I woke up bright and early on January 1st and started a pot of coffee. Maguire and I had stayed up late the previous night, ringing in the new year with some of our neighbors, and he had yet to wake. The silence didn’t feel quite as heavy as it had when we first arrived, but it still felt strange. A year on my own had taught me the value of having company, and just having one more person walking the halls made the place feel a little more like home. In the span of a few days, Maguire had learned much of the history of the Jacks and how we interact with the world.

He still had more to learn, of course, but he showed much promise.

“Hey Maguire, you awake?” I called, knocking on his door as I passed.

“Go away, Claudia.”

“Breakfast in fifteen.”

“Can’t I have a day off?”

“No rest for the wicked, but if it helps this isn’t going to be a heavy training day.”

“Ugh, fine. I'm up, I’m up.”

I waited until I heard the sound of him moving to be sure he was actually going to get up, then I went back to the kitchen to start on breakfast. Maguire joined me twenty minutes later.

“What smells so good?” he asked. He was slowly beginning to break his habit of dressing in red or green, though I doubted he would ditch it completely. Today it was a t-shirt from a cartoon and sweatpants.

“That would either be the coffee or the cinnamon rolls. You will also notice, I waited until after 9am to wake you up.”

“I did notice that. Thank you.”

“I figured it was the least I could do given that you are used to today being a holiday. There’s something we need to talk about and I didnt want to put it off any longer.”

“Does it have anything to do with the rest of the Jacks? I was wondering why none of them joined us for the Eve celebration.”

“Normally, they would,” I explained, “but last year something happened that’s had us in a bit of a pickle. You see, some of the Jacks were working on something and things didn’t go exactly to plan. I’m still trying to piece together exactly what went wrong, but the one thing I know for sure is that all of the others are gone. I am the only member of the Society left and I have been working with the Jacks to find a way to bring everyone else back. That is part of why I jumped so eagerly at a chance to work at the North Pole and why I recruited you.”

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“You need my help to save the rest of the Society.” He eyed me curiously over the rim of his coffee mug.

“Precisely. One Jack can make miracles but two? Two can change the world. I know it's a lot to process and normally we don’t shove recruits into such high stakes situations but, it's not like I have a lot of options. Special circumstances and all.”

“Is that why you had me hit the ground running with the training?”

“No, that’s pretty standard. The life of a Jack is many things, but dull is not one of them.”

“So I have gathered.” Maguire gestured for me to pass him another cinnamon roll. “I am happy to help in whatever way I can. I have seen the work you do and it is amazing. I can only imagine how much better the world would be with more Jacks in it.”

“We will see if you still think that after we have rescued the others. We have some real oddballs in the Society, but they are all good at their core. Anyway, I am relatively confident that whatever caused the disappearance wasn’t related to how they were introduced to the society, but just in case I will be inducting you through a different ritual than we normally do. It's a little odd, but nothing you can’t handle. I will walk you through the details tomorrow. In the meantime, I figured we could enjoy one last holiday celebration before our lives become a special kind of weird.”

“I will remind you that I grew up at the North Pole. We have different definitions of weird.”

“Trust me, the life of a Jack is far from normal but it's the best life there is.”

“I can believe it. I would like to hear the story of what happened, though.”

“You and me both. First things first, we need to get you inducted. Your ceremony starts today. I will be able to provide some assistance but it will be up to you to complete the ceremony before the second Friday of January,” I explained.

Maguire fixed me with a curious look. I refilled my coffee and grabbed another cinnamon roll before launching into a more detailed explanation of what he needed to do.

“It’s sometimes referred to as the Persistence Game. It’s an old tradition that hasn’t been used in years, but it's still a valid method of entry. You basically have to find and get the blessing of each of the original Jacks. They are all in the city and each will give you a clue to find the next. I can provide some assistance, of course, but you will have to solve the mysteries on your own. Story says that if you can complete the gathering by the second Friday of January, you can ask a favor of the Just Jack.”

“He is believed to be one of the original Jacks, yes?”

“Yes, he is. And before you ask, the second Friday is Give Up on Your Resolution Day. Someone somewhere at some point decided to add some significance to that. Either way, it’ll be a good crash course in the kind of skills that are useful to a Jack. We can reconnect with some friends along the way and see if any of the Original Jacks know anything that can help. They’re limited in what they can do, but they are clever when it comes to loopholes.”

“Where do we begin?”

“Here,” I said simply. “Whenever you’re ready, try and find the mural of Jack the Nimble.”