Irrelevant Jack 5

by Prax Venter

  Haylee’s mother looked up from her daughter, and Jack still saw absolutely nothing behind her cool, calculating gaze. Was this what Haylee would have become if she hadn’t found an outlet for her mind?

  Yan cocked her head to the side and said, “Then we shall meet again at the Town Hall tomorrow.”

  With that, she stepped backward and faded away before his eyes.

  “Want me to follow?” his own Shadow Blade whispered in his ear a moment later.

  “No,” Jack said, turning to face Farrah. “I want everyone together for now. Let’s head to…” he trailed off when he noticed a short line of Townsfolk and Heroes turning in stones to a studious man sitting behind a table. Was that a bookie?

  “It’s gambling,” Haylee said from his side, and Jack looked down to see her appraising him with those same observant eyes. “My mother apparently invented a simpler version of prize fighting a few years ago. Although, half are rigged beforehand to manipulate profits.”

  Jack knelt to be more at her level and grabbed her shoulders.

  “I am so happy to see you. Thank you for getting Jip and Ryea to safety and keeping everyone alive. Also, Alt is bouncing around in my skull doing virtual backflips right now.”

  She snickered at that and then looked to the sand at their boots as she tried to balance composure against several strong emotions.

  “The last time I saw you… Jack. And Lex, to have you both back again is… immeasurable… I-”

  “We know,” Lex said. “Come, let’s find a place to speak about many things. There’s no rest bonus for any of us, but I would be honored to share a room with you tonight.”

  “I would like that very much.”

  Jack stood and caught eyes with his wife. She wanted time alone with their advisor, and he knew they had a lot to discuss, so he nodded.

  “Let’s all head to the inn,” Jack finished his earlier thought and lifted his voice to address everyone with them. “It’s been a long ride, a long day, and nothing’s happening until tomorrow afternoon so let’s meet back at the Inn before our meeting with this Zarda. I’d rather no one wander off alone until then, but please let someone know if you do.”

  The group of Heroes moved back through the Town toward the coast and Alt whispered his estimate that Brittlehorn was Town Level 6, one above Blackmoor Cove. He thanked the AI as his thoughts drifted to those scumbags blockading his own Tower back north. Was that all Velintanna’s idea or did the Supreme Mayor order it? The way the trade ship captain and crew reacted made it seem like the act was abhorrent in any NPC’s eyes.

  He cast a glance back at Farrah and wondered how she would feel if he asked her to go spy on Ivyset Crag but held that call for later. He did not want to send anyone close to that corrupted place until they had their foothold in this region, and by the time they all filed into the Burnt Rib’s common room, he’d fully decided to keep everyone together.

  The warm place smelled strongly of that spice he’d detected earlier. Despite the late hour, many people still gathered in clumps around the enormous inn. Most of whom were immediately spending their winnings from underdog Jip’s victory and cheered him when he entered. The spry carrot-picker drank it up while Ryea insisted those lucky winners buy them some drinks.

  The innkeeper was a younger woman with boundless energy and when she informed them there were only three (relatively expensive) vacant rooms, Sevik announced that he would never fall sleep in a strange bed and decided to rest the night in the common room. Continuing that initiative that Jack had started him on so long ago, Cabe said he’d be happy to keep the Angelshade Hero company as they watched the door.

  Jack had just handed over double the coin the owner requested when the Widow Jesix finally made her appearance.

  “The murdering King stands among you!” the elderly woman shouted, pointing a long bony finger at him. It had only been about two weeks since he’d seen her last, but she’d lost an unhealthy amount of weight in that time. Jack knew they’d cross paths in Brittlehorn, but once again he was struggling for the right response. He rapidly dismissed, “calm down,” and, “you know I didn’t murder anyone”- but it never came to that.

  Everyone else in the common room either groaned with annoyance or rolled their eyes before the bouncy Innkeeper shouted back.

  “You! Out! I’ve given you numerous warnings. No more public ranting- especially harassing royal, paying guests! Your Meals now cost triple for a week.”

