“The study of dynamics can be split into multiple parts,” said Nadia’s voice. “However, the basis you shall learn is rigid body dynamics, as that is simplest. Once you understand rigid bodies, we shall move on to more focused studies.”

James listened to Nadia’s lectures again, a headphone in one ear. Cultivators walked past, darting in and out of the stores for purchases and sales. James caught the tail end of more than one servitor as it rounded the corners. He swept a discarded piece of scrap into his trash bucket.

“To begin, there are three rules that govern the classical dynamics. The first is that an objects velocity is constant if there is no net force acting upon it.”

It had taken James some time to understand, but it basically boiled down to, an object won’t change its speed unless a force does something to it.

“The second rule is that the change in momentum of an object is equal to the net force acting on the object.”

James was still struggling with this one. It had something to do with how hard an object would push something.

“The third and final rule is when an object exerts force on a second object, that second object exerts an equal but opposite force against it.”

That just meant every force had an equal opposite force. And while James understood that, he was having a hard time wrapping his head around the idea. He walked over to a discarded can and scooped it up. He wondered how he picked the can up if there was an equal force acting against him.

“It makes no sense,” he muttered to himself.

Nadia’s voice continued on, explaining various terms he would have to learn, like vectors. James actually liked vectors, they reminded him of the lines he saw in the Metastate.

“At its simplest, a vector is an object that hold direction and magnitude. Magnitude describes the size of the vector, while direction describes the position of travel. In your studies vectors will mainly be used to describe forces.”

James dodged an incoming servitor, picking a discarded piece of scrap off its frame as it passed. He placed it in his trash can and moved along. A can bounced beside him. A nearby cultivator had tossed the item to the side.

It was a wonder how anything in the market street stayed clean with how careless everyone seemed to be. Some of the cultivators seemed to have it out for James, sure, but on the whole most of the discarded items were because they were broken and just tossed to the ground. More than once James found himself stowing a broken electronic in his robes.

Old habits died hard.

Another can bounced to the ground. James walked over and kicked it toward an incoming servitor. The can ricocheted off the metal and into the air. James maneuvered his bin to catch it.

Another piece of trash struck the one in the air, sending both flying into a crowd of cultivators. James sighed and turned around.

“Scrap playing with scrap, how appropriate,” a cultivator said.

It was the same young cultivator James had faced in the Skateball match. He stood with friends, his arms crossed as he haughtily looked down on James. Once James looked at them, the group released an entire bag of trash onto the ground.

“Be grateful we’re letting you get practice in, scrapheap,” the young cultivator said. “You can thank me at your leisure.”

“You sure you should be doing this instead of cultivating?” James asked innocently. “What if you fall behind because your meager work ethic can’t match your talent?”

“You dare!” one of the friends shouted. “Peregrine is ten times the cultivator you’ll ever be!”

Peregrine preened from the praise. “Now, now. I am magnanimous. No need to be upset over an insult from a lesser.”

James laughed. “Is that what you told yourself when you got beat in Skateball?”

The teenager froze. “A fluke, nothing more,” he said in cold anger.

James leaned on his trash stick, taking stock of the pieces of debris scattered around. One was just close enough to his foot. “You want to try again? Maybe put money on it?”

The teens laughed. “You couldn’t afford the entry fee, scrapheap. Besides, we train for more important things than mere games of Skateball.”

“Like bothering upstanding people picking up trash for the sect,” James said. He wasn’t trying to deescalate the situation. These teenagers had already made up their mind and no amount of convincing would stop them from bullying him.

The teenagers laughed. “There is nothing upstanding about scrap from outside the city.”

James laughed. “I think you enjoy scrap from the towers a lot, if that one’s pudgy face is anything to go by.”

He pointed to the slightly larger teen behind Peregrine. “Or didn’t you know that all the food comes from the towers?”

It seemed James had finally struck a nerve with the teenagers. Peregrine stepped aside as his friend thrust forward with a punch. James kicked out, sending the nearest can straight toward the attacker’s chin. The thrust changed into a spinning block of uncharacteristic grace.

The can shot back to James. He raised his trash bin. “Thank you for contributing to the betterment of the market floor, friends.”

