Chapter Text
Once everyone had returned from their break and settled in their seats, there was another flash of light. When the light died, it revealed a small crowd in the middle of the room and a letter in Hera’s lap.
The queen of the gods read the letter to the room, “‘As you may have noticed, we have summoned some additional people to read these books. After careful consideration, we have come to the conclusion that these people would benefit from reading these books or help others to fully benefit from the books. Once they have introduced themselves, they should read the first book which we have given extra copies of for this purpose. The curse will not take effect when people are reading to catch up, signed the Fates.’”
Everyone examined the new arrivals.
Poseidon, Hades and Dionysus were happy to see their wives and the sea god was also pleased to see his oldest son, Triton. Amphitrite, Persephone and Ariadne went to sit with their respective husbands while Triton remained stubbornly sat on the floor, refusing to change his shape to include legs.
“Mom? Paul?” Percy said, tears welling in his eyes. He nearly landed face first on the floor in his haste to greet them.
“Percy!” Sally gasped, running over to hug her son for the first time in months. Paul wasn’t much further behind.
“Brother!” Tyson said, wrapping Percy in a bone crushing hug once Percy had separated from his parents and was available to be hugged.
“Good to see you too,” Percy said.
Poseidon looked at Sally curiously, curious about the woman he would soon meet and fall in love with enough to make exceptional promises of palaces and a life of grandeur. The woman who was and would be the mother of his kind, brave and truly exceptional son.
His attention was also drawn to the young cyclops, Tyson, who seemed to get along well with Percy. It was rare that his monstrous children got along so well with his mortal children so he was pleasantly surprised to see them interacting so pleasantly.
“We have waited long enough to discuss things,” Zeus said, “Our new arrivals are excused to read the first book.”
“Before we go,” Amphitrite said, “What’s this curse mentioned in the letter?”
Straight to the point Poseidon most wanted to forget about. They were only one book in and Percy had been near-fatally poisoned twice and almost died several times more than that. Not to mention Procrustes.
“When we read the books, we feel whatever happens in the books. We being whoever was involved at the time and their parents.” Poseidon said wearily, “It doesn’t matter whether they are mortal, god or monster either.”
Amphitrite nodded slowly, critically. She left the room gracefully, the other new arrivals following along behind her. Triton reluctantly had to change shape in order to follow everyone but he stubbornly retained the green colour of his skin.
Poseidon rolled his eyes at his son’s behaviour. Some thing never changed.
“First things first,” Hera said, “Father.”
“What more is there to discuss?” Athena said, “We have proof he is rising with the help of Hermes’ spawn. We’ve already discussed what precautions we can take and we can’t do anything about it yet.”
“That’s a good point,” Apollo said, “But it does bring us to the question of what to do about Ares and the Castellan boy.”
“I haven’t done anything yet!” Ares protested.
“There’s little point in taking action against Ares now, considering that he has yet to commit any crime,” Hera agreed, “I suggest that we monitor him when we get out and keep an eye out for any changes.”
“Perhaps that should apply to everyone,” Demeter agreed, “If we only focus on Ares that leaves everyone else vulnerable.”
“We should attempt to foster trust between us all,” Hestia argued, “If we are all suspicious of one another it would make us easy targets to set against each other.”
“I agree with Hestia,” Artemis said, “Together, we are more than the sum of out parts. You heard how easy it was to set us apart. If an outside threat is treated as less important than infighting, we will be at a disadvantage.”
“Everyone will report any kind suspicious behaviour from anyone,” Zeus decreed, not leaving room for discussion. “That brings us onto the other traitor. What should we do about him?” Zeus glared at Luke.
“Smiting him won’t work,” Poseidon said, trying not to smile but not entirely succeeding. Was it wrong to find amusement in Zeus punishment? Probably. Did that change anything? Absolutely not.
Amusing or not, Poseidon hoped his brother could see the karma of it. He didn’t hold much hope considering Zeus’ frequent affairs with wilful ignorance.
Zeus glared at him but it lacked its usual menace. Probably due to Zeus’ loss of power, Poseidon thought. The loss of thunder and lightning when Zeus’ temper began to rise made his glare seem tame by comparison.