  “Bah ha ha!” blurted out some unknown drunkard. “Half the Town be murderers, you empty headed bone sack! Warm welcome home, ye murderous King!”

  The common room burst into guffawing and ribbing, and both Jack and Jesix stood there blinking at each other.

  Coming to a decision, he turned to Lex and Haylee. “I’ll meet you two up in our room in about an hour. I’m sure you’ll still be up, and it’ll give you both a chance to have some girl time without me.”

  “Be careful,” Lex said, narrowing her golden eyes at him.

  Haylee nodded, but the strong young woman he’d fought beside slipped aside again, and he saw the abandoned young girl who’d lived the last few days in fear of not only losing everything good in her life, but also in fear of her monster of a mother literally stabbing her in the back.

  Jack gave her a firm nod back and then stalked straight for the unfortunate woman from Doveport.

  “Outside,” Jack said as he drew close and she sneered at him before hobbling back out into the darkness. The main entrance to the Burnt Rib was only a wide yellow curtain and yet she found a way to slam it in his face.

  Jack caught up to her easily and walked by her side for a few steps before she spoke.

  “Oh, why don’t you get away from me.”

  “You’re not worried I’m going to murder you?”

  “I don’t care,” she said. “You are a Demon, and I hate you for taking everything from me.”

  Jack stopped walking. “You told people in your Town they had to eat outside, and you blame me for them turning on you?”

  She spun on him and said, “Our Heroes deserved-”

  “You aren’t a Hero, why did you deserve better?”

  She opened and closed her mouth a few times and then spit on the ground between them.

  “You’re just too simple-headed to comprehend my situation, King of Demons.”

  At that he turned around and left the woman to her fate. Not everyone was going to be reachable, and Jack wondered how many such individuals would actively fight against him until their final breath. Jesix was one thing, but Andor and the Supreme Mayor could do some real damage. And then there was Velintanna.

  Everything hinged on adding this tainted place into his growing Kingdom, and he needed to know what madness was going on here.

  But all of that would happen tomorrow.

  The Docks were close, and Jack strolled straight for his royal speedboat. The Embrace bobbed gently against the pier in greeting, and it felt good standing on her pristine palmwood deck again. Jack ran his hand along the sleek railing and breathed in a deep pull of the dry sea air.

  And then he looked for the furthest point west he could make out clearly. Everything was blackness and sand, but he could pinpoint moonlight striking the side of a dune about half a mile up the coastline. In the act of heading down into the cabins below deck, Jack triggered his Teleport and remained motionless in his new destination far away. When he was sure no one saw where he went, he got up and faced west.

  “I believe this to be an unnecessary risk,” Alt said in his mind as Jack began walking away from Brittlehorn.

  “I’m not giving her my boat.”

  “Tharsin can build you another one in about 15 days,” the AI said, tossing up his virtual hands in dismay. “And you just told everyone not to go off alone.”

  Jack shook his head in the darkness as he kept an eye out for aggressive wildlife among the sand and cacti. He did find clusters of elephant-sized lightning bugs out in the vast dry expanse, but
they didn’t bother him and so he didn’t bother them.

  “If I’m going to add this den of murderers into my Kingdom, I’m going to go all in. It’ll be a major trade and transportation port and a juicy target for anyone looking to break up this aggressive growth we’re about to unleash down here. Brittlehorn needs to become a force to be reckoned with. Getting back and forth to Blackmoor Cove is going to become super important and I’m keeping my damn boat. Also, I’m not alone. I have an endlessly helpful research vessel wedged into my head.”

  “Right…” Alt’s mind pulsed back an equal amount of sarcasm. “But what if that reckoning force becomes a problem needing to be dealt be with? Murderers? Thieves? What if they cause chaos?”

  Jack sighed. “Yeah, there’s that. But it’s better than the Corruption and it’s better than whatever is going on in Ivyset Crag. If something becomes a problem, then I will deal with it then. I want these murderers on my side, and if I start the equivalent of a gold rush out here, everyone might find something more profitable to do with their time.”

