Chapter 26: 026 Progress

Jenny's birthday party was only a private affair and only friends and family were invited. Or, I should say, her friends and family. My father and I were the only two men in the condo. Needless to say, we stood off to the side, pretty much jammed into a corner to look as inconspicuous as possible, with bottles of beer in our hands.

“I still don't understand why you came back.” My father said out of the blue.

“What?” I looked at him in surprise.

“Ten years.” He said and kept looking at Jenny having the time of her life. “You knew it had been ten years and came back anyway.”

“I had to, dad.” I said and he winced a little. “I am not calling you by your name.”

He sighed. “Your mother's been wreck, you know. Having her dead son walking around, bribing her with gifts, corrupting our only daughter...”

“I'm not bribing...” I took a deep breath and let it out. “Just so you know, I'm forcing her to go to college.”

My father looked surprised when he finally deemed me worthy to look at.

“You don't realize how rich she is, do you?” I asked and his face went back to being neutral. “She owns this condo 'officially', because she bought it from me with the salary she earns... earns, dad... from working in the downtown building as the manager.”

“She hasn't been working there long enough for...”

“There are thirty apartments and eight businesses paying rent for office space. The fees they pay for maintenance go right to her. She handles the plumbers, the contractors, the painters, the decorators, and everything else involved when they want or need something.” I said. “Made a hole in the wall? Call Jenny. Toilet clogged? Call Jenny. Need an emergency babysitter? Call Jenny.”

“Babysitter?” He asked.

“Diane lives there now.” I said. It had been Jenny's idea to offer her an apartment, for free, so she could save all her money for Crystal's education. I agreed and we both spent a month... a whole month... trying to convince Diane that she needed to live there. It wasn't until we agreed that she still had to pay the maintenance fees that she relented and gave in to our begging.

Diane had no idea how much the actual fees were, so we gave her a ridiculous price to pay and she knew she had been suckered. Luckily, she laughed and Crystal had been ecstatic that she was moving into the same building with her Uncle Damon. Neither Diane nor Jenny knew that I had an account with a million dollars in it for Crystal.

I would surprise her at her birthday party next month with it, knowing full well that Diane was going to beat me silly for spoiling her daughter. The stable full of ponies I rented for the party doesn't count. Nope, it doesn't.

My father looked back over at Jenny. “She was only my little girl a little while ago and now she's a woman that owns a multi-million dollar building.”

“When I came back, I thought she was still the cute little sister that I had left behind.” I said. “I guess we were both wrong.”

“We still can't accept your money.” Dad said.

“It's earned and not from the coins mom thinks I stole.” I said and he sighed.

“Everything you've done has been because of those coins. Clothes, cars, the construction business, the building downtown, even this party.” He said and took a drink of beer. “All from your gold.”

“I knew you would see it that way.” I said and he gave me a stern look. “I'm not going to bitch at you over it, dad.”

He shook his head and looked back at the party.

“I'll only say one thing.”

“Go ahead. I can't stop you.”

You're right. I thought and smiled. “Look in the mailbox on your anniversary.”

“What for?” He asked and kept looking at Jenny and mom.

“You'll know it when you see it.” I said cryptically.

Dad huffed and fell silent. I kept my word and didn't say anything else until Jenny was presented with the cake and we all sang the traditional song. I don't think I had ever seen her so happy. By the look on my father's face, neither had he.

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It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

A month later Diane actually did slap me multiple times, and all over, for giving her daughter a million dollars for her birthday. I managed to say that she couldn't access it herself until she was eighteen and she relaxed. I then handed her the account info that had a million dollars in it for her, too. I don't think I've ever been punched so hard by a woman before. I really need to be more careful who I give my strength enchanted amulets to. Crystal laughed her cute little butt off.

A month after that, I watched dad retrieve the mail. He didn't even wait to go inside to flip through the letters and caught one from an insurance company. He stared at it, as if he wasn't sure what it was, then he opened it. He dropped the other mail and walked into the house. I carefully walked over and stored the mail he had dropped and then carefully placed it on the floor just inside the door.

I heard my mother's excited shout and quickly retreated. I couldn't be caught near there, because they would automatically associate it with me. I mean, it was me that arranged it. I just didn't want them to know I did, so I climbed into Diane's borrowed car and drove off.

Jenny had been invited to their anniversary dinner party and had reluctantly accepted. She had been tempted to bring me along to dare them to say anything to me and I politely declined. I wanted my parents happy on their special day, not sad. She should be just as surprised when she learns that the insurance company paid back thirty years of insurance premiums and the balance of their account in a single lump sum.

