Jack made sure the bolt was thrown on the door. He didn’t want anyone coming in

  while he was working. Doctor Strange’s looks were a little on the squamous side.

  And the tentacles could be a bit too much.

  He called on the Doctor, asking for a diagnosis. Once he knew what was wrong, he

  could think about how to fix it. He had an idea alchemy was involved in some way.

  Montrose seemed to love it for the ease of use and criminal potions that could be

  brewed.

  The screens confirmed poison through the Lord’s body. It was a minor miracle he

  hadn’t died. A counter started brewing inside the Doctor when he was sure that was

  what he had to deal with to put a hamper in the Lady’s plans.

  Jack injected the antidote and watched the screens. The poison cleared away slowly

  as the cure worked its way through the victim’s body. A few days of rest, and then he

  would have to work to get back in shape.

  He couldn’t do anything to help that. He had to check on the boy, and see if he was

  suffering the same thing. If he was, then he needed the cure and he would have to

  rehabilitate himself like his father.

  It looked like the maid would get her chance to move into the Ladyship if she played

  her cards right. A lot depended on if the Lord would be grateful to someone nursing

  him through his months of weakness.

  He might send her away so he didn’t have to be reminded his wife poisoned him so

  she could take over his estate and sell human beings to others.

  Jack decided that what the Lord tried to do next was out of his hands. Once he had

  mitigated the damage on the son, he would be done helping the family other than

  what he and Josie were already doing. Lady Endwright was probably not going to

  make it back to the household the way Josie was looking.

  He found the maid in the room he had left her in. She stood by the door when he

  cracked it open. She wore worry on her face.

  “I need to work on the boy,” said Jack. “Lord Endwright is sleeping. When he wakes

  up, he is going to need to be exercised and checked for sores. Then someone is going

  to have to make sure he tries to walk three steps a day until he can. Do you

  understand?”

  “What kind of food should I get for him?,” asked the maid.

  “Start with soup,” said Jack. “When he gets stronger, you can start adding bits of meat

  and vegetables. Do not get him any elixirs, or other alchemical solutions, no matter

  how hard he howls. It will set him back and kill him.”

  “No elixirs, or potions?,” asked the maid.

  “None,” said Jack. “If you want to check on the Lord and then get the staff together,

  that would be good. I will be happy to repeat my instructions.”

  “Thank you,” said the maid. “I don’t think anyone would believe you said anything

  to me.”

  “He’s sleeping, but you should be able to check on him,” said Jack. “Get everyone in

  the dining room. Hopefully, no one is dead in there.”

  “Thank you,” said the maid. “What was wrong with Milord?”

  “Potions and elixirs,” said Jack. He waved her to get on with things before walking

  to where the son slept in a coma.

  Jack used his Doctor Strange persona on the boy after making sure the door was

  locked. Having too many tentacles and eyes was not going to be good for anyone

  casually looking in on what he was doing.

  The boy was nearly dead, so he had to alter the cure to boost him to a better baseline

  before he could start curing the rest of the damage. In a few months, he should be

  working on walking again.

  Flushing the poison out pushed the kid out of his coma and in a more normal sleep.

  Someone had been taking care of him so he wouldn’t starve in his sleep. That

  someone was probably the maid who had tried to protect the lord from him.

  He decided to see if the staff had been gathered. Once he had said his peace, he could

  pick up Josie and the Lady Endwright and talk about what they wanted to do next.

  One thing about the uncertain future, Lady Endwright was not going to be facing it

  for much longer.

  Jack stepped over the sliced and shot traffickers on his way to the dining hall. He

  wondered how Josie had managed modern bullets in a medieval world. He could ask

  when he was done with this bit of things.

  Hopefully he wouldn’t have to call on Blade and show these people how he really

  went about his business.

  No more than he already had anyway.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  He walked into the massive room. People in livery clustered around the table. He

  could tell he wasn’t what they expected. That was okay.

  “Please be seated,” said Jack. He waved at the table. “This won’t take long.”

  The staff looked at him before taking their places. They all wanted to say something,

  but some of them had already seen him in action as Blade. No one wanted to have

  something chopped off by a madman.

  None of them had the makeover. That put them off the list of people that needed to

  be killed in his opinion. They could always put themselves back on the list at a later

  date.

  “How’s it going?,” asked Jack. “My name is Jack. How many of you are loyal to Lady

  Endwright?”

  None of the staff admitted to anything that could get them killed.

  “So all of you are loyal to Lord Endwright?,” asked Jack.

  “He was fine until he got married,” said the maid. “Then he got sick, and has been

  sleeping everything away while that woman tried to ruin his fortune.”

  “The younger Endwright got sick too,” said one of the younger butlers. “They both

  wound up in bed.”

  “All right,” said Jack. “They were both poisoned.”

  He saw that was an idea that had been discussed among the staff members.

  “All right, I gave them a cure,” said Jack. “They will be weak for the next few

  months. They are going to need to be nursed, and exercised. Potions and elixirs

  should not be given to them. It will put them back in bed and probably kill them. Now

  if they die, and I come back through here, heads will roll. Am I understood?”