Peregrine growled and stomped forward. “Come, scrapheap. Let us exchange blows to better understand our martial arts.”

James retreated. “Can it wait? Someone poured an entire bag of trash on the ground and I’m obligated to pick it up.”

Peregrine dashed forward, followed by his two cronies. James swept out with his stick, wildly knocking the nearby debris toward his foes. The cronies skirted to the side while Peregrine slipped around the trash with the unnatural grace of someone in the Metastate.

James hopped back, looking around to see if anyone would stop the fight. No one took notice, or pretended not to take notice. Sighing, James retreated into an alley between the stores.

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Peregrine’s two friends tried to go around, but the narrow alley let James continue to retreat and keep the three of them on one side. He sank into the Metastate as Peregrine removed a collapsible baton from under his robes.

“A poor excuse for a sword,” the young cultivator said. “But enough to discipline a stray beast.”

“Speaking from experience?” James needled.

Peregrine lashed out, testing the distance with his baton. James brought his trash stick up to deflect, using the extra range to keep the others at bay. The three were hounding him back, however, and James could tell from their movements that they were eventually going to corner him.

He took note of the alley as he retreated. Small cracks in the concrete would give him small handholds while the dumpster could give him elevation. Concrete also made it easier to run on the walls. But none of that would stop the three from chasing him.

James was used to running and had some experience fighting back, but he could tell he was in a mismatch. Peregrine, for all his arrogance, did have a solid foundation in his martial arts. The other two did as well. They attacked in succession, hounding James and never giving him a chance to rest.

Peregrine struck with a high blow while his friends aimed low. James blocked with his stick, but it wasn’t made to hold against multiple cultivators. He winced as the bottom end snapped and bounced at him.

Perhaps due to his new training, James had an inkling of how the broken stick would travel now that it had snapped. With its current force, each end of the piece would bounce once on the ground before jumping back into the air with a small flip. After that it would fall back to the ground and land with a clatter. He realized he could use that small period of time while the broken piece was in the air again.

Peregrine thrust forward, stepping closer now that James had less reach from his stick. James, to the young cultivator’s surprise, matched the step and followed with a kick. The young cultivator sneered at the obvious attack and brought his stick down to strike the incoming kick.

James altered its course at the last moment, putting his foot under the bouncing piece of debris and launching it at Peregrine. The attack caught the cultivator by surprise, striking him directly in the windpipe. James saw the debris falling to the ground and continued, the lines of energy in the Metastate directing him. He swung the stick in his hands and launched the stick at the crony to his left.

They dodged, but James had aimed for the wall behind. The debris ricocheted off the wall and into the back of the pudgy cultivator’s head. The surprise distraction gave James enough time to follow through with a strike to the cultivator’s gut, doubling him over.

The debris spun in the air above the pudgy cultivator. James reached up and grabbed it, turning to face the last opponent. A hand chopped toward his side. He blocked it one stick and tossed the other. The crony grabbed it, smirking in triumph now that James had lost a weapon.

James continued with a kick, halting the smug grin as the cultivator had to block. James threw the other piece of debris directly at the hand holding the stick. The cultivator moved to intercept as James rushed in behind his attack. The debris bounced, James seeing the direction it would take. He held out a hand, catching it on the rebound and bringing it down on the cultivator’s head. The cultivator brought a hand up to block.

James released the debris in his hand, letting it spin and bounce off his shoulder as he continued to bring his hand down. A step forward brought his fist into the cultivator’s gut. As the cultivator fell, James grabbed his stick and turned back to Peregrine.

The teenager was still standing, his voice gone from the strike to his throat. He glared at James in fury. The man rolled his eyes.

“You’re the one that asked for this,” he said.

Peregrine readied his baton and stepped, slicing with entitled rage. James deflected the blow and stepped in closer, grabbing the angered teen’s sleeve. Peregrine tried to stab down at Jame’s exposed back, but the man was already moving. He spun, yanking Peregine’s arm and throwing him off balance. James used the opening to strike the young cultivator’s wrist.

