[jp] how do you handle fear?

[callme_animal]

He’d been relatively lucky in his fights with the Darkness, all battles of blood and sweat…all ending with his life in his hands, warm and still rolling onward. The Face of the Darkness that seemed to love him best was Hate, and he was always ready for that bitch

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[3rd_ray]

As with everynight, Kate began her walk amongst the serenity of the darkness and all the magic that followed with it. Every step was a silent conversation with nature, or the souls that requested her guidance, or if all was calm, it was the animals that flocked behind her as she continued to nowhere in particular. It was the only part of the day that she really felt in tune with herself.

On this particular night, however, she found herself wandering in a completely new direction. While knowing who she was going to see, she found the path new and different. With each turn, a disturbing feeling caught her on the wind. Darkness. Too much darkness. Evil darkness.

Just like at her crossroads, she stopped and turned; looking up a path to a beautifully landscaped yard. Not more than a hundred feet away, on his back, was someone she knew.

Dog?Her pace quickened up the dimly lit path as he came more into focus, as well as the serpent on his chest

[callme_animal]

The woman's voice wasn't that of Hope, her voice he knew all too well. This one was stronger, more strident...and through the cold sweat, the shakes, and the fear rolling through him with the venom and the blood, he felt the light.

His veins burned with fever and poison. His eyes burned with the sting of sweat. Still, he managed to get them open, gazing up at the face of divinity...for a moment, he saw nothing else.

The goddess...in our service, defy their will. In our defiance, serve the power. In my Titan soul I pray, lord and lady, help me...

He couldn't speak his vow, only think it...only feel it as their eyes locked and his body shook with the taint of Cowardice spreading through his bloodstream.

[3rd_ray]

Offering him a warm smile, Katie acknowledged his silent prayer and that it did not go unheard. There was so much inside him already that it made her shiver uncomfortably over the thought that had she come looking for him ten paces later, his soul would have been doomed to eternal rest; leaving only an epitaph in his honor and many grieving loved ones.

Katie pulled his wounded neck towards her and hovered a hand over the two perfectly rounded holes.

Rest between the in breath and the out... she urged him through thought.

Her flattened hand draped over the wound, rising and falling rhythmically, while collecting every bit of venom within his body and syphoned it back through the holes in it's original, tainted form.

Of Chthonic name, and Divine ruling, I banish your venom and replace it with my own. Understand my words and do not challenge, for my altar is sacred and my people I do protect. Leave now and thus remember my name for which it will eternally remain etched on your tongue and imprinted in your mind. Hekate.Opening her

[callme_animal]

He couldn't answer or nod, but shut his eyes and obeyed with the perfect ease of long practice. He struggled for each breath, but surrendered to the stillness of the space between...the crossroads between life and death, where question came as to whether or not the next breath would come.

Hekate.Each breath took him further from her and her healing touch, drawing him inward to that healing place where power breathed new life into her soldiers...where Hope lived and loved her own. By her command, he found that healing sleep, that blessed trance where body and soul could mend the wounds that evil inflicted