Patricia Wilson
Stories
10
Chapters
3,347
Words
163.4 K
Comments
0
Reading
13 h, 37 m
-
The dead drop was a lot bulkier than usual. Generally, there was only a crystal which shattered once Truth had learned the contents. This time, there were arrays, talismans, a few disposable charms, and not one but It seemed that the old exorcist was done with distraction and was now moving on the attack. Lists of sites to raid, personnel to assassinate, resources to steal or destroy, propaganda to promote- it was a veritable wishlist of insurrection. Truth directly ignored the apartment blocks Merkovah…-
3 •
-
-
The River Fan had driven Truth into a quiet fury. Its tutelary spirit would be quite hurt by that, if it still lived. It’s not like it wanted to be polluted. It would have pointed out that it had been millennia of human management and intervention that left the watershed like this. The river was every bit as much a victim as Truth was. Some absolute bastard, probably a long series of serious, hard working, focused bastards, had been working to remove the pollution from the River Fan. They did this by…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth slowly pulled himself together. Improved understanding of self notwithstanding, he still needed to get into Harban. He also still had the minor question of what to do with Barton. The shine had gone off the view. It was still sweeping, looking down over the wide river, the thin belt of suburbs and the terrible glory of Harban. It’s just that the romance had left. Now it was just a series of problems. Truth stood and dusted himself off. He firmly decided that he wasn’t going to think about this…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth was torn by conflicting emotions. There was anger, and shame, and pain. Envy. Hatred. Even some faint traces of affection. Not everything in Harban was terrible, and there were some happy memories there. Above them all was ambition. For the Prince, Truth wanted to snap back. So far the persona has been working great. He could just plough right through all opposition, a mindset of total victory. The System interrupted him before he could get started. He snarled, but the System had a point. The…
-
3 •
-
-
The undersea journey was uneventful. Truth watched Butler train the former desk clerk. He realized that, if he had ever heard their name, he had forgotten it. He had enough self awareness to realize that he was deliberately dehumanizing him. Turning him into an “it,” another one of his bound demons. Another weapon to use in his war. It didn’t feel good. Which was a Hell of a moral line to draw for someone who had committed multiple atrocities. Butler relied primarily on the basics of the basics-…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth left the ritual room a little stifled. He still had questions for Merkovah. Many, many questions. About cultivation, about Cup and Knife, about the nature of reality, about ethics, philosophy, theology, politics… about everything. Just having someone he could talk to about these things was immense. Someone he might disagree with, but who had spent half a millennium studying and learning about the world. Merkovah had always made a point of his private tuition being included as part of Truth’s…
-
3 •
-
-
“About that…” “Yes?” Merkovah asked. “I found Vig.” There was a long pause on the line. “Tell me everything.” Truth did so, including how frustrating he found not making contact. Merkovah sounded relieved at the end of it. “You handled that exactly right. Exactly right. In theory, it might have been better not following him, but this adds another layer of plausibility to the illusion of a vast nationalist uprising.” “Great, super.” Merkovah sighed. “Sorry. That was…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth was in a mood the rest of the evening. It was the scope of everything. The sheer enormity of what the System would mean to Jeon. There was one major difference, on paper at least, between what Jeon was planning and what Starbrite did. When you joined Starbrite, at least in theory, you had the country to protect you if the System Astrologica screwed you over. With this? The screwing was baked right in, and there was no appeal. He could see it all laid out. You were born into a certain class. You had…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth ran through a number of options, before concluding that the fastest way to find out how the credit change-over would work was to just go and ask a banker. No need for any elaborate ruses, and really, nothing of benefit would come from just summoning some senior banker to his room through Mary. Assuming one would come for her at all. “Attend me.” The maid quickly stood before him. Looking demure. Vulnerable. He kind of wished it would knock it off, but that was like wishing water would be less…
-
3 •
-
-
Truth slammed into motion. No use trying to play invisible with a couple dozen cops in the hall running every detection spell they could. He was The Big Bro. The last villain they would ever see. Unstoppable. The ones coming through the front were a little closer. He went for them first. A few bolts of paralytic lightning were loosed, slapped aside by the Tongue. He was on them in less than a second. Wrenched aside a riot shield, put his blade through the cop’s neck, then fung him, shield and all,…
-
3 •
-
- Previous 1 … 44 45 46 … 335 Next