“So, this is it…” Tiller stood, hands on hips, before the composter.

  It seemed nothing more than a wooden crate on legs. There was a heavy wooden lid on hinges that could be opened to load the inputs. At the bottom of the front was another hinged panel, a flap like a doggy door. This was where he understood the outputs would exit the device. Tiller regarded the contraption with some scepticism.

  Reader stood beside him, eyes glowing and happening. “Holy crap…”

  Cutter, behind them, said, “What?”

  Reader shook his head in slow amazement. “So many weaves… God… They’re so complex… I can’t imagine the kind of skill it would take to be able to make something like this.”

  Tiller said, “So it’s going to work?”

  Reader shrugged. “It’s sure as heck going to do something, that’s for sure. I feel like I’m looking at the inside of a computer. There are so many pieces, and I can see that they’re complicated and unfathomable. Did you ever do that, open up a phone or some other kind of electronic and just feel like you were looking at magic? Like, you know all those chips and transistors and capacitors come together to make it work, but you can’t imagine any one person ever being able to understand all of it?”

  Tiller nodded. “If we’re versions of each other I guess you know I have. And I do get what you mean actually. I wish I could see what you’re seeing.”

  Reader’s voice was vacant, his eyes locked on the composter. “I don’t know if you do really. It’s giving me a headache…”

  Grim snapped, “For flip’s sake, are we going to get rid of the flipping body or are we just going to stand around… er… Flip and ship on this, I wish I could swear the right way.”

  Tiller nodded. “One way or the other, you’re right. Let’s get this done.”

  They all turned to the mound. They regarded the burial heap that had plagued them, the repository of the dark secret that could yet doom them all.

  Cutter said, “You know, if Tonk has really set his sights on us, getting rid of the evidence mightn’t really matter any more. He’s pretty sure he knows what we did and what’s under that mound. Getting rid of it mightn’t solve any problems.”

  Tiller said, “Keeping it around can only make things worse. At least there’s a chance this might solve things. And, besides, the composter was always going to be a necessary tool for the expansion of the farm. What was it Dad used to say, about how God’s not making any more land? Well, this is going to put the lie to that.”

  Tiller raised his hands and the Earth sigil at his wrist began to glow faintly. “Okay, we ready? If you want to look away, now is the time.”

  The sigil flared with light and the mound flowed. It rose like an inverted waterfall, the soil rising in a stream, pouring upwards, then arcing across to the waiting open mouth of the composter. Tiller’s advice to look away was largely unnecessary. There were glimpses of the macabre contents of the earthen mound as it flowed, a flash of leather or mottled green flesh, but on the whole they saw little of the last remains of Bonk.

  The lid of the composter snapped closed of its own volition once the heap and the corpse had finished flowing into it. The frame began to vibrate, the entire device bouncing and rattling. Several of them felt the compulsion to step back. The rattling of the composter was too reminiscent of a pressure cooker or boiler on the verge of explosion.

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  Lita’s digital eyes were narrowed in an expression of pained concern. “Uh, how long’s this gonna take, bruh? Are we talking, like, come back later kind of time?”

  Reader’s eyes were fixed on the device. He alone among them had actually stepped closer, enthralled by the glowing, pulsing threads that only he could see. He mumbled, captivated, “You know… I don’t think it’s going to take that long…”

  Even as he spoke, the doggy flap door at the front swung up, as if lifted by invisible hands, and the machine vomited a stream of rich black earth. The stream of soil jettisoned with force, like water from a pressure washer, piling rapidly to form a squat mountain of soil.

  The heap continued to grow and it was Tiller’s turn to stare wide-eyed. “It’s still coming… Holy crap, it’s still coming. There’s so much! Aw, we should have measured what we put in. I did add a fair bit of earth, but holy crap, look how much is coming out!”

  There was a growing excitement amongst all of them. The relief of finally being rid of the evidence was palpable and real among them. But the excitement at the miracle of the new soil was no less momentous. This was the path to the millions that would be needed for their mission to be accomplished. Increment by increment they could make their land vaster now.

  Cutter said, “How much is it making? I mean, I can see how much it’s making, but… how much is it? What can you do with it?”

  The stream of black soil began to sputter and thin, slowing in speed and reducing in force.

  Tiller watched as the production began to die off. “I’ll need to lay it out, but I don’t know, this looks like enough extra soil to grow… this might be enough to grow a whole extra seed packet…”

  Reader’s brows were raised high. “From one body?”

  Cutter said, “To be fair, it was a pretty big body.”

  Tiller nodded. “Yeah, sure, he was big. But how many monsters do you kill every day, Cutter? You could be bringing them back. They might be worth more in the long run than the gold you earn on the jobs. I think it can process any organic material as well. We need to be gathering vegetation from other land islands. Heck, I could grow a bunch of something just to feed it in here. Oh my God, guys, this is it! We can really do it. Imagine, all the white here covered in earth. Fields and fields of it. Like Cronk’s farm. But bigger. As far as the eye can see…”

  Tiller’s face had taken on a hazy, dreamy expression. Cutter glanced at him. “Hey, slow down there a touch. I don’t know about as far as the eye can see, but I catch your drift…”

  Lita was the only one who seemed perturbed. He glanced from one face to another, as if seeking something in their expressions. When he didn’t find it, he mumbled, too low to really be heard, “Dudes… am I the only one who finds all of this a bit, I dunno, a bit dark? We murdered that guy and now he’s dirt for us to make money from…” Lita’s little stone form shuddered with welling revulsion. “This is gonna make for some bad joo joo. Yeuch.”

  They all stood, looking at the pile of black earth. Their salvation, perhaps, from the threat of the ogres, and the potential for them to resolve their overriding challenge. So fixated were they on the composter and the treasure it had produced that they failed completely to notice the figure slipping away through the long grass.

  Cutter’s ear cocked to the sky. “Whuuuut?”

  He snapped his head around, searching with sudden panic. The others reacted, his response alarming them. Lita said, “What’s up, bruh?”

  Cutter’s eyes were wide, searching. He stalked forward towards the grass, his hand on the haft of his glaive. “The fucking narrator… I think he said… Oh shit, there!”

  They all followed his pointing finger and saw the back of an ogre disappearing away from them at the edge of their island. The ogre slipped down, climbing away from them to the white and disappearing from sight.

  They all surged forward. Tiller’s voice, laced with panic and anxiety, chanted, “Oh shit oh shit shit shit!”

  They swept through the long grass and reached the edge of the island. Cutter snarled, “The fuck is that?”

  Reader said, “A yak? It’s moving pretty fast.”

  It was Tonk. Of course it was Tonk. He was thundering across the white on the back of a vast hairy cow-like animal.

  Tiller grabbed Cutter’s shoulder. “Can you guys catch him?”

  Cutter pulled away, Lita already morphing into bike form. “Hell yeah we can. This is starting to feel like Red Dead, you know when you kill a witness, and then someone else sees it and then there’s a witness to that murder and you have to chase him down, but then when you kill him there’s another witness—”

  Tiller snapped, eyes popping. “Holy shit, Cutter, we can talk about this after, he’s getting away.”

  Cutter flashed a savage grin. “Chill, man. He’s moving fast but he’s nothing to the stone-robo-mobile. Hey, Stone Robot, what time is it?”

  Lita’s voice was eager, the previous hesitation washed away by the prospect of action. “Dude, it’s time to…”

  The duo finished together, their voices one with excitement, “… GIT SOME!”