Part Twenty-One of The Stitched AU
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of a completed fanfic series of mine with 24 total chapters. I started this October of 2018 and finished it May of 2021. The group gains a couple of new allies, just in time for a new enemy to confront them.]
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With a small ding! the doors to the elevator opened, and Jack stepped out onto the ground floor. He looked left, then right, then down at the note in his hand. "Investigating Storage Room 1, first floor, 3:00. On the right side, look for nameplate."
They’d been in the Sanctuary for almost two weeks now. There had been no sign of trouble, but none of them had dared leave the building anyway. The result was a mixture of stress and boredom. But yesterday, something finally happened. Yvonne met with them and said that the magicians had finally gotten around to analyzing the strings. After some talking, Jack had volunteered to meet up with the magicians and relay the information back to the others. Of course, now that he was here he was feeling somewhat nervous, but he pushed that aside.
Folding the note and putting it in his pocket, Jack turned right and soon found the door they had directed him to, identifiable by a nameplate on the wall nearby. At a glance, it didn’t look too different from any other door in the Sanctuary. It didn’t have any of the numbers that the hotel-like rooms did, but then again, not all of them did. He wouldn’t have paid any attention to it at all, which might’ve been the point.
After a couple seconds, the door opened, revealing Delyth standing there. “Oh good, you’re here,” she said. “You’re early.”
Jack laughed nervously. “Well, I wanted to make sure, y’know? Is being early a problem?”
“No, not at all. Please, come inside.” Delyth stepped away so that Jack could walk into the room, closing the door behind him as soon as he had.
Contrary to its door, the room beyond was MUCH stranger than the rest of the Sanctuary. It was dimly lit, with only a few lamps dangling from the ceiling casting concentrated beams of yellow light onto the floor. Not that there was much floor space at all. The room was filled with boxes. Neatly stacked, bigger ones on the bottom, all made out of metal with a coppery sheen. Each box had a label and what looked like a colorful warning symbol, like the sort that was put onto hazardous materials. Jack couldn’t remember if the symbol had a specific name, but he remembered it was a diamond made of four colors. These symbols were similar, except they were circular, divided into four colorful sections with another circle in the center.
In the middle of the room was a table. Delyth was quick to guide Jack over towards it. Yvonne was already there, as well as an older man with dark hair and a beard, both of which looked like they’d been hit by lightning. The man was wearing a coat that was decorated like a labcoat, but dark blue and with a symbol of a four-pointed star on the lapel. Oh the table was one of the coppery boxes, about the size and shape of a shoebox, and a strange device with several large lenses attached.
“Jack, this is Mr. Griffin, he’s one of the wizards studying at this Sanctuary,” Delyth explained.
“Pleasure to meet you, young man,” the older man said in a precise British accent.
Jack couldn’t help but stare. “Uh, yeah, the pleasure’s all mine. You…you’re a wizard, then?”
“I’m not what you were expecting, I understand,” Griffin laughed. “It’s alright, I get that reaction a lot, I’m very used to it.”
Jack laughed a bit as well. “Well, as long as I’m not the first.” He sighed, then returned to the seriousness of the moment. “Anyway, what’ve you found?”
“Well, I’ve examined these strings—”
“We’ve examined them,” Yvonne interrupted. “I helped, don’t forget.”
“Yes, Bell has been very helpful,” Delyth said, sounding as though she’d rather not admit it. “Her knowledge as a soul magician is valuable.”
Yvonne puffed herself up proudly.
“Anyway, we’ve examined them,” Griffin continued. He tapped the side of the box, and Jack leaned forward to look at it. The box actually had a lid, though he hadn’t noticed it since it was made of glass, giving a clear look into the inside of the box. The strings tangled about, writhing like worms and slamming against the sides. “These are not actually physical strings.”
“They’re not physical?” Jack asked, confusion obvious. “But…they can, like, touch things. Interact with them.”
“That’s true, but they’re not made of actual matter,” Griffin explained. “You see, magic can become solid, if concentrated enough. So they’re more like energy than anything else.”
“I…but…isn’t there a thing about how you can’t touch energy? Isn’t that what e=mc2 is all about? Something like that?”
“Magic follows its own rules,” Delyth said. “Just accept that if you take enough magic together, it can become a tangible thing.”
Jack nodded slowly. He figured it was best not to think about this too much. “Okay. So they’re just magic?”
