{"id":4484,"date":"2020-12-02T10:51:26","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T15:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4484"},"modified":"2020-12-02T10:51:26","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T15:51:26","slug":"fourteen-05-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4484","title":{"rendered":"Fourteen – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

She was gone when I opened my eyes again.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know how long I\u2019d slept, just that the ache had started to recede at least a little and that I was alone in my cottage.\u00a0 The lamp Anne had held was sitting on my bedside table, the wick turned down so low that the flame was barely visible, the glow almost non-existent.\u00a0 I sat up carefully before I reached for it, turning up the flame just slightly, enough that the room was still more dark than light, with shadows dancing along with the lamp\u2019s flame.\u00a0 I took one slow breath, then another before I risked sliding out of bed.\u00a0 For a second, I worried my knees would buckle, but they held and I was able to straighten, leaning slightly against the edge of the bed.<\/p>\n

I stood there for a few seconds, listening to the sounds outside, hearing only the faint sound of the wind and a dog barking in the distance\u2014normal sounds for sometime after midnight in the Valley.\u00a0 I exhaled quietly and slowly padded across the floor, heading to the small stove and my kettle.\u00a0 Some tea would undoubtedly help me, and I was half certain that there was probably some bread in the basket someone had left on my table, as if knowing I wouldn\u2019t venture out again anytime soon\u2014and I wouldn\u2019t, not unless someone made me.<\/p>\n

I lit the stove and set the kettle on to heat.\u00a0 I closed my eyes for a few seconds as I measured tea into a tiny ceramic pot that had been my mother\u2019s in the Time Before.<\/p>\n

I wished I knew more of the things that they\u2019d seen but never spoken about.\u00a0 I wished I knew more about what they\u2019d seen and spoken about.<\/p>\n

I wished they were still here with me and that I wasn\u2019t facing this alone.<\/p>\n

The once and future king will ride again.<\/em><\/p>\n

I blinked back tears and shook my head slightly.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t ready.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t ready.<\/p>\n

The universe didn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] She was gone when I opened my eyes again.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know how long I\u2019d slept, just that the ache had started to recede at least a little and that … 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":[336,337,363,14],"tags":[340,150,171,170,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-14-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-1ak","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484","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=4484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4485,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions\/4485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}