PATIENCE

  Twilight enveloped Marina Veridia. The deck's wooden floorboards creaked beneath each hurried step.

  Unbelievable.

  Unforgivable.

  Patience swung open the door to the captain’s private quarters. A man in a black surgical mask and robes looked up from the pair of cadavers he worked on. Just like the fluttering sail above them, the man’s robes bore the crest of the Iron Maidens Faction. Patience scrunched up his face and looked down his nose at the man.

  “I presume you are the…Medic.” The Medic studied Patience for a brief moment, then resumed his work. Must have recognized me immediately.

  Patience crossed the threshold into the room and slammed the door behind him. The Medic poked and prodded the corpses to no reaction. Every so often, he scribbled a note on his clipboard.

  The bodies were burnt, scabbed, and rotted. The stench was so awful that there was a massive Script written on the ceiling that permanently ceased all nose functions, even breathing, when someone entered the room. But not outside. The noxious odor caught Patience’s attention in the first place. He'd peered into the quarters through one of Charlotte’s eight eyes, which the Familiar hid during the chaos of Coralhaven.

  Seven eyes now, I suppose. After you lost one in Coralhaven.

  Patience walked around the bodies and inspected them. He’d forgotten their names, but so it goes. In all my years serving this bitch, I've uncovered every secret but one. I knew there was another left to discover, but you held it under lock and key well.

  Until now, you old bat. So this is what you’ve been…researching. Still, what exactly is this man doing?

  The door opened behind him. By the sound of it, a heavy man took just one step inside.

  “To what pleasure do I owe this unannounced visit to my private chambers?” Zeke demanded.

  Patience turned to face him. Zeke studied the cadavers, then Patience. What an odd way to put it.

  “As the head of this challenging campaign, it is important for me to know all affairs of those beneath me.”

  Zeke grunted. “Is it now?”

  “Where’s your other dog, the bitch?”

  Zeke narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Yes, will you strike me? Or will you obey the chain of command, like the two mutts lying dead on these tables?

  “She is nearby.” Woof. Woof. “Walk with me to the deck.”

  “Is that an order, Pastor?”

  Zeke eyed the Medic nervously. He didn’t stop to acknowledge either one of them. Does this Medic outrank me? “No. It is but a mere request from—”

  “Fine, Zeke.” Boring. “Let’s leave this hellhole that you call your quarters.” It’s time to remind you what’s at stake should you fail me again.

  This time, Zeke shut the door when they left.

  “Let us first address your complete and utter defeat in Coralhaven."

  “We are lucky,” Zeke said slowly, “to be alive. All of us.”

  “Not quite all.” I wish you’d quite literally bite your tongue. “The sheer mountain of casualties you left behind has made us look like a gang of fools, running about and grabbing our own pricks. It’s set us back in the eyes of the public opinion, one of our greatest assets.”

  “I agree. The aftermath has left us looking like…school children.” Patience’s eye twitched. “At least in the eyes of Her Holiness, the Iron Maiden. But I disagree with your perspective on the court of public opinion. I think this bolstered our position with them, now that they see the level of tragedy ready to befall them at any moment. Especially since our illustrious Virtues are nowhere to be seen during these dark hours.”

  Charlotte, your venom, please. Just in case.

  “The Iron Maiden—”

  “Her Holiness, the Iron Maiden.” Zeke walked ahead.

  “Yes, of course.” Patience waved his hand in the air. “She will see to our punishments herself, Zeke. Your one and only fuckup I have so gracefully awarded you has been burnt to ash. This ship and all its operations are under my direct control, effective immediately.”

  Zeke turned on his heel and towered over Patience. “I accept my punishment due from the Maiden, and I accept the responsibility of having failed Her. You would do well to do the same, boy.”

  “How dare you! I left the operation in your hands, and you venture to accuse me of failure—”

  “You abandoned your fucking post!” Zeke shouted down at him. “You left us for dead, you base coward!”

