Typhon

Charybdis was alone now, weeks having passed since the goddess had last seen her mate. She had been forced to confront the reality that Phorcys would likely never return. Trapped as she was, there would be no way of knowing what had happened to her mate. Once again, she was helpless. Helpless to break her own curse, and helpless to protect the god she loved.

Their bond had stirred something deep within her, however, something more than the raw power she possessed. Despite her mate’s absence, that bond still lingered, and the goddess held onto some small shred of hope that perhaps Phorcys was still alive. Perhaps he was still trying to come back to her.

That small flicker of hope ignited into a roaring flame one day, when Charybdis saw the form of a dragon swimming through the water. As it drew closer, however, her spirits fell. The dragon’s scales were much darker than her mate’s. She felt the fans along her spine flare, her seaswept mane bristling with hostility.

No one apart from Phorcys had ever intentionally visited her lair and the goddess was in no mood to entertain. She watched from her rocky crag as the creature swam closer and could feel it watching her in turn. Slowly, she stalked down to the water’s edge, talons sharp against stone, ready to greet this newcomer with her preferred method of communication.

When the stranger arrived, however, hauling his obsidian form from the ocean, seawater pouring from his mane, Charybdis found herself temporarily frozen in shock. The stranger was not a stranger at all. He was her son.

Son was perhaps too familiar a word, for the enormous male sneered upon seeing his mother’s reaction.

“Hello, mother,” he drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm and venom. His eyes were cold, devoid of emotion as he glared at the sea goddess. This would not be a friendly visit.

“What do you want,” the goddess replied with a snarl, fangs bared, her question sounding more like an accusation.

The male chuckled darkly in reply, but no hint of mirth reached his eyes. “Is that any way to greet your long-lost son?”

Charybdis’ eyes narrowed. A warning.

“Now, now, mother dearest,” he chided, ignoring her poorly concealed fury and feigning innocence. “I didn’t come here to fight. I only thought you’d want to know what became of your most loathed offspring. You’d be quite proud of me, you know. I’ve become a monster… Just. Like. You.”

These last words he nearly spat in Charybdis’ face, satisfaction written on his features. He was gloating. Charybdis kept her anger in check, relaxing her own posture, determined to maintain dominance.

“As it turns out, being rejected by your own mother can foster a bit of a violent streak, you know. I’ve spent years trying to make you proud, mumsy. You wouldn’t believe how many foul creatures I’ve killed, how many civilizations I’ve terrorized. I’ve become a bit of a legend amongst the mortals, not that you would know of course,” Typhon winked, knowing the comment would grate on Charybdis’ nerves.

“It really is quite deplorable here,” he continued, brushing past the goddess to survey her lair, plucking lazily at a clump of barnacles with a razor-sharp talon.

Charybdis could hold her tongue no longer. “If you hate it so much, then why are you here, Typhon?” she growled, her icy words echoing off the cavern’s walls. She remembered the name, although it was not one she had given him. Phorcys had mentioned their most notorious son in passing once or twice, citing him as proof that the oracle’s prophecy was being fulfilled. Typhon was a monster the likes of which the world had never seen. Although he was mortal, he had cultivated a kind of dark magic of his own, using his powers to kill whatever and whoever he pleased, his only purpose ending lives.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, you know, mother, you really shouldn’t take that tone with me,” the fearsome monster admonished, a warning in his voice as he crept up behind her and whispered, “It didn’t work out too well for father.”

Charybdis froze as a Typhon’s maw twisted into a triumphant grin. Her heart sank even as she felt pure rage rise to the surface to take its place. “GET. OUT,” she spat, whirling to face her son.

“And here I thought you’d be happy to know what became of him,” Typhon responded, pretending to be astonished at her reaction, his voice crooning as if speaking to a hatchling.

The goddess had had enough. Her power surged through her veins and instantly the sky blackened, an ominous wall of water building behind her, threatening to topple onto the outcrop.

“Oh, come now, mumsy, there’s no need for all that,” Typhon chided. “I didn’t kill him. I mean, how could I? He’s immortal after all. Unlike me. Unlike all the monstrous children you’ve created. Isn’t that right, mother? Isn’t that why you’ve rejected us all?”

True anger lurked within Typhon's words, but Charybdis’ own fury hadn’t subsided. Thunder rumbled ominously, shaking the cavern to its core.

Not waiting for an answer, Typhon sneered, “Don’t you want to know what I did to him, mother? Don’t you want to know what’s become of your beloved mate?”

He had said too much. The gigantic wall of obsidian water descended downwards toward them both, everything dissolving into the chaos of crashing waves.

When the water subsided, Typhon struggled to regain his footing, gasping for breath, but mostly unharmed. The goddess was on him in an instant, pinning him to the jagged rock.

“WHERE IS HE?!” she bellowed over the raging storm, her power far from depleted.

Recognizing that he was no match for his mother, Typhon adopted a submissive posture, his claws raised in surrender. “Relax, mother, he’s on his way back to you now. I just thought I’d get here first, get a little taste of home, you know?”

Charybdis released her grip on the sea monster and Typhon took the opportunity to scramble to his feet, making a hasty retreat towards the open ocean. “Turns out there’s nothing here but a miserable old hag, too stubborn to accept her own fate. Goodbye, mother,” he spat, pure hatred in his eyes. “I have a feeling we’ll meet again some day.”

And with that, he was gone, disappearing in a cloud of inky black smoke-- some new kind of magic Charybdis had never seen before. She searched her domain with tendrils of her own power, just to be sure, but no sign of the wicked sea dragon lingered.

Just as she was about to turn away, however, her power detected something else. Phorcys.

Charybdis dove into the frigid water, using its current to swiftly pull her mate closer to her, calling out to him all the while. When she finally caught sight of him, relief washed over her. He was swimming towards her. He was ok, just as Typhon had promised. He was alive.

When she finally reached him however, Charybdis realized that something was horribly wrong. Phorcys gazed at her with coal-black eyes, unseeing, clouded with the same black smoke Typhon had used to make his escape. Typhon had blinded him. Phorcys opened his maw to speak, but no sound came out. Typhon had stolen his voice too.

~ ~ ~

Guilt overwhelmed Charybdis in the days following her mate's return. She felt responsible for the fate that had befallen him, and hated herself for ever doubting his integrity. Although Phorcys reassured her with comforting gestures of affection, Charybdis couldn’t let those feelings go. She thought of the power that had been stripped from her mate, of the things he could not do in his current state.

Luckily, she had a new outlet for that hatred: Typhon. Typhon had taken his voice so Phorcys could never reveal what had happened to him, could never again regale his mate and hatchlings with tales of his grand adventures. Her cursed son had taken his father’s sight, leaving him defenseless and vulnerable. Typhon had done both these things in the name of revenge, because he knew that hurting Phorcys was the only way to hurt the sea goddess herself. Charybdis stewed over these truths, letting them fuel her divine rage. One day, she would make her godsforsaken son pay for what he’d done to his father. The thoughts of what she would do to him kept her mind sharp, focused. She would destroy him.

When their next brood was laid, Phorcys wept silently. He would never see his own children again.