A sharp gust of wind tore open Jack’s coat, it was a frigid day. He could feel the chill biting down to his bones. Shuddering a bit, he tightened his coat and picked up his pace. Keeping an eye out for those newer model golem transports he quickly crossed the road. “Why did the weather have to be so crappy? Did one of the gods curse me or something?” he wondered to himself.
Truly he had been having a string of poor luck recently. Both of his last two cases had fallen through with the clients deciding that he took too long and going to other investigation agencies, and of course one of them was still trying to get out of the bill for the hours and hours of work that Jack had already done by that point. Well hopefully this new case would go better.
Taking a moment to kick some snow off his boots and brush his hat Jack entered the small café where he was to meet his newest clients. Glancing around at the mostly empty shop he saw a couple sitting close to the door who were already starting to rise from their seats. The gentleman wearing a black business suit and the lady a heavy floral-patterned dress. They looked to be about middle aged for Beastfolk, with the ears on the top of their head likely indicating feline. They were almost certainly upper middle class at the very least in terms of wealth, and the couple of sigils that could be spotted on them talked of only the very basics of mana training. Likely just what had been required to pass schooling and not much more.
“Ah, are you Jack Bertrand by any chance?” the lady asked. Her heavily accented voice wavered slightly, sounding both slightly hopeful and uncomfortable. “Sorry to bother you if not, we have just been waiting to meet him.”
“Yeah, I’m Jack. Please don’t get up on my account” Jack stated. “You two must be Gregory and Vinistey Fawler then? I’m glad we were able to meet up in person, those new automated recording crystals are nice but it doesn’t have the same feeling.”
As the couple sat back down, Jack quickly went to the counter and ordered himself a spiced tea. Returning he sat down opposite the two he pulled out his old trusty notebook and pen. “So, from what you had said in your message your daughter, Dilacy, has recently gone missing. Correct?”
“Yes, that is correct“ Gregory started, “She had been going out to get more practical experience with her Body Enhancement style. Hoping that she would be able to have an excellent showing for one of the exploratory company showcases that is to be coming through the city next month.”
“Dangerous business that,” Jack said “Are you certain that she wasn’t just one of the unlucky ones who took on more then they could handle and never made it back?”
“Of course!” Vinistey exclaimed holding her hand in front of her mouth, clearly offended by the possibility. “She has always been a careful child and even more so when it came to trying out such a dangerous field. She has let us know every time she had been planning to leave the city as well as when she got back.”
Taking a deep breath to steady herself she continued, “In fact she had just returned from an expedition recently and had been planning to come visit us and stay with us over the weekend. It was the fact that she had not show up that made us begin to look.”
Jack nodded his head jotting down a couple more notes into his book. “Alright is there anything you can tell me about this last expedition that she had gone on? Any companions or notable finds that she mentioned? Did she mention any issues with discrimination? I know that as Beastkin like yourselves are fairly new to the Consortium not everyone is all that welcoming.”
“Well from what she had told us before she left she would be going out to explore some of the dungeon ruins past the northern end of the city. She said she would be going with at least two groups that frequented that area. Sorry, I don’t remember if she mentioned any names of the groups or their members. She hadn’t mentioned anything about her being treated worse because of her species, though she could have just not wanted to worry us.” Gregory choaked out, wiping away a frustrated tear.
Vinistey chimed in, “She did say that they had found some very interesting items and would be happy to tell us all about them when she came by in person. But as we said before, she never showed up.”
As Jack nodded and added these last details to his notebook he asked, “Okay, this gives me some starting points that I can check in on. Is there anything else that you can think of?”
When neither of the clients could add anything else Jack began to rise stating “if anything else comes up, whether it is someone contacting you or anything, please do leave me a message. I’ll call you in a couple days here and let you know how my investigation is going.”
As Jack began to stand Gregory took that moment to cut in. “Actually, before you go I have to ask what assurances you can give us that you can find our daughter.”
Jack sat back down. “Well, I’ll be honest I can’t fully assure anything. I have no doubt you have come to me as more of a last hope and option then anything else. There are three types of people that usually end up coming to me. Those that don’t have much money, which you two certainly don’t appear to be. Those that are hoping that I am an aspiring diviner who doesn’t know my own worth, of which if that was the case you would have likely asked me to do a divination already. And finally, those that have tried the more mainstream investigators and are hoping that I can pull out some kind of miracle."
Jack sighed deeply. “I am not an expert diviner in disguise. What I do is go around and talk to people, track back footsteps from location to location. Using what magics I can to protect myself and narrow down the possibilities until there is only one left, if it can be done. So, no I can’t promise I will find your daughter. I will however, promise that I will do everything in my power and not give up until I can tell you either where she is or what happened to her.”
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Vinistey started sobbing deeply “Thank you, please, just find out what happened to her! She means everything to us.”
