Paragon of Skills

Jacob looks at his mother uncomprehending. He doesn’t even move for a second before asking, “What do you mean? What do you mean you didn’t send me the letter?”

“Darling, I didn’t send you any letter,” Princess Priscilla replies. “Why would I send you a letter? Do you have any idea what your presence here means?”

Jacob frowns.

“Mother, I… I don’t know. You said that there was a great opportunity for me inside the Sacred Grounds.”

“Jacob.” Princess Priscilla sits on a chair, looking defeated. “I believe that this was not done with your best interest in mind. But if a letter arrived for you, then someone else knows the truth, and you deserve not to be kept in the dark anymore.”

Jacob has no idea what his mother is talking about. He’s almost tempted to use the Grimoire immediately. Is there something perhaps that he could glean from her if he did? Is there perhaps something that he should know?

Well, of course there is, Jacob thinks. That’s what my mother just said. But what is it? What kind of information is it going to be?

“I hoped that I would never need to reveal this to you. Your father was never interested in revealing the truth. So I thought, why would I? I regretted the kind of person I was, and I have regretted it since the day you came out of my womb. But now it appears I have to confess to a great crime, because your life, Jacob, might be in danger, and I am the reason.”

Jacob sits on the couch when his mother gestures for him to.

“When I met your father, he was never…” His mother interrupts herself. “When I met your father, he was a miner, right?”

Jacob nods.

“I wish I could keep up the appearances, and that our tryst was motivated by love. That he was just a common miner, a nobody, someone so inconsequential for your future, for your story.”

Princess Priscilla pauses again.

“But that’s not the truth. You’re not just any miner’s son. In fact, the fact that your father was involved at all in mining should already give you a hint of what I’m about to tell you.”

Jacob’s eyes go wide.

“Wait, is my father related to Rafnov?” Jacob’s voice is shaking.

Princess Priscilla smiles and shakes her head, making her ponytail dance from left to right.

“Not your father, darling. We are.”

“What?” Jacob frowns. “You? We? The Valemont family?”

“Indeed,” Princess Priscilla says.

“How?” Jacob frowns. “Wait, if you are…” Jacob looks down. “So the Sacred Grounds — are they a Rafnov Trial?”

“They are a dormant ground for one of Rafnov’s greatest creations,” Princess Priscilla reveals. “But let me finish the story, please. I went after your father because he was one of the descendants of Rafnov’s greatest disciple, Luriev.”

Jacob raises his hands.

“Mother, are you trying to tell me that my father is not a common miner? Then why was he in Shit’s Creek?”

“Your father takes after his entire lineage. He is very eccentric, and he believes that focusing only on mining, on the lowest level of mining, will produce insights for his Skills. Your father is very strong, much stronger than I am. I, however, managed to seduce him.” The Princess continues. “When your father was just focused on mining, I was investigating, trying to find Luriev’s descendants. That is because in the first disciple’s blood, more than in Rafnov’s now very thin blood, there would have been the key that would have allowed me to ascend to the throne. I was never powerful enough. By showing up at court, however, with a child that carried both the blood of Rafnov and the blood of Luriev, I would have been able to force my entire family to give me the reins of power. I would be the queen dowager of an heir whose blood would be powerful enough to awaken the Sacred Grounds.”

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Princess Priscilla averts her gaze, ashamed. What she just told Jacob is that she didn’t have him out of love, but out of opportunism. And despite regretting that as soon as he was born — refusing to involve a little child in the palace plays that she was playing — she still wished that she never had to tell Jacob about this. His father never would. That hermit.

She sees a frown on Jacob’s face, and she is ready for the worst.

“Wait a moment. Why is my talent shit if my father is so fucking powerful?” Jacob swears. “Oh my God, how am I so weak? Well, how was I so weak? When you’re a princess, he’s some descendant of the first disciple of Rafnov or whatever. Why was it so hard for me to grow up with any talent?”

Jacob looks like he’s losing his mind. He gets up and starts swearing.

“Fuck, I have all this blood in me and — and I had such a hard time?”

“Darling?” Princess Priscilla asks, confused.

“Mother, how is this possible? Why did I have to sweat so much? Why wasn’t I so fucking talented that I would be able to — I don’t know — become a Champion without sort of cheating and maybe just, I don’t know, steamroll the other motherfucking Champions? Like, I’m the son of a bloodline of, fucking, the best miner in the world, a guy who literally messed with Primordial Gods, and my father is the descendant of the best whatever disciple of this guy, and I was losing my mind to get any talent while having a Rainbow Skill?”