“They’re more than just magic, actually,” Griffin said, suddenly grave. “They’re very dark magic.”
Delyth nodded. “From what we’ve figured out, the strings were most likely caused by a black magic spell backfiring. Terribly backfiring.” She sighed. “That’s the cost of dark magic. It may seem easy, but when it goes wrong, it goes wrong in a big way. Not to mention the effect it’ll have on a magician’s mind and soul.”
“A spell backfiring…” Jack muttered. “We…thought that Marvin and Jackie cast a spell. And we thought that it went wrong, too.” He paused. “Transference.”
“It’s all my fault!” Yvonne suddenly blurted out. She slammed her hands on the table, looking pale. “That book was in my shop. Marvin saw it, he wanted to borrow it, and I-I didn’t think anything of it! When he gave it back, it looked fine, but he could’ve easily copied—”
“Bell!” Delyth looked shocked. “You had a book with a transference spell in your shop?”
“Yeah,” Yvonne mumbled. “I thought it would sell for a lot. I never would’ve dreamed it could lead to all…all this. If I knew, I never would’ve stocked it.”
“You shouldn’t have been selling a book with that spell in the first place!” Delyth scolded. “Think of all the harm it could do!”
“Well, it’s not really my fault if someone wants to buy it, is it, Mae?” Yvonne said angrily. “If someone showed up looking for a book like that, then they knew exactly what they were doing. There are warnings with each spell and they’re very descriptive, if anything happened, it was on them!” She stopped, then slowly deflated. “At least, that’s what I thought at the time. If I knew…if I knew…”
“There’s never just one person responsible for a spell backfiring,” Griffin said. “Nor the consequences of it. Your Marvin friend shouldn’t have used the spell in the first place.”
Yvonne took a deep, shaky breath. “A-anyway, that’s what the strings are probably from. That spell going tops-up.”
Jack was silent for a moment, watching the strings in the box as they wriggled. “But…okay, if they’re just magic, that’s fine. But why are they moving? Why do they…it seems like they always make a beeline for Jackie and Marvin, why is that?”
“Ah. Well…” Griffin paused, stroking his beard. “This is where Ms. Bell comes into play.”
“Right.” Yvonne straightened her shoulders, collecting herself. “Jack, this—” She patted the device with the lenses “—is one of the many tools we use in soul magic. We, uh, don’t really know what souls are, to be honest. But we know that with this, we can at least see them. It helps us visualize souls into something more…tangible.” She slid two of the lenses into place and angled them so that Jack could look through them at the strings. “Go on, have a peek.”
Jack hesitated, then leaned over. He gasped. His view of the strings had suddenly been magnified by a thousand percent. He could see that the glowing strings were actually woven together of smaller threads, which appeared translucent when looked at individually. Caught in the woven threads, too small for anyone to see with the naked eye, were tiny, broken lights. Blue and red. They couldn’t have been bigger than dust motes, and there weren’t that many of them, but they shined with light.
“This is…kinda fucked up, honestly,” Yvonne said. “The bits of light you’re now seeing are actually bits of…soul.”
“Holy fuck…” Jack had to take a step back.
“I used a similar device to look at Marvin when he was at my flat,” Yvonne explained. “And his soul looked…broken. My only thought is that when he and Jackie performed the transference, both their souls were broken. And bits of them got mixed in with these strings, which must be the magic cast by the transference. It probably had nowhere to go, so it solidified.”
“That…that must be the case,” Jack breathed. “I mean, they’re even the same colors.”
Silence.
Jack, noticing the sudden quiet, looked around. All the magicians were staring at him with wide eyes. “What?”
“What do you mean…colors?” Delyth asked.
“The, uh, the lights are red and blue. Just like Marvin and Jackie’s souls,” Jack explained.
“Wh—” Yvonne choked.
“You can…can you see souls?” Griffin asked.
“Oh. Uh, yeah.” Jack tapped the area below his left eye. “Only with this eye, though. JJ and I think that when he used his magic to replace the one I lost, it kind of overcompensated.”
“And…these souls have colors?” Griffin asked again, looking very interested in this.
“Yeah. Of course.” Jack looked back and forth at the others. “Are they…not supposed to?”
“Even with the Lens, all souls appear colorless,” Yvonne said in a hushed tone. “Even to soul magicians like me. They’re all…white light.”
