{"id":4183,"date":"2020-01-06T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T05:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2020-01-05T18:45:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T23:45:21","slug":"twenty-eight-03-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4183","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-eight – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It felt like miles, even if it wasn\u2019t. Sif caught up with me for the last few dozen yards and we climbed together up a slope that at that point was not quite vertical, but close.<\/p>\n

\u201cThom never would have made this climb,\u201d she murmured to me.<\/p>\n

I shook my head. \u201cNo. Not a chance, not with the shape he\u2019s in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI doubt he\u2019s happy about staying behind, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

I smiled ruefully. \u201cIt is what it is. He understands. It\u2019s for the good of the mission and the good of all of us, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMission,\u201d she echoed. \u201cThat\u2019s one way to put it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I hauled myself up onto the top of the trail. It opened up into a small area of grass surrounded by trees and some rock outcrops, but the footing was stable once I\u2019d made it up. I reached down to help Sif, looking beyond her to the line of others still working their way up the track. \u201cCan\u2019t think of a better way, honestly,\u201d I said, bracing myself as she used my arm to help her make it up over the edge of the lip. \u201cWhat else would you call it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said, then sighed. \u201cIt\u2019s as good a term as any. I just didn\u2019t think about it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be different if we were still home,\u201d I said. \u201cThen it would be a defense. This is something different. A preemptive strike, sure, but it\u2019s more than that. There\u2019s so many more moving parts. It\u2019s so much more complicated than just an attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sif stared at me for a few seconds, then shrugged. \u201cIf you say so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n

She shrugged again. \u201cOkay. Should we go take a look at what we\u2019re working with?\u201d<\/p>\n

I glanced back down at the line of others. They would make it up here all right without our help. I nodded as I turned back to her. \u201cYeah. Let\u2019s go take a look. We\u2019ll figure out how we\u2019re going to arrange everyone.\u201d I took a slow breath. \u201cAnd once we\u2019re in position, we\u2019ll send the signal.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll send the signal and one way or another, this ends today.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] It felt like miles, even if it wasn\u2019t. Sif caught up with me for the last few dozen yards and we climbed together up a slope that at that point was not … 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":[299,333,14],"tags":[150,171,170,152,149,148,168,147,167,165,146],"class_list":["post-4183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-28-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-sif","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-15t","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183","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=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4184,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions\/4184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}