Jack strolled down the street feeling more than a bit irritated at what had happened. Not only did he manage to get himself into a minor feud with someone from a wealthy background but he also got himself barred from checking the mission records at the Adventurer’s Guildhouse. If he wanted to check through those he would have to do a more creative route than just asking. Pulling out his notebook he quickly scratched out Adventurer’s Guildhouse from the list of cooperative agencies and moved it over to his list of the companies that had refused his request to check their mission records. It looked like he had at least one more clandestine visit to do than he first thought.

He sighed a bit. Truly some of the things Jack had to get up to do his job depressed him, but needs must and all. The world didn’t often care much about how information could be used to help, but rather just the ways that it could be used to hurt. Jack often wondered that if the portal the formorians had opened in the past which brought Surdyl into the Consortium and never been opened just how much about magic would be known by the average person. He knew that while certain historical figures used magic, almost all of them had direct lineage ties to the Ancient Ones, and he suspected many of the ones who didn’t have ties officially, had them too. After the agreement to join the Consortium, the Agier stepped more into the public perception. Going from semi-mythological beings to taking a more direct approach. All of the largest businesses, if they weren’t a branch from another plane, now had as their official head an agier.

Shaking his head out of the philosophical thoughts of knowledge control and nepotism running rife under the surface of the world Jack got himself back on track. He still had the Northward Hunters Association to visit today and look at their mission records. He had better make sure that this time no matter what he was on his best behavior. He couldn’t afford to waste even more time than he already had making enemies by being foolish.

Just as Jack was thinking about how he had wasted time with his foolishness, he heard someone shout out “I see him! Over there!”. Looking over his shoulder he saw a group of several well-equipped scruffy-looking individuals, one of whom was currently pointing right at Jack.

Not wasting a moment, Jack turned and bolted. Anytime that a group like that was looking for you, it was time to find yourself somewhere else. Drawing in and purifying mana from around him as quickly as he could Jack split his concentration as best as he was able. He began to pump mana into his legs to speed up his running, dodge around other pedestrians, and cast a spell to muddy traces of his passing. It was a spell that Jack had managed to create years ago back when he first taught himself mana manipulation. It had helped him get out of numerous scrapes when running from gangs or angry business owners that took exception to his stealing food from their establishments. The first effect that it had was it took advantage of the minor absorption that almost everyone did unconsciously throughout their day by taking a small fragment of Jack’s aura and briefly making it seem like everyone around him had the same mana signature as he did. The second thing it did was it made everyone’s footprints and scents match his as well. Sadly, Jack still had not figured out a good way to get the visual component that he wanted to work alongside everything else. At least not with the low power level that he had. As it stood, he would be lucky for this spell to last five minutes. Hopefully enough to get away and to confuse anyone attempting to divine his location later.

Doing this kind of intense spellcasting alongside the body enhancement was taxing Jack’s limited ability, to say nothing of the feeling of wrenching open all of his mana channels simultaneously. It was all he could do to keep moving as it felt as if ants made of acid were crawling in his bones, while his skin was on fire. The worst part was the small rushes of relief that would run through his body with the purified mana, only for it to be followed by even more intense pain. The only reason Jack was able to move at all was his past experiences with needing to run for his life and having taken time while in relative safety to practice dealing with the agony of multicasting the different schools.

Legs pumping as fast as he could make them, eyes bloodshot from the pain. Jack caught sight of an alleyway coming up on left. Not waiting even a moment, Jack threw himself bodily into the opening. Racing his way through the narrow alley, Jack used a trash can as a launching platform. He leapt over the large gate that blocked the middle of the passage. With a grunt and a slight cracking sound, Jack landed awkwardly on the other side.

Seeing numerous spells flashing above his head and hearing spell effects hitting the gate and trash cans behind him Jack knew that he would have to do something drastic to get away from his pursuers. He would have to do his second batch of extremely foolish behavior for the day, which would be potentially deadly on purpose this time.

Stopping the flow of mana in his spells Jack canceled the magic he had cast and began drawing in the mana from the surrounding atmosphere. He then forced himself to purify his mana backwards. Instead of purifying the mana to become better suited to his body and mind Jack instead converted the mana in his body to match the mana that he was bringing in. Jack desperately chanted in his head “make a core that is myself, deep and protected, untouched and true. The rest, let it be part of the world.” The mana swirling in him slowed his heart to match the still mana of stone and worked materials that surrounded him. His body and clothing faded in color to match the wall he was leaning upon.

Jack’s mental chanting became slower and slower as hit thoughts themselves took on the stillness of the world. Jack heard frustrated shouting around him. He couldn’t pinpoint where exactly but it was somewhere nearby. Something was said about lost, divination, paid, and Carlos.

“Make…

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…

core

…

myself

…

…

protected

…

true.”

Some indeterminate time later, Jack’s thoughts had become so slow that they fragmented. Barely able to form coherent words and often missing any context. Until a small spark spun out of his mana and hit upon a single word.

“…

…

myself

…?

Who

…

…

myself

…?”

From there Jack’s mind began to speed up. Not quickly at first, but faster and faster as time went on.

