Hilderic Brunner



Elka's father and, by extension, Pauli's father in law. He has one other child, a son named Luca, and is married to Annika. Until retiring, he worked firstly in the motor industry, then moving to work in motor repairs more locally, so as to spend less time travelling to work.

Hilderic was the son of two members of the working class, born just before the start of the second world war. Both of his parents survived the war, only for his mother to die of TB a few months after. His father died not long after Luca was born.

He claims he fell in love with Annika at first sight, although she would likely object to this, and never blamed her for her long hours for little pay. After all, the pay of a mechanic is not much better, and Pia was there to raise the children. Still, he spent more time with them than their mother. He quickly concluded that their happiness was worth more than anything else, continuing to live by that standard.

Time passed. His children grew up and got married themselves, their partners becoming absorbed into the main body of the family.

He was the last person of his old life Pauli spoke to upon becoming a mage and, somewhat poetically, the first he spoke to once he started to attempt making amends. Pauli ran into him at Elka's grave recently. He is under no suspicions that the conversation would have gone a lot worse if he hadn't finally written to them over Christmas. The conversation ended with a, now fulfilled, promise to visit during the summer.