“Perhaps,” Hera agreed, “But that doesn’t mean we should allow him to roam free.”
“We could turn him into an animal of some sort,” Artemis suggest, “Though, I’m not sure if it would count as harm.”
“We could keep him under supervision,” Athena suggested, “He goes nowhere unattended. Perhaps Hermes could do the honours.”
Hermes wanted to object- he wasn’t sure they understood quite how much Luke hated him.
Maybe it was meant to be punishment for him as well. His crime being allowing his son to turn against the gods or something equally ridiculous which really wasn’t fair because Ares literally helped keep their father’s bolt and Hades’ helm hidden for half a year.
He looked at his son, taking how terrified he was. Come to think about, the entire time Luke had been on Olympus he’d been... not scared, necessarily, but he’d certainly been quiet, anxious. It made Hermes wonder what kind of situation his son had been pulled from.
Hermes knew what he needed to do. Despite Luke being in his twenties, he was still his child.
Unable to think of a suitable alternative, Hermes agreed.
“I think the next order of business is Perseus,” Athena said.
“He is too powerful,” Zeus complained.
“He’s the saviour of Olympus,” Poseidon said, “Would you rather he be weak?”
Percy rolled his eyes. Some things never change, he supposed.
“He does have a lot of abilities,” Hermes said, “Especially when you consider that we only know what he could do at twelve.”
“While we’re on the topic, did you know that you’re prophetic?” Apollo asked.
“I’m not,” Percy denied. He had dreams, sure, but all demigods had those. It wasn’t like he was spewing green smoke and talking in riddles.
“You are,” Apollo insisted, “How often are your ‘feelings’ correct? How many of your wild guesses turn out to be right? You knew the prophecy wasn’t complete and your dreams seemed to be very accurate.”
“All half-bloods get dreams,” Percy protested.
“Not like that,” Katie said, “Yours are really vivid.”
“You could have some sort of talent for the future, it is an ability that some of my children have, albeit one of the rarer ones,” Poseidon admitted, “It isn’t prophecy like Apollo’s, mind. The seas are wild, untamed. They hold many secrets, past, present and future.” Poseidon offered his son what he hoped was an encouraging smile, “I wouldn’t worry about too much. unless it starts causing you problems.”
Percy said that he understood but he was still slightly confused and rather uncomfortable with the full attention of the gods on him. Again. To discuss how much of a danger he was to them. Again. Not to mention that he, apparently, had another power he hadn’t known about before.
“There is one more thing I think we should discuss,” Athena said, “Who we allow or, more specifically, who we should allow to avoid reading.”
“That is a good point,” Artemis agreed, “We don’t need Poseidon falling asleep while reading again.”
“Maybe we should avoid reading if we’re involved in the chapter,” Annabeth suggested.
“Apollo and his son probably shouldn’t read as well,” Artemis said, “Just in case.”
“Good point,” Hermes agreed, “We don’t need another serious injury when Apollo’s reading.”
Apollo tried to protest that this wasn’t fair but was forced to concede the point when everyone agreed that it made the most sense. Anything that convinced Zeus and Poseidon to agree so easily was probably not worth fighting.
“How can we best avoid those in the chapter from reading?” Demeter asked.
“We let the children guide us,” Poseidon suggested, “They should know who was involved when. We could also guess using the chapter titles.”
There was a general agreement to this suggestion, seeing as though no one had any better suggestions.
Hestia waited for several minutes to see if anyone had anything to add before suggesting that they break for day and take the rest of the day off to recover.
Everyone left the room, except for the children of Kronos because Hestia said she wished to talk privately with them.
“Hades,” she said, “Is there anything you wish to talk about?”
“Not particularly.”
“Let me rephrase,” Hestia insisted, “Do you want to visit Olympus more often?”
Hades tried to think of the best way to answer that wouldn’t cause an argument. It felt like he’d sat through more arguments during this book than he had in the last decade. Probably because he had, how sad was that? Not the lack of pervious arguments part, obviously, it was the not seeing anyone long enough to argue part that was sad.
He wasn’t sure how to say that he wanted to visit more when he couldn’t always convince himself to show up once a year. How was he supposed to say he wanted company while simultaneously pushing everyone away?
