Interlude -Jane Chatwin
"Fuck! Henry! Be gentle, please. We're not in your bed." Jane hissed.
"If you can make a joke, the you're at least good enough to go to Lipson." Henry Fogg laughed, pulling out the pen from her fractured shoulder.
"No. She will probably prescribe me weeks of bed rest or try to keep me there, in the infirmary.
I can't have that. I have places to be, things to set in order." Jane refused, "This will have to do."
"Now hold tight. I'm going to start reknitting your bones." He added, as he began making a beaked horn with his fingers, casting a spell.
Jane recognized this one.
Osseous Confervium.
The first step to rebuilding a new body for a displaced magician.
The wound was just that bad.
That man.....she wasn't sure what to feel about him.
She didn't like him, that she was certain of.
He was a spanner in the works.
The carefully curated time loops she was used to, shattered with his mere existence.
Where had he come from?
What did he want?
And a million other questions battered her mind.
But the answers that should have been so easy, didn't come at all.
Now she had a broken shoulder and nothing to show for it.
And then there was his prediction.
She would die this loop.
Grim. She smiled, not from madness but just sheer relief.
Or maybe she was just that british. It's what she told Margo.
Though now, coming closer, she desperately held a hope in her heart that she would be saved.
Perhaps by the spanner himself.
He was a comely man.
Even if she didn't like his intrusions.
She didn't give it a voice however, hoping to bury it deep within.
No point in it now.
Then, a realisation struck.
"Say, Henry." She asked the man who had been her accomplice for more years now than he had lived in linear time, "When you signed that contract with him, did it perchance include a clause requiring him to prevent my inevitable demise?"
And one look at his face told her all she needed to know.
"Oh goodness. Did he refuse? Or was it unavoidable?"
"It....look I was a bit drunk and frankly exhausted and...." Henry excused.
"Please tell me you didn't....."
Henry looked away, palming his face.
"I ....forgot."
"You forgot." She pursed her lips.
Words couldn't describe the amount of anger she felt at that very instant.
"It was a busy day and I had a lot to think about-"
"More than my death?" She asked.
"Look it's not a-"
"It's not a what, Henry?" She snarled, "You don't think twice before contracting a stranger to kill the Beast but you can't be bothered to add in a tiny little clause. Did you at least ask him how I die?"
Once more she was disappointed.
"This is sloppy work, Henry."
"You don't say." He quipped, "You try dealing with dying 40 times only to be reset back into a job dealing with the insufferable idiots that pour in year after year. And then you tell me you don't slip up once in a while."
Jane felt for him. She really did.
As her anger waned, she realised how hard he had it.
It didn't excuse his behaviour but it did explain it.
"Look Henry, I'm sorry. This isn't your fight and I know it's hard but it's all we can do."
"I know. And in my defense, we would have found out today anyway. If the spell had worked."
"I still don't understand why it didn't...." Jane said, thinking over it again.
"It doesn't matter. At least we know he isn't working with the Beast.'
"We cannot be sure. He wanted my watch and key, you said." Jane argued.
"Exactly. The Beast can find it on his own. Killing you and me would be far more profitable for him than this. So the fact that he didn't kill us here shows he is an independent factor in the plan." Henry explained.
He made a surprising amount of sense too.
She sighed in relief.
One less thing to worry about for her.
"Well, he wasn't joking when he said he could take you even without magic." Jane teased.
"Hah! He should try that without the Emerson's Alloy." Henry replied.
"Henry." She poked him playfully, "You are such a sore loser."
"Am not." He smiled, finishing the procedure as he bandaged her up.
"That aside, what do you think? Can we trust him? He seems.... violent." She said.
"If someone tried to mind control me, I wouldn't have been so kind." Henry replied.
"Besides, I will keep an eye on him."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I thought he swore you to secrecy?"
"I can't tell anyone what he's doing, yes. But that doesn't stop me from spying on him at all times. The contract was very carefully worded." Henry smiled with smug satisfaction.
"He isn't as clever as he likes to think. Oh, and I need only hide what others don't know. So...."
"If through your actions, they figure out the truth independent of any information you explicitly provide, it doesn't breach the contract!" Jane's eyes widen in realisation.
"You're a genius, Henry!" She exclaimed.
"I'm glad you finally recognised that." He replied sarcastically, looking at the clock.
"Look at the time. I have a class to attend to."
"So eager to throw me out?" Jane asked as she leaned in closer, looking at him with her big brown upturned eyes.
He pulled her close and kissed her, taking the hint as butterflies fluttered in her stomach.
"Not in the least. Almost punched him in the teeth when he flirted with you."
"I'm glad you didn't." Jane chirped happily.
"So am I. But it's time to go. And I think you have a kid to incept."
"Quentin's hardly a kid." She giggled.
"Well he's certainly not a man." Henry mocked, "More of a man child of the grumpier variety. Still, I'd rather you kept to the schedule. I'm not in the habit of placing all my eggs in one basket."
"I thought you trusted him?"
"I'm not suspicious of him anymore. But that doesn't mean I trust him. Maybe he will succeed in killing the Beast. Maybe he won't. I prefer having an alternative on hand." Henry explained.
"Wise choice." Jane replied before disappearing.
Henry looked at her go and sighed.
"Let's hope so."
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Extra chapter for keeping the story in the top ten rankings as promised.
It's a bit short but it fleshes out some characters so I put it in.
Tell me if you like it.
With this we are on schedule with all promised chapters!
Thanks for reading.
Next extra chapter at 400 powerstones.
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