Hector was not okay. Adira knew it, but she had no idea what to do about it. She was great at a lot of things, and once upon a time dealing with her brother had been one of them. After twenty five years of isolation and bitter feelings, that had apparently changed. She had no idea what to do for him. She tried her best, but it never seemed to be good enough, and she was getting more and more scared.
Adira had been worried after hearing about Hector's experience on the cliffs. Her concern had somehow increased after she'd seen his reaction to the sea. His calm words about the Brotherhood's beliefs in the afterlife were a stark contrast to his anger and distress about almost dying.
He should be scared of what came after they died, not sound like he almost looked forward to it, and it made Adira feel uneasy. She didn't know if he'd always thought this much about their souls' rewards, or if had started after his fall twenty years ago. Did he need to talk more about his experience, or had she always been blind to something that was potentially concerning?
Adira was relieved when she finally saw the borders of the kingdom of Corona before them. Quirin and Edmund were as emotionally constipated as she and Hector were, but they also at least tried.
They were also both fathers. Maybe their experiences with their sons had made them better equipped to deal with a moody and stormy Hector. They couldn't possibly be worse than Adira.
"There it is." Adira said. "We made it." These past few months had been long and exhausting. Ever since they had left the ocean Hector had seemed like he was going through the motions, drained and numb. Getting a reaction out of him at all was an accomplishment. Adira felt like she needed a drink, and to isolate herself from all people for at least a week.
Hector stared at the wall. "Are they trying to keep their people in, or other people out?"
"I think the borders are just for the princess." Adira said. "I told you about her."
"The oblivious Sundrop who was kidnapped as a child, and is now dating Horace." Hector nodded. As much as he'd hated any discussion about the Sundrop in the past, while they were travelling together they had a lot of time to catch up. Adira had told him all about the princess, their prince, and their friends. She hadn't thought that Hector had actually paid attention.
"Her father's very protective of her." Adira said. Hector scoffed.
"Not the best trait for a king." Hector said. "How's she supposed to learn how to rule the kingdom if she's not allowed to even look past the borders?
"That's not our job to worry about." Adira said. Hector was so devoted to the Dark Kingdom that he thought that anything that was done differently was automatically bad. "Why don't we just worry about finding our brothers?" She pointed to the wall. "If I'm right, and I am, Old Corona is just on the other side of that wall."
Hector blinked, looking taken aback. "Quirin…that's where Quirin lives, yeah?" Adira nodded. Hector looked even more stunned. "Wow, that's…" His eyes seemed to glaze over and the wind picked up around them. "I haven't seen him for twenty five years, and he's just…he's just over that wall. He's so close."
He looked like he wanted to run to their brother, but for a long moment Hector didn't move. He just stared at the wall. When awareness finally broke through the numb look in his eyes, he just looked anxious. He took a step back, as though he wanted to run away. Adira grabbed his arm. Hector flinched and Adira felt like a small amount of electricity was coursing through her fingertips. She wanted to let him go, but she was afraid if she did then he would disappear into thin air.
It was a ridiculous fear. She could run and keep up with him with ease. If he ran, she'd catch him. Disappearing wouldn't be a possibility. But Adira couldn't get rid of the irrational fear that he would.
She held onto his arm until he stopped trying to pull away from her. She could see lightning reflected in his eyes, though she was sure that there was no lightning in the sky at the moment.
"You shouldn't run from our brothers, Hector." Adira said.
"What if they don't want to see me?" Hector asked.
"Don't be ridiculous." Adira said without thinking about it. "They're family, and they haven't seen you in a quarter of a century. Of course they want to see you."
Hector's eyes flashed, and Adira immediately knew what she had done wrong.
"If they really wanted to see me, they would have." Hector said. "Quirin could have come back. Edmund could have invited me back. Neither of them have said a word."
Adira had to bite her tongue to keep herself from pointing out that he could have reached out too. She knew it wasn't as simple as that. Between Hector's loyalty to the Dark Kingdom and his abandonment issues, it would have been almost impossible mentally for Hector to bring himself to make the first move. Hector relied on his family, but he had to know that he wasn't just leeching off of them.
He trusted Adira now, because she had come to him. She'd offered to help him first. She'd made the first move.
"Quirin and Edmund love you." Adira said. "I promise. Just give them a chance. Please."
Hector looked her in the eyes, looking for something in her gaze. Whatever he was looking for, he found it. He relaxed and let her pull him towards the wall.
