It was a little before dawn when Jack awoke the next morning. Between strange dreams filled with abstract shapes that didn’t follow dimensions as they should interspersed with memories long forgotten he felt like he hadn’t truly slept at all throughout the night. Jack had had to force himself to rest after the revelations he’d had the previous night. His body was still recovering so no matter how anxious he was to get started immediately he knew he needed to take care to not overwork himself too much.

That same need to get to work was still with him so as he got up and started getting ready for the day, he began to plan out just what he would be doing. There were two main things that he felt he needed to get done along with a number of smaller tasks. First, he needed to go and get a better look at the Guildhouse building. While he had created several theories about what they could have, none of that equaled up to actually getting a good look at what he would be dealing with. This was especially true with such a large multi-planer entity such as the Adventurers Guildhouse.

Jack was fairly certain that unlike all of the other businesses that he had broken into over the course of his last case there would be protections against non-magical methods and entry. While most upon Surdyl had the blind spot that a lack of magic meant a lack of ability, from what Jack remembered the Adventurers Guildhouse was based in a plane where the majority of the population did not have magical potential. It really spoke to the organizations power that even with that background they had managed to spread so far into Surdyl which was notably elitist when it came such matters. It also meant that many of the oversights that the elitest population had the Guildhouse employees probably lacked.

Second, Jack needed to go see if he could get in contact with any of his old suppliers. He needed to get new wardbreaking tools along with other miscellaneous odds and ends that weren’t exactly legal. Sure he could probably get some of them through the Bertrand’s connections but he felt that doing so would turn out poorly for him in the end. At least with his old contacts he knew just how far they could trust one another.

Other then those he also wanted to head to his old office to see if he could get into it somehow and secure the items that he had hidden there, go to the library to see if he could find any books on anatomy and possibly non-magical medicine, even if the second was a long shot it didn’t hurt to check, and finally he wanted to go visit the hospital.

He had been avoiding it for a while but it would do him good to check in on the members of Wolven Freedom who were being held there. Like everything involved with Dilacy’s case he felt a lingering sense of guilt. Sure, in the end the case was solved and Dilacy had managed to return to her parents but other then discovering how to cure people from the parasite everything else involved in that case had been a failure or only solved by accident.

Jack let out a small sigh and shook his head. The only thing to do was work hard and do better the next time. With that thought he got ready to head out for the day. As he reached the door he paused for a moment as he considered just how to get around town for the day. Certainly, he could request that one of the staff give him a ride, but just like the idea of getting illegal items through the family he discarded it immediately. A good number of the places that he planned to visit weren’t ones he wanted tracked or known about.

Jack put on his jacket as he considered the issue. Checking pockets habitually he felt a sharp card in his left pocket. Pulling it out and looking at it, Jack was surprised to see that it was the business card of the taxi driver he had used half a year ago. He knew for a fact that the last time he had seen this card was back in his old office, he had set it down on his desk and not touched it since. It was certainly possible that one of the staff working here had place a copy in his jacket but that seemed a little out there. If this had happened before the ritual Jack would have simply dismissed the oddity as a flaw in his memory with the thought that he must have picked the business card up again at some point. After the ritual however he could clearly recall that he had never touched the card again.

He stared at the object for a bit before sighing and shrugging. He decided that it didn’t matter too much in the end. It was highly unlikely that the driver that he had picked on a whim before was spying on him or anything. Heck with Jack’s luck it was more likely that the poor man had suffered an accident after driving Jack around for a day.

It did however present a possible solution for his transportation needs. Well provided that the man was still working. Nodding to himself Jack walked to the room holding the communication crystal. Dialing the runes listed Jack waited for a bit before a man’s voice came through spoke a briefly and thun hung up without waiting for a response. “Hey there! You’ve reached the Happy Time Driver! I’ll be there in half an hour to pick you up Jack! See you soon!”

Jack stood there stunned. The brief interaction left him feeling even more paranoid than before. How had they known who he was? Where he was? Jack hadn’t even spoken a word and yet somehow the person on the other end knew both of those things.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Jack frantically tried to pull up his memories of his previous ride with the man and see if there was anything that he could remember that would help him understand just what happened. His brain parsed though a couple hours of them sitting in a car. Almost everything was just inane talk with some bits of advice that had helped him. After a moment he frowned as something popped out from the memories. Somehow at the end of their trip the man had known Jack’s name. At the time Jack had just dismissed it as him having simply forgotten introducing himself. Now however he was able to confirm that he never had.

