The story of Everton Tallow’s life is a complicated one, mixing ongoing tales of estranged family, a brush with the Grand Council’s criminal courts, lost friends, pioneers of magic-science and involvement in the intricacies of one of the British Isles’ strongest Mage families. These days, he doesn’t tell it often, although Kiri Masaiah is considerably more willing to share.
YOUTH
Everton’s childhood was the sort that was comfortable. In 1984, an Elementalist of a decent line of Mages of various arts, gave birth to a boy in a family estate in the hills of Essex, Great Britain while her anxious, non-magical husband stood by her bed. Raised in the sheltered environment of the upper class, the child was free to develop his skills as any teenage mage would. In time, he picked up a knack for the elements, to the delight of his mother’s family and the worry of his father. To the former, his aptitude and the reputation of his parents made a place in ranks of the Grand Council or I.M.O.S.A quite likely, for the corruption growing in the latter’s heart was just beginning to hit its stride.
The magical side of his family, sure of his future even from his birth, egged him on in all he did, but the enclosed lifestyle that he had been given made him too sure of himself and his capabilities. He took risks with his private training as he grew older and strengthened his power. At one point, he nearly burned down a nearby farmhouse, and it would have fallen if it were not for his Water Elementalist aunt’s swift intervention. These mishaps never deterred him for long, however, for he quickly returned to practise sessions with a genuine smile spread across his face no matter the slight destruction he caused the night before.
Eventually, the day came when his mother announced her retirement from her Council employment. To commemorate the end of her long-lasting and committed public service, and the access to her sizeable pension, she prepared a special celebration. A few days before his sixteenth birthday, she called him into her room and, with great pride, presented a very special cane and top hat to him. Those items, mere fashion accessories to others, but also long-forgotten items of power used by an old mage group named the Watchers, who his mother found fascinating. The very material of her gifts, greatly enhanced by all manner of magics and made beautiful by her jeweller husband, channelled the user’s power and defended them from magical harm. Such a wonderful boon made the boy’s breath catch in his throat, but he somehow quelled his surprise when she pushed the gifts into his hands. He accepted them with a swelled chest and pride filling his thoughts, for his mother’s creations was special. Working with her husband and a local runesmith throughout months of exceptional work and effort, Everton’s mother had replaced the fine wood with solid diamond that glittered brilliantly with every ray of light.
Alas, the value of the gift was what ruined him. Everton, filled with youthful arrogance empowered by his family’s praise, set off in the night armed with his new weapons without anyone realising he had gone. He trekked to a town close, who at the time found themselves plagued by talk of demonic shapeshifters. He asked around, and when a local girl took him to the forest where the town’s rumours said they lurked, he met them. He didn’t even get the chance to raise a finger against them.
The monsters recognised the marks of a mage and his family immediately, being intelligent enough to be familiar with his mother’s achievements and her closeness to their dens. In moments, they bypassed the protections of the Hat and cut his back open with their bloody talons. While he fell, they killed his guide in front of him, with a swipe to the neck. They tortured him that night, denigrating him and his family, tearing at him only to give him a potion to heal him so that they could do it all over again.
Everton only held out against the pain for half an hour before he became desperate to escape. Begging them to stop had no effect, and his fire were constrained in the cold, humid and deoxygenated air of the underground, so he stopped himself and focused, fuelled by adrenaline and fear. He channelled all the energy he could into his Cane as his captors awed over it, but for a while, it was to no avail. For a moment in which he could feel his energy dwindling and senses fading, he thought he had over-done it and would die from exhaustion, but with the last dregs of his strength, he succeeded.
Unable to contain the raw power within it, for the Cane’s transmutation was a mere cosmetic physical change and no more, the enhancements overloaded the precious material and the Cane exploded, spitting diamond shrapnel in all directions. The shards, being composed of the hardest substance found in the natural world, made short work of all they touched. In moments, all the monsters laid motionless on the floor, arteries and hearts pierced by pieces of the hardest substance found in nature, black blood pooling on the floor and staining his hands.