  After another fifteen minutes of strolling through the empty desert, his eyes had adjusted to the night and his ability ticked over into the ready position, so Jack zipped straight to the end of the continent.

  His AI range-finder reported that this dark ocean was indeed touching the western edge of the map as he got started building another helmet-boiler setup. He didn’t want to be here long and skipped constructing another shelter made from Tower-drops. Instead, stalked across a beach covered in soft sand far finer than Blackmoor’s coarse grains straight for the crashing black waves.

  Once Jack’s Teleport was ready once more he reached out with his will to absorb the blood-red residue crusting around the rim of his helmet bowl.

  West Sea Ruby Salt - [Ingredient | Tier 2 | Alchemy, Cooking | x9]

  - 17 -

  When Jack snapped back to Town and entered their room, he found Haylee and Lex sitting facing each other on the bed. As the three of them discussed the people and traditions of Angelshade, Jack laid out several shields against the door. He then continued until he had a two-layer ring before dumping in dozens of cloth items until he had a perfectly soft nest.

  “That’s new,” Lex said.

  “Nothin’ but new from now on, babe,” Jack responded then settled back in his Tower-drop construct blocking the only entrance to their small room. The instant-bed was a good segue into some of the ideas he had about what to do with infinite heat and indestructible items. Although their Dark Prism was beyond interested in the subject matter, it became clear that she’d not slept well the last few nights.

  When they’d noticed she nodded off, Jack blew his wife a kiss, settled back into his homemade bed, and checked the time.

  [00:05:05] To Close

  Normally he’d be up in 3 hours to get that breakfast Rest Bonus and grind for drops in the Tower. He wondered when things were ever going to be ‘normal’ again.

  “Normal is a myth,” Alt said. “There are only shifting ranges of subjective understanding. Also, mind if I borrow some of your mind tonight. It’ll guarantee some deep sleep, and I want to run some simulations on a potential abuse in existing code.”

  Jack sent back a mental thumbs up, and the next thing he knew Haylee was standing over him.

  “Are you awake?” she whispered with inverted eyebrows. She knew he wasn’t.

  He heard his wife snoring on the bed and sat up as he checked the time.

  [00:00:52] To Close

  “Yeah,” he said, rubbing his face. Despite not feeling like he’d slept at all, he’d been out longer than he’d wanted and probably missed all the Heroes going into the Tower.

  “I need to trade back The Embrace, and there’s something you need to see that the Mayor does with the Jobs every day.”

  “Okay,” Jack said half in a daze as he virtually vacuumed the components of the bed into his inventory. “Let’s dive into what madness happens here in Brittlehorn.”

  There was no way he was leaving Lex to wake up alone, so the three of them came down into the common room together where the groggy Bastion split off to go find Ryea and Jip to hear their part of their adventures in Brittlehorn.

  Jack stretched out his back then turned to the Dark Prism walking close by his side.

  “So, what does she do with the Jobs?”

  “You’ll see,” Haylee said, as she looked around to see who was near. “I want to talk to you about something important first- about my mother.”

  “Oh?” Jack said, feeling more awake already. “You know I’ll listen to you no matter what, and I’m listening now.”

  She waited until they were most of the way to The Embrace before she started speaking.

  “When I was very small and barely old enough to remember it, my mother left my father to care for me alone. He never truly told me why she was missing from my life until you came and changed everything.”

  Jack put his hand on her small shoulder as they reached the gangplank.

  “I need you to know that Sol told me everything about how Yan just Exited the Tower one day and never came home. He probably told me around the same time he told you. All I did was remind your father what was important in his life. That woke him right up.”

  She cast her large eyes up at him and he could almost see the gears working behind them, then she nodded and hopped over to the deck.

  Jack followed and Haylee continued.

  “I’d grown up believing it was my father’s fault. That she was lucky to get away from him while she could, and that I was stuck with a monster. When he finally woke up and told me the full story of my mother, I no longer thought it was him, but… since then, I couldn’t help but believe she left because of me. I was the new element.”

