Jack’s vision swam as he forced himself back upright. It was not the time to let himself sleep. Whatever caused the alarm to go off in the complex meant that he couldn’t rest. He needed to move now and try to figure out what his next step should be. Any kind of delay would likely cause more problems. Thinking about problems he looked down at the form sprawled on the floor in front of him and debated with himself. His mind warred for a minute before he finally sighed and grabbed the sheet off the bed and began to tear it into strips.

The first few strips were used to make some improvised handcuffs. Binding the woman’s hands tight enough to hold them but not so tight as to cut off circulation. Following that Jack worked on bandaging up his numerous wounds from his flight to the room. He grimaced as he did his best to do everything with a single arm.

Minutes went by as he worked on getting himself mostly fixed up and he couldn’t help but to think that his thoughts earlier on making it back to his room unnoticed were unrealistic. Even if he could make it back before one of the guards checked, his current state would raise more than a few red flags. Eventually Jack managed to get the worst of the bleeding stopped. The next major problem was his left arm. He looked around to see if there was any straight metal or wood pieces that he could use to help make a splint.

Jack’s search for a pole turned up nothing. The closest thing that he could find was the lamp but that wouldn’t work at all with the base and head. Sighing, he looked again at the woman that he had left lying face down on the floor after binding her wrists. Bending down he struggled to flip her over and prop her up against the bed. Once she was in a better position Jack winced as he attempted to pull enough mana to make a small spark. There was a loud pop and the smell of burnt ozone as the energy slammed into the sleeping person causing her to awaken with a pained shout.

“Gah!” Eyes open wide and frantically looking around the room, the woman struggled to catch her breath after being woken up in such a manner. “Wha-what’s going on?”

“Well. I guess the first question I have for you is how much do you remember? Do you know where we are, who you are, etc. It might seem like an odd thing but it’s important.” Jack stated calmly trying to get her to focus on him.

“Uh… My name is Charise. I am an adventurer. I should be at my home in my bed but this place looks like where I was at in my dream. Ugh!” She winced as if she had a sudden pain and attempted to move her arm only to realize that they were bound behind her back. “Huh? W-why am I tied up? What are you planning on doing with me?”

“Why are you tied up? Well, that’s easy. You’re tied up because I don’t really feel like having my skull bashed in. Personal preference on that you understand. I am rather attached to it.” Jack snarked at her before sighing. “Sorry, I think you could probably guess from my current state but it has not been a good night so far. I mean part of it was my own stupidity of course but… Look if you could just answer my questions so I can figure out what to do with you I would appreciate it. I put a lot of effort into seeing if I could restore you and I have no idea if it really worked or not.”

Charise, still struggling against her bonds, had a look of confusion on her face as she asked “Restore me? What do you mean restore me?”

“Ugh, we’ll get to that in a bit. What can you tell me about this dream that you mentioned?” Jack tried to steer the conversation back onto the track that he wanted.

Charise wouldn’t budge however, responding “It was a dream, what more do you want me to say about it? But no really, what do you mean by you restored me? Are you trying to claim you healed me or something? And from what anyway? I feel mana deprived, but I really don’t feel like I’ve been injured.”

“Look. I’m asking about your dream because that directly connects to what you want to know. What I want to know about it, is everything, everything from how much can you remember about it, how long did it last, things like that. Cause I hate to break it to you but I’m pretty sure that the dream you have been having? Well, it wasn’t a dream. Nor is this. This is real life and where we are certainly isn’t amazing.” Jack struggled to explain just what the current circumstances were. He was unsure of the best way to explain to someone that what they thought was dream was really their mind and body being puppeted by a powerful entity without sounding like a lunatic.

Charise meanwhile was feeling more and more worried. Her desire to get away from the obvious madman bleeding through in her voice as she tried to get the lunatic to understand that a dream really is just that. "What? You’re not making any sense. How was my dream not a dream? It feels and felt just like one. That halfway real feal that things are just what they are. It doesn’t matter that the one person has fruit for their head kind of feeling. You know? Besides that, why would I trust you? Here I am waking up to a man covered in wounds interrogating me about what I remember. All while I am tied up”

Jack cringed in pain as he moved both hands to rub at his face. His left arm reminding him of its injury as he did so. He took a deep breath to center himself and reset his thoughts before he tried again to explain. “Look I don’t know what the best way to go about this is. You said you were an adventurer, right? I assume either based in Desval or you were last working in the city for your jobs, correct? Well, was your last job either in or related to the ruins of the town or city or whatever that is north of Desval?”

“Yes? That sounds about right. Why? What about it?” Charise’s voice was confused as she tried to figure out just where the lunatic was going with his questions.

“If you were working that job anywhere near recently, did you ever hear any rumors about that city being cursed or anything of that nature? People who take jobs there go missing or disappearing. So on and so forth. That kind of thing.” Jack continued after her affirmation.

Charise nodded, “Yeah… I think there were a few rumors like that floating around from what I can recall. Seemed like superstitious nonsense to me. I went on jobs there numerous times and even had the stuff I brought back checked for that kind of spellwork and it all came back curse free.”

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“It would. There was no curse. At least as best I can tell. There was another problem in that area that caused the issues. Did you ever come across small fragments of a blue material that seemed like an almost glassy metal of some kind? It likely would have been pretty small chunks of the stuff.” Jack agreed.

Still nodding Charise thought back to the numerous trips that she did to the ruins. “Yeah, of course I did. It was one of the things I would look for specifically. Some people pay top crystal for that crap. Seemed like useless junk to me, but then, I’m no researcher.”