For hours, extreme fatigue kept him in place, muscles refusing to obey his orders. His mind was barely able to string words together. A piece of diamond had implanted itself in his left shoulder, and he couldn’t feel his left arm. His injuries were great, but, thanks to remnants of the monsters’ healing and the tumultuous energies of the Cane stopping the bleeding, he miraculously survived the ordeal, although it had brought him within a hair’s breadth of death.
The next day, with some of his exhaustion dispelled, he forced himself up and hitchhiked back to his estate, clothes stained and ruined. His mother, worried to the point she had put on a sickly pallor, met him on their front steps, aghast at the sight of his paled skin and glassy eyes. It didn’t show on his blank expression or his slouched shoulders, but she knew him well enough to know what he was thinking. He blamed her, correctly or not, for the night’s events, for not curtailing their pride when it got the better of them, and for not arriving to help him even when she could not have heard. Without a word, he turned and sat on the steps, ignoring her pleading until she gave up and called I.M.O.S.A for medical assistance.
Soon after, the modified ambulance took him away to a special hospital deeper in the countryside, where healers treated his wounds, and mind-workers watered down the memories, but the trauma meant they could not make him truly forget. In youthful spite, the boy forsook his family name, took the moniker “Everton Tallow”, and never looked back.
THE WATCHERS & DOCTOR QUARTZ ERNST
Rather ironically, after several years wandering the British Isles with no particular goal in sight aside from taking one-off less-than-legal work and later avoiding the tensions of the war, Everton found himself at the doorstep of the organisation his family had so much wanted him to join. The Grand Council of Britain accepted him hesitantly, worried by how hateful he was of his childhood. Nevertheless, he passed psych and magical competency evaluations and recruited as a founding member of a battle-mage group. The group’s superiors watched him closely, but upon the provision of a new Cane by his request, he became a valued member of the group nicknamed “The Watchers” after its leader, fighting back-to-back with his new comrades against evil of all kinds and many strengths. Joining him were men and women like Matthew, the Chief Watcher, Ichiru Hashimoto, a thousand-year-old spirit looking to redeem himself for old crimes, and Hania Seren, a clever thinker whose overly impassive facade made it difficult for Everton to keep a straight face during his first few weeks.
Some of those years were the best of his life, especially so after he and Seren formed a friendly rivalry that led to them passively trying to outdo other whenever they could in a child’s game of imaginary dare points. Their general camaraderie easily forged numerous friendships while they ate and drank together. Nevertheless, even with such revelry in the Watchers’ headquarters within the operating bases of the Grand Council, Everton didn’t truly fit in. The Chief Watcher’s carefree nature irked him; he inwardly scowled at the youthful grins, the posh and overly expensive show-off suits, the habit of disappearing, and the eagerness to leap into danger reminded him too much of his old teenage self. He hated being forced to deal with Matthew’s niece Lana’s endless snark and insults, even though he dished out his own to anyone he didn’t like. Such thoughts simmered during the early years of the Watchers, festering as he bottled them up to avoid harming the joyous atmosphere and friendships that let him feel so carefree.
Times changed when he shook hands with the one and only Rune Master Quartz Ernst. Ernst was a full-fledged member of the Watchers at the time, though not a founding member as his enlistment had been part of a high-level Grand Council employee calling in an old debt from the Ernst family, but not like the rest of them. He was regularly absent, but unlike Matthew he had the reasonable excuse of his advanced age and family politics. When he was not with them, he spent his time working on one project or another in his workshop far away from the frontlines and when he was present, he was quick to snap and temper at the slightest incompetency. The Watchers put up with his anger and irritability, as his role as a quartermaster who maintained and improved the group's weapons was invaluable, although most of his effort was spent on running his own business,
Quartz's Magical Items & Trinkets.