Persephone had once said that she thought he was so lonely that he had forgotten how to socialise properly and that it felt better to reject others before you can be rejected yourself. Maybe she was right. Maybe she was wrong and he’d never known how to communicate. Maybe she was wrong and he was somehow broken.
“I’ll take your silence as a yes.” Hestia glared at Zeus.
“If he wanted to visit Olympus more often, he wouldn’t have been ‘too busy’ to come the last three years,” Hera huffed.
“Can you blame him?” Poseidon said, “You say he can visit one night a year, not even a full day, during the only part of the year where he has company? If I could only see Amphi for half the year, I wouldn’t want to miss a minute of it.”
Zeus sighed. He knew his siblings had a point even if he didn’t want to admit it. This wasn’t the first time he’d been asked to allow Hades more time on Olympus but it was the first time Hades had been involved in the conversation.
In hindsight, he should have never sent his brother away but he never knew how to take it back without seeming weak. He refused to be seen as anything other than a wise and powerful king- one who didn’t second-guess himself or give in easily.
He’d felt awful as he’d banished Hades and he probably would have retracted it immediately if Hades had fought at all instead of simply accepting it. That had been worse than anything he’d experienced– the way Hades had refused to fight for himself in that moment and every day since.
The closest he ever came to fighting for himself was when he wanted to marry Persephone (something he’d eventually been willing to sacrifice to avoid war) and his children (who Zeus had attempted to kill even after Hades had begged him not to).
Zeus also thought about the book. It made him uncomfortably aware of how his brother felt about being barred from Olympus, how little faith he had in them. What they knew now was only scratching the surface, a preteen’s perception that Hades had been unable to deny.
“You can visit Olympus whenever you wish, Hades,” Zeus said, “Or you can stay away, if you prefer. It’s your choice.”
Hades was quiet for long enough that Zeus was certain the offer was going to be ignored before Hades said, very quietly, “Thank you.”
Zeus hoped that it meant he had finally done right by his brother. Hopefully.
The king of the gods tried to ignore the surprised looks his siblings were giving him; Hades was still looking at him cautiously as though he was about to turn around and say ‘psyche’.
In an effort to break the tension, Zeus decided to ask a question he’d only just realised needed to be asked, “Poseidon, you said something about the curse applying to monsters?”
Poseidon sighed. “You remember how Percy killed Procrustes on his quest, right?” Poseidon swallowed, trying to ignore the memory of Procrustes’ death and explain in a calm, rational manner. Once everyone indicated that they did remember (Poseidon was immensely grateful that he didn’t have to catch anyone up on that), he continued, “I felt it.”
Hestia pulled her brother into a bone crushing hug (Poseidon was sure she was attempting to re-break his ribs) while the rest of their siblings shared concerned looks.
“If we’re done here,” Poseidon said, gently pushing Hestia away, “I’ll be taking my leave.”
“Wait.” Hades stopped Poseidon with a hand on his shoulder, “I’m sorry for accusing you of taking my Helm. I know you’d never do that.”
“I apologise as well,” Zeus said, “For accusing you and your son. And for my attempts on his life when he was attempting to retrieve my bolt.”
Poseidon sighed. “Thank you. I’m sorry for whatever it is I’ve done to make you trust me so little.” With that, he left the room, allowing the door to shut with a soft click.
Zeus thought it might have felt better if he’d slammed it.
The children gathered in the dining hall so that they could talk as a group.
Reyna was discussing the differences between fauns and satyrs with the Romans.
“Do you think we could get the fauns more involved around camp?” she asked. It was a thought she’d had a few times after seeing Hedge and hearing about Grover. For the Romans, it was completely unheard of to send a faun on a quest but the Greeks didn’t bat an eye at sending a satyr on such an important quest.
“I think so,” Hazel said, “You might have to offer them something in return though.”
Frank thought for a moment, “You’d need to ask them but I think that they might actually like something to do.”
“We have to, praetor,” Reyna said pointedly. She supposed he could be forgiven for forgetting considering how short a time he’d been praetor. Maybe she could use the extra time they had during this reading to teach him what a praetor needs to do rather than teaching him on the job.
