Adira saw herself as a patient person. She was a woman of action who wasn't afraid to put in the effort to make changes happen, but she recognized that sometimes the necessary action was to sit and wait. Acting too rashly could make a sensitive situation even worse. This was a lesson that the Brotherhood had drilled into their heads so much that even reckless Hector knew to think before acting.
Despite this, Adira couldn't help but be anxious with every day that passed since the sundrop and her friends had set sail. That had been weeks ago, and Adira hadn't seen nor heard about them since.
She wasn't worried for their safety. They may be amateurs, and a classic example of the blind leading the blind, but what they lacked in experience they somewhat made up for in creative ingenuity and brazen confidence. No, Adira was sure that the princess was alive and well. They'd probably just gotten stalled or sidetracked...again.
It was mildly frustrating to deal with the princess. She was aware of her destiny as the sundrop, and she seemed willing to do whatever she could to find the moonstone and save both of their kingdoms, and yet they were taking so long to get anywhere. The trip was long enough as it was without the princess stopping for several weeks in every single town that they passed through.
The Dark Kingdom was dying, and Corona was clearly heading in the same direction. This wasn't a vacation, this was serious business that deserved one's undivided attention. Adira knew that the princess cared, but it certainly didn't seem like she was acting like it, and she was starting to get sick of it.
Adira wondered if this was how Hector felt about her. In her eyes she hadn't abandoned anything. Yes, she had sworn to keep the moonstone safe, but she had seen for herself that the opal had a decent natural defense system. It had nearly killed King Edmund.
Adira had other duties. She had sworn to protect the kingdom, and the biggest threat to the Dark Kingdom was the moonstone itself. Their queen was dead because of that stone, and their prince was missing. The royal family had served the moon and protected the opal for generations, and in a matter of moments it had almost demolished their monarchy.
Their people had to be sent away from the Dark Kingdom for their own safety. A whole kingdom had become refugees overnight, all because of the moonstone. If the sundrop could counteract the destruction of the opal, if it could finally put an end to this legacy of death and pain, why shouldn't Adira encourage that?
Hector didn't understand, and by now Adira had given up on the hope of ever being able to sway him. He was just as stubborn as she was. It was a trait that Adira admired, even if it was infuriating when their pride and values pulled them directly against each other. Adira loved her brother. She didn't want him to be her enemy. But he had a very clear idea of what was the rightpath, and it wasn't an idea that she shared. If that put them at odds with each other, so be it.
Adira had long since come to terms with the fact that her relationship with Hector was probably irreparable at this point, but she wasn't going to give up on him. Because of this, when she saw Hector's rhino running towards her, far from the Great Tree, her first thought was one of concern. Not for herself, or for her quest to help the sundrop, but for her brother.
Adira stood up from where she was meditating and approached the rhino. She wasn't the least bit nervous about walking up to a distressed, clearly exhausted, and somewhat frustrated massive animal.
"Where's Hector?" Adira asked as she stroked the rhino's horn. "Is he alright?"
The rhino huffed and nudged roughly against her. It was trying to push her back towards where it had come from, back towards the west, towards Corona. Why had the rhino been back there? Adira didn't think she had seen it more than ten miles away from the Great Tree in twenty five years.
Adira knew her brother. She knew that it wouldn't leave the Great Tree unless under Hector's direct orders, and he wouldn't send it so far away unless it was a real emergency. If the rhino wanted Adira to follow it, then she knew that it had to have a good reason.
Adira glanced towards the sea, hoping to see a sign of the sundrop and her friends. They really should have reached this side of the sea by now. Traveling over the waters wasn't the only way to travel from Corona to the Dark Kingdom, but for a group their size it was supposed to be the fastest way. Adira should not have been able to get to port ahead of them. How could the princess have possibly gotten distracted in the middle of the ocean? There was nothing out there.
Adira wanted to wait for the sundrop, to make sure that she was progressing on her quest, but she knew she wasn't accomplishing anything by just sitting here. Waiting for the princess wouldn't make her arrive any faster. Right now the person that needed her help was Hector, and Adira wasn't about to abandon her brother when he finally decided to reach out to her after all these years.
