Zeus was furious.

The storm that answered to his anger hovered over Rome, the sound of thunder and wind punctuated with flashes of lightning. His plans for the Sidhe had all but been destroyed because Ares had to meddle.

“So, you thought it your right to support Caesar in his plot to assassinate Alexander?” Zeus roared. “You supported him so blatantly that you allowed your priestess to be used?”

“I did,” Ares confirmed, not intimidated by Zeus’ fury or tantrum. He was the God of War. He would not be reduced to a gibbering pile of fear simply because Zeus was bellowing. Although he wasn’t all bark and no bite, in most instances, he would rant and rave then forget what made him angry as some buxom mortal caught his attention.

“You are an idiot!” Zeus thundered. “You will fix this. There will be no war between Alexander and Caesar. I will not have Caesar’s armies diverted at this juncture.”

“It is too late for that,” Clotho, one of the Fates, interjected. “The weave of history has been changed. Alexander has given a binding [Oath] to one of the Sidhe. He cannot be dissuaded from his current path.”

“The only way forward is to surrender or win,” Lachesis warned.

“The web has been woven; the die has been cast. Caesar’s allies will find themselves embroiled in their own wars. The tangle to the skein of fate from Ares’s action will require many threads to be snipped.

“Rome might survive, but Caesar and his armies will fall,” Atropos warned.

Zeus’s anger was so great that he flung his lightning bolts at Ares, bolt after bolt forcing the God of War to kneel in surrender or risk fighting and beginning a new war of Gods. Ares might have risked starting that war if the Fates had not spoken, but they had, and he knew that no matter how he responded, the world was changed.

It was better to yield and fight another day. A day when he was more confident of his success.

“What of the Sidhe?” Athena asked, addressing the Fates directly and redirecting Zeus’s attention.

“They are no longer part of the tapestry that we spin. The Tuatha de Danann, [Fairy], and the Demi-fey have been restored and integrated into the Universe,” Atropos answered. “They have been removed from our [Domain] and shielded by the might of their own Gods.”

The clouds that had already been dark became black as night as they began boiling. The raging storms began forming tornadoes, the weather reacting to Zeus’ anger. He had never liked being thwarted and to have come so close to ending the Sidhe. Perhaps finding a way to gain dominion over the Summerlands had kindled a rage in him that had not been seen since he battled the Titans for supremacy.

The world could not sustain the constant flood of rain, and Gaea took measures to protect what was hers. The only Titan not to have been cast down, cast out, or chained, she exerted her will, and Mount Olympus responded. The very foundation of Olympus began to shake in concert with her own anger.

“Enough,” Gaea commanded, her voice reverberating with the sound of tectonic plates shifting and mountains rising. “You will control your anger, or the very pillar that Olympus stands on will be rent asunder as I funnel the damage your tantrum is having across the world into the event horizon that connects Olympus to the world.”

It might mean her death if she carried out her threat. Zeus was not the only God that would attack, but the repercussions of the world, if cut off from Olympus, would be far-reaching. The Pantheon would take a heavy hit, and each of the Gods would find their [Domain] weakened.

Gaea’s warning was enough to calm Zeus down. He was still angry, but her threat had been enough of a jolt to regain control.

“Is there any way to salvage this mess?” Zeus asked the Fates.

“We are unsure. The Sidhe’s connection to the Tuatha de Danann has been restored, and with that connection, our ability to divine their futures obscured,” Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos spoke as one.

“What can you tell us?” Athena asked.

“The future is in flux. A nexus of change is brewing; sometime in the next decade, a rending of the Heavens will determine which Pantheons ascend and which fall. Olympus will survive. That much is inevitable, but there is no guarantee that the Gods of Olympus will rule supreme.

“The future diverges into one of two possible futures. One where Olympus declines and the Sidhe, Elves, Dwarves, Vampires, and Beastkin gain dominion. One in which we prevail, and the current balance is changed as we are forced to acknowledge those races and their Pantheons as we have the Asgardians.”

“Have Caesar send a group to parley with the Sidhe, see if they can negotiate peace,” Zeus ordered.

“I doubt they will be given a chance to speak,” Athena warned.

“Why? They can approach under a white flag if truce to show their intentions.” Zeus suggested.

“Those bearing a white flag will be killed immediately,” Athena informed him. “Caesar’s men have broken the covenant and protections the white flag was supposed to engender. And they have broken every treaty that the Sidhe has agreed to.

“They no longer believe that the men they deal with have any honor or that any treaty they might sign is worth the vellum it was written on.”

“Then recall Caesar’s armies. All of them. Have them fall back to a position that makes it clear to the Sidhe that Rome has abandoned any thoughts of war,” Zeus ordered, his temper leashed but his eyes brimming with promises of retribution as he glanced at the still kneeling Ares.