"You had prior knowledge of this and withheld it from this council," Hera asked, a look of anger overcoming her.
Halfway through the story, she had stood up, the only reason she hadn't interrupted then and there, being her eldest sister's insistence that it would be wise to let Hades finish his story.
Now that Hades had finished speaking, she thought it time, to speak her mind.
"I am the queen of Olympus. We are a council. You don't make these choices on your own. How dare you keep something like this from us!"
"Maybe it's best we just let them explain, mother." The forge god spoke up.
"You will be silent, child. You will not speak in matters that are above you. I am the queen. You are nothing but a cripple." She spoke, with a disgusted look.
Aphrodite watched, her heart full of anger.
Now, Aphrodite wasn't the perfect wife, far from it. But in recent years, she had started to care for her husband.
She had tried to amend for her mistakes. Her many, many mistakes.
She had tried to be a better wife. Yes, she cheated, she just couldn't stop herself. But that didn't mean she didn't care.
For eons, she had embarrassed, belittled, and hated her husband.
But no more. Even with all she was, her husband loved her.
Yet his mother couldn't extend to him the same courtesy.
She wouldn't let this insult stand.
"Careful how you speak, you wench." She whispered harshly, fury emanating from her eyes.
"A cripple he might be, but he's ten times the deity you are." She said, her eyes glowing a toxic pink, power and anger radiating from her.
Hera stood up, a sword made in the likeness of a peacock feather appearing in her hand.
"SIT. DOWN!"
Zeus wasn't someone who was quick to anger, but he was just about done with this insolence now.
He had tried to be fair, to be calm.
But his Sister-wife insisted on working against him at every turn.
He had to squash these needless and petty arguments as they came up, lest he lose his weight with the council.
Zeus had come a long way.
In the past, he would have shown his power, and that would be it.
But no longer. That wasn't who he was anymore.
He would rule in fairness, showing his kingship in the form of respect and loyalty as they respected and followed him in his decisions.
But in the end, Zeus was still King of Mount Olympus.
He would act on his authority if he believed that it was best for the council and his subjects. And this, he would make clear to the council.
"We are Gods. And that means something. It's not a label we get to use, to do whatever we want." He said, lightning coursing through his veins.
"It means we have an obligation to do whatever it takes to ensure peace."
"Aphrodite. We understand your anger, but this is neither the place nor time to settle this. We are a council. that means we are expected to stay calm and at peace in meetings." He said, looking deep into Aphrodite's eyes, the glowing pink orbs already losing some of their anger.
With a nod, Zeus turned to Hera.
"As for you. You are the queen, and this is a fair council. Normally, this would indeed mean that you would have a right to this knowledge. As would any of you. But this is not an Olympian matter. This matter is of the Grand Conclave." As he spoke, and his voice finally started calming down to his previous tone, he turned around to sit back on his throne.
"I will hear no more of this. Understood?"
As he sat back on his throne, a weary sigh left his lips.
"Let me resume the explanation," Poseidon said, awkwardly clearing his throat.
"There are still some things we need to explain."
"After the riveting speech they gave us," He said, with a tiny laugh.
"They recommended we talk with people who we shared domains with. This would get us to make allies, and possibly learn some new things about our domains."
"They believed that in the future, every pantheon's god and goddesses' domains, would be protected by all their rulers," Hades briefly cut in.
"I, being the God of the seas, of course, went to speak to Njord. Njord was, as we mentioned before, one of the two Norse Gods of the seas."
"I spent a while talking to him and Aegir, another sea God. Until I was joined by my brothers and sister. It was here that we met the newly born Godling." Poseidon said, remembering it as if it was yesterday.
The Godling had made an impact on them, in the few times they had seen him.
Poseidon had liked the godling.
Especially since he was the son of a sea god.
They were bound to find some common ground.
"Njord introduced us to his wife, Skadi, Giantess of the hunt and winter. Lovely woman really, but it was her son who really grabbed our attention." He took a moment to pause, letting the first part of his story sink in.
"Eyes the color of ice. His gaze alone captivates you. Perseus was his name." He said, focussing his eyes on Artemis.
"This is the man you met, we presume. The man who was here, just now, was Hodr. He is one of Perseus' underlings." Poseidon finished, looking at his youngest brother to continue the story.
"Now, we haven't seen Percy for years. The conclave has been keeping him busy. Where, in the past, we had over 300 pantheons represented in the conclave, most have dropped off the map, leaving us with no more than 80 left represented in the conclave. We don't know where they are, or what's happened to them. But Percy was sent to investigate." Zeus followed up. As he listened to his brother speak, it seemed like he grew a hundred years older in the span of only minutes.
