the prophecy | leo valdez

𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖌𝖚𝖊

the gods of olympus knew somebody had messed up big time when the fates dropped in. literally. they fell from the sky, right in front of hestia's hearth. ares whimpered at the sight of them, and hermes snickered at his reaction, but a glare from zeus cut him off quickly. demeter stopped twirling a piece of wheat between ger fingers, and hera- wait, hera wasn't there? oh well.

athena frowned. the fates never visited olympus, it was well-known that they held a deep disdain for many of the major gods. she straightened her back against her chair as several bright flashes of light brightened the room as the rest of the gods arrived - someone must have signaled for them.

poseidon's mouth fell open and apollo and artemis gave each other an indecipherable look. dionysus looked all to comfortable in his vine-laden throne, a slight smirk on his face. aphrodite and hephaestus were pointedly ignoring the other.

by now, all the focus was on the three figures in the center of the room. they were the size of regular mortals, but everything seemed to lean towards them, as if they had their own gravitational field. which they probably did. grey robes concealed their bodies, with low hoods covering their faces, but from beneath the smallest's a flash of long brown hair and white dress was seen.

zeus rose, and the other eleven gods followed suit. he looked uncomfortable doing it, supposedly as the king of the gods he wasn't used to bowing to any one, but even he must bow to fate. hestia watched from amongst her flames, with a different kind of reverence.

"you have made a grave mistake, zeus." the youngest, clotho, stepped forward, and her hood fell down. her voice sounded young, yet a deep disappointment echoed from beyond it. "meddling with prophecies is a very risky thing, and you chose perhaps the most crucial to change."

the second, lachesis, tossed her own hood back. shallow lines littered her face, and her dark hair was cut above her shoulders. when she spoke, a shiver ran through each and every one of the gods present from the cold anger in her words. "and you, apollo, allowing him to do so? how stupid can you be. we may have given you the gift of prophecy, but that does not mean we no longer have control over them."

apollo looked down. a light flush lay upon his cheeks, and artemis shot him a scathing look. however, most of the gods merely looked confused.

"um, your highnesses? what prophecy do you speak of?" hermes sounded unsure, but his question was the one everyone had been silently willing another to ask. even athena looked curious.

clotho laughed. it filled the room with a sense of dread, despite the childlike peal it had. "oh, you have not told them? well, this is just wonderful! now we get the pleasure of informing them of your failures!"

then, lachesis spoke again. "now, now, clotho, don't be so rash. i wouldn't call them failures, that's underestimating them. more like, catastrophic mistakes that may lead to the end of the world."

it was when the third opened her mouth, and her hood was pulled down, that the younger gods, having never had met her before, finally understood her power.

atropos had eyes whitened from cataracts, and long, grey hair. deep wrinkles were etched into her papery skin, and her hands shook as she raised them. "hear me now, all of you. the prophecies that were meddled with have been returned to how they were before. had we let you change them permanently, there would have been more casualties than you could ever imagine."

"the war is unescapable. it will come no matter how much you wish to stop it. we are the past, present, and future. we know everything. we are fate. this is the safest way. i warn you, we warn you, if you try to interfere with our work one more time, we will not be this merciful. am i understood?"

each of the gods nodded, muted. the three fates stood side by side once more, and then disappeared with a swirl of grey smoke. a small pile of dust stood were they had. hestia rushed forward and swept it into her cloak, before fading into the flames of her hearth.

the olympians, looked at one another. apollo and zeus were pale, which was especially a feat for the god of the sun. athena was the first to leave. then, one by one, each of them flashed out, until zeus was left alone. the sky held up by the marble columns hummed with thunder. a bolt of lightning struck him, and the throne room was left completely empty.

it remained that way. the fury of fate had shaken some of the most powerful deities in existence.