It was a quiet afternoon in the Atlantean palace. Poseidon sat on his coral throne while Amphitrite lay on a lounge to the side, breastfeeding her adopted child. It had been a few months since the birth of Perseus, and the fading of his mother Metis. Poseidon rose from his throne, gripping his Trident grimly.
"Triton, you are in charge while I am in the underworld, continue to not let anyone in the palace. Your brother's existence must be kept a secret."
Triton nodded, and Poseidon flashed to Hades' palace, leaving a number of air bubbles in his wake. Triton walked over to his mother and adopted baby brother.
"You're going to cause a lot of trouble when you grow up."
Amphitrite smiled and let Triton hold him while she did up her dress.
"Lets take Perseus to his cradle, he needs some sleep after drinking my milk."
Triton played with his brother's hands, letting him grip his fingers, and followed his mother to the nursery.
Poseidon appeared of outside Hades' Palace, where he was greeted by Zagreus.
"Hello my lord, my father and the Olympians have gathered near the banks of the Styx."
Poseidon was confused but he thanked him and flashed over to the gate of Asphodel, and saw the group that had agreed to meet by Charon's ferry. Hades, Hestia, Apollo and Hermes were there along with another Poseidon recognised as Charon. Hades was arguing with Charon, while Hestia and Apollo were having their own conversation and Hermes was looking at the ferryman's pockets with interest.
"I had already raised your pay a month ago Charon, it's too early for me to raise it again." Hades chided.
"Fine! But I expect another raise by the end of the year, you're the god of wealth for crying out loud! Spread it around!"
"Go back to your job Charon before I find someone else to replace you."
With that, Charon quickly got back on his ferry and sailed away.
"Ah, Poseidon is finally here," Hades sighed.
"Hey Apollo, look what I just happened to find lying on the wharf," Hermes lifted up a pouch of drachmas, which Hades immediately snatched.
"Hermes, that toll money is used for the mortals' living spaces in the underworld, you don't want me to tell Zeus that you've been stealing from the mortals do you?"
"No of course not! You can have it! No need to tell father anything heh heh..." Hermes said nervously.
Apollo was trying not laugh. Hestia sighed.
"Alright, now that we are all here, why did you want us to meet by the Styx Hades? It's not exactly a very welcoming place."
"Indeed sister it is not, but we must find someone who lives here before we can start."
Apollo was confused, "Why? We aren't meeting Styx right?"
Everyone stared at Apollo.
"Yes, we are," said Hades
Apollo and Hermes gulped.
"Oh, what have done recently?" Hestia facepalmed.
"Nothing! We just don't like Styx," Hermes replied.
"Nevermind your cowardice, lets go," Hades sighed.
The group followed down the river until they came to cave in the walls of Erebos, the entrance of which was held up by silver pillars. The river flowed into the cave, and there sat the goddess of it.
"Hello my lord Hades, it's been a while."
"Styx, my companions and I have come to swear an oath, important enough that your presence was needed."
This intrigued Styx.
"Why have 5 Olympian gods come to my home, to swear an oath?"
Poseidon stepped forward.
"Your sister Metis has escaped Zeus after thousands of years of being imprisoned and has given birth to a boy. She unfortunately faded shortly after."
"This brings me grief to know that my long lost sister has passed on into Chaos, but wasn't it said that her son would overthrow Zeus?"
"Indeed, which is why I thought it would be best for you to join us in forming our council, with your control over the oaths it will ensure that all decisions can be made genuinely and discreetly," Hades said.
"Hold on, we didn't agree to this!" Apollo exclaimed.
"Are you sure it's wise to have Styx join us?" Poseidon asked Hades.
"Yes, I've always said that you should always get a solemn oath," Hades said furrowing his brow.
"You're right, we should invite her."
"I also agree," said Hestia, who was occupied, looking at the fires burning on the river Styx in the distance.
"That's 3 votes against two, Styx will join the council," Hades said.
"Fine, but I get to name it!" Apollo whined, pulling out his lyre.
"Oh no, he's going to do it in song," Hermes said covering his ears.
The son of Metis, born alone.