The baton clattered to the ground. Peregrine struggled in James’s hand, but the man’s training had made his grip strong. The young cultivator couldn’t escape no matter how hard he struggled.

“How?” the teen wheezed with all the fire and smoke of a volcano. “I’ve trained my entire life. Trained years to stand where I am, and yet you achieve in months what took years.”

“I’d say spite is an excellent motivator,” James answered. “But in this case I think it’s the threat of death hanging over my head.”

Peregrine looked at James in confusion. James made the same face.

“You don’t know?” He asked.

“I know that you are an upstart that clings to a master only marginally affiliated with the sect. I know that you are here to cause strife as she uses her power to divide our sect for others to eat at their leisure.”

“…I honestly don’t know how to reply to that,” James said.

It was the craziest propaganda he’d heard yet. But somehow it made a perverse amount of sense. He knew Nadia had a tentative relationship with Blue Mountain Sect. If she was ever at odds with the sect’s decisions, it wouldn’t be hard to paint her as a villain no matter how righteous her actions were.

“Your ‘master,’” Peregrine spat, “must have fed you the lie of death. I assumed you were complicit in this treachery, brought in to mar our honor. It seems you were lied to, scrapheap. No righteous cultivator would threaten another with death unless they had traveled too far down the demon’s path.”

“Junk,” James said. He’d just beaten a bunch of clueless teenagers. Great, now James felt bad

Peregrine took the curse as an agreement. “Indeed. But now that you know the truth we can turn the tables. I will talk to my master and we shall come to an agreement.”

James released the teenager. “Hold on. Let me think about this.”

“There is nothing to think about,” Peregrine said. “You have been deceived and were forced to be at odds but now we can work together to stop the true enemy.”

Peregrine was working on a false set of assumptions, but James knew he couldn’t outright say that. Heck, James could see himself believing the lie if he didn’t experience Osman and the other’s amoral nature firsthand.

“We need to think about this,” he said to Peregrine. James decided to play into the lie. “I can’t turn on master right away. It would be too suspicious.”

Peregrine helped his friends stand. “Not to worry, my master is powerful enough to protect you from retaliation.”

James shook his head. “That isn’t the point. If I switch sides now you won’t catch master. She would know something happened.”

“And she would retreat,” Peregrine finished. “I see what you mean, scrapheap.”

“It’s James, by the way,” he said.

“Then, we should work out a plan,” Peregrine said, ignoring James. “Does your master trust you?”

“I don’t see why she wouldn’t,” James said. “Where are you going with this?”

Peregrine grabbed his baton. “If you are able to acquire proof of her misdeeds, we can strike before she escapes.”

“That could take a while,” James said.

The young teenager nodded. “Until then we shall act as normal to not garner suspicion.”

“So you’ll continue to act as a bully,” James deadpanned.

Peregrine either ignored or didn’t notice the tone. “Yes. It is the best way to keep you safe. If your master stated death as an option then she could very well follow through with that promise herself. Appearances must be kept.”

“I’m not about to let you beat me up,” James said.

Peregrine shook his head, the teenager completely hooked on the conspiracy. James could see his excitement. This was probably the kind of thing he’d always wanted from cultivation. It was too bad he was being used by the wrong party.

It was too bad James had to keep up the lie.

“We will continue with this, but actually under the guise of trading pointers. Some days we might lose and others we might win. That won’t garner suspicion as you work on finding your master’s weaknesses.”

“Okay…” James said. “But if I do this, you have to make sure you don’t tell anyone else.”

“I must tell my master,” Peregrine said.

“No, I’m sure my master has a number of spies in the sect,” James lied. “If you say anything she might catch wind and then the whole thing falls apart.”

Peregrine’s eyes widened. “You’re correct! It makes sense that she has many in her pocket. She is from one of the families. The conspiracy must be larger than expected.”

“Don’t worry,” James said, putting on his best customer service smile. “You’ve awakened me to the dangers and now we have a chance to fight back.”

Peregrine nodded. “We shall go. Make sure you are not discovered.”

James watched as they left, waiting a long time until he was sure they were out of earshot. He sat down and placed his head in his hands.

“This is an absolute mess.”