“Oh. I guess…I’m special, then? Because they definitely have color to me.” Jack closed his right eye. “Yeah, I can see all yours now. Delyth’s is purple like her magic, Yvonne’s is blue with a bit of purple, Mr. Griffin’s is bright, and I mean BRIGHT, yellow, and mine is green. Huh. Also all yours are kinda…sparkly? Mine isn’t. Yours kinda looks like how JJ’s is, but different.”
“Wait, can you see—are you maybe seeing our magic?” Griffin gasped. “That’s incredible!”
“Uh, thanks, I guess. I had no say in it.” Jack opened his eye and laughed. “It’s a bit ironic that I can see all these colors and you guys can’t, I’m actually slightly colorblind.”
“Okay, but the soul bits in the strings match Marvin’s and Jackie’s,” Yvonne hurried to say. “The colors here are the same as the colors of their souls?”
“Yeah.”
“That confirms it, then,” Delyth nodded. “The strings are attracted to them due to having parts of them inside. They want to be reunited.”
“I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing in principle,” Yvonne said slowly. “Except for the fact that Marvin got a lot more angry and attack-y once some of those strings got together with him.”
“I suspect that’s the black magic,” Griffin said.
“Okay, but is there any way to get rid of them?” Jack asked, a desperate note in his voice. “These fucking strings are causing all sorts of trouble.”
“Hmm.” Griffin furrowed his brow and looked up at the ceiling. “I know we looked into that, but I think I left the notes in the other room.” He reached down and tapped the top of the box. It turned an opaque, coppery color, the same as all the rest. “I could go get them now, if you’d like.”
“Nah, that’s fine, I could go get them if you want.” Jack took a few steps back.
“Oh. Well, if you’re offering, then that would be great, thank you,” Griffin nodded. “They should be next door, in the Investigative Room. I doubt I left them in a drawer or anywhere, so they’re probably out on a surface.”
“Alright.” Jack turned around. “I’ll see you later, then.” He hurried to leave. Those strings…he wasn’t eager to spend much more time with them.
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There was a wide open area in the basement of the Sanctuary. At first glance, it looked like a gymnasium, except without the bleachers and basketball hoops. It was also much bigger, with a small climbing wall at one end, an archery shooting range at the other, and a wall in between lined with strange perforations. Delyth explained it was made for agents who wanted to practice spells in their spare time. However, it had sat empty for the entire time they’d been here. But that was fine. Schneep actually preferred it empty.
He pushed open the doors to the room, automatically tensing, searching for anyone. He didn’t think anyone was there. Or at the very least, that strange sixth sense that let him know when people were around was telling him the room was empty as always. He sighed, relaxing, and walked into the approximate center of the room.
Now that things were relatively peaceful—well, actually, that was a stretch, it was better phrased as “now that there was no one actively trying to kill them”—he’d thought it would be best to practice this magic of his. Strange, how things had changed to the point where he readily accepted his new magical abilities, when just a few years ago he would’ve denied it to the ends of the earth. Schneep laughed to himself. Well, time flies.
He started this practice by summoning and vanishing his scissors a couple times. It was still unclear where they came from and went off to when he wasn’t using them. All he knew was that if he reached to the side he could feel their handles, seemingly hovering in midair right where he needed them. Perhaps the scissors were stored in some sort of pocket dimension that only he could access.
What was interesting was that other things could come from this pocket dimension. Shortly after arriving at the Sanctuary and getting frustrated with the unfamiliar layout, Schneep had wished for something that could help him know where things were. He’d reached out, and suddenly found something there. A long, thin stick, that could extend in length. Bringing it to Jack confirmed his suspicions: it was a cane. Exactly what he’d needed. Unusual, he thought, that he’d found it at the exact moment he was thinking about it. Perhaps the pocket dimension could provide what he wanted? But it didn’t provide anything other than the scissors and the cane so far. Well, he was still working on that theory.
Second matter of business. Simple jumps, to get him warmed up. That was what he decided to call this teleporting or whatever it was. The act of walking somewhere and having the world around him change, so he was somewhere else entirely. It was sort of like portals, except Schneep didn’t need a fancy gun to jump, he just did it at will.
He jumped back and forth across the width of the room a couple times, touching the wall to orient himself. Then across the length. Then from corner to corner. He never really got tired from the jumping. And last practice, he realized it didn’t even need to be on solid ground. Though that had been an accident, and he’d ended up landing flat on his face. Moments like that were why he practiced alone.
