'I'm off to see the world. Please, try not to miss me too much'. 

Jack, who had been tasked by Mister Tenney to read the letter aloud, couldn't suppress a snicker. Norma and Ken gave him the side-eye. They thought he was making fun of Heath, but he wasn't --- he was afraid the reality was much worse. He had somehow grown affectionate to his pathetic mannierism.

'Give Ken a kiss for me.... You kow how much I'd like to give it to him in person.' Jack went on reading, trailing a bit after the kiss part. His strong tolerance for both his embarrassment and that of others was the only reason he wasn't blushing now.

"That's definitely him," Norma commented defeated, after having spent the first ten minutes of the lesson saying that it couldn't be Heath, that somebody must have kidnapped him and held him for ransom.

"Heathcliff must be found, whatever he wants it or not," Mister Tenney declared. "He's the Laoch, for the tree gods' sake!"

Jack coughed. He didn't want to stand up for Heath, but, after getting to know the Professor better, he also kind of wanted to.

"What does this mean, exactly?" He asked, once he'd gotten everybody's attention. "I must have missed something... is the Laoch not free to wander on his own, choosing whether he can continue to attend a school or if he'd rather do something else for the world, something important, for once?"

"Shouldn't we stand up for Heath, too?" Norma asked Ken. She had whispered, but Jack could hear them. "It sounds a bit eery, coming from him and not us."

"He's not doing it for Heathcliff," Ken replied, sure. "He's just anti-social."

"We all know about Heathcliff's... weak state of mind," the Professor interrupted the chatter with a sigh. "As usual, Jack Edens was kind enough to point it out, as it is his habit to do with all of Heath's flaws. Naturally, another, let's say, better-tempered Laoch could decide to just leave us all and wander the world. But who among us trusts us Heath in particular with making this decision?"

Norma sighed. "It's not that I don't trust Heath," she admitted, playing with the sleeve of her shirt and biting her lip. Jack hadn't realized that it took such a toll on Heathcliff's friends to admit the obvious --- that he was dysfunctional.

"I just feel that," she went on, playing with her short recently bleached spiky hair. "He would not have told me... us, with a letter. He would have been talking about this with Ken and I for a long time, and it wouldn't come as a surprise to us. He wouldn't keep a secret."

"You're right," Jack pondered. "I don't think he would be able to."

Jack hadn't said that just because of their animosity. He had been fretting over the other young man finding out the truth about his mother, but, the way he saw it, now he didn't have to worry about it anymore.

"I refuse to believe someone is about to suggest a rescue mission," Leo commented flatly. "I don't want to waste time and resources on the dumbest person in this school."

"You're the dumbest person in the school," Jack couldn't refrain himself from saying. "Heath was competing against me as the best student just a few days ago."

"What is your problem?" Leo sounded scandalized. "You've never talked back to me, before."

"I figured I don't want to be something I'm not," Jack replied. "Like my father's son, or your boyfriend. I thought it was easier that way, but I'm not so sure anymore. Besides, I've always wanted to offend you, but I couldn't waste all my time fighting, and between you and Heathcliff, it was way more exciting fighting with him."

"And what the hell does that mean?" Leo had never sounded so angry, before.

"Just that, at least, Heathcliff understands the things I'm saying and why I'm saying them. He knows that when I say he's wrong he's wrong --- just as I know that when he's saying that about me, he's right. We're both clever enough to hit the other where it hurts. While you wouldn't get it. You wouldn't even care."

"I've had enough," Leo stopped him. "I liked you better before you decided you didn't want to be a loser anymore. And, by the way, this is not going the change my Deal with the Elvors, I hope you know that."

Jack always tried not to think about that. One of the reasons he'd played along with his mother's wishes, and Leo's as well, was that he already had too much on his plate to admit the two had become a problem too difficult to solve.

As long as he pretended he could at least stomach Leo's company, he wouldn't feel absolutely wretched for having to spend the night with the dumbest, and greediest, student in the school.

