Chapter 5

Jack gets bad news, and a shiny rock

Jack watched as Guy cleared off the kitchen table and moved all of the chairs except Jacks against the wall, leaving only a pile of small crystals on the table. When that was done, Sum Guy gestured Jack onto the table.

“Really? We're going to do this on the kitchen table?” asked Jack.

“I need a large open flat space; would you prefer the floor?” replied Guy.

Jack looked dubiously at the hard walnut table and thought about how much his head still hurt. “Fine, but do you mind if I go grab a pillow from my room? That table looks uncomfortable.”

“That will not be necessary.” with a small flourish of his hand, Guy suddenly had a large, embroidered silk pillow in his hand, which he placed at the head of the table. Jack's brain saw this and again refused to process it. Why should it care if a possibly imaginary Guy could pull large objects from thin air. It instructed Jack to studiously ignore it. As it turned out Jack had no problem doing so; he was really not feeling very well: his head just kept pounding, and he felt an electric coldness, a slowly creeping emptiness spreading from the very center of his being, a place that he didn't even know he had just a few days ago. He eyed the pillow on the table, it looked so soft and comfortable. Jack had only gotten up from bed a few minutes ago, but he desperately wanted to lay his head on that pillow and drift back into the dark. It was a good thing that there was already a pillow there, as Jack probably didn't have the energy to go back upstairs to fetch his own despite his earlier desire to do so. With Guy waiting patiently, Jack did as he was bid and laid on the table.

“Will it screw up your thing if I fall asleep?” Jack asked, hoping Guy would say no.

“I am not an expert at these techniques Jack, you should try to stay awake if you can. Here, hold this.” So saying, Guy handed Jack one of the small crystals. It was about the size of a quarter, and surprisingly regularly shaped for a crystal. It looked more like a hexagonal bead, or a strange die from a pen and paper RPG game, as it lacked a hole through it. It was also softly glowing a slight indigo color, which is not in general something crystals or gaming dice had any right doing in Jacks experience. Something about its soft indigo glow relaxed and soothed Jack like a cool breeze on a humid day. He decided that he very much liked this little crystal. Guy might have some problems trying to get this crystal back from Jack later.

While Jack laid on the giant old school kitchen table, Guy was quickly and quietly duplicating his earlier trick with the pillow, producing a large number of odd-looking devices and materials, the most recognizable being an incense burner which Guy quickly lit with a wave of his hand, a couple of books and a small pile of what looked like Post-it notes printed with strange symbols. Their resemblance to post-its notes only compounded when Guy went around the room and every few feet placed one of them against the wall where it stuck. And glowed. No, interrupted Jacks brain, it most definitely is not glowing, go back to playing with your lovely non-glowing crystal. When Guy finally placed the last post-its thing, the feeling in the room changed instantly. Jack couldn't explain how exactly, but it felt really good, and afterward he felt his need to sleep slowly wane at the same time as feeling more comfortable laying on the wooden table. He sighed an almost obscene "ahhhhhhh."

“Normally I would not be reduced to using these methods, but as I mentioned before, my injuries prevent me from using my Psight and quite a few other techniques that I have apparently become quite reliant on. Just relax and breathe slowly and deeply while I examine your emanation, the, uh... cloud of Essence that surrounds you.” spoke Guy in the soft soothing voice of a pediatrician.

"My Aura? That's a real thing? Not just New-Age bullshit?" Jack asked.

Retrieving the strangely colored glasses from the table, what he saw confirmed his suspicions and disturbed him greatly. Even with all the composure of a British butler, Guy could not hide the expression from his face. That expression was utter astonishment. The body of this man, Jack, seemed indistinguishable from a human, but his meridians and spirit told another story. These meridians did not belong to a member of the younger races, nor did the other aspects of his being. His mind's shape and his soul were vastly different from anything Guy had ever seen before, despite both being in tatters. Which would make sense, as the creatures to whom these things likely belonged hadn't been seen in millions of years. Not since the War of the Firstborn. None had seen any member of the elder races for longer than Guy had been alive. Not Guy's family, not Guy's teachers, not even the emperor himself as far as Guy was aware. Guy only recognized it at all from the many diagrams he had been told to memorize while preparing for this quest. It was impossible. It was unbelievable. Guy had only suspected it at all because there was only one way he could imagine for Jack to have qualified for the Inheritance of the Celestial Elven royal family. Jack was not what he appeared. Now Guy wondered at the surname of 'Elder' perhaps being more apt than expected, but without another local human to compare Jack's Spiriology to, he could only conjecture. This part here is peculiar, thought Guy.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Jack, are you a twin?" This was the only conclusion Guy could make from the strangely doubled Psi-umbilicus. He had seen something similar once on the Psyche of a wounded teammate.

"What? No! Of course not! She... No! No, I'm not a twin" Jack's mental state instantly stated degrading again the moment Guy asked about a twin, so he thought he must have hit on something important. And also, something he should leave very well alone until Jack's Psych had stabilized.

“Ok, Jack, my mistake, enhance your calm my friend. I have seen all I need to see, and there is precious little that I can do to help you. You can get up now.” Guy's troubled expression should have made Jack pensive, but again it only made him curious. Jack slowly got off the table, still obviously perturbed about the reference to his 'twin.' With a deep breath, Jack pushed the whole issue and its ensuing feelings down deep, where the pain was barely noticeable.

