A few of the gods leaned forward at the sky god's words. Suddenly finding the situation much more serious. "Does this have anything to do with you telling us to send our servants and guests away for today?" Dionysus spoke, his appearance was tanned skin, a leopard skin made into clothes, and grapes that were in his hair like a crown.
"Yes, I didn't want this getting out at all. Though it was probably unnecessary." Zeus' form was taken in by the trinity. He had white hair and a large beard, robes of gold came off his form and a crown of lightning was around the top of his head. "About two days ago I was contacted by Gaia and Uranus, this was already worrying given that they never talk to any of us. I don't need to tell any of you that the two of them usually aren't even awake." several worried glances were exchanged by the members of the council. A few mumbles from gods and goddesses to those sitting beside them.
Zeus paused before he continued his voice firm but his face still worried, "But they both came to me in incarnate form. And they had said that the both of them sensed an intrusion from… something. All they could tell me is that it was familiar. They don't know why, or how but it seemed familiar, and they know anything other than that. They do not know where it is, what it is, or how worried we should be."
Another in the council spoke up, "Familiar in what way?" it was Hermes, the resting light smile he wore almost always nowhere to be seen. The god of thieves was wearing a small circlet of gold with wings coming off the sides. Much like his sandals which bore similar wings, only these wings were magical and functional. His clothes were primarily white with red at the edges. His face was young and yet held no such youth now. Instead, a look of stoicism replaced it. The messenger's father shook his head before he answered.
"That is just it," he and Hera's hands separated now as he gestured while speaking, "they had no idea what it could be. Even the fact that it was familiar was odd to them because it felt completely different from anything they know well enough to be familiar with. I called for the council, but when many of you refused, sighting your duties and the closeness to the start of the next month. All I wanted to do was send out an order, I felt stupid for not doing that in the first place. But I decided to try and find it myself first."
"When I searched high and low I found nothing odd in my domains, soon afterward I spoke with Hera." he gestured to his often upset wife. Her head had a feather crown of feathers from peacocks and fowls, her dress held a similar colour pallet. She nodded and spoke in a voice that was just as concerned, these sorts of issues don't just go away, she knew this.
"I also searched and found nothing. No oddities of any note. That was evening more worrying, whatever has happened is either too small for us to notice, or is hiding from us. And neither can be good. Unless any of you know of anything odd that happened recently, all we can hope for is that it is either harmless or found soon." her words were concise and the tone was almost determined.
The council room remained silent for a few moments before Zeus spoke, "Anything of note or anything odd? Within the last little while? Anything, just start talking, we may not know if any of it could be connected." at his words, Demeter's voice came out.
It was a more mature voice, but nonetheless held a quality that made it almost young, "All I can think of that happened somewhat recently is that Persephone came back to me a bit under two weeks ago." Demeter wore dark greens and browns. Her crown was made of various still-living plants that seemed to shift with her current emotions. The others nodded and then more silence.
Oddly Aphrodite spoke up next, "Nothing on my end, though earlier this week I was struck by a sudden small bout of sadness. For apparently no reason, as far as I can tell, it cleared up rather fast. Then again with my domain, it can be so flighty that could mean anything from a fight between lovers to the utter death of a relationship and the acceptance of that failed relationship. I just thought I should add that since it was odd."
The goddess was not nude, as so many artists liked to think she constantly was. And as much as the statue at Knidos was wonderful empowerment to all spirited women, to do as they pleased and not be ashamed. She wasn't always in the nude. What was the point of owning good clothes if you didn't wear them? Putting that aside, a few of the other gods nodded while others merely stayed still.
Next to Aphrodite Ares spoke, "Well, I had already said this but. It is the only out-of-the-ordinary thing I can think of. I got a large increase in my offerings and prayers just today. It has subsided somewhat, but it was certainly of note. That is all though." He was now wearing armour to match his palace colours. A sword at his hip, and helm to the side.
"I don't really see that as relevant," Hephaestus said. Athena nodded as her helm was no longer on her head, though she still kept it in her hands. After her smith brother, she spoke.
"I agree, seems unlikely to be relevant." Ares was about to respond when Zeus put a hand up to stop him and then spoke in a somewhat understanding tone.
"That is fine, I asked for anything, thank you, Ares but I don't see how something good or natural could be related. Does anyone else have a contribution?" this time the silence stayed short when Artemis spoke.