Part of their tolerance stemmed from the fact that he was a truly remarkable man with a mastery of the language of magic and its many intricacies from many decades of intensive study and rigorous practise. Everton wasn't aware of it at the time, but the grouchy old man that scowled at him like he had glowered at so many others was a pioneer in the Runic Disciplines, who’s products were incredibly sought-after by so many upper-class mages, and were pipe dreams for those more common. Ernst had a seat on the board of the Runic Workers' Guild and on the Runic Council, the two largest Council and I.M.O.S.A-certified bodies in the field of the Runic Disciplined before the latter was absorbed into the Grand Council to consolidate war efforts. As the younger sister of Ruby Ernst, he had the ear and support of the one of the greatest Mage and business families in the United Kingdom, and much of the weaponry they used had his shop’s logo emblazoned across their glowing surfaces. However, much of the magical public knew him as a hermit who rarely left the confines of his home that he had built from scratch, based off how little he appeared in public, even in the official chambers of the Guild and Runic Council.
Quartz’s list of achievements was long and impressive, and Everton, happy to see someone else than Matthew, immediately got along with him at their first meeting. He let the man speak while the others, especially Matthew, interrupted, and held his tongue when the rest of Watchers bantered with a man with no time for humour. The respect was somewhat reciprocated, and so over the months of 2012, the two’s acquaintanceship developed albeit slowly, since the rumours of Quartz’s reclusiveness were not without substance.
In that year, a supply-line sabotage mission went terribly wrong, and they found themselves fighting together against a demon from the fifth circle of the underworld, one of the most powerful enemies the Watchers ever faced. Moments before the beast was banished, it lashed out at Everton and Hania, grievously injuring them, and would have forced them to live the rest of their lives in constant pain and immobility from the injury were it not for the runesmith’s quick actions, knowledge and dexterity. His fingers danced for hours, knitting flesh and bone back together, and for once sweat dripped from his temples. While Hania acted indifferent to this rare kindness afterwards, Everton’s gratitude signalled the beginning of a fruitful friendship. As a Christmas present at the first post-mission party Quartz had attended at the respectful insistence of Everton, Quartz granted Everton a visit to his home and workshop, showing him the marvels of his works and creations, although the action was slightly begrudging. Everton soon stopped trying to stop his eyes from widening during the tour.
Four years passed in relative peace within the ranks of the Watchers, as much as the group could be in with the constant threat of Rifts and the conquests of the Shadow Court. The Watchers had recruited two members, had one retire, had lost none in combat, and were minor celebrities across the United Kingdom, although the various reporters often downplayed Quartz’s involvement and non-combat roles, or even left him unreported. While the group’s fame and influence grew, so did the friendship between its two most spiteful members, to the point that Everton now took Quartz’s workshop-home as his residence after losing his apartment to a Fire Duel between him and an arrogant, slightly drunk soldier from another mage group. As for his friendship with the Rune Master, he managed, with great effort, to erode away the harsh crabbiness. The natural grouchiness never left, but after some time Quartz became pleased to see him and began to speak to him with only a little of his normal restraint, which Everton, understanding of how extraordinarily privileged he was, was always thankful for.
His gracious host later introduced him to several high-ranking members of the Ernst family, previously a taboo topic of conversation. Conversations with Ruby, the prideful and infuriatingly manipulative head of the family and Amber, her bodyguard at major galas and functions that the upper class maintained despite the war became a painful part of his schedule between deployments that usually ended with his cheeks flushed red. Despite the shame, he suffered through the tiresome events for Quartz, who previously went alone. He was happy for the help, but the friendship only took him so far, as an entire wing of the workshop remained off-limits to him. Quartz consoled the restriction with yet another remarkable gift. As part of his endless search for knowledge, the runesmith offered to use his abilities to push Everton further, to make him better than he could ever be, as a sort of case study, practise and mark of friendship all at once. There began many years of tinkering with Everton’s very energy, as layer upon layer of runes made it clear that he was rising above the rest. Even in its early stages, the runes gave him great power and protection, and Quartz acted as his watchful tether to prevent him from abusing his new enhancements. Everton never forgot the kindness; he regularly suggested new upgrades and ideas, and in return, Quartz shaped him into the fighter he dreamed of being, even in childhood.