"If Quirin slams the door in my face, I reserve the right to tell you I told you so." Hector muttered as they slowly approached the border.
"If he does that, I'll kick the door down and punch him in the face myself." Adira said. Nobody messed with her brothers. Not even her other brothers.
It wasn't long before they got to the walls around the kingdom. There wasn't a gate on this side of the wall, but Adira could still see the massive hole in the wall left from the Battle of Old Corona. She'd heard from Quirin that Old Corona's well-being wasn't the kingdom's main priority, so it wasn't surprising that nearly two years later the hole was still there. It was still disappointing though.
As they came closer to the wall Adira could see that work had started being done to finally fix the wall. She supposed it was better late than never. She was just glad that they had the chance to slip through the hole and enter the kingdom.
The last time Adira had been here there had been black rocks everywhere. The rocks were gone, but the signs of their destruction were still there. She could understand the wall not being rebuilt immediately, but why would they leave an entire village so run down? People's livelihoods depended on the houses and farms being in a good state.
There weren't a lot of people around. Adira saw a handful of villagers, but even for a village this small it was nowhere near enough. She hoped that the people of the village were just hiding inside from the sudden storm that had arrived with Hector and Adira. She didn't want to think about the village still being abandoned. This was Quirin's home. He loved Old Corona. She would have for his home to become so desolate.
They made their way to the old castle that Quirin lived in. It looked in bad shape, but Adira couldn't tell how much of the damage was from the black rocks and the Battle of Old Corona itself. Quirin's home had been old and run-down in the first place, and it had just been getting progressively worse since Varian had started his experiments.
Hector looked at the building before them, an impressed look in his eyes. "Nice place." Adira knew that he wasn't even being sarcastic. Hector was used to living in the Great Tree and the Dark Kingdom. She didn't think he even knew how to live somewhere that was completely protected from the elements.
Adira led her brother to the front door and just let herself in. She didn't think that Quirin would hear her if she knocked, and their family wasn't really in the habit of knocking. If they came at an inopportune time, there was nothing stopping Quirin from kicking them out.
"Quirin!" Adira called out as she went inside and dragged Hector in behind her. "You'll never guess who I managed to drag out here!" There was no sound of things dropping, or frustrated curses from a startled brother. Maybe he hadn't heard her. It seemed a little late in the day and season for him to be farming, but maybe he was out working on repairs.
"Well, he'll be back soon." Adira said. "We can just wait here for him. It'll be a nice surprise when he gets back." She gestured to the stairs. "Why don't you look around? Make yourself at home. Go through our brother's belongings and get to know him again." She wasn't even kidding. As children, when they hadn't known how to talk to each other, but they wanted to know each other, they had snooped through each other's private chests and journals. It was how they bonded.
Hector shrugged. "Fine." He went upstairs. Adira went into the kitchen, intending to find some food. She was sure that her brother wouldn't mind. He was a natural host.
She went through the cupboards and the ice chest that Varian had invented years ago. She immediately saw a concerning sight. To her knowledge, Quirin always kept his kitchen stocked with food of all kinds. Fresh produce, jerky, preserved food, and the occasional box of sweets. He had food ready and accessible, available for anybody to take.
The kitchen was empty right now though. Completely empty, with not a crumb in sight. Adira looked around and saw dust all over the counters and table surfaces. Nobody had been in here for quite some time.
"Hector!" Adira left the kitchen and headed for the stairs. Something was wrong. Quirin and Varian weren't here. They needed to find where their family was. As she went up the stairs she felt a strong gust of wind come from up the stairs and slam against her. It was too strong to have naturally come so suddenly, and that wasn't even taking into account that she was currently inside.
Adira groaned, knowing that Quirin wasn't the only one that something weird was going on with. She hurried up the stairs and ran down the hall, glancing into the rooms she passed as she looked for her brother. She knew, she just knew, that he was upset.
She'd left him alone for two minutes. What could have happened in that time? She prayed to the moon that he hadn't stumbled upon Quirin or Varian's bodies or something along those lines. She didn't think either of them would be able to take it.
"Hector!" Adira breathed a sigh of relief when she ran into Quirin's room and saw her brother there, with no sign of an injured family member in sight. "Brother, are you okay? What happened?" Hector didn't look at her. He was just standing stiffly in the middle of the room, staring intensely at a family painting on the wall.
Adira heard distant thunder in the distance, but she was more worried about the wind blowing through the room, whipping Hector's clothes and hair all over the place, and trying to push her away. Usually when Hector was upset, rain and thunder was the result. Adira hadn't seen wind like this since Hector had first learned that Edmund had left the Dark Kingdom and wouldn't be able to release him from his duties right away.
