The following week felt like it went by in a blur. The three of them who had been cured did get off site accommodations as Jack had insisted upon. They were all put up in a floor of an expensive hotel owned by the Telipar clan. Of course, they were surrounded by a gaggle of security at all times, who were stationed both in and around the building. In addition, all three were to do several tests of their bodies and mana throughout the ten days to be check to see if the mana of the system would make a comeback.
The day before they were allowed to go to the hotel Dilcay was able to get into contact with her parents. To say that they were surprised to hear from her was an understatement. It turned out that when they contacted Telipar Industries they did indeed get confirmation of Dilacy being held by the company.
They were told that she had suffered an unfortunate incident related to a mission that had been commissioned on behalf of the company and that in her current state she was not able to be seen other than by the doctors and nurses attending her. When the group that she was working with disappeared shortly after they had become more then a little worried that what they were told was a lie. In the end, they figured that such a powerful entity like the corporation really had no need to lie to them about having their daughter.
When Carlos heard that he was furious, not at Dilacy or her family, or even at his company for not telling him about Dilacy. He was however, very upset with his contact in the staves as he had been told that they were linking Dilacy’s disappearance to the trouble that the rest of her group encountered. Even though they were informed by her family when they spoke to them about her being held by Telipar Industries.
Dilacy let her parents know just where she would be staying for the next while and arranged for them to be able to visit. Anxious and impatient to see them and reassure them of her truly being okay. She still struggled with it having been months from when she was attacked as well as the fact that her memories of the fight and attack itself were too fragmented to be of any use. The only thing that she was fairly certain of was the person that she was battling was shorter than her and had a thin figure.
While Dilacy and Carlos were dealing with the revelations that came with her freedom, Jack was trying to figure out his next steps. Several of his assumptions had turned out to be correct. His office had indeed been cleared out with all of his belongings being tossed out into the streets. Combined with the fact that all of his money had been in his bedroom at the time other then the small amount that he had taken with him, meant that he was completely destitute.
When doing up the contract with Madam Blue he had not thought to include any kind of monetary renumeration. Instead, all of what he had shown and was currently doing for them was compensated with his freedom and temporary stay within the hotel.
Even with the limited compensation Jack did not attempt to skimp on what he needed to do to uphold his end of the bargain. If he acted like a petulant child, not only would it not get him any real benefits, but the people that would suffer in the end, were the victims of the Great System.
During the week he had to do two more procedures allowing for more people to be released. One was a middle-aged woman named Julie, and the other was an extremely old man who Jack was told was called Wilapor. Both of them also began to stay at the hotel, at least temporarily.
As soon as Julie began to stay at the hotel, Dr. Trovihn became an almost permanent fixture there. While it was never outright stated, Jack was certain that she was his wife. The one who he had joined the company and worked for years in that deary complex just for the extremely slight chance that one day she could be cured.
By the end of the week all four of the people that Jack had cured of the parasite still maintained their autonomy as well as still suffering the explosions within their crystalized passages. Nobody really knew or had any idea what the best way to go about things was. Whether it was better to go quickly and painfully, channeling as much as possible in order to remove the bits of the parasite that remained at the cost of remnant injuries in the afflicted passageways, or if it was a better to try and clear it out slowly with the higher risk of a resurgence of the parasite’s mana.
Even so it was decided that the best choice was simply to proceed and see what happens. If they let the fear of relapse prevent them then nothing at all would be accomplished. The only thing they could do was keep testing everyone who was released.
From the two additional procedures that were done it was figured that the analysis machine needed to be even more finely tuned then it was. Only once out of the three times that they watched Jack do the operation had the machine actually managed to find and distinguish the small fragment of mana that had been remaining from the infected person’s original signature.
They were certain that they would be able to make or rather commission a more advanced version of the machine for future operations. They also planned for the next attempt to be done with Jack taking on more of a supporting role, monitoring the entire time but only stepping in if it got down to the lowest amounts of mana left in the patient and they were unable to differentiate the mana signatures.
