ItB Book 1: In the Beginning

Her hair was a mix of earthy brown and heavenly gold. Her gown was as blue as the sky.

Her breathing was so soft and sweet. Of course, she was young, after all. Time is what hardened the features of the living, setting into stone what was once malleable in youth.

With her young age in mind, he wondered how many children she could have, how loyal she would be to him, if she would turn into Gaia one day. No. She could not be like Gaia. The more Ouranos thought on it, he knew Rhea could never become like Gaia. In fact, the way he saw it...he had come from Gaia, and he had been malleable for her, and Rhea had come from him and Gaia, so Rhea would be malleable to his will and wants.

With all of those factors in mind, he thought of the hard choices he had been forced to make. When Rhea bore him children, they would be powerful and attractive. How would the abominations affect his more pristine offspring? He thought of how Cronos played with the Cyclopes and their hundred-handed counterparts when he was young.

Shaking his head, Ouranos knew what he needed to do. He would have to separate his more deserving children from the failures to preserve his plan to destroy Chaos.

Returning his attention to Rhea, Ouranos thought of how subservient she could be.

Rhea had always been willing to please when she was younger. He wondered how he would make her amenable to his plans. Where would he put Gaia? Rhea could be the next Queen of the Heavens and Earth, if the Primordial King needed to add incentive.

She would only need to carry his many children. Maybe she would not need a throne, but he could make her important, higher than her siblings. Would that be enough to make her willing? Caressing his sleeping daughter's cheek, he felt her move into his tender endearment. Had she thought he was Cronos, or was she aware of the truth? He leaned down to his favored daughter and kissed her softly. For the briefest moment in her slumber, she returned the intimate action.

For now, that was enough for the King of the Sky.

**********

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."

- Richard Bach (1977)

Gaia sat alone in the Palace of her Ouranos. In its magical grandeur, their home was the first palace in all of Greece. While this separated her from the earthly realm where she was most at home, the empty palace was the perfect place to think.

The lavish castle stood in a Realm separated from, but also connected to, the lower realm by way of the Mountain called Olympus. The grand edifice was crafted by the divine magic of Ouranos and Gaia. The palace seamlessly blended the earthly elements of its natural surroundings with the celestial splendor.

The exterior walls were constructed from the finest smooth, white marble, reflecting the changing colors of the sky. Delicate ivy vines clung to the walls while intertwining with vibrant, ever-blooming flowers for Gaia's sake.

Within this palace, there was a grand hall that stretched out. Marble columns rose in the heavens to support the weight of the celestial dome above.

Gaia was confident the palace would stand for millennia, even if she, Ouranos, or even their children did not. Thinking of her children, she could not help but notice that for all the height, marble, and vines, the structure had nothing from her first sets of children. In her heart of hearts, she was sure that somehow Ouranos had incorporated elements of his favored Titanic offspring.

She wondered if the Cyclopes or Hecatoncheires could make something to decorate the walls or ceiling. While she was not sure how, she believed that their skills would be important in the future, so it only made sense for them to contribute something to the walls. Perhaps they could put up some of their tools on the wall. She was not sure how, but something needed to be there to represent their existence.

It had not been her intention, but Mother Earth was considering that her children were right about her husband. They had done nothing to earn Ouranos' anger, but he had dismissed them upon their coming into the world because they were not worthy by his standard.

Gaia considered the choice she had foisted upon her. While her elder children had been neglected, and she should champion them in their cause, there was unsettling about the very nature of the chain. It represented a shift in the celestial realm of Greece. If she stood up to her husband because they had something that might harm or bind them, then she was doing so under duress.

She could, of course, hide the truth of her discovery from Ouranos and allow events to play out between the children and their sire. The problem with that course of action was that Ouranos would consider Gaia's withholding of such pertinent information to be treachery, and he would take that anger our on her after he confronted the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires.

Truthfully, she would not find the answer on her own. She needed the wisdom of someone she trusted to help move her mountain of a mind off of the predicament.

**********

Oceanus and Tethys could not get enough of one another. The other beings had their machinations, planning, or just traveling, but neither of these Titans cared for any of those activities; only one another mattered.