“I can’t believe they would let them go on a quest with such little training,” Gwen said.
“Percy had to go but they could have sent someone more experienced,” Reyna agreed, “However, Grover aside, we would have allowed that as a quest group. Assuming that a head of cabin at Camp Half-Blood is equivalent to centurion at camp Jupiter.”
Across the room, Percy pulled Clarisse aside.
“What do you want?”
“I wanted to warn you that the next book is probably going to include some things you might prefer not to share,” Percy told her.
“I figured that out for myself, Prissy,” she huffed, “Thanks to telling me, I guess.”
Clarisse watched Percy for a few long moments. “That curse, from my dad...” she paused for a second before finishing her question, “Did it ever affect you?”
Percy sighed, “At least once, it’ll probably come up later,” he admitted, “There was another time where I’m not sure about, though.”
“The curse specified a sword,” Clarisse though aloud, “I know you prefer your sword, but you should consider getting a spear or something as a back up weapon for if it happens again.”
Percy considered the suggestion. It wasn’t the worst advice he’d heard and he was slightly annoyed with himself for not thinking about it himself. “I’ll think about it.”
The people who had been newly summoned to Olympus found a spot in the gardens to read.
“So, you are my husband’s lover?” Amphitrite said, suddenly.
Sally looked up, started, “Yes, I was, my lady.”
Amphitrite looked Sally up and down, “I can see why he might have taken an interest in you,” the goddess said, smiling slightly. When she noted the surprise on Sally’s face, she added, “Don’t worry, I don’t see the point in going after my husband’s lovers or children.”
“I appreciate that,” Sally managed.
“Tell me,” Amphitrite smiled sharply, “What sort of stupidity has my husband been up to recently. I’m sure you have at least a few good stories.”
“Well, there was this one time...” Sally said, launching into a tale of the time Poseidon had set himself on fire while trying to light the campfire the mortal way.
Some time later, Poseidon stumbled across the small group who were supposed to be reading the first book. Instead of the sound of pages turning, Poseidon was met with his wife’s laughter in response to something Sally had said.
The god turned on his heel, deciding that it was probably for the best that he didn’t know what they were talking about.
Nothing good ever came from his wife’s friendships with his girlfriends and he was certain that he was going to regret those women’s friendship but couldn’t bring himself to care.
He was tired, emotionally and physically. Without a doubt, the next book was going to be just as bad (he did hope there would be less poison, though) and going to take a nap was seeming like a better and better idea.
Percy and Annabeth were cuddling on one of the little beaches in Poseidon’s quarters when the god in question entered the room.
Poseidon leant against the wall and sighed, noting the three new doors in the room before he noticed Percy and Annabeth watching him.
He smiled at the pair. “Make sure you get back to your mother’s quarters tonight,” he told Annabeth, “I don’t think any of us wants to face her wrath if you spent the night here.”
Annabeth nodded to confirm that she understood.
Poseidon turned to Percy, “When Amphitrite gets here, can you show her to my room and Triton and Tyson to the new ones. If your mother and her boyfriend show up, show her to the other room- I assume that it’s for them.”
Once Percy confirmed he was able to pass the message on, Poseidon went to his bedroom.
Once he was alone, he unceremoniously collapsed on the bed, exhausted. It had been a long day but he struggled to fall asleep.
Things that had come out when reading the books were playing in his head on a loop. All of the mistakes he had already made or would make simply refused leave him be.
At some point, he must have drifted off to sleep because he half-woke to a blanket being pulled over him and Amphitrite climbing in bed beside him.
When he woke up properly, he was laying on his side with his wife’s arms wrapped around his middle. He took a few minutes to bask in the comforting warmth before he reluctantly slipped out of the bed.
Amphitrite stirred slightly when got up but remained asleep. Poseidon kissed her forehead and left the room in search of something to eat, acutely aware that he had skipped dinner last night. Gods didn’t technically need to eat but starvation wasn’t exactly fun for them either.
He sighed when he noticed that Percy and Annabeth had fallen asleep on the sand instead of going to their separate beds.
Athena was going to kill him.