Chapter 335: Zeus Meets Hephaestus
The Olympian halls were not at peace.
Stormlight trembled against the marble colonnades, flickering like a restless pulse. Thunder rumbled low in the distance, yet it was not the storm outside that made the very air quiver—it was Zeus himself.
The King of Olympus strode down the corridor of bronze in a blaze of fury. Every step echoed like hammer strikes against anvil. His robes were half torn, his chest bare, sparks trailing across his skin. The eyes of the guards lowered, none daring to look directly into his face as he descended deeper into the forge-chambers, where fire roared without end.
He had delayed this confrontation long enough.
At last, he entered the cavernous heart of Olympus’s forge, where molten rivers ran through channels of black stone and bellows worked without pause. Sparks leapt, flames hissed, and the air was hot enough to sear the breath from mortal lungs.
At the center stood Hephaestus.
The smith-god was hunched over a massive anvil, his crippled leg dragging behind him, but his hammer hand struck with a rhythm as precise as heartbeat. Each blow sent waves of divine fire pulsing outward, shaping the half-formed frame of some new weapon. His single eye gleamed orange in the firelight. He didn’t look up when Zeus entered.
The silence was its own insult.
"Hephaestus." Zeus’s voice cracked like thunder. "You will look at me."
The hammer stopped. The forge-fire dimmed. Hephaestus raised his gaze slowly, his face a mask of soot and scars. His voice was calm, but it carried the weight of steel drawn across whetstone.
"You storm into my forge with lightning in your veins," he said. "What is it you demand, Father?"
Zeus’s nostrils flared. "Do not play games with me. You know why I’m here."
The god of fire tilted his head. "Enlighten me."
The King of Olympus stepped forward, thunder sparking in his wake. "The Trident. That weapon you forged for Poseidon. Do you know the ruin it has unleashed? Cities drowned, harbors torn asunder, the balance of the seas shattered. That weapon is not merely steel. It is an extension of my brother’s fury—and you gave it to him."
For the first time, Hephaestus smiled, but it was a grim smile, bitter as cooled ash.
"I did not give him anything," he said slowly. "It was a bargain. A fair one."
The air crackled as Zeus’s fist clenched. "A bargain? With Poseidon? With him?"
"Yes." Hephaestus set the hammer down, its clang reverberating through the chamber. "He came to me not as a thief, nor as a beggar. He came as a god with a need, and he offered me something no other has ever given. Something you, Father, in all your reign, never once thought to grant me."
Zeus’s eyes narrowed dangerously. "And what was that?"
"Freedom," Hephaestus said.
The word hung in the forge, heavier than any hammer strike.
Zeus’s jaw tightened. "You speak in riddles."
"No," Hephaestus snapped, his voice sharp as steel. "All my life I have forged your weapons, your chains, your thunderbolts. I have been the cripple you hide in the mountain, useful only when you need my fire. You bound me to Olympus as surely as any chain, and you never asked what I wanted. Poseidon did."
His hand rested on the cooling edge of the anvil. "He offered me choice. He asked for a weapon, yes—but he did not command it. He did not order it from me like a slave at a furnace. He bargained. He gave me terms. For the first time, I was treated as a god, not a tool."
The thunder in Zeus’s chest flared. "So you armed him against us."
"I armed him for himself." Hephaestus’s eye burned with defiance. "What he does with that trident is his will, not mine. The bargain was struck. The forge is neutral."
"Neutral?" Zeus roared, lightning splitting the chamber roof, sending shards of marble crashing down. "Do you call drowning mortals and shaking Olympus itself neutral? Do you call feeding my brother’s madness neutrality?"
Hephaestus did not flinch as the sparks rained around him. His voice lowered, heavy as molten iron.
"You think him mad. I think him free."
The words struck harder than thunder. For a moment, even Zeus faltered.
Hephaestus limped closer, dragging his leg across the scorched floor, until he stood face-to-face with the King of Olympus. The flames behind him cast his scarred figure in a terrible light, more shadow than man.
"You sit on your throne of clouds, Father, believing the world bends to your order. But the sea has no order. You have never ruled it. Not truly. You think Poseidon dangerous because he no longer bows to your decrees. But he has only claimed what was always his."
Zeus’s fury seethed, barely contained. "Do you mean to stand against me, Hephaestus?"
"I stand at my anvil," Hephaestus said simply. "And I will forge for any who bargain with me. If you wish me to make a blade to strike your brother, then offer me something worthy. Otherwise, take your threats back to Olympus, and leave my forge unbroken."
The audacity hung in the heat, daring Zeus to act.
For a heartbeat, lightning coiled around the god-king’s arm, ready to smite the crippled smith where he stood. But then Zeus hesitated.
Because he knew.
Hephaestus was not merely a smith. He was the forger of the chains that bound the Titans. The maker of the thunderbolts Zeus himself wielded. The only god whose craft had humbled even the strongest. To kill him was to cripple Olympus itself.
Zeus snarled, his fury biting at his own tongue. "This bargain of yours will be the ruin of us all."
Hephaestus met his glare without flinching. "Or perhaps the ruin of your pride."
The two gods stood locked in silence, fire and storm crackling around them.
Finally, Zeus turned, his thunder fading into a low growl.
"This is not over," he said, his voice like a storm retreating but not gone. "You have chosen your path, Hephaestus. Pray it does not lead you into the depths with him."
Without another word, Zeus vanished in a flash of stormlight, leaving the forge echoing with the hammer’s silence.
Hephaestus stood alone, staring at the anvil. Slowly, he lifted the hammer once more, striking against the glowing frame of his unfinished work.
Sparks burst, lighting his scarred face with grim determination.
"The sea rises," he murmured to himself. "And with it, so does the fire."