Hecate sat across from me, silent and poised as ever. The flickering lantern light cast shadows across her face, glinting off the silver runes etched into her skin like tiny constellations. Her gaze was steady, unblinking, as I spoke.
"So… that's the general overview of your duties," I finished, leaning back in my chair. My office felt warmer with her presence, though shadows still curled lazily around the ceiling like contented serpents. "You'll oversee border crossings, manage the flow of souls, assist with judgment queues, and… well. Anything else you feel requires intervention."
She tilted her head, studying me. "You trust me with a great deal of power."
"Yes." I didn't even hesitate. "I do."
Her lips twitched into the faintest smile. "Good."
I reached into the drawer beside me and pulled out a small velvet box, sliding it across the table to her. "This is yours."
She opened it without ceremony. Inside lay a ring of blackened steel crowned with a single obsidian stone carved with my sigil: the twin-pronged bident wrapped in writhing shadow.
"As long as you wear it," I said softly, "everyone here will know you are my right hand. My second. My equal in authority. Any orders you give will be treated as if they came from me."
She lifted the ring from its box and slipped it onto her middle finger. A pulse of dark energy spread outward, rippling through the room before fading into silence.
"It suits you," I murmured.
Her smile widened, and for the first time, it reached her eyes. "Thank you, my King."
I shifted uncomfortably. "Titles aren't necessary."
"Then why wear one yourself?" she countered.
I opened my mouth to reply but was interrupted by the heavy doors flying open with a deafening slam.
Oizys stumbled in, her smoky hair tangled, black tears streaming down her pale cheeks. "My Lord!"
I stood immediately, shadows rising with me like startled ravens. "Oizys. What is it?"
She bowed low, chest heaving. "Zeus has called an emergency meeting. He demands your presence immediately."
My jaw tightened. "Did he say why?"
"It… it involves Poseidon," she whispered, wringing her trembling hands. "That is all I know, my Lord."
A spike of cold dread shot down my spine. Poseidon.
I turned to Hecate. She rose before I could even speak.
"I will oversee things here," she said simply.
I nodded once. "Thank you. Oizys, show Hecate around. Make sure she knows every corner of this realm."
"Yes, my Lord," Oizys said, bowing again.
I didn't waste another second. Shadows wrapped around me, swallowing me whole, and in the next heartbeat, I emerged from the darkness into the marble throne room of Olympus.
Zeus was already seated on his throne, fingers drumming an impatient rhythm on the golden armrest. Hera sat to his right, her gaze sharp and calculating. Hestia and Demeter sat quietly, watching the room with concern etched into their faces. Mother stood off to the side.
I walked calmly to my throne, as I sat, I nodded at each of them in greeting.
"What is this urgent matter?" I asked, folding my hands together.
Zeus didn't answer immediately. Instead, he gestured to the small figure standing near the foot of his throne.
It was only then that I noticed her.
A Naiad, barely more than a girl, her blue-green skin mottled with bruises and wrapped in fresh bandages. Her hair, usually flowing like river currents, was limp and tangled around her shoulders. She clutched a clay cup in trembling hands, her wide oceanic eyes staring down at the floor.
Zeus spoke, his voice unusually gentle. "This Naiad appeared last night, after the party ended. She has been resting and healing from her injuries. Today, she brings us news."
The Naiad raised her head, and though her voice shook, she spoke with desperate determination.
"My Lords… My Ladies… I am Thaleia, daughter of the river Peneus." She bowed shakily. "I… we were searching. Searching for Lord Poseidon, as you commanded."
A breath hitched in my chest. Hestia's fingers curled tightly around her cloak.
Thaleia continued, tears brimming in her eyes. "We… we reached the kingdom of Oceanus. But it was… gone."
Silence fell like a guillotine.
"Gone?" Demeter whispered.
"Destroyed," Thaleia said, her voice breaking. "Everything… ruins. Shattered coral palaces, dead seashell gardens, kelp forests torn apart. We searched through the ruins and… and we felt it. A… a presence."
Her gaze unfocused as she shook, remembering. "There was… a trench. Deeper than any we had ever swum. We… we felt him. Lord Poseidon. His energy was there, but… but it was wrong."
