{"id":2984,"date":"2016-09-16T00:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T04:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2984"},"modified":"2016-09-15T17:03:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T21:03:07","slug":"forty-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2984","title":{"rendered":"Forty – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It was for that reason\u2014to stay with Phelan, to make sure that he was going to be okay\u2014that I followed Thordin. That was the only<\/em> reason I went. Despite all of my assurances to Thom and everyone else, there was a part of me that felt like I shouldn\u2019t be hiding from whatever this was, but that I should be out on the front lines of it, facing what they faced and seeing whatever they were about to see.<\/p>\n

Hiding wasn\u2019t in me. At least, this time it wasn\u2019t in me.<\/p>\n

I could feel the part of me that remembered being Brigh\u00edd, that remembered what had happened in that long-ago yesterday, railing at the back of my head, tugging at my heart, at my emotions.<\/p>\n

She<\/em> would have fought\u2014if not for the same thing staying my<\/em> hand.<\/p>\n

Phelan.<\/em><\/p>\n

The staff warmed slowly in my hand as we moved away from Leinth\u2014as she and Sif headed for the gates, which I ached to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell do you think he\u2019s doing?\u201d I asked Thordin in a voice that was barely more than a whisper. My eyes were more on Phelan than the direction we were walking in, truth be known.<\/p>\n

There was a part of me that remembered seeing this before\u2014beyond a few glimpses here and there in this life.<\/p>\n

That part was terrified, too.<\/p>\n

Thordin stopped at the entrance to the tunnels and looked directly at me. \u201cCan you catch him?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHell,\u201d I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut. \u201cI\u2019m not even sure I can climb the damn later, but I\u2019ll try.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Tala could climb it, so can I.<\/em><\/p>\n

Shit, Tala and the babies.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s about to get bad\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

He cut me off. \u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re on their way, Mar. Head down and I\u2019ll lower him to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This had bad idea written all over it, but I nodded, levering open the tunnel\u2019s hatch. I started down, awkwardly and uncomfortably.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t keep us waiting,\u201d I warned him as my feet hit the bottom of the tunnel. \u201cI\u2019ll need blankets and shit down here, too\u2014a bedroll if you can find one, for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust relax,\u201d Thordin told me the second before he started lowering Phelan\u2019s limp body down toward me. \u201cI\u2019ll be back. Just sit tight until then.\u201d<\/p>\n

I barely managed to catch Phelan and didn\u2019t have time to fire off a witty retort before Thordin had vanished and the hatch had closed above us.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight,\u201d I murmured, holding onto Phelan, slumped as dead weight against me. \u201cWe\u2019ll just sit here and wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not for too damned long, you can be sure of that.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] It was for that reason\u2014to stay with Phelan, to make sure that he was going to be okay\u2014that I followed Thordin. That was the only reason I went. Despite all of my … 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":[124,219,14],"tags":[150,171,170,152,149,173,148,168,147,165,169,146],"class_list":["post-2984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-40-book-5","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","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-M8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984","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=2984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2985,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions\/2985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}