As night set, the servant drew the blinds and started lighting the bronze oil lamps set throughout Doctor Wu’s study. This light was different from the dazzling sunlight I’d observed earlier, and it made the room feel warm and comforting. I sat in a chair with Cabbagy in my lap and waited.

  “How can you look around this room and think that there won’t be a cure here?” I asked.

  The servant turned with a raised eyebrow.

  “Was the honored guest addressing me? Or the cabbage?”

  “Cabbagy,” I said with a smile.

  “Ah.”

  The servant lit the last of the lamps.

  “Doctor Wu is almost finished with her preparations. She shall call the patient shortly.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Do you need any refreshments while you wait?”

  “No, thank you.”

  The servant gave me a polite bow and left the room.

  “This won’t work, kid,” Cabbagy said once we were alone. “

  “They say that defying the heavens is all about determination, and I am determined to save you.”

  “Who says that? Just because you act like a cultivator doesn’t make you one! Don’t forget you’ve only been awake for a couple of weeks. You shouldn’t be obsessing over death like this when you’re just a baby!”

  “Maybe I am a cultivator…” I whispered as I conjured a flicker of Jiang Jian’s flame on the tip of my index finger.

  “You’re not a cultivator, kid. You’re just like those oil lamps. No matter how bright you burn, if you don’t get more oil, you’ll go dark.”

  I snuffed out the flame with a frown. He had a point: there wasn’t much of Jiang Jian’s qi left in my reservoir.

  “I have other gifts.”

  “Yes, you do, and you should explore those gifts.”

  “I am exploring those gifts. I know I’ve been busy since arriving in the city, but it’s only the first day. I’ll get back to training as soon as possible.”

  “Kid…”

  “What? Are you going to say something pessimistic?”

  “...”

  “Don’t worry, master, I’ll save you no matter what.”

  “When people say that, it means they might have to do something they don’t want to.”

  Before I could respond, Doctor Wu stepped into the room. A faint waft of medicinal wind came in from the surgical room behind her. She wore robes of spotless white, with white gloves that ran up to her elbows, and a long white mask that concealed her nose and mouth. Her eyes shone with the light of the oil lamps.

  My heart thudded in my chest.

  She looked like the cultivators from the facility.

  Instinctively, I clutched Cabbagy tightly.

  I was stronger now, I told myself, I could fight my way out if I needed to, but the fear didn’t believe me.

  “I’m ready,” she told me gently.

  Her voice was so calm that I couldn’t help but soften my grip.

  “Please make him better,” I said as I handed Cabbagy over to her.

  “I’m the best doctor in Mountain Root City,” she said with a smile. “And I promise to do my best.”

  ###

  Doctor Wu’s surgical room was brightly lit as though it were day. Medical herbs were lined on one wall, and various acupuncture charts lined the other. In the middle was an operating table on which she placed the rotting cabbage.

  After locking the door behind her, she took off her mask and gloves.

  “How is the honored guest?” she asked.

  “Still talking to the cabbage."

  Her servant stepped away from the wall where he’d stood so still as to appear a mannequin.

  “It’s almost a shame he didn’t come here for himself. I might have actually been able to help.”

  “I’m sure the doctor would have been able to cure him in an instant.”

  “You flatter me,” she said with a smile. “Now, you got all the ingredients on the list?”

  “I did.”

  “Good, my stocks were getting low. Did you get the final ingredient?”

  “Of course,” he said as he gestured to a burlap sack on the counter.

  “Wonderful,” Doctor Wu said. “This should probably take some time; otherwise, the honored guest might get suspicious. Ensure he is distracted and attended to.”

  “Of course,” he said with a bow before leaving the room.

  Doctor Wu faced the cabbage with a smile. Even moldering, it smelled like money.

  “Do you have anything you’d like to tell me before the procedure?” she asked.

  The cabbage remained silent.

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  “Very well then,” she said as she reached for the burlap sack. “Let us proceed.”

  ###

  Doctor Wu’s servant brought me some tea, but otherwise left me alone. He could tell how tense I was, and though he radiated smugness, he was polite and left me alone. It made sense that he would have practiced such courtesy with other patients. The tea was exceptional, and the flavor brought images of strolling beside flooded rice fields, but it didn’t calm my nerves.