"I'll come with you." Adira said. The rhino huffed and knelt on the ground to let Adira onto its back. The second she was situated the rhino roared and charged towards its destination. Adira didn't know where they were going, or how long it would take to get there, but she trusted the beast. She'd known it since it was just a calf. It was loyal to Hector, and wouldn't hesitate to attack her if she aggravated her brother, but she hadn't done anything to earn its ire.
The rhino didn't seem to know exactly where it was going. It frequently switched directions, and occasionally paused and sniffed around. The rhino seemed to know what it wanted from Adira, but it didn't know exactly where that was. She was patient with the beast. If Adira could lose the sundrop, then a rhino could lose whatever it was looking for. She was confident that it would be able to find it again though. Hector wouldn't have kept an animal at his side for so long if it wasn't able to do basic tracking.
Adira travelled with the rhino well into the night before they stopped for a break, and they only did so after long coaxing from Adira. Hector's rhino was incredibly stubborn and determined. It was willing to push itself beyond its capabilities, and Adira was here to see to it that it didn't hurt itself.
They rested all night, but at dawn's first light the rhino was insistent that they continue on their way. They travelled at an exhausting speed for about four days before the rhino ran off the path and headed towards some nearby mountains. As they got closer Adira could see the glow of a fire in one of the caves. Someone was camping out, and Adira had a fairly good guess as to who it was.
"Brother?" Adira hopped off the back of the rhino as they approached the mouth of the cave. She saw Hector, though it took her a moment to recognize him. He wasn't wearing his cloak and he'd taken his braids out. He looked smaller, younger, and more vulnerable than Adira could ever remember him being.
Hector looked towards her, and the relief in his eyes was more concerning than anything else. Something was wrong. Hector looked behind him and said something too quietly for Adira to hear. He adjusted his cloak, which was bundled up on the ground, and reluctantly stepped away from it.
Hector joined Adira outside the cave. "Sister,"
She opened her arms. She didn't enjoy physical affection at all. It made her skin tingle uncomfortably. Even the smallest amount of physical contact made her feel trapped and vulnerable. She rarely allowed herself to feel weak in that way, and her brothers were always the exception.
Hector eyed her cautiously, like he was afraid of getting too close to her, and it hurt. Of the three of them, Hector had always been the one who thrived with physical touch. If he cared about and trusted somebody, he would cling to them and refuse to let go for anything. It had been a pain to deal with when growing up, because Adira would either have to force herself to bear through his touch, or she had to hurt her brother by depriving him of what he was so desperate for.
Now though, seeing Hector hold himself back from accepting the clear invitation for a long-overdue embrace, especially when he was so clearly lost and distressed, it stung. It made Adira feel like she had failed her brother.
She was just about to put her hands down when Hector lurched forward and practically launched himself at her. Adira staggered back and was immediately on her guard. It took her far too long to realize that Hector wasn't attacking her, he was accepting her offer for an embrace. She could feel him trembling against her. Adira was shocked at the reminder of how much smaller than her he was. The height and weight difference may not seem like a lot to an outsider, but to Adira it felt like a world of difference.
Adira forced herself to loosen up. She wrapped her arms around her brother's shoulders and allowed him to nuzzle against her like one of his animals. Adira was hyper-aware of every point of her body that was in direct contact with his. It felt awkward and uncomfortable, and she wanted nothing more than to pull away, but she stayed put. She hated this, but it was clear that it was just what Hector needed.
Every second seemed to drag on and on. It felt like they were there for an eternity before Hector pulled away. Adira was all too glad to let him go.
"What happened?" Adira asked. "I can barely remember the last time I saw you leave the tree."
"I don't even know where to start." Hector sighed. "So much crap has happened, and I don't even understand half of it."
"So why don't you start with what you do understand?" Adira said. "Why did your rhino bring me here?"
"I need your help." Hector said bluntly. There wasn't even the smallest amount of embarrassment or reluctance in his voice. Adira didn't think she had ever seen her brother so willing to admit that he needed help. "You're a lot better at throwing together those magical herbal cures of yours than I am."