  Zeke grabbed Patience’s shirt and yanked upward from the pants.

  “What the fuck are you doing?"

  Zeke untucked Patience’s shirt and lifted it high. “Seeing which shade o’ yellow your belly is, boy!”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Patience swatted Zeke’s hands away in one strike. Zeke’s mouth gaped open, and his eyes widened. I am much stronger than you suspect, you limp-dicked cretin. I Unlocked near 3rd Rank, so help me Salvos. “I was summoned by The Iron Maiden herself.”

  “A lie. And not your first one told.” What else have you learned that you should not?

  “Careful, Pastor. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will crack your skull open on a pike.”

  “The Iron Maidens is no place for cowards or deserters. We might have won with The Spider.” I’ll wipe that smug look off your face with a brine brush.

  “Given the state of your comrades, I am curious as to how exactly you escaped alive, Pastor Zeke.”

  Zeke leaned in so close to Patience that he smelled what he’d had for dinner. Anchovies, despicable commoner.

  “You dare accuse me of deserting?” I do. “I am covered in Holy Artifacts that protect me, from The Maiden her—”

  “Artifacts you should spread around.”

  “I have.” Zeke smiled and darkness swept past his eyes. “To Ragnar and Felix and Selene.”

  Ah, those were the mutts' names.

  “Bitterness doesn’t suit a man of the faith. And what use could Ragnar and Felix have for them now, of all times?” Patience wanted so badly to spit in the man’s face. But I’m too close. It’d only hit a small portion, and I’d prefer to spread it all over his oily face.

  “Better them than you.”

  You son of a swine whore. I need those Artifacts—to protect myself.

  

  I WILL PROTECT YOU.

  Patience flinched. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you tonight.

  “Focus, dammit.” Zeke shook Patience by his shoulders. “Their armor resisted the fire and rain, but they are on the verge of life and death.”

  “Who is on the verge of life?” Certainly not death.

  “They fought for their lives. And they fight still.” Black magic? “We must all fight for our lives, against the Arcanics!”

  Ah. And here I was, thinking we fought only the Sins. Are you still there, Voice?

  “I ask again—Where were you when your brethren bled?”

  “I was away. When I discovered what was happening, I had no defense against it. Unlike you. Now, I am not just some pawn in this game, I am a valuable asset—”

  "Yet you are still just a piece on the board." Patience licked his lips in lieu of spitting. “So ye fled.”

  “While you’ve damaged your pride and your—your reputation.”

  Zeke pulled Patience in closer to his foul breath. He pulled back the mangled hair that covered his face and then peeled back an eye patch beneath it. A massive gash crossed through the empty socket. “I lost more than my pride, boy.”

  Funny. All I see is a fool who’s lost sight of his goals. You may have embarrassed me and ridiculed me, and to my face, at that. But you are somehow weaker.

  Yes, a fragile shell of man. You are terrified of what you fight, and only now do you finally realize that, at this level, we gamble with our lives.

  “You are emotional and battle fatigued. I shall forgive this insubordination, and this attack on my character, just this once. Now, enlighten me about your plans and preparations, so I may adjust them accordingly.”

  Zeke sneered and left his eyepatch up. The image of the facial void seared into Patience’s memory. The battlefield was no welcome place to Patience.

  “Redwood returns to our service. She spotted our target on Lighthouse Point—”

  “Call her back immediately. Tell her to disengage.”

  “We have. The boy is Shrine hunting, she says. So our current station is the perfect place for an ambush.”

  Station? More like hideout. “And an obvious one.”

  “Maddie assures us this is his next destination.”

  “And his comrades?”

  “You didn’t hear?” Zeke pulled away his smug face. “Oh, of course you didn’t. We executed the girl. Selene imprisoned the boy during the rain. We found his body, though it was ruined.”

  Patience’s blood boiled at the insult. “Just desserts for the friends of sinners. So Wrath is alone.”

  “No. Maddie confirmed sight of the fox.”

  “And all three branches of the military here serve us?”

