Patience (The Patience Trilogy Book 1)

by ToCauson

pleaded, “Magnum is going crazy. We have to stop him.”

  Grim held up his hand to calm her. “You need rest,” he said, “we’ll help them, I promise. But we have to be ready.”

  “Fine,” she said, unable to argue back, she was too exhausted and lacking of a plan, “where to next then, boss?”

  Grim glowered at the praise of superior authority. “Mortus is expecting us.” She could see that Patience had a bit of nerves flickering across her face, probably from a desire to see her family one last time.

  Mercy knew she wasn’t the type to give up and leave. Patience just wanted to say goodbye to them – just in case.

  24

  THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

  Patience didn’t like Mortus’ house. It was dank and dark, depressing and hollow. Her eyes kept shifting over to the open basement door, the room in which she discovered her uncle was dead and where she was haunted by those spirits. There was a cold draft wafting up through the door, causing her to shiver and feel as cold as a corpse.

  She made a coffee to warm herself up, realising at that moment why she had spent all these years without it – coffee was disgusting. In the end, she tipped it away and sat on the cold stone steps leading to the basement, away from everyone else. It was cold, but there was a part of her that embraced the self-torment. It was her blood, the blood of the Old Ones, which had enabled her to pull the Lamina out of the stone, and so it was her fault that Magnum now has it and was killing people. It was her fault that they were dying – or dead already.

  Her fingers ran down her bruised legs. Pain dug into her but she only tightened her pressure, it was the least she deserved. Before long, tears were striking at her eyes, emotion coiling around her like a cobra squeezing its prey to death. Every time she heard footsteps, she buried her head against her arms, allowing her jacket to soak up the tears and muffle her quiet sobs. Eventually, she climbed down into the steps and looked up at the roof, expecting mist to crowd round her again. But nothing.

  “Bernard?” she cried, “please, I need you.” She was aware of how stupid her attempts were. She was certain that she fitted into the category of elemental. But even if she could find a way to use the necromancer’s ability of spirit walking, her uncle had moved on. He was gone. Even Mortus wouldn’t be able to get him back.

  She dropped onto her knees and cried some more. This time the cold got worse, attacking her skin and bringing up red patches all across the surface.

  “What’re you doing down here?” said Mercy, softly. Patience panicked, quickly deciding that she wouldn’t tell her anything about what was going on in her head. There was no way she could burden that on someone else, and it would sound silly being said aloud.

  “It’s all my fault,” she said. Oh God. She couldn’t help it. “I took the Lamina out of the stone, no one else could have done it.”

  Mercy sat on the steps and looked at her with an understanding expression. But she didn’t understand.

  No one did. How could they? “They would have found another way.”

  “No they wouldn’t.” Her voice came out harsh and unappreciative, she didn’t mean to be rude. “They needed my blood, without it, the Lamina was impregnable. It was all my fault. I did it to save my family, it was all for my own selfish gain.”

  “Patience, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from being in this world, it’s that there is always a way. Yes, magic has boundaries, but they are not rigid. Boundaries move and shift, and they are different for each person. They would have found a way, because in a world where anything is possible, everything is possible.” Patience lowered her head, still facing away from her. “Anyway, you did it to save your family.

  That’s a natural human reaction. We would all have done the same. It is not selfish in the slightest.”

  “Grim is angry at me.”

  “No, I’ve seen him angry…. once. And trust me, you would know.” Patience managed a small smile out the corner of her mouth. She stood up and trudged over to the steps, setting herself down beside Mercy.

  “How did you do it?” asked Patience, “I mean, how did you leave those people? Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely the right thing to do. Just not the easiest thing.”

  Mercy’s eyes widened as though she was remembering something. “It was hard, more than anyone could ever understand. A part of me really wanted to stay and try to do something to stop Magnum. But my training offered me one skill that is useful, but hard to use, devastating for when you look back, but necessary.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Emotional detachment. I just had to separate myself from the current situation I was in, think of it like an outsider making a judgement. Then I came to the decision that there was nothing I could do. I would just get myself killed, and wouldn’t save any lives. The most worthwhile thing to do would be to escape and get help. Sometimes the brave option isn’t the best one, sometimes you have to be a coward.”

