Taylor and Gordan both stopped and gestured for Jack to enter the room. Giving them both a brief nod he stepped through the doorway. There was a quiet clunk as it closed behind him. Jack saw that there were three people sitting in the room, waiting. Two guards and the same doctor that he had met the very first day, Dr. Trovihn.

The doctor looked up, a scowl on his face that softened as he spoke “Took you long enough. Where are those two layabouts? They didn’t come in with you it seems, probably wanted to avoid the chewing out they knew I would be giving them. Ha! I’ll deal with them later. Good to see you again by the way. I hope the last few weeks haven’t been too stressful for you. I know that this place can certainly get someone a bit down.”

“Has it really been weeks since we last did this? I’ll be honest, I’ve completely lost all sense of time. Could you tell me just how long it’s been?” Jack asked, dreading the response.

“Oh yes, of course. It has been… oh… about two and a half weeks at this point from when you were last here. By the Agier, you gave us quite the shock last time. Never seen a reaction like out of someone who has been infected before. Quite the shock indeed.” Dr. Trovihn stroked his chin as he tried to figure out just how long it had been.

Jack couldn’t hide his surprise at just how much time he had lost while training himself in his fugue state. He had thought at most it would have been four or five days, as the longest he had ever gone in that state before was six days straight. Two and a half weeks that was so far past what he had managed before that he just couldn’t believe it. “That… that can’t be right. I couldn’t have possibly lost my sense of time that badly. Right?” he mumbled to himself in distress.

The doctor looked at Jack inquisitively. “Sorry? What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you.”

Jack shrugged uncomfortably as he spoke a little louder. “I was just shocked at how long it has been. I had thought it was only half that amount of time at most. As I said earlier, I really lost complete track over the past while. Everything really started to blend together after the third day of nothing really happening. Though I’m pretty sure the pain medication did not help me any in that regard.”

Dr. Trovihn let out a short bark of laughter at that. “Indeed. Those would make it harder to keep track. Drugs will do that to you. Right, well enough standing about. We can keep chatting as we get to doing these tests here. Sit there please.” He indicated a chair that was halfway between both the guards.

Jack sat down in the seat. As he lowered himself, he noticed both guards tense up slightly. They tried to hide it but Jack could see their jaws tightening and hands clenching. He couldn’t help but wonder exactly what it was that made these two so nervous. He knew his last time here had ended rather dramatically, but the only person injured at all had been himself.

Perhaps his erratic behavior from what he now knew was the last two weeks was the cause. Except, all he would have been seen doing was peacefully walking and meditating. Any kind of violence or confrontation would have broken him out of his self-hypnosis.

Considering that, Jack figured that something else had to have occurred over the period of time that he had been out of commission. Perhaps something happened at one or more of those experiments that he heard mention of before he began to practice obsessively. Jack grumped again at the fact that, while he had practiced enhancing his hearing, the fugue state he was in while doing so meant that he couldn’t remember any of what he had heard.

Shaking his head to clear it he asked “Sorry, could you repeat that? I’m afraid my mind started to wander for a moment there.”

“Arm. I said, I need your arm for a moment. So, hold it out.” Dr. Trovihn restated.

Jolting a bit at the reminder of the testing he was about to undergo Jack held his left arm out for the doctor to attach the monitoring equipment. Dr. Trovihn quickly snapped it onto the arm and turned impatiently waited for the results.

Jack couldn’t help but ask at seeing the doctor’s impatience. “What’s got you in such a hurry today doc? You seemed irritated at even the idea that I was late getting here, plus with how you are tapping on your leg wanting this to be done.” He waved his hand at the equipment attached to him.

Dr. Trovihn let out a sigh, clearly trying to get himself under control. “Yes. Your right. I know I’m being impatient. I just…” He trailed off into another sigh before starting up again speaking very quickly. Trying to rush everything out like someone trying to give a bad sales pitch. “Look I was just hoping to see if we could get some better data from today’s tests and experiments. Last time had such a unique and interesting result that it set off a whole slew of possibilities. Sadly, almost everything we have tried so far to possibly even replicate what happened with you has not panned out. I am hopeful that today whatever happens will let us work better to possibly diminish or remove the infection from others.”

“Okay...” Jack trailed his answer trying to figure out the best way to voice his concerns without just outright stating them. A few minutes went by as Jack struggled internally. His thoughts were interrupted as there was a beep indicating that the equipment was finished. As Dr. Trovihn was pulling it off of Jack’s arm Jack finally found his words. “How exactly can my test results help others? I mean I know how painful what I went through and go though was. I wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on anyone. Plus, I have no idea how exactly what I went through could have or did suppress or remove the infection.”

“Well first thing we are doing after I finish getting your vitals and all the preliminaries here done, is, we will be testing your magical signature. We will see what if any signs of infection remain in it. That will confirm that a cure is at least theoretically possible. It has been so long since there has been any hope at all for this. I’ll let you on in a secret in fact. I am one of the only people working here that actually wants to be here. This facility has had no success at all in so long that, except for a couple of us who are here for personal reasons, everyone is here for… well, less than altruistic reasons.”

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Jack who had been covering a yawn as the doctor spoke paused. “So that’s why I heard some of the other employee’s talking about their stints being up soon or being sent here for upsetting someone important?”

All three of the people other than Jack looked viably upset at his statement whether through embarrassment, frustration, or a mix of both, Jack wasn’t quite sure. One of the guards spoke. “Yeah. That does sound about right. I know many of the security outside of the command structure are those in training or doing a more community service-oriented stint of work for the company. However, even in our department as you get to the higher ranks… well… this place is considered a career ender. Make of that what you will.”

There was a brief pause as everyone stopped and considered what had just been spoken aloud. Finally, after a bit Jack opened his mouth. He had to ask. “Why would you be willing to just tell me that? While I am sure from past experience that it’s not legally considered a company secret, I’m sure that there is some kind of unspoken rule about it. With real consequences.”

“That would be true if we were in one of the other facilities of our company, I’m sure. Here however? What are they going to do? Sentence me to working here for longer? Hah! I’m here because my father is one of the patients. I’m not and have never been good at school or learning. So, I signed on with what I could do, even if I’m not amazing at it. It’s not much, but it lets me and my mom have some level of comfort that he’s still doing okay and that I’m here if something did ever happen to the old man.” That same guard spoke again. As they talked it seemed almost like some invisible burden lifted off of their shoulders.

It hit Jack then in that moment. He always worked hard for the few clients that he had. Both for monetary reasons as well as the desire to help people’s lives. But he had never once really thought about the long-term impact of what someone missing could be to their family. It was simply something that with his childhood he could not fully understand. Even now, seeing the depth of impact that simply talking about his father being kept here had upon the guard there was a piece of understanding that was missing. Jack felt a wave of envy grip him for a moment before the ridiculousness of it hit him.

What was he doing getting jealous over the poor persons family relationship? True, he would love it if some day he could have that level of intimacy with someone in his life. But… getting jealous over someone who has given up almost everything just to be able to spend time with their father? A father who likely was imprisoned for life unless something radical happened. A sad sigh slipped forth from Jack’s mouth.

He turned his head toward the guard and said as plainly as he could. “Look. I… I hope that this testing turns up something that can help your father. Just… don’t get your hopes too high. Okay? If any of the things about myself that I had mentioned to the director as part of the reason why I might have been able to resist and free myself are really the reason why. I… well I don’t know how much help it would really be to your father. I wish I could say that I understand where you are coming from and the sacrifices you have very obviously made. But… I’m afraid that I can’t really... you know…”

Jack was interrupted at this point, the doctor obviously not willing to continue to listening to Jack’s stumbling words. “Of course you can’t. Nor do we expect you to really. You are just another victim of this terrible plight. It is my job to see what, if anything, we can learn from you and try to figure out how we can apply those results to others. It’s not your job to worry about the results or anything. It’s mine.”

There was a brief moment of melancholy silence as everyone sat thinking. Jack eventually broke it turning toward Dr. Trovihn. “So how about you? What is your reason for doing this? And if most of the employees are here more as a punishment then anything else what exactly would they try to achieve from what can be learned here?”

“Me? Well, my wife was an adventurer back in the day. She specialized in artifact recovery and preservation. She had been hired on for a job in the ruins of the city up to the north. When she came back though, she was… just slightly off. At first it was just some headaches and body pains. When I talked to her about it, she said it was something that she had eaten.” Dr. Trovihn’s face grew dark. “But in the end, it wasn’t. She was infested with that parasite from the northern ruins.” Shaking his head to get himself out of his negative memories he continued. “Well, the company here found us and let us know, lucky for me I had experience in the medical field and they needed a new doctor here. The last one… well, let’s just say they let themselves get too close to one of the patients.”

The doctor took a breath and exclaimed in somewhat forced cheer. “Alright! Well then. Enough of us moping around feeling sad for ourselves. We have work to do! This all looks good. Much better than the last time where your body had the vitals of a corpse. I just have to ask were you under some kind of curse or something that caused such a state before?”

“Hmm. I don’t know for sure. I think it may have been an aftereffect of me nearly killing myself earlier that week by not purifying mana properly when absorbing it. It was hitting me in ways I really didn’t expect.” Jack tried to play his answer off rather than admit to his conceptualizations and the dangers they had posed. While the doctor was certainly nice seeming, Jack still had little trust for this place or the people working here. Not to mention that while the doctor was open about his own reasons. He had avoided the question on what they other employees would be researching if Jacks test results opened new possibilities.

The doctor started putting everything away while giving a subtle hand signal to the guards. “Let’s hope that the mana testing goes smoother this time. It would be good to get more solid results then what we got out of the last time you were here. Hopefully what we can discover today can and will be useful.”

During the doctor’s statement one of the guards opened the door into the far room and stepped in while the other walked over to the door to the hallway and stood in front of it. Obviously in preparation in the event that Jack would try to pull some escape attempt. While Jack did indeed have plans for eventually escaping, he had figured, correctly it seemed, that trying to do so from the testing area would actually be more difficult than from anywhere else in the compound.

Jack stood and walked alongside the doctor into the second room. Simultaneously congratulating himself on realizing the danger that this room represented for an escape plan along with wondering just what would be revealed through the tests this time.