“Okay. When you were taking those fragments back were there ever times say where you could have sworn you found, oh I don’t know, ten fragments and when you got back you only had eight or something?” Jack asked once she confirmed having delt with the fragments.

“Yeah, that shit happened all the time. At first I thought I must have been dropping some of it but after a while I figured it was just one of the aspects of the material. You know… like some metals are super hot or cold because they hold a certain type of mana really well.” Charise shrugged uncomfortably.

Jack nodded slightly, honestly if someone didn’t know what he did now that was a reasonable guess to make. “I can see why you would think that, but no. The stuff is more like a seed or a parasite. Little bits of the stuff would plant itself in you and over time grow stronger and stronger until it could take over.” Jack paused for a moment before cursing. “Fuck. I need to check something. Actually, you can check right alongside me and hopefully it will help prove what I am saying here.”

Jack reached out his right hand toward Cherise’s head and stated. “I’m going to put my hand on you now and we are going to take a look at your mana. If you don’t mind closing your eyes and going through your mediation or method for the aspects and telling me what you sense I would appreciate it. It’ll be good to have a second opinion on everything.”

Charise was still suspicious of Jack but decided to humor him. It wouldn’t hurt her any to get a feel for her own mana and see just where she was at. The mana exhaustion that she felt was getting to her more than she was wanting to let on and she was trying to figure out why she couldn’t seem to absorb any mana to fix it. Hopefully he would let something slip on just why that was.

She sunk her mind into her body and spoke out about what exactly she could feel. “My mana tastes slightly off. It normally tastes like a delicious rich caramel sauce that can pair well with the fruity flavor of the elements. Right now, it tastes like it was made with some kind of… I don’t know the wrong type of sugar or something.”

Jack who at this point had only rested his hand on her head and not yet begun to put his own mana into her couldn’t help but to cheer at how close he had gotten to her native mana. Especially from such a small example of it. “Good job Jack! I can’t believe you did it!”

Charise exclaimed in anger “What the fuck! Why are you being such a asshole like I’m some kind of idiot child or something? I just did what you had asked of me.”

Jack started with realization and hurriedly explained. “Oh shit, sorry. Not you, me. My name is Jack. Yes, I’m serious. It really is. And yes, my mother did in fact hate me. No that’s not a joke.”

Charise gave him a stare clearly stating her disbelief. After all there was no way that someone’s mother could truly be that cruel. Stating as she did in a flat tone. “Uh-huh.”

Jack decided that the best thing to do was simply push past the awkwardness and continue on. “Anyways. You taste mana, great. I’m glad that I was able to get it so close to your purified state. I am going to be touching your mana now with mine. Just let me know what it seems like to you okay? After you feel mine, I am going to see if there is any remaining mana from the stuff in the ruins and show you what it is doing. Well hopefully at least.”

With that statement Jack pushed his mana through his arm and into her body. Sending it slowly toward where her mana was gathered. As his mana reached hers, she gave a small gasp. “What? How can there be mana like this? It tastes like… nothing… or everything?”

Jack just awkwardly half shrugged at her question. “It’s just my mana. I mean yours to you is like caramel to be mixed with the mana of nature that you use. To me my mana is to be all things. Just like what I made myself. Anyways I take it my mana is distinct enough that you won’t confuse it with anything?”

“It would be pretty hard to get your mana confused, honestly it would be easier to miss your mana entirely if you hadn’t told me that it was coming and I was looking for it specifically.” Charise replied her voice soft. She hadn’t noticed, but some of her tension had released itself after she came into contact with Jack’s mana.

It was often forgotten or overlooked that a person’s mana carried along part of their emotions and thoughts. With the both of them now conscious as their manas connected they gained an instinctive feel for the other’s personality and viewpoint. This connection didn’t force someone to adapt to the other’s viewpoint or anything like that. It did however mean that if someone had peaceful or positive feelings that connotation would come across likely making someone feel better about the connection in the process.

Jack meanwhile did not have any real change in his feelings. Her mana was less hostile than it had been before but still did not hold a positive feeling toward him. Instead, he concentrated his mind and mana on scanning hers to see if there had been any changes from when he had purified her mana earlier.

His concentration was interrupted when she asked him “So what am I looking for outside of your mana?”

Jack stumbled a bit. “Ah. Um… I don’t know how to describe it to you as we experience mana differently. To me mana is a visual process. For instance, your mana looks like a soft violet color to me and the mana of the parasite is a specific shade of blue. You said that you taste mana on the other hand and I have no idea how it would translate. I can try to imitate the mana of the parasite for you if you would like. Judging by how close I got with your mana signature it should be pretty close. Well, hopefully at least.”

“That would be helpful. I do have to ask if this parasite or whatever has a mana signature why didn’t I notice it before when it was infecting me?” Charise queried.

“I’ll be honest I really don’t know most of the mechanics of the stuff. I have theories and guesses, some of them have been spot on and others I have no clue how close or far they are from the truth. I was thrown into this mess myself. I ended up infected somehow and was resistant. Don’t know completely why but pretty sure being a jack had something to do with it. Best guess that I have is the fact that it’s a parasite. It probably has some way of hiding itself, I know for a fact that it can and does effect perception and thoughts. Changing memories and the like. It could very well be that it just changes your memory as you find it making you immediately forget or something.” Jack shrugged as he explained his thoughts and circumstances.

Charise shuddered at the thought of her mind being altered in the way that he was talking about. Her mind began to twist and worry about just what exactly such a thing would mean long term. Before being snapped out of it as she heard him say. “Okay I’m going to show you an imitation of what you should try to be looking for. Tasting for? Eh whatever.”