More Templar!Jacob thoughts, mostly about his friendship and relationship with Roth:
Jacob was raised by Starrick but he’s far closer to Roth. However, he’s convinced himself that his father is more important than his teacher, so it’s a long time before he realizes how much he cares about Roth, and by then he thinks it’s too late for him to do anything
Jacob usually sleeps in the Starrick Mansion where he lives but sometimes he falls asleep on Roth’s couch by accident. Roth, of course, has extra blankets for such an occasion and worries about Jacob a bit whenever the young man comes by
Jacob’s bisexual and he’s known that for a while. So has Roth, and Roth is his biggest supporter. Roth is the only one Jacob goes to if he’s having trouble dating a guy, since he really can’t talk to anyone else, and Roth listens and gives suggestions to help Jacob’s relationship. Most of the time, though, it’s one-night stands with no feelings involved. Roth knows it’s serious when Jacob complains to him, which is why he tries to help the young man so much
Jacob used to be an outgoing boy before Starrick quickly beat that out of him and so Jacob knows to keep himself emotionless and calm, lest he incite his father’s wrath. Roth brings it back out a little bit, but that’s because Jacob only ever relaxes around Roth. He doesn’t let his guard down around anyone else, let alone his emotions
Evie goes after Roth first, hoping killing the leader of the Blighters would put them into disarray, but quickly finds that Roth is not the man she expected. When he proposes that they work together to hamper Starrick, Evie is highly suspicious about his motives and the consequences. Roth then tells her about the explosives and she’s welcome to do whatever with the train if she doesn’t trust him, but if she does want to work with him, then Evie would deliver it to him. After logically looking at it, Evie can see the merits of working with Roth and so agrees, to which Roth knew she would and so he was already waiting for her. This starts their partnership but Evie’s still very suspicious and doesn’t trust Roth at all
Jacob quickly gets word of the train and asks Roth about it, since Blighters were seen unloading the train after it was stolen. Roth lied to Jacob’s face and, were it anyone else, Jacob would’ve killed him on the spot. But because it was Roth, Jacob is more exasperated than irritated and lets him go, but not without a warning about Starrick’s wrath
When Roth and Evie take care of the three lieutenants, Jacob gets suspicious. He does a little looking into it and gets angry that Roth’s been working with the enemy. Jacob asks Roth what the hell he’s doing by working with Evie and Roth says that he’s doing it to get Evie to lower her guard but that’s not the truth. However, Jacob doesn’t know that and he rarely wants to question Roth and so he accepts the answer, but warns that Roth won’t get away with it a third time
Jacob has always had a soft spot for the children. It’s the only thing he ever tries to argue about to his father and Starrick quickly shuts him down with a reminder that it’s the way the world works and if Jacob keeps questioning Starrick’s choices in labor, the young man is going to receive unpleasant consequences. So Jacob drops it, until he visits the factories again and the cycle starts over, though he never questions Starrick more than twice a month. He knows better than to make his father think Jacob might be turning against him, which Jacob is not
Roth knows Evie would never go along with blowing up a factory with children in it and so goes ahead and sets it up himself instead, only for Jacob to show up with the children. Jacob was escorting them to make sure they would have a safe journey to work and the Blighters nervously have to pretend that nothing is wrong so he doesn’t get suspicious. It’s not until after Jacob leaves that Roth has the dynamite detonated, since he wasn’t about to kill the boy he cares about like a son, and Jacob frantically rushes back to save the children
Jacob knows exactly who was behind the bombing and goes after Roth. He’s always welcome in the Alhambra and so faces no resistance, going right in and heading straight for Roth’s office. Roth’s calmly waiting for him and Jacob chews him out. Jacob knows that Roth knows how Jacob feels about the child labor situation and this was certainly not the way to go about it. Roth asks if Jacob came to kill him for it, since he knows how much Jacob cares about the children. Jacob says nothing, does nothing, and Roth tries to poke and prod him into a response. Roth even takes Jacob’s hidden blade hand and puts it against his throat, daring the young man to kill him…but Jacob can’t. Jacob can’t kill Roth, the first time he finds he can’t bring himself to kill someone, and it freaks him out. He runs away and Roth sighs
Evie soon comes to kill Roth after finding out about the factory bombing and Roth is expecting her, but he has a different proposal: She helps him fake his death and he would deal with Jacob. It’s very tempting because by this point Jacob and Evie know they’re twins and Evie really doesn’t want to kill Jacob, and so her family overrides her logic as she agrees. They burn the Alhambra and Roth slips away and goes into hiding to make sure Starrick won’t find him immediately. However, as soon as Evie leaves the burning theater, Jacob’s there and tries to stealth assassinate her. As soon as he saw the burning Alhambra, Jacob knew what Evie had done and he had just realized that the reason why he couldn’t kill Roth was because Roth had been more of a father to him that Starrick had ever been. Roth had been family to Jacob and now it was too late for Jacob to do anything about it. Jacob immediately goes into a rage and tries to kill Evie then and there. He’s too vicious for her to handle and so she has to run and hide before he can kill her outright. Jacob continues to hunt her for the rest of the story, baying for her blood and her head on a pike by any means necessary. It’s not until Roth comes out of hiding to get Jacob’s attention that anything changes. And once Jacob learns that Roth’s alive, he stops hunting Evie and falls off the radar for a while
Once Evie knows it’s safe, she continues her hunt for the Shroud until the ball, where she and Henry have to infiltrate it and stop Starrick. Starrick’s already unhappy because he can’t find his son but he doesn’t let it bother him too much because he needs to get the Shroud first, which he does. However, as Evie and Henry fight Starrick for the Shroud, Jacob shows up. But he’s not backing up Starrick. He rips the Shroud off of his father and holds him at gunpoint. Jacob had already been questioning his loyalty to Starrick for a while, since figuring out that he was Evie’s twin, and his relationship to Roth helped confirm it. Jacob kills Starrick, hands over the Shroud, and leaves. Henry’s able to convince Evie that Jacob needs time to settle and understand himself and so she doesn’t look for him right away. They give each other space and Jacob’s grateful for it, but eventually he does come around and they finally begin to talk for the first time in their lives
