Sun rising and hiding all beneath it. Her father could be gaining and they wouldn’t see. Blind and running, they’ve lost time by sailing off course. The Argonauts have probably never sailed at night before. She’s never heard of any ship sailing in darkness.

The wind a gift, blowing from behind, but a gift to her father also, and the Argonauts who are awake search the void toward Colchis as they wait. Most of them sleep. No rowing. The waves not large but the breeze steady, perfect conditions and a time to rest. Sound of the rudders, constant streams. Medea lies on deck near her brother, closes her eyes and follows sound into sleep.

Jason has stayed away. He does not return until that night, when they sail without torches. Perfect darkness. She cannot see his face even as she kisses him. He is known by weight and heat without shape. How demigods are formed. Women tricked. Gods coming down and hiding in darkness, pretending familiar shape, wanting their own image on earth.

How her grandmother lay with Helios was never told. Some dream continuing into day, holding light in her arms, eyes closed lest they burn. Her bedroom become the sun. All in Colchis must have seen this light, the heavens brought close. One morning together, then held at a distance forever after, waiting for him to rise behind mountains and extinguish into the sea and never come closer but ride the farthest arc, untouchable. A bride able to gaze directly at her groom only for the last moments each day, waiting again each night.

The stories of her conflicting and erasing. Daughter of Oceanus, an ocean nymph named Perseis, or she was someone else entirely, named Ipsia, or Eidyia, or Asterodeia, or Neaera, or Eurylyte. Giving birth to a king who would erase her, never tell her story, and claim only his father. Reduced to a rumor. She may even have been killed. Aeetes born only of the sun, great king without weakness, fearing only his son, Apsyrtus, Medea’s brother.

Medea wants to know her grandmother’s art. Priestess, weaver, singer. What was she? Did she dance in fire also?

No history before Medea’s grandmother other than Titans. No king this woman’s father but instead the Titan Oceanus, no prince her brother, no rule before her son. Aeetes would be the first king. A strange land, Colchis, without history. A people born suddenly out of the furrows or the sea and hung in trees after death, a people without origin or destination, existing only for a single king.

Jason would erase Medea. Use her to claim a victory, to claim dominion over barbarian lands, use her to bear children, his heirs, of royal lineage on both sides, then cast her away to be forgotten. She knows he would do this, and this is what she must make impossible.