{"id":4017,"date":"2019-07-08T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T04:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4017"},"modified":"2019-07-07T17:42:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T21:42:00","slug":"eighteen-05-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4017","title":{"rendered":"Eighteen – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daegon was, in fact, still there as Gideon escorted them to Anselm\u2019s fire.\u00a0 The old soldier was smoking a pipe, a mug of something steaming balanced on his knee as he sat on a camp stool, listening with rapt attention to something Daegon was saying\u2014in Greek, Matt thought, though he wasn\u2019t quite sure.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It only took a second for Anselm to spot them, holding up a finger to forestall whatever Daegon was about to say next.\u00a0 He regarded the trio with a long, silent look, though it wasn\u2019t nearly as curious as Matt thought it probably should have been.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was as if the old soldier already knew.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cSo,\u201d Anselm said after a few moments of lingering silence.\u00a0 \u201cWhat do we know and what do you need?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matt\u2019s stomach went crashing through the floor, leaving him feeling oddly hollow but at least not sick.\u00a0 He swallowed twice before edging closer, his voice quiet, praying Anselm would hear him but no one else beyond the small circle would.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s Orcus,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re sure.\u00a0 He issued us an ultimatum but I have a plan\u2014but it\u2019s not a plan I can execute without the Hunt\u2019s help.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anselm\u2019s eyes gleamed and he leaned forward slightly, waving for them to sit.\u00a0 \u201cGo on, brother.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The use of the term buoyed his spirits slightly, though not enough for him to feel anywhere close to normal.\u00a0 Slowly, he sat down, Thom taking a seat to his left and Gideon sitting down on the opposite side of Thom, next to Daegon on the other side.\u00a0 Matt took a deep breath.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI know that you\u2019ve sent scouts out\u2014I don\u2019t know that you dispatched anyone after Daegon came back, but you need to.\u00a0 We need to know exactly what their troop dispositions are and we need to know it by tomorrow morning because in two days, we are taking the Hunt and most of our able-bodied fighters from here and we are going to ram Orcus\u2019s threats down his bloody throat.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daegon was, in fact, still there as Gideon escorted them to Anselm\u2019s fire.\u00a0 The old soldier was smoking a pipe, a mug of something steaming balanced on his knee as he … 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":[299,322,14],"tags":[178,150,323,171,170,314,181,149,148,168,147,165,158,146,195],"class_list":["post-4017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-18-book-7","category-story","tag-anselm","tag-awakenings","tag-daegon","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-gideon","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction","tag-wild-hunt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-12N","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017","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=4017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4018,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions\/4018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}