Chapter 18 - Second Shift
They escaped the hospital in a stolen wheelchair.
Technically, Mason argued, the wheelchair had been abandoned.
Tessa argued that hospital ownership law did not care about his spiritual technicalities.
Elias Ward laughed until he coughed blood.
They loaded him into the Rook.
The back seat was too small.
The suspension complained.
Ward looked around the interior.
“This car is awful.”
Mason started the engine.
“It has three hundred thousand miles.”
“Then it is experienced awful.”
Mason liked him too.
They brought Ward to the River Furnace workshop.
Over the next week, Mason repaired more than he fought.
A support brace for Ward’s spine.
A qi-damping cane.
A circulatory rig built from old medical pumps and Reclaimer formations.
Ward improved slowly.
Not miraculously.
That mattered.
“You cannot repair people like carburetors,” Ward told Mason.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I tried cleaning Tessa with brake solvent. She objected.”
Tessa threw a rag at him.
Ward smiled.
Then he became serious.
“Your path will tempt you to fix everyone.”
Mason looked at the old man.
“Is that bad?”
“Yes.”
Ward tapped his cane against the floor.
“Repair without consent is just another kind of control.”
The system chimed.
[PATH INSIGHT ACCEPTED]
Mason sighed.
“Could you stop making my system like you?”
“No.”
They needed money.
The workshop had power, but Mason’s apartment did not accept cultivation insight as rent.
So Tessa posted a listing in hidden cultivator forums.
SECOND SHIFT REPAIR.
Relic restoration. Formation maintenance. Honest assessment. No sect contracts.
The first customer arrived at 1:15 a.m. with a cracked spirit blade.
The second brought an enchanted espresso machine.
Mason refused to ask.
The third was a courier with boots that increased speed but randomly turned left.
They made twelve thousand dollars in four nights.
Mason paid rent.
Paid three months ahead.
Bought groceries without checking his bank balance in the aisle.
That felt more supernatural than Iron Sinew.
Then Todd Kessler appeared at the workshop entrance.
He looked exhausted.
“Mason.”
Mason set down a formation wrench.
“Todd.”
“I need help.”
Tessa muttered, “This should be good.”
Todd explained that Mercer House had stopped using his yard after the Blackstar dispute. Worse, someone else had started buying surrounding properties through shell companies.
“They’re forcing me out.”
Mason folded his arms.
“The man who fired me for being weak is asking for help.”
Todd winced.
“Yes.”
Mason enjoyed exactly three seconds of this.
Then Ward asked, “Who is buying?”
Todd handed over a document.
Ashen Crown Urban Renewal LLC.
Ward’s expression changed.
“They found the furnace.”
Mason looked at the map.
The shell company was not buying only Todd’s yard.
It had purchased sixteen blocks.
All abandoned industrial property.
All surrounding Old River Foundry.
The system opened a city map.
Red lines connected the parcels.
[FORMATION PATTERN DETECTED]
Mason stared.
“They’re not buying land.”
Ward nodded.
“They’re building a harvesting array.”
---
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