#darius eckbert

As children, Darius once asked Jaron why wasn't he friends with the noble kids as Jaron could talk to them and Jaron said they either didn't like him or treated him as a prince which he didn't like so Darius is the only one he could talk to. Darius asked him what would Jaron do without him and Jaron as a kid back then believed he would always have Darius. ( Which wasn't true. I know it's angsty.)

As Sage, Jaron sometimes think about that conversation with Darius sometimes. It hurt him then to see how wrong he was to think things would be the same and that he would always have Darius.

We know Darius was said to be the only one who caught Jaron climbing the castle walls that was mostly because they shared the same room so Darius sometimes caught Jaron sneaking out but he kept quiet about him climbing the walls. Jaron didn't know why he kept quiet about it. (Tfp says that Darius kept quiet about his mischief and Jaron didn't know it was because he loved Jaron and wanted to have a life Darius himself couldn't have.)

Jaron hates servants dressing him up and he always did. (We see how he is with Errol in tfp.) So sometimes as a kid when Jaron couldn't dress properly Darius or Erin fixed his clothes and helped him.

So remember the spice cake dream Jaron talked about? That happened to him as a kid once after eating spice cakes and he did get scared back then (he was very young then). He awoke Darius back then when they were sharing room. Darius only knows about this but he did end up revealing it to Jaron’s friends later post series. Lol.

It wasn't too difficult for Darius to find Jaron as a kid whenever Jaron disappeared sometimes. So Jaron used to ask him did he have a map of all his hiding places as a joke. Actually Jaron even now sometimes disappears because of king's work and how much he said in books he wants to to away from being around people. He hates people following him or be around him 24 hrs because he is king.

Darius(when he visits the castle) is one of those people who still finds Jaron in his hiding places as he still remembers where Jaron used to go as a kid.

Jaron wouldn't have survived many of his falls from the walls or trees in his childhood if Darius wasn't there to save him. (I totally think that okay. ) Rest of the falls he survived was because of luck probably.

This one is angsty too. As people often used to tell kid Jaron that he belonged to the devils ( like through their Saints' Day gifts or by just saying it) after Jaron became Sage, he thought being an orphan and living this life was probably because of the devils and he believed for the first time then that those people were probably right. This is also when he started to believe in devils more than the saints.

Actually as a kid Jaron used to talk all night and keep Darius awake being like Fink sometimes and so whenever Darius, Jaron and Fink have sleepovers and Fink talks (probably when Darius visits Carthya sometimes they do) then Darius mentions that Jaron was like Fink as kids whenever Jaron tells Fink to be quiet. Actually Darius says this to Jaron for a lot of stuff Fink does.

In his childhood Eckbert used to often tell Jaron to be like Darius as Darius was obedient and much more like a prince. Once Jaron took this literally and did everything Darius did in a dinner event. More like he copied everything Darius did like his movements or even repeated what he said or like when Darius leaned back, Jaron did it too or when he yawned, Jaron did too. Darius got annoyed and excused himself and left the hall and Jaron followed him too. Jaron explained why he was copying Darius and Darius couldn't help but smile at that though he was still annoyed.

When Jaron was very young he did try to be the kind of prince Darius was and Eckbert wanted him to be but he eventually realised he could only be himself and stopped trying.

Darius was also Jaron’s motivator as a kid whenever Jaron got sad because he failed to live up to Eckbert's expectations and got scolded by him. (Erin was too sometimes!)