  “I don’t think you’re a coward,” said Patience, “I think that what you did was the bravest thing possible.”

  Mercy’s face rose. “Come on, the others will be wondering where we’ve got to, and if you haven’t noticed, it’s freaking cold down here.”

  “I noticed.” Her skin was now a sickly blue, almost completely lost from its original colour.

  They went back upstairs and met with Grim and Mortus, acting as though nothing had happened. They all had something to eat, and then sat around on chairs with a table in the centre.

  Mercy started off by telling them everything that had happened. From when she was captured and put up a mental block, to waking up and being saved by Doc Remedy. Patience offered appropriate back channelling for the more shocking moments. Shouting insults at the people who hurt her, and offering excuses as to why Mercy could have lost the fight.

  “She caught you off guard,” said Patience, “and you were probably so distracted at her ridiculous hair that you couldn’t fight to your full capacity.” Then she reached the part about Magnum shooting people with the Lamina, and describing how it was used.

  Patience felt herself quivering with fear at the thought of it. She had expected some kind of long dramatic death as the people struggled for their life. But it wasn’t like that at all, not like the movies. In the movies it was long and drawn out. Now she realised that death wasn’t like that. All it would take is a single point of that weapon and she would be dead before she even had the chance to realise what had happened.

  “Do you think he killed everyone?” asked Grim.

  It was Mortus who spoke up. “I don’t think so. I checked the spirits this morning and couldn’t see any fluctuation. A death like that would likely throw them up like a big colourful beacon, they would stand out like a sore thumb.”

  “I think he was trying to make a point with the murders,” said Mercy, “he needed them to obey him because even the most powerful weapon in the world can’t take on a whole army of sorcerers. He needed people to be submissive, fear for their lives so much that they obey his every word.”

  Patience thought about what she was saying about an army of sorcerers. The problem was that his plan was working, effectively he was now the Luminary. And she doubted anyone would dare stand up against him, except the four of them of course. But four was hardly an army, even if they are pretty awesome –

  especially her.

  She didn’t voice these concerns. No sense bludgeoning morale into the ground for no good reason other than because it’s the truth.

  “So, I think it is generally agreed that we can’t beat him while he has the Lamina,” said Patience, “so how do we get him away from it? He probably sleeps with it, eats with it, and we know he kills with it.”

  Grim nudged forward, looking grave but not without hope. “We need a distraction of some kind. We can’t plan one because we don’t know exactly where he will be when we arrive, or who he will aim for first. We’ll just have to co-ordinate in the moment.” She did
n’t like the idea of a distraction, it wasn’t exactly something that was easy to avoid, it was more like laying your own head out on the chopping block.

  Fear struck her. Magnum was doing all this to protect himself from the Old Ones, he hated them. Which meant that the fact that Old One blood flowed through her body would probably make her a keen target.

  She was scared that she wasn’t going to get out of this alive. In fact, she half expected not too.

  “What happens if I die?” she said, not meaning to say it aloud.

  “You’ll be fine,” said Mercy.

  Grim patted her on the shoulder. “And if not, something will be organised. Your family will be spun the nicest story possible, they will be monitored to make sure that they are coping. We won’t abandon them.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “I will take care of it personally.”

  “Well I was under the assumption that if I died, you would be dead too.”

  Grim laughed. “I’m not dying, have you seen my dashing good looks. It would be a crime to kill someone so handsome.”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s a crime to kill anyone, no matter how they look.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  They decided that they would get a good night sleep before ‘trying their luck’ at stopping Magnum.

  Patience was determined to do something. Despite what Mercy said, she still felt guilty. None of this stuff would be happening if it wasn’t for her. But then