Schneep paused for a moment, reaching out to feel the base of the climbing wall. Perhaps…? Bracing himself, he took a step forward, and ended up not on the floor, but falling through the air. Fear instantly shot through him, and he waved his arms wildly until his hands brushed against something. That texture—! He tried to grab, and—
“OW!” Schneep gasped. His arm felt like it was being yanked out of its socket. His fall was suddenly stopped when he managed to find one of the climbing wall’s holds, but the sudden change of speed had caused a shot of pure pain through his shoulder. God, he hoped that wasn’t dislocated.
Kicking his legs a bit, he managed to jump back down to the floor, where he immediately started rubbing his shoulder. He’d been aiming for the flat bit at the top of the climbing wall, but it appeared he missed. Luckily he was close enough to find that hold, otherwise he’d have to deal with falling all the way to the floor. Even though the climbing wall was half the size of most, it was still twenty feet tall.
Schneep didn’t allow himself to pause. He wanted to try one more thing before stopping for the day. Walking over to the side, he found the perforated wall of the gym area, and walked along it until he found a control panel. There was a touchscreen on it, which wasn’t much use to him, but there was also a button and a dial. He’d asked Delyth about it earlier, and she explained the button was to start or stop the “course” and the dial was to time it, with the maximum being thirty minutes. Twisting the dial, he set it to about five minutes, then hit the button.
“Projectile training course set for: four minutes.” An automated voice rang out through the gym area. “There is: one minute before start time.”
“Alright, here we go.” Schneep took a deep breath, and jumped back to the middle of the room, tensing with anxiety. He’d have to be careful here.
“Thirty seconds remaining before the projectile course fires,” said the automated voice. Then after a while. “Ten seconds remaining. Nine. Eight.”
Schneep bounced on his feet, ready to move at any moment.
“Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three.”
There was a slight humming sound coming from the wall. He braced himself.
“Two. One. Firing.”
The darts of magic started to fire, each hole making a chnk! sound as they shot and the darts themselves causing a whhst! sound as they passed through the air. Schneep started moving, listening carefully for the noise of each one firing and flying forward. He started running, then skidded to a halt as there was a chnk! from a space near him. The dart whizzed past his face in a gust of air. He ducked just in time to avoid another, then turned around and jumped to what sounded like a safe spot.
Four minutes was not a very long time, but it certainly felt that way as Schneep dodged, ducked, and jumped across the room. He tried not to think too much, just listen and notice the small signs of the nearby darts. Eventually he got into a rhythm, jumping whenever he heard several chnk!s in the area around him.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Soon, one of the darts hit him in the leg and broke his concentration. “Ah!” He instinctively leaned down to clutch at the spot, but that just brought him right into the path of another whhst! “Fick!” And everything broke down from there as a quick barrage of about a dozen darts soon knocked him to the ground. He jumped to another area, only to get knocked right in the chest the moment he arrived and knocked down once again.
“Projectile course finished,” the automated voice said. “Thank you for participating.” A loud beep signaled the end of the course.
Schneep sighed. He wasn’t sure what those darts were, other than pure magic, but he knew that they hurt. It reminded him of the time Chase had dragged him to a paintball match, and he was sure that there would be similar bruises left over. Wincing, he climbed to his feet. “Need more practice on that,” he said to himself.
Well, there was always tomorrow. He turned and headed for the nearest wall, following it to the exit.
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“Chase. Chase. Chase. Chase. Chase.”
Ignoring the repeated, nagging sound of his own name, Chase rolled over and pulled the blanket over his face. What time was it? Probably sometime in the afternoon, judging by the light coming in from the bedroom window. Also, who opened the window? The curtains at the Sanctuary were pretty good for blocking out light, they must be open if he could see light even behind his eyelids. Good thing this bed had thick blankets, too.
“Chase. Chase. Chase.” Now something was poking him with every repetition. It soon became something shaking him. “Chase. Chase.”
Finally realizing he wasn’t going to stop, Chase groaned and pushed away the covers. He opened his eyes and looked over to see Jackie standing by the side of the bed. Staring at him. Was he…was he there the whole night? Because apparently he didn’t sleep anymore—or at least, not as much, and not when Chase or JJ were watching. The thought was…disturbing. “What is it, Jackie?” he asked, sighing.
Jackie didn’t answer for a while, just blinked. It was a solid thirty seconds before he asked, “When are we leaving?”
