Meanwhile, about a month ago...

Jason's father Richard was upset, and this time it wasnt his fault. Not that he upset his father a lot, just that when he was upset Jason was usually a good bet as to why. This time he was pretty sure it had to do with his recent visit from Dean, the Guild Judiciar assigned to make sure he doesn't return to a life of crime and villainy. Once Dean had left, he knocked quietly and let himself in.

"Hey dad, everything go okay? You seem... Upset. Your not in trouble are you?" Jason asked, looking from him father to his mother, who was sitting next to him on the far side of his desk. There was a half empty bottle of wine sitting between them, and they had both been staring into them when he had walked in, not exactly a good sign, Jason mused.

His father sighed and started to speak before his mother cut him off.

"Of course not honey, why would you think that?"

Jason laughed. "because dad pulled in half the shadows in the house, poor Brenda was just about ready to start having a panic attack when I walked by and promised I'd check on you."

Both of Jason's parents blinked and looked around the room, noticing for the first time that nothing in the well lit room was casting a shadow, except for Jason and Richard, who let out a breath and visibly relaxed the tension he had been holding in.

"Sorry. News from the council had me feeling a bit defensive and on edge." As he explained himself, Jason watched with fascination as shadows poured from his dad and shot, first to the objects in the room, then through the door to return to what ever object or corner they had come from. *Soon* jason thought. Umbramancy, or the school of magic wherein the mage could manipulate the shadows around them, was unique in two ways: it was only ever manifested in the first born child of another umbramancer, and if you were one, everyone expected you to be evil incarnate. Not that that idea didn't have precedent, considering as far as Jason knew him and his father were the first ones ever not to be homicidal psychopaths, (and in his father's case only for the last 400 years or so) so he understood the bias.

"Honey, why don't you fill Jason in on what's going on and I'll go check on Brenda, then send her home for the night." His mom broke the silence as got up and made for the door.

Son, there's has been a change of plans concerning your upcoming move to Brawford to attend the mages college there."

"What do you mean? Am I not leaving at the end of the month?" Jason felt a spark of panic in his gut, He had been looking forward to starting his training since he turned 18 and realized it was too late for him to start last year, as he had just missed the cutoff.

"No. For reasons they have not decided to share with me, the council has decided you will not be leaving at the end of the month." He paused unnecessarily, before continuing,"you will, in fact, be leaving in the morning."

"... Oh. That's... Short notice." Jason fumbled. "So should I go pack?" No need, I'll have Winston pack some things up for you tomorrow, and have them sent to you. Tonight, Im planning on breaking some rules, and I'll need your help. It's not going to be easy, and I wish we had a bit more time, but we'll have to make due." He opened the top drawer of his desk, and pulled out a ring made purely of clear iridescent crystal. "I'm going to teach you how to weave a bit of your shadow into an object."

Jason brightened at that, he had been dying to start learning unbramancy from the moment his shadows split, but his father had refused, both because he agreed with the council that new mages be on an even field when they started lessons at 18, and because he had been outright restricted from doing so.

"Got your mother to make this for her 'birthday present' be a nice surprise for her when we give it right back tomorrow" Richard smiled a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Now, I know you've worked out the basics of playing with your own shadow, so this is what your going to do..." As Richard stood and started into his lecture, his shadow walked out of the wall, helping to demonstrate the instructions of the real Richard. Jason was delighted to find that not only was his dad explaining how the spell worked, but also *why* they were doing it the way they were, binding a bit from the shadow of his hand, so that when squeezed, it would feel like the wearer was holding Jason's hand, and because of the bond Jason shared with his shadow, he would feel it too.

They were holed up in his father's office for hours while he tried and failed to get it right. It was late in the night, almost late enough to be considered morning really, when Jason finally managed to push the shadow fragment into the ring, and not tug it back out when he relaxed the pressure. When he opened his eyes and looked down at the ring he could see a ribbon of darkness weaving through the iridescent crystal.

"Excellent! Well done! I'm... Well I'm proud of you, and the man you are becoming, Jason. But here I am droning on when you need to sleep. I'll finish this up, if you don't mind me lifting a bit of your shadow?"

Stifling a yawn, Jason nodded, and watched as his father pulled a bit of his shadow off the ground with a flick of his wrist and fed it into the ring, strengthening the fluid looking band of shadow within.

Holding it up for him to see, his father smiled. "Now you will now only feel each other grip, but be able to speak to each other as well. She'll still miss you, but this should help ease the burden. Now, really, head to bed. I'll wake you up when its time for you to leave." Jason nodded again, stifling another yawn.

"Love you dad. See you in the morning." He responded, already half asleep as he headed for his bed.

Author's note: If your reading this, thanks for reading my first chapter! also, first offshoot branch! woo go me! hoping to post a chapter about once or twice a week, but you know how life is, we'll just have to see how it goes. thanks again to outa for coming up with this awesome world for inspiration and opening it up for other writers, and of course if at any point I'm not totally clear about something just ask and ill do my best to clear it up for ya!