Death Cultivator by eden Hudson (knowledgeable books to read .txt) 📗

cultivating Spirit for the OSS’s buyers.

Did they teach you how? she asked.

Breathe in, breathe out, don’t let the Spirit escape? I guess I have a Mortal affinity? That’s about all I know.

She sent, Do you have to cultivate with them?

I was in the middle of typing, They said I can do it anywhere when another message popped up from her.

Can you come to the boneyard? It’s on the north end of town.

I deleted the message I’d been writing and told her I would ask.

Muta’i was in the back room at a workbench, pumping a tiny bellows at a tiny Bunsen burner. A miniature roasting spit belted to what looked like an egg timer turned a bluish-purple gemstone over the flames.

“I’m going to the boneyard,” I said, kind of half-questioning, half-telling.

He didn’t look up from his gem-roasting. “I don’t need a running commentary on your day, indenture. Show up when I message you and we won’t have problems.”

“Thanks.” I headed for the exit at a speed-walk, just in case that had been sarcasm or some kind of sick joke, but the minotaur didn’t call me back.

So I wasn’t totally enslaved.

Boneyard Cultivation

IT TOOK ME A FEW MINUTES to orient myself with Ghost Town’s layout, but eventually I got headed in the right direction. At the north edge of town sat a gloomy looking fallen-in building that could’ve been a little chapel or a big shrine at one time. The dark orange-magenta rays of the black sun’s corona were starting to bleed into the horizon behind the ruined building and give it a weird, bloody cast. All around the old building was a garden of sand-scoured headstones and makeshift wood and metal markers, surrounded by a battered wrought iron fence.

Rali and Kest were waiting by the gate. Seeing them made me grin, even though I’d only known them for like a day. So far, they were the only friends I had on this planet. Heck, in this universe.

Except when I got to them, Kest wasn’t smiling and Rali’s smile looked forced.

“Hey guys,” I said, trying to sound normal. I did stop a couple steps away, though, in case of...I don’t know...a fight or yelling or something. I hooked my thumbs in my back pockets. “What’s up?”

Rali fell on his knees and pressed his face to the sandy red dirt. “I give you my sincerest apology, Grady Hake. From the depths of my soul, I’m sorry for causing the fight that got you indentured to the OSS. You only entered into it in defense of my carelessness. It’s my fault you don’t have the spotless record to buy your way off-planet now. It should be my name chained to them. Tell me what I have to do to repay my debt, and it will be done to three times your specification.”

My eyes were bugging out. “What the heck, man? Get up.”

“And you can have the blood money the OSS paid us,” Kest said.

I shook my head. “I don’t want your guys’ money or repayment or whatever. Get up, dude. Stop being weird.”

Rali didn’t move.

“It’s a matter of honor,” he said. “I refuse to go without some sort of atonement for getting you into this.”

“So make me some of that sweet mochi you were talking about and sneak it to me,” I said, shrugging. “I’m probably going to miss my Spirit quota for the day, so some food’ll really hit the spot.”

Rali looked up. “Spirit quota?”

I explained about the Transferogate and the fall short, don’t eat rule.

“That might be the most evil thing I’ve ever heard,” he said, sitting back on his heels. “Fine, I accept sneaking you food on any night you fail your quota as just payment for my careless sins.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Too late, I accepted.” He stood up and dusted the sand off. “No takesies-backsies.”

On my right, Kest leaned in and inspected the Transferogate, tracing wires and poking at the metal. Her being so close and staring so hard made me remember I didn’t have a shirt on. Also that I hadn’t had a shower in a couple days and didn’t smell great.

I tilted away from her a little. “What’re you looking for?”

“Transferogate Mark-II Spirit Siphon,” she said, but more like she was talking to herself than to me. “It’s a newer model, pretty advanced.”

She tugged on a wire, and I sidestepped out of her reach.

“It’s connected to my tattoo,” I said. “If it gets tampered with, it’s Pain City for me.”

“What he means is hands off,” Rali said, raising his voice meaningfully.

Kest looked from him to me, frowning, then pulled her hand back. I shot him a grateful look.

“You have to be blunt when she goes metal-crazy or she’ll never hear you,” Rali said.

She shrugged like she didn’t care. “I didn’t want to meet so we could see your new tech or apologize—”

“That’s good because I don’t want your apology,” I said.

Rali snorted, but Kest ignored me.

“Now that we know about your quota, this is an even better plan. I can’t prove this quantifiably because someone removed his implant so he could be cool and nonconformist,” she said, shooting a glare at her brother. “But before he did that, Rali was the best cultivator in Ghost Town, top-fifty ranked in all of the Wilderness Territories.”

“Numerically,” he said like that was the dumbest thing he could think of.

Kest glared at him. “You should’ve offered to teach Hake how to meet his quota instead of agreeing to sneak him food.”

“I reject the concept of quantifying Spirit,” Rali said, lazily spinning his walking stick. “Besides, the no eating is the real injustice here.”

“He has no idea what he’s doing,” Kest argued.

I walked through the broken cemetery gate and nodded at the headstones.

“I know Mortal Spirit’s easier to find around graves,” I said.

“There’s so much more,” Kest said. “Kishotenketsu and taiji and...” She threw up her hands. “I can list all the facts, but the facts don’t make up the whole of it. It’s infuriating, but that’s probably why I still