Mountain of the Immortals

"We were perfectly happy with what we had. Growing up with Cronus as a father was never easy. We each had our own ways of dealing with him. Hades, my eldest brother, was always the faithful soldier my father wanted. The perfect son who always delivered above our father's expectations. Always perfect in his appearance and attitude. And a perfect bore too.”

"Was he destined to take over the throne?” Ares asked.

“We never had any conversations about it," I explained. "Our father was to rule supreme forever. And we were there to make sure that happened. We never talked about succession because the idea of killing titans was as unnatural as a fish living out of the water. No, we just wanted to live our lives the way we’d learned to."

"You said Hades was the good soldier," Hephaestus said. "What of your other two siblings?"

"Demeter was without the doubt the strongest of us all," I said. "And the kindest to me, even though she was the one most resistant to our father's tyrannical rule over us. Poseidon was the first to leave home. He found solace in the seas, exploring worlds and generally staying as far away from our father as possible."

"What about you?" Ares asked.

"I didn’t leave, if that's what you're asking. I did what my father ordered me to do, appearing in the courts of other titans or acting as an emissary of his. I did my fair share of traveling realms but always with the focus of enjoying myself. After all, I was the youngest of the four of us, and the responsibilities put on me were minimal. Occasionally, my father would decide he didn’t like seeing me enjoying my immortal life, so he did his best to make it miserable."

"He certainly doesn't sound like the brave titan of the stories, but he also doesn’t sound anything like the monster that killed your siblings," Ares said.

"My father devoured my siblings whole," I corrected him, "and he would have done the same to me, had I not been late to the meeting with him. But you're right. He doesn't sound like the father of the century exactly, but that’s still some distance from eating his own children. His mind was poisoned over time."

"Did he become sick?" Artemis asked.

"You could say so," I said, thinking about it. "The longer he spent on that throne, the more insecure he became. He started taking advice from augurers and mancers. He was convinced someone would eventually make a move against him and these people were more than happy to entertain those notions."

"You don't believe in their powers?" Aphrodite asked.

"I don’t know whether these prophets, or whatever they were, actually saw into the future or simply created a prophecy of their own."

"I can see how feeding your father's paranoia with auguries of someone threatening his rule would make him bring this disaster upon himself," Aphrodite commented.

"It doesn't sound weird at all if you consider where we are right now," I said.

"Still, even being paranoid about being overthrown is still some distance away from eliminating your own children," Ares said. "How did he reach that point?"

"How much do you know about my father before he became a king?" I asked.

"I've only heard that he defeated his own father in a duel that shook the world," Aphrodite said.

"That couldn't be any further from the truth," I replied. "My father assassinated my grandfather, Uranus. There was nothing honorable about killing him while was sleeping. That was all because he wanted the throne for himself. And my grandfather cursed him to find a similar death at the hands of his own offspring.”

“He didn’t really believe that, did he?" Ares asked.

"He didn’t. At least, for hundreds of years he didn’t. And our mother made sure of that. Until his augurers alluded to it. I know there are augurers who can see the future and there are those who say just enough to fish for a fact they can use to build their own narrative. I have no doubt the best ones use a combination of these two methods. One of the people he used for a long time foretold that a curse from the past would come back to hurt him again."

"And he thought that was going to be death at the hands of his children?" Artemis asked.

"I believe that was the spark that lit the hay of his paranoia. The moment he was told this, he explained what had transpired with his father and the augurer told him that just as he killed his father, so too will his own son kill him and take his place."

"How do you know all this?" Aphrodite asked.

"My mother knew exactly how my father felt about other people trying to take his power by force, so she was always there when he had sessions with his fortune tellers and the likes. My father was shaken more by this than any other time before but my mother managed to convince him that it was all nonsense and that his children would never do anything to hurt him. She told me that he believed her, or at least that's what she thought. And for years he did nothing about it."

"Did something change?" Ares asked.

"Nothing changed," I said, thinking about it. "I guess we were just never all together on Mount Orthys. My father knew that no matter how well he pretended, my mother knew he would not hesitate to kill us. So he never pushed us all too much to come to Mount Orthys at the same time. Until it just happened organically and he made his move. I was lucky that I was late to meet him and had my mother protect me long enough to make my escape."

"So you never planned a coup, and had no plans to claim the throne," Ares said. "All four of you were minding your own business and he just lost it?"

"We just wanted to live our lives, preferably as much out of his way as possible. Now I can’t say what thousands of years at the top can do to a god, but I vow never to become so attached to power that I will put it above my family," I said. "And family is not just by blood but also by choice. You are my family now. I'd rather relinquish any position of power than break any meaningful bonds I have created over the years."

"You have nothing to worry about from us, brother," Ares said, and looked at the goddesses who all nodded in agreement.

"Who wants to lead a whole guild anyway?" Artemis said.

"All those administration tasks and the thinking and strategizing would mean too much time away from the forge," Hephaestus said.

"I wouldn't mind leading a guild," Aphrodite said, taking her sweet time observing us as we waited for her punchline. "As long as it's one under your alliance, Zeus."

As always, Aphrodite was looking forward with great aspirations for us, showing me glimpses of what my future might look like.

"Thank you," I said with a smile. "All of you."