"They're not magical." Adira said. She simply knew how to utilize the natural healing properties of plants and herbs around her. Adira eyed her brother with alarm. He looked tired and almost unwell. "You're not sick, are you?"
"Nah, not me." Hector said. "It's the kid."
Adira frowned. "What kid?"
Hector gave her a look that was a shadow of his usual playful smirk. "Come on, I'll show you." Hector led Adira into the cave. The roaring fire illuminated everything. Adira could see a trunk with the Brotherhood symbol on it pushed against the wall. There was some kind of animal fur draped over the chest. Adira might be mistaken, but it looked like it was a boar. When Adira smelled the stew cooking over the fire she knew that it was definitely a boar.
"Feel free to help yourself." Hector said. "I made too much for just the two of us, especially when he'll barely eat anything, but I couldn't let the last of the meat go to waste. We're lucky it lasted this long."
Adira gratefully grabbed a cup that Hector handed her and served herself some stew. It had been quite some time since she'd had a warm meal. She watched as Hector walked towards the bundle of his cloak. He lifted the cloak a little and looked underneath. He said something quietly that Adira couldn't hear. There was a whimper and quiet mutter in response. Hector smiled with surprising gentleness.
"Come on, kid," Hector said quietly. He lifted up the entire cloak and carried the whole thing towards the fire. Hector sat down next to Adira, pulling the cloak next to him, with the hood resting on his lap. There was a moaning sound from inside the cloak. It shifted and the fur fell, revealing the pale face of a young teenager.
Adira stared at the boy in shock. She hadn't known what she had expected when Hector had mentioned a kid, but it hadn't been a literal child. The boy stared at her with just as much concerned curiosity as she looked at him.
The boy turned his head to look up at Hector. He muttered something that Adira couldn't understand. They didn't resemble words at all, and yet Hector seemed to understand what was said to him.
"Yeah, her face is actually red." Hector said with a small chuckle, though there was a strained look in his eyes. "This one's not a hallucination. It's just Adira being a weirdo. And don't worry, it's not blood."
The boy nodded, though he didn't look like he completely understood. He closed his eyes and looked ready to drift off. Hector grimaced and gave the kid a small shake. "Hey, come on, you just woke up. You know the rules, no going back to sleep until you've had at least some water."
The boy grimaced, but he let Hector sit him up. A raccoon crawled out from the cloak and walked to the corner. It grabbed a canteen and brought it back to Hector. The man brought the canteen to the boy's mouth. He drank slowly, only to immediately begin coughing. Hector sighed and pulled the water away. He rubbed the boy's chest as he continued to cough weakly. Hector looked up at Adira, a pleading look in his eyes.
"I have no idea what I'm doing." Hector said.
Adira set down her cup and leaned closer to get a better look at the boy. He looked familiar, though she couldn't place why. He was pale, but his face was flushed. He looked unfocused, miserable, and completely exhausted. Adira put the back of her hand against his forehead and wasn't surprised to feel that he was burning.
"How long has he been like this?" Adira asked.
"I don't know." Hector said. "He was like this when I got to him almost two weeks ago."
This was concerning. Two weeks was a long time to be sick, and it was worrying that it had probably been even longer. "How's his appetite?"
"Non-existent." Hector said. "It's hard to convince him to eat anything, and impossible to get him to keep it down. He's not as dehydrated as he was when I broke him out of the dungeon, but that's not really saying much."
Adira frowned at the boy, who had stopped coughing but was now breathing deeply like it was a challenge for him. "I'll see what I can do. But first, I want to ask you something." Adira looked at her brother. "Why do you care so much?"
Hector sighed and ran a hand through his tangled hair. He sounded frustrated. "There's a few reasons, and I don't really know which one's the real reason and which one I'm just using as an excuse."
"Well, what are they?" Adira asked. Hector frowned and brushed back the boy's hair, which was done up in a braid so similar to what Hector normally had.
"This kid is Varian." Hector said quietly. "Quirin's boy."
Adira's breath got caught in her throat. She'd heard about Varian, but she'd never properly met him. Quirin had never wanted Varian to have anything to do with the Brotherhood, which meant that whenever Adira visited Old Corona Quirin would refuse to meet with her until after dark, after Varian was already asleep.
