[Near the throne of Hades, or perhaps Zeus. The Moirae (Fates) in counsel]
Atropos: What a strange end you weave for, sisters. Where is our charge now?
Lakhesis: He is with his mother in the fields. He is telling her something distressing.
Klotho: Is it about the death?
Atropos: No, not yet. You jump out of turn.
Lakhesis: No, it is about love. He tells her of one of the girls, the would-be priestess that Pasiphäe has brought to attend him. She would make him the star-bull of Knossos.
Atropos: She tempts hubris, like her husband.
Lakhesis: She means honor to the gods, but seems blind to the end of all godly gifts.
Atropos: Yes, they must be returned or invite retribution. Like her lover, the bull.
Lakhesis: She does not understand that making her son into a godly gift ties him to that same destiny.
Klotho: (sighs) A mother's love.
Atropos: But a death is coming. I can tell.
Lakhesis: Yes. A servant is loyal to Minos. She tells him of the conversation with Pasiphäe, and identifies the girl as one promised to a young commander of the king's army.
Lakhesis: It is not to be the soldier. The bull's son has grown tall and strong, and despite his face, he speaks well. She sees in him a manly god cursed with a mask of ugliness. She pretends she can free him with her love. They are to meet...
Atropos: Is this love to bring forth a child?
Klotho: No. Now you jump out of turn, sister.
Atropos: Ah yes, I see now. The girl is intercepted there by the soldier, who Minos has incited with his own impotent jealousy. They argue, and she stands for her benighted god. The soldier, in a rage, slays her.
Lakhesis: But like Minos, his power vanishes at the approach of the bull, and he flees. She is discovered, dead, and her lover weeps. He bellows. He rages. He does not know who to blame, and his strength he pours out on the surrounding trees. Minos blames him for the murder with ease. But servants loyal to Pasiphäe stand close to Minos as well, and they learn of the plot. The soldier is chased by the bull-man in a rage, but cannot be found.
Atropos: Yet he is killed... by the horn of a bull.
Lakhesis: So end Pasiphäe's hopes. She turns her attentions to sparing her son's life as the capital covers their ears from his mad bellowing. Minos gravely introduces her to a project that he has had Daedalus working on for some time.
Atropos: It is not in Minos' blood to overcome the blood of the bull, so he has built a prison.
Lakhesis: So loneliness and darkness is to be the path of the bull-child, for a time. Minos will not long be able to resist using the power of the bull for his own pride. He believed he owned the great bull, and he will try to cast his name over the misbegotten son as well. A scheme will come to him, a foolish one.
Klotho: Strange was this birth, and strange will it fall over births to come.
Atropos: More children are to come of this?
Klotho: You jump ahead again, sister. But all events affect births far and wide, and even more so births that are close and unexpected. You know that.
Atropos: Yes, I suppose even I see that.
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