Jaden had been totally exiled from the Lorel family by Vexx many years ago. It didn’t matter that by all rights Jaden was head of the family, he was not accepted as such. He was shunned and hated; left to his own devices for many years. Jaden was furious for a while. How dare his younger brother reject his very existence and deny him his rights as a Lorel. Its is just as well that time is as trying as it is. Jaden, on his own, was forced to learn. He may be a powerful Sunset daemon, but that doesn’t mean that he is invulnerable, he had to adapt to life with mortals. And it was with mortals that he learned a precious something that Vexx had had since birth, the one thing that Jaden didn’t have when he was younger. Compassion.
Jaden learnt how to feel sadness for another’s misfortune; to want to help those who owed him nothing and to love complete strangers simply for smiling at him. Jaden, after nearly 200 years finally grew up. He understood then why Vexx hated him so much. He had been selfish; it didn’t matter how logical his actions were, he had been cruel and abandoned all that the rest of the family believed to be right to get his own way. It surprised Jaden. He never knew how much of a crooked being he was, he had always before just been an ordinary daemon, thinking the rest of the world was soft. It was a hard lesson for the daemon, but it was a lesson well learned.
Jaden apologized to Vexx and asked for forgiveness. He was sorry for the way he treated his half brother, he was sorry for abandoning not just his family, but his entire culture, he was sorry for selling out his village to the enemy in exchange for his own safety…

He was sorry for telling the Shadowraiths where the Valdars were hiding.

Jaden was surprised a second time by Vexx’s reaction. He had expected time to have also changed his little brother but no so drastically. The fire in his eyes and the hatred in his voice was shocking. Vexx totally rejected his brother. For Vexx, the damage that was done was just too great and it left a scar so deep that it would haunt him for the rest of his life. All the lives that were lost, his grandfather, his friends, Anits’ parents; he placed the blame squarely on Jaden’s shoulders, right where it belonged. Vexx told Jaden that if he ever saw him again he would kill him. Jaden knew he wasn’t lying. The hatred ran too deep even for lies now, just the honest thoughts of death could run that deep. Jaden left his little brother behind that day, all hope of being a Lorel again left with Vexx. He was reduced to Jaden the daemon. When he got back to his little home in the near-by woods, he laughed. He laughed at how stupid he had been, he laughed at how he could have even dreamed that Vexx would forgive him and he laughed at the cruelty of fate. And later on that day, he cried.

At least though, fate had gave him another chance. It was pure luck and blessings from the Gods that he stumbled across Kernel, albeit nearly 80 years later. The young boy has got himself lost in the forests while chasing a Kesaru cub. He had fallen and scraped his knee. The blood had attracted Jaden to the scene. Jaden was surprised by the infants appearance. He smelt like any other mortal but had the appearance of a fellow daemon; and not just any daemon, but a Sunset daemon. For a long while they had just stared at each other. Jaden pitied the young boy for his pain and very careful not to scare him; he did not want to scare him away after his many years of isolation. Kernel stared back at Jaden, both exhilarated and scared to see a pure-bred daemon from stories from the Second Age, and mellowed by the sadness and loneliness in his eyes, it was a feeling that Kernel was quite familiar with.
“Hello.”
Jaden took a moment to actually realize the boy was speaking to him. He knelt down beside the Daemonic infant.
“What is your name, boy?”
The infant hesitated, then grinned cockily.
“I am not ‘Boy’. I am Kernel Wyntefleck Lorel, the fifth son of Vexx Lorel.”

Jaden took Kernel home and treated his minor injury. He didn’t say that he was his Uncle, though he greatly wished to. He may be a stranger to him, but kernel had accepted him to some degree, at least enough to allow him to mend his knee. It was trust coming back to him from his family. Inside, Jaden cried again, for the first time in 80 years. It was a quick reunion with his family. He took Kernel back to the Village where his little brother still lived after all this time. Kernel didn’t even have the time to turn around and thank him before he left. Jaden couldn’t bear it, to see his family leave him again, so he left him first so all he could blame was himself, as he had always done. But unbeknown to him, his actions had sparked the start of a relationship between the two daemons. Jaden was very surprised when Kernel went out of his way to find him again, not a month later.
“Why have you come back boy?” Jaden asked him.
“Why did you just leave without saying goodbye?”
“We are strangers.”
“No we’re not, we’re friends.”
Jaden felt his throat tighten and his cheeks go red as he fought back joyous tears.
“…You want a drink, boy?”
“Yeah thanks, and it’s not ‘Boy’, I’m Kernel.”
“Of course, boy.”
“Kernel!!”
They became very close very quick. And Jaden became more himself again. His charisma was reborn through conversation, a sick but funny sense of humour, tenancies to drop lascivious or conceited comments here and there just to make others feel uncomfortable strictly for his pleasure; a habit that Kernel picked up over time. Jaden became of person again. Life was good again.

Life followed a steady pattern, even when surprises cropped up from nowhere.
“Jaden?” Kernel has said quietly one day and the pair watched Hackerjack Birds display in the treetops.
“Yes, boy?”
“Are you my Uncle?”
Jaden’s face betrayed nothing. He thought about the day when Vexx had denounced his very existence. He had been exiled from the family. Deprived the honour of the name Lorel. But that had changed nothing between him and the child before him. He was still by blood related to him, he may not be a Lorel, but that didn’t change the fact that he loved this boy, and by connections of blood and friendship, was his family.
“Yes, Kernel.” Jaden replied, using his name for the first time. “I am Vexx Lorel’ older half-brother; and by all rights your biological Uncle.”
Kernel was quiet for a long time. Before he smiled.
“Ok.” He said simply. Jaden gave him a look like he grown another set of arms.
“Ok? Is that it?”
“Yeah!” Kernel chirped. He kicked a stone before him into a small pool and watched the ripples spread across its flat surface. “Father was talking about his brother the other day. He said he hated him for something but wouldn’t tell us what, but said that if he ever saw the daemon again he would kill him.”
Jaden blinked as Kernel continued. “He said daemon. And I look like a daemon. Coincidence, I thought not! And you, well...I just knew.”
“How?”
“It explains why we love each other so much.”
So he knew, all this time kernel knew how he felt. A 5 year old daemon boy had seem right through him; his nephew read him like a book. Jaden cried again. He felt weak, crying in front of Kernel, his daemonic stripes swaying across his face stressing his bottled up emotion. But even then, kernel continued to accept him, over and over. He loved that boy so much then and still does to this day. Jaden would die for Kernel. Later that very same year, Jaden took off his gold plated adamant ring for the first time since his father gave it to him when he was just a youngling. He took his claws to it and as best he could, wrote on the inside, ‘To kernel, From Jaden’. Jaden never expected to have children, so he would now pass on his heirloom, the Lorel Family Heirloom onto him; the boy he loved like he were his own son. Kernel had no idea of the ring’s potential power, but then again, Jaden decided to make sure he’s never need to know. He told himself he would protect that child till his dying breath.

9 Years on, Jaden is well acquainted with both Ethan and Recca. Vexx knows nothing of it. They all meet up in secrecy, keeping the entire family together in their own little way, Jaden is not forgotten, Jaden is part of the Lorel family. He loves all his nephews, and the nieces that have never directly met him. He even still loves his little brother, despite his persistent cruelty. But Jaden understands, and forgives, even if Vexx won’t. So now, he is Jaden Lorel again, protecting his brothers children from afar at all times. A kind man. A kind daemon. A loving uncle. Changed forever.