Oceanus' strong arms were wrapped around Tethys' dainty frame. To kiss, hold, and be engulfed by her was the most meaningful and right thing in the world. Her lips tasted as fresh as a cool stream, her body soft to touch, and her desires were as transparent as a lake. When he was with her, he could only be with her. She returned his love, and that told him all he needed. The Titan of the Sea caressed his love, and when his manhood entered her, he prayed to Chaos that she would always want him.

Tethys always returned Oceanus' tenderness. He was her other half. She yearned for him with a passion that was as unending as her immortality. They only ever parted to make the Realm of Greece more beautiful. That was their duty. They made their Mother's land more wonderful. When they were together, however, they forgot the world. Nothing else mattered. They would need to learn to temper their desires, or else they would never do much else for the Realm. That would have to wait, in Tethys' eyes, until after their next lovemaking.

**********

It would later be believed that darkness reigned supreme in the depths of Tartarus. Most did not understand that the black void was, in part, because of Erebus and Mother Night's presence in the realm.

It was in that shadowy blackness that Gaia found Nyx in a secluded corner. If there was anyone to discuss such an important matter, Gaia recognized that it must be a sibling.

Nyx sat in the realm with a familiarity that worried Gaia. Mother Night was so used to dark loneliness that Gaia worried a life alone was all Nyx would have. For her part, Nyx seemed at ease with her situation. Amidst the swirling shadows and haunting silence, Nyx stood tall in her element of eternal raven night. Her very form was veiled in the encompassing darkness, wearing the blackness as a gown.

By contrast and adorned in her usual verdant greenery, Gaia appeared the epitome of new life in a realm of black decay. The Earth Primordial planted her feet firmly to the ground as she approached Nyx, so that the Night Primordial might recognize her arrival. The air of the Underworld crackled with the anticipation of two Primordials coming face to face for the first time in a long time.

Nyx raised an eyebrow at Gaia's unusual appearance to the Realm. "I assume you are in need, Mother Earth?" Nyx wondered.

"Yes, sister," Gaia said, exhausted by how quickly she had come to Tartarus.

Nyx, realizing the seriousness of Gaia's fear, straightened. While she often seemed distant and even unfeeling, she cared for her family. "How can I help?"

There were many things Gaia wanted to discuss, from Ouranos' behavior to the palace on Olympus to all of her children, but in the end, Gaid spewed words from her maw as a volcano unleashed lava. "My children mean to harm Ouranos," Gaia practically spat at her sister.

"The Titans?" Nyx asked, confused. "I thought Ouranos loved your precious offspring."

"Not the Titans," Gaia said with a shake of her hand. "The Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires. They have made a chain to bind Ouranos. It won't destroy him—or so they have said."

"And what have you come to me for?" Nyx asked with a new and deeper confusion.

"I don't want my husband harmed, but I do not want anything to happen to my children, either."

Nyx sat in her darkness, considering Gaia's words. "While your children's actions are duplicitous and treasonous against their Father and King, Ouranos' actions have not always been fair to them, Mother Earth."

While it was not what Gaia wanted to hear, Gaia nodded in agreement. "I know. I have often seen Ouranos' mistreatment of them, Nyx. He has disregarded our children over the years. It all has weighed heavily on me. But something within me says that if I allow the Cyclopes or the Hecatoncheires to do this, my children will bind us all when they feel we have served our purpose."

Gaia struggled to speak. She shook her head and tried to say more. Nyx, for her part, waited respectfully. The Primordial of Night knew that if Gaia had come to the Underworld, this was a heavy burden.

"I am not sure of the right course, Nyx. I suppose I think you might have some guidance since you're not as involved as I am." Gaia laughed at her own powerlessness of the situation. "I do not want to doom us all with action or inaction."

Nyx exhaled a long and deep breath. Her smoky visage stood statuesque as she considered the Queen of Olympus. "As much as I disapprove of Ouranos' actions towards your older children, Gaia, Chaos did crown him ruler of Olympus and the Realms below. His reign is not to be stopped by the likes of us. We should show loyalty to him and trust in the choice Chaos made."

