{"id":4532,"date":"2021-02-02T09:06:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T14:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4532"},"modified":"2021-02-02T09:06:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T14:06:42","slug":"sixteen-06-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4532","title":{"rendered":"Sixteen – 06"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cIt\u2019s not an easy responsibility to shoulder,\u201d she said, her gaze still on him even as he assiduously avoided returning it.\u00a0 Bryant kept his eyes trained on David, watching his friend in the faint lamplight as his eyes darted beneath their lids\u2014caught in another dream.<\/p>\n

Always another dream.\u00a0 Always another something.\u00a0 Always looking out for them because no one else can the way I can.\u00a0 None of them ever really trusted any of the actual adults\u2014not really, not completely.\u00a0 Everyone just seemed too closed off after Aoife left, and the ones who didn\u2019t know her very well just thought we were all weird, I guess.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Bryant managed to say.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not.\u00a0 It\u2019s always been hard, but I\u2014I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 At first it was just because all of the adults in the room always seemed to have more important things to be doing.\u00a0 It just got worse after David\u2019s mother left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAoife.\u201d<\/p>\n

A chill shot through him and he stiffened.\u00a0 How could she know that?<\/em>\u00a0 \u201cWe never said her name in that meeting, did we?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t,\u201d she confirmed softly.\u00a0 \u201cBut I can see her brother in your friend\u2019s face.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure if you looked at Phelan long enough, you\u2019d see it, too, and I\u2019ve spent a lot of time looking at that face.\u00a0 I would know his nephew\u2014Aoife\u2019s son\u2014anywhere even though I only met her briefly a long time ago.\u201d\u00a0 She smiled slightly and her gaze, too, strayed back toward David.\u00a0 \u201cGray is his father, isn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryant swallowed hard and nodded, feeling oddly numb.\u00a0 \u201cYeah.\u00a0 How do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came here once,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a long time ago\u2014before any of your friends were born, obviously.\u00a0 I imagine that she was probably pregnant when they finally got back to wherever you all were raised.\u201d\u00a0 A soft sight escaped her as she looked back toward Bryant again. \u00a0\u201cYou know, every time Cameron rode out toward the east, he would always look, always listen, hoping to find some trace of where you all were.\u00a0 He\u2019s neve been able to find it.\u00a0 That place where you all were raised must have been pretty isolated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was,\u201d Bryant said, lips barely moving.\u00a0 \u201cBut that\u2019s how they wanted it, I think.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why, but I think it was a choice.\u00a0 I never had the guts to ask.\u00a0 Maybe\u2014maybe someday if I get back there again, I will.\u201d<\/p>\n

She nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re safe here, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know.\u00a0 But we have our quest and it needs to be fulfilled.\u201d\u00a0 He swallowed hard against the rising lump in his throat, staring at David.\u00a0 \u201cNo matter what the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Bryant Tapping’s point of view.] \u201cIt\u2019s not an easy responsibility to shoulder,\u201d she said, her gaze still on him even as he assiduously avoided returning it.\u00a0 Bryant kept his eyes trained on David, watching his friend … 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":[336,337,365],"tags":[340,150,358,359,171,170,174,350,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-4532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-16-book-8","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-bryant-tapping","tag-david-ocredne-miller","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-jacqueline-bell","tag-knights-errant","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-1b6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532","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=4532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4533,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions\/4533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}