The chamber was one of beauty, with flowers of all colors adorning the walls, which grew from thorny vines. The pillars, made of the purest crystal, were wrapped in ivy, and birds fluttered through the chamber, enjoying the warmth that came in from the hole in the ceiling.
Within the chamber was a wooden stump, smoothed to serve as a table, and surrounding it were four trees that grew in a fashion resembling chairs, allowing the four gods to occupy a seat around the table. Two females and two males.
They were waiting in silence, wanting to make sure no others had discovered their meeting, and with that confirmed, one of the females activated the wards of the chamber, sealing it from the senses of others.
With the wards activated, one of the males went on the offensive, demanding answers from the female who had activated the wards.
"What in Tartarus' name happened in Rome! The Objective was the Parthenos, yet all you could do was kill a demigod?"
The goddess scoffed, not taking the anger of the god seriously.
"The Parthenos was indeed important, but so was not revealing our existence. I made a choice on which one was more beneficial for our goals. Our secrecy is what came out on top, so stop with the tantrum."
"So what now? Without the Parthenos, we can't continue the plan," the god countered, demanding to know how the goddess would achieve their goals without the key component.
It was the other god that answered this time, anticipation ripe in his voice.
"Then we move on to my plan and take him."
That seemed to calm the first god down, understanding there was another potential plan, but there was one glaring issue from what he could tell.
"And how are we going to capture him without revealing ourselves? The state was lost for centuries; it was easy to make it 'disappear' again, but we can't make a titan disappear without others raising questions, especially him."
"That's the genius of the plan," The first goddess explained, "We will take him in the open and there will be no questions asked."
"And how are you going to achieve that?" The final individual spoke up, the second goddess. Her tone was shaky, as if she could already sense how the others would respond and dreaded being right.
"War," the second god answered, smirking, seeing the frown adorn the second goddess's face.
Unlike the other three, she was here solely for revenge; the idea of starting a war was abhorrent to her. However, it was too late; she had joined them, and leaving meant death. Thus, she had to remain and aid them, silently convincing herself that everything was necessary for her revenge.
"The chaos of war is indeed a great opportunity," the first god nodded, "but how do we achieve that? It must be a war that fully consumes Olympus' attention."
"The spark is simple, we force a battle between the three factions," the first goddess spoke smoothly, lifting a finger with each consecutive name, " Olympus. Titans. Elysian."
The first god barked out a laugh, having expected something smarter than this. "Even I know Elysian would choose neutrality in the war; how would you bring them into the conflict? Neither Kronos nor Zeus is dumb enough to antagonize them if war were on the horizon."
The second god spoke of their plan, "Elysian may not have an elected ruler, but it does have a spiritual leader, the child, Lucas. If he were to be killed by the hands of Kronos' army, then Elysian would engage in the conflict." He took a few seconds to allow the others to absorb the information before continuing. "Killing that child will be difficult but we have a spy implanted in the titan army, one valued by Kronos, we can leak information and have him be sent to to capture Lucas father. That type of collateral will cause Kronos to act; all we need to do is have our spy change the orders, having Lucas killed."
"You seem to forget, we have no knowledge of where his father is, and even if we do, Hecate is very protective of her family; she would have most likely warded the place to alert her if anything suspicious happens."
The concerns of the first god were indeed problematic, but luckily they had already been thought of.
The first goddess was the one who addressed the concerns.
"We already know where his father lives; he was the mortal who discovered traces of the Parthenos. As for Hecate, she may indeed be a problem, but we can use our influence to have her brought to Olympus under Zeus' orders. When she feels the danger her family is in, we can forcefully stall her long enough for the two to die, allowing Hecate and Elysian to blame Olympus for their deaths, as the act of restraining Hecate stopped her from saving them. As for who will be stupid enough to offend Hecate in such a fashion, don't we have those little enforcers in camp? Have them do it."
The first god nodded along, continuing where she left off as he began to understand the plan.
"Zeus won't stand by and accept the blame, but while he may be hesitant to start a conflict with Elysian, he would take out any anger on the Titans without hesitation, declaring war on them. He would likely believe that winning a second battle against the Titans would be similar to the first, with all their problems solved once they emerged victorious. Their reputation as heroes would overshadow the accusations of Elysian, restoring Olympus' reputation and authority, which would once again intimidate others. With this, your plan of creating a chaotic smokescreen for our goal will be achieved, and none of the three factions will ally with the other."
The second goddess, hearing of the chaos to come, was guilt-ridden, torn between her desires of vengeance, the goal of joining this small group, and her kind heart, not wanting to drag innocents into such a bloody war.
The other three noticed but didn't care, she was simply a tool they could manipulate, and if she interfered, then they would just get rid of her.
Returning their attention to each other, they began finalizing the plan's details, ensuring they addressed any issues or potential areas for error.