"If now, he has arrived here, that could mean only one of two things. He either followed their tracks back to our homeland and we are now in danger of experiencing the same as them or he has been sent here with another purpose, one unknown to us, which scares me even more."
The silent fear in his voice was disconcerting to the rest of the council. Zeus didn't get scared. For him to react like this, meant that the situation was dire.
"Then what are we to do, father? Are we meant to sit by, and let someone we don't know, take care of our problems?" Came Athena's query. The idea that they would need someone else was infuriating.
"We will proceed as we normally would. Hestia and I will seek contact with Perseus. We have always been closer to him than others. When we meet with him, a plan will be made." Hades spoke, seeing that his brother could use the help.
It confused the younger Olympians to hear their uncle say that.
Hades had never much been one for emotions, and none here had ever heard him speak about someone like this.
"Proceed with your duties for now. At this moment, there is nothing we can do but wait." Poseidon followed up.
"Council dismissed," Zeus called out as he and his brothers flashed away, Hestia following shortly after.
"Proceed like you normally would, he says."
Artemis was not doing good. She had flashed out of the throne room the minute her father left. She didn't want to deal with Hera's ravings any longer than she had to.
"My Hunters were controlled by a deity from another pantheon, and they expect me to go about my day as normal?" She said, her anger growing by the minute.
When she left, she had wanted to return to her camp immediately but had ended up deciding to put it off for a little while.
She had flashed to a little cove she often loved to go to.
It was the perfect place, in her eyes.
Hidden away between the peaks of the Brooks Range, overlooking Chandler Lake, she had made a tiny camp. A place for her to rest. To think.
And think she did. About everything that happened that day. About him. About how, even though she had never met him, this feeling of familiarity just wouldn't leave.
"Aarghh," She screamed, letting out all of the frustration and anger of the day.
"It seems like not everything was explained to you," A voice sounded out from behind her.
She whirled around at the sound, an arrow drawn on her bowstring.
There stood the man who had, not even an hour ago, appeared to them in the throne room.
His milky eyes were now hidden under a pure white blindfold.
"What are you doing here?" Artemis asks, pulling back her arrow the tiniest bit further.
"How did you find me?"
"Do not worry, I am here simply to explain to you further. I had perceived your doubts about today's happenings."
"As for how I found you, the answer is simple. You have found yourself in my home." He said, a grin plastered on his face.
"Your home? I've been coming here for years, I have never seen you, nor felt your aura." Artemis responded, not releasing the tension on her bow.
"Be not wary. I come in peace. As I said before, I am merely here to educate you further." He spoke.
As Artemis looked at him, she couldn't see any tenseness or signs that he might be planning to attack.
And on top of that, her father seemed to know him.
"Sit, I'll let you explain," She said, putting down her bow and sitting down on the log next to the fire, but keeping her knife within reach.
"You'll have to enlighten me, I was not there for the end of your meeting. What all was explained? And what do you wish to know?" Hodr spoke, sitting down on a log at the other side of the fire.
"My father and uncles told us of the day that Odin invited them to explain the idea of your Conclave. And I want to know how this Perseus was able to control my Hunters." Artemis spoke tersely.
"Well, technically, Lord Perseus didn't control your Huntresses." He slowly started, thinking of how to best explain this to her.
"The first thing you should know is that Lord Perseus is not a God."
"He is a Giant. A Jötnar. He is not like you, he is so much more powerful, yet so much weaker."
As he spoke, Artemis could see him get into a rhythm.
He told her he would explain, and it seemed he was going to do so.
"We Gods, we are all the same. It doesn't matter what pantheon you belong to. It doesn't matter what your domain is," He explained.
"At the end of the day, we all function the same."
Artemis couldn't figure out what he was talking about. She wanted so much, to just tell him to be terse. To explain quickly.
But she would get nowhere by being impatient.
"You see, for us Gods, our biggest strength is also our biggest weakness."
"What do you mean?" She asked, bewildered.
"Our domains. The thing that gives us power." He said, throwing her a displeased look for interrupting him.
"Our domains rule us. Shape us. Make us." He whispered harshly, as an intense look dawned upon his features.
"I was born with sight," He said, ripping the blindfold off his face, his milky white eyes reaching the light once more.
"But then, they gifted me with the domain of darkness. And in the darkness, I was doomed to live."
"For us gods, our lives are shaped the minute we receive our domains."
As he spoke, he stood up, his voice rising and rising. Until it reached its peak, the moment he spoke his last sentence.
Artemis silently prepared to grab her knife and defend herself, as his intensity rose.
"Our choices are forfeit the moment the Norns weave our threads, but they… They," He says, as Artemis can see him try to calm himself down.
