Although Raina had learned to take many things in stride over the past few days, she had to admit that Jack unnerved her a bit at that moment. Sitting there in the blandly colored tunic and breeches provided by the undead servants of the castle, he seemed the same man with whom she had assaulted the temple yet simultaneously, he had changed in so many ways. He no longer had metallic flesh, one of his eyes had glowing blue sclera, and he carried himself with more certainty. Aesthetic changes aside, something else nestled within his golden eyes. Only now while he sat across from her could she readily identify it— purpose. What purpose? She had no idea but she assumed his journey had given him some insight into how to restore Terras. Despite his relaxed body language, his gaze was so intense that she had a hard time holding it for more than a few seconds.

“You’re right. We do need to talk,” she said after taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. As someone new to Fracture, Cordan’s warnings played in her thoughts again and again. She knew about as much about the true face of Fracture as she did about the harsh realities of Earth. She had to face it. She had been and still was in many regards, a sheltered girl. That was why she had to change.

Jack smirked presumably amused with her shaky nerves. “Glad we’re on the same page about that but before we talk, I want to thank you for not choosing the Protector of the Blue Heart trait.”

She smiled at him. Her initial impression of Jack had been that he was jaded and guarded yet genuine in his interactions with her. However, she’d been second-guessing a lot of things lately so while a minor reassurance in the grand scheme, it heartened her to know that he wasn’t an ungrateful man. The reinforcement of her intuition hardened her resolve.

“Jack, I want us to be honest with each other,” Raina said, her voice taking on as much steel as she could muster.

Jack raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise showing at her change in demeanor. Spreading his hands apart in front of him, he said, “I agree. I think that’s the only way this chat goes anywhere productive.”

Raina stared in his golden eyes holding the connection for several seconds in silence. “I agree. That’s why you should know I didn’t select the Fractured Logos Key for your sake. Although I’m going to help you because I think it’s the right thing to do, I’m going to hold onto the key because I know you have secrets and until I know what they are, I can’t completely trust you.”

The surprise on Jack’s face spread but it quickly faded leaving a slight smile. He gave her a nod and his eyes seemed to regard her anew. “Covering your ass in case things go south? That’s a relief to hear.”

“Wait, really?” Raina asked, so caught off-guard that her grim façade faltered. She had been expecting her statement to cause tension or at least, make the man more guarded; however, he appeared more comfortable and open than she had ever seen him.

“Of course,” he said gesturing at her. “If we’re going to be honest with each other, then you should know that I don’t want or need dead weight. Back at the temple, you proved that you’ve some talent at fighting but violence is bottom of the barrel when it comes to Fracture’s nastier elements. My life’s never been simple and it’s only going to get more complicated from here on out. If you want to throw your lot in with us, you need to have smarts, ruthlessness, and a healthy dose of paranoia, or else you’ll drag everyone down.”

At that moment, Raina caught a glimpse of self-loathing in Jack’s eyes. She understood that particular emotion in the way that only someone who had felt trapped in life due to weakness and circumstance could. Understanding became empathy and empathy urged her to ask to speak.

“It sounds like your speaking from personal experience.”

His eyes found the floor for several seconds. When he returned his gaze to hers, his demeanor had become grim, almost sulky. Raina almost apologized for her remark but his words came first.

“Yeah, I know a bit about dragging others down,” he said as he ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. He went quiet for a breath before adding, “You know there used to be more of us. More than just me and Al, I mean.”

His gaze bore into her and she could tell that he was on the verge of telling her something personal. She nearly stopped him sensing that the story would be a painful one for him to tell; however, her need for more information won out over her desire to be empathetic. Instead, she verbally nudged him into divulging more of his past. After all, it would be good to know the fate of his past companions if she planned on becoming one.

“What happened to them?” she asked. His gaze bore into her for a long moment and her heart sped up a few beats in the uncomfortably tense silence. Finally, his expression softened and he began to speak.