Living within the workshop, and the close and regular proximity to the wonders of Quartz’s aptitude for his craft it gave, came with unsavoury effects. Quartz’s antisocial nature and beliefs about the supremacy of his profession rubbed off on Everton, for he himself had become evidence for that claim. His tongue grew unnecessarily sharp, his verbal jabs felt more and more hurtful rather than bantering, and he became a proficient user of excessive force, even against creatures that had done nothing wrong besides know a morsel of information about their target. Eventually, even the uncaring Hania began to worry, and the others were preparing to stage an intervention and suspend his combat duties to let his anger burn itself out. However, before that could happen, something wondrous meant it wasn’t needed.
KIRI
One day, after being reprimanded yet again for brutally interrogating a suspect in 2017, Everton returned to the workshop after a week of trekking on a trip to find Quartz with his carving tools out and activated, standing by a bed that looked like it belonged in a hospital, and on it, a young child splayed out, unconscious and emaciated. A confrontation revealed that Quartz was performing what could only be described as a miracle. Days of work had gone into the operation, he said, strengthening and enhancing her useless legs to cure her of whatever disease had given her such a terrible mark.
At first, Everton was taken aback at the display of such an altruistic project, even arguing with him, but Quartz cut him short. He revealed his sighting of monsters raiding an orphanage while he was foraging for plants in Eastern Russia. The beasts had laid the bodies out outside, and they had been defaced beyond all recognition. Pushed by revulsion at such a terrible deed even he felt sickened by it, he entered and slayed the monsters, but it became clear in time that he was just too late, for a search found no survivors. But, tucked away in a crawl space, he found a girl, barely four or five years old, shivering in terror, exhausted from dragging withered, useless legs with her. The look on her face when he pulled the floor planks to reach the tiny shuffling noises, a pure mix of fear, adoration and relief caught him right then and there. The only thing she could answer his soft questions with was her name: Kiri. After much uncharacteristic pleading Everton began to help him, lighting a flame for warmth and comfort, although after hearing her story his hesitation had all but dried up.
Over the course of many days, Everton stood by Quartz, a nurse to their surgeon, as Quartz carried out an endlessly complex operation, covering the girl’s limbs in runes spanning a countless categories. Everton missed a combat deployment to be there, but neither made an effort to allow for it. Instead, they worked away to perform a hidden miracle of healing. When they finished, Everton was the one who insisted they return the girl to wherever she came from against Quartz’s better nature, but it soon became clear there was nowhere suitable to leave her. With no other ethical option available, they made the remarkable decision to take her under their roof and raise her.
The further, specific, details of Kiri’s childhood are reserved for MUD (a friend I RP’d with from a while ago for those who haven’t heard the name). What else is written in Everton’s bio concerns her as a supporting character and only uses the barest details. After all, I can’t let his app for his own original character be a complete repeat of what’s said here if he does join. If he says he’s steadfast about not joining, which he probably won’t be, I’ll get him to help fill this section out.
Even though Everton and Quartz felt relieved, the war waged on with no sign of ending while they languished. The bodies continued to pile up, and morale began to fade as war weariness began to set in. The Grand Council court-martialled Everton not too long after he beared witness to that fateful miracle, but while the judging officers laid upon him their scathing lectures on military duty and honour, Quartz prepared the young Kiri for her first public appearance.
At first they demanded to know what such a young child was doing in a military tribunal, but when they presented their evidence it didn’t take long for their harshness to crumble before an act of such kindness from the supposed ‘dishonourable soldier’. Despite being unwarranted and unwanted in such a setting, the press quickly caught the story leaked by Quartz to several contacts within the journalist profession. Confronted with a sob story about the impossible moral dilemma of choosing whether to fight for country or save a defenceless child, public opinion quickly swayed against the court. Wary of the waning public support, the judicial officers had little choice but to give Everton a light, slap-on-the-wrist sentence.
