{"id":3296,"date":"2026-01-24T21:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/?p=3296"},"modified":"2026-01-24T21:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:12:17","slug":"chapter-44-the-breaking-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/?p=3296","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 44: The Breaking Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perrin fails a Dexterity check and falls down the stairs with Faile, leading to a threat of domestic retaliation that perfectly sums up their toxic romance. 500 Trollocs show up for a fight, but the Emond’s Fielders use basic math and catapults to win without ever breaking a sweat. Perrin does absolutely nothing but sit on a horse, yet the villagers still shout his name in victory. The celebration is cut short by a commotion at the south end of town.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perrin wakes up and finds himself weak, yet Healed. Faile wastes her breath trying to convince him to stay in bed until his strength returns. She is horrible at keeping a secret and tells Perrin that Loial and Gaul went off into the Westwood together.<\/p>\n

Perrin springs out of bed and gets dressed. He heads for the stairs and takes Faile down with him when he falls. They end up in a heap at the bottom, lucky not to have broken any bones. Faile gives up trying to stop Perrin from being out of bed, but insists he must act as a leader instead of jumping into the fray.<\/p>\n

PERRIN: All right. I can’t refuse you anything when you smile so prettily.<\/p>\n

FAILE: I\u00a0am<\/em> glad. Because if you don’t, and you manage to survive, I’ll do to you what you did to me that first day in the Ways. I don’t think you are strong enough yet to stop me. Do you understand me?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We still don’t know\u00a0what<\/em> Perrin did to Faile that first day in the Ways, but I always pictured Perrin doing it wearing a wifebeater and holding a can of Coors.<\/p>\n

Outside, Bain and Chiad return from scouting the area and report that 500 Trollocs are approaching Emond’s Field. The townspeople rally a defense, and they manage to stop the army’s advance with a well-timed response of projectile fire from bows and catapults. The Trollocs don’t even get close enough for melee. A cheer rises among the villagers.<\/p>\n

BRAN: You’ve led us to a great victory, Perrin.<\/p>\n

PERRIN: But I didn’t do anything. I just sat on my horse. You did it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a fair point. Perrin really\u00a0didn’t<\/em> do anything but sit there and watch, but that doesn’t stop everyone from shouting his name as they celebrate the victory. Unfortunately, he can only bask for so long in the unearned glory before a commotion arises at the south end of town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perrin fails a Dexterity check and falls down the stairs with Faile, leading to a threat of domestic retaliation that perfectly sums up their toxic romance. 500 Trollocs show up for a fight, but the Emond’s Fielders use basic math and catapults to win without ever breaking a sweat. Perrin does absolutely nothing but sit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-shadow-rising","book-the-shadow-rising"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3296"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3315,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions\/3315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}