  The doors to Doctor Wu’s surgical room were still and silent. It reminded me too much of the facility. Shards of memories flashed into my mind. Watching the cultivators take the subject down the long hall toward the surgical room. Sometimes the test subject would come back, and sometimes I would never see them again. Had those test tube people been test subjects I shared a corridor with? Communication through those thick windows was impossible, but we could catch each other’s eye and share our humanity.

  I never wanted to experience that again.

  Not just the confined space, but the helplessness.

  Of course, there was only one path to enable that. I must become strong, and I must become terrifying. I would be like a spider, or a blade, or a burning coal — something nobody dared to wrap their hand around. Cabbagy had mocked me before, but one thing was true.

  I was determined to train and master my abilities and any other abilities I could gain.

  Because being undying became a curse if I was caged. To truly survive, I must become uncapturable.

  Such thoughts swallowed my mind, and the hours passed with a muddy sense of timelessness, until a medicinal scent made me look up.

  Doctor Wu stood before me.

  My heart thudded when I saw her, the involuntary action announcing my nerves like a smith’s hammer on brittle metal. I had to force myself to speak.

  “How is he?”

  Her smile was brighter than the lamps.

  “The procedure was a success,” she said. “Come this way.”

  I swallowed the last of my tea and followed her to a room of beds. All were empty, save one. Cabbagy lay tucked on one of the beds, his head resting on a soft pillow, and the sheet tucked halfway up his body. Though he was largely concealed, what leaves I could see were as vibrant and green as new shoots in spring.

  I darted forward.

  “Cabbagy!” I shouted, completely overjoyed. “You look incredible!”

  I picked him up and examined him in the light. His leaves were as green and tight as they had been when I first picked him up in the dirt of the village. I could scarcely believe my eyes.

  “Thank you, Doctor Wu!” I said with a deep bow. “You are truly a miracle worker!”

  She seemed almost uncomfortable with my praise.

  “There’s no need for that,” she said humbly. “I’m just happy that I could help.”

  “How do you feel, Cabbagy?” I asked him.

  He didn’t respond, and as the silence dragged on, my heart skipped a beat.

  “Is he alright?” I asked Doctor Wu nervously. “Why won’t he talk?”

  “Oh, he’s recovering,” she said. “Sometimes it can take patients quite a while to get their energy back after such an intense procedure.”

  I nodded, relieved at her words, though a small amount of tension remained in my shoulders.

  “That makes sense,” I said. “Is there any aftercare I should worry about?”

  “Actually,” she said. “There is a bathhouse further up the mountain known as Icemelt Fountains. You should take him there twice a week, and let me know when you are going so that I can check up on his recovery.”

  “You would truly take time out of your schedule to help with that?”

  “I would,” she said with a nod.

  I bowed again.

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t worry, the Stone Forest Trading House is reimbursing me for this. Now, I won’t keep you any longer. Good night, honored guest.”

  She bowed to me as her servant appeared and led me to the door.

  ###

  I stepped out into the brisk night air of Mountain Root City with high hopes and a rejuvenated Cabbagy tucked under my arm. Breathing deep, I started back towards the Vermillion Ibex.

  “I hope you wake up soon,” I said. “I need to brag about how right I was.”

  “I’m awake,” Cabbagy said in a voice that seemed younger and higher-pitched.

  I glanced down at him.

  “You’re awake!” I shouted with glee. “I told you so, Cabbagy! I told you so!”

  “He said you would say that,” Cabbagy said.

  I frowned.

  “Who said what?”

  “Cabbagy told me you would say that you told him so.”

  My frown deepened.

  “What are you talking about, Cabbagy?”

  “I’m not Cabbagy.”

  My heart stilled as cold seeped through my veins.

  “Who are you?’

  “Whoa! No need to look so hostile! My name is Cabbajoe.”

  “Cabbajoe,” I said slowly.

  “That’s right! A pleasure to meet you.”

  “What the fuck is going on, Cabbajoe?” I said as I slowly squeezed his leaves.

