{"id":3554,"date":"2018-04-02T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T04:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2018-04-01T18:44:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T22:44:24","slug":"thirty-five-07-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3554","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-five – 07"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

For a few seconds, Phelan stared at the clouds without really seeing them. He took another deep breath and exhaled it slowly, eyes fluttering shut for a second. In a long-ago yesterday, he could hear the sound of blade against blade, of spears splintering against shields. He listened to the cries of the dying, to the sounds of battle all around him.<\/p>\n

Then his eyes blinked open and it was gone. Seamus\u2019s hand was on his shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re surprised,\u201d Seamus murmured.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes and no,\u201d Phelan said. He scrubbed a hand roughly over his face. \u201cI shouldn\u2019t be. I know the bargain we struck. I just\u2014to think of this as their home, too, to think of them having any kind of home again, it\u2019s jarring and strange.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA little,\u201d Seamus agreed. \u201cBelieve me, I never thought that we\u2014they\u2014would have a home again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan glanced at him, his jaw tightening for a moment, then easing. \u201cWe, Seamus?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still hard,\u201d his cousin murmured, staring out over the field and toward the clouds again. \u201cI\u2019m still adjusting.\u201d A brief smile curved his lips. \u201cLeinth keeps calling me on it. I have to keep reminding myself that I\u2019m free.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are free,\u201d Phelan said, grasping his arm. \u201cDon\u2019t forget it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d Seamus said, dipping his head. \u201cBut they\u2019re still a part of me, Phelan. They\u2019re a part of me as much as you and Teague and Neve and Aoife and Leinth are\u2014as my children I never knew are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan\u2019s fingers tightened for a moment. There had been a bare trace of pain in his cousin\u2019s voice, one that struck him to his core. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Seamus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have nothing to be sorry for,\u201d Seamus murmured. He shook his head. \u201cIt was nothing you did that caused any of it. You know that and so do I.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean it should have happened. It doesn\u2019t mean there wasn\u2019t anything we could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan shrugged. \u201cWe\u2019ll never know whether there was or not. I still feel like if we\u2019d known, we would have done something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Phelan said softly. \u201cNo, we didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.] For a few seconds, Phelan stared at the clouds without really seeing them. He took another deep breath and exhaled it slowly, eyes fluttering shut for a second. In a long-ago yesterday, … 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":[150,171,170,149,173,148,159,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3554","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-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-seamus-vaughan","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Vk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554","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=3554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3555,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions\/3555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}