Looking at the boy she could see a few small ways that he resembled Quirin. He must have gotten most of his looks from his mother though, because while the resemblance was there between Varian and Quirin, Adira only saw it when she knew to look for it.
Adira felt a pit of dread in her stomach. "Where's Quirin?"
Varian whimpered and drew closer to Hector. The man gave the kid a sad look, though there was a familiar angry fire in his eyes.
"He's...not able to be here right now." Hector said. "It's complicated."
Adira crossed her arms. "So he was okay with you just walking out with his son?" Quirin wouldn't even let Adira meet Varian. There was no way he would willingly sit to the side and let the sick child go with Hector.
"He wasn't really in any state to stop me." Hector scowled. "And I wasn't about to leave the kid alone. He'd just be caught by the guards and locked up again."
This was a lot to unpack. Hector mentioned breaking Varian out of a dungeon, and him being alone. Before Hector had arrived Quirin, for one reason or another, hadn't been able to keep his son safe and healthy. Something had gone horribly wrong, and Adira was terrified of what it might have been. She wanted to know, but she was afraid to ask.
She'd known that Quirin's home had been threatened by the black rocks. She had seen the aftermath of the destruction in Old Corona. She'd been worried about Quirin and his son, but the princess had soon gone on her quest. She had needed to go after the girl. She hadn't had time to look for her brother or nephew. Now she regretted not checking on them.
"What was the other reason why you've been taking care of Varian?" Adira asked. She knew that her brother cared about their nephew, but she also knew that just that wouldn't have been enough to convince him to abandon the tree. Adira hadn't left her duty to check on Varian, and Hector was even more dedicated than she was. Adira didn't want to think that her brother had ulterior motives, but she knew that there was something more behind his actions.
Hector grimaced and stood up, putting a hand on Varian's shoulder when the boy started to fall without the support behind him. "Hey, kid, Adira's gonna make some really good medicine for you, but we're gonna have to go get the ingredients. Stay here and I'll be back soon, okay?"
Varian blinked slowly and looked at Hector in confusion. After a long moment the boy nodded. Hector sighed and rustled Varian's hair before turning to the raccoon on the boy's lap. "Keep the kid out of trouble, alright?" The raccoon chattered and nodded. It leaned against Varian, who smiled and pet it.
Hector walked towards the mouth of the cave and Adira followed him. They really did need to look around for some local herbs and flora that she could make into a remedy, but she knew that wasn't the main reason why they were going out. Hector wanted some privacy before they continued their conversation.
Adira followed Hector down the rocky paths. She carefully examined every plant they passed, telling Hector which ones they needed and which parts of them they needed. They worked in near silence for a few minutes before Hector sighed and found his nerve.
"I feel so stupid for even considering this," Hector scowled. "I think your belief in fairy tales has rubbed off on me, and now I can't shake it."
Adira narrowed her eyes at Hector. She knew that he didn't believe in the power of the sundrop the way that she did, but she'd never appreciated the mockery he'd made of her work and beliefs. She had to fight down the urge to start a fight with Hector. As soon as they started fighting they soon went their separate ways. Hector had come to her for help, and Varian obviously needed as much help as he could get. If Adira had to keep her mouth shut for now, she would.
"I'm probably looking too deeply into this, reaching for things that aren't there," Hector continued slowly. "But I can't help but wonder if Varian has any side-effects or powers from the moonstone."
Adira stumbled a bit. She turned towards her brother. There wasn't a hint of mockery or teasing in his tone. He was completely serious.
"You think he's the moonstone?" Adira asked. The same way that Rapunzel was the sundrop? Adira liked to think that one of them would have realized what was going on, even if it had just been Quirin. He may have been trying to put his past behind him, but surely Quirin knew that if his son had the powers of the moonstone he would have told them. Unless, of course, this was the exact reason why Quirin didn't want them to know Varian.
Hector groaned and threw his head back. "I don't really know. I haven't really seen anything to confirm it for sure, just small moments here and there."
Adira didn't know Varian nearly as well as Hector did, but she didn't think that he was like Rapunzel. The princess' powers were obvious and hard to miss. The moonstone and sundrop weren't at all subtle. However, Adira wasn't about to point it out to her brother.
