{"id":3858,"date":"2019-02-01T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3858"},"modified":"2019-01-31T16:59:16","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T21:59:16","slug":"ten-09-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3858","title":{"rendered":"Ten – 09"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to assume from the hushed tones and the reluctance to even float the idea means that this guy would be bad news,\u201d Tala said, fixing plates for me and for Hecate. She brought them over, watching my sister-in-law and Phelan. \u201cAre we going to elaborate at all on this theory and why we should all be duly terrified?\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t need more than the tones and the what-if that Phelan had started his statement out with to end up\u2014as Tala put it\u2014duly terrified. I took the plate from her, balancing it on my knee as I chewed my lower lip.<\/p>\n

Phelan and Hecate were still looking at each other\u2014she didn\u2019t even look at Tala when she offered her the plate. Matt took it instead, frowning slightly. Tala kept standing there, watching them, waiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know much about him,\u201d Hecate said. \u201cDo you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan took a slow breath, rubbing at his temple. \u201cI\u2019d hoped you\u2019d know more than I do. Most of what\u2019s come to me is rumor and hearsay\u2014stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes stories are all we have, Phelan,\u201d Hecate said softly. She took a quiet breath, closing her eyes for a second. Matt nudged her elbow gently and she startled, eyes popping open. She glanced at him, then at the plate he held, and smiled faintly as she took it. \u201cThanks, Tala.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure,\u201d Tala said softly. \u201cSo if all we\u2019ve got are stories, what do those stories say? Is he terrifying or what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the stories? A little of both.\u201d Phelan sighed, starting to pace again. I winced as I watched him, able to imagine the storm raging inside of him. \u201cHe\u2019s another deity of death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t automatically make him terrifying,\u201d Tala said, canting her head slightly. \u201cI mean, knowing Leinth, she\u2019s not that terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly if you\u2019re her enemy,\u201d Phelan said. \u201cThat\u2019s when she gets terrifying. Don\u2019t forget when we first encountered her here. She was fairly frightening then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not wrong,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Tala shrugged. \u201cEven so. What would make Orcus so bad as an enemy? What would we be facing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter so long, it would be hard to say,\u201d Hecate whispered, scrubbing her free hand over her face. \u201cHell. I\u2019m not sure I ever could have said with any degree of accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you\u2019ve never faced him,\u201d I said, looking at her.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight.\u201d She leaned back against Matt, frowning. \u201cAnd from the sound of it, neither has Phelan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t,\u201d he confirmed. \u201cThat\u2019s the worst part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t,\u201d Matt said quietly. \u201cBut I have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] \u201cI am going to assume from the hushed tones and the reluctance to even float the idea means that this guy would be bad news,\u201d Tala said, fixing plates for me and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[299,312,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,152,181,149,173,148,168,147,165,215,200,146],"class_list":["post-3858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-10-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-marin-astoris","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-tala-johanson","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-10e","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3859,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3858\/revisions\/3859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}