War of the Fathers – Chapter Twenty Three

This week’s episode features Chapter Twenty Three of War of the Fathers. Click here to download it or press play below. Here is an excerpt from the show: 

“How much longer until Zecarani?” Barc asked. The death of Hira weighed on him like a large stone, his every footstep dragged. Hira might still be alive if he'd done things differently. The last moments before the bomb that had destroyed his home played through his mind repeatedly, and it was only in the state of utter exhaustion that he had been able to find sleep. Even then, it was always tortured. Most days he wished that Neare and the others hadn't pulled him from the rubble of his home.

He hadn’t felt this way since the passing of his parents, but those wounds had healed and these never would. Hira had been with him for more than thirty years. The only thing now that kept him going was his need to find Soret and protect her.

“Not far now,” Erro said as he passed with Thon and Gorew, riding ahead to meet up with Neare. “Maybe an hour.”

Barc nodded.

The pain was such that Barc couldn’t see a time when it would ever leave, and he wasn’t sure he wanted it to lessen. Why Hira? He’d never been given much to wine, but now every night at the end of a long march, he found himself wishing for a drink. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. Barc hadn’t thought to bring alcohol and doubted anybody else had either. It was just as well, he supposed the last thing that he needed was to drown his grief in the bottom of a cup. It was far better to learn to live with the grief, then to try to forget it. He had to keep his wits sharp if he was to have a chance of one day rescuing Soret from the Hunwei.

“We’ll find her,” Erro called back.

“I hope so.”