Page 11 of Patron of Mercy

Yawning, he went below deck, shedding his clothes in crumpled heaps on the floor until he stood there in nothing but plaid boxers, raking his eyes over his collection of box-set DVDs.

“What should I watch tonight?” he asked her.

There was a soft rattle. A second later, a box fell off the shelf onto the floor. He turned it over. It was a show calledAlone—not his favorite.

“Oh, haha. You’re very funny.”

He stuck it back on the shelf and picked out another. “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to watchFriends, because I don’t have any.”

He grinned. He liked to think Mis enjoyed his humor, even if she didn’t have a voice to laugh. She hadn’t thrown him overboard yet.

Once he queued up an episode, he crawled into bed. The master bedroom—which was basically a bed with enough space for one person to walk around it and a tiny attached bathroom—was clean and comfortable when Mis had her way, but without fail, Lach messed it up with abandoned clothes, beer bottles, and protein bar wrappers. On the wall opposite the bed, it sported a flat-screen television. Lach might not be up to date on all modern conveniences, but he liked TV. It was nice to be able to hear voices, even prerecorded ones.

“You know, Mis, I still think Rachel could’ve done better. I mean, Ross can talk a big game, but she’s clearly the superior mage.” If she’d been more confident, she might’ve caught someone who appreciated her. Or at least she’d have been able to say what she wanted.

He sighed, sinking back into the pillows. “You’re right. She definitely could’ve had it worse.” Rachel could’ve been sleeping alone with a sour stomach, talking to a boat who’d never talk back.

The Gift of Death

He watched Lach walk away, and it made his gut twist the same way it had all those years ago. This time he’d been the one acting like an ass. Somehow, it hurt just the same.

He shook his head and looked around. Lach was obviously heading for the closest metro station, and Thanatos needed some time alone, so he turned in the opposite direction.

The pull of a soul in need of his guidance drew his attention. Not all of those who died needed him. Not even all of those who died peacefully. Hermes helped some, and many had an innate sense of where to go when they died. Sometimes, though, they needed a helping hand.

He allowed the tug to pull him in and the universe sped around him, too fast to see anything but a blur. It was a little disconcerting, even after having done it billions of times during his existence.

That, like everything right now, made him think of Lach. Had he been so thoughtless, that he had never noticed Glaucus’s discomfort traveling on his arm? Being drawn from one place to another with no understanding of the place you were going was a strain, and he’d never considered how it made Lach feel to travel with him, only of the convenience and speed.

He had always tried not to become so detached from the world that he didn’t empathize with the feelings of others, but sometimes he felt like the world had turned into an incomprehensible mass of new information. It was too much, too fast, and always changing.

It made him feel as ancient as he was. He wondered if someday, the universe would move beyond him, no longer require death. Strangely, the thought brought him nothing but peace.

The pulling stopped, and he found himself in a hospital room. In much of the world they looked similar, so he was never sure where he was until he heard the language.

English. American. The room was in a panic, nurses chattering, a doctor with a defibrillator, and a sobbing woman who was refusing to leave, despite one of the nurses trying to usher her out. It was an odd scene for someone Thanatos had been called to guide.

The child was sitting in a chair at her own bedside, still and quiet, and he understood. She was only eight or nine, and the condition of her body in the bed said it had been a long illness. The living were loath to let someone so young go, even when there was no other possibility. The children were often the most accepting.

She turned to look at him. “Are you here to take me away?”

He nodded.

“Are you sure?” She bit her lip and looked at the sobbing woman. “I should stay, shouldn’t I? For Mom?”

“Do you think that would help her?” he asked. He couldn’t let people stay, but it was always best to let them come to that conclusion on their own.

“She’ll be lonely if I go.”

“She won’t be able to see you if you stay.”

She frowned and looked over at her body, where the doctor had finally given in to the inevitable, hanging her head and clenching her fists in frustration. “I made everyone sad.”

“No. This isn’t because of you. It happened to you as much as to them. You couldn’t control it.” He walked over to crouch beside where she sat, hands folded primly on her lap, watching the events unfolding almost impassively.

She turned to look at him. “Are you God?”

“Not in the sense you mean, no. I’m just Thanatos. I came to take you where you’re going.”

---