Chase had been about to go back to sleep, but that question sent a shot of nerves through his heart that woke him right up. “Um…I don’t know. Wh-why? Do you want to go somewhere?”
“I need to find the rest of us,” Jackie said insistently. “I know I’m out there, but I can’t tell where.”
“…right.” Chase sat up. “Well, uh…I mean, is this really that importa—”
“Yes.”
Chase fell silent. There were moments when Jackie just acted a bit unusual, but there were also too many moments like this, moments that left him with a crawling feeling across his skin, and he could see how Jackie was once part of Anti. “Um…okay.” Chase inched away. “Well, I don’t know when we’re leaving, so don’t ask me.”
Jackie looked disappointed, but wandered away to look out the window. Chase paused, then glanced at the clock on the wall. 3:00 on the dot. He sighed. It was pretty late, but given how he hadn’t gone to bed until six in the morning last night and had trouble getting to sleep once he did, he wanted to pull the covers up and try to get another hour or two. But he was also pretty hungry, so he should get some food while he had the energy to. So he climbed out of bed and left the room.
The magicians had been providing them with groceries when they asked, as well as anything else they needed. Chase left the bedroom, waving a hello to JJ sitting on the living area’s sofa, and headed straight for the kitchenette. He opened one of the cupboards and took out a box of cereal. The brand was unfamiliar, something generic and probably store-brand, but the bits of cereal were coated in sugar and that’s what mattered. He took out a bowl and spoon and poured.
“You should take a shower.”
Chase yelped, spilling some of the cereal, and looked up to see Jackie had followed him and was now standing in the middle of the living room and watching him. “Jesus, don’t do that,” Chase breathed, setting down the cereal box.
“I don’t think you’ve used the shower since we’ve been here,” Jackie continued. “That’s not good.”
“Uhh…” Chase leaned to the side so he could see JJ around Jackie.
JJ set down his book—something that Yvonne had given him a few days ago—and said, 'Well he’s not wrong. But anyway, can you handle this right now?'
Chase nodded slowly, then leaned back into place and looked at Jackie. “I think I’m fine, Jackie. It’s not like I smell or anything. Uh…right?”
“You lie in bed a lot,” Jackie said bluntly. “Has that always been a thing with you? I think it has, for some time. I remember that. You should at least move to somewhere else. Actually use the other rooms.”
And then sometimes there were these moments. Moments where Jackie seemed almost normal, talking in the same way and giving the same advice he did years ago, before that black magic spell had killed him and created Anti. Honestly, these moments made the whole situation creepier. Chase took a moment to respond. “Well…maybe I WILL take a shower, then.”
“That’s a start.” Jackie’s eyes slowly drifted to the side, and then he turned away, walking around the room in an aimless manner.
JJ waved in Chase’s direction for his attention. 'You alright?'
Chase let out a breath, and nodded. 'Yeah, I’m fine,' he responded in sign. They’d learned from experience over the last two weeks that Jackie would butt in on the conversation if Chase started talking out loud.
Jameson raised an eyebrow. His expression was hard to read under his new mask—this one was black, and had also been provided by the magicians once he’d asked for one—but if Chase had to guess, it was probably concerned. 'I was thinking maybe if we switched places, he might give you a break.'
'You mean if you pretended to be me? I’m pretty sure he’d be able to tell. We have some very obvious identifying features.'
JJ huffed. 'I suppose you’re right. And we can’t get Jack or Henrik to do that, since the same can be said for them. Maybe if Henrik covered up his scars?'
'I get the feeling he’d be able to tell anyway.' Chase sighed, and headed for the fridge, grabbing the milk. He was turning back around when he noticed it. Jackie had suddenly stopped walking and was now standing, shoulders tensed, in the middle of the room. “Um…Jackie? Are you alright?”
Jackie didn’t respond. Instead, he turned on his heel and walked right to the door, opening it and leaving the room.
“Wh—Jackie!” Chase put the milk down on the nearest counter, JJ stood up, and the two of them quickly followed him into the hallway.
Jackie had taken a turn to the left, moving quickly and purposefully towards the stairs at the end of the hall. “Hey! Jackie!” Chase and JJ broke into a run. Jackie glanced over his shoulder, then started sprinting as well, reaching the stairwell in no time.
“Stop!” Chase paused in the entrance to the stairwell, watching as Jackie ran down the stairs two at a time. “Where the hell are you going?!”
