Welcome to a new feature on The Glorious Outsiders where I’ll be interviewing unique characters from other people’s books! You’ll find a character interview at the start of each month and today, I am chatting to Phenex from Whispers of Nowhere by Shannon Rohrer. You can find Shannon’s links at the end of the interview!
1.How old are you? – That depends on whether we’re talking about my current life, or all of them put together. Three-hundred and thirty-one as of this year; pushing nine-hundred altogether. Give or take a few decades.
2. Where do you come from? – The sun, in a manner of speaking. A solar flare birthed me. Ra saw it happen, and came to my rescue as I was plummeting towards Earth. You could say he was my first parent, though definitely not my last.
3.Where do you live? Describe it to us. – The Spectrum. I never know how to answer this question, because it’s always just been, y’know? I mean, not literally, but it’s been around longer than I have. You could ask five different entities this same question, and they’d all give you a different answer: a world between worlds, a waystation, a tactical base, a place of refuge from the ravages taking place in other realms, a political forum… Imagine living inside a world instead of on its surface. Now imagine if this place was filled with a network of crystal walkways—railings of which are few and far between—winding staircases, and an ever-present aurora borealis, all branching off from a single point. There are rooms that don’t resemble anything close to that description; rooms that open into gardens, that change on command from forests to celestial bodies, places that lead to only the gods-know-where. The Spectrum is home. That’s all there is to it.
4.Do you have a family? If so, tell us about them – I have the Regulations Force and the High Council; they are my family, dysfunctional as it is. If we’re talking about actual parental figures? As I told you before, Ra was my first father, and his grandson Horus my second—but by far the god I’m closest to is Apollo. His son, Asclepius, is like a brother to me. Asc and I have a something of a rocky history, but we’re learning to work through it. Mostly.
5.What are your talents? -Let’s just say I have a penchant for fire, and all it entails. I’m also no slouch in hand-to-hand combat, and thanks to both my natural abilities and Asclepius’s training, I’m one of a handful skilled in healing magic. It’s kind of annoying, actually; who do you think gets summoned every time one of the units comes back from a battle, bloodied and broken? It’s a good thing I don’t need to sleep much…
6.What are your flaws? – If you ask me, none. If you ask anyone else? I suspect they’d say my temper. Or that I’m apparently reckless on missions—like I’m the only operative that’s blown up half a city block! Hey, don’t look at me like that—it was already evacuated. Oh, and I’m sure they’d also tell you I’m lousy at covert operations, despite the fact that I carried one out for a decade. Successfully, I might add.
7.What do you think people think of you? – I can’t say that I worry too much what anyone thinks. Okay, that’s not true—I care sometimes. I care what the High Council thinks, since they kinda determine whether I remain an operative or not. I care what my closest friend (that’s Forneus) thinks. But humans? I can’t really afford to worry about their opinions; you get stared at enough because of your eyes, or because of any number of things that make you stand out, you sort of have to build up a thick skin. Mostly I figure they’re either afraid of me, or intrigued. Sometimes both.
8.What do you wish people knew about you? – Can’t say that I really wish for them to know anything. Anybody close to me knows all there is to know, or at least as much as I permit them to. Everyone else? In the grand scheme of things, they don’t matter. But for those afraid of me, maybe I’d just want them to stop seeing me as a monster. I’m not; if anything, I’m the defensive line between them and the real monsters out there.
9.What’s your biggest fear? – You expect me to just bare my soul like that? Do I look like the type of guy who goes around sharing his feelings with every person nosy enough to ask? Tch, oh, all right. I guess I can throw you a bone, at least this once. I’m afraid of being unmade, coming completely undone. It’s a dark place, going through the things I’ve gone through. Never again.
10.What’s your biggest hope? – You know, I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that before. I’m more of a “here and now” guy. I don’t focus too much on the future—just on what I can do today. I guess if I had to pick something to hope for, it would be that everything I’ve done, everything I’ve suffered, every setback and accomplishment… It wouldn’t all be for nothing.
11.What’s your biggest secret? – Heh, bold of you. That would be telling, wouldn’t it? And if I did that, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore.
12.-What’s the worst things you’ve ever done to another person? – Depends on who you ask. If you ask Reeves, it’s that I locked him away in Nowhere—never mind that he had it coming. If you knew the things he’d done, the kinds of experiments he performed on humans…well, you’d have wanted him locked away, too. Or worse. But if we’re talking about someone undeserving… Well, I’m not proud of it, but I was a pretty big asshole to Gwen when we first met; much harder on her than I should have been, projecting a lot of my anger from…well, other things. But we won’t talk about any of that.
13.What kind of friend are you? – I’m not perfect, if that’s what you’re asking. But once I’ve made up my mind that I trust someone, especially if they’ve shown me that I can… Well, there isn’t a damn thing I won’t do for them.
14.Is there anything about your life you would change? – Honestly, no. It’s not that I don’t have past regrets, I do—but I’m where I am now because of those mistakes, because of my choices. I had to make them in order to learn from them, and hey, I think the lessons finally stuck after all these centuries. So no, there’s nothing I’d change. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, and even if I can still feel the anger burning beneath the surface sometimes? That’s fine, because I’ve got beings in my corner, those who would go to bat for me—and have—if/when the chips are down.
15.-Where would you like to be in five years time? – This kind of goes with my whole “hopes” thing. I don’t really know where I’d like to be, and five years is a blink to my kind. I’m happy with my position in the Regulations Force, First Unit, and I’m damn good at what I do. I can’t imagine being anywhere else—beings like me don’t really do the whole retirement thing, you know?
16.Do you have any regrets? – Of course I do. Anyone who’s ever lived does. If they say otherwise, they either haven’t done that much living, or they’re lying. But like I said before, I don’t let myself get bogged down by past mistakes—I’ve got too much to do, too many other beings relying on me to let myself dwell.
17.How would you like to be remembered? – If the whole death thing ever becomes permanent for me, I guess I’d want to be remembered as someone who tried: tried to help, tried to protect, tried to heal… And hopefully, succeeded enough times to outweigh all the times where I’ve failed.
18.What are your hobbies? – You’d think for a nearly-immortal being, I’d have more of those, but I really don’t. I train a lot—with ops in my unit, and quite a few outside of it. Forneus and I get together in the Lounge sometimes (it’s one of few recreational places in the Spectrum we get to use), talk over drinks. Sometimes if enough of us get together, we play cards. Nothing too exciting really, but with our work, I’d say our lives are plenty exciting as is.
This was a really intriguing interview with an unusual character and if you’d like to find out more, here is the Amazon link to Whispers of Nowhere:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whispers-Nowhere-Shannon-Rohrer-ebook/dp/B079ZJTWM3/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Shannon+Rohrer&qid=1685693984&sr=8-1: Character Interview: Phenex from Whispers Of NowhereWhen Gwen, a curator’s daughter unwittingly breaks the seals on a mythical prison realm, she is whisked away by the watchful Forneus and the hot-blooded Phenex, and into a world beyond her wildest imaginings. With malevolent forces now on the rampage, intent on revenge against the gods whom imprisoned them, Gwen and her two mysterious allies must reclaim the lost artifacts before someone far more sinister does…
You can also follow Shannon on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SRsRamblings/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17736308.Shannon_Rohrer
The Glorious Outsiders 