{"id":4630,"date":"2021-06-04T18:29:48","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T22:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4630"},"modified":"2021-06-04T18:29:48","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T22:29:48","slug":"twenty-one-01-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4630","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-one – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cUncle Phelan,\u201d Tory said, brows knitting.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMeeting my nephew.\u201d\u00a0 Phelan smiled wryly and closed the door gently behind him.\u00a0 He stared across the room at the pale young man propped up in bed, leaning against a girl with dark hair pulled into an artfully messy braid\u2014though the art to it was likely careless, the messiness more born of haste than artifice.\u00a0 He could see a reflection of himself in the young man\u2019s features, a reflection of his sister and their long-dead parents, but he could see Gray Miller\u2019s features there, too, despite only having met the man briefly so many years ago.\u00a0 \u201cJac said that she checked in on him earlier and he was awake, so I thought that perhaps it was time I met him.\u00a0 It\u2019s only been…what, seventeen, eighteen years?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEighteen,\u201d his nephew murmured.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2014I\u2019ve only heard stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably unflattering ones.\u201d\u00a0 Phelan shrugged and moved away from the door, offering a reassuring smile to Bryant as he started to cross the room.\u00a0 He leveled a censuring look at Lin as he passed him.\u00a0 \u201cYou should be in bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t going to let Tory come alone,\u201d Lin said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not, but thank you for reminding me of another<\/em> Thomas Ambrose I\u2019ve known.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lin winced and Phelan patted his arm gently, mindful of where the camazotzi<\/em> had gotten pieces of the teenager.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s more like his father sometimes than he knows\u2014and not just in looks.<\/em>\u00a0 It was all he could do not to shake his head as he moved on, gently punching Tory in the shoulder as he passed him, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is<\/em> my fault,\u201d Tory murmured, seeming at least mildly contrite.\u00a0 \u201cI showed up like some kind of barbarian and demanded answers that he didn\u2019t necessarily have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnswers that I have,\u201d his nephew said, looking down at his hands.\u00a0 \u201cOnes I haven\u2019t\u2014haven\u2019t quite given them yet, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all right,\u201d Phelan said.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re patient enough to wait a few minutes more, I think.\u201d\u00a0 He stopped next to the bed, studying both his nephew and the girl\u2014Isabelle, if he was remembering right.\u00a0 \u201cSo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019re my Uncle Phelan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you\u2019re my nephew.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded slowly.\u00a0 \u201cDavid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan laughed.\u00a0 \u201cAn easy name.\u201d<\/p>\n

David smiled faintly.\u00a0 \u201cThe way my father tells it, he wanted to make sure I had a first name that was easy for everyone to pronounce.\u00a0 And, you know, normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up with a name like Gray, I\u2019m sure he could appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think so, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe middle name is worse, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

David choked on a laugh and just nodded.\u00a0 \u201cHow did you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I know my sister.\u201d\u00a0 Phelan smiled.\u00a0 \u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t guess?\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing her, it could be any number of things.\u00a0 <\/em>Phelan shrugged slightly, waiting.<\/p>\n

David shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cMy full name as my mother gave it to me is actually David C\u00edar Dubhshl\u00e1ine O\u2019Credne Miller.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan\u2019s throat tightened.\u00a0 \u201cShe named you after our cousins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess,\u201d David said.\u00a0 \u201cI never\u2014I never had the chance to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all right,\u201d Phelan said around the lump in his throat, blinking back sudden, stinging tears.\u00a0 \u201cI can tell you their stories if you want.\u00a0 There will be time.\u201d<\/p>\n

I will make sure that there\u2019s time.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.] \u201cUncle Phelan,\u201d Tory said, brows knitting.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d \u201cMeeting my nephew.\u201d\u00a0 Phelan smiled wryly and closed the door gently behind him.\u00a0 He stared across the room at the pale … 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":[336,337,370,14],"tags":[340,271,150,358,359,171,170,360,350,149,173,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-21-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-artorius-mackenzie","tag-awakenings","tag-bryant-tapping","tag-david-ocredne-miller","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-isabelle-squires","tag-knights-errant","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","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-1cG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630","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=4630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4631,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions\/4631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}