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.
