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'Kay so, I'm done trying to make find some sense of rationality in the irrational. Tis' a ploy, it gotta be, no two ways about it. He did not just pull up in my hood and tell a homie that it's free real estate.

No one would have said what he said in his position, that is unless Jay here was going for another angle - the ol' 'confuse him to death' approach. A viable strategy, also unfortunately, the wrong strategy. 

He's gonna have to confound me better than that - I've been raising question marks to so many things these past few months, I may as well be the modern-day Socrates.

I wasn't sure what Jay expecting me to do with that information, but clearly he wasn't done spouting out proclamations that made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Far from it, in fact. 

"You wanna get rid of the Blight, sure go ahead, I'm not gonna stop you," He said, raising his arms up like white flags in surrender. "You wanna know why I'm here? That's why I'm here - I just wanted to tell you that."

Those were the words that he was saying, but those weren't the words I was hearing. All I could hear was confidence, all I could see from his eyes was certainty… and there's gotta be a reason why that was the case.

But what? Just what is it? 

I'm gonna try and find out.

"You took the effort and time to summon the Blight all around the world," I said, searching his eyes for any clue of the answer. "If what you say is true, it couldn't have been easy. So for you tell me that's you're just gonna let us get away with erasing all that effort… it's a little suspect, don't you think?"

He just shrugged again. "Believe what you want, man. That's on you."

Oh, I will believe what I want… in fact, I'll believe what I really think.

"Blighting the world isn't your end goal at all, it's just a stepping stone, isn't it?" I kept gauging that gaze of his, still nothing. "To something else, something far grander. You told me before you had other plans. I think you've finished stepping on that stone and you've already moved on to stepping on another."

Jay smirked. "Like I said, believe what you want."

"You came all this way, walked up to me, and that's seriously all you wanna say?" I pressed on further. "If you really were just gonna let it happen, you'd have just let it happen. You didn't need to show yourself, you didn't even have to bother telling me any of this. But you did show yourself, you did bother... so, what are you really doing here?"

He blinked his eyes, and when he opened them again, I finally saw what I've been scouring for. I stopped looking at a guy all lax and casual. Right then, I started staring into the eyes of the all-powerful Magus.

The Magus walked, no limp, no wince - taking slow heavy laps forming circles around me and Ash.

"Alright so, let's pretend for a moment that what you say is right, right?" He threw a glance at me. "Say I saw your effort, played witness to your abilities - now I have no idea just who the hell you are, but I know more than anybody else that you don't just make someone a sorcerer overnight. Then suddenly there you were, some absolute nobody - proving me dead wrong."

Again, more fascination than outrage shaped his gaze. The way he stared at me makes me feel like some kind of art piece in a museum. Anybody else, I'd be flattered. Him? Nothing but shivers down my spine.

"Dusk till dawn, I look at your resolve and I see mine. I look at your efforts and I remember my own. I mean, I remembered tossing balls too. I remembered the achings too. All the struggle, all the trial-and-errors - see, I look at you… and all I end up seeing is me." 

"For the love of God, don't," I groaned. "Don't say I'm just like you."

"Not yet, won't say it yet," He said, nodding his head like he was trying to assure me. I wasn't. "I can't deny the resemblances, though. Just look at you, gonna do whatever it takes to save your world. I can relate, I was like that too back then - still am. I'd do anything to get my world back."

"You say that yet here you are trying to destroy mine," I can feel the aggravation scratching my throat. "The fuck is that logic?"

"Dude..." 

Jay paused for a moment, probably waiting till I got that glare out of my face, but then I guess he realized at some point that it wasn't going away anytime soon so he just moved on.

"It's a whole lot more complicated than that, you'll find out soon enough, but never mind that for now," He waved a hand. "Let's continue with your line of thinking."

Those eyes of his found mine again, and this time they lingered.

"There's potential in you, you know? The kind that any master sorcerer wouldn't dare squander. If you were properly trained, got an actual teacher to learn from, you could be… I dunno man, it's just a thought."

That trail away was intentional.

I nudged my head. "So?"

"So, I'm curious to see just how big this potential inside of you is, and I also kinda wanna know just how determine you are to see this thing through," He said. "So two birds with one stone - I thought maybe I could be a teacher to you too, just this one time." 

He was smirking again. 

I was confused again.

"Be a teacher?" I asked.

"You might be done with that detective lesson's, but you aren't done learning just yet," Jay raised his brows. "See I prepared my own lesson for you to overcome."

"Lesson? What lesson?"

None of this was what I was expecting to unearth. I knew he had ulterior motives, I just didn't know what those motives were - I still don't. Why could he gain from any of this? Why even do it at all in the first place? And in this lesson? Just what was this lesson?

From where I sat, from where I stared, none of this seemed to bode well one bit, especially after seeing the delight in his eyes, how gleeful he sounded of the prospect… even more after hearing the confusion in my voice,

He's toying with me.

And he still wasn't answering.

"Hey!" I shouted, lashing out at that annoying smirk. "What lesson? What did you do? Tell me!"

All that commotion did not go unheeded, it was actually quite the opposite - the commotion was picking up. My shouts were the start of a chain of events that just got rowdier and rowdier as the seconds went by.

It started small - Ash groaning in her sleep, nearly stirring awake. Then it snowballed, Mr. Black roused, standing upright on all fours, his eyes in narrow slits, snarling a shrill hiss at Jay. 

That's when the footsteps started, fast approaching, booming echoes in the hallways… the distinct clack of hard leather heels. Irene was running, bolting at a speed that just screamed of urgency. She was approaching us, and she was approaching fast.

I think Jay knew it too.

He turned around to face me just as Irene whirled around the corner, her eyes wide open, her face seething in fury. 

"Guess she found out," He said, chuckling between his words. "You will too."

"Jay!" Irene snarled, spurring towards in a mad dash, her hands exuding out a violent stream of dark red vapor. 

"Your final lesson… I think it'll prove quite the learning experience..."

It was happening again, white smoke dissipating his feet, his legs… he was disappearing. But Irene was so nearly reaching.

'I call it…"

Just a few more steps, a few more meters. 

"Perseverance."

Irene's voice was an explosion booming in the air. "STAY!"

Too late, just a second, just an inch too late. Her vapors surged forward like smoky tendrils reaching for his, inky blood-red mist enveloped him all over… but there was only smoke… only air there.

The last to go was his face, the very fast, his lips… still in that same infuriating, fascinated smile. 

Like a gust of wind billowing through, Jay dissipated leaving only his words ringing profoundly in the silence.

"Till next time, yeah?"

Still so casual, so amicable. 

I fucking hated it.

"Damn it!" Irene shouted, clearing her lingering trails of red with one aggravated swipe of her arms. "I knew it had to be him! I went away for one second and - argh!" 

I've seen Irene furious before, but every time it was always a collected sort of rage… one where you could tell that she was still in control of herself. 

This was different from that. Anger had completely taken over. 

Before I could ask, her frightening glare had already shifted over from where Jay disappeared to where I sitting hunched over, just right below.

"We can forget it!" She heaved. "It's all over now. Jay's fucking done it!" 

"Done what? What's he done?!"

"The summoning room!" 

"What?"

"Gone! In Complete ruins! That bastard Jay destroyed the entire room!"