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Desvalian Nights
Chapter 28: Exploring the Complex

Chapter 28: Exploring the Complex

When Jack awoke in the morning, he couldn't help but to shiver. It seemed that the memory suppression spell was indeed out of the running for potential solutions. Not only was it extremely mana intensive to keep everything under wraps but his suspicion of himself had proven to be correct. He hadn't wanted to return to being the him who had all of his life experiences. Wanting instead to extend the bliss that was ignorance, even if it meant crippling himself.

Hopefully his personality when using the final spell wouldn't try to pull the same thing. With the way that spell was set up there was no memory removal component. That meant there was no way to keep him from knowing how to absorb mana and maintain the spell. With the experience that just occurred Jack was more then a little nervous about proceeding with the final ritual. However, if he wanted to get out of this place under his own power he needed to take the chance. With the memories causing as many problems as there were, he would not be able to function until one of the spells worked as a short-term solution. This final trial should hopefully help him determine which was the most viable option for his plans to work. It needed to be done. The last two rituals had worked, but neither seemed a good short-term solution.

Jack sat up and pulled the plans out of the pillow. While he had the memories of looking it over and adding his thoughts in his changed state. He felt it would serve him better to physically look over his altered state's notes. Not too much was different but there were several things jotted down about how his level of suspicion against anyone and everyone limited his potential escape routes. If he could find out if any of the staff were sympathetic to his entrapment, they could provide a possible alternative. He had also written the fact that almost all of the plans would likely be useless. This was due to his extraordinarily limited information gathering that he had done while stuck within the single room.

If it weren't for his use of the hearing augmenting and scrying that he did in the morning yesterday and the couple of talks with employees, he would have nothing other then the two walks to the mana testing room. Even with that what he knew was near worthless in terms of actually determining how to get out of the building. The only clue he had in that direction was where he had heard the conversation between people coming in and leaving. Jack figured that it most likely took place somewhere near the door. Though that was not guaranteed.

Sighing Jack folded up the plans, put them into his pocket and got to work on the next spell array. All he could do now was continue on his current path and hope that something panned out. After all the worst thing he could do was to do nothing at all.

The day went by without incident and soon enough, Jack was ready to set up and attempt the final ritual. While he felt impatient, he kept himself under control waiting for the lights to be shut off. As soon as the darkness descended, he sprung to his feet and got everything ready. No matter how nervous he was, he would get this done.

After another agonizing casting, the spell was completed and Jack looked around the room. He felt… empty. It was a very surreal experience. The memories were still there, not stopped like he had theorized. But he felt disconnected from them. Almost as if watching someone else's life. It wasn't quite what he had been expecting but it would work.

He stood up and stretched before reaching into his pocket and pulling out the folded plans. Taking a look over them again all he could think was. "Well, these are an obvious waste of time. There is absolutely nothing of substance here. The best thing I can do right now is get out of the room and do some actual work."

Moving over to the door Jack examined the area where the lock was located. He had heard it enough times to know it was a standard bolt likely controlled by a pressure array. The times he had seen where the staff stood when they would come into the room suggested that the array was either right next to the door or on the edge of it. If he was correct, he should be able to…

There was a click along with the quick shot of agony in his body. He had been right. There was an array just to the side. Sloppy work, as it simply responded to the correct level or pressure. It didn't register if what was pressing was living or sapient or anything. Well, that was all the better for Jack. Shifting uncomfortably, he knew he would have to make his investigations quick. The spell keeping his emotions in check would only last for a few hours at best, and any spellcasting that he did, like the minor telekinesis he just used to trigger the lock, shaved that time down.

Just as Jack was about to step into the hall, he realized he needed to make one more change. He needed to alter and hide his mana signature. It wouldn't do him much good to skulk around the complex leaving signs of his passage all over the place. It would be best if it just seemed like longer lasting traces of one of the employees. With the optimal choice to mimic likely being the guards considering they patrolled the whole place.

As he thought about it, he realized he was not too familiar with most of the guard's mana signatures. He had only met a few of them during his entire time here and none of them had used any magic that he was aware of. Unless of course, one of the guards during his initial mana testing had used some type of spell or augmentation to protect themselves and the doctor. Jack tried his best to pull up his memories of the test to see if he could feel any other mana then his own at the time. Sadly, he had no luck. All he could remember of the experience was a combination of the pain and the mental attack from the entity. After a few minutes more of contemplation he decided that as he couldn't mimic a guard, the best route was to just create a new mana signature. It wouldn't be as good as copying, but it would hopefully keep any suspicion off him.

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Jack sat down, shoved the folded paper into the door jamb to keep it from fully shutting and began to meditate. He had theorized before that with the all-inclusive state of his mana he should be able to make a kind of shell around it projecting various hues or types of mana. It looked like that would be getting put to the test.

The first thing that Jack did was try to remember how most people's signatures felt. As he thought about all of the complexities that were part of a sapient being's mana he wondered if he was taking the wrong tract, at least for the night. Perhaps it would be a better idea to try to mimic something similar. A non-sapient animal seemed a good possibility. Their auras were often fairly simple with aspects of the mana showing what they were attuned to and expressions of their simple wants and desires. Plus, with the animals that he had heard about being brought in it could work as a decent cover.

