\tA tile clicked under Thia’s foot. She cursed, and held still, her eyes searching. A glint. She dropped, rolling off the edge of the roof.<\/p>\n
\tThe landing hurt, her ankles howling in pain. Thia ignored them and ran. A left, two rights, straight, then dive through a window. A thud sounded on the frame. Throwing knife.<\/p>\n
\tShe ran for the bathroom, diving into the open pit and the stream that washed it clean. Thia brought a knife to hand, and waited.<\/p>\n
\tNo sound.<\/p>\n
\tA movement.<\/p>\n
\tPerhaps?<\/p>\n
\tThe knife flew. Someone grunted and died.<\/p>\n
\tA whoosh, and the room above grew bright. Glassfire! Thia dropped into the water, letting the stream carry her away. If she was lucky, she’d find another cesspit before drowning. If not, well, it happened.<\/p>\n
\tChoking.<\/p>\n
\tA thin glow.<\/p>\n
\tAir.<\/p>\n
\tThia gasped, cursed, and ducked. A knife splashed into the water next to her.<\/p>\n
\tThey’d catch her here, or at the next pit. Still, she had to try.<\/p>\n
\tThe stream carried her as far as her lungs held.<\/p>\n
\tArms pulled her from the water, and her eyes showed Thia a ring of masks, most scarred. None carried visible weapons.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThia slumped, nodding.<\/p>\n
\tA knife slipped under her chin, lifting her eyes to the mask in the centre. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou aren’t good enough any more, big sister. I’m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe world dimmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A tile clicked under Thia’s foot. She cursed, and held still, her eyes searching. A glint. She dropped, rolling off the edge of the roof. The landing hurt, her ankles howling in pain. Thia ignored them and ran. A left, two rights, straight, then dive through a window. A thud sounded on the frame. Throwing […]<\/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_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[36,4],"tags":[19,21,22],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-74","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":534,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=534","url_meta":{"origin":438,"position":0},"title":"Misery of a Friend","date":"July 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The misery of a friend. A strange thing, is it not? Do you comfort them? Do you push them to move on? There is a third way. Use a knife.","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":423,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=423","url_meta":{"origin":438,"position":1},"title":"Cages of Light","date":"January 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This story takes place at the same time as the events in Tarranau,in the city of Bhreac Veryan. Canlynedig panted as he ran through the streets of Bhreac Veryan, his eyes glancing behind him. He could hear the shouts as the Brawdoliaeth chan Danio charged after him, knocking aside pedestrians\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":725,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=725","url_meta":{"origin":438,"position":2},"title":"The Journey North – Part 5","date":"June 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Roaring and growling as it sprayed forth from the cliff, the avalanche tumbled onwards, some falling upon the downed Hanians, most of it missing and landing beyond them, wedging them in against the base of the cliff. Some of their belongings were not so lucky, with Canere\u2019s pack having been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":76,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=76","url_meta":{"origin":438,"position":3},"title":"Nathan","date":"April 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A thanks to Selorian for providing the Story Starter for this one, although I didn't use it in the normal way. Nathan ran. He sprinted down alleyways, jumping over drunks and around waste, and yet the inexorable cloak came on. That was how Nathan thought of the man chasing him,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":383,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=383","url_meta":{"origin":438,"position":4},"title":"The Taking of Baeran","date":"November 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A quite long excerpt from my NaNo novel, as the humans and their allies look to turn the tide of the war. The humans had been charged with slipping through B\u00e6ran and striking straight for the buildings that were thought to hold the officers of the \u00deracian army. They were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tarranau"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":623,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=623","url_meta":{"origin":438,"position":5},"title":"Honest Thieves","date":"April 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the continuation of a story I've been working on for the Splintered Lands project. Previous entries can be found here \u201cN\u00e1hte, why is there a net on your head?\u201d \u201cI needed a hat.\u201d \u201cN\u00e1hte, it\u2019s a net. It lets the sun shine through. And doesn\u2019t keep off the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}