I had hired a few people to dig into my death, discretely of course, and discovered that the insurance company had refused to pay the accidental death policy, claiming that the inconclusive DNA wasn't enough proof that it was me. They didn't deny that it was an accident, though. I really thought that was was wrong of them.

So, I bought the company.

I made them go back and redo the case, accept that a death really did happen, since there was a body, and told them to pay the policy off and return their original payments plus interest for screwing them over for nearly ten years. They did it, reluctantly. I would have to wait for the transaction to go through before selling the company. I didn't really want to be involved with insurance. It was too chancy and underhanded, in my opinion.

I knew it was a weird way to help them get closure, by confirming that their son really died ten years ago. I had hoped, and with Divine Sight, knew that it would help them move on and accept that I was a different person and the things I did didn't affect the memory of who their son used to be. Jenny wasn't happy with my decision; but, she accepted that it needed to happen.

Life went on.

After a ton of research, I eventually figured out that I could buy a jeweller's engraving tool. That wasn't all. There were kits for different heads and even electronic versions. I went way overboard and bought one of everything, just so I could try it out. Let me tell you, being able to use something the size of a fat marker to engrave into pendants was a damn sight easier than trying to carve it with large bladed tools.

The stamper was stored and pushed aside as I bought crates of blank pendants. It was a damn sight cheaper than what I had been using. When I did my very first one, a simple Clarity enchantment on a tiny one inch round pendant, I only had to add a single drop of gold to cover the back and fill in the engraving,

I stepped well away from the granite table and waited. Since there was almost no gold, it took only a few minutes to cool. I saw it glow... fairly brightly... and then it settled and I walked over to look at it. The steel protective plate had absorbed a massive amount of over enchantment... and the enchantment held.

“Hooo.” I said and put the wafer thin and completely blank pendant on a chain. I stored mine and slipped it on over my neck. It took a moment for it to kick in. The smaller area made it only a little less effective, then it settled in. My mind cleared right up and I smiled.

After my first success, I got to work. All of my little pendants needed updating. With the little tool and the tiny head, I could carve into practically everything. I thought about buying a smaller stamping machine to use, then realized the thin pendants would deform too much and the indents would easily be seen on the other side. I wasn't sure if they would work while 'damaged' like that, so I abandoned the idea.

Of course, I immediately looked at the rings I had on my fingers. I knew for a fact that they were made larger, given their enchantments, and shrunk down. It was the only way to have them resize to fit any user. They needed room to expand and retract.

Now that I had a tool small enough to engrave directly onto the ring's surface, I had to play with it. I had to. I bought a case of straight band wedding rings, all size twelve. The company I bought them from laughed at me on the phone and said I was crazy for wanting to do all that resizing to get them to smaller sizes. I didn't tell them that I wasn't cutting them up to make them smaller like a ring maker would. Nope. I wasn't doing it the traditional way.

I had the enchanter's legendary tome that told me what to engrave into it to let them resize on their own. Of course, since it was a curved surface, my normal 'melt gold and pour it on' wasn't going to work, unless I made a mold to create the flat surface. That forced another round of online research and a lot more purchases. My work room became more cluttered as I kept buying things to try, fail at, then buy something else to try.

It took me a long time to get it to work, considering I was working in the days at the construction site and only had my evenings free to 'play'. It took a lot longer than I thought it should have to finally get it to work. When it did, though... oh, boy. Oh, boy. The feeling of satisfaction was something that I had felt only once before.

No, I can't think of that now. I thought and pushed it out of my mind. I sat there at my granite work bench and the steel protective plate hadn't even twitched with over enchantment. The perfectly smooth golden ring glowed with a light blue intensity that told me the enchantment held. The book had wanted a ring nearly a foot across for it to work, and I did it on one barely an inch and a half across.

The glow faded and I picked up the ring, thought about savoring the moment for as long as I could, then slipped it onto my hand. The ring decreased in size to fit snugly against my skin and I felt Strength and Vitality flow through me. I made a fist and used the ring's inherent Identify spell that I had meticulously carved into it.

____

Name: Ring of Ever-Strength.
Item: Ring (straight band)
Enchantments: Strength +20, Vitality +20, Identify (spell usage - once per hour)
Quality: High
Durability: 40 / 40
Enchanter: Unknown (Novice)

____

I was a little insulted at the novice crack, then laughed. I wasn't an enchanter at all, so having my very first work of this type be acknowledged by the Identify spell, even as a novice, was wonderful.

Absolutely wonderful.

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