Shall face his destiny, his father overthrown.
To aid in his journey, a council shall be made.
Thus shall be known: The Mystery of Macedon!
"Macedon? As in the Kingdom of Macedon? Alexander the Great's kingdom?" Poseidon said with a funny look.
"Yes well, Macedon was the state to unify all of Greece, where the status quo was that it was all a bunch of disunified city states. So I thought that it would be cool to reference that as something that parallels our own goals of changing the status quo of Olympus."
"Why call it a Mystery instead of a Council?" Hades said.
"Because, we are doing this in secret! We'll definitely be gathering new allies too, both gods and mortals. As things move along we'll need to build Perseus' power base and find him some worshipers so that he can grow his godly power."
"Honestly Apollo, this sounds really nerdy it's something Athena would come up with. There's definitely more to this than all of that," Poseidon snickered.
"I may have chosen the name also because I like how the Macedonians used the sun for their symbol, which is pretty awesome for a council logo," Apollo beamed.
Everyone groaned.
"So you're creating a new mystery cult, with the goal of overthrowing Olympus?" Styx asked, who was feeling very bored from having to listen to Apollo's insane idea.
"Sure, I wasn't thinking that far ahead but Apollo's got a good idea," Hades sighed.
"Alright, I'm in. I'm pretty tired of being Zeus' oath police anyway."
"Excellent, lets all meet at my palace so we can start the first meeting."
In a secluded meeting room in Hades' palace. The 6 Gods of the Macedonian Council began to discuss the future of the child.
"First of all, how is the boy?" Hestia asked.
"He's going alright, Amphitrite has been breastfeeding him so he'll begin to grow up soon into a young child now that it has been a few months." Poseidon responded leaning back in his chair.
"My wife has been quite jealous of the fact she wasn't the one to adopt him." Hades stated.
"Well too bad, for now I want my sister to look after him, especially if Metis asked her to." Styx said.
"When can I see him? I want to teach him how to be an awesome god." Apollo asked.
"Actually, I was thinking that we should give him to a mortal after he reaches a certain age." Hestia suggested.
Everyone looked immediately at Hestia as if she had said something ridiculous.
"Are you trying to get him caught?" Hades said.
"No, but I think that, perhaps when he is 12 years old, he should leave Atlantis to learn more about the mortal world, maybe give him a disguise as a demigod of lets say, Poseidon so that he can join Camp Half-blood. That way he can find allies for the future war amongst the demi-gods. Also we will be able to keep an eye on the daughter of Zeus."
Poseidon's face went white at the suggestion, it was obvious that Hestia also knew about his latest mortal episode. Unfortunately for him, Styx noticed.
"Poseidon, do you have something to say to me?"
"Okay, I've been seeing a mortal, but I didn't get her pregnant! Her name is Sally Jackson from New York." Poseidon sighed in defeat.
"You're lucky she didn't get pregnant. Also that we now have someone we can use to teach Perseus about the mortals."
"When can I teach Perseus?" Apollo asked again.
"You can teach him before he goes to the mortal realm! Honestly Apollo please take this seriously, this isn't the Olympian Council hall." Hades barked.
"Alright, with what we have discussed so far, my proposal for Perseus' education shall be this: Until he is 10 he shall be taught by Aphros and Bythos, who taught Triton. After which Apollo shall teach him in the mortal world for a few months until my mortal lover shall become his adopted parent." Poseidon said laying out the plan.
"Yep, sounds good." Hermes said while lifting a glass to drink some wine, only stopping once he realised it was actually pomegranate juice.
"I think we should have a different place to meet than the underworld," Hestia said.
"Come on what's wrong with here? It's so difficult to get visitors here," Hades complained.
"Well for starters the main subject of our meetings isn't even present! That's it, all future meetings should take place in Atlantis for the time being." Hestia replied.
Hades looked glum as everyone agreed, even Styx, who wanted to see her sister and nephew as she didn't get to leave the underworld that often.
The meeting was then over, and they agreed to meet in Atlantis every so often to discuss Perseus' future and plans for the Macedonian Mysteries.