{"id":4164,"date":"2019-12-02T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T05:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4164"},"modified":"2019-12-01T13:31:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-01T18:31:04","slug":"twenty-seven-03-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4164","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-seven – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cFeels like old times, almost,\u201d Thordin said, shifting in his saddle. \u201cMore or less loaded for bear, more or less information. The stakes are pretty much the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty much the same,\u201d Marin said, glancing past Phelan toward him. \u201cReally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thordin shrugged. \u201cNear enough to. Everything back then was a lot more tenuous than anyone ever liked to talk about. I mean, look at how many stories didn\u2019t make it to today. Think about all the history that got buried, or forgotten, or remembered wrong<\/em>. There\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Phelan swallowed against a lump in his throat. If that wasn\u2019t true, there would be no need for a Taliesin. There would be no need for anyone to have to dig deeper. There would be no more mysteries.<\/em> It was all a double-edged sword, really.<\/p>\n

Most things were, though.<\/p>\n

He stared through the mist and rain at the road ahead, drawing his jacket tighter and standing just slightly in the stirrups to stretch his legs. His knees were starting to cramp a little, boding ill for the rest of the day to come. The damp chill of the rain was settling into his bones in ways that were much more unpleasant than he wanted to consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not wrong,\u201d Phelan murmured. Marin startled slightly, glancing at him sidelong. He kept his gaze on the path ahead and exhaled a sigh. \u201cWe have to be more clever than Orcus will be. There\u2019s no other choice. We don\u2019t have the brute strength to beat him\u2014I\u2019m not sure anyone does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeamus did,\u201d Matt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeamus outsmarted him,\u201d Leinth said softly, just barely loud enough to be heard over the sound of the horses and the rain. \u201cBrute strength isn\u2019t how we win, nor is force of numbers. Phelan\u2019s right. We need to be smart. The plan is sound. We just have to execute it properly\u2014and maybe hope for a bit of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he\u2019s torn the dirae<\/em> or the lampades<\/em> from Olympium\u2019s grip, we might have the luck,\u201d Hecate said. \u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan said nothing for a moment, holding his tongue. He didn\u2019t want to give voice to doubts, or imagine aloud what could go wrong. He just hoped alongside them that they were right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.] \u201cFeels like old times, almost,\u201d Thordin said, shifting in his saddle. \u201cMore or less loaded for bear, more or less information. The stakes are pretty much the same.\u201d \u201cPretty much the same,\u201d … 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":[299,332,14],"tags":[150,161,163,171,170,194,160,174,166,152,181,149,173,148,168,147,167,165,158,169,146],"class_list":["post-4164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-27-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-cameron-mackenzie","tag-carolyn-roberts","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-j-t-mackenzie","tag-jacqueline-bell","tag-leinth","tag-marin-astoris","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-sif","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-15a","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164","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=4164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4165,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164\/revisions\/4165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}