Princess Priscilla is taken aback and has to explain.

“Uh, darling, it’s probably the Karma. Because of our messed-up union, perhaps it sort of rebalanced things and gave you a not-so-great talent, but perhaps a good destiny.”

She isn’t really sure that what she’s saying is actually correct, but looking at how upset Jacob is, she’s trying to give an explanation.

“I can’t believe this. What Karma? Why is everybody always mentioning fucking Karma? Oh my God, I could have had it easy all this time. All this time, I could have been born with a top-tier talent, and I’m so fucking unlucky that I was born with a shit talent in a shit town. And holy fuck.”

“Well, you did find a Rainbow Skill in literally the middle of nowhere,” Princess Priscilla points out. “That is part of Karma.”

“Yes, but…” Jacob sighs very heavily and puts his hands on his face. “I didn’t wanna work this hard. Why did I have to work this hard to get here? I — man, couldn’t you, like, give me some drugs when I was born? Did you even breastfeed me? Wouldn’t that have made me stronger or something? Do you know how weak I was? I — man, I just gulped down, like, a thousand Skills. I fused all the Skills I had to make one Skill, and I had all this talent at my fingertips that never materialized. Oh my God, I didn’t wanna know this.”

At that point, Princess Priscilla is so stunned, so confused by the reaction, that she just straight up point-blank asks, “Jacob, are you not upset that I didn’t have you in a union born out of love?”

“What?” Jacob turns to her with his eyes slightly wet.

“Are you crying?” Princess Priscilla asks. “Because of me?”

“No, I’m crying because… wait, what did you just say?”

“I asked why aren’t you upset that I wanted to use you as a political card.”

“Who cares?” Jacob replies. “I’ve never met you my whole life. As far as I knew, you were a mother who abandoned me. You didn’t have me in a union of love? Yeah, go figure. You left me behind with that deadbeat. It honestly doesn’t really change anything for me,” Jacob says. “I don’t think that our current relationship would be made any worse by this. Well, so — what’s up? Were you worried that I would what? Not talk to you? Not, I don’t know. Why would I be that upset?”

When Jacob says that, Princess Priscilla actually feels even worse for abandoning her son. But she has to recognize what she did.

“You’re right.” She laughs in mockery at herself. “I had already abandoned you. It could hardly get any worse. But I love you, Jacob, and I regret having dragged you into my messy life. You saved me once. I still have to return that favor.”

Jacob sighs and puts a hand through his hair.

“Mother, I… I don’t think that you need to repay me. And I’m glad you told me the truth. I hope that in the future we’ll just have more chances at being just mother and son. And I stand behind what I said in the past — I do not wanna join the Valemont family.”

“I know,” Princess Priscilla nods.

“But I will come here for the summer vacation. This place is pretty cool. I’m certainly not going back to my dad’s.”

“You should kinda see him every once in a while, especially now that you know the truth.”

“Pass.” Jacob raises his hands. “If he wants anything to do with me, he knows where to find me. I’ll maybe write him a letter letting him know that I know or something.”

“All right.” Princess Priscilla smiles sadly. “But now, darling, you can’t be here while the Sacred Grounds open. It means that…”

Jacob frowns.

“Yeah. About that — if you didn’t send me the letter, that means someone else sent me the letter, and that also means this is a trap, and it’s probably too late to walk it back. So I don’t think whoever got me here will allow me to leave just like that.”

Princess Priscilla gets to her feet and says, “If anybody tries to take one hair off your head, I will obliterate them.”

Jacob looks down and realizes he’s still holding the gift.

“Here,” he says, holding it out. “Before I forget again.”

It’s a flower made of crystal.

“Lancelot said you don’t show up to royalty with empty hands. Apparently that’s a whole thing.” Jacob scratches the back of his head. “It’s not the best thing but—”

Princess Priscilla gently takes it in her hands and smiles at her son, then she bursts out crying.

“Oh, come on. Is it that bad?” Jacob asks, worried.

“It’s the best thing ever, darling. Thank you,” she says, in the midst of sobbing.

Jacob smiles and goes up to hug his mother. But right when they’re hugging, the door to the room suddenly opens.

Duke Dorian comes in — the same Duke Dorian whose monsterified son Jacob killed during the tournament at the Academy. The same Duke Dorian who tried to take Princess Priscilla’s spot and have her killed.

And he looks really angry.

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