And, brother, can you not hear Mother’s cries? The babe is coming now. Listen!” Pluto knelt, cupped hands around my ears, and I listened. Indeed, I could hear God’s quiet commands, and Mother’s panting, and though Pluto might not have known it, I smelled the redolence of blood and fluid. The Lady's pact had given me a demon’s senses.

    “Before you ask,” Pluto said softly, “I can smell it too. Being the Lord of Death, I would be able to. Don’t be disturbed…’tis only Mother’s blood you smell.”

    “I doubt that,” I whispered. “I can smell her as well…and there is more blood than just hers. The birth is coming hard…I can hear her womb clench. She is in great pain.”

    Pluto sighed. Yes, Neptune, she is. Poor Mother…although, your birth was much harder. She was smaller then. I was tiny, but you were born with a tail. Everywhere you go, if ‘tis water, you always have a tail. Quite a form.

    I’m aware I hurt her. I just hope the babe isn’t hurting her any more than I did.

    Gasping, Pluto bade me, Listen…it’s eerily silent now.

    It is…is it over?

    I hear the flames crackling, and can you smell the marrow-candles and incense? Now it is over.     Pluto rose to his feet, and I did too. Come. God is instructing her.

    I hear my name,     I murmured, and yours…but no one else’s….

    We squealed as one when spidery hands clamped down on our shoulders.

    “Nosey little whelps, aren’t you?” Hyperion snarled behind us. “’Tis over. The babe has come. I’ve been instructed to cut him.”

    “Mother wants to see us, doesn’t she?” Pluto asked. His face bore a tinge of pink, his brows lowered. Neptune, he whispered, he called us whelps. Is he even aware of how old I am—how old you are? He was created but a year ago…and we are already millions upon millions of years old. We are fathoms deep with knowledge, while he is a mere droplet upon the ground.

    A droplet of spittle,     I sniggered. Gods, but he’s stupid. He won’t make a suitable father.
    Maybe he will, maybe he won’t,     Pluto considered. Let’s just let him pass.

    “’Twould be excellent if you did.” Hyperion rudely shoved us aside, and my feet skated on the slippery tiles that ringed the reflecting pool.

    “Oh gods, Neptune—!” Pluto cried. “You’ll—”

    Slipping and sliding, I toppled into the pool, dousing myself in cold water. “Plagh!” I spat angrily. “Hyperion, you dung-tongued son of a goat! You’ll live to rue this day!”

    I glanced down the hall and saw Narcissus giggling like a hyena. “Shut up, you whey-faced pox boil!” I yowled at him before Pluto clapped a hand over my mouth. I flushed dark at the echo of my insults in the hall, Hyperion’s on one side and Narcissus’ on the other. Oh gods, He will likely have choice words with me.

    “Temper, temper,” Pluto twittered. “Whey-faced pox boil? He’ll never prefer your company again.”

    “Indeed,” two voices said together behind me. I whirled around in the water to face Miles and Scion, the Attendants.

    “Oh, don’t make me call you names too,” I said, scowling.

    Miles and Scion extended arms and pulled me up from the water. My long fish-tail waggled and splashed in the pool, and Pluto hefted it up. Together they braced me over the marble floor.

    I crossed my arms in my wet clothes. “Oh, the indignity. Now I have to go and change.”

    Miles laid a hand on me. “Windu, come to his aid,” he whispered. My hair lifted on end as many tiny hands shook my clothing and rustled around in it, blowing the silk dry.

    “Wonderful,” I muttered. “Windu. That’s just lovely. Now why did you have to summon wind spirits to dry me? I thought it was wasteful to call on the natural energies of the void like this.”

    Scion smiled. “On a night like this, you’d catch cold. That would be even worse. Come, your Mother wishes to see the both of you.”

    “I’m not standing in the same room with that piss-brained maggot offal—I mean, Hyperion. Not my Mother; I don’t mind seeing her.”

    “Hyperion won’t stay long,” Miles assured. “He’s rather…shall we say…concerned for other affairs than the babe’s.”

    Pluto frowned. “Just like Scarmig, I suspect.”

    “Likely,” Scion said, nodding. “He’ll seek a divination from the Sisters. Do you remember what happened last time?”

    “Oh yes, I do,” Pluto said. “And I wish I didn’t. I know why he went for a divination, and I know why he left.”

    “So do we,” the attendants said together.

    “Why did my father leave?” I asked them.

    “None of your concern,” Pluto waved off. “You’d call me crazy if I told you, and claim the divination was mere trickery. It is something you will have to discover for yourself, brother, and when you do, you will know what has to be done. I will tell you, you will not be happy for long.”

    I looked away. “Let’s just go to see Mother.” Troubling thoughts gnawed at my brain like maddocks, and I didn’t know why. Was it because of the babe? What mastery would he have over my fate?

    We strode down the hall and shoved aside the males and few females crowded at the doors to Mother’s chambers.

    “Miles, Scion, let us in!” our sisters protested.

    “Nay,” they responded, “go and work. Your Mother wishes to see your brothers.”

    “Then we have a new brother?”

    “Yes. Now go.”

    Well, I thought with an impending dread, nothing ventured, nothing gained….

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