I don't remember much of what happened in the next fifteen minutes. All I know is that I somehow wound up sitting in a chair. After that, things started to sink in. First of all, I learned a few things about the other demigods, aside from the fact that they were way older than me.
The first of them to come and introduce themselves were two twins who called themselves Jake and Orpheus who said they were sons of Oceanus. I guess I kind of should have guessed that anyway, because they were both dressed for the beach and were carrying surfboards around. Next was a son of Atlas who was twice as tall as me and looked like he could rip me apart with his bare hands, though he seemed friendly enough. There was a girl who said she was a daughter of Hyperion, and had more weapons on her than I think are in most armories.
Before anyone else could come though, Prometheus cleared his throat.
"Yes, while it may take our new guest some time to adapt, I think that we may as well begin with our plan for overthrowing the Olympians and restoring the Titans, etcetera, etcetera. Our first step is to see what becomes of Cronos' coffin."
The moment he said this, a coffin appeared right next to him. I think the term sarcophagus is a bit more accurate, but who cares? Anyway, I could just tell the coffin was special. It seemed to actually emanate power, and there were hundreds of empty pockets all across it. Sixteen of them were filled with spheres of varying hues, I think I recognized that two of them were a deep blue and nearly identical.
"Those are oaths," Prometheus explained, probably just because I was there. "Oaths are quite different from what most mortals conceive. For the gods, and demigods to an extent, they are quite binding and powerful. The more demigods who swear their loyalty to Lord Kronos, the more powerful he will become, until he will finally rise up once again."
"But there are hundreds of spheres on there!" I protested. "You'd never get them all filled up."
"Quite astute, but it isn't necessary for us to gather all of the oaths. No one really knows how long it will take Kronos to return. There are hundreds of other factors which will decide his return. However, once you swear your loyalty to him, it will be the last of the seventeen demigods created by the Titans, and also an oath from one of his sons. I believe that will be enough for us to start to feel his presence."
Prometheus told me how to say the oath, which was in some ancient language that I somehow understood anyway. It was your standard oath stuff, I promise to serve you forever, etc.
The only thing is that when I said it nothing happened. No new sphere appeared on the sarcophagus. I repeated the oath, this time more firmly. There still wasn't a result.
"Why isn't anything happening?" One of the other demigods asked.
"I'm not certain," Prometheus said. "It is possible that he might simply be too busy, no, that is highly unlikely. The only explanation is, strangely enough, Kronos has rejected his oath."
"Why?" I asked, after all, he had accepted the others' oaths.
"I do not know," Prometheus admitted. "It is quite strange that he would willingly deny an oath that would likely give him power."
It was only later on that I go tot knew that the real reason was something quite surprising and something that would shock everyone, including me. But that comes way later on.
I won't really bother giving much details about what happened after that in the following weeks. There's really not much to tell anyway. For some reason, once my oath had been rejected, the other demigods started looking at me like I was a spy or something. Not that they let much on, it's just that I could tell what they were really thinking. It's kind of like the same thing with my dad, really.
Anyway, they were all discussing these plans for stealing something called the Golden Fleece from Camp Half-Blood, the place where the demigods of the Greek gods lived. I didn't get to go on the quest, but I think that's just because I was too young/no one trusted me.
They succeeded in bringing it back, but when they wrapped it around Kronos' sarcophagus, nothing happened. He didn't seem to be healing any faster, which made Prometheus pretty irritated. After a few hours of ranting, he decided to go to his plan B.
"You know, I think I've just though of something," Prometheus suddenly said one day. It had been several weeks since my initiation, and nothing really interesting had happened. Life was just getting normal, just before it was about to get very... interesting.
"Our first step should be causing a war between the Olympian gods. We can do that using an age-old tactic: Steal Zeus' lightning bolt, and then plant it somewhere with Poseidon. Zeus still hasn't gotten over his suspicion with Poseidon. Our obvious tactic would be to wait until the Winter Solstice, and send a single person to steal the bolt. We'll send that person to Olympus as a guest of Iris, who I've convinced to let one mortal on to Olympus with her, so it won't arouse suspicion. It would be too obvious if I were to bring one of you. I was unsure of who to send, but after some thinking, I realized that the Son of Kronos would be our most likely choice."
"Why me?" I asked.
"I was thinking about why Lord Kronos rejected your oath. I considered it plausible that he may have foreseen a situation like this coming, and because someone who had sworn loyalty to him would be unable to side with the Olympians convincingly, and there is always the danger that they might detect an oath to a Titan. So, he rejects your oath," Prometheus explained. It was a good theory, even though it turned out to be completely wrong later on.
Everyone else left the meeting room, where we were sitting, except me, so Prometheus could brief me on the mission.
"Now listen closely. We're sending you as a mortal, an ordinary mortal, not a demigod, understood? Our story goes like this, one day I disguised myself as an old man, and went to your house saying that I was starving. You gave me some food, and I granted you a wish for helping me. You wanted to visit Olympus, because you've been able to see through the Mist your entire life. So, I asked Iris, who also owes me for some favor, to take you in my place because Zeus doesn't trust me enough for me to take you. After you've landed on Olympus, realize that for a very long time, Poseidon and Zeus will be sitting in the main throne room, arguing over petty matters. They probably won't see you taking the lightning bolt, but to be sure, I'm going to give you something which should make it easier," Prometheus said, and took out a long, yellowish-amber cloak from nowhere.
"This is a sun cloak. It was made by Lord Hyperion himself, and as Hades' Helm allows him to blend in with shadows, this cloak will allow you to blend in with sunlight. Sneak up on Zeus, and take his lightning bolt," Prometheus said.
I just nodded, but if I had known beforehand how pear-shaped this operation was going to turn out, I would've called in sick. I'm not joking.