This was the first time she had seen Hector leave the Great Tree in twenty five years, and one of the few times that he had shown concern and devotion towards something that wasn't the moonstone. Adira had been trying to get Hector to ease up on his duties for years. She wasn't about to do anything that would push him right back into isolation again.
"Well, does it really matter why you want to help Varian?" Adira asked. "Whether he's the moonstone, or if he's just our nephew, you're clearly protective of him. You care about him."
Hector flinched and looked pained, like he didn't appreciate it being pointed out that he wasn't the cruel, cold warrior that he tried so hard to convince others that he was. "...Yeah, I guess I do."
"That's not a flaw, brother." Adira said. "And it's not a weakness either."
"Anything that can be used against you is a weakness." Hector said. He took a deep breath and looked at the herbs in his hand. "But I like having the kid around. If that means making myself vulnerable, so be it."
Adira gave her brother a small smile. "So tell me what Varian's like. Is he the chaotic mess that Quirin said he was?"
Hector chuckled. "Oh, you have no idea. Once I get the kid talking he doesn't shut up. Even sick he has so much passion. He's going to be a handful when he finally has the energy to keep up with his own mouth."
Adira smirked at the thought. Hector had been quite the handful himself when he was a teenager. It had been exhausting to keep up with him, and Adira had only been assisting Quirin all those years ago. She would love to see Hector getting a taste of his own medicine.
Speaking of medicine…
"I think we have enough for me to throw something together for Varian." Adira said. She would have to make more, but it didn't all need to happen now. Adira knew that Hector would be making his way back to the Great Tree, and that was where Rapunzel would be heading too to get to Dark Kingdom. Adira could travel with her brother and nephew while she waited for the sundrop to show her face again. She could spend some proper time with her brother, actually get to know her nephew, and make Varian the remedies that he needed for his health to improve.
"When Varian's fit for travel, I hope you don't mind if I tag along." Adira said. "Somebody has to make sure that the kid is taken care of."
"What, you don't trust me?" Hector gave her a predatory smirk.
"You don't trust yourself." Adira said. It was why Hector had brought her here in the first place. Her brother chuckled and shrugged. This was the brother that Adira had missed. "I know the circumstances aren't the best, but it's nice to see you again. I know we didn't leave under the best of circumstances, but-"
Hector flinched and Adira saw a flash of pain in his eyes before he turned his back to her and made his way back towards the caves. Adira frowned. She knew that she had accidentally hurt with her comments, but that had been several months ago. Was he really still bothered by it?
"Hector-" Adira followed her brother, but he quickened his pace to keep himself out of arm's reach of her. It was never a good thing when Hector didn't want to be touched.
"I've gotta check on the kid," Hector said tensely. "We leave in the morning. Come with us if you want, or go chase after your precious sundrop. I don't care."
"I'm not leaving you." Adira said firmly. Hector stopped in his tracks. Adira stopped as well a few paces back from him, giving him his space. After a long moment Hector turned to look over his shoulder to glare at her. His eyes were dark and his expression was shielded.
"It wouldn't be the first time, sister." He spat the word that normally gave her so much joy to hear and made it sound almost like an insult. Hector returned to the cave. Adira took several moments to calm herself before she followed behind him.
She felt like she couldn't do anything right for Hector. She had gone out of her way to not pick a fight with him, and yet she'd ended up hurting him anyways. Hector was upset and angry, and Adira was distressed. Normally after such an interaction with Hector she would call it a day and leave before they tried to kill each other. She couldn't leave this time though. Not when Varian needed help. Not when Hector was trusting her.
Adira just hoped that she didn't mess up again. She couldn't afford to. For her brother's sanity, her nephew's health, and her own peace of mind Adira needed to make this work, and she was determined to not fail.
A/N: I absolutely love writing Adira as a character. I definitely liked the chance of writing about somebody with touch aversion. It's not something that I see a lot of in fanfiction (or anywhere else, really). So many people write about characters being touch starved, which is great and all, but it's nice to have some representation on the other side of the spectrum.