JJ pulled up next to him. 'Should I stop him?' He flicked his fingers, making a blue disc of magic appear.
Chase shook his head. “No, let’s follow him first.” And they started running again.
Jackie headed down all three flights of stairs to the ground floor, pausing for a moment as if getting his bearings before taking the right hallway. “Wh…what?” Chase panted. That hallway would only lead deeper into the Sanctuary. What could he possibly want down here? He glanced over at JJ, who looked just as confused.
From farther down the hall, they heard a “What the—” and then someone screamed.
Jameson’s eyes widened. 'Isn’t that—'
Chase immediately broke into a dead sprint.
Farther down the hall, a door was swinging wildly, and someone was lying on the floor as if they’d been knocked over. A few loose papers were scattered around. Chase gasped. “Jack!” He hurried to his friend’s side and helped him stand up. “Are you okay?!”
“Fine,” Jack said shortly, rubbing his arm. “Was that—was Jackie just here?”
“Yeah, ran all the way down here,” Chase said. “What were you doing here?”
“It was that thing, that thing about the, uh, strings,” Jack explained.
Jameson, having just caught up in time to hear that statement, looked shocked. He whirled towards the swinging door and grabbed hold of it, rushing inside.
“Did he go in there?” Chase asked, also pointing at the door.
“Uh, I think so?” Jack gasped slightly. “But that’s where—”
A loud clattering sound came from inside. Jack and Chase glanced at each other, then ducked into the room.
Inside, Jackie was struggling with the three magicians already inside. Yvonne had her arms wrapped around his, while Delyth’s eyes were lit up purple and her hands held out in a defensive position. Griffin clutched the copper box with the strings inside, holding it protectively while JJ covered him with a shield. A stack of other boxes had been knocked over and were now strewn across the floor.
“What’s going—Jackie, stop!” Chase stepped in front of Jack. “You’ll hurt them!”
“I d̛on’t ̛ca̛re,” Jackie hissed. “Give me back!”
“You two get out of here!” Delyth said to Jack and Chase. “This could get messy.”
“No—” Jack started to protest.
There was a flash of red light, and Yvonne suddenly cried out. She stumbled backward, now bleeding from a cut that had appeared across the left side of her face. With his arms free, Jackie lunged towards Jameson and Griffin, eyes fixed on the box. Jameson threw his hands forward, and the shield expanded outward, pushing Jackie to the ground. He hissed again and made a sharp gesture. A slice of red light cut through the air and right through Jameson’s shield, making it flicker and die. Jackie started forward again, only for Delyth to block him with a crystalline shield of her own.
“Fuck this!” Yvonne wiped the blood out of her eye and lunged right at Jackie, managing to grab him again. He shrieked, the sound full of rage, and more red light flashed. Yvonne suddenly dropped again. She clutched her leg, which was now bleeding.
“I said for you to get out!” Delyth snarled. “This is danger—”
There was a sudden, almost inaudible snap! sound, and then there was another person in the room. Schneep appeared directly behind Jackie, hitting him hard on the back of his head with the butt of a cane. Jackie crumpled to the floor, clearly breathing but now unconscious. Schneep let out a long breath. “Please say that was the correct thing to do,” he muttered.
“Hen! That was—where’d you come from?” Jack gasped.
“I was passing by,” he explained. “On the way to the elevator back to the rooms, which may I say, very inconvenient to have an elevator just to get to the basement, but it worked out this time. I could tell there was a fight, so I decided to step in.”
“Wait, how’d you know to hit Jackie?” Delyth asked, lowering her shield. “I thought you were blind.”
“I am. Do you not see this?” Schneep waved the cane in her general direction. “But it seems part of my magic is knowing where people are. And who they are, too. Which is very lucky.”
Jameson clapped his hands for attention. 'May I suggest we continue this conversation after getting this young lady some medical care?'
“Yes, great suggestion,” Yvonne said. “I am bleeding quite significantly.” Her tone said it was a joke but her face betrayed her real worry.
Delyth sighed. “Yes, of course. There’s a small clinic with supplies further down the hall. We’ll finish this up in there.”
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It didn’t take too long for them all to relocate to the clinic and get Yvonne taken care of. They also took Jackie there as well, setting him down on one of the clinic’s three beds. Once Yvonne’s wounds were wrapped up, everyone immediately returned to the matter at hand. Chase and JJ explained how Jackie had suddenly left the room and ran downstairs, and Jack told the others the information about the strings he’d found out just before Jackie appeared.
