* * *
“It all makes sense now,” Nora said as they walked back from Ned’s tent. “That’s why Phoebe insists that we conserve muse energy, and that we don’t use the excess for anything like helping starving people. She knows that the muse energy can’t work that way, and that it would do more harm than good.”
“Yeah,” said Sawyer, “and when we heard Phoebe and Dionysus arguing, they weren’t talking about portals after all. They must have been talking about the fact that Dionysus still has the power to draw energy from Helicon. Because Phoebe gave him that power.”
“Why didn’t Phoebe just tell me that when I was talking to her?” Nora asked. “She could have explained all of this to me. In fact, she should tell all of Helicon. If everyone knew this, we wouldn’t have half of the conflict we have right now.”
“That’s true,” said Sawyer.
“So why do you think she doesn’t?”
“She’s probably ashamed of what she did. She probably doesn’t want anyone to know how badly she screwed up before. She’s a really old muse, and most of the muses who would remember that time period aren’t around anymore. Maybe she thinks that if they knew, they’d want her off the council, and she wouldn’t be able to make sure that she kept things working smoothly.”
“Maybe,” said Nora. “But people should still know.”
Sawyer nodded.
“Of course, it makes things even more confusing,” said Nora. “Because if Dionysus didn’t create the portals, and Owen didn’t create the portals, then who did?”
“I thought we were going to focus on creating instead of detective work,” said Sawyer.
“I can’t focus on creating,” said Nora.
“Well, there hasn’t been a portal since summer,” said Sawyer. “Maybe whoever was doing it gave up.”
“Maybe,” said Nora.