After the case was resolved, Quartz announced his official adoption of Kiri. In a disastrous twist, the Russian government and its respective magical authority saw the declaration as a personal attack insinuating that Russia could not care for its own, and issued a rebuke that in less tumultuous times would have succeeded in preventing the adoption. However, they could not have chosen a worst time. The public had not yet forgotten shy Kiri, hiding by her guardian’s side. Once again, the media machine lurched into action. Even worse, the former members of the Runic Council and Guild, along with the Ernst family, through their considerable political weight behind Kiri’s cause. Their motives became clearer later when various surveys taken after the conclusion to the crisis revealed a slight breakdown in the stereotype of runesmiths as cold and unfeeling correlating with slightly increased profits within the runesmithing industry.
The Russians, embarrassed and facing the escalating scandal, backed down, but removed Kiri’s citizenship. Statelessness didn’t bother her or her guardians, however, and she settled into her new family quite nicely. Her guardians denied all interviews after the scandal resolved. With little to go on, the story faded and withered, and failed to find itself a place in the history books.
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WATCHERS
Everton returned to the Watchers soon after while Quartz looked after , beaming with pride and hoping to receive a hero’s welcome, but instead found himself the subject of Matthew Watcher’s intense disapproval. The high and mighty leader of the Watchers saw it as a terrible breach of his duty, and against the wishes of most of his soldiers, remained steadfast in his opposition and had even convinced some of his comrades to feel the same. Everton took it remarkably calmly, but Matthew had wasted the chance to reconcile with Everton’s prejudices, and set the Watchers on the course to its unfortunate ending.
One day in the summer of 2021, between yet more missions, a minor god that went by the name of Liai appeared to the Watchers, revealing their skill, success and antics had fascinated her greatly. In a remarkable and wholly amoral deal, considering that the war had not yet ended, she offered to grant immortality and great power to them in return for control over the group. Some of the Watchers, including Everton and Quartz, balked at the huge cost of giving up their freedom, even cursing the god for appearing. The majority of the other Watchers denied with great reluctance, suffering greatly from the temptation of strength and the human dream of eternal life, but stood by their obligation to the Grand Council, country and the world itself in the war.
However, two went against their comrades’ grain and broke their soldier’s oath by accepting. Matthew, turned arrogant by the Watchers’ fame and nurturing a dark, jingoist hatred of the Shadow Court, signed the fateful contract in blood in a fit of righteousness. Hania Seren, the recent recipient of a drastic injury and humbling, took the contract with little hesitation. Everton and Quartz suspected selfishness and megolomania tainted her choice, but they never found out the deeper reasons for her acceptance, however, for Matthew forbade questioning about the contract, citing their decision to live without the power meant they could no longer hear the terms and rewards. Liai was happy regardless, having attained the Chief Watcher, and in typical godly fashion, failed to notice the developing fury of her new servants.
Unfortunately for Liai, the signings came mere weeks before a series of crushing defeats by the Grand Council against the Shadow Court, driving the supernatural forces back to the point that the Watchers’ primary skillset was no longer needed. For the next year and a half, the group felt underwhelmed as they saw fewer and fewer deployments, and spent more time with little to distract them from their growing internal issues. Matthew Watcher, regularly distracted with his new powers, neglected to control the outbreaks of petty squabbling and growing dissent. When peacetime finally came around, the Watchers had fallen from the grace of their war, and even the medal ceremony in which even Everton was granted acknowledgement for their service did little to lift the mood.
