After finishing the operation Jack and a few others went to take a break outside, leaving only a few guards and nurses to monitor Dilacy. However, as Jack exited the room, he found himself feeling extremely nauseous and immediately threw up. Managing to have enough control to move to the side and avoid hitting the others who were around him.
“The fuck!? Jay are you okay?” Charise shouted in surprise.
Struggling to not vomit more, Jack fell forward and propped himself up on the wall as he tried to answer, “Urp- I’ll manage. I…” He stopped and swallowed heavily his face turning slightly green.
“I just…” His second attempt to talk was cut short as the acrid scent of his puke hit him and he promptly lost the battle to keep the rest of his stomach down.
As Jack’s body emptied itself, Madam Blue jerked her head at the doctors silently instructing them to check him over. Dr. Trovihn nodded his head and walked over, stepping carefully to avoid the splatters. “Here, let me take a look at you.”
Jack half-heartedly tried to wave him off. He was fairly certain he knew exactly what had caused his bout of vomiting. It was the same thing that was causing much of his body to ache and feel almost like it was burning from the inside out.
He heaved a couple more times until the only thing his retching produced was a thin bile. Swallowing heavily once again he let out a small groan and spoke. “I’ll be alright. Thanks though. I just overtaxed myself pretty extensively the last while and it’s really starting to catch up to me. After I am done with all of this mutantshit I am taking a week-long break. At the very least.”
“Even if you have a guess at what’s wrong, it doesn’t hurt to be safe. I promise if it makes you uncomfortable, I won’t do more than just a quick scan.” The doctor replied sympathetically.
Jack let out a light groan and “Sure, whatever, go ahead. It’s not so much that it makes me uncomfortable, as it is more that doing a check won’t really change anything.”
“Well, yes. The purpose of a checkup isn’t to instantly fix something but rather to determine what is wrong. Once we know what’s wrong then we can determine the best way to treat it.” Dr. Trovihn explained as he took Jack’s left wrist to check his pulse. “Hmm. Pulse is erratic, skin is hot to the touch. Turn toward me to let me get a look at your face please.”
Jack used his other wrist to wipe his mouth and turned just enough so his head was facing the doctor. “Yeah, yeah. All my symptoms and considering what I just did all seem to point to a slight case of mana poisoning. Am I right?”
Dr. Trovihn did not answer right away. Instead, he took a small crystal out and checked both of Jack’s eyes before responding. “Yeah, you’re right that is what it looks like.”
Jack nodded and wavered slightly. “I know what I need to do. If I remember correctly… for mana poisoning from over absorption the best thing to do is expel excess mana and then just rest.”
“Pretty much, I can also give you some supplements that will help your body deal with the side effects that you are experiencing. It should greatly speed up your recovery.” The doctor agreed.
Jack gave a short jerky nod as he agreed, “I would appreciate it.”
As the two chatted back and forth, excepting Charise, the rest of the group left the building. The director stating in an almost threatening tone as she exited, “I’ll have someone sent to clean all of that up. Doctor, get this fixed quickly if you please. There is more work still to be done.”
After she was gone and it was just the three left, Charise said. “I’m glad it’s nothing too serious Jay. I have to say though, when you did that whole thing with me you didn’t end up like this. Was there something different this time?”
Pushing himself upright, Jack stepped back away from the puddles of spew. He turned to face Charise and nodded. “Ugh. Yeah. It’s just because of the amounts of mana. When I did it to you, both of us were running essentially completely on empty. With our respective talents your and everyone else’s empty is significantly more mana than mine is. To the point that your empty was almost more mana than I could handle.”
Pausing for a moment to steady himself, Jack continued. “I didn’t think about that at all and had… exhilarated? No… Ah, luxuriated in the feeling of being able to take in normal mana and being how I would usually be. Before doing the treatment, I should have used up the mana in my body until I was as empty as could be to accommodate what I would be bringing into myself. As I didn’t, I am now paying the price.”
Charise noticed that the more that Jack spoke and held himself up the more he seemed to waver. Without saying a word, she gingerly stepped forward and slung one of his arms behind her back and half carried him out.
As she did this, for the first time she reflected on just how short he was. She was used to being among the shortest in any group only standing at five feet and three inches. Jack had her beat for diminutive size however being a few inches shorter then even she was. She couldn’t help it, she just had to say, “You know, in all the agierdamn excitement I hadn’t actually noticed that you’re shorter than me.”
Jack replied in a dour tone. “Yeah, that I am. Have to blame the joys of malnutrition as a youth. It certainly does a number on you.”
Charise shuddered a bit as she remembered her own childhood. While her own physical strength had kept her and a number of her friends fed, she saw more than a few people of all ages starving in the streets. She agreed, her own tone became diminished as she did, “Yeah, yeah it does. Sorry to hear that.”
“No need to apologize. It’s not your fault. There is only one person to blame for what I went through and you’re not them.” Jack shrugged. He had learned long ago that the anger at that woman was toxic to his mental health. It was still there and always would be. But he would not let her influence ruin his life any more than it had.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The two fell silent as they finished making their way outside. Dr. Trovihn did his best to not intrude. His examinations of Jack before had shown patterns consistent with childhood traumas. In fact, he suspected that in addition to the obvious reduction in height it had also impacted Jack’s terrible aspects as well. Turning what likely would have still been poor magical aspects into practically non-existent ones.
Jack and Charise had found a place to sit down outside of the building in the shade while they waited. While they sat there and waited Jack took the time to use up the mana in his body by attempting to emulate the world around him. He had done it once before when he drew in the worlds mana without purifying it. Now, not only did he want to be able to do such a thing without putting his life in danger, but, with the fact that his mana attribute had changed to theoretically absorb anything, the method that he had used before would no longer work.