  “Yes. Many victims of the Sack of Coralhaven enlisted in each Faction.”

  You’ve finally done something worthwhile. Patience glanced up at the white cliffs high above the port. “We maintain the high ground, then. Luck favors us with the Shrine’s location.”

  “Yes. And how convenient that they lie at the Fountain of the Virtues.” Twice now you've mentioned the Virtues. “Let us now discuss Jules.”

  Patience turned red. The insolence—

  That is my topic to bring up.

  “Yes, we shall. I will allow his approach into the bay. Then we surround him.” Zeke remained silent. Making me ask. “It should go without saying that we need to avoid a catastrophe like the last three times he’s been cornered.”

  “Who’s left to kill this time?” Zeke said with a smile. “Maddie said he was all alone. The only way to draw him out is to threaten one of the host’s…so-called loved ones.”

  Only one eye, and such short-sightedness. I’m beginning to wonder if The Iron Maiden is truly someone to fear.

  “We possess the full might of the Coralith military, plus our own reinforcements.

  “I see,” Patience said. Surely this isn't a stalemate.

  That plan is simply not enough. I know it, and even this idiot isn’t too stupid to not acknowledge that fact.

  You must be counting on Wrath to show up. What do you have lying in wait?

  Are you still there, Voice?

  “I recommend that, to keep our master strategist safe,” Zeke said, “that you pull back from the front lines and take up a more…secure position during the battle.”

  Trying to remove another piece from the board.

  

  PRIDE CRIPPLES YOU. ACCEPT THE BAIT.

  Patience’s entire face twitched for a few seconds. He couldn’t fight the voice in his head, and he needed Zeke, so he wouldn’t bash his skull in.

  Luckily, the watch dog thinks he’s the one who’s affected me like this.

  “I will watch and give orders from on high.” Patience obeyed the order, though not Zeke’s.

  The Pastor laughed. “Of course you will. We must address one other thing, Sir.”

  “Proceed.”

  “I had a recent audience with The Maiden. She did not corroborate your telling of events.”

  “You would do well to approach me from the front and not sneak behind my—"

  “Furthermore, Liam didn’t disclose Jules’ location to you.”

  At that moment, tables turned. Patience's heart raced. His arms buzzed. His legs were ready to take flight.

  No. I am The Spider. I am the hunter who catches prey in my web of lies, not the other way around.

  “How I get my information is none of your business.”

  Zeke’s lips curled up and almost touched his empty eye socket.

  “Strong words for someone so young. Tell me, how old are you? Are you a man yet? What, nothing to say? You speak with the arrogance of someone who just Unlocked.”

  Do I fight?

  Do I run?

  

  YOU WILL DO NEITHER. TAKE YOUR LASHING, FOOLISH CHILD. PUNISHMENT FOR YOUR DEEDS IN CORALHAVEN.

  My deeds? What did I do wrong—I did everything you told me to.

  “Now, The Maiden mentioned you had a package you were to deliver to me. Weeks ago…”

  Patience studied Zeke’s face. His gaze stopped on a vertical cheek scar. There. Right there. I will split that wound open again when I plunge my blade into your skull.

  He reached into his Inventory, then handed Zeke the black box. The Voice growled and cursed the box.

  

  DISGRACEFUL! YOU'VE BEEN ENCUMBERED BY THIS MEDALLION THIS ENTIRE TIME? THIS IS DEATH'S DOING.

  Fury and hatred swept through Patience so swiftly he almost fell to a knee.

  “Thank you," Zeke said. "Now if you’ll excuse me, I have further preparations to arrange for your battle.”

  Patience resisted the urge to close that smile for good. He daydreamed of killing the man, and that would suffice. For now. “Aye. You are dismissed, Pastor Zeke.”

  Patience walked away. He paid close attention to his cadence, to appear as natural as possible, less he be thought a coward.

  A cold chill wrapped around him. A black mist, low to the ground, followed it.

  Ah. So you already opened the box…

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