Adira walked closer to Hector and put a hand on his shoulder. He immediately stiffened and made a choked sound. "Hector, what's wrong?"
"He has a family." Hector said quietly. "He has a kid."
Adira still didn't understand what was wrong. Quirin had had a kid and family for most of their separation. Why was it a shock? Hector was acting like this was the first that he had heard about it.
Adira realized with a start that it very well might be. Hector hadn't kept in contact with Quirin or visited him, and their brother, who had been trying so hard to ignore his past and heritage, hadn't been in a hurry to reach out.
Hector said that he hadn't heard a word from Quirin in twenty five years, and that included information about his family. Adira hadn't even considered that Hector would be so in the dark about their brother's life, so she hadn't thought to say a word about it. She hadn't given him the warning to ease him into this.
"His name is Varian." Adira said quietly. She hoped that if she kept calm herself, then Hector would calm too. "From what I've heard, the two of you have a lot in common. I think you'll love him.
"He's my nephew." Hector said. His numbly calm voice was a painful contrast to the furious wind whipping around them. "I already love him, but I would have liked the chance to get to get to know him." Hector said that as though he'd never get the chance, even though they were currently in Quirin's house. They might not be home right now, but they couldn't be far.
Hector stared unblinking at the painting. "How old is he?"
Adira did some very quick math. "Sixteen." In Adira's opinion, it was the perfect age to get to know people. He was old enough to be his own person and actually have a personality, but he was still young enough to be a child, so they didn't have to feel like they had missed out on seeing him grow up. Hector though looked devastated.
"Sixteen." Hector said weakly. "He wasn't even born when…" He let out a broken laugh. He looked completely broken, worse than he had on the cliff. Adira was almost ready to start panicking herself. She didn't know what was wrong, and she had no idea how to help. She wasn't equipped for this.
"I feel like I missed out on knowing him, but I never even had the chance." Hector's eyes were glazed over and pale. Adira almost preferred the passionate lightning. At least there was emotion there. She would take his anger over this devastating numbness any day. "I never had the chance."
"What are you talking about?" Adira asked a little more sternly than she meant. "You have the chance now!" He didn't react at all, as though he hadn't heard her. Adira tried to give him a grounding touch, but he didn't lean into it like he usually did. He didn't even flinch away. He just stood there.
This was more than Adira could handle on her own. Before, his distress had been about his general abandonment issues. Adira could distract him from that, because she'd been part of the problem. Now though, it had nothing to do with her. It was all about Quirin and Varian.
Adira forced her gaze from Hector and looked towards the other side of the room. His bearcats were cowering, and if Adira wasn't so concerned about her brother she would be worried about figuring out just what was going on with them. Since when were they so scared? They had been trained to be fighters, not nervous little pets.
Adira didn't know if Hector was aware that his bearcats were there, freaking out about the fact that he was freaking out. If he was even remotely aware that they were there, even just subconsciously, it would just make things worse. He always felt guilty for upsetting his bearcats, and if he felt guilty, he spiraled even more.
They couldn't be here right now, both because they could be upsetting Hector, and because they had somewhere more important to be.
"Go find Quirin and Varian." Adira said. The bearcats would be able to sniff them out and bring them back here. And Adira wouldn't have to leave her brother's side. The bearcats gave Hector one more concerned look before they darted off to do as they were told.
Adira took a deep breath and grabbed both of her brother's hands. She was able to pull him towards Quirin's bed. She sat in the middle of the bed, bringing her brother to lean back against her. He didn't resist or snarl at her to stop treating him so carefully. He let her move him as she wanted.
Adira's skin tingled and her chest tightened as she held her brother close, trying to give him as much physical contact as she possibly could. The touch almost made her feel physically ill. It felt intense, and made her feel the need to shake off everything that was in contact with her skin at all, including her articles of clothing. Everything felt like too much.
The touch itself was only part of the problem. Hating touch, but knowing that she was being relied on to provide it, it was terrifying. She was scared that because she didn't like touch, she wouldn't be able to give enough.
Adira never let her fear keep her from trying. She held onto her brother, despite the pain and fear. She ran her fingers through his hair, and rubbed his arms, and just did whatever she could think of that she had heard could be comforting for other people. Hector didn't come back to himself, but he didn't get worse, and that had to be good enough for now.
Adira just hoped that Quirin would be able to do more, because she was out of her depth here.