Jupin the Jolly, the demigod of revelry was a dwarf in his mortal life. Not many would expect a dwarf descended from Torc to have such a domain, but Jupin was a brewer in a dark time of need for the children of Torc. When the gods pulled back from the world to reduce Faust’s agency, Torc also went silent. A people used to communing freely with their god didn’t adapt well to that god’s sudden absence.
Jupin invented mead shortly after Torc departed, and while it didn’t solve the dwarves' problems, it made them better able to cope. Jupin ascended without ever leaving his brewery, their appreciation of his invention so great, that his name on each keg was enough to awaken his divinity.
-Excerpt from Wicket’s Guides to the Pantheon.
Once more, Kole’s reaction wasn’t as he’d imagined when daydreaming about this moment. Instead, he just felt weary, as if the last five years of toil caught up to him in an instant. He was happy, but he’d been happy since seeing his uncle, and the admission that his uncle had been wrong did nothing to buoy his happiness.
“Who knows about this?” Jaryn demanded, almost manically, holding up the amulet.
Kole hesitated before answering, wondering if sharing the existence of it with his friends might have been a mistake, but then banished the thought.
I can trust them, he told himself. I’ve trusted them with my life already, and they’ve not let me down.
“My friends—all four, Zale’s mother, and her uncle,” Kole said, but then added when he saw the look of worry on his uncle’s face. “I doubt they’ve told anyone. They’re extremely secretive.”
“So I’ve gathered,” Jaryn said dryly, obviously not convinced. “Tell no one else, and swear them to secrecy. Men kill for less, and unless you can defend it, you shouldn’t let any know you have it.”
Oh yeah... Kole said, feeling at the spellbook in his bag at his side.
“About that...”
Twenty minutes later, after Jaryn had settled down over the revelation that his nephew had Bound his own ensouled artifact, he got back to what he’d been about to say.
“About your mother’s amulet,” Jaryn said, pulling his eyes away from the spellbook Kole had been displaying.
As an Illandrian and a Mirage Knight, Jaryn was extremely knowledgeable about wizardry, without being a wizard himself, and he’d been thoroughly impressed by all the capabilities Kole had shown the book to have.
“I believe that’s why Oldhill is after you. I suspected he thought you had it, but I’d thought it lost with your—” Jaryn paused, the word catching in his throat as he was still internalizing the evidence of his sister’s survival. "—mother. But it seems he had knowledge I lacked. I always wondered why he supported you all these years. I didn’t want to press, as he provided for you what I couldn’t as a soldier, and no matter how I investigated, I found no scheme behind his actions. He claimed to be doing so out of remembrance of your mother, they once had a.... relationship, but I didn’t buy it.”
A horrible thought occurred to Kole at that instant, one he’d never considered.
“He’s not—” Kole began.
Jaryn saw the look on Kole’s face and barked out a laugh.
“Your father? Illunia no, you’re the spitting image of your father and Oldhill looks like a weather boot. Your mother and Oldhill had an unofficial arranged betrothal before your mother ran away to the sea with your father. When she returned, she came back with you in her arms and the matter was settled as amicably as these things ever are. Oldhill had been married himself by the time she returned.
“I suspect he supported you to get the estate when your parents were declared dead. It’s a shame the family holdings are lost, but I’d give them all again if it meant your mother lived.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Jaryn smiled mischievously then said,“You, however, are in for a lecture when we rescue her, and she learns you lost her home to debtors.”
Kole grew pale. He’d never once considered the ramifications of actually reuniting with his parents. Concepts like discipline and lectures were so foreign to him.
Gods, that will take getting used to. He thought, but then realized it was unlikely he’d be able to save his parents until after he’d reached his majority.
“I’ve gotten sidetracked,” Jaryn said, “Let me start over.
“After you left, Oldhill went into a furor, upending the home. He even had it dismantled partially to search for the amulet. When nothing turned up, he sent men after you—hence my letter. I tried to get a leave of duty to go after you, but I suspect Oldhill pulled some strings to get that request denied. When the news of your disappearance came, I tried again and was denied. I tried getting assigned to a surface rotation to go awol and find you, but even that request was denied. So, I waited until the holiday leave—no one requests Landing day off—and came here as quickly as I could. I actually have to return tomorrow or I will be marked as a deserter. It was worth it when I thought this school had let my nephew die in some mad classroom, but now that you are alive, I need to consider our futures.”
“Futures...” Kole said, not having given much consideration to his own beyond finding his parents, and not certain his mother would be furious he’d lost the ancient ancestral home.
“Oh, don’t worry about the estate,” Jaryn assured Kole, reading his face. ”If your parents are found alive, then the ruling of their death will be annulled, and any subsequent ruling retried. Your debts will transfer back to your parents, and Oldhill will have to petition to collect once more. Your parents will be given time to pay.”
“So... I should probably become fabulously wealthy before saving my parents from an impossible fate trapped in a pocket realm?” Kole asked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Yes,” Jaryn said, seriously. “That would certainly help save you from your mother’s wrath.”
Knock
“I’m sure this is all very touching,” Kelina said, entering, the knock hardly even a courtesy. “But I have to be about the business of running a school, and I am sure there are other rooms that could be used for this reunion.”
“Sorry ma’am,” Jaryn said, abruptly standing at military attention.
Kelina raised an appraising eyebrow at Kole’s uncle, and Kole lout out a groan.
“Please don’t,” Kole whispered so just his uncle could hear.
“If only I had the time,” Jaryn said, ushering Kole out of the room, giving Kelina a parting look, finding she was looking back.
“What happened to what’s her name?” Kole asked once they were in the hall. “The one with the rash?”
Jaryn sighed.
“We broke up two years ago, and it wasn’t a rash, it was a magic tattoo. And I was seeing someone, but she broke up with me when I became obsessed with avenging the death of my missing nephew.”
“Oh,” Kole said, at a loss for words.
“So... what do you know about this Administrator Kelina?”
“I know that she’s the assistant to Zale’s mother, who you really don’t want to get on the bad side of.”
“Oh, well. That does complicate things,” Jaryn said, taking his nephew’s request to heart.
The two may be uncle and nephew, but the age gap between them was not large. Kole’s grandparents had died young, and his mother had taken her much younger brother on as her ward. When Kole’s mother vanished, Jaryn had been only twelve and had mostly helped keep Kole alive and fed as his father neglected them both in his pursuit of his wife.
When Kole’s father had disappeared, Kole and Jaryn had been nine and sixteen respectively, and Jaryn had just been made a squire to a Mirage Knight. By the time Kole had left home, his uncle had become a Mirage Knight in his own right, attached to the Illandrian military. Kole’s mother had been trained as a Mirage Knight as well, but as the head of their house, she’d never entered military service, as each high house filled their own roles in the city's governance in war and peace, making military obligations politically tricky.
In fact, if it hadn’t been for Oldhill’s absorption of their family holdings, Jaryn would have had to resign from the military to serve as the Highridge family steward until Kole reached his majority.
Kole and Jaryn talked of less world-shattering things as they walked around campus without any direction in mind. Jaryn told Kole about the last three girlfriends Kole had not been aware of in his single-minded focus on studying magic.
Jaryn in turn asked some pointed questions about Zale, that Kole was very embarrassed to answer. As they walked idly through the school, they came across the martial yards, where even late at night there were students dueling.
“So....” Jaryn said, taking Kole in. “You say you’ve been learning how to fight?”