{"id":3545,"date":"2018-03-23T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T04:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3545"},"modified":"2018-03-22T22:17:24","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T02:17:24","slug":"thirty-five-03-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3545","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-five – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cHave you faced him before? On the field, I mean.\u201d Tala moved back toward the other side of the fire and the pot she\u2019d been tending. Hecate watched her, chewing at her lower lip.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a complicated question,\u201d Hecate finally said softly. \u201cThere\u2019s no simple answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is it complicated?\u201d Tala\u2019s brows knit as she sat down, watching her. \u201cIsn\u2019t that usually a yes or no answer?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually,\u201d Hecate agreed, then sighed, tilting her head back. \u201cBut when is anything ever simple when it comes to me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, never, I guess,\u201d Tala said. Hecate could hear the smile in her voice and cracked a smile of her own.<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly.\u201d She blew out a quiet breath and looked to the other woman, shaking her head slightly. \u201cHe came to Matt and I at my house\u2014the place where I\u2019d taken Matt when I took him from all of you. He demanded our allegiance or else.\u201d Her gaze drifted toward the fire and she shifted Lin gently in her arms, resting him against her shoulder and rubbing his back, comforted by the weight of the infant against her chest and shoulder. \u201cI hate ultimatums, for all that I\u2019ve been known to throw them around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI take it that he never really got your answer?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot in so many words,\u201d she said softly, watching the fire. \u201cBut I\u2019m certain he knows what it is all the same, despite what he\u2019d hoped. He\u2019ll come. It\u2019s only a matter of time. He\u2019ll come and he\u2019ll try to use whatever leverage he can to get all<\/em> of us to join him. For him, it\u2019s too often all or nothing. That\u2019s what we all thought got him killed, but apparently we were mistaken.\u201d Or perhaps we weren\u2019t\u2014perhaps he\u2019s more like Thordin. Powers only know\u2014I know that I don\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHell of a thing to be wrong about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things like that in my life, Tala,\u201d Hecate said, then sighed. \u201cMore than I care to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all right.\u201d Hecate managed a smile. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s not all bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, though, it\u2019s usually worse.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.] \u201cHave you faced him before? On the field, I mean.\u201d Tala moved back toward the other side of the fire and the pot she\u2019d been tending. Hecate watched her, chewing at her … 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":[240,286,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,149,148,168,147,165,215,200,146],"class_list":["post-3545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-35-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-tala-johanson","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Vb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545","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=3545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3546,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545\/revisions\/3546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}