Considering everything Jack was actually hoping that there would be one or two delays. Mainly because of the fact that once his method was confirmed to work using the machines that Telipar Industries had access to, well, he would be ending up on the streets once more. So, he hoped that any minor issues that cropped up would give him enough time to scrounge up a small bit of money. At least enough to rent a hole in a wall somewhere while he worked on getting reestablished.
Overall, all ten days of the week passed comfortably. It was eerie feeling to Jack, that after having been in such a precarious situation for such an extended period of time, here he was sitting amongst many of those who had been keeping him in said situation. There were moments that he worried if everything around him was nothing but a dream. A pleasant imagining from his broken and shattered mind.
It was at the end of this surreal and peaceful week that life once more began to take on a new pace. Dilacy had been deemed clean for long enough that she was allowed to have a meeting with her parents. It would be monitored the entire while but still she would be allowed to see them once again. Jack was planning on making sure that he stayed out of the way of their reunion but when he passed Dilacy in the hallway that morning she grabbed him and dragged him along.
She chirped at him as he tried to pull his arm free, “Nope, you’re coming with me! Mom and Dad wanted to say their thanks for what you did. Well, that and they wanted to apologize to you.”
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Jack shook his head and said quietly, “It’s fine. Your parents don’t owe me any apology or anything. Really. If anything, I should be apologizing to them.”
“You’re kidding right? You don’t owe any kind of apology. You kept working all the way up until you were knocked unconscious and fuck even after. I was talking to Charise and she mentioned that you asked her to grab me because you had guessed that I was in fact me.” Dilacy gave Jack a stern look as she tried to get across to him.
Jack shrugged awkwardly not really able to find the words to fit the sense of guilt that still resided within him. This feeling that he should somehow have done better with his investigation. That he should have been able to find out not just what happened to Dilacy and allowed her her freedom, but also somehow… anyhow… not have allowed her companions to wind up like they had.
“Well, come on. Stop resisting.” Dilacy tugged at Jack’s arm again.
Jack let out a deep sigh, shaking himself out of his dark reverie. He had done his best, that is all that anyone could do. Even as he reassured himself there remained the dark whisper in the back of his mind, the thought that if only he wasn’t a jack he could have done more. Conveniently ignoring the numerous impossible things that he had accomplished, several of which were only able to be done because of his choice to pursue all types of magic. “Okay. Okay. Fine. I’ll come.”
As the two walked toward the lobby where the Falwer’s would be meeting, Dilacy paused. “Oh! I almost forgot, I was talking to Carlos the other day and mentioned that I would be doing this. He asked me to let you know that he has something for you, so if you could make some time to meet with him these next few days he can hand the stuff over.”
“What the heck would he have for me? I know for a fact I am not getting paid for my work with the parasite. Instead, I am getting compensated in a number of other ways.” Jack wondered aloud before shrugging. “Oh well, doesn’t matter I suppose. I’ll find out soon enough. I’ll have one of the guards or nurses send him a message and get that worked out. Thanks for letting me know.”
“No problem!” Dilacy chirped happily and started moving again down the hallway. As she walked tugging Jack along, he could feel her hand twitching every so often. Becoming more rapid the closer they got to their destination.
Seeing this Jack looked over at her and asked, “Is everything alright? I had thought that your parents and you had a great relationship. At least judging by everything that they had done to find you. Well, that and how they spoke of you with such pride.”
“We do!” Dilacy responded, almost too quickly. She took a breath and settled herself before repeating. “I mean, we do. I just… Well I’m just feeling nervous. I had been working so hard and was so proud how my strength and then I go and get myself imprisoned and mind controlled or whatever.”
Jack attempted to comfort her awkwardly, “It’s really not something to be ashamed about. It happened to all kinds of people. One of the people I worked with this week was a veteran explorer and adventurer. Turns out that she had a very storied career doing all kinds of dangerous and scary work. In the end she ended up just like everyone else.”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. I’m not the only one this happened too. I know I’m not special.” Dilacy muttered halfheartedly.
Jack yelped out in surprise and tried to correct her misconceptions. “What? That’s not what I was trying to say at all. I was trying to say that it didn’t or doesn’t always matter really how strong someone is. Many if not most of the people who were turned by the parasite were strong. The same thing happens all the time with almost any illness. Being an amazing magic user doesn’t make someone any less mortal than the rest of us poor suckers. In fact, sometimes it can even make someone more vulnerable as they won’t notice something until it is too late.”