“I got dropped in Fracture over five years ago and I’ve spent the entire time on the run. I’ve made a lot of friends and enemies along the way. There were some that, like you, decided to join me, some for personal reasons, others due to situational necessity. We had a little crew going, did some raiding, saw a lot of different places, and I started enjoying myself. There were five including Al and they were the closest thing I had to a family.” He clenched and unclenched his fist, no longer looking at Raina but slightly past her, his eyes unfocused. “It didn’t last long. Back then, I was careful but I had no idea how dangerous and influential Celestials were. Hell, I didn’t even know they were called Celestials then. So, when Azatiel caught wind of my trail, shit hit the fan so suddenly that…”

As he paused, Raina observed several minuscule changes in Jack’s body language that conveyed very little individually. Coincidentally, Raina had spent a lot of time watching other people in her past life. It stemmed from her love of books: individuals were like characters in their own stories and she made a game of trying to guess details about them. She parsed the nonverbal signs as a whole to gain a better understanding of his emotional state. Frustration, regret, and anger waged a subtle war across his features and he struggled to keep them in check.

He continued, “First, we lost Esthara. She was our strongest fighter so when the ambush happened, she chose to stay behind to buy us time. I didn’t want to leave her but… that choice was taken from me.” His brow furrowed in a not-so-subtle sign of his mood then his face relaxed as he released a heavy breath. “We tried to find her afterward but the most we could find out was that she had been sold as a slave to one of the city-states in the Broken Lands. We never found out which one. Until recently, I was certain I would ever meet her again but then Ciel said she died and I can’t do much except hope that he was lying to break my will to resist.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

A shiver ran down Raina’s spine as she imagined being in such a terrible situation. It hit especially hard because she believed she would make the same choice. Jack wasn’t done though.

“A few months later, we lost Mitani. I made a mistake: trusting someone I shouldn’t have. They sold us out to one of the corporations. Most of them would kill for a favor from a Celestial. A squad of suited-up goons hit our hideout in the middle of the night and Al set the place on fire in the chaos that followed. We scrambled but when the smoke cleared, Mitani was missing. We were able to find her the next day. It was an obvious trap but the sting of losing Esthara still burned inside us. We couldn’t leave another friend behind if we could save them. We hatched a plan to rescue her, even go the help of an Invoker who had a bone to pick with the corp. Long story short: it went terribly and we almost died. We escaped but we never even got close to Mitani. I think we only made it out because they were waiting until they had me in custody to contact Azatiel. If his people had been there…”

He trailed off, seemingly deep in thought. For her part, Raina was simultaneously fascinated and horrified by his story. As the silence stretched on, curiosity urged her to ask a question.

“Do you know if she’s still alive?”

He scowled. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure she’s alive. I found out later that she’d ended up at the Ithcari Fleshpits. I guess the corp sold her to Azatiel when they failed to capture me and she’s being kept alive in the hopes that I’ll try to rescue her.”

“What’s the Ithcari Fleshpits?”

“That’s Azatiel’s seat of power in the Broken Lands and Fracture’s capital of debauchery and vice. Slaves, prostitutes, drugs, you name it.”

“Ah,” she said. Their eyes met and she saw hardened resolve, another warning to her. If she went along with Jack and Alindal, she would find herself in the Ithcari Fleshpits at some point.

“Anyway,” he sighed. He was doing that so much that she almost felt bad for urging him to talk about his past. “I lost my other two companions, Ruka and Johan, around the same time. We spent a year on the run from Azatiel’s thugs. We learned to be incredibly careful, limiting our interaction with others, using disguises, avoiding being seen as a group, and spreading false trails. Hell, Johan even learned to hack into local systems for info while Al and I learned sigilcrafting to ward our hideout. Sadly, it wasn’t enough. Ruka went to get some basic supplies one day and didn’t come back. We waited another day for her to show since it wasn’t uncommon for one of us to have to shake a potential pursuer off our trail. She didn’t show but before we could look for her, the local news program that we kept on in the background so we knew what was going on cut out. Instead of the usual bullshit, this guy completely decked out in advanced tech issued a message directly to me. The fucking prick called himself Vile and said, ‘Jack, the chase has gotten tiresome. You have an hour to reveal yourself before I extract the information from your companion.’”

