Work Text:
I held a treasure I was told I could never have.
and the fates, as if keeping that promise, took it away just as quickly.
Took you away.
Zagreus; a flower that would never bloom, withered in my hands. My powers were nothing. Could do nothing. I could grow anything from infertile grounds, and yet you were a seed unbound to me. The day or night I left, I felt no different than a shade. A powerless being, letting the underworld transform and shift me towards its end, no matter what that meant for me. I had no control. Not even of things made within me. I escaped, but only physically.
And so... here I reside.
Above the surface but not above the will of the world around me. Though I do my best to stay out of it. But the world… the underworld...has its own plans.
I thought it a trick when I saw you
A flower I abandoned, believing to never bloom, never even grow. Yet you stood there, bearing your fathers unmistaken features and the mark of me.
Evergreen.
Your hug felt alive. Coursing with an eternal burn beneath your skin. There was no mistake in you. My son.
You are my son.
And yet you wilted so soon. In my hands... you wilted.
Was I killing you, my child?
Is your curse to strive for a place you don’t belong, embedded in your blood? Was that my gift bestowed to you? I am a God, but that does not mean I cannot suffer. After I first met you, I cried endlessly in your absence. Watering your marked grave like a flood. Washing away an empty city.
But you returned again.
As though you were a seasonal flower, born to bloom in the fall instead of spring. You graced me again. And each time it suddenly changed and took you away... though I knew better now, I still cried for you. I don't think a mother can ever see their child drained of life, and remain unshaken. But I began to still my tears. I began to believe I'd see you return someday soon, instead.
I'd see you taking fiery steps towards me with a smile, and warmth unlike the world you belong to.
And I will not run away from you.
Though all things gold cannot stay.
it can return.
you would return again.