“So… What? You’re saying the reason that you managed to figure this all out is because you are so weak?” She laughed.
Jack sighed and shrugged, “Part of it yeah. Honestly, I more stumbled ass first into everything. After failing to find you that is. Up until I got knocked out, I was doing things pretty methodically. Interviewing folks and checking records. It’s amazing how much people overlook just what paperwork can tell you. It’s no where near as fast or fancy as what diviners can do usually, so there’s that. But once I was trapped in the complex? Yeah, all of that was just chance and madness. If you don’t believe me on that you can ask Charise just how close I was to driving both her and me insane. Or even killing us outright. But really the reason I was able to free myself I’m pretty sure was a combination of my being a jack, spellcasting wise I mean, and the fact that I had fucked with my own brain so much that I was just barely functioning at the time that it possessed me.”
Dilacy gave Jack a stunned look not really expecting such an admittance. She had heard about him being a jack but in the same vein had also heard Charise mention him being able to absorb other peoples and artifact mana so she assumed most of what she heard was either sarcasm or lies. There was a beat of time and in the end, she decided that the best thing to do was just tell him thanks. “Okay then. Anyways, thanks. I appreciate you still working to help me even with all of that.”
“Sure.” Jack replied. With that, silence fell between the two of them as they finished the walk to the lobby.
Standing in the lobby were two of the guards that were currently stationed at the hotel. Both of them had tense body language, seemingly on edge for some reason. As Jack and Dilacy entered the room two pairs of eyes shot over to them only to relax once they saw who it was. The one standing on the right nodded politely and said to both of them. “Good morning you two.” Before focusing on Dilacy and continuing, “Here waiting for your parents to be arriving then?”
At Dilacy’s odd look the guard thought over what she had just said before opening her mouth again. “Whoops, meant coming down here to wait for your parents’ arrival. You know what. Even as I say it again it still sounds wrong. I might have said it correctly but it just sounds off. Sorry. Just good morning, I hope you have a wonderful reunion with your folks.”
Dilacy let out a small laugh at having caused the guard to fumble with her words. “Don’t worry about it. Spirits alone know just how much I struggle with your language sometimes. I am thankful for the translation spells that exist but I know for a fact that they can cause some fun misunderstandings.”
As Dilacy said that she snapped her fingers and turned to Jack. “Actually, on that note I remember that is something my parents were planning on apologizing to you for.”
Jack just looked a bit confused as he asked, “They are going to apologize for some misunderstanding with translations? It seemed that their Surdylian was fine to me. I mean the language itself has only been around for a couple centuries so I know that it has some vast differences in regional slangs as holdovers from the previous languages, but I didn’t notice anything with their speech.”
“No, I mean-.“ Just as Dilacy was going to explain herself the doors to the lobby opened as a couple of older beastfolk entered, looking around almost nervously at the opulence on display. The man spoke as he took in the room, “This is the right place, isn’t it dear?”
“It should be, it’s where out little kitten told us to go to meet her.” The woman replied.
Jack could see the embarrassment clear on Dilacy’s face as her parents failed to notice her standing right in front of them. “Mom, dad. Please stop it. I know you saw me when you came in and certainly could smell me from aways away.”
It took Jack a moment even as Dilacy identified them. It had been so long since he had last seen them that it was a struggle for him to try and remember their names. The father he was pretty certain was either Greg or Craig and the mother was… something with a v? Vivian maybe? Either way he knew their last name was Fawler so no matter their first names he could get away with simply referring to them using Mr. and Mrs.
As Jack was struggling with his memory, trying to pull up information without accidentally flooding his mind with emotionally charged photographic memories. The Fawlers had come together into a massive hug with the two parents surrounding Dilacy. All three of them tearing up and on the verge of hysterically bawling. Soon enough the father lost that battle as wracking sobs of relief came out of him his grip holding his family even tighter. Only the briefest moment later the other two joined him in weeping openly.