Patricia Wilson
Stories
10
Chapters
3,347
Words
163.4 K
Comments
0
Reading
13 h, 37 m
-
Truth slowly opened his eyes. He was staring at the smudged interior of the luggage compartment. The packs weren’t very comfortable. How strange. When he crawled in here before, it was like falling asleep on angel feathers and lullabies. Could it have been the crippling exhaustion? He contemplated the myriad mysteries concealed in the scrapes on the ceiling. No. No, it had to be evil wizards that cursed the packs into lumpy unpleasantness. He could recognize the efforts of his own kind. This had the…-
3 •
-
-
“Glad to see you are staying hydrated.” The Prophet observed, carefully skipping back. Truth shook the last few droplets off and tucked himself back in. “Are you mad? What does “Hydrated” mean?” “Drinking enough.” “Ah, I am that.” “Philosophy is all piss?” “No, pissing is necessary. Useful. Pleasurable, so long as you don’t have the stone.” Truth’s voice was severe. “Philosophy is pissing on our boots. Not only have we ruined a good thing, we made a smelly mess of…
-
3 •
-
-
The world unfolded for Truth at the junction of St. Veertigrid’s Omni-Benevolent Hospital and Pisnngos #11347, a rest stop two hundred kilometers north of St. Veertigrid’s. As rest stops went, it was a decent one. The Pisnngos franchise prioritized cleanliness, good lighting and a variety of easily consumable snacks and drinks for sale at just four times their usual prices. For two wen, your screamingly bored child could hop on a pretend fire bird and rock back and forth as a tinny “WOOSH” noises…
-
3 •
-
-
Frobisher blinked. “Pardon?” Truth clarified. He kicked off the rock, moving so fast he wasn’t even a blur to the people around him. The Tongue of One Who Speaks For God whipped off his shoulder, up, then down again, aiming for the thinner armor around Frobisher’s neck. The blade nearly reached the neck. Nearly. The counter-spell exploded outward. The armor glowed with golden calligraphy as an explosive wave blasted away the sword, and Truth along with it. He was still in the air when the spear…
-
3 •
-
-
The angel was pissed off. Truth understood that. Respected that, even. He had been called in to do a job, wasn’t able to do the job, and now he was pinned under rubble next to one of God’s little whoopsies. Also known as a human. Truth internally shook his head. He was being unfair. The angel probably couldn’t even conceive of criticizing anything God did. Truth hadn’t worked with angels nearly as much as he had worked with demons. Demons you could cut a deal with, or compel. You could… kind…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth fell over. He had only stepped about a centimeter, and crossed thirty meters in the process. Straight up. Through the ceiling. Which, unfortunately, put him half a meter above the floor. Which floor, he didn’t know. The way the sealed concrete smashed his nose didn’t inspire fondness or a desire for deeper understanding. Everything hurt. Everything. He had been getting better, but this felt like being slapped over every millimeter of his body. Eyeballs and eardrums included. Truth fought…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth kept moving deeper into the room, eyes darting. Large plastic bins with little wheels underneath, filled with bed linens. Should be the laundry. Usually that was a job for big talisman machines, but he wasn’t seeing them. Did they send the laundry out to a big commercial operation for cleaning? He vaguely remembered hearing that some places did that. For a brief, delusional, moment, he thought about hiding in one of the bins and smuggling himself out with the rest of the laundry. Hah. No. That…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth tried to think quickly. He could more or less guess where the old doctor’s hate was coming from. He would hate him too, if the situation was reversed. “I was in a bodybag on the way in. Would your hatred extend to giving me directions out?” “Yes.” Dr. Sun had a wonderful set of teeth, Truth noticed. His ‘smile’ was displaying almost all of them. “Fantastic. Well. This has been…” Truth groped for a word, failed to find one, and decided that it had simply been. Maybe the doctor…
-
3 •
-
-
“Boy you are even crazier than I thought. And I thought you were batshit. The hell did they do to you?” “Who?” “Them. Those people. The ones who put all the worms in your brain.” Truth raised a finger to rebut, remembered the System, and in a sudden burst of overwhelming guilt, turned his eye inward, trying to find that spot of nothingness that supposedly was the System. He had never really seen it before, but… He didn’t see it now, either. He turned his attention back to the doctor.…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth wasn’t quite sure how to process that. Other than- “Go Rats?” Dr. Sun laughed bitterly. “Don’t give yourself too much credit. You were just the final wet fart that knocked over the tower of bullshit. Things hadn’t been adding up since long before you were born.” Truth nodded. Then shook his head. “Look, before we get into all of that, I have to ask- are you actually a doctor? Because when we fought, you came off like some kind of sadistic torturer.” “Oh, you really are…
-
3 •
-
- Previous 1 … 29 30 31 … 335 Next