{"id":3526,"date":"2018-03-05T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T05:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3526"},"modified":"2018-03-04T20:44:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T01:44:35","slug":"thirty-four-01-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3526","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-four – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

For days, it was quiet. There was an odd heaviness in the air as the days wore into a week and nothing happened\u2014no threats materializing, no news, nothing. Time marched onward, inexorably drawing them from July into August, closer to the day that marked when all of this had begun, when the end of everything heralded something strange and new.<\/p>\n

It was as if they were all waiting for the other shoe to drop. Matt could feel it in his bones and it didn\u2019t surprise him\u2014not anymore, not at all. There had just been too much, too quick, and the quiet times felt like they\u2019d blended together over the past year, punctuated sharply with the moments that shook them to their cores.<\/p>\n

He stared in silence at the blade he\u2019d been working on, lips thinning. It still glowed cherry-red form the heat of the forge, stark against the darkness of the anvil. A warm summer breeze blew in through the forge\u2019s open door, a dozen degrees or more cooler than the temperature within. By rights, no one would have blamed him if he\u2019d taken a few days or weeks off from working up at the forge, but truth be known, he found it soothing, comforting. It was something he could do<\/em>, something he had control over.<\/p>\n

There was just too much beyond their ability to control.<\/p>\n

A shadow blotted out light from the doorway for a moment and he glanced up in time to see Hecate slipping inside, cradling their nephew in her arms. Matt smiled, straightening. \u201cHey. What\u2019s brought you up here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking sure you knew there was a storm blowing in out in the west,\u201d Hecate said, shifting Lin slightly in her arms. The infant had his fingers wrapped tightly around one the thin braids that framed her face, his free hand waving slightly, free of his swaddle. \u201cLooks like something nasty\u2014didn\u2019t want you to get caught out here once the wind and lightning start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWind and lightning, hm?\u201d Matt left the half-roughed in blade against the anvil and moved toward the doorway, stepping out into the wind and sunshine. Sure enough, clouds were massing to the southwest, black as his anvil. A low whistle escaped him. \u201cWe\u2019re sure that\u2019s going to hit?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThordin is,\u201d Hecate said softly, joining him. The wind ruffled her hair around her face, tugging strands free of the fine braids. \u201cI don\u2019t know about you, but that\u2019s good enough for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe, too,\u201d Matt murmured, watching the clouds. There was something about them that unsettled his stomach, though he couldn\u2019t be certain it wasn\u2019t more than simple paranoia.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a storm was just a storm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] For days, it was quiet. There was an odd heaviness in the air as the days wore into a week and nothing happened\u2014no threats materializing, no news, nothing. Time marched onward, inexorably … 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":[240,285,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,181,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-3526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-34-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-US","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526","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=3526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3527,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions\/3527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}