{"id":968,"date":"2003-05-05T22:55:06","date_gmt":"2003-05-05T22:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/random-average.com\/?p=968"},"modified":"2003-05-05T22:55:06","modified_gmt":"2003-05-05T22:55:06","slug":"prelude-1-sacrifice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/2003\/05\/prelude-1-sacrifice\/","title":{"rendered":"Prelude 1: Sacrifice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Again, possible spoilers for players&#8230; I&#8217;m just messing around though, so there&#8217;s not any real information.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m afraid.&#8221;  My voice came out softly and the shame I felt came with it.<br \/>\n<i>&#8220;THERE IS NO NEED.&#8221;<\/i>  As always, the voice was a contradiction, all-encompasing yet soft and pliable &#8211; a very gentle, loving hurricane. <i>&#8220;IT IS THE NATURAL THING, MOREOVER A THING WHICH YOU KNOW I LOVE.&#8221;<\/i><br \/>\n&#8220;I do know, and that is what gives me strength.&#8221;<br \/>\n<i>&#8220;DO YOU HAVE DOUBTS AS TO YOUR CHOICES?&#8221;<\/i>  I could hear the sudden hint of concern in his voice, the idea that all of this might fail because of me, and I shook my head, knowing he could not see it.<br \/>\n&#8220;I have no doubts, only fear.  It has been a very long time for me.&#8221;<br \/>\n<i>&#8220;THERE IS NO NEED.  YOU KNOW WHAT BENEFIT COMES OF THIS.  YOU KNOW YOUR PERSONAL REWARD.&#8221;<\/i><br \/>\nI nodded, but at the heart of me, at the very core there was a sweet, rotten cylinder of fear.  &#8220;I know.  You&#8217;re right, I <i>do<\/i> know&#8230;&#8221;<br \/>\n<i>&#8220;AND YET YOU FEAR.&#8221;<\/i><br \/>\nI dropped to my knees, my hands clasped in my lap.  My head hung low between my shoulders and tears dropped on the backs of my crossed thumbs.  I could not answer, although I tried several times.<br \/>\n<i>&#8220;WOULD YOU KNOW THE TASTE OF WHAT IS TO COME?&#8221;<\/i><br \/>\nI blinked.  &#8220;I&#8230; I couldn&#8217;t.  We&#8230;&#8221;<br \/>\n<i>&#8220;IT CAN BE DONE.  ASK.&#8221;<\/i><br \/>\nI stared into the silence of a room in which I was the only occupant, hoping against hope.  &#8220;If it can be done, then&#8230; yes, I would dearly like to know.&#8221;<br \/>\n<i>&#8220;MY DEAREST SERVANT MERELY NEED ASK.&#8221;<\/i><br \/>\nAnd then I knew what was coming; I knew the length and breadth of it, the pain and the great, great joy.<br \/>\nAnd I knew that it would be enough.<\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><i>&#8211; from the Thought-record of Sisera Twice-born<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Again, possible spoilers for players&#8230; I&#8217;m just messing around though, so there&#8217;s not any real information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nobilis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}