𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑭𝑨𝑳𝑳𝑬𝑵 𝑨𝑵𝑮𝑬𝑳 [ᕼᑭ ᙭ ᑭᒍO]

XXXIV || "Hades, you old softie."

✿⁠ ♡ ◍⁠ •⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠ ◍ ✧⁠ * 。♡

He is like an art, a stupid art but art.
✿⁠ ♡ ◍⁠ •⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠ ◍ ✧⁠ * 。♡

"Father." Percy was quite, the courage he left inside not portraying in his voice.

"Should you not address the master of the house first, boy." Zeus's voice struck the silence that was clinging to the room.

The son of Poseidon's head remained hung, unable to face the king of the gods that would kill him within the blink of an eye.

"Peace, Brother." Poseidon's voice was softer compared to his brother. "The boy defers his father. This is only right."

"You still claim him then?" Zeus's voice trembled. "You claim this child whom you sired against our sacred oath?"

"I have admitted my wrongdoing," Poseidon said. "And if I recall correctly, you broke the oath twice brother. Now I would hear him speak."

Percy swallowed the lump in this throat. He desperately wanted Lilith to be with him at this moment to comfort him.

"I have spared him once already," Zeus grumbled. "Daring to fly through my domain…pah! I should have blasted him out of the sky for his impudence."

"And risk destroying your own master bolt?" Poseidon asked calmly. "Let us hear him out, brother."

Zeus grumbled some more. "I shall listen," he decided. "Then I shall make up my mind whether or not to cast this boy down from Olympus."

"Perseus," Poseidon said. "Look at me. Address Lord Zeus, boy," Poseidon told Percy. "Tell him your story."

He had no choice but to tell the king of gods everything. And after that, he still didn't felt better.

He was still nervous as even when he pulled the Master Bolt out from his backpack.
Zeus opened his palm.

The lightning bolt flew into it. As he closed his fist, the metallic points flared with electricity, until he was holding what looked more like the classic thunderbolt, a twenty-foot javelin of arcing.

"I sense the boy tells the truth," Zeus muttered. "But that Ares would do such a thing…it is most unlike him."

"He is proud and impulsive," Poseidon said. "It runs in the family."

"Lord?"

They both answered in chorus, "Yes?"

"Ares didn’t act alone. Someone else—something else—came up with the idea." Percy paused. "In the dreams, the voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld. Ares hinted that he’d been having dreams, too. I think he was being used, just as I was, to start a war."

"You are accusing Hades, after all?" Zeus asked.

"No," Percy said. "I mean, Lord Zeus, I’ve been in the presence of Hades. This feeling on the beach was different. It was the same thing I felt when I got close to that pit. That was the entrance to Tartarus, wasn’t it? Lilith saved our life when that thing started to pull us down. Something powerful and evil is stirring down there…something even older than the gods."

Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. Peecy couldn't understand a word.

Finally, Zeus held up his hand angrily. "We will speak of this no more," Zeus said. "I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal."