Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Soothsayer Ch. 8, Pt. 1

Notes: More Soothsayer, and the competition is taking an interesting turn. Also a kind of sad one. I had no idea it would happen until I wrote it, blame the boys.

Title: Soothsayer, Chapter 8, Part 1.


***

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” – Albert Einstein


                Going from the incredibly optimistic app on my phone, it should have taken about 18 hours to drive from Illinois to the tiny town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, home of the Blue Hole and, occasionally, Bobby Garcia. Bobby was the man I needed to see about nature magic, so New Mexico was where we had to go. One really long day, maybe two if we were wasting time sleeping and eating, and then we’d be there.

                Ha-fucking-ha.

                “You should let me drive,” Sören said once it was after midnight and the highway had cleared off a bit. We were headed south toward Missouri—it wouldn’t be long before we crossed the border and hopefully made it that much harder for Papa Egilsson and his crew of vicious offspring to find us.

   

9 comments:

  1. Whaa! - that was *mean* :-( And not in a good way

    Still loving Soren, though :-)

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    1. I know, it's such a dick move. There weren't a lot of options, and they'll be discussing this but when I wrote it I was like, "Oh man, really? You want to go here?" And then I did.

      Hold onto the love! I'll make it better. ;)

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  2. Soren is a train wreck waiting to happen!

    He's totally a dick and I'm totally conflicted. I want to like him because somewhere inside there is THE Soren. Still, he's a jerk so I'm all like "Grrrrrr! What an asshole!!"

    I'm scowling at the screen and my husband thinks I'm nuts. *sigh* I wonder sometimes if other readers are having the same problem... ;-)

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    1. I know, I know! Soren is an absolute dick right now. You're not alone. But trust me, my dear. Let me layer you with meaning until dickishness isn't a deal-breaker :)

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  4. I love Cillian's relationship with the landvættir. Their banter is hilarious. It'll be interesting to see Soren separately. Yeah, this was a little tough, but I see why you did it. Besides teaching the landvættir a lesson, it drove home the fact that Cillian really has issues with his "power". He hates it, but it's looking like he'll have to use it to battle Egilsson at some point.
    Btw, I LOVE Santa Rosa. Have you stopped there? It's a totally crazy little town. If you go, be sure to stop at Joseph's, a Route 66 tourist trap for sure, but with Mexican food that good it's a winner. I camped there once and it's the closest I've ever come to being struck by lightning. Like 25 feet away. Good stuff!

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    1. Lisa! Thanks, I'm glad you liked the development so far.

      Yes, I went to Santa Rosa for a long weekend so my husband could get scuba certified at the Blue Hole in college. We didn't do much in town, mostly camped and enjoyed the one source of water we could see. The dive is so interesting, for basically an eighty foot deep, twenty foot wide tube. People put goldfish in there, there are troll dolls on the rock shelves, and at the bottom is a manhole cover that discourages people from going into the caves beneath, where you basically just die.

      Way to not get struck by lightning!

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  5. Ooh, I read a story, a Jr. sci-fi fic, about the Blue Hole too. That manhole cover led to an alternate universe. The mysteries abound. Maybe you should go back and check it out. o.o

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    1. I may someday! And then you can explain to everyone that you got me sucked into an alternate universe and Cari won't be around anymore, gosh darn it ;)

      I do like cave diving, though. I may restart with something a leeeetle less precarious.

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