It was a hot and muggy summer day as Jack pulled uncomfortably at the sleeves and collar of his shirt. If it wasn’t for his minder standing just a short distance off, he would have already removed the accursed thing. At the thought of his minder a scowl made its way onto his face. It had been months at this point and Jack was uncertain he could stand much more.
Glancing over his shoulder Jack asked “How much longer until the meeting?”
There was a moment of no response before Jack heard a small irritated sigh accompanied by a nasally voice answering. “It’s the same as it has been for the last month. Your father should be returning to the city here in about two weeks.”
Jack once more stared straight out over the edge of the balcony, sighing slightly himself. He knew that he shouldn’t really be taking his frustrations out on the butler but the attitude that he had been getting from everyone that he had met here had him more then a little on edge. It was clear that other than father nobody else in his immediate family was pleased to learn of his existence, and he wasn’t even sure how good his father felt about it. That same displeasure extended to the staff that served the clan.
The butler, Yorik, that Jack had just purposefully annoyed was among the worst. The man had made his stance on Jack’s presence clear within minutes of them first meeting. It was a minor revenge that Jack got by asking about when his father would be free to meet him repeatedly, as he had been doing at least three times a day for the last fortyish days. But doing so relieved Jack’s constantly escalating tension.
So far while living in the estate he had only really had positive interactions with about three of the staff. Drafus Montgomery, who had first approached him, the cook and one of the maids who was in charge of cleaning his room. Considering everything in his life so far, Jack felt more suspicious of the few who were kind to him then anything else. He felt that there was likely some kind of ulterior motive that they were hiding behind a kind façade than any real appreciation of him.
Jack shook himself out of his melancholic thoughts. Even with the negatives he had to admit his time here in the estate had had numerous benefits. For one, he had managed to slowly accumulate almost all of the rarer materials that he would need for the ritual he had designed to recalibrate his brain. The final ingredient was supposed to arrive within the next day or two. Jack felt a shudder of anticipation and dread pass through him at the thought of finally being able to perform the ritual.
Thinking about it also brought back memories of the “fun” adventure that led to him needing to do such a thing to himself. It had been just under four and a half months at this point, a full one hundred and sixty-four days from when Drafus found Jack and asked him to accompany him back to the small family estate that the Bertrand family maintained in Desval. Even after all of this time he barely had any real form of control over his episodes. He had gotten better at dealing with them and hiding the symptoms, but at the same time the spiral episodes of emotions and memories occurred far more often than they used to. It was now at the point that when one occurred, they would last for hours rather than the few minutes that the did originally.
As Jack thought about the ritual and everything that had been gathered for it, it occurred to him that those preparations could well be part of what caused the condescension that he received from the staff. Certainly not all of it, as the attitude from most of them had been poor from the moment he had shown up, but it had certainly gotten worse as time wore on.
The thought about how the relationship with the staff had changed brought the thought of some of the other people in his life. It had come as a surprise to Jack, especially considering the terrible relationships that were a mark of his life thus far, but both Charise and the Fawlers had actually kept up contact with him over the last while. With Charise and Dilacy having him join them for drinks every couple of weeks when they were in town. Both of them had begun to reestablish themselves working for the guilds on various missions. Their shared experiences alongside Jack months ago had ended up causing them to decide to team up at least for a while.
As Jack reminisced on the oddity of having people that actually sought him out to continue to be friends a cough from behind him broke into his train of thought. “Excuse me sir. Was there anything else that you needed from me? If not, I must return to my duties.”
“No. There’s nothing else. Thank you. Please do let me know when the last package that I was expecting arrives.” Jack replied, even as he thought to himself that it must be time for a shift change on spy duty. There was a brief pause before he spoke again, adding on just as the butler was about to head back into the house. “Oh, I had almost forgotten. I hadn’t considered it until just the other evening, are there any books or resources available for me to study on how… clan people are expected to behave? The only experience I have with interacting with any member of the official Agierian clans is a young heir of a minor branch. I know I probably should have asked about this some time prior but I’ll admit I was more then a little… overwhelmed by the change in circumstances.”
Jack swore he could almost hear the grinding of teeth as the butler replied. “I shall have some brought to you shortly sir.”
Jack sighed again slightly as he was finally “left alone”. Sure, there was probably some other member of the staff hidden out of sight now that Yorik had left but at least Jack could pretend to have some alone time. He would have to cross reference any books that he was given just to make sure that they weren’t misleading or outdated. Really it did seem that meeting his family truly was closer to his cynical thoughts and nowhere like his dreams when he was a youth. Letting out a bitter laugh he shook himself out of his thoughts. It was a beautiful day and he was finally left alone to enjoy it.
Much of the afternoon sped by as Jack sat and meditated. Trying to keep his emotions in check and his mind from being hyper focused on the memories enhanced from his clash with the Great System. He was broken from his trance when one of the maids shook him.
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“Excuse me Master Bertrand. There is a gentleman who has come calling for you. He claims to have a job for you and even went so far as to claim that a member of the Telipar clan sent him to meet with you.” While her voice was soft and gentle, Jack could still feel an underlying harsh edge of anticipation. Like she was gleefully waiting for him to end up creating a mess in some manner that would show his worthlessness. Perhaps she felt that it would turn out to be someone falsely using the Telipar name and would cause a minor clash between the clans, or that Jack himself would somehow bungle whatever it was that was asked of him.
It didn’t matter. Jack kept his face expressionless, swallowing the derisive snort that he instinctively wanted to do at her falsely pleasant demeanor and stood up. “Huh. I thought everything was already settled with them. No matter, let us see just what he could want. Please. After you.”