  “Hey, hey, hey! I’ll tell you, geeze! Doctor Wu switched me for Cabbagy. She figured you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

  “Oh,” I said, feeling surprisingly calm. “Ok.”

  I turned back and walked up the street.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to go kill Doctor Wu until she tells me where Cabbagy is?”

  “How does that…. What? You’re insane! Look, I can tell you where Cabbagy is.”

  I held him up to my eyes.

  “Tell me.”

  It turned out Cabbagy was lying in a garbage bin out the back of Doctor Wu’s house.

  “Cabbagy!” I cried out as I picked him out of the trash. “My poor, sweet master! How could they do this to you?”

  “Hey, kid,” Cabbagy said as I brushed tea leaves and grimy bandages off his face. “I told you so.”

  “He he he he,” Cabbajoe said from where I’d placed him on the ground. “It’s just as funny as you said, Cabbagy!”

  I glowered at the two of them.

  “This isn’t funny,” I said.

  “Nah, it’s hilarious,” Cabbajoe said. “You just need to get a better sense of humor. Maybe you can see Doctor Wu about that, and she can swap one out for you? He he he he!”

  “Ha ha ha, nice one, Cabbajoe.”

  I glowered at them both.

  “I’ve half a mind to leave you both in the trash.”

  “Come on, kid. We’re just having a bit of fun.”

  “I was really worried about you. I am really worried about you. This isn’t fun for me.”

  “I know, kid, but that’s what I was trying to tell you.”

  “What? That I shouldn’t worry about death because I’m a baby?’

  “He he he, he’s a big baby!”

  “Shut up, Cabbajoe,” Cabbagy said. “There’s a time and place.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Look, kid. I’m going to lay this out for you in terms I hope you understand. Death is a natural part of this world. There are the heavens, and there is the earth, and there are the hells, and they are linked by a great cycle of life, death, and qi. Everything that lives must die. If you don’t accept that, you really will go crazy, and if you spend your life pursuing that denial, then you will lose your humanity.”

  “But what about cultivators? They defy the heavens in their pursuit of immortality?”

  “Go on then, name a cultivator pursuing immortality who isn’t crazy or inhuman.”

  I immediately thought of Chen Ai, but even she was a little bit crazy with her talk of life debts. Also, I’d only known her for a week, and though that was half a lifetime for me, I knew that she was still young. Though I trusted her judgment right now, would she still be so levelheaded in eighty years as age devoured her vitality?

  For the first time, I had a glimmer of understanding of what led to the demonic cultivators building the facility. Cabbagy must have seen that in my eyes, because his next words were kinder.

  “There’s one more thing I need to tell you, kid.”

  “What?

  “You’re unnatural. We both know you’ve taken punishment that should have sent you to the grave, but you haven’t died. I’m convinced that you won’t die. That you can’t.”

  I saw his point, no matter how much I wished I didn’t understand.

  “So I have to watch everyone else grow old and die? I have to watch you die?”

  “No, kid.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “You’re unnatural. You exist in defiance of the great cycle between the heavens and the earth, and inside your head is the secret to breaking that cycle.”

  “What secret? What are you talking about?”

  Cabbagy let out a sigh, and I could tell that he was revealing something he never wanted to share.

  “There is one way for you to save me and —”

  “Anything! I’ll do anything!”

  “You said that earlier, but I don’t think you know the gravity of such a statement.”

  “You said I might have to do something I’ll regret.”

  “Yeah… well… someone will regret this. Maybe you, maybe me, maybe Cabbajoe.”

  “No regrets, baby!” Cabbajoe said as a cockroach crawled over him. “I’m living my best life!”

  We watched him for a moment before I leaned down and flicked the cockroach off his head.

  “What are you talking about, Cabbagy? You said you wouldn’t be cryptic.”

  “Fine, kid,” he said. “If you really want to, I can show you the ritual that can save my life.”

  “What? There’s a ritual?”

  “Yeah, one that you already know.”

  I shook him in frustration.

  “I don’t know any rituals. Stop being cryptic!”

  He glared at me.

  “Damnit, you idiot! I’m talking about the shard inside your head! I’m talking about the ritual that made you what you are!”

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