My supernal mother, daughter of Chaos, how I love you so. I love you as sons should love their own mothers — storge! When the star-bejeweled veil of your hair cloaks the sky, I am at my strongest and most laborious. But it is only me most mortals delight in; they acknowledge your coming with perfunctory indifference. You are merely the coming of the dark to them, nothing more than a sign of Helios and his chariot’s final strides. My forgotten mother.

My forgotten mother. No mortals offer you sacrifices anymore, the memory of your reign no longer lingering among them, belonging to a lost era. Few mortals of this woebegone Iron Age remember the nourishing sacrifices made by their own mothers; the sacrifice of blood within the darkness of their wombs and the sacrifice of their milk they give to feed their growing newborns. You are now like the mortal mothers of the world, my mother Nyx, mistress of the Gods. My radiant mother.

My radiant mother. Why do mortals no longer consider you when your tresses cover their sky? They thank me each night, and even a few times during the day, when they reach respite in my domain. Do they not know I am nothing without you? It was to your arms I fled when Zeus awoke full of wrath and pursued me, for I knew he feared you. Among the Gods, at least, you are remembered. My feared mother.

My feared mother. My beloved mother. I cherish you every moment. Every time I awake and every time I slumber, you are my first and last thoughts. Mortal mothers are never thanked and vanish from their children’s sight, but you are always there, even when Helios rides through the sky. I will always remember you, my supernal mother.

[Nicholas Perez is a Latino writer of SFF and horror from the Kentuckiana area. He received a BA in history and religious studies from Indiana University Southeast and a Masters in Religion from Louisville Seminary. His space opera short story “THE BOY WHO BECAME AN ENTIRE PLANET” in the anthology TO ROOT SOMEWHERE BEAUTIFUL: AN ANTHOLOGY OF RECLAMATION, was published by Outland Entertainment in Spring 2024 and his horror short story “THE VANISHER” was published by Electric Postcard Entertainment on the Chain Letter Substack in Summer 2025.]