Such an attempt was not extraordinarily mana intensive; it did however drain his mana out steadily as he would send the mana through the shell he created and ask Charise to judge it.
During their rest, Dr. Trovihn eventually came and found them. He bore the medications that he had promised along with some water. As soon the medications arrived Jack threw them back without even taking a second to look at them.
Seeing Jack doing such intriguing exercises the doctor found himself asking, “Interesting! I take it that you are doing that via the same methodology that you used when treating Ms. Fawler? How exactly are you managing to get your signature to match that of something else? I mean our various machines and arrays can do it because as long as they are made properly, they purify mana to a completely neutral state. Which can then be… I don’t know… dyed perhaps? Yes, let’s go with dyed. Right, the neutral mana can be dyed using some of the targets.”
Jack nodded absently, most of his concentration still on the exercise, “That’s right. I’m doing the same thing. I was inspired partly by what happened to me here as well as earlier in the same week that I had been brought in. I had my mana signature forcibly changed multiple times. After freeing myself I had the thought and feeling of how it had been each of those times so I tried to make a faux purification that would appear or feel the same.”
“Multiple times?” Doctor Trovihn asked in a stunned voice. There were really only so many things that could cause such an extreme reaction, and for multiple to happen to someone in less then a week was almost inconceivable.
“Yeah, the first one was entirely my own damn fault. I let my agierdamned stupid ass mouth get away from me and… well I pissed off a rich family heir. A whole bunch of people tried to nab me to take me to him to I don’t know get punished somehow or something. Not too sure what they were thinking. I just ran. I’m sure that quite a few of those assholes were probably arrested by the staves after the commotion they made chasing me, but to escape them I had to hide.”
Charise was confused at this simple statement, it explained nothing other than context, “How the fuck does hiding change your mana signature? That makes no sense at all!”
Jack shrugged awkwardly, “It changes it when you are desperate and unable to get away by running. I hid in part of an alleyway and purposely absorbed mana without purifying it. I did that to the point where I lost control of my mind and body for an extended period of time. I don’t know how long I was stuck like that. I do know that at least a few hours went by while I was in that state.”
“You really are absolutely insane.” Charise said completely deadpan. She knew well that he was not too averse to taking risks, but had thought that had to do more with his state of mind when they had come across each other. It seemed that no, he was willing to do such things even when his mind was working properly.
The conversation stalled at this point. They sat there in silence, Jack continuing to expel his excess mana, and Charise and Dr. Torvihn staring at him like he was the main attraction at a freak show. Jack found himself feeling much better. The medicines were really starting to kick in and he had managed to get almost everything out of himself.
With a small sigh Jack opened his eyes and saw the expressions plastered on the other twos faces. Immediately he opened his mouth with the simple knee jerk reaction of a defensively toned, “What!? I learned a lot from that experience! It certainly wasn’t pleasant but I can tell you this, if I didn’t go through that or the aftereffects of my foolish choice, I wouldn’t be here today. Neither would you either for that matter.” At that statement he pointed at Charise.
“Oh? How’s that?” Dr. Torvihn asked intrigued. At the same time Charise let out an indignant “Huh? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be dead if you didn’t go through something that insane.”
“No, you wouldn’t be dead, but you also wouldn’t be free of the system. Thats what I mean. Neither would I.” Jack explained before a memory surfaced that made him turn toward Dr. Tovihn and ask, “Actually, this is a great opportunity for me to ask. Someone once said that perhaps my theories weren’t as rare as I thought but that I simply was not exposed to enough with my limited education. Doc you obviously went on to do further education. When you went to the universities, did they teach anything about concepts?”
“Concepts? I mean we learned about all sorts of concepts, like how to judge wellness and many others.” Dr. Trovihn replied confused slightly at what exactly Jack was trying to get at.
Jack shook his head and elucidated, “No, sorry. Not that kind of concept. I mean concepts magically. Like a fourth kind of aspect that someone could have. The idea that the better someone understands and can visualize something, the better they can create that result from their spellcasting.”
Charise shrugged at Jack’s explanation “Well, I’ve got no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.”
On the other hand, Dr. Trovihn stopped and thought for a bit before he answered slowly, “Yes, I have seen some things about that kind of theory. It was the Theory of Visualization. Other than an as part of an introductory course however I don’t think had much interaction with it. From what I can recall most people that do anything involving that theory are spell and array crafters. It just isn’t something that can or does have much of an impact from what I remember.”
“I don’t know about others but it certainly has had a huge impact for me. You yourself mentioned that you were unsure of just how I could cast spells with my limited talents. Well. Concepts, or visualization I guess, is how. It’s not just scientific knowledge but also emotional connection to what you want to have happen that creates a far more profound effect.” Jack said.
Jack’s explanation intrigued the doctor. “That’s fascinating!” He exclaimed before he continued in a sightly saddened voice, “Though as I said I don’t really have any knowledge of it other then an extremely brief overview as it didn’t seem overly important to my goals. I mean I could already cast more then was needed for being able to practice medicine. Besides that, from what I understood the main use was that the more you did something the easier it would become. So, I didn’t feel the need to explore further.”
Shrugging, Jack replied “That’s okay. Just the fact that there is more information out there then the small fraction I discovered on my own is fantastic. This means that I have some hope of learning about it and improving what I can already do.”
A puzzled look crossed Dr. Trovihn’s face and he started to ask, “Wait, what does visualization have to do with –"
It was at that moment a strangely familiar voice broke in loudly, “Hey you over there. I was recommended to talk to you lot to get a recounting of a new medical technique or something.”