"But what if Chaos got it wrong?" Gaia wondered. That was the heart of the predicament. Weighing the logic of trusting Chaos versus the empathy she felt for her children.

"Then perhaps you should take the matter up with Chaos, or even my daughters," Nyx advised. Before Gaia could leave, Nyx touched her sister's earthy wrist. "For what it is worth, I believe that we must make our own choices, Gaia, as your husband and children do. At the end of the day, if we are judged for whatever we decide, I think it would be better to make the choice you can live with."

Gaia was taken aback. It was welcome, but whatever Gaia had expected Nyx to say, the Earth Primordial was not given it. "Thank you for your counsel, Nyx," Gaia remarked.

Nyx inclined her head to Gaia in a sign of respect. "Gaia, you are always welcome in the Realm of Tartarus and Erebus, no matter what. I wish you well in your rule."

**********

"They what?" Ouranos exclaimed to Gaia's news.

Though she tried to restrain him, Gaia could not obstruct his stormy fury. For all the love they had once shared, especially on their wedding night to conceive the Hecatoncheires, Gaia could see every ounce of Ouranos' affection for her turning into rage directed at their children. Gaia's attempt at holding him back only led Ouranos to throw her to the wayside, and she crumbled against their palace. She looked at her husband with hurt in her eyes.

The Primordial King struck out to leave for Greece.

She had birthed him with the blessing of Chaos and had only ever loved Ouranos. He had been crowned King by their Progenitor. She had stood next to him, ever supportive, even when she disagreed with him.

How had love so good and pure turned to such vileness? She had given all of who she was for him, yet still, all that mattered to the Last Primordial was his own dominion.

She raced after him, all too aware that she would not be fast enough to save her beloved children.

**********

The Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires were nearly finished with the second half of the chain when the storm of a deity arrived.

They were not sure what they expected of their absent Father Ouranos, but they were not ready when the sky split apart. Every bit of the Divine King arrived in force. The air crackled with terrifying trepidation as Ouranos brought himself and his storming sky down upon them.

His eyes darted from them to the adamantine chain they had forged. When his mind added Gaia's words up with the sight before him, wrath was all the Primordial King could feel.

"How dare you!" Ouranos exclaimed, throwing a blow upon one of the Hecatoncheires. The creature exploded back from the force unleashed by the Primordial King. This was a power on display that had not yet been seen in the realm.

He had not been bothered to learn their names, so he was not even sure which one had borne the brunt of his might. It did not matter; they all were unworthy of even that consideration of their ruler.

After his fist crashed upon one of the many heads of the ugly deformity, Ouranos turned to the other treacherous beings. After observing their father's power firsthand, the others recoiled. Suddenly, the goal of restraining Father Sky was starting to look like an impossibility.

Timidity crashed against savagery. Fear against ruthlessness. Children versus a parent.

"We meant no harm, Ouranos," one of the Cyclopes stammered, his voice trembling. "We only sought to live lives without fear of you."

The lightning from the heavens crashed against that worthless creature to disable them. The full impact of Ouranos' magical might was too great for such insignificant vermin. The others in the assemblage, realizing they had incurred the wrath of the Sky Primordial, quickly stumbled to grab the chain and bind their Father. Until one was wrapped up in it, the magical drain would not fully, if at all, take effect.

"You abominations!" Ouranos exclaimed as he dodged their clumsy effort to wrap their metallic chain around his body. "That you live in my world should have been gift enough for you!"

Realizing the chain might have the ability to cripple him, Ouranos never allowed the warm metal to so much as graze him. Quickly, the Cyclopes recovered, but the Hecatoncheires stumbled with their many hands. Ouranos used this opening to summon a storm of lightning to bring down forcefully upon his children. As they recoiled, he showered down blow after blow of his mighty strength. As one of the four remaining conscious children recovered, he hailed down more ferocity. If any had the power to rebel in his beating, he threw more force upon them. He offered no opening or mercy. They sought to bind him, and their destruction would be an effective deterrent to any others that might think they could challenge his rule.

