{"id":4051,"date":"2019-08-09T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4051"},"modified":"2019-08-08T19:26:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T23:26:53","slug":"twenty-05-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4051","title":{"rendered":"Twenty – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cIn all brutal honesty\u2014which in part I think you\u2019ve come to expect from us\u2014I do think that you need to seriously consider the possibility of including her as part of your plans, Matthew.\u201d Anselm stared at him steadily, watching Matt\u2019s face as the much younger man\u2019s face contorted, his expression shifting to something that was a mix of alarmed and concerned with hints of anger. \u201cStop thinking with your heart for a moment and start thinking with your head. Trust me, I know that\u2019s hard and it\u2019s an instinct that you have to fight, but at least try. Think<\/em>. You know her. You know her talent and her power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he wants her,\u201d Matt said, a tremor in his voice. \u201cI can imagine part of why\u2014and some possibilities based in who he might be working with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom swallowed. I understand his fear on a lot of levels, but Anselm\u2019s right. He\u2019s right. He\u2019s right that Hecate will want to fight and he\u2019s right that we\u2019ll probably need her against Orcus and his army. Whatever their scouts can tell us isn\u2019t going to change any of that.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re worried that if she fights alongside you, then she\u2019ll be vulnerable. But I\u2019ll tell you this, Matthew: if you leave her behind, she will be just as vulnerable, if not more vulnerable than if she was at your side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt stared at Anselm for a few seconds more, then stood up, starting to pace. He paused after a moment and looked at Thom. \u201cWhat about you? What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou already know what I think, Matt,\u201d Thom said. \u201cDo I really need to say it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt cursed softly and started to pace again. \u201cI hate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone does,\u201d Anselm said. \u201cBut then again, any time people we care about are in danger, we hate it. It\u2019s part of being human\u2014something we all understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to risk it,\u201d Matt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, we don\u2019t get that choice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] \u201cIn all brutal honesty\u2014which in part I think you\u2019ve come to expect from us\u2014I do think that you need to seriously consider the possibility of including her as part of your plans, … 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":[299,325,14],"tags":[178,150,171,170,181,149,148,168,147,165,158,146],"class_list":["post-4051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-20-book-7","category-story","tag-anselm","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-13l","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051","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=4051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4052,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions\/4052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}