After the gods departed, only the Night Goddess and the Omniscient Goddess remained at the scene. Looking at the wrecked battlefield, both felt a flutter of panic.
But on their faces each was calmer than the other. They met eyes, snorted coldly, and hurried to the council hall.
Seeing the clouds roll in and then everything return to calm, the gods and nymphs at the foot of Olympus finally, barely, set their minds at ease.
This farce had truly frightened them—some actually fled first to be safe.
When the gods arrived one after another at the council hall, what they saw was the God-King seated on the throne, his expression icy.
The clouds at the vault of heaven blocked all light. The God-King's anger seethed within them; dull thunder rumbled now and then deep in the cloud layers.
One by one, the gods were jittery, terribly nervous. After bowing to the God-King, they sat honestly in their places, even moving more lightly than usual.
Zeus, God-King, was always gentle and close to his gods.
Ordinarily, though he was majestic, he was not cold.
To see him today so full of distance and chill was truly rare.
A cold-faced God-King scares gods stiff.
The thunder in the sky proclaimed at every moment the God-King's power and majesty—no god dared ignore it.
Once the gods were assembled, Zeus looked out over them.
Well now—quite complete.
Aside from those not on Mount Olympus, basically all were present.
Only Hera and Themis were absent, and Metis as well.
Zeus ordered Zephyrus, the mild West Wind, to invite the goddess of order to come. Today's matter needed Themis to witness; it had to be handled properly!
With such a commotion on Olympus, Themis naturally knew what had happened.
She hadn't gone to stop it because she didn't know how.
While she was hesitating, Zeus had already arrived to end the farce.
Zephyrus met Themis halfway; she was already on the road to the council hall.
When the goddess of order arrived and saw Zeus's cold face, her heart tightened.
It was truly the first time she had seen him so cold.
His Majesty the God-King was usually kind and smiling; thus this sudden wrath made every god's heart quail.
An angry God-King—there is no being who does not tremble in fear.
After bowing to Zeus, she sat upright at his side, posture tall and exact.
Only after Themis sat did Zeus slowly speak: "Gods, is the 'Twelve Sacred Laws' I established so trivial in your eyes?"
"If so, why did none of you raise any objection at the last Grand Convocation?"
His tone was not harsh, not even particularly cutting, and his pace was unhurried—but the emotionless, oppressive timbre was all the more terrifying.
Zeus paused, slowly sweeping his gaze over the gods. None dared meet the God-King's eyes; one by one they lowered their heads. Zeus then said, slowly, "Or is it that you—have a problem with me?"
At these words, the gods present truly shuddered.
The import of that question was far too grave.
Mnemosyne's heart jolted. She knew she could not possibly hope to gloss this over with coyness.
She rose at once, faced the God-King, and bowed deeply, speaking with utmost solemnity: "Most exalted, revered God-King! No god would dare fail to keep your sacred order in their heart! Still less would any god harbor the least grievance against you! Least of all I, Mnemosyne!"
"What happened today is my fault. I provoked the Lady of Night first. In an unclear state of mind I committed a great error. It is my fault, and I am willing to accept any punishment you decree."
Her posture was flawless. Hearing this, the Lady of Night felt immediately better.
But seeing Zeus's face still frosted hard, she hurried to add: "Great God-King, I too am at fault. I should not have tried to strike the goddess of civilization and memory, still less lost my reason and nearly caused disaster."
"I was overcome by emotion and could not restrain myself for a time—but it was never disrespect to you, still less to the sacred laws you established, and I would never harbor the slightest grievance against you!"
Her tone was very soft, her posture exceedingly low.
Lightly biting her lower lip, with a voice full of infinite allure, she murmured, "Your Majesty… you know, the whole 'Night' belongs to you. How could I not respect you?"
At that, Mnemosyne flared inwardly, though she forced herself to endure it.
"That little minx! Still playing games!"
Even with both goddesses admitting fault and bowing so low, Zeus's cold expression did not change.
He spoke slowly, his tone still icy: "If you truly respected me, you would not trample the sacred laws I set."
"This is Olympus—the supreme center of order that represents me, that represents us Olympian gods as we govern the universe! And what have you done?"
"Look at the gods at the mountain's foot—what are they thinking now? What will they think?"
"I will tell you what they will think."
"They will believe that all that has happened here today proves that I, Zeus, the God-King, that the so-called sacred laws I established, are merely words to be trampled at will."
"That I cannot govern any god. That I, this supposed Lord of the Sky, am a colossal joke to the universe!"
At this, the gods grew flustered, bowing their heads, not knowing what to say.
Astraeus hurried into the hall and cried out, "Great God-King! That is impossible! Should any god dare utter a single word that profanes your supreme honor, I, Astraeus, will, without mercy, utterly destroy them!"
"Great God-King, it is you who have granted us the honor we now possess! It is you who have steadied the entire universe! No god would dare harbor such treasonous thoughts!"
Zeus let out a laugh without feeling.
"Oh? Truly?"
"Then why was all I saw today naked disregard?"
He looked around at the gods present, his gaze cold and sharp.
Though all kept their heads bowed, the crushing pressure already weighed upon their divinity; panic filled their hearts.
"Helios!" Zeus barked.
The lord of stellar radiance, who had been trying his best to diminish his presence among the gods, shuddered at the shout.
He hurried to the fore and stammered, "Your Majesty! Present! I'm here!"
Zeus glared and scolded sternly, "Present? Should you be here now?"
"You should be in the sky! You should be performing your vital sacred duty! You should be bringing the world light and warmth!"
"Why are you here?!"
His voice grew colder still: "If you have no wish to patrol this world any longer—no wish to bear the duty of bringing it warmth and light…"
"Then I can oblige you right now."
Helios jolted violently—he'd only come to watch the show; how had it come to losing his honor?
He did not hesitate. Dropping to one knee, he cried in fear, "Great God-King! Merciful God-King! Helios knows his fault! I should not have neglected my duty. I lost my head and forgot my vital sacred charge!"
"Your Majesty, Helios here begs your pardon and solemnly promises to you, great and benevolent one, that I will never again commit such an error! I… I will go fulfill my duty at once!"
Zeus gave no assent or denial. His icy gaze passed over the sun god and fell straight upon the three Astraeus brothers.
Before he could speak, the three keen star-gods came forward of their own accord, kneeling beside Helios.
"Most exalted God-King, we were wrong. We beg your mercy and forgiveness! We swear never to offend again!"
Only after confessing did they cautiously explain: "We believed some great calamity had occurred on Olympus and so raced here from beyond the firmament to stand guard."
"When we found no grave matter, we… we succumbed to the beauty of Olympus and failed to return promptly to the starry sky to perform our sacred duty. This is our fault. We beg your forgiveness!"
Zeus's tone eased slightly, but his words remained stern: "I know your loyalty to me. But mind your methods! Over a trifling matter you caused a commotion of falling stars, throwing the gods below into panic—what sort of example is that."
At this, the three brothers exhaled in relief and hastened to reply, "Your Majesty's rebuke is just! It was thoughtless of us three. We will heed your instruction and never offend again!"
Zeus snorted, then swept his imperious gaze over the hushed hall.
In a voice full of reproach he thundered, "You are great gods of this universe—the embodiments of its most fundamental laws! Your every move concerns everything in the cosmos, the life and death and safety of countless beings!"
"And what were you doing just now?!"
"Sloppy! Willful! Treating your sacred and vital duties as a game you can drop at whim!"
"If you possess precious honor, then you must bear duties of equal weight!"
(End of Chapter)
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