  “You’re smart enough to know that’s not true,” Jack said as they both leaned on the aft railing, looking out at the heaving waves.

  The Dark Prism was quiet for a little while, and then she turned to him.

  “Experiencing it myself, I don’t think any level of intelligence or logical aptitude would matter. But now, after meeting her… The first thing Yan said was that a good assassin would attempt to lure me away from the influence of Town before attempting to kill me, and that I’d have less to worry about if I stay within the Walls. My mother never once explained herself, or said she was sorry, or…” The young Hero trailed off, and Jack said nothing.

  It was time to listen.

  “Jack,” Alt said. “I would like to try what I worked on while you slept. This is a perfect time to test it.”

  He was about to insist that whatever he had planned- it wasn’t the time, but then Jack received a mental image of exactly what his friend had worked out.

  With a nod, he took a step back from Haylee.

  “Alt wants to try something he just figured out, so, here we go.”

  He held up his new future bot summoning ring and triggered its ability. As before, a vibrant portal of unknowable light opened between them and a sleek Timewalker Droid popped out.

  The Dark Prism’s grey eyes opened wide as the humanoid creature knelt before her and gently reached out for her cheek. It then spoke with Alt’s voice.

  “No matter your start, you are immeasurably important to all existence.”

  “Alt?” she asked, reaching out to touch his artificial hand, but the five seconds were up, and the summoned robot disappeared into another portal before she made contact.

  “Now that changes things,” Jack said, looking at the glowing blue circuitry in his ring.

  “He was outside the Tower!” Haylee said. “You can’t bring him back?”

  Jack held up the item for her to inspect. “It’s on a daily cooldown, and this is the first time for me too. Care to explain what just happened?” He angled that last part to the sky.

  The AI elaborated telepathically. “I figured since I’m already hardcoded in as your ‘summon’, I could convince the Subroutine to believe any entity you summon should load
my access protocols. It worked. I was part of the real world for a moment.”

  “He’s your summon,” Haylee said as she figured it out on her own. “Do you know what this means? If we find a higher-level item with a longer ability duration…”

  “We’ll work on that,” Jack said, “but Alt used his first words in Mother Sana to tell you something, and he’s right. You are important to me, that’s for sure. You know Lex and many others care deeply about you, Oh- and your father almost got a Negative Mark when I returned to Blackmoor without you yesterday. I’m not letting my royal advisor out of my sight again.”

  A bell rang behind the main row of buildings as if some cowboy had just finished the chili, and they both turned to face the sound.

  “Thank you all,” Haylee said, flashing him a rare yet confident smile. “Now, your advisor wants to show you something I know you’ll find interesting.”

  As they were walking back up the pier to Town, Jack realized she’d never traded his boat back but easily put that out of his head with a mysterious ringing bell seemingly summoning the Townsfolk.

  The other Heroes from Blackmoor came peeking out of the Burnt Rib and joined them as many others shuffled their feet toward a small stage behind the Tower. On the way, Jack gawked at the oversized skeletal unicorn he was unable to make out the night before. And beyond the strange undead livestock looked like a field of red corn. So many new sights and smells pulled his focus.

  Zarda and the bookie were both standing on a short wooden platform, and the Mayor was the one ringing the bell, while the shorter equally well-dressed man held a burlap sack. She stopped when it appeared enough of her people were present.

  “And so,” Zarda began as she exchanged the bell with her companion for the bag he was holding. “Another opportunity to make our Town a home, but before we begin allocations, Peddig, Albore, Nixa, and Hort, you four have earned the day for yourselves. Do something useful with it, will you? Especially you, Peddig!”

  The crowd let out mostly genuine laughter, but looking around Jack could tell most people didn’t want to be there- but not overly so. It was as if this was a daily staff meeting everyone wanted to avoid. The place gave off a strong sense of community, despite the murderers and thieves around every corner.