"They, are different. The Jötnar aren't ruled by their domains. Out of all the different deities, from all the different pantheons, the Jötnar are the only ones, who rule over their domains."
"They are bound to them in ways we can't understand. I may be the god of winter, but Perseus? He is the Lord of Winter!"
"You wanted to learn who he was? Besides the Lord of Winter?" He asked her, for the first time since he started his story, he looked like he was talking straight to Artemis.
Artemis nodded.
"He is Perseus Oathkeeper. Watcher of travelers. Giant of the Winter, Hunt, Damage, and Duels. He who runs among the mountain tops. He who hunts the nightmares in the deepest pits of the sea."
"Oaths. Is that why…" She let the question linger in the air.
"Yes. You see now, don't you?" He said with a grin plastered on his face.
"He didn't control your hunters. In their oath, they swore to you, the Goddess of the Hunt, that they would obey you. They swore themselves by the domain of the Hunt itself."
"At its purest value, they couldn't move against Perseus if they wanted to."
"And you are, what, here to gloat over your Master's power over me? To blackmail me?"
Fury. That's all Artemis could feel right now.
She had thought that more knowledge of the mysterious man would alleviate some of her tension.
But it hadn't gone like that. The mere idea that someone would have this kind of power over her, infuriated her.
"No Godling, that is not my reason. Let's not forget that you have found yourself in my home. Uninvited I might add." He said, maneuvering himself to seem as non-threatening as possible.
"You are the Goddess of the Hunt, and with that, share a domain with him. With everything that is to come, you and he will work together closely in the future. I simply wanted to warn you of who he is." He spoke easily, knowing this was probably not what she wanted to hear.
Spurred by the change Zeus had undergone in the last few centuries, a lot of gods and goddesses had tried to follow in his footsteps.
They had tried to better themselves, as their wise king had.
Artemis too, had tried to change her ways.
For eons, her father had represented the very thing she loathed in men.
Egotistical, selfish, spiteful and petty.
But he had changed, and so could she.
Yet some things could never change for her.
"Am I supposed to just take your word on this? He can control my hunters. How am I to expect that he will not use this power to control me?"
"You simply have faith. Trust that just as how you share the same domains, you will also share the same values." As he spoke, he started to put his blindfold back on.
He reminded Artemis of Lady Themis, blindfold and all.
"He is a good man, Lady Artemis. Trust in that."
With the wind howling around him, and snow crunching under his feet, he started walking away from her.
"I have business in another realm, so for now, I must leave you. Feel free to keep using my home." He told her, the shadows dancing on his face, from the fire.
"Be careful, lady Artemis. Bad things are rising, and no one might be safe."
And with that last foreboding message, he disappeared.
"You deign to tell me what we should do? I am the general, and I decide our strategies."
Atlas was not having a good day. First, The Manticore had failed in his mission, and now he had two upstarts telling him that his plans wouldn't work.
Him, the General of the First Army. Bearer of the sky. Tactician to the great titan lord Kronos.
His plans always worked, and now here they were. Telling him that his plans would fail and that they could give him something better.
"We have people in their camps. We know where the entrance to the labyrinth is. What more could you possibly give us," Atlas asked, his anger rising by the minute.
"As we told you, the Jotunn is Unbound. He plays with fate like it's a mere suggestion."
As always, the one who began the explanation was not the one to end it.
"He bends fate to guide his path, but he knows not where it would lead him."
"What you think you know, might no longer be true"
"So we present a different path."
"Go on," Atlas told them.
While he was averse to acknowledging it, Atlas would be lying if he said that he wasn't the tiniest bit intrigued.
"The Huntress would have left to hunt for your creature the moment the Manticore was defeated. Because of the Jotunn's interference, she didn't. Instead, she had left for Olympus. There she has found out about our pantheon."
"This means they are now wary of an attack. This is of no matter. We know where she is, her proximity to Alaska weakens her. We'd have you capture her, as you would have. And then, our part will begin," They explain.
"Our domains give us a certain edge that we will use to our full advantage."
As they explained, a manic look started to dawn upon their faces.
"Revenge has joined the fight, and their wrath will burn the Jotunn up."
"For as fate dictates, we are immortal."
Huge thanks to TemplarHalo, Sol PJOFan, and Arkkkk for their help with the chapters.
In this chapter, I've already set up several lesser-known deities.
I am a huge Mythology nerd, and the main reason I wanted to write this was to put all my knowledge together in a fun and creative way.
So thanks for reading, and let me know what you think
Check out TemplarHalo on AO3.
Check out Arkkkk on Fanfiction,net.
Check out Sol PJOFan on Fanfiction,net.
Spartan, signing off.