“Indecision stalled us and the news broadcast cut out again.” His eyes went vacant and his voice became distant. “Then, Vile’s extraction started. On a live broadcast. People outside and on the Eidnet were freaking out. As soon as it started, I wanted to run into the streets and reveal myself. Given the short time frame, they probably had people watching every nook and cranny of the city we were in. I didn’t though. I just sat there watching one of my closest friends suffer. I’m not sure how much time went by but eventually, the authorities managed to reclaim the broadcast. In the silence that followed, I remember the feeling of Al and Johan’s eyes on me. I couldn’t look at either of them. When I finally came to my senses, Johan was gone. He just… left and I couldn’t blame him. The next morning, Ruka’s body turned up,. She’d been placed in the city square in the arms of an old statue called the Merciful King.”

He spat the last few words like venom. Her stomach twisted at the horrible tale, partly out of fear and partly out of pity. Aside from Jack’s obvious distress, another aspect jumped out at her. How does Alindal smile like he does after going through all of that?

Of the two, Jack had always seemed like the tough one, physically and mentally, while almost seemed frail. However, Raina had to reevaluate her entire view of the elf. Jack’s paranoia and brusque mannerisms made perfect sense given his background. Who wouldn’t become twisted after such a nightmare? Alindal hadn’t and his kind, expressive eyes seemed like impossible anomalies in light of that.

As Jack got to his feet, she watched his emotions vanish into a blank mask. He looked down at her and said, “That’s what happens to people who travel with me. That’s what my life in Fracture has been like. I didn’t tell you all that to evoke pity or fear but to inform you what kind of shit you’d be stepping in. If you still want to join us, Al and I will give you a chance and once we know you’re really with us, I’ll tell you the truth.”

His gaze turned into a glare. “But just know that when I make it out of this, I want to pay Azatiel back for all the misery he’s given me along with every else who’s fucked me over. You might very well find yourself in a situation like the ones I described. Do me a favor and think about what you want and really ask yourself if it’s worth taking that kind of risk”

Jack held her gaze for another moment then excused himself citing his impending meeting with the Twilight King but not before asking her for the corrupted eidos stone. She assumed he intended to use it to persuade the World Boss to follow whatever plan he had so she didn’t argue.

For several minutes, Raina sat alone in silence stewing on everything Jack had said. She didn’t doubt the truth of Jack’s story for a moment. His body language and words had been far too charged with emotion, subtle and overt, for her to believe it was a lie.

Eventually, she got up wincing from her still sore body. She made her way over to the window then knelt in front of it tracing her fingers along the edge where the wall met the floor until she found the loose stone. She dislodged it to reveal a tiny crevice that shone with soft blue light from within. Removing the Fractured Logos Key from her hiding spot, she considered using it right then and there. In the end, her desire to change stayed her hand.

She clenched her hand around the small Relic. What I want, huh?

***

As Jack made his way to the throne room, he kept a tight lid on his emotions. He hadn’t intended to share so much with Raina but it had felt right. He had plans, big plans, that would end in blood and ruin for either him or his enemies, maybe both. While he was sure Al might light him on fire at the suggestion of parting ways, he might as well be upfront to anyone who got the idea of joining him on his crusade.

Blue sent a worried pulse of emotion into his mind pulling him from his brooding. He paused to calm his thoughts and send reassurances to the Blue Heart.

Gnosis… The mysterious force was behind his reincarnation and most likely, had something to do with the Celestial’s immortality. It was a long shot but he was willing to try. First, he needed to restore his Gnosis and learn more about the power in general. Before any of that though, I’ve got a world to restore.