With that he focused on imbuing a layer with the idea of cold, fear and hunger. Thinking that it could seem like a native animal that was active this time of year. As soon as he felt it his effort was as good as he could make it Jack stood and opened the door. He would have to hurry. He only had maybe an hour to an hour and a half left of the ritual maintaining the emotional control. He could already feel bits and pieces of the spell starting to fade as he used his small mana reserves.

He stepped out into the hallway, and turned to look at the door. He was in room eighty-seven. Looking at the room he guessed that as best he could figure the way to the exit was to his left and forward some distance. Nodding to himself he turned that direction and headed down the hall.

The halls were dark and gloomy, lit only by a single light at each intersection. There were numerous empty rooms that looked designed to hold a variety of species. There were rooms for formorians, specially designed to not have anything that they could eat. Rooms for naga, with different environmental setups for the different subspecies. As Jack went further and further, he saw more and more styles of room, enough that he figured it was likely that there was at least one room for each intelligent species.

Jack felt a slight stirring in his chest at that, but dismissed it as small and unimportant. The stirring alerted him to the fact that he likely needed to start heading back in the next five to ten minutes or else his time would be up for the spell before he got back to his room. Deciding that it was better not to risk it he turned around to head back early and give himself some leeway. He was fairly certain he remembered all of the turns he had taken to get to where he was.

He hurried along moving as quickly as he dared. After a short while he realized he had gotten himself lost. Somewhere along the way he had taken a wrong turn and was somewhere completely new. The rooms he was by now were larger than any of the single person rooms that he had been seeing the rest of the journey. These looked to be set up to hold large quantities of supplies or other materials. As he turned to backtrack and figure out where he had made the mistake, he heard a faint noise coming out of one of the nearby rooms.

Jack paused a moment to listen. Hoping that it wasn't something a guard on their patrol. After a few tense seconds he let out a soft sigh. It sounded like some kind of animal rather than a person. Sidling up to the door he peered in just to be sure. It was another large room. This one was filled with crates of animals lining the walls. There were easily hundreds of animals in there.

He knew that he shouldn't, that he should just turn and head back like he was planning. But just as he began to do so that same sad sound came from the doorway. He halted as his heart twinged in his chest. He found himself turning towards the door unconsciously. Jack had always had a soft spot for animals. Unlike people they were simple and easy to understand. There were a few times when he was first living on the streets that the only safe companionship that he had were the creatures that prowled the alleyways of the city. Stray cats and dogs, rats and birds. Creatures that just like him were considered worthless pests.

Before he realized he had done, Jack had opened the door and gone into the room. He looked around silently as he could trying to find out just what was making the racket. His earlier estimation that there were hundreds of animals in the room turned out to be exaggerated, but not by much. The walls were completely covered with cages of all sizes and there were even more stacked in the middle of the room. He waited for almost a minute in the doorway listening intently. Soon enough he heard it again. This time, without it being muffled by the door, he could make out that it was a cat meowing unhappily. It was coming from somewhere deep in the room on the left-hand side.

Stealthily moving forward as quietly as he could Jack peered into each of the cages as he went by. There were all kinds of beasts and mutants being kept within. He saw everything from a vine squirrel in one cage to what looked like an overly obese duck in another. Bit by bit he continued making his was to the back of the room. Trying to keep every footstep silent and unnoticeable. At one point he paused his advance as some kind of scaled wolf in a cage next to him began to stir. After what seemed like an eternity it shifted and drifted back into a deeper slumber. Finally, after many stops and starts Jack had made it to the back wall.

Looking at all of the animals in their cages he couldn't help but to feel upset at what their probable future was. It was dim and muted, but still present enough to make him uncomfortable. He frowned; he shouldn't be feeling much of anything at the moment. He wasn't sure if the emotion came through from the shear strength of it, the spell keeping them in check was almost finished, or a combination of both. As he stood there pondering just what exactly to do the cry sounded again. He looked to the bottom row just right of the center and sitting there was a white spotted cat with its face pressed up against the metal bars of the cage. Scowling a bit Jack brought forth a small light so that he could see the creature. It was small and dirty, covered in a layer of filth.

Seeing it sitting there Jack couldn't help but feel sorry for it. He knew he didn't really have mana to spare and shouldn't be wasting it on anything frivolous, but he decided to something about the state of the cat anyway. Concentrating a moment and clenching his teeth in pain he cast a minor grooming spell. What looked like layers of grim peeled out of the cat's fur and piled up around its feet. Jack reached down a rubbed its now clean head through the bars while saying. "You're quite the loud one, aren't you?"

The only response was a soft purr as the cat stood and rubbed itself against his fingers. After a few moments it turned and licked Jack's hand. Jack found himself sitting down without really thinking about it. Using his other hand to give the cat scratches under its chin as it licked him. After a little bit of giving it attention he pulled his hands back and started to stand. He needed to head back to his room now if he was going to make it in time. It was lucky he had decided to turn back early, as he had used up all of the excess time with this diversion. As he began to leave the cat started meowing and pawing at the front of its cage. Obviously wanting to be let out. As much as Jack hated to see it in the cage and with what might happen to it, he also knew that there was no way for him to protect or hide it.

"I'm sorry little cutie. I'm in the same boat as you right now. Stuck here without any way out." Jack said sadly. "I'll tell you what. I'll keep coming and visiting you at night as I find my way around the place. When I figure out how to get out of here I'll take you with me. How does that sound?"

The cat meowed again as he spoke to it. With a sad sigh and a slight hitch in his step Jack turned around and hurried out of the room.