Jack forced himself to calm down. Winding himself up wouldn’t help him at all. What he needed to do was calm down and decide on just what he wanted to do. Really it came down to two, no three options. He could avoid the man, simply leaving the house now so that when they showed up, he simply wasn’t here. He could take the ride and just simply not engage his curiosity, purposefully ignoring everything about the situation that was making him so uncomfortable. Or He could confront the man and ask him just how he had known Jack’s name and what else he knew about him.

Jack sat and considered the options for a bit before nodding to himself. In the end He figured the best thing to do was to confront the man when he arrived. Leaving things as they were would drive Jack nuts, plus with the man coming here if worst came to worst and they got into a fight then the staff and security for the manor would be nearby to help out. Having decided, Jack made his way out to the front of the house, taking a short detour to let security know to keep an eye on him and the taxi driver when he arrived.

Jack waited for about twenty minutes near the entrance to the manor. Sometimes pacing, other times standing still and staring off into space. While he had told himself before to stop worrying about the possible outcomes and reasons for everything, he wasn’t particularly good at following his own advice.

The sound of a car approaching announced the arrival of the taxi. Soon the car pulled up and the window rolled down revealing a young-looking brown-haired man. “Hey Jack! What are you waiting for? Hop on in and tell me where you need to go!”

“I’ll be ready to go in just a moment. However, before we go anywhere, I need to ask you something.” Jack held up his hand to get the man to pause.

The driver looked at Jack smiling broadly as he asked, “Sure man, what’s up?”

“How do you know my name?” Jack inquired.

The young man laughed as he replied, “What do you mean? I gave you a ride a while back. I make sure to remember all of my interesting customers.”

Jack shook his head and pressed the man further. “That might be true, but that doesn’t answer my question. How do you know my name? And don’t try to claim that I told you or anything like that. I am well aware of the fact that the last time we met I didn’t introduce myself.”

“Really? You’re absolutely sure you didn’t introduce yourself last time? I mean it has been eight months since then. A full half of a year.” The man proposed in an incredulous tone.

Jack scowled and replied in a dark voice. “Yes. Not to mention the fact that you recognized me immediately even with all of the changes I have gone through. I am well aware that I look different enough that I barely recognize myself, much less someone that I met for a grand total of one time.”

The man let out a hearty laugh and wiped away some tears from his eyes. “Okay, okay you got me. I learned your name because you were interesting. Same reason I remembered you. It’s not often that a person takes a path less traveled. Especially a person who is told that they can’t take such a path at all. Seeing someone manage to so such a thing is always worth it, and the people who do it are those worth paying attention too. Meeting you was a coincidence, but I have kept an eye on you since.”

“Well, that’s not disturbing at all.” Jack rolled his eyes before he continued in an annoyed tone. “I also can’t help but to notice you still didn’t answer my question. How exactly do you know my name?”

“Oh, that was easy enough I scried you while you were in the car. It’s my domain so I simply extended that to knowing about the person within. It’s actually related to how I knew it was you calling, along with where you were. That card I gave you is likewise part of my domain.”

“What does that even mean?” Jack asked exasperatedly.

The driver smiled indulgently and said, “Come now, I’m sure if you think about it for a moment, you’ll figure it out. You did after all independently figure out the fourth aptitude.”

Jack stopped and pondered silently for a while before his eyes widened. Shaking his head, he spoke out loud. “No. No, that can’t be it. You couldn’t possibly be an…”

He was interrupted before he could finish his sentence. “I see you have got a decent idea. Anyways enough on that topic, we can talk about it more later. Come on and hop in. This little discussion has used up enough time already. I have no doubt you called me because you’ve got places to be and people to see.”

Jack nodded distractedly as he tried to process what it would mean if his theory was true. Absentmindedly he replied, “You’re right. I do have quite a bit to do today and the rest of the week.” Shaking himself out of his thoughts he waved over to the closest security staff who had been watching the confrontation. “Hey I’m going to be heading out. It’s all good. Tell the others thanks for keeping an eye out here. I appreciate it.”

With that said Jack opened the door and stepped into the back of the car. The driver turned his head slightly and asked, “So where to?”

Jack thought for a minute before he spoke. “Let’s start with my old office. It was over on Steel Street in between Oldvine and Respite.”

“You got it boss!” The young-looking man replied with an exaggerated wink.