The Grand Council decommissioned most of the mage groups after the war ended, and in doing so took away the Watchers’ purpose. Its members were retired from military service, and Matthew lost the authority of a commanding officer. The group limped along for a couple of months, helping to mop up the last remnants of Shadow Court extremists who believed in fighting to the death, before Everton, Quartz and their allies could take it no more. On the 27th of October 2023, the sixteenth anniversary of the group’s founding, Everton, Quartz, Ichiru Hashimoto and Alicia Cromwell openly objected to Matthew’s leadership, citing his arrogance, selfishness and neglect as the reason for the Watchers’ deterioration, and called for his removal. In sad irony, they started out with the noble intentions of improving the Watchers, extending its longevity even, but their action only enabled its downfall.
Matthew’s reaction was one of boundless rage, and doubtless divided the already restless group between clearly marked lines in the sand. He labelled the dissidents disgraceful traitors, and issued a counter-demand of their expulsion from the group. His allies in disapproving of Everton returned to his side, and, to the great surprise of the other side, Seren supported Matthew’s supposed attempt to keep the Watchers together even though Matthew employed the person she despised the most to assist him. Everton never discovered the real reason for Seren’s opposition, and lamented what he thought was her decision. His sadness was short-lived, for the strife that followed quickly destroyed all that was left of the Watchers’ camaraderie.
The situation escalated from slinging hurtful insults to physical violence in mere minutes, and then, upon the orders of Matthew, to full-fledged magical violence. Everton’s side fled, and with Quartz unwilling to bring his family into the conflict, they took refuge in the only place they could: Quartz’s workshop. The runesmith’s home had become his fortress. His sanctuary, built from the ground-up with the explicit purpose of keeping all unpermitted visitors as far away as possible. Magic throbbed within every square inch of the place, between its walls and in its very foundations. Anti-teleportation charms, progressive magic barriers, security systems, and so, so much more that it cannot be hoped for it to be fully detailed, all formed his forever-unseen masterpiece. Its protections bought them a few days, and the presence of Kiri kept spirits up somewhat as Matthew’s loyalists started their fervent search.
Yet, the protections failed. It made no sense, for Everton himself had watched Quartz construct a fair number of its practically impenetrable fortifications and had seen their certain, perfect quality, but such doubt was of little importance when their last line of defence. Thankfully, Quartz, well-prepared and having planned for attacks, erected a barrier between the two sides. The ex-comrades suffered a stare-down, cursing each other to damnation. Matthew and his soldiers slung unrestrained attacks on the barrier, instilling fear in the defenders for the barrier could not last forever against sustained attacks, even with Quartz’s skilful protections. Quartz, however, showed no sign of worry as he sat on a bench, clutching the ten-year-old Kiri to his side. As the shield began to fade, he looked Matthew dead in the eye, and gave one last warning. Matthew refused.
Something awoke in the workshop that day. Something summoned, beyond any belief. For many years, what exactly happened there greased the wheels of the rumour mill. Quartz and Everton had forcefully sworn all witnesses to never reveal any details but the vaguest and most intimidating details. Whatever happened, it utterly crushed the invaders and expelled them from the workshop, all branded with horrific scars, save, for unknown reasons, Hania Seren, who’s memory of the event was hidden away. That day, the Watchers fell, never to return.
With their friendships corrupted and broken, Everton’s allies went their separate ways, intending on waiting for the horror of the battles to fade. Over the next few years, most found employment within private mage security, or law enforcement under the Grand Council.
Most of them never saw Quartz again.
THE DISAPPEARANCE
On the 12th of May 2026, Everton and Kiri, now fourteen and energetic as ever, returned to their home from a long holiday to the natural wonders of the world to find the workshop empty, although it didn’t bother them. It wasn’t unusual for Quartz to leave the workshop in those years, although uncommon. Quartz’s family often called upon him without warning for events and advice. Everton, at the insistence of Kiri, who was excited to see her father again after ‘so long’, but a call to the head of the family, Quartz’s own sister Ruby, revealed that he was not with them, and had actually dropped off their surveillance network. The clan’s inner circle was starting to worry, she said, and in fact was hoping that he had contacted them about where he was going. Everton, ever pragmatic, pointed out that Quartz had helped design their observation systems, and may have a left a loophole for himself, but Ruby insisted it had never happened before. By the time that Everton looked back at Kiri with worry, she had already vanished into their home’s corridors, looking for a distraction as Everton engaged in grown-up talk. After leaving Ruby on hold, to her indignation, he took part in the playful chase after a few minutes, only to find her clutching a piece of paper in her hand, trembling as if she was still trapped away in her long-gone home’s hiding place.