Gregory wrapped his arms around her clearly holding back tears. “You’re right. We have tried diviners and everything has come back with nothing. The diviners couldn’t even confirm that we had a daughter in the first place. Please, whatever you can find out would mean the world to us.”
Jack sighed again while standing. “As I said I will do my best and keep you updated as I go. Though I do recommend you not tell someone who you are hiring like this, just how desperate you are. There are many who would happily take advantage of that.”
As Jack made his way back to his office he shivered as he thought about what information that his clients had given him and where to start. First step would be to do some research on the ruins in the north and what teams frequented the area. See what groups could possibly be interested in relics or other items that could be found there. Also check to see if Dilacy had gotten into any arguments with anyone.
With that thought in mind, Jack paused for a moment before swearing under his breath. This was a missing persons case and time was of the essence. He knew that with how long it was before the clients turned to him things weren’t hopeful but there was always a chance. Shuddering a bit Jack started to go through the steps. Chanting his mantra in his mind “Absorb, purify, use.” Reminding himself over and over again of the three steps, well aware of the dangers that improper focus could have.
As the mana started flooding into him, Jack quickly pictured it as strands that wrapped around each other squeezing out all but the white that he associated as fully pure. Once all the mana he brought in was that bright white he braced himself as he channeled it into his body to increase his speed. Grimacing at the burning pain he jogged back to his office to get to work.
Getting back to the office Jack nodded amicably to some of the others who were in the building before closing the door to his office and shutting off the body enhancements he had running. A feeling of absolute relief almost crushed him as he had to hold on to the nearby hat rack to keep from falling over as the sheer agony of running mana through his damaged mana channels finally ended. Shuddering from the after effects of having held the magic in his body for so long Jack lurched his way over to his desk.
Wrenching open one of the drawers he popped out some painkillers and ruminated on what had brought him to this point in his life. He hated himself for a moment, cursing both his foolishness as a youth who ruined his life without ever taking the time to research why some things just weren’t done as well as the fact that he just couldn’t give up the rush of power and freedom that magic brought even with the soul searing pain that he would suffer for the rest of his life.
Magic was a dangerous business no matter what. After the recent discoveries that not only was everyone on the planet Surdyl capable of using magic, but the body enhancements and item activations were both actually mana usage as well. There was a reason that after that schooling had started to include the basics of mana channeling. The hope was the reduce the number of incidents and problems that came with untrained mana usage. Sadly for Jack he had missed a good chunk of schooling when he was younger and by the time he had been back into the system proper it was already too late. He had already become like his namesake one of the cursed jack of all types. He was now what most people would consider a cripple, unable to use any kind of magical skill or item without horrendous pain and misery.
Jack learned after he had returned to school, was that people were likely to end up specializing in, had to do with what aspects they showed the most talent in. Someone who was good with Absorption and Purification for instance would likely be amazing at body enhancement or enchanting. If they were good with Absorption and Utilization then they would be good at casting a constant stream of lower tier spells for a long period of time and the use of magic items. Someone talented with Purification and Utilization would likely find themselves excelling at casting single high powered spells likely having amassed the power for it over a long period of time. And if someone excelled at all three of the aspects… well they could do whatever style of magic they wanted to become their concentration.
Now Jack couldn’t say he was someone who excelled at any of the aspects. His talent in all three was well below average. His only real redeeming quality in terms of his aspects was that they were all balanced so he was able to choose whatever focus he wanted to. As a child, Jack had figured if he would never be as good as someone who excelled in one of the aspects, then what he could do instead, would be able to use that freedom of choice to do all of it, at least to some degree.
That is where Jacks lack of formal school spelled his downfall. For in the schools they would have gone over the dangers of not only overindulgence in one of the aspects, a danger that Jack with his below average talents would never have to worry about, but also the reason that magics should be focused entirely on either internal or external utilization. The more that someone used the mana channels for internal magic it would cause the pathways for external magic to atrophy and the opposite was true as well. This fact was what had lead the thought in the past that it was two different energies that simply did not work well with each other.
At one point it was theorized that if someone balanced their usage between eternal and internal channeling perfectly that they would be able to prevent their body from closing up the paths. As Jack had learned from trial and error while that was slightly true what really happened is both paths had to be wrenched open over and over again causing untold pain each time that a spell was cast or the body was enhanced.
He was likely one of the only jacks that was still alive and using magic. Most others either giving up the ghost becoming little more then a cripple unable to use any magic or the new magitech that was being produced, or having taken their own lives unable to cope with the pain now associated with their magic. But Jack refused to give up, it didn’t matter how much pain it caused him, magic was one of the only constants in his life and the freedom it gave him was more precious than any pain.
Jack gave a low groan as the painkillers began to kick in. He knew the unpleasantness of the day wasn’t even close to over. It was time to make some calls and see what he could find out. Pulling out the directory and picking up his communication crystal, he started tracing the runes for one of the temp work agencies in the northern part of town.