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JULES
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“We’re poor,” Evelyn stated matter-of-factly, and without judgment for once, despite the statement itself. “No one buys from my garden, no one buys Liam’s game. It’s been tough, Jules. It’s been tough.”
Two years ago, Jules would have felt guilty. But now, after all he’d been through, he didn’t feel this specific thread of guilt. Murdering your friend over and over again brought about its own type of steely resolve. There was nothing here in his control, and he’d endured far worse than his own mother’s hatred by now.
“We are fine, Evelyn. We provide for ourselves. Some people trade with me still—”
“For outrageous sums.”
“It’s a risk to them. They’d become pariahs—”
“Just like us.” Evelyn rocked Azura.
“We mostly just keep to ourselves, though your sister here is certainly a wonderful addition. Yes she is, oh yes she is!” Liam baby-talked some more, now that she'd finished nursing.
“I can handle it, Dad. The truth.” Liam froze.
“We have no Ryoku saved up,” Evelyn said. “Everything goes to our traps, to feed us, and to keep us safe.” From who? “And now that will all have to go to keeping Azura healthy.”
“Well, that’s it. We’re surviving, just like last time. Don’t worry about us, Jules. I know how to provide for my family, and Evelyn can grow and make medicine. But enough about us. What’s your plan from here? And where have you been?”
“Dad, I said I wanted to hear all of it. What did they do to you two? Don’t hold back, please.” Jules glanced at his father’s scars again and noticed that Evelyn didn’t seem to have any more exposed. Liam put his head in his hands.
“I won’t relive it by saying it, Liam.”
“It’ll be tough, but it’s best to lay it all out. I want to know, selfishly, but I also need to know, to figure out who I’m dealing with.” Jules locked eyes with Azura. "Who we are dealing with."
“Fine, Jules. Fine.” Liam’s voice was harsh. Father locked eyes with son. “We were arrested immediately after the Sack. We were held prisoners for a while, separately. They questioned us. We told them nothing. We were released.”
Jules sighed. I know that’s not all. “Evelyn?” She returned an icy stare. “Mom. Please tell me, because he won’t.” Figure you won’t pass up an opportunity to inflict more pain on me. She responded without batting an eye or even blinking.
“We were imprisoned for six months and tortured daily. They didn’t believe our Binding Vow was real, or maybe they thought we’d done a poor job of establishing it. Either way, they ensured there were no loopholes. They were thorough, but they were wrong. Our Vow is ironclad. We were released, and then—”
“We still get visitors, every once in a while. In fact, just last week, one came and sat down in that exact chair, Jules.”
Jules looked at his chair and shifted his weight uneasily. He felt very uncomfortable all of a sudden.
“Such a nice young boy, too.”
“Nice doesn’t begin to describe it.” Liam ignored his wife and focused on Jules. He’s more serious now, like he wants to say something? “He certainly was a boy, though. Right about your age.”
Surely he couldn’t mean—Two Arcanics in twenty-four hours!?
“Anyway, pariahs. That’s what we are in this town. In this nation, in this world. They tried to get us to move out after we were released, but your father refused. They’d taped off the house and everything.”
“But we refused, time and time again. Just like we will continue to do. The Island Elder is scared to force us out, for obvious reasons."
“And what reasoning would that be?” Jules asked with a stupid grin.
“Ha! Not you, Son. I told him, in the confidence of a private audience in his bedchambers, that I’d personally kill his entire fucking family.” He said it with a stupid look, too, so Jules laughed, but he slowly wondered how serious his dad was being. Azura joined in their merry laughter, though Evelyn, of course, did not.
“So then they threw up the monument to guilt us out, and a memorial of all the dead from that day.” Ouch.
“Was that all me, or—What about Davy Jones and his Pirates?”
“Ah, yes. The lesser recognized, often forgotten part of the Sack of Coralhaven. The part of one man's free will, unlike yours. Well, everyone figured he took you with him. You did sail out directly toward him. And we left behind no witnesses.”
“So what'd he do? I never heard.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“It was all over the papers. How could you not?”
“I haven’t exactly been out in the open, Evelyn.”
“Easy, you two. It was a quick in-and-out mission, like yours, that you keep dancing around. They jammed the city’s comms so nothing could get out for a day or two, I forget.”
“Doubt our missions are connected, though,” Jules said. He felt like he had to give even Liam that clarification.
“Anyway, from my standpoint, it was the perfect timing. Davy Jones and The Dutchman kept the military from pursuing you, seeing as they had a great battle themselves.”
“Though you certainly caused more deaths.” Liam shut her up with one look.
“I think they stole something from the Navigators, though no one is sure what. They never said. But when we read between the lines, your mother and I, the Maidens definitely think the two incidents are related, and that Jones worked with you.”
“Or for you," Evelyn said.
“Though none of this is clear from public record. It’s what we gathered by piecing together the questions from interrogations.”
“Hm.” Jules sat for a moment and tried to connect the dots. “I’m not sure why that would be. What of Isolda?”
Evelyn scoffed. “She was imprisoned.”
“No way!”
“Yes, to this very day.” Not sure if I should tell them how Isolda is involved in all of this.
“That’s enough of the past, Jules. I suppose I should ask, how have you been?” Jules was utterly shocked by the display of motherly affection that suddenly expanded past Azura.
