This is Not Where We're Meant to Be

Hestia was sat by the hearth in the throne room on Olympus, tending the fire, while also using the flames to watch over the demigods who were not at one of the camps yet. She switched the attention of her flames away from the homes of young demigods and to Camp Half-Blood, a smile appearing on her face as she watched the campers running around, laughing and teasing each other, friendly taunts surrounding that nights game of Capture the Flag floating through the air. She continued watching that image for a while before beginning to shift the attention to Camp Jupiter. She was interrupted however, by a bright flash of light that engulfed the throne room – which was empty for the first time since the Master Bolt had gone missing almost 6 months ago – accompanied by a loud boom that startled her out of the shift; shifting to watch the Roman camp caused her to start shifting to Vesta as well, a shift that the shock stopped, causing her to startle back to Hestia, her original (and preferred) form.

She turned around and away from the flames of her hearth to try and work out what was going on and where the light and sound had come from. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it was not for the whole Olympian council, plus Hades, to have appeared in their thrones, looking disgruntled; her brothers especially looked angry at being summoned for an unknown reason – Hades most likely because he was always ignored and now was summoned against his will, while Poseidon and Zeus because they were busy preparing for the threat of war that was hanging between them, and had spent the last six months avoiding each other as much as possible unless it was to yell at each other.

"Who called council?" Zeus boomed, standing from his throne. "And who invited Hades?" None of the other gods said anything, all of them wearing similar shocked or confused expressions as they realised Zeus was not the one to call them; if they suddenly appeared in the throne room like that, it was normally because Zeus had called an emergency council.

"It's not like I want to be here Zeus. I have better things to do," Hades grumbled, crossing his arms, and leaning back in his throne. Zeus opened his mouth, most likely to retort, but was interrupted when another flash of blinding light and resounding boom occurred.

This time when the light disappeared, Zeus was sitting on his throne again and they found a group of campers, plus Chiron, in the middle of the throne room, near the hearth, all seeming confused and disorientated. Hestia could hear the confused murmurs from the demigods as they looked around, before they abruptly stopped and became silent, clearly noticing the gods and where they actually were.

"My Lord, if I may, why are we here? Why did you summon us?" Chiron asked, stepping forward and bowing slightly.

"We did not summon you. Some other force is at work," Zeus said, clearly disgruntled at the fact that he didn't know what was going on. For a third time, a light flashed through the room, a boom echoing through the large space.

When the light disappeared again, they found a young woman in the middle of the throne room, in gold armour with a purple cape hanging off her shoulders, seeming to be only semi-conscious, an injured and dying Pegasus by her side, and Hestia saw two sets of books sitting calmly by her hearth. The campers were all muttering together, and Hestia let her flames rise slightly higher, emitting a warm, calming aura toward the children. The gods were looking between each other, trying to work out what was going on, while Apollo shrunk down to human size and moved to the new arrival to help heal her; if they were here for some unknown reason, he may as well use his God of Healing abilities to help.

Then their attention was pulled to a corner of the throne room, on the opposite side of the room to the doors and behind the thrones, as the sound of battles started to ring through the silent room, a commanding yell somehow emerging above the chaos.

"Cuneum formate! Advance with pila!"

The gods all looked at each other, a few of them flickering slightly, all of thinking the same thing. Why were the Romans here?