The goddess of the hunt wore light greens and blues, a small glowing blue-white crescent was behind her head, to the immaterial eye of the lord of Mars it appeared like a halo, "I have recently gotten a large group of new huntresses. They told me they were fleeing from a large group of bandits that had kidnapped them. It's not related, much like Ares', but that's the only recent development."
She much like Hermes seemed rather young, her eyes sharp. Her hair was a simple brown and her eyes were green to match her outfit. Her twin was a contrast if you ever saw one with the other.
Apollo also had a halo, it was a full golden yellow disc behind his head of blond hair, "Helios spoke to me a few days ago, he felt something. Like he was being looked at. He spoke about eyes looking at him with comfort, though he wasn't sure. It sounds related though I don't know how." Both of the twins had their own respective weapons close to them. Their bows were very different, Apollo's was silver and intricate. Artemis' was wooden with golden yet simple additions. Small carvings of animals in both the wood and the alloy of gold that contained little of the weak metal.
Zeus seemed both worried and relieved, "That might just be relevant, but I do not know how it could be. Tell Helios to keep more in contact with me, will you? I speak with him a lot but you two talk more often. Have him talk to us immediately if he senses anything else like that." Apollo nodded and the others seemed encouraged they found something among themselves that was related.
As the other gods spoke to each other no one else yet had anything of note. During all of this, the thoughts of the trinity had been silent, 'There is very little possibility for the two so-called primordials' words not to be about us. The coincidence would be too unlikely.'
Lost in their thoughts they almost did not notice the pensive look of thought on Athena's face, "Something on your mind Athena?" Demeter asked.
The goddess of war tactics looked up to her aunt, "I wasn't just thinking. All this talk of odd and unusual happenings sent my mind down a path. I am just now realizing currently two of my elderly priests are exuding a lot of faith, one more than the other. The amount of belief they have is usually seen after a miracle. Especially the larger one."
'...Cause and effect, cause, and effect.' Their thoughts were almost shocked at first before they settled on relaxing. Connecting anything to his own mystery self was near impossible.
"Oh, do you think it might be related?" at this point the gods were discussing in groups more than with each other. Athena frowned and shook her head.
"No, for starters they are in different locations. And listening to their prayers deeper just tells me they both wish for my guidance, the usual really. Not every new thing is related, heck Dionysus thought the fact he had a massive influx of revellers to his last party was worth mentioning." the two laughed slightly.
The gods spoke but another voice added itself into the Machine God's mind then. It was clear but they needed to focus on it, then it was understood. A smile widener than ever before would have been spread if they had a physical mouth, 'Omnissiah. I… I pray… you would allow me to call you by only your name in prayer instead of all your titles... though that is what I have already done...ugh.' The thoughts were slightly disorganized, not that much of a surprise given they were thoughts.
And they belonged to Clio, focusing on their connection with the altar they saw her in front of said altar with her amulet around her neck, '...well, anyway. I just wanted to thank you for the amulet again, and the altar. Some people gave me weird looks when they saw my amulet but others seemed okay. A few of them even asked me about it. I made sure to tell them all about what you had done for us. Ummmm, uh. Oh right! Some people said you built a small temple for yourself. And that you put an altar in there... It makes me feel like me and my family are special… That we have an altar all our own uh,' the young teen couldn't have had much of a plan, her prayer was a train of thought, clearly.
Not that plan was needed. Honest and faithful prayers were often better than formal prayers. 'Well, I just wanted to say thank you before I went to bed, it is getting dark outside and it's been a long day after helping mom.' The deity sent her as much warmth as they could muster, they could have responded, but that was enough.
Besides, she was less likely to be startled that way. After that prayer they lord of all knowledge once again observed the twelve in council. "-ould we really bother with prayers, mortals only rarely have useful information. Most often they are asking for help in something." Poseidon spoke.
The ruler of the seas had long hair that seemed to flow like water, while smooth coral made a crown on his head. His beard matched his hair, and his clothes were various shades of blue, with light green highlights. His trident in hand which was unlike most of the gods who either did not have their symbol with them or put their signature weapons or tools to the side of their thrones.
Athena spoke with a controlled neutral expression and tone, "I understand that you receive a lot of prayers and sacrifices uncle, most of which is asking for help in regards to the sea. But try to understand, we all hear every prayer made to us, but there are simply too many to listen to individually."
She used her hands to show an ever-increasing amount, "This is why we all naturally developed the ability to sort them to a degree unconsciously as well as gauge how desperate the person's prayer is." many lightly nodded as she spoke, following along.
