Sunday Snippet: The Pit and the Pyre

Geez, what a week. Starting late Monday night, a super-cell storm blew through Ohio. Around 11:30 pm, the tornado sirens went off in my little village. We took cover in our bathroom, mainly because our two doggos will not go down the basement steps and the bathroom is the most protected interior room in the house. By 12:15 am, we got the all clear, but the power went out around 12:05 … and didn't come back on until Thursday at 5:30 pm. It's been … a wild week.

Thankfully, we were able to borrow a generator to keep our AC (temps in the mid to high 90s), fridge and freezers going. We had one light in our living room and a charging station to keep our devices charged up. Not that it mattered much. The storm damaged a cell tower and we barely had a signal. I literally had one spot in the house where I could get one. The joys of living in a rural area.

Spent most of my time keeping the generator full, checking on my neighbors, and checking out my dad's house—luckily for him, he'd left early Tuesday morning for a vacation—after rerouting to get to the airport. Downed trees were everywhere. All in all, though, we were very lucky that we didn't have a lot of damage. Unfortunately, my cousin had a tree fall on their house. Weirdly, we had another storm blow through on Thursday that caused three fires from lightning strikes. Mother Nature isn't messing around right now.

So … I had a very minimal viewing week. And I'm playing catch-up on my work projects. I don't mind being a little bit behind, mainly because I'm happy and grateful we still have a house and didn't lose our fully stocked freezers. A huge hat-tip to the linemen and workers who still have their hands full trying to restore power to other locations.

I did get an episode of The Snoopy Show in. I'm almost finished with the first season and I'll be checking out the second one after I'm done.

I caught the cast interviews for Loch Ness and enjoyed getting some insight into the characters and the actors portraying them. I'll be finishing up with behind the scenes sometime next week.

Finished up a Silent Witness two-parter and quite enjoyed the twisty turns the episode took. I'm very much liking the later seasons of this show.

Ended up completing season 24 of Classic Who. Mel is going off on her own adventure and it looks like Ace is going to be the new companion. I'll start season 25 this week.

Caught another episode of Most Terrifying Places in America. A focus on historical locations ended up being pretty interesting.

Watched another episode of The Mandalorian. Again, I love the pacing of this show. There are a lot of little moments that stack up to add great impact.

Got another episode of The Hardy Boys in and the plot is getting deeper. There's a lot of cat and mouse stuff going on and I kind of like it. The pacing is a little weird but I'm happy to overlook a few glitches.

Also caught another episode of Peak Practice to round out the week. Not sure if I'll be caught back up by my next post, but I'm only a little behind and can live with that.

That's it for the life update. Tonight's post is from The Pit and the Pyre, a novella that puts the characters on the path to a reunion but the obstacles are many along the way.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Virgo Sohn walks through five years of hellfire to get back to Gunn Gladstone, but she finds him married to Glynne Allmore. Accepting the hand dealt, Virgo refuses to explain the circumstances of her return until Glynne succumbs to a raging virus and Gunn feels he should join her on the pyre.

And a preview snippet…

Gunn paused outside the maze. "Why? Why couldn't she trust me?" Did it matter?

At the moment, not one damn bit. Even if she did trust him, she'd convinced herself she had to go. To leave him and the assembly in the dust.

He started for the quorum hall. "I'll never forgive her for that." How could he, especially after laying everything on the line for her?

Entering the huge building, steeped with magick and wisdom along with storied history, he headed for the assembly chambers where he'd have to start putting a game plan together so he didn't lose any ground after backing Virgo earlier.

He'd almost made it to his office when Vausch Minslow poked his head out of a conference room. Gunn kept his grimace inside; Minslow led the opposition and spearheaded the campaign to send Virgo to exile. Gunn didn't need a confrontation right now.

He greeted his colleague. "Minslow. You're here late." He crossed the corridor and twisted the knob of his office door.

Vausch darted out of the darkened room and followed. "Been waiting on you. That was quite a speech you gave earlier. Virgo should be groveling at your feet." He stepped inside Gunn's space uninvited.

Gunn went behind his desk, needing some distance away from Minslow. "What the hell for? Being the lone voice of dissent?" He snorted. "Didn't do her any good." And it didn't matter now.

Vausch shook his head. "You'd be wrong there. The quorum convened a special session and took another vote." He made a sour face. "You changed enough minds to have a majority. The decision to banish her has been reversed."

Gunn swallowed his shock. And then his anger. She'd left for nothing. Entered the pit of hellfire, sacrificing herself for her family's sins … for no damned reason.

Gunn's fingers curled into his palms to avoid letting his magick loose on Vausch. "Doesn't matter." He met the other man's gaze, carefully keeping his rage in check. "You got your wish. Virgo's gone."

Minslow's eyebrows arched. "She didn't waste any time." He shrugged. "I'm sure you can reach out. Let her know she's got a reprieve."

Gunn lifted his chin. "You'd be wrong there." He directed Minslow's words back to him. "She didn't leave the assembly." He paused, taking a moment to suppress the bile rising in his throat. "Virgo entered the pit."

Vausch's face took on a sickly green pallor. "She did what? But that means—"

Gunn cut Minslow off. "Yeah, it does. It means she's executing a trial by hellfire."

And no one in the history of the assembly had ever survived once they'd been consumed by the flames.

I love how much Gunn dislikes Vausch. He can't quite put his finger on the why—with the exception of Vausch leading the charge to get rid of Virgo—but Gunn really loathes the guy.

 

That's it for this week.

Cheers!

Skye