With an affirmative “Of course Sir.”, in the same overly sweet voice, the maid led Jack through the mansion to the front lobby. Jack knew well enough by this point that she was purposefully trying to demean him in front of whoever the guest was by having the meeting take place there rather then in any one of the numerous studies or other rooms used to express the power and grandeur of the family. Likely trying to show that while Jack was allowed to stay within the mansion for now, he was not truly one of the family.
All Jack could do was roll his eyes at the attempt to discredit him. To him the actions and politicking of the servants just seemed pointless and stupid. In the end if he was fully accepted into the clan then all of the staff who participated in such foolery stood to lose their jobs if he chose to retaliate, with it unlikely that any other the other family that were behind their actions would actually bother to protect their catspaws. On the other if the clan decided that he did not belong then all their derision and poor behavior would reflect poorly on the clan as a whole, especially if he spoke of their “hospitality” when he left. Either way Jack himself would not be overly affected in the long run with their stupidity really only being a poor choice for themselves.
Jack shook his head to dismiss his ruminations on the folly of people as they stepped into the entryway. Instead focusing himself fully on the people in the room to attempt to glean as much information as he could before even words were spoken. Standing there within the room were two guards by the door. Obviously on alert, but not quite to the point where weapons would be drawn. Standing to the side was Yorik with a poorly disguised look of irritation and disgust on his face, almost identical to how he looked whenever Dilacy or Charise came calling. Finally standing there in the middle of the room shifting nervously back and forth on his feet stood a vesper. Extremely tall and thin, wearing a simple dark business suit with a single chain leading into the breast pocket as the only decoration. There was something familiar about them but Jack just couldn’t quite place it.
“Hello there. I understand that you have a job for me from the Telipar’s you said?” Jack called out to the man, wondering if getting onto the subject of the work would cause them to snap out of whatever was causing them to be so nervous.
“Ah! Mr. Bertrand!” The vespers expression when he saw Jack’s face was clearly nervous and uncomfortable. Unconsciously shrinking away slightly as if expecting to be hit or shouted at. Jack wondered for a brief moment if it had anything to do with whatever connection they had to the Teiplar clan. Did they get into trouble from one of the descendants like Carlos Ross-Telipar?
As Jack thought about Carlos, he suddenly came to the realization of just where he knew the vesper from. This was the manager of the Adventurer’s Guildhouse branch in the northern part of the city! Belvidier or Barty or something. That would explain it. The last time that they had interacted he had Jack tossed from their office and immediately after Jack was chased by people attempting to gain favor from Carlos. Perhaps he thought that Jack had a long memory and a vengeful attitude about the matter and would take it out on him. While there was a small temptation to be petty, it was just that only a small temptation. The only thing that this guy had done was to have Jack removed after getting into a fight with a sponsoring business partner in the middle of their lobby. He wasn’t the cause of all the people who took it upon themselves to pursue Jack.
“Yes? You asked for a meeting, correct?” Jack prompted the man gently in an attempt to have them get past the emotional hangups.
“Oh! Yes. Yes, I did. Thank you for meeting me on short notice. I was recommended to contact you by Carlos Ross-Telipar. I don’t know if you remember me but my name is Bartholomew Starsmoke. I am one of the managers of the Adventurer’s Guildhouse in the city.” It was clear from the rushed manner in which he spoke that Bartholomew was still more then a little nervous.
Jack nodded, “Yes. It took me a minute to place you. I’ll admit I am slightly surprised that it is you that came and not one of the other branch managers considering our last interaction. Plus, even with Carlos recommending me I find it a little hard to believe that the prestigious and powerful organization that is your company would reach out to me. Relax by the way. I’m not going to bite your head off or anything.”
Bartholomew took a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing himself to settle. “I’m sorry, I have been a bit apprehensive meeting again, based on that exact interaction you are talking about. Especially now meeting you in the Betrand Clan manor within Desval. By the way, what should I call you sir? I only know the rather offensive pseudonym that you went by last time.”
“Well, I’m afraid I didn’t use a pseudonym the last time we met. That really was and is my name. My birth record holds the glorious name of Jack Bertrand. I’m actually surprised you remember after all this time. If you don’t like it, I suppose you can call me Jay.” Jack clarified, watching in amusement at the grimaces that crossed all the hour staff’s faces.
“Erm… Okay.” Bartholomew seemed to be stuck on just wait to say for a moment before he shook his head and continued, “Yeah, I certainly remembered it, it’s not everyday that you have someone come up and claim to have such a name as yours. Even more so with it being attached to an Agierian clan name. Well. If that truly is your name, I will simply just continue to call you Mr. Bertrand for now if that is alright with you.”
“That’s fine. Now you came because of a job, correct? Please, tell me what is it that I can do for you?” Jack gestured for Bartholomew to continue. He didn’t know why Carlos recommended him. He wondered whether it is a feeling of guilt or something else.
“Right, so… Have you been keeping up with the papers recently?” Asked Bartholomew.
Jack paused a moment at the seeming non-sequitur, before asking in a puzzled voice, “Yes?”
Bartholomew nodded, “Then you have probably heard about the bodies that were recently discovered. The most recent victim was one of our employees which gives us purview to hire our own investigators to assist in the investigations.”
“And you chose me? Somehow, I get the feeling there is more to that then just Carlos Ross-Telipar’s recommendation.” Jack laughed derisively knowing well just how people viewed him.
“There is.” Bartholomew looked around the room at all the staff who were staring at them unashamedly, not even pretending to not listen in. “Could we… possibly move this conversation to a more private venue? Much of what we will be talking about is… sensitive.”