Patricia Wilson
Stories
10
Chapters
3,347
Words
163.4 K
Comments
0
Reading
13 h, 37 m
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Truth was two hours north of Nailad when the blue sky turned pink. It was the pink of a boiled shrimp, Truth thought, though he admittedly felt a bit lightheaded. There was a sudden feeling, a sudden absence of pressure, leaving him lightheaded and almost dizzy. The carriage stopped. The power had cut out. So had the brakes, but that wasn’t as much of a problem for Truth. The car wasn’t going so fast that he couldn’t just hop out. He just let it coast to the bottom of the slope. It had enough…-
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The trip to Nailad was blood-stoppingly dull. The checkpoint sucked, but he knew how to manage those now. After his stint in the chamber with the Snake That Eats Its Own Tail, his ability to seal up his energy had massively improved. It did make him wonder how many divinations just slid right over him. Not finding anything to latch on to. Merkovah’s plan for him since day one had been to make a spell resistant little monster. The Exorcist knew what he was talking about. Truth watched a flock of seven…
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Truth grinned mirthlessly at the communication altar. He couldn’t see Merkovah, but he could certainly imagine the “old man” shock on his young face. “Oh, you know me. I take an interest in people, and listen when they tell me things. Also, having eliminated all other reasonable possibilities, it’s where I landed.” There was a long silence. “Teacher?” “On the one hand, I feel like I can take a “‘Validating that theory’ doesn’t sound like ‘proving that right.’ Or, for…
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The laughter bubbled up in Truth from the bottom of his belly, tickling his guts and squeezing his lungs. What could he do but laugh? He wanted to fight a higher reality entity that was compounding the torture of humanity inflicted by a literal stellar eminence, all while God disdained to look on. There would be no miracles. There would be no divine intervention. He was a guy with a sword. A thug with a spell and delusions of grandeur. A rat can bite a cat, but he needs somewhere to stand and fight,…
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Truth wasn’t sure if he had lost yet another gear, or was integrating a new one. “The whole planet hates humanity and wants us to suffer.” “That is how I see things, yes. Although, fair to say, the hatred has been intensifying rapidly over the last few hundred years.” The Abbot’s antlers swished through the air as they nodded. “The whole world. All the rocks and things-” “Benefactor, what do you think this world “Well… yes?” The deer headed demon chuckled indulgently. “And…
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Truth gave the Abbot a hard look. Then another. The Abbot couldn’t see him, of course, but that didn’t stop the alarming chuckles coming from the giant deer head. “I really thought I was the only one who imagined humanity as rats.” Truth grumbled. “No chance of that. The metaphor has been around as long as humans.” “I developed a whole system of understanding the world based on the concept of rats and slums. It has layers to it.” “Well done!” The Abbot smiled. Truth felt just a…
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It was a bright, blustery day in the Downs. The anchored warships were all busy, patching, repairing, resupplying. Waiting to sail out and protect England’s budding dominions in far flung places like the Carolinas, Jamaica, or Tangiers. The echo of Dutch cannons was still loud in the ears of the Royal Navy. Nobody, at least nobody in the Royal Navy, thought it would be the last time they tried conclusions with the Dutch. A second war was coming, and soon. Truth stood on the quarterdeck of the Assurance,…
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The meat hung in the cold, dark, box. The barge took them past the judges, who looked down on them and distained them. The box of meat was carried down the river, on to that place of long knives, where children learned a bloody truth- they were the least important component in a machine for pigs, and always would be. They were worth less than the meat they cut up. Meat they would be arrested and beaten for trying to eat. The meat hung still, only juddering when some unseen crane lifted away the boxes and…
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The dorm room had gone quiet again. Truth’s alarmingly detailed explanation of just what the System was, and why the national enrollment was near suicide, had rocked her. As had the idea that all of it was just Starbrite stepping up his escape plan. Or that the Starbrite her brother had worshiped his entire life had tried to kill him. Truth had privately connected some lines between “Shattervoid are able to move through the void between stars,” to “The System Astrologica is a higher dimensional…
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Truth slowly blinked at Sophia. “Could you just… walk me through that idea?” Sophia grinned a little. “System Astrologica, the work tracking and spell delivery system for Starbrite. Starbrite employees can be found everywhere on the planet, in orbit, and even on the moon, but there is not the slightest chance in Hell they would go anywhere the System didn’t reach.” Truth nodded along. “Yep.” “Also, as far as I’m aware, nothing can jam it or block it. It is alway in effect.” She…
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