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	== Relationships ==		== Relationships ==
	- '''[[Yasnic\|Jack]]''' - the source of the healing power and the ultimate party to the bargain; his operative [[Lidlet]] enacts the restoration that triggers the binding - ch 44.		* '''[[Yasnic\|Jack]]''' - the source of the healing power and the ultimate party to the bargain; his operative [[Lidlet]] enacts the restoration that triggers the binding - ch 44.
	- '''[[Lidlet]]''' - Jack's operative, the direct agent of the healing; in Cosserby's case it is Lidlet's intervention that constituted the acceptance of the bargain - ch 44.		* '''[[Lidlet]]''' - Jack's operative, the direct agent of the healing; in Cosserby's case it is Lidlet's intervention that constituted the acceptance of the bargain - ch 44.
	- '''[[Banders]]''' - learns of the bargain's consequences through Cosserby's imprisonment; his reaction-rage, violence, fierce physical affection, then flight-encodes the emotional weight of knowing a friend is detained solely for having been saved - ch 44.		* '''[[Banders]]''' - learns of the bargain's consequences through Cosserby's imprisonment; his reaction-rage, violence, fierce physical affection, then flight-encodes the emotional weight of knowing a friend is detained solely for having been saved - ch 44.
	- '''[[Cosserby]]''' - the healed person whose acceptance of Lidlet's intervention led directly to his arrest; his survival is what condemns him in the purge's logic - ch 44.		* '''[[Cosserby]]''' - the healed person whose acceptance of Lidlet's intervention led directly to his arrest; his survival is what condemns him in the purge's logic - ch 44.

	== Notable Quotes ==		== Notable Quotes ==

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Jack's bargain is the supernatural arrangement under which healing performed by [[Yasnic|Jack]] or his operative [[Lidlet]] creates a binding claim on the recipient, marking that person as having been taken from death. In the world of the ongoing purge, this mark is not merely spiritual but juridical: the authorities treat anyone so marked as evidence of Jack's influence or presence, and arrest them accordingly. The bargain thus transforms an act of mercy into a crime, turning the healed into suspects.

Its significance in [[House of Open Wounds]] is concrete and personal rather than cosmological. The term surfaces when [[Banders]] discovers that [[Cosserby]] is imprisoned in the same confinement where Banders himself is held, and learns that Cosserby's arrest stems directly from having accepted Lidlet's healing. The bargain, in this single appearance, functions as the hidden causal link between Jack's operations and the purge's net of detention: every person restored from death's door is, by the terms of the arrangement, flagged for capture. The arc of the subject across the one book in which it appears is thus a short, sharp revelation-understanding why Cosserby is there, and what accepting healing cost him.

== The System ==
=== How It Works ===
The mechanism operates as a form of supernatural claim. Accepting restoration that should not be available within the natural order constitutes a debt or lien against the recipient - ch 44. The concrete sequence is: Jack or Lidlet performs a healing that pulls a person back from death or the threshold of death; the act of accepting that restoration is the acceptance of the bargain; the healed person is thereby marked as one who has been taken from death; and the authorities conducting the purge read that mark as evidence of Jack's influence, detaining the person on that basis - ch 44. The healing is the crime, not any subsequent action by the healed person.

=== Who Operates It ===
On the providing side, [[Yasnic|Jack]] is the ultimate source, while [[Lidlet]] acts as his operative, performing the healing that binds the recipient - ch 44. On the detecting side, the purge authorities identify and arrest those flagged by the mark; no specific institutional name for this apparatus is given in the text - ch 44.

=== Limits & Costs ===
The cost to the recipient is immediate and social: arrest and imprisonment during the purge - ch 44. The text does not elaborate on the metaphysical terms of the binding, its specific duration or scope, or whether those who refuse Jack's healing suffer a different fate - ch 44. What is established is the juridical consequence: acceptance of the healing is sufficient grounds for detention, and the healed person carries the mark without, so far as the text shows, the ability to have it removed.

== History ==
=== House of Open Wounds ===
In [[House of Open Wounds]], [[Jack's bargain]] is identified as the arrangement under which [[Yasnic|Jack]]'s healing-or the healing performed by his operative [[Lidlet]]-binds the healed person, marking them as having been taken from death and rendering them suspect during the ongoing purge - ch 44. The mechanism operates as a form of supernatural claim: accepting restoration that should not be available within the natural order constitutes a debt or lien against the recipient, and the authorities conducting the purge treat anyone so marked as evidence of [[Yasnic|Jack]]'s influence or presence - ch 44.

The term surfaces in the context of [[Cosserby]]'s imprisonment. [[Banders]] discovers that [[Cosserby]] is held in the same confinement where [[Banders]] himself is detained, and explains that [[Lidlet]] healed [[Cosserby]], meaning [[Cosserby]] "took Jack's bargain" to live, which is what got him arrested - ch 44. [[Banders]] reacts to this revelation by calling [[Cosserby]] "a stupid son of a bitch," punching him, hugging him fiercely, and running away - ch 44. The arrest itself is resolved as a direct consequence of the healing: [[Cosserby]] was imprisoned because accepting [[Lidlet]]'s intervention constituted acceptance of [[Jack's bargain]], which flagged him in the purge as one who had been taken from death - ch 44.

The notes for this book do not elaborate on the metaphysical terms of the bargain, the specific duration or scope of the binding it imposes, or whether those who refuse [[Yasnic|Jack]]'s healing suffer a different fate; only the social and juridical consequence-arrest and imprisonment during the purge-is described - ch 44.

== Relationships ==
- '''[[Yasnic|Jack]]''' - the source of the healing power and the ultimate party to the bargain; his operative [[Lidlet]] enacts the restoration that triggers the binding - ch 44.
- '''[[Lidlet]]''' - Jack's operative, the direct agent of the healing; in Cosserby's case it is Lidlet's intervention that constituted the acceptance of the bargain - ch 44.
- '''[[Banders]]''' - learns of the bargain's consequences through Cosserby's imprisonment; his reaction-rage, violence, fierce physical affection, then flight-encodes the emotional weight of knowing a friend is detained solely for having been saved - ch 44.
- '''[[Cosserby]]''' - the healed person whose acceptance of Lidlet's intervention led directly to his arrest; his survival is what condemns him in the purge's logic - ch 44.

== Notable Quotes ==
:"took Jack's bargain" - [[Banders]], explaining Cosserby's arrest, House of Open Wounds, ch 44

:"a stupid son of a bitch" - [[Banders]], to [[Cosserby]], House of Open Wounds, ch 44

== Tags ==
#healing-mechanic · #divine-pact · #binding

[[Category:Systems]]

Jack's bargain - Revision history

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