So I revised the Patreon tears and added a free 30 day preview. I am going to be filling with my personal blog and chapters of my original stories putting a excerpt from the story and then making chapters available monthly over at Patreon This is the beginning of Apocrypha a operative struggling to survive in a world where magic and technology compete for the soul of humanity
You can read the complete first chapter at https://www.patreon.com/paperphoenixink
Apocrypha was in the hospital again. She closed her eyes for a moment and drank in her surroundings at once so familiar and so disquieting. The smell of anti-septic, the sound of the nurses conversation at the front desk, the echoing cries of people who had given up on using the call button, the feel of the vinyl armrests of the chair, so close to comfortable. She released her breath and opened her eyes, her father was silent as he had been for two days, the only indication he was still with her being the rising and falling of his chest and the regular beep beep of the machines that monitored his condition. She gripped the handles of the chair as the machines briefly changed their syncopation but a moment later, they returned to the gentle beep beep beep.
She rose to her feet suddenly, her hands moving across her body to check on her phone, keys and adjust the shoulder rig that held her gun and moved to the window. The doctor had said he would be there in the morning to discuss her father’s illness, but it was now almost 12:30 and she was swiftly running out of patience. The window showed nothing but the large expanse of the hospital’s parking garage, a view she had long since memorized. She turned back around as several people entered the room. Her father’s roommate had a steady stream of people moving in and out. She wondered what it would be like to have a large family, for as long as she could remember it had only been her and her father. She sat back down in the chair and waited.
Three hours later the doctor walked in.
“Hi I am Doctor Studivant.” The doctor handed her his card and she looked at his briefly and then slid it into her back pocket to join the ten or so cards she already possessed. She shook his hand and smiled, she had long ago stopped getting upset at the doctor’s showing up late, it was part of her life, like being shot at.
“Is there any news about my father?”
“Well you father’s condition is complicated. We are not just dealing with a normal disease. The influenza is manna infused and is actively disputing any of the drugs we try to use. I have never seen anything like it except in the journals. His reports say he spent a lot of time out of the country.”
“We travelled a lot as missionaries in the past but we have been in the city for the last couple of years.”
“What can sometimes happen is that a person can catch the disease in an area without magic and then once the patients enters an area with more magic present it can feed off that power and use it to attack the carrier.”
The doctor stopped for a minute and his face slid into a carefully constructed expression giving away no emotion. Apocrypha knew that face it meant bad news was coming.
“The problem being is while we can treat the symptoms he is experiencing and keep his vital functions going. We do not have the ability to fight the root cause. I am not sure of your religion’s views, but have you contacted The Word. They have bishops who are capable healers and they might be able to purge the infection from your father.”
“My father has certain… objections to the church. Are there any other options.”
The doctor looked around the room, not meeting her eyes?
“Listen doctor I am open to anything that might help him.”
“I do know some people who provide alternate care but they are not licensed and are highly expensive.”
“Just give me their names doctor and I will go from there.”
Apocrypha looked at her dad in the bed one last time and walked out of the room. She needed cash for when the doctor gave her the information, black market shamans were never cheap and rarely dependable, but her father had made her promise not to go to The Word. She pulled her phone and hit the first speed dial.
“Sin Eater’s corporate resolution solutions how may I help you.”
“Marie, this is Apocrypha is Vince around.”
“He’s not in.”
“Is he not in or not taking my phone call?”
“…. um …well.”
“It’s okay Marie I shouldn’t have put you on the spot. just let him know I called and am open to any assignment he might have for me, dungeon crawl included.”
“I will.”
You can read the complete first chapter at https://www.patreon.com/paperphoenixink