emily’s Reviews > Circe > Status Update

Every moment mortals died, by shipwreck and sword, by wild beasts and wild men, by illness, neglect, and age. It was their fate, as Prometheus had told me, the story that they all shared. No matter how vivid they were in life, no matter how brilliant, no matter the wonders they made, they came to dust and smoke. Meanwhile every petty and useless god would go on sucking down the bright air until the stars went dark.

It was always easier when she was hateful. “I am not weak. And I will never be sorry not to be like you. Do you hear?”

There was no answer, of course. Only the air, eating my words.

Each spell was a mountain to be climbed anew. All I could carry with me from last time was the knowledge that it could be done.

I did not call dragons, or summon serpents. My earliest charms were silly things, whatever came into my head… If Aeëtes had been there, he would have choked on his beard to see such kitchen-tricks. Yet because I knew nothing, nothing was beneath me.