Kiri’s excitement had died explosively when she spotted the papers and a chest organised neatly on her bed several rooms away from where the main chamber, stamped with the Ernst family seal and laid to rest with a single white rose. She was the first of very few to cry. Upon arriving and reading the message, Everton soon joined her with quiet shock. For days, they withdrew from the outside world and let out their sadness together in the home Quartz had left behind. Everton had lost his closest friend, and Kiri her father, tutor and gracious saviour. Eventually, Kiri, in-between sobs, suggested that they take it upon themselves to find where Quartz had disappeared to, and so they committed themselves to the search.
Everton is reluctant to speak of what happened afterwards, but the runesmith was notable enough that the closure of his business drew some attention, and the Ernst family issued numerous official statements on the matter to quell the press. Officially, there were six papers delivered to them that day as the final writings of the great Rune Master Quartz Ernst. The first, which Kiri grasped with such firm conviction, was a detailed farewell letter, written over the course of many weeks with a forlorn, knowing hand. Out of respect, Quartz’s family always left its contents private. The second contained instructions for the Ernst family for announcements of his departure and severance of relations with his clients. The third was a glowing letter of recommendation for his nephew, his apprentice of several years. The fourth contained the documents needed to transfer all of his immense wealth and property in his name to Everton and Kiri. The fifth informed them that his numerous duties had now transferred to them, namely the guarding of several extremely important artefacts, among other things. The sixth and last contained information specifically for Everton and Everton alone, which will not be repeated.
Two of the statements are above are incorrect, and two are not what they seem.
B̗̳̯͉͎e̟̱̻ ̼̜̹̝͉s̠͕̝͇̤͢u҉͎re ̻̮͓͝t̶͉̻̻̲̗̤o͏͇̰ ̺̖̜r̺̫̭͉ḙm̧̜e̦̲͔͟m͉͘b̖̺e҉͚ṛ̝͚ t̡̠̙̣͖̟̯͉h͔̜a͖̻̟̲̼̯t̤,̢̖̖̬͚͇̬ ͢c̰̜h͚͕̝̭̰͎i̶͈̱̲̖͓l̠̝̠̟̼̣͉d̦̩̫̬̙̠̜r̲͙̜͔͖̝͔͘e͖͍ͅǹ̯͕̲̣̬̭.̙̭͙
TO PRESENT DAY
Everton raised Kiri until adulthood by himself, denying all offers of help from Quartz’s family. He lived frugally; never rising above decent comfort despite the mountains of riches he had been given. He arranged rune tutoring for Kiri, and taught her combat herself, but he was not set out to be a teacher, and her unique, emotionally-driven style of magic confounded him too much for him to be a useful instructor. To make matters worse, five years of searching revealed only information too sensitive for them to give it to any authorities, and wholly insufficient in even beginning to find Quartz. The old man had covered his tracks too well for him. Everton, dejected and tired of it all, cut his losses and quit.
Once Kiri had outgrown the need for his protection, Everton began wandering the world, taking odd jobs for the Ernst family, honing his magic and learning just enough runic knowledge to maintain his enhancements. He and Kiri remained very close throughout the years, even though Kiri had continued the search for Quartz even when Everton had left her by herself, to the point that she started pursuing methods labelled esoteric even by the magical community. To her sadness, he shrunk further and further from the boisterous larrikin he used to love being.
He now founds himself drifting to Magia Insulam to run an errand for the Ernst family. Perhaps he’s looking for a change. If so, he’ll certainly get one.