"Wrong?" Hera asked sharply. "How?"
"It was… corrupted. Twisted. The trench was filled with this… dark energy. It felt ancient and foul, like rotting divinity. We swam down to find him but before we could… before we could reach him, something attacked."
"Something?" Zeus demanded, his voice rising like thunder.
Thaleia's tears spilled over. "These tentacles shot out from the darkness and grabbed us as they dragged my sister Larger than anything we have ever seen. It attacked us… killed so many. I… I barely escaped."
She fell silent, her small shoulders shaking with sobs.
I stared down at my clenched fists. Shadows rippled along my arms, reacting to the cold fury boiling within me. Poseidon was alive… but something was going on and I didn't know what I was going to do.
Zeus exhaled heavily, pressing a hand to his forehead. The room seemed smaller somehow, suffocating in the silence.
"We… will convene again," Zeus said finally, his voice low and exhausted. "We need time to think… to plan. This is… this is not something we can rush."
No one argued. One by one, the gods rose from their thrones and began to leave in solemn silence. I remained seated, staring down at the marble floor as shadows pooled around my feet.
Poseidon… you stubborn fool. What had happened when you had fought against Oceanus?
I returned to the Underworld that evening, shadows peeling back to reveal the familiar black stone halls of my palace. The scent of brimstone and pomegranate flowers filled my lungs, calming my restless mind.
Hecate was waiting for me outside my office, her expression unreadable.
"Well?" she asked softly.
I shook my head. "Nothing good."
She seemed to hesitate before she placed a cool hand on my shoulder, her thumb brushing gently against my neck. "You will save him."
I swallowed thickly. "I… I don't know how yet."
"Then we will find a way," she said firmly, her eyes glowing softly in the darkness.
I looked at her, truly looked at her, and felt a flicker of something warm and dangerous bloom in my chest.
"Yes," I whispered. "we definitely will."
That night, I stood alone on the balcony of my palace, staring out over the City of Asphodel. Souls were busy doing whatever they liked to do in the afterlife.
Somewhere beneath those stars… deep in the abyss of the sea… my brother waited.
And I would bring him home.
No matter what it took.
☼
That night, I lay on my bed staring up at the dark ceiling. Faint silver runes glowed above me, etched into the obsidian stone by Brontes months ago to strengthen the palace's foundations. My sheets smelled of pomegranate and underworld mist, but the familiar scent brought no comfort.
I kept thinking about the meeting. About Poseidon. About the naiads' words and the terror in her eyes. My mind whirled with questions I had no answers to, each one cutting deeper than the last.
Where are you, brother? What happened to you down there?
I exhaled slowly, rolling onto my side, facing the empty space beside me. For a fleeting moment, I wished I wasn't alone tonight.
I closed my eyes, letting exhaustion pull me under.
When I opened them again, I wasn't in my bed.
I stood… somewhere far above everything. My heart thundered as I looked down.
Beneath me stretched the whole world. Greece. The mortal lands. The oceans. The Underworld. The stars. Olympus, shining golden under moonlight. I could see my siblings, sleeping or awake, each throne room and palace glowing like a candle in the dark.
And further. Beyond Greece. Beyond the mortal world. I saw the lands of other pantheons, borders marked by shimmering lines of divine energy: Asgard, far in the frozen north. The desert palaces of Ra. The celestial peaks of the Jade Emperor. The realm of the Hindu and I could even see Yahweh sitting on her throne in the heavens snoring with a very undignified snot bubble on her nose. God I could see everything.
I clutched my head, gasping in pain, all this sight was giving me a damn headache as this heavy pain came from the back of my eyes, the remaining eye and even the socket somehow.
So… this is what omnipotence feels like. Gods… No wonder no one uses it casually. My skull felt like it was splitting open.
"Overwhelming, isn't it?"
That voice.
I turned, almost falling back from the sudden shift of perspective and saw a very familiar face
"Veritas…" I whispered, my chest tightening.
She smiled faintly. "Hello, Nate."
"What… What is this? Why am I seeing everything? How am I here?"