While she was speaking, the lord of all knowledge moved their immaterial form closer to the goddess, "I think before we leave to go to our domains, we should at least consider trying to see if any of our followers know anything relevant." the ringing of the resonance was just as loud as before when they had gotten close to her.
"Because right now we know next to nothing about this issue. Expanding our search with mortals as our eyes and ears are better than just sitting around waiting for something to happen." this ringing set another thought to mind.
Once by her side metaphysically, they set to work expanding their own sight. Much like with Hephaestus' hammer the master of all machines went to work hollowing out the centers of Athena's spear and shield by compressing her magic. Simultaneously the trinity began to shave off small amounts of faith from Hephaestus and collect it. As they granted both the weapons machine spirits Poseidon spoke again, "I will leave the decision up to you Zeus."
The god of hospitality seemed to consider the conversation for a moment before he spoke, "I think with how little information we have now it would be worth it to at least try. Though with how little we know, it is unlikely we shall find anything." he gestured to the council and most of the gods nodded while others merely sigh whether internally or not.
All of them seemed to close their eyes as they did this, it was a wonderful distraction. Demeter, Hera, and Zeus all had nothing on them that could take a machine spirit. Neither did Aphrodite, or Dionysus. Hermes had his caduceus but it was last on the list.
Since they were closer, they moved to the twin archers first. They reached out but found they couldn't manipulate the magic in their bows, at least not subtly. 'Domain, I don't yet have enough strength to manipulate their magic or domain. Not without alerting them.'
Quickly reaching out and probing at the tools of these gods they found the same to be true. 'Scrape and void!' the minor internal outburst was smothered, 'That is fine, we do not need to have complete knowledge of their movement or business. It would have just been helpful.'
The gods began to open their eyes, not all at once, several were still listening. At this point, the amount of faith from Hephaestus was large enough to test. They were testing the possibility of the ringing happening with the volcano craftsman once they took in enough of his faith. If that was not the case then why would Athena ring?
As all the gods opened their eyes the Machine God took in Hephaestus' faith, at first there was no difference. Then when they had reached past the amount that they had absorbed from Athena they started to feel uncomfortable, for the lack of a better word.
It was not like when he had ingested Ares' faith but much like Athena. There was discomfort from both, the faith and belief were not quite right. Most likely of course because it was not meant for them. And there was a ringing increase in the resonance, but it was not to any degree as severe as the goddess' ring.
'There must be more factors in play then.' the Olympians were already discussing what they had learned. Almost none of it related to him midway through Dionysus said something of interest.
"As you all well know I take in a lot of societal outcasts into my cult. As such I get a lot of information from the underbelly of the world. One of my more recent followers was just praying for her family members who are members of a minor cult. Some mortal cult, if I remember correctly, I think we should in-" all the information was irrelevant but one fact.
'We shall have to study these gods and their cults in more depth. More information on how the people of this land interact with specific cults is important for our own cult.' A few more gods spoke including Hermes who had an impatient look on his face.
"Not that this isn't important but this seems mostly over, and I have duties to attend to." Zeus waved him off and spoke in a tone of understanding.
"Yes, yes, of course. We would not want for the chthonic realm to be without one of the few psychopomps to bring in the souls of the dead. You may go Hermes." immediately after the last word the messenger flew out of the palace and Olympus itself invisible to all but the lord of knowledge until tracking him was pointless.
The gods began to talk amongst themselves about minor topics as well as they leave, it was at this time when the trinity left. 'We have seen enough, we are satisfied with what has been found.' They began to move out of the palace and then quickly and stealthily out of the alternate Olympus itself.
'We should return to Dimitis. We do owe Aegis his request to give Korban a gift after all. Perhaps after that, we can check on-' those thoughts were stopped when they heard the subject of that thought.
A tired voice came from a man holding unto the gifted amulet, they were covered in sweat and grim, 'Thank you.' The thought was received, and the lord of machines would have smiled if they had an actual mouth or just any mouth.
'Mairus seems well and must be very thankful for what we have taught him. He must have worked on using it all day. Well, we shall visit him soon. But there are other things to take care of first.' The night sky shone above and they flew with their cargo in tow.
AN: screams in having to describe appearances. ...Why are we still here, just to suffer? Every night- (I am drawing on a few sources I like for the gods' appearances, as I have stated before.) If appearances are important in some way I'll describe them then and there. Tell me how it is going, bonus points to whoever figures out the familiar thing.
