{"id":3032,"date":"2016-11-04T00:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T04:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3032"},"modified":"2016-11-03T18:23:24","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T22:23:24","slug":"forty-three-06","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3032","title":{"rendered":"Forty-three – 06"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cWhat exactly does that mean?\u201d Thom asked, his voice deceptively soft, deceptively gentle, probing. \u201cHow did you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The leader inclined his head slightly. \u201cWell, I would most certainly be lying if I said it was an easy feat. She was willful to a fault, but then most orphans are, aren\u2019t they? In my experience they have been, anyhow. Still, she seemed…largely eager to learn. Wouldn\u2019t you agree, sister?\u201d He glanced back over his shoulder toward the woman, who inclined her head slightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore or less,\u201d she said, her voice quiet and cold. \u201cBut she was certainly stubborn, for all of her eagerness. That proved to be a problem at times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA significant one,\u201d the flag-bearer growled, earning a glare from both the woman and the leader. This time he met their glare head-on, spine straightening in defiance. \u201cShe was willful to a fault, you can\u2019t deny that much. That made her as troublesome as she was useful until she was properly broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thordin didn\u2019t bother to hide his flinch. The way the flag-bearer said the word broken<\/em> had sent a frisson of cold spiraling through his veins, leaving him chilled and with a flame of cold fury starting to build inside his chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroken,\u201d he said, speaking for the first time since he\u2019d joined Thom out in the field. \u201cThat sounds decidedly unpleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine it was,\u201d the flag-bearer said, focusing on Thordin with a sneer. \u201cBut it was also necessary. She was of no use to us the way she was when she came to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStill your tongue, Aietes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The flag-bearer glanced toward the leader and smirked slightly. \u201cOr what, dear cousin? What will you do if I don\u2019t? Tell me that I have lied. Say the words in front of these two inferiors. Go on, tell them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not test me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The flag-bearer just smiled. Thordin reached for Thom\u2019s arm, ready to run, to drag his friend back toward the wall and out of the line of fire.<\/p>\n

Sudden panic welled up, forced up by a sickening sense of foresight born of experience that he couldn\u2019t quite recall.<\/p>\n

This is about to get ugly and it\u2019s about to get ugly fast and we don\u2019t want to be out here when it does.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thom didn\u2019t budge, just waited, staring at the three with a hard, cold expression on his face.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t going anywhere, and if he wasn\u2019t going to run, neither was Thordin.<\/p>\n

Christus. We\u2019re both going to die out here today.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unless we end them first.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thordin’s point of view.] \u201cWhat exactly does that mean?\u201d Thom asked, his voice deceptively soft, deceptively gentle, probing. \u201cHow did you do that?\u201d The leader inclined his head slightly. \u201cWell, I would most certainly be lying … 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":[124,232,14],"tags":[231,150,171,170,230,149,229,148,168,147,165,158,169,146],"class_list":["post-3032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-43","category-story","tag-aietes","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hera","tag-original-fiction","tag-pluton","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-MU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032","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=3032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3033,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032\/revisions\/3033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}