One of the children, Briareos, threw a single blow that bruised Ouranos' cheek. For that, Ouranos' thunder enveloped his fist and crashed into the many faces of his abominable child.

"Ouranos! No! You'll destroy them!" Gaia screamed. She did not know what she was speaking of, in truth, but Chaos had endowed Gaia with the wisdom to understand that if too much damage was sustained to their corporeal bodies, something horrendous would occur.

"They meant to destroy me!" Ouranos called back. He motioned toward his deformed children. He paused, seeing them for the maimed, whimpering messes that they were. The King of Olympus had been too great for his children to withstand.

"No! They sought to imprison you for banishing them," Gaia cried. Though the Earth Mother knew it would make no difference, she implored that Chaos, or even her husband's conscience, would intervene to make the Primordial King see sense.

She ran to her children in their beaten forms. Her heart and eyes recognized what the assailant had forgotten. These were her children, her babies, created from the act of love between the Primordial King and Queen.

"Can you not show them mercy when they have been foolish?" Gaia pleaded, looking up at her husband. The desperate love she felt reflected in her eyes. If she might stop Ouranos' abuse, she might not only save her children from their suffering but also her husband's soul from the evil that he had allowed to infect it.

Ouranos considered striking down Gaia at that moment. In the grand scheme of all of his plans, she was not important. It would be best if she would learn her place. After all, Chaos had crowned him, not her. In his twisted mind, she was a byproduct of his love, not the other way around. Even as he contemplated it, he could see Themis, his child of fairness, watching from afar.

Harming Gaia in the sight of any of her children could incite the Titans to harm him. If he destroyed all of his children, as he might destroy a tree or stone, he would have no army to battle Chaos. Instead, he stayed his hand.

Ouranos turned to look for an alternative to beating his children into nonexistence. There, among all of the discarded ichor-leaking disappointments, was their creation and his solution. He reached for the chain his deformed children made, and feeling the solid adamantine, Ouranos admitted his children were superior at their craft.

"Very well, Gaia. I will do to them what they had sought to do to me," he said with the chill of a breeze in the night.

"What?" Gaia asked.

Dragging the six children together, Ouranos had to be careful in what he did next. He reached down and grabbed their chain. It had a mild draining effect on him, but he guessed it was not as powerful as it might have been because he was not bound up in it. With that in mind, he wrapped the chain around them. What might have encircled around him three times barely enveloped his children just once.

Neither he nor his children knew that the material would stretch somewhat to fulfill the holder's goal. Such was the magic of the time.

When he latched one end of the chain to the other, he said, "They are hereby banished to Tartarus, where they will never see the light of day again. Their banishment will serve as a warning to any who would challenge my rule."

**********

Gaia helplessly watched as Ouranos kept his word and dragged their six oldest children to the Realm of Tartarus. She knew if she tried to fight him, that she would come up short.

Was that because he was King? Had Chaos made him the most powerful force in the realm? She had no answers, but she knew that, in the moment, she could do nothing.

There in the Underworld, he hammered in two metallic stakes (which he had found among their tools) and lifted them by the chain they had fashioned for him. The six eldest children of Gaia and Ouranos hung on a wall in Tartarus; the chain and Realm would drain them of their divine gifts for the rest of eternity as it had been intended to do with the Sky Primordial.

Falling to her knees in the abysmal realm, Gaia wept for her children.

Themis slowly approached her Mother as if appearing from nowhere. "What he did was despicable."

"No one can stop him. He is King," Gaia said through her tears.

"Not yet, Mother, but maybe someday, someone will."

**********

Ouranos returned to his palace, exhausted from his day's work. The tale of imprisoning his offspring would spread to his favored children, where he hoped it would instill some respect into them or, at the very least, fear.

He was not to be challenged. He was King. Chaos had recognized that worth in him. It was his right to rule for all time.

The Last Primordial sat on his throne, deeply breathing, recalling Gaia's defiance. Had he not already considered discarding her, Ouranos would have started that contemplation. One thing was certain: He could no longer lie with her. Any more children by her would prove dangerous.