  He looked at the staff. They all looked back at him in various states of anger.

  Obviously, he had hit a nerve.

  “Now, who is the cook here?,” said Jack. Two women in blood spattered aprons

  raised their hands. “All right. The Endwrights are going to need liquid food until they

  are strong enough to eat real food. Soup will be the order of the day. After a while,

  you can put in tiny amounts of meat and vegetables until they can handle real food.

  Butlers, and groundspeople?”

  “I’m Marl, the head butler,” said an older man in a suit marked with the Endwright

  crest. “This is Casp, the master’s valet, and Ord, the son’s valet. The man over there

  is Kirn, who is the head groundskeeper.”

  “Both Lord Endwright and his son are going to need to be exercised and taken outside

  to do things,” said Jack. “You four are going to have to get them into chairs and work

  on getting their muscles back into shape. Same time every day would be ideal, but I

  understand if you can’t do that.”

  “What about Lady Endwright?,” asked the maid. Anything they did could be

  overturned by the wife at any moment.

  “What about her?,” asked Jack.

  “When she comes back, she won’t allow us to help Lord Endwright,” said the maid.

  She looked at her fellow employees. They all made gestures of support. “None of us

  know how to fight to protect Lord Endwright.”

  “Lady Endwright is not coming back,” said Jack. “She threw her lot in with a bunch

  of human monsters, and she is going to pay a heavy price for that. There is no doubt

  in my mind that she poisoned her husband and son for control of the estate. I would

  apprize Lord Endwright that he has been sleeping under her care and he might need

  to check how much money he actually has. Are there any other questions?”

  “Lady Endwright’s cronies?,” asked Marl. “They do visit her when they can.”

  “Tell them that Lady Endwright is dead, and they will be too,” said Jack. “If you

  know their names and where they live, that might be something you should write

  down for me to hand to my partner.”

  “Will she kill them too?,” asked one of the cooks.

  “Eventually,” said Jack. He watched Marl and Kirn talk and write about names they

  were putting on the list. Marl had actual names while Kirn had estates. He glanced

  over their shoulders. “You can mark Corle off. I killed him up north.”

  “Chopped him to pieces, sir?,” asked Kirn. He waved at the house around them.

  “I threw him off a great height,” said Jack. “He was trying to summon a monster to

  invade the city. He could not be allowed to do that.”

  Jack thought that was factually true since he didn’t want to get into Gravity and the

  power the persona gave him. And it looked like Corle was going up to try to get the

  Dark Rider to start down the trail.

  There was no telling how much damage would have been done if the vengeful ghost

  had actually made it to the gates of Hawk Ridge.

  Taking the both of them out was a necessity and required under the quest list and Jack

  didn’t feel bad about that at all.

  “I think these are all the people that Milady Endwright dealt with since taking over

  the Lord’s estate,” said Marl. He handed Jack the paper.

  “All right,” said Jack. “I’m going to talk to my partner. She might be able to clean this

  mess up for you. I expect one of you will have to keep an eye on the Endwrights until

  they wake up, and then you guys will have to keep a lookout for anything that needs

  to be nipped in the bud. Naturally anybody with markings like Lady Endwright

  should be sent away and told they are marked for death just like her.”

  “What do you want for this?,” asked Marl. As a senior, and in charge of the house for

  the nobility, he was used to bargaining for things.

  “I don’t want anything,” said Jack. “I have a job to do, and this is part of that. When

  the threat is over, I’ll be gone and you will be back to doing things on your own. Just

  look after each other, and the rest will work out.”

  “We will do our best,” said Marl. He looked around at the staff. They all gave him

  agreement.

  “If you need something, send a messenger to the Silver Coin and leave a note with the

  doorman,” said Jack. “They know me there.”

  “All right,” said Marl. “I guess we should start cleaning up.”

  “Just remember,” said Jack as he turned to leave. “You, all of you, are responsible

  for whatever happens next.”

  He left out the front door, looking for his partner. He had a list of names in his

  clutches and a will to see what would happen if he and Josie paid them a visit before

  they got out of town.

  Blade had worked great in the house, but maybe he was too messy. He should try

  someone who just left holes in his victims without leaving bodyparts everywhere. He

  should ask Josie what she had been using.

  He doubted the heroes he was familiar with that used beam attacks like Cyclops

  would use the same attacks in their persona.

  He found Josie alone with a notebook in her hands. She had it open to read the pages

  with a finger to mark where she was. The frown was a cloud on her face.

  “Ready to go?,” he asked.

  “Yes,” said Josie. “The nobles?”

  “Fixed,” asked Jack. “Could you clean up the place?”

  “Really?,” Josie turned her squint of doom on him.

  “Pulling out a tooth sometimes requires gum surgery,” said Jack.

  “You’ll have to carry me back to the girls,” said Josie.

  “Deal,” said Jack.

  Find a way to get home.

  Find a way to get home.