{"id":4089,"date":"2019-09-18T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T04:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4089"},"modified":"2019-09-17T18:31:40","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T22:31:40","slug":"twenty-three-02-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4089","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-three – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The question seemed to unlock his tongue and clear the blockage that had choked off his words. It didn\u2019t erase all the nerves, though, and he kept pacing even as he started to speak. \u201cIt\u2019s undoubtedly Orcus out there\u2014we\u2019ve confirmed that much\u2014and he\u2019s martialing an army. He plans to come after us in three days if we don\u2019t accede to his demands, which we\u2019re not going to do.\u201d Matt managed to smile. \u201cAnd he\u2019s sure as hell not going to be very pleased with what we\u2019re about to do either way.\u201d He paused for a moment, starting into the fire as he chose his next words, thoughts racing.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t panic, but don\u2019t say what you\u2019re about to say in a way that\u2019s going to make anyone else panic, either. Just breathe. Breathe.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked to Anselm and he\u2019s agreed to dispatch some additional Hunt scouts to get a better idea of what Orcus\u2019s camp looks like, its exact location, and the makeup of his forces. With any luck, they\u2019ll be back by later tonight. Tomorrow morning, we plan our assault.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAssault,\u201d Cameron said, his eyes narrowing. \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave us three days,\u201d Thordin said, answering before Matt could. \u201cThen he comes whether we\u2019re ready or not. If I\u2019m hearing correctly, I think Matt\u2019s about to suggest a preemptive strike.\u201d His gaze cut toward the younger man, his brow arching slightly. \u201cIf I\u2019m not mistaken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not,\u201d Matt said, feeling the tightness return to his chest for a few seconds. \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve got a choice on this one. I think we have to hit them before they hit us or we run the risk of not being able to hold them off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if we fail?\u201d The question came softly, from a source he hadn\u2019t quite expected. He glanced at Carolyn, who watched him carefully. \u201cWhat if we attack them and we fail to deter them from coming after us? What then? What do we do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to say that\u2019s not an option,\u201d Matt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably not, but it\u2019s a possibility. None of us are omniscient. We could<\/em> lose. I\u2019m sure that you\u2019ll factor in every variable you can, but even if we do, we still might be walking into a fight that we can\u2019t or simply won\u2019t win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we\u2019ll have to put it to a vote with everyone,\u201d Matt said. \u201cWhat the fallback option is. I know that we\u2019ll do as much as we can with our defenses here, but I don\u2019t\u2014\u201d he stopped, taking a breath as the bottom dropped out of his stomach. \u201c\u2014I don\u2019t want our only option to always be defending ourselves. At some point, our luck is going to run out. The fact that we keep winning hasn\u2019t stopped new threats from coming at us and old threats from coming back<\/em>. We have to do something. This is the only idea I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] The question seemed to unlock his tongue and clear the blockage that had choked off his words. It didn\u2019t erase all the nerves, though, and he kept pacing even as he started … 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":[299,328,14],"tags":[275,271,150,161,163,171,170,228,194,160,174,19,227,166,152,181,151,149,173,148,218,168,147,167,165,215,158,200,169,146],"class_list":["post-4089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-23-book-7","category-story","tag-anne-mackenzie","tag-artorius-mackenzie","tag-awakenings","tag-cameron-mackenzie","tag-carolyn-roberts","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-gwen-johanson","tag-hecate","tag-j-t-mackenzie","tag-jacqueline-bell","tag-kellin","tag-kurt-johanson","tag-leinth","tag-marin-astoris","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-neve-vaughan","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-rory-ohara","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-sif","tag-story","tag-tala-johanson","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-13X","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4089","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=4089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4090,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4089\/revisions\/4090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}