“So, Doc, am I going to live?” Jack said with a smirk.

“I am afraid I do not know how to explain this to you Jack, but from what I can tell, you are not Human as you have believed” Guy slowly lowered himself into a chair and appeared to be listening to an inaudible voice. “I see. Thank you. You can Identify it now?” he nodded his head as if in agreement with the silent speaker. Of course, why shouldn't Jack's possibly imaginary friend have his own imaginary friend. Maybe Jack is Guy's imaginary friend, and the invisible man talking to Guy is the real friend? That actually made some sense to Jack, as he didn't feel particularly real right now. Who could say what was real, anyways? Jack was quite aware that he was definitely not qualified to do so. Multiple Psychiatrists had assured him of it repeatedly.

Guy picked up the pretty translucent green ring Jack remembered seeing from before breakfast and held it in his hand with his eyes closed, and Jack again had the feeling that Guy was listening to his imaginary friend. His other imaginary friend. Maybe I can't hear him because I don't have that much imagination, thought Jack.

“It appears there is nothing I know that can help you, I was going to teach you a form of simple spiritual cultivation, but I cannot. Your spirit is too different from mine, from... Human. We do not even have the same meridian systems. Anything I taught you might end up being wrong, and that would be much worse for you than doing nothing. There is however one thing that I have been told might help you, but it is frankly only a conjecture, and it could help you in ways that would make my own mission... difficult. So, before we try that, could you tell me; what did you receive from the Inheritance?” Guy sounded defeated.

“The Inheritance? Sure, I can tell you about that. I got this house, it's really nice, but it's so far into northern Maine its almost Canada. I honestly just came to look at it before selling it. I'm kinda surprised you're interested. Who would have thought an imaginary swordsman would want to buy a house here in the real world.”

“That... is not what I meant Jack. I meant the um... 'Glowing Book' from your... dream. What did it show you?” this was Guys last chance. Without this knowledge, his entire mission was a failure, the emperor's little girl would forever remain crippled, and Jacks nearly assured immanent death was all for nothing. A total waste. Not to mention the very real chance that the Great War might resume its raging across the Cosmos.

“You know what it gave me, you were the one who explained it to me. It let me speak this bizarro language. If there was anything else supposed to be in it, I couldn't tell you what it could be. I only remember the pain.” Jack said.

“I see. Well, that is that then. See this ring?” Showing the translucent green ring to Jack. “This was one of the items I was instructed by the diviners of my home to retrieve.” At Jacks look of confusion, Guy said “A Diviner is like a fortune teller.”

“Ah, right. Ok.” responded Jack.

“It is supposed to increase my chances of success opening the Inheritance, though I was never told what exactly I was supposed to do with it, besides to 'bring it to the House of the Elder.' All that I know about it is that it is very, very old, and that it may be one of the ancient prototypes for this ring I am wearing.” Said Guy, showing Jack a shiny gold ring on a finger of his left hand.

“Honestly, I do not even know if it will help you. Like that crystal I gave you earlier, wearing this ring could make you feel better, maybe even heal you somewhat, but it could also kill you.” Guy then handed the ring to Jack.

“Thanks Guy, this is a lovely imaginary ring. We aren't married or anything if I put it on, right?” Jack liked to think that he was funny, and his brain didn't disabuse him of the notion, as it would be just too mean. Being funny was the one of the few things that Jack still had to make himself feel good about himself. It was integral to his psychological wellbeing.

“No, no! It does not mean anything like that, it is just a gift. I leave it up to you if you want to try it on. My own Array Intelligence ring thinks it might help you. I hope it is right.” Jack's brain heard this and wondered what fresh hell of insanity Guy was on about now. Then it quietly made Jack forget he ever heard about Guy say anything about the weird ring thinking on its own.

So, it could fix my pounding head? And my fuzzy thinking? Or kill me? Or maybe just imaginarily kill me? I suppose if it actually kills me, it'll still stop this headache, one way or another. Besides, the Doctors keep telling me that Pararibulitis hallucinations can't really hurt me, right? With that, Jack thrust the ring onto hist right pointer finger with a grin. After all, an imaginary friend gave him this imaginary ring, what harm could it do, really? It will either do nothing, fix his headache, or kill him, right? A great rush of white hot, sharp energy rushed up Jack's arm, turned and raced towards his heart in a strangely zig-zagging fashion, and then ascended to his head. By the time it reached his neck, blood was pouring out of Jack's ears and nose. By the time it reached his brain, blood started leaking out Jack's eyes. Then, as the possibility that Guy had dreaded occurred, Jack's eyes rolled up into to his head, and he fell, limp. Jack was dead. Guy moved to him faster than a mortal could even see, tears in his eyes for a broken child Sum Guy had promised to save, catching him before he hit the ground and laying him gently on the parquet floor.

Then they both disappeared from the kitchen in a flash of light, leaving behind nothing but a mess of arcane doodads that Guy had left scattered around the room, and a one-eyed black cat slowly licking its paw that strangely neither Jack nor Guy had even been aware was present. It swished its tail and ate one of the glowing crystals before walking through a closed and locked door in the back of the kitchen which led down to the basement that Jack had never even gotten around to exploring. Cats are weird.