Divergent Path

Meetings Two Years Apart

Chapter 4: Meetings Two Years Apart

Jason shifted on his feet as fourteen powerful pairs of eyes focused their attention on him. Several of the gods chattered from their thrones about the son of Poseidon always getting himself into some kind of trouble, assuming this was another mildly trivial matter. Jason cleared his throat and reiterated his previous statement.

"Percy is gone," A pin drop could be heard in the silence that enveloped the throne room. To Jason's confusion, a few of the gods' expressions turned panicked and the more level-headed ones looked deep in thought. Only Poseidon remained fully relaxed if not slightly smug.

"What do you mean gone? Is he dead?" Athena asked, confused by the timing of this news considering what Percy had asked her just last week. Jason shook his head and began to recount the events Percy had described to his friends. Jason explained the sequence that led to Percy's eventual isolation at camp and how it had to do with his half-brother manipulating all of his oldest friends. He deliberately left out the incident involving Annabeth, knowing it wasn't his place to dredge it up without Percy present.

Jason concluded his story with Percy visiting the Romans with the intent of moving to their camp following some time with his mom. Around the room, there were a wide range of emotions present. Ares was smirking, ready to call Percy a pansy for running with his tail between his legs because of some friends ignoring him. Hestia looked saddened by the news, worrying about the demigod that had never forgotten to acknowledge her. Artemis held a stoic expression but her knuckles stretched white from her grip on her throne armrests. Between burdening himself with the sky and using his wish to free her mother, Percy had earned his place as the only male mortal she had respect for, so she felt an unfamiliar rage towards the way he was treated.

The rest of the gods' irritation seemed to primarily be directed towards Poseidon, whose secret son had been making fools of many of their favorite children of this generation. Zeus looked especially angry, presumably because he was not aware of the breach of contract that was Cameron's existence. Although Zeus would keep this to himself, an amount of his anger stemmed from how Poseidon had allowed his most worthy son to be treated. In fact, he was agitated at the overall change in nature of the sea god in the past year.

Jason was looking directly at Poseidon, expecting some sort of worried reaction regarding the disappearance of his son. Many of the Olympians felt the same way. Poseidon, who had been lounging in his throne for the entirety of the meeting, took notice of this and sat up in his seat while clearing his throat.

"We- uh - we must take action. To find him - my beloved son," he clunked out in an awkward fashion. Artemis irritatedly rolled her eyes at the continued bizarre behavior of her uncle before she addressed Jason.

"You said Perseus went to stay with his mother. Why is that no longer the case?" she asked, curious as to why Jason hadn't explained that yet. As if on queue, Nico appeared in the shadow cast by his father's throne.

"Because his mother was murdered, and Percy watched it happen in front of him," Nico said quietly, his eyes never leaving the floor. He had been crying in the Underworld after Sally told him the story of what happened in the house. Hestia in particular looked crushed at the news. Ares shut himself up before voicing his sentiments from moments earlier. Artemis looked wide-eyed in Poseidon's direction; she felt sadness for what Percy must be going through but Sally was a mortal Poseidon loved like no other. The sea god felt eyes on him again. He sighed and spoke little more than monotonously,

"Such an unfortunate accident to happen, but what can we do..." Poseidon said, rhetorically. Jason had had enough of whatever this weird act was.

"Is that seriously all you have to say? The mother of your greatest son was murdered and now he's all alone gods know where, and its 'an unfortunate accident'?!" Every trace of apprehension in the face of the Olympians had left Jason's body in that moment, replaced by anger on behalf of his friend.