The Seventh Child of Kronos

Hestia's Warning I

Location: Mount Olympus ( currently residing on the 600th floor of the Empire State building)

Time: Present

None's POV

The loud trill of the whistle was wholly effective in rendering the whole of the throne room silent. All fighting, dirty looks, and protestations stopped as the gods turned to look at the newest and perhaps most powerful, member of the family.

Perseus was annoyed. He had arrived only a few minutes ago, on Hestia's request, only to find what he had not in the least expected of his relatives. His expectation of his brethren to be more mature had proven itself false. Not only had they not made sufficient progress into the diary, but they had also, stupidly enough, started fighting again, that too on the most trivial of matters.  Justifiably angered, Perseus knew he should've done what he had thought of previously, only his respect for his mother's wishes for him to acknowledge their "opinions" had stopped him from taking any such action. Until now.

The way his eyebrows were pulled together and his mouth upturned in a frown should've warned the gods of just what was going to happen. Needless to say, quite a few of them would be infuriated by how the evening develops, a payback for all the trouble caused to Perseus. Not only that but a precaution as well.

"I have returned as you can see," he started, feeling unwelcome in the way they stared, silently and fixedly, at him.

"I am dismayed by how low you all have descended, fighting and returning to the state I had found you in,"

"OH PLEASE... DON'T YOU START T-" Apollo was suddenly cut off mid-whine as the blacksmith's hammer flew through the air and landed right onto his shoulder. The impact of the weapon successfully nailing Apollo to the back of his throne, from where he had been leaning outwards in apparent excitement.

"AROOOWCHHHH-"

"Silence. Let him speak without any of your nonsense." 

"Thank you, nephew," Perseus gave Hephestus a small smile of gratitude, which was received with a nod by the helpful god.

"As I was saying, I am sorry I didn't have the forethought to have taken this measure already, as I undoubtedly should've. That would've saved us much of this precious time."

"I will request you all to step out of your thrones and gather in the middle of the throne room in mortal size. I will cast a spell as old as time itself to hopefully increase the productivity of this process."

The gods threw anxious and furtive looks at each other as they slowly and reluctantly downsized and gathered at the centre of the room. It was a miracle that none of the gods had yet spoken anything for the past 10 minutes. Perhaps from the fear of Hephestus's hammer or perhaps from their own preoccupation regarding what Perseus had proposed, one could not say what had made them keep this seemingly unbreakable silence.

Hestia had not joined the assembly in the centre and as she was perpetually in her human size, had gone unnoticed by most of the crowd as she stood next to her hearth, a queer look on her face. Then slowly her face screwed itself into something unrecognizable as the pain occurred and the very next moment she had fallen on hands and knees, her face tightened in a grimace of pure agony. She did not know what was happening. She felt dizzy and weak and sick to the core of her being, something most gods usually never experience in their long lives. She was scared, rendered catatonic for it was like she was being crushed alive by an inconceivable, invisible hand and the more she tried to speak, to scream, she found out she couldn't.  

Fear took hold of her and right then more intolerable pain arrived, locking her into its malicious embrace as it forced her on her knees by the sheer agony of it. She knew if she wasn't able to make her presence known quickly enough in the hubbub of the gathering gods, something unimaginably bad was going to happen to her. So channelizing what must have been all her godly strength, for the first time in her immortal life, Hestia screamed. 

Louder and louder, until her scream of pain filled the hallways until her weak body could no longer give out the air she didn't have in her lungs. And then she collapsed, an unmoving heap, onto the cold marble floor.

The scream shocked the gods into a state of shock, with firstly Artemis and Athena stirring and then rushing towards the fallen Hestia, followed hurriedly by Perseus and the rest of the gods.

"Hestia?"

"Aunt? Auntie?"

"Sister? What has happened? What is wrong with Hestia?"

Questions lingered unanswered as the gods looked horrified at the unmoving Hestia lying with her head gently placed in Artemis's lap. Her eyes seemed to be moving rapidly while they remained close and she kept murmuring. 

"Apollo...APOLLO DO SOMETHING, aren't you the god of healing? HEAL HESTIA " Artemis spat urgently to her twin, who was hanging uncertainty in the periphery of the group of gods hovering over Hestia.

" I-I...yes..let me have a look at her" he anxiously placed one of his palms on his aunt's forehead, fearing the absolute worst.

"......."

"I can't FEEL ANYTHING-," Apollo shrilly exclaimed, breaking the meditative silence that had fallen over the gods.

"Are you sure, brother?" his twin asked, anxiously peering into his face.

"I CAN'T "

"Apollo, calm down and analyze it again. Maybe you can identify why you can't feel anything."

Perseus was desperately trying to control the growing panic in the room. He was sure if any of them were to crack, all of his plans would come falling down all around him.

A/N: Hiihihihi...I'm partially back with another almost 1000 word chapter, sweet lord. In hindsight, I could've put the second part in this one but then it wouldn't have been as fun. 

BTW you have user @ZaP0Ps to thank for this update! Whoever they are I hope they feel as happy reading this update as I was when I read their comment :)

And to the rest of you, HOPE YOU HAD FUN READING THIS UPDATE!!

and ofc...

Peace out!