{"id":2866,"date":"2016-05-20T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T04:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2866"},"modified":"2016-05-19T20:54:12","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T00:54:12","slug":"thirty-two-04-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2866","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-two – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thordin’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

It was cool inside the forge, the fire long burned out in the firebox. Thordin sighed softly, not relishing the prospect of getting it going again. There was a reason they\u2019d always banked the fire instead of letting it burn out completely. Thordin took a few breaths and nodded to himself\u2014he had his work cut out for him, that was for certain.<\/p>\n

Have to start somewhere, though.<\/em><\/p>\n

He propped the door open and started to clean out the firebox, grimacing as a mostly healed spot tugged uncomfortably.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should have dragged Phelan up here to help me,\u201d he muttered, scraping the ashes out of the firebox.<\/p>\n

A shadow crossed the doorway, and Thordin\u2019s heart made an abortive leap\u2014abortive because he heard a distinctly feminine tread instead of Matt\u2019s hoped-for steps.<\/p>\n

Not Sif\u2019s, either.<\/em><\/p>\n

He was about to turn when she spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to deal with her once and for all, Thordin,\u201d Aoife said softly. \u201cYou won\u2019t have to run his forge for long.\u201d<\/p>\n

He sat back on his heels, looking at her, silhouetted in the doorway. \u201cYou\u2019re going to deal with her,\u201d he echoed quietly, far more calmly than he thought he should have sounded. \u201cYou say that as if you\u2019ll just kill her and there won\u2019t be repercussions. Like killing her will be easy in the first place. Like the only thing that will matter is that she\u2019s gone and won\u2019t be able to come after your brother or your cousins again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thordin turned back to the firebox and scraped some more ashes out into the dustpan in his hand. \u201cBad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re good in a fight, and this might be one. I want you with me. You can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I could,\u201d Thordin said, continuing his work. \u201cBut I won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d Aoife stepped fully into the forge now, her eyes narrowed as she stepped around the anvil so she could at least try to catch his eye. \u201cShe\u2019s a danger to all of us. She could kill us all. You know that the only predictable thing about her is that she\u2019ll always come after my family somehow, at some point. The only way to make sure anyone\u2019s safe is to eliminate her as a threat once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t think Matt\u2019s already doing that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe took him against his will. She\u2019s probably holding him against his will! Don\u2019t you think he\u2019d be back here if he could be?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s had ample opportunity to escape,\u201d Thordin murmured. \u201cAnd he\u2019s chosen his path. He doesn\u2019t do anything without a reason.\u201d He glanced up at her. \u201cBesides, doing what you\u2019re thinking about doing puts him in danger, now doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aoife just stared at him. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to stop me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Thordin said quietly. \u201cI can\u2019t stop you. That\u2019s up to someone else. But I\u2019m not going to help you, either.\u201d He straightened. \u201cNow either make youself useful or get out of my way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe you won\u2019t help me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about it,\u201d he said softly, then emptied the ashes into a bucket in the corner. \u201cYou\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thordin’s point of view.] It was cool inside the forge, the fire long burned out in the firebox. Thordin sighed softly, not relishing the prospect of getting it going again. There was a reason they\u2019d always … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,207,14],"tags":[176,150,171,170,149,148,168,147,165,169,146],"class_list":["post-2866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-32-book-5","category-story","tag-aoife-ocredne","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Ke","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2867,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2866\/revisions\/2867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}