Than
Do you finally realize you're truly alone?
"I WISH I were truly alone," I sigh. I have a plan. It's poor, but so is my physical condition. I'm ill, and chained. I haven't eaten or slept. The cuffs are burning into me. I won't survive like this forever. And I do not, do not want to die. I would be reborn again, yes. I'm sure that's what my father is hoping. But I'd be a different person. I'd be a child, I'd lose Ari, lose everyone.
It's been over a day of their time. They aren't even looking for you. Nobody wants you back.
"How do you know they're not looking for me?" I don't have any cards left to play. The thing is, I'm not very strong. I'm not the best fighter. I clearly can't get myself out of this. But. I have spent a disproportionate amount of time around Gale. And Gale? Gale's silver tongue can talk anyone into anything, despite his stutter. He barely needs speech to trick his way into and out of just about anything. It's why he handles the violent deaths and I the peaceful ones. The violent ones, they don't want to go. They aren't ready. So he has to convince them to go on. Me? I handle the peaceful deaths because they just need a kind guide. Those who died of old age, after long battels with illness, by their own hand, or slaughtered by Thyme, they're all relieved when I finally come. They're ready to go. Not so with the souls Gale takes. They need his trickery.
And the thing is, I should have learned a thing or by now about trickery. I spend enough time with him. I mean, it may not be enough. But it is something.
"What makes you so sure they aren't looking for me? Have you looked?" I ask, casually. If I can goad him into going to find out what my family is doing, they may be alerted to my plight. They can sense my father's presence. Maybe they'll get to wondering where I am.
They aren't here, are they?
"That doesn't mean they aren't looking," they'd better be looking. Ari, where are you? I don't want you and your hyper little Styx-dipped companions breaking into the Underworld for like the eighth time, but that's so in character of you. Surely he knows it's my day off and he's missing me? Where are they?
YOU ARE READING
Olympus Drive Book 5: Situation Normal
Adventure"Things" are breaking out of the Underworld, Death is missing, a wild boar is on the loose, and there's a murder trial going on. It's situation normal in Winfell as heroes and demi-gods assemble for a boar hunt. Chronologically after all of the Olym...
