MK Hutchins’ second short story (after The Librarian’s Duel) in Aconyte Books’ KeyForge anthology Tales From the Crucible, Useful Parasites is a tale of loneliness, gentle kindness and the importance of grieving. Juniper-kin treewalker Taryx lives a quiet life tending his garden and ministering to the wounded creatures of the forest, mourning the absence of an important friend and waiting for his grief to fade. When his latest patient turns out to be a strange part-cybernetic creature the likes of which he’s never encountered before, he sees an opportunity to put his loneliness aside, but worries things aren’t all they seem with his patient.
Taryx is a wonderfully warm, caring character and Hutchins gives him an enjoyable voice full of nature-related metaphors, rooting him (excuse the pun) in an arboreal setting which maintains the Crucible’s sense of wild variety while steering much more towards fantasy than sci-fi. The source of Taryx’s sadness gradually becomes clear as he interacts more with his patient and wrestles with his conscience over what he learns, and the story’s gentle pace belies a creeping sense of unease which resolves in a fairly dark but satisfying manner. Beneath the surface fantasy this is really a story about someone getting to grips with their grief and remembering that hiding from pain isn’t the same thing as healing, and it’s beautifully bittersweet.
Click here for reviews of other KeyForge stories from this anthology.