“Ah, well. Speaking of Isolda…” I’ll just keep it surface level. “We did find, uh—” don’t mention The Painter, either. “—The Author that she told us about. We trained with him for almost the entire two years.”
“In Aquilantis?”
“Yes.”
“What about Kaizen, and Patience?”
Jules winced at the name. “I found the former, and I think the latter found me. That’s why we left. The Iron Maidens found us. Ambushed us, really.”
“I see. You were there for a long time. You mentioned you have a new Scout on your team?”
“Did you meet the other Sin you so badly wanted to find?”
“No.”
Evelyn grunted in response. It was an instinctual lie. But a good idea regardless. Evelyn’s Vow only keeps me safe. Can’t expect her to not buckle under the pressure to expose another Sin if given the choice. She might revel in it, actually. I knew her kindness wouldn’t last long.
“So, who did you find?” Liam asked.
“Just someone else, training with The—Author, of those books. He sent us on some missions, a type of field eval—”
“I’m serious, Jules. Do you trust her, this new person in your life?”
More than you could ever know. “She’ll do, for now. She’s highly Skilled, and we need someone like that.”
“Does she know who you really are?” Evelyn asked. Fuck it.
“Of course she does. And she accepts it, which is more than what I can say about you.”
“If I didn’t have this child…”
You’d what?
“Evelyn, no more warnings. This is life or death.” Liam looked at Azura. “For all of us.”
You are an idiot for staying with her, and even more so for having a second child.
“So Jules, that mission.”
“Right. We were sent out to capture three Shrines in Coralith.”
Evelyn gasped, then pouted. Possibly at her own reaction.
“Guessing the third is for Cy? I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned him yet.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t asked, honestly.”
Liam ripped a stalk from a nearby overhanging branch and twirled it in his fingers. “Can’t say I didn’t fear for his life.”
Jules smiled, to Liam’s confusion. We truly are like brothers in your eyes.
“He’s fine. Stronger. In fact…” He reveled in their growing attention, even if it was Cyrus’ spotlight. “He pretty much single-handedly captured the Siren’s Cove Shrine.” Evelyn shot up halfway, then sat back down, remembering she held a swaddled baby in her arms.
“No way,” Liam said with a shit-eating grin.
“We would have heard about it,” Evelyn said.
“And you will. We just did it yesterday. However, the Vessel was stolen by a group of Pirates.” Best to keep my theories of Maddie to myself, as well.
“Uh huh,” Evelyn said.
“Well, it happened. He decapitated a Siren, and then a Djinn appeared.” Jules met with silent confusion. “Anyway, we’re here to capture the Shrine. I am, actually. Cy has other plans.”
“He’s not coming to visit?” Evelyn asked. Jules looked off at the horizon, as Cyrus often did. He saw the glimmering spires of Aquilantis in the background.
“I’m afraid not. He thought it might be too difficult.” Evelyn looked sad, disappointed even; Liam, understanding. “Has anyone gone in the Shrine these past few years?”
“Not many,” Liam said. “It pulls people in, so no one really gets close to it anymore. Obviously, no one has escaped it.”
“A lot of people went missing after that day,” Evelyn said. “Probably sucked in during the chaos. But I want to hear more about Cy. How is he?” Yeah, of course you do.
“He’s great. We celebrated his 18th birthday, but he pushed off his System Unlock Day for—" Us. “Me. He's nearing 3rd Rank.”
“Third Rank!?” they shouted in unison. Jules laughed at them. A bit generous on the Skill gap between 2nd and 3rd, but technically, yes, he's approaching it.
“Our training was absolutely brutal. I must have died once a day for the past few years…” Jules cleared his throat. He’d over shared. Liam’s eyes watered, Azura cooed, and Evelyn remained an ice queen as always.
“Has he selected a Class?” she asked.
“And what about you?” Liam eyed his wife with insinuation. "Do you know what you’ll go for tomorrow?”
Her face. No way she forgot. Already? We just mentioned it.
“Probably Shaman, but we don't really care right now, not until after we capture—"
“Jules.” Liam wagged a fatherly finger at his face. “You need to select a Class. It determines where you’ll go in life—”
“Not for me, it won’t. Not for us. We just survive. Whatever it takes. Our Skills are high across the board.”
Liam huffed and puffed with an older generation’s disapproval of the new one. “Well, at least you listened to my survival lessons.”
“You have no idea, Dad.”
“After everything that happened, the adoption papers were canceled. They labeled him a criminal.” Evelyn's comment gave Jules whiplash. “Despite your best efforts to prove otherwise, Jules. But they saw through your ploy.” Jules let the guilt and sadness flow through him. He entered a meditative state to return to neutral. “Well, tell Cy that I have missed him.”
Jules made direct eye contact with Evelyn. “But you haven’t missed me, have you?”
“Have you missed me?”
“I’m not really sure—”
“Jules,” Liam said.
“What? I’m not really sure if I ever really had her to begin with. And how can I miss someone who was never really there?"
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Evelyn demanded. Jules looked at Azura.
“I never had you like she does.”
“I wonder why that is,” she said slowly.
“I will never understand how you can hate your own child.”
“You aren’t a child. You’re not human. You are a monster. A demon.”
“And what does that make you? Surely a monster is born from another monster, and Dad certainly isn’t.”
“You have no idea what your father is really like, you—”
Liam slammed his fist down on the iron table. It cracked down the middle in a jagged line.
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