“Bastard?

…

Failure?

…

Useless?

No! Will be better.

Mother

… why?

Shall prove

… myself. Not mistake.

… Jack? I am a jack? Yes, jack. Jack the jack. What was I doing? Protect core? Why core? Why protect? Danger? Danger! Need to cycle, purify, expel!”

Feeling almost a snap in his mind Jack came to awareness. He needed to hurry! Before his mind became muddled yet again, he had to fix his mana. Jack wrenched control back to his consciousness and stopped absorbing mana from his surroundings. Next Jack pulled on the very concept of himself. Who he was and how he thought. His memories good and bad, goals and dreams. His ambition and desires. Jack slowly started converting the glut of mana in his body to fit the small spark of self that remained.

The mana strongly resisted the change but through sheer stubborn force of will Jack forced it to happen. Each little bit that changed made the next bit incrementally easier to do. It was impossible to tell how long the process took, all of Jack’s attention focused on each minute speck of mana. Finally, there was a huge shift in speed as Jack hit the point where half of the mana in his body now once again conformed to him.

Jack’s awareness shifted from envisioning the mana within him and he attempted to open his eyes. When the world around him remained pitch black there was a moment of panic as he tried to figure out just what had gone wrong. When he attempted to move his arms a moment later and yet again felt no response Jack knew he had a huge problem. It seemed all of his actions to fix one problem had just spawned an even worse problem rather than just dealing with the issue at hand.

Jack began to channel a small portion of the purified mana into the mana channels in his body. He could sense the mana flows following his musculature but could not feel it, not even the normal horrific pain that would accompany it. Jack wondered for a moment if this is how it felt for those who hadn’t twisted and damaged their channels by attempting to do too much. He shook off the sudden bout of reflection, Jack didn’t know how bad distraction could be at the moment but he had the sinking feeling that he was much closer to the edge of death than he had any right to be.

The mana he ran through his internal channels completed a full circuit. Quickly Jack started a second circuit and began to channel into his external channels. Still no feeling of pain or discomfort. Currently, Jack didn’t give a specific purpose in his mana channels, he simply let the mana flow and clear out any bits of the natural mana that were still within the passages.

After some time had gone by Jack finally felt sure enough in both the purity of his mana and his mana channels being cleaned out that he would attempt to deal with his unmoving state. The first thing he would do was to stimulate the nerves and hopefully recover some feeling in his body. Bit by bit jack sent out and retracted mana from sections in his body. As the mana touched the nerves with the intent to awaken, agony blossomed in a symphony of pain. So stark and freeing from the nothingness that he had been entombed in that the pain had a horrific beauty to it.

After an eternity filled with glorious suffering, Jack was able to feel his body if only slightly. He once again attempted to move and found that he could not. There was a weight pressing upon him keeping him still. Attempting to take a steadying breath, Jack became extremely lightheaded. Alarm bells began to go off in his head. Whatever state he had been in before had protected him in some way from the lack of good air.

Flooding his body with all the mana that he had purified he augmented his strength as much as he was able. Straining his muscles Jack pushed as hard as he could against whatever had him bound. As the seconds went by Jack felt more and more lightheaded. He kept going even as his vision began to flash numerous colors. There was a sudden cracking sound as Jack fell forward a deluge of ice and snow falling around him. Gasping for breath Jack luxuriated in the feeling of being able to breathe.

The alley was now dark with only a small amount of light streaming in from the soft moonlight above and coming in from the entrance to the street. Glancing around Jack slowly recalled why he was here to begin with. The pursuers! Was there any sign of them? Quickly trying to stand he found that just like his upper body had been his lower body was encased in a layer of snow and ice. Once again pumping mana to strengthen himself Jack worked to break his legs free.

Scrabbling to find something to grab onto to help him get leverage Jack managed to snag part of the gate and began to heave himself upwards. Even with the strengthening and the better leverage his legs weren’t moving. Trying to stay silent in case any of the people chasing him earlier were still nearby, Jack cast a minor heating spell to try to melt some of the ice. Everything working together eventually allowed him to slide his legs out leaving a tunnel behind where he had been trapped. Pulling himself up onto his feet Jack found that his legs barely supported him even with the magic running through them. He held onto the gate just to manage to stay upright.

Now up and about Jack took a better look around the alley where he had done such a stupidly dangerous maneuver. Not hearing anything nearby in the shadows he took the chance to pull out a small lantern and power the light globe within. There were no obvious traces of his pursuers, either they never came to this side of the alleyway or they had completely overlooked him earlier. No matter which it was Jack couldn’t stay here.

Slowly making his way out of the alley into the nighttime streets Jack wondered just how long he had been sitting there. Based on how dark it was it had been at least ten hours. The weakness of his body made him worry that it had been much longer. In the end, it didn’t matter. He had lost a good amount of time in a case where time had mattered the most. Cursing both that stuck-up noble scion and his own stupidity for not being able to keep his damn mouth shut, Jack would have to figure out how to make up for the lost time without rushing. Right now, however, the most important thing was to get back to his office and get fixed up. With that in mind, Jack stumbled his way into the night.