“Did he somehow sense the strings, perhaps?” Schneep speculated. “But then why hadn’t he reacted before? They’ve been here the whole time.”
“That may be my fault,” Griffin admitted. “The crates we keep magical artifacts in are designed to keep any magical signals from escaping, but if we need to look at them, the spell to make the crates transparent allows a small bit to get out.” He shook his head slowly. “I’ll have to add that warning to their container.”
“They weren’t even visible for that long,” Yvonne muttered. “And it sounds like Jackie realized they were here after barely a minute. Well, what d’you expect, when they’re part of his soul?”
“Can we talk about these soul strings in more detail?” Chase asked. “Like, for example…how do we get rid of them?”
“Oh, I-I still have those notes I was supposed to get.” Jack reached into his hoodie pocket and took out some crumpled pieces of paper. “Sorry, I kinda…dropped them when Jackie pushed me away, then didn’t really pay too much attention when I picked them up.”
“It’s fine, just hand them over.” Griffin held out his hand, and Jack passed over the papers. He began uncrumpling them.
'What do you think will happen to the parts of their souls that are stuck inside the strings?' JJ asked, his expression drawn and worried. 'Will they disappear? Would that hurt?' Jack translated for the part of the room that didn’t understand sign.
“That’s a…very good question,” Delyth said. “Bell?”
“Don’t ask me, Mae, this has never happened before!” Yvonne said defensively. “Maybe we could ask the guy with deus ex soul vision.”
Jack hesitated. “Maybe…the bits will just go back to the full person?” he suggested tentatively “I mean, it’s hard to know which ones belong to who, since whenever I look at Marvin and Jackie their colors are all mixed up—”
Yvonne’s head shot up. “Wait, does that mean their souls are mixed up?!” she shrieked.
“Well, I think…” Jack trailed off. “I…hadn’t thought of…”
Silence fell in the room, only broken by the occasional ruffle of paper as Griffin continued to smooth them out. “Well, I…suppose that makes…sense,” Schneep said haltingly. “Jackie has…abilities now. Magic. He never had them before. If magic is in the soul, perhaps having bits of Marvin gave him…some of that?”
“But is there a way to undo it, then?” Chase asked with more than a hint of desperation in his voice. “Is there a way to make them better?”
More silence. Everyone looked at Yvonne, the only soul magician, but she had nothing to offer, so she looked over at Griffin. Awkwardly, he cleared his throat. “Well…I’m sorry, but I don’t think so,” he said as gently as possible.
Chase’s expression visibly fell. Jameson, standing nearby, reached over, offering his hand. After a moment, Chase breathed in deeply, and took the hand. “Right. I guess…that was stupid to think.”
“It wasn’t stupid,” Jack said gently. “It was hopeful, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“But there may be a way to improve this situation a bit,” Delyth suddenly said. “The strings…they’re black magic, and I don’t doubt that’s affecting your friends. If we get rid of them, perhaps we could stop them from being so oddly hostile…and prevent this Anti from ever returning.”
Chase looked up, and slowly nodded. “Okay then. How do we do that?”
“It would need to be strong magic,” Griffin said, looking over his notes. “But it’s not impossible. We may be able to burn them with an intense blaze, freeze the spell inside, or take them apart until they cease to function…either way, I don’t think just one magician will have enough power for that on their own.”
“Okay, so we next work on figuring that out,” Schneep stated. “How? If you need help, I will offer.”
'I will as well,' JJ added.
“We’d need to try,” Griffin muttered. “Just…try many different things. That’s the only way I can see forward.”
“The old trial and error,” Yvonne said. “Well…I’ll help too, if you need it.”
Chase let out a long, long sigh. “I…I’m done for the day. This was a lot for just a few minutes, and I just woke up.”
“Oh yes, by all means, all of you return to what you were doing,” Delyth said. “We’ll come tell you if we need anything, and remember you can ask us for anything as well.”
And slowly, they dispersed. Chase and JJ took Jackie back up to their room, while Jack and Schneep returned to theirs. Yvonne remained in the clinic for a while longer before retreating to her room, too. Nobody said anything as they left.
There was no way to reverse this. The fact was slowly sinking in to all of them. Whatever Jackie and Marvin had done, it could not be undone.
Yet maybe, just maybe, they could salvage something from this.
Just maybe.