"Heathcliff's intelligence on this matter is irrelevant," the Professor commented. Jack didn't like the man one bit, but he had to give it to him --- he always knew how to pick up a topic even after minutes he'd been interrupted, which, in his class, happened more often than not. "We are going on a rescue mission. However, it's not to save a fellow student. It's to bring back the Laoch, possibly before he's either injured, or someone finds out about how we displaced him."

"Or before he's found dead in a ditch, with his hair all bleached out," Leo snickered.

Jack had never thrown himself on another person willingly, but he found the impulse impossible to resist. Whether it was because of the comment, because of who Leo was and what he was capable of, or simply because Jack didn't like people who didn't take addiction seriously, he pushed the young man to the ground.

Then, expectably, since it was what always happened to him in times of violence, he froze. That gave Leo enough time to get back on his feet, and swing at Jack's face.

Jack's felt a sharp pain, and a wet splatter of blood on his own face. It wasn't the most awful thing that had happened to him by far, but it was cruelly unexpected. Leo had not bothered to measure the force of the blow, fracturing his nose.

Even through the pain that made him dizzy, Jack couldn't shake a thought out of his head. 

You can't show them how weak you are. If you do, they'll just hurt you again later. Let me show you what I mean.

It was his mother's voice. She had broken his nose a few times, too. Back then, it had healed, while staying a little crooked. Jack had the suspicion this was going to be worse.

Two days later, his nose still bled at times. He had trouble breathing, bruising around his eyes and half of his face looked misshapen. He had tried to steer clear of Anastasia. He didn't need any other injury to nurse. Ken and Norma had barely paid attention to him, they were too busy being worried about Heath's whereabouts. They seemed to have thought their friend would be back by now.

The Professor had sent Leo away on a small and inconsequential mission to help him cool off, and given him top marks in his performance ratings for the swiftness and the precision with which he'd destroyed Jack's nose.

As for Jack, the Professor had given him the doctor's bill to pay, claiming the man would want to receive the money before performing the surgery, so Jack kept his nose the way it was.

"I have decided what to do about Heathcliff," the Professor announced that morning during breakfast. Jack had given up on his porridge after bleeding on it.

"I have found out from a man who'd taken a glimpse of him, my friend and subordinate Immanuel Sander, that Heath has boarded a ship. Fret not, Norma and Ken. It is not the Laoch's fault --- his training proved true, and he wasn't sloppy. Immanuel Sander, however, works as an official spy for Prince Filippos, and he is simply unbeatable. Of course, I had to give him a new mini screen-recorder of my invention to buy his silence. I don't want the Prince to be aware of it, if we can help it."

"So," he continued after a while in which the students could continue eating. "I have chosen the best tracker among you -- Jack Edens -- to be the sole participant of the mission. It is too noticeable if you all were to go. Jack will be provided with the best ship on the market, and a trusted crew of my own making. They are all grown men and women who will steer the vessel without asking questions. If you are in luck, maybe someone will be able to patch you up, as well."

Jack wanted to complain. But while he didn't want to do it, he also didn't want to get stuck on the school grounds when Leo came back, and, as much as he hated to admit it, he also needed a break from his mother. The fact that he didn't want to find Heath was not a real problem. If he played his cards right, maybe he never would. Or perhaps he could stretch the mission for years. But the island wasn't that big, and Jack, being the good tracker he was, had the feeling the Laoch hadn't left it."

"It's unfair that we don't get to go," Ken spoke up. We was very obviously he and Norma.

"It's not about being the best tracker," he added. "Though I know I come a close second. It's about who knows him best. Norma and I would check out with his mother first. He always thought of her illness, and I can't believe he has left without taking care of that, unless he left because she died and he couldn't take it."

"Perhaps she has," The Professor conceded. "You are too cloudy in your judgement. If The Laoch was spotted taking a ship, it will do you no good searching for him in his mother's home."

"It might," Jack admitted. "I also feel that he hasn't left the island. I'll take the ship, but simply to circumnavigate it."

