Family meeting?

"It's strange," Sarah continued, cradling the cup between her palms as if drawing warmth not just from the coffee, but from something deeper. "I've walked past this place every day for a week before moving in. Each time, it felt like..." she paused, searching for words, "like the shop was waiting for me."

Marcus's hands stilled on the espresso machine he'd been reflexively cleaning. In three millennia, he'd learned that coincidences were often the universe's way of being subtle. "Sometimes places find us when we need them," he offered carefully, watching how the morning light caught the steam rising from her cup, creating tiny rainbows that shouldn't have been visible to mortal eyes. Yet he noticed how her gaze followed them.

"You're not just a barista, are you?" The question came suddenly, but without accusation. Sarah's voice was quiet, meant only for him despite the empty café. "I mean, you are – obviously – but you're something else too. Something..." she gestured vaguely with one hand, "more."

For a moment, Marcus felt the weight of his divinity press against his carefully constructed human facade. It would be so easy to deflect, to laugh it off with the practiced ease of centuries. Instead, he found himself wanting to test the waters of truth.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, leaning slightly forward across the counter, his voice carrying the same gentle tone he'd once used to deliver prophecies.

Sarah's brow furrowed in concentration. "It's in the way you move, like you're... remembering to be affected by gravity. In how this coffee tastes like stories I've never heard. In the way the air feels different around you – older, somehow." She looked up at him, a mix of uncertainty and determination in her eyes. "I sound crazy, don't I?"

Marcus smiled, and for just a moment, he allowed a fraction of his true nature to shine through – nothing obvious, just enough that the shadows in the café deepened slightly, and the morning light seemed to pause in its journey across the floor. "No crazier than a god running a coffee shop."

The words hung in the air between them, neither a confirmation nor a denial, but an invitation to see beyond the veil of ordinary reality. Sarah's eyes widened slightly, but she didn't recoil. Instead, she took another sip of her coffee, and Marcus could see her processing, accepting, adjusting her worldview in real time.

"Well," she said finally, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth, "that explains why this is literally the best coffee I've ever had." Then, more seriously, "Why here? Why a café?"

Before Marcus could answer, the bell above the door chimed again, but this time the sound was different – discordant, like crystal cracking. A cold breeze swept through the café, though the morning was warm, and Marcus felt the familiar prickle of divine presence. Not just any divine presence – this one he knew well.

Through the door stepped a man in an impeccably tailored business suit, his silver hair perfectly styled despite the wind that seemed to follow him. His eyes, when they met Marcus's, held the same ageless quality, but none of the warmth.

"Brother," the newcomer said, his voice carrying echoes of thunder. "We need to talk."

Sarah's head snapped toward the door, her hand tightening around her cup. Marcus could see in her expression that she perceived something of the newcomer's true nature – perhaps not everything, but enough to know that the air in the café had become charged with potential energy, like the moment before lightning strikes.

Marcus straightened, every fiber of his being wanting to step between Sarah and his divine visitor, knowing that doing so would only draw more attention to her. Instead, he reached beneath the counter and pulled out his finest Zeus blend – a private joke he'd never had anyone to share with until now.

"You're early," he said calmly, starting to prepare a second cup. "I wasn't expecting a family reunion until the next solar eclipse."

The question was: how much had his brother already noticed about the mortal woman who could see through divine disguises? And more importantly, what was Marcus prepared to do to protect her?