Zeus, Lord of the Heavens, was unnaturally alert that morning.
Not that anything bad had happened. On the contrary, this was one of those few days on which nothing bad had happened. The rest of the gods were off on their separate duties. There were no monsters attacking demigods for the time being, and both of his mortal children were safe and sound.
And yet, he felt his god's instinct vibrating like a hummingbird's wings inside his head. There was a storm coming. In many more ways than one. He could just tell it. Normally he didn't get upset. Sure, sometimes he got upset with people, but rarely did the situation at hand worry him. There was something, or someone, a power unknown to him that was gathering. That could be the only logical explanation.
"Zeus, we need to speak," a voice said, interrupting his thoughts. He turned to the voice, wondering who it was that did not address him as 'Lord Zeus'. He was almost ready to throw a thunderbolt when he saw who it was.
It was Lachesis, one of the Fates. Now, two things surprised Zeus. The first thing was that she wasn't with her sisters. That was odd, as whenever Zeus had seen the three, they were always together. It was weird to see only one of them.
The second thing was that she had actually talked to him. The Fates were known to be reclusive. Of course, Zeus knew about their powers and how they could change the world on a whim, but he had never given much thought to that.
No, for thousands of years the Fates had been nothing more than entities, which, though powerful, did not interfere much with whatever Zeus did. Or so he thought, and rarely did he ever wonder about their mysterious origins or powers.
"There is something that I need," Lachesis continued. Two sentences. More than what he had ever heard from her in his long existence. And shouldn't she say we instead of I? Zeus got the unsettling feeling that somehow, whatever Lachesis was doing, she was doing by herself. The thought that the Fates sometimes had conflicting interests was not a very welcome one for Zeus, though he had to admit that he didn't get along with his brothers all that well anyway. But weren't the Fates above things like that?
"What is it?" Zeus asked.
"I want command over the Winds for a few hours. There is someone that I need to find," she said.
"Who do you want to find?" Zeus asked.
"That is none of your concern," Lachesis said, with a facial expression that clearly said that she was getting impatient. "Merely tell the Winds they have to obey me for a few hours. That is all you need to do. Unless…"
She didn't need to complete the statement. There were an endless number of ways in which she could hurt Zeus. She could directly attack his throne, by making a prophecy like the one that was made when Kronos killed Ouranos. Or she could target his children instead, both mortal and immortal.
Zeus knew very well that there was no opposing the Fates.
"Fine then," he said. It didn't take long for him to convey the message to Aeolus, after all, he was a god. Once the deed was done, Lachesis, without looking at Zeus again, as if he was nothing more than an uninteresting toy, walked away.
She conveyed her own message to Aeolus. There is a human I want you to look for. Get all the Winds looking immediately. And I want no word of it to leak out to anyone; the gods, humans or any other living or nonliving entity, or you will come to regret it.