She drifted closer, her feet never touching any solid surface. "The crystal, remember? Embedded in your chest before you died. It granted you this gift. Its power has been dormant… until now."
My mind flashed back to that final moment in the cave, to Ethan grabbing the glowing stone, to the explosion. The shard that pierced my chest before I fell to my death.
"This… this is its power?"
"Yes." Her eyes glimmered with sympathy. "The gift of the divine eye. The ability to see all that was, is, and will be. Though… your mortal mind is not meant for omniscience. The strain will grow each time you use it."
"Hold on, what do you mean mortal mind? I am a god now." I said, very confused.
"Just cause you have the body of a god, doesn't mean that your mind is divine as well." Veritas said shrugging
I swallowed hard, ignoring the rising nausea in my chest. "So… I can find him. Poseidon."
Veritas nodded, her gaze kind. "You can. If there is anything specific you wanna see, just ask me and I shall show it to you."
I closed my eyes, as my heart steadied. I slowly breathed out before opening my eye again.
"Show me Poseidon."
The world blurred.
When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in the void.
I stood in a massive, dark temple carved from black stone. Giant pillars rose like the legs of some colossal insect, jagged and twisted. The walls pulsed with a sickly red glow, dripping with streams of black sludge that hissed and steamed where they met the floor.
All around me knelt creatures – monsters I had never seen before. Some were massive crab-like beasts with glowing red eyes. Others were serpentine, with dozens of mouths lined with teeth. There were creatures of shadows, dripping ooze, scaled horrors that looked like twisted memories of ocean life. They bowed low, chanting in an ancient, guttural tongue.
"Lord Neptune… Lord Neptune… Father of Monsters… Heir of Typhon!"
My chest clenched. Typhon? What was going on? But the major thing I was worried about was why Neptune the Roman god of the Sea was alive when the Romans hadn't even arrived yet.
Then… I felt it.
A presence so dark and heavy it nearly pushed me to my knees. An oppressive force that reeked of decay, corruption, and eldritch power older than the Titans themselves.
From behind the pillars emerged a figure.
My breath caught.
Poseidon.
But it… it wasn't him.
His body had changed. His once bronze skin was now pale gray with dark veins coursing across it like cracks in dying marble. His eyes… gods, his eyes were pits of swirling black and crimson, glowing faintly in the darkness. His teeth were jagged, shark-like, and his ears had elongated into sharp points. Coral spikes jutted from his arms and shoulders, black fins sliced from his elbows, and where his missing arm once was now writhed a monstrous appendage, thick and scaled, ending in jagged claws and barbs. His trident was no longer gold and silver. It dripped with black sludge, tendrils wrapping around its shaft and bladed tips.
He strode through the bowing monsters with unnatural grace, each footstep echoing like a war drum.
I took a shaky step back, unable to tear my eyes away.
He reached a massive throne carved from obsidian. As he sat, his dark lips pulled back into a wide, twisted smile, exposing those serrated teeth.
"My faithful monsters," he said, his voice sounding nothing like how I remembered. "Soon, Lord Typhon will gain enough power to gain a physical body, and we! HIS FAITHFUL CHILDREN! SHALL HELP HIM TEAR DOWN THE OLYMPIANS!"
His laughter rolled through the temple like thunder, shaking the walls and rattling the bones of the monsters who cheered his name.
"ALL HAIL LORD NEPTUNE!"
My heart thudded painfully in my chest.
Poseidon… my brother… no. That wasn't him anymore. Neptune. Something had happened to him to transform him into this corrupted god and whatever it was it involved Typhon. Suddenly he turned and seemed to look straight at me, causing me to take a step back.
"Prepare all you can brother, because soon you will be remolded into your true form and serve Lord Typhon." Neptune's dark laughter started to echo as I felt myself being pulled away, the vision blurring and fading until darkness swallowed me whole once again.
I awoke with a strangled gasp, sweat soaking my sheets, my shadows whipping violently around my chamber in panic. My chest burned where the crystal shard had embedded itself, pain radiating outward like molten fire.
I curled forward, pressing my hand to my racing heart as tears threatened to spill.
"Poseidon… how do I save you now?"