He left the following morning. Jack was uneasy on the island. He'd spent much of his time at school, lately, and he didn't particularly care for any of the place's magic. It reminded him of the Elvors and Caladium, who kept it flowing freely. He had already made his mind up about hating the Elvors and their Deals, and he wasn't really warmed up to Caladium, since the mysterious figure had always appealed so much to his father. As for the part the Laoch played in keeping that magical cycle alive, Jack would rather not know. Every time he figured out one more thing about Heathcliff he disliked him less, which wasn't good.

When the Professor had told Jack he would get him one of the best ships on the market, he wasn't exaggerating. Jack found out he wasn't supposed to chase Heathcliff on one of the school vessels, but on a new ship imported from Oroto. It was sleek, lean, and it looked like it could take on the waves with the grace of a gymnast performing a complicated but flawless trick. It was obsidian black, and it even smelled brand-new.

The only downside to it, was that it was already attracting attention. Mister Tenney must have been really desperate to get Heathcliff back, if he allowed Jack to be noticed commanding such a vessel. Jack didn't want to know whether the man wanted to keep an eye on the Laoch, or a leash on his unexpectedly special stepson. He had a suspicion it was the latter, and he felt even less inclined to help out.

He fingered a few coins that he had in his coat, wondering if it was enough to buy something hot in a pub he'd just seen -- The Beaver's Tale. 

"Could you be any slower?" Marissa Newman, one of the members of his crew complained. Jack had met them all briefly earlier in the day, and he found out they had already made up his mind about him, like it had happened to him too many times before. Adding up his face, name, and the rumors surrounding him, it wasn't hard to paint him just as the spoiled heir of Jacob Edens Senior. 

"I could," Jack replied, because he hadn't never been good at paying respect, especially to those who didn't pay it to him. "I'm about to even take a break -- at The Beaver's Tale, no less." But, as he turned around, the pub had magically disappeared.

He tried not to show any emotion. He'd rather eat his fingers and toes before letting his already foul-tempered crew know just how hungry he really was.

 Marissa laughed-

"Is it true that you plan on going back to your father and give him the Laoch as a show of your fealty?" she asked him as they were embarking the ship.

Jack winced. He'd expected to have a cover story, but not one that would sound so childish, or hurt so much. He would not run to his father, and, more to the point, he absolutely had no idea where he was.

He decided to be a Rogue. Mister Tenney had been bothering him as long as he could remember. It was the way he'd always mistreated Heath, that put Jack off even before finding out the man was supposedly his stepfather, but also the way he'd always worked Jack to the bone and never thanked him for it in any way.

So, when he formed The Rogues, he'd meant it as people who would go rogue from the teachings, if the chance occured. And the chance was presenting itself now.

"That's just a lie I told Mister Tenney," he told his crewmates. "In fact, I'm planning to kidnap the Laoch and ransom Mister Tenney for money."

"You're full of crap," Marissa commented.

But a few other people, especially men, seemed impressed. Jack realized with a knot in his stomach that it might have sounded like something his father would say. 

One day, when he'd have the energy, he would have to figure out just how much like his parents was, and find a way to live with it. For now, just going through this mission and coming back alive would have to be enough.

It was the third day at sea. Jack had spent the first uselessy picking fights with all of his crewmates, so now he didn't trust any of them anymore. The second day he had indulged in drinking, though he'd always despised the activity, as the addiction to it had brought his mother to losing her mind completely. But he was too tired and hungry, and he drank until his belly was full, his memories had stopped weighing him down, and his nose had stopped hurting. After that, he'd woken up and spent most of the new day asking himself 'if I was the Laoch, where would I be?'. He had done so countless times before realizing it he was muttering it aloud, and his crew seemed ready to mutiny.

When the alcohol wore off, Jack regained his usual, brilliant scheming. He started to think of Heathcliff not as the Laoch, but as of the man he'd grown to know, both at school, and during the missions. How alone he must have felt under the weight of a magic power nobody else knew how it felt like to carry. Heathcliff hadn't seemed to trust the Elvors, but that was because he was smart enough not to. However, there was somebody else who might get him.

"Let's go to Caladium," Jack told his crewmates soberly.

Whatever you wanted to say about Mister Tenney, he knew how to buy people. They steered the ship in complete silence towards its destination.