Something was wrong with Hector. Adira had known it for a long time, but he had wanted to ignore it, and she'd done her best to honor that.
It was a little hard to ignore her brother screaming, sounding like an other-worldly being, and then vanishing into the wind as though he was swept away by the storm itself.
Adira didn't know what had happened. He'd been doing fine, for once. He had reunited with Edmund, and no shouting or harsh accusations had come from it. Their king had freed him from his duty. It was everything that Hector had wanted, and he should be able to move on with his life.
And then he freaked out, and it frightened Adira. She never seen Hector full of so much raw pain and fear, and she didn't know what had set him off. He'd been a bit emotional when he'd embraced Edmund, but Adira had seen far worse from him. The sudden shift was confusing and concerning, and Adira wasn't the only one who thought so.
The Sundrop and her friends were stunned, not even doing anything about the broken windows in the throne room. It was clear that they were trying to wrap their heads around the disappearance of a stranger who had shown up almost as suddenly as he had vanished.
Quirin came into the room in a rush, with Varian right at his heels. They both looked concerned as they rapidly searched the room. They must have heard Hector's scream, and they had come to find out what was going on. Adira wished she could tell them, but she honestly didn't know.
Fishskin was the first to break the silence. He stepped towards Edmund, who was staring at the spot where Hector had been standing just a few moments ago.
"So, uh, I think I speak for all of us when I say what just happened?" Fishskin gestured broadly. "Who was that guy?"
"Hector." Edmund said breathlessly. "He's my brother in all but blood." He looked at Adira. "Though I wonder what happened as well."
"I don't know." Adira said, and her frustration came through her voice. She knew this had to do with what Hector was hiding from her. This storm, this darkness that was following him, he didn't want to talk about it, but he knew something. He had to. Adira had let it slide thus far, but no more.
She looked around the room, desperately hoping to see a sign of what had happened to Hector and where he had gone. As she looked around her gaze went to Varian. He was the only person in the room who didn't look confused and bewildered. He just looked heartbroken.
Adira stared at Varian for a long moment, narrowing her eyes at him. She didn't know her nephew well, but one thing she knew about him was that he was full of curiosity. If there was something he didn't know, he would be obsessed with figuring it out.
There was no curiosity in Varian's eyes. No desire to learn, and it was clear to Adira why that was the case. He wasn't confused, because he knew what was going on.
Hector had opened up to him. He'd told him what he'd been working so hard to keep from Adira.
She had been willing to allow Hector his boundaries, but this was too far. He was going to seriously hurt himself, or someone else, if things went on. Adira needed answers, and if Hector wasn't going to give them to her, she would have to get them from someone else.
Without really thinking about what she was doing, Adira walked towards Varian with all the focus and intensity that she would have when approaching an enemy.
She nearly grabbed her sword and brandished it, not to cause harm, but to intimidate. She barely made herself hold back, with a stern reminder to herself that Varian was her family, and he was just a child who had been traumatized enough for one lifetime. He had information that she needed, but he wasn't her enemy.
Repeating that to herself over and over again, Adira stepped right in front of Varian, stepping too close for either of their comfort. Varian blinked and craned his neck back as he just stared at her. He looked a little nervous. Not that Adira would do him harm, but that she would ask him something he didn't want to talk about.
That was just too bad for him.
"What is going on with Hector?" Adira asked with a tense, quiet tone that just missed the mark of being gentle. The fear in Varian's eyes grew stronger.
"I-I don't know." Varian grimaced. "I don't know him that well."
"But he talked to you." Adira said. Varian flinched, and Adira knew that she was right. "What he told you, does it have anything to do with why he vanished into thin air?" If it didn't, she would drop it and find a new lead to find her brother.
Varian swallowed thickly and subconsciously took a step. Adira wanted to step closer to him again, so she didn't let him escape. Quirin came up from behind Adira and gently but sternly grabbed her sleeve to pull her back.
"Sister," Quirin hissed. "I know you're worried, but don't take it out on my son."
"I'm not taking it out on anybody." Adira frowned. She had more control than that. She wasn't losing herself to her emotions. She just needed answers, and this was how she did it.
"Varian." Adira's voice softened. "I'm worried about him. Please. If you know something, I need you to tell me."
Varian averted his gaze and clutched tightly at his raccoon. "I-I can't." Varian's voice shook. "I'm sorry. You should know. I told him you should know, but he's not ready. He asked me to not tell, and I-I can't." He glanced towards the princess, and then quickly looked away. "I can't break a promise."
The boy sounded like he was falling apart, not necessarily because of something Adira was doing, but because of the darkness in his own head. Adira was just making it worse for him, and she knew it wasn't fair.
She was concerned about her brother, and she still needed to find him right now and never let him out of her sight again. But at the same time she was furious with him for pulling Varian into his problems. Hector needed to talk to someone, that much was clear, but that somebody shouldn't be a boy who was barely sixteen, who had his own struggles.
She had been patient, but the time for that had passed.
Giving Varian an apologetic look, Adira ran out of the room, intent to find Hector. She left the castle as quickly as possible. She soon found a very clear clue about where to go about finding him. While the skies all over Corona were dark and stormy, there was an area where the clouds were so dark that they were nearly black. Lightning flashed constantly in that area. If Hector wasn't over there, she wouldn't know where to look.
Adira ran, grateful that the Coronans were hiding from the storm. There was nobody who could obscure her path. She was able to run right to the bridge that brought her to the mainland. The rain pelted down on her, but she ignored it. She wasn't going to let a storm keep her from her brother.
The wind was blowing harshly against her, trying to push her away. She briefly wondered if she should give Hector his space, but she ignored her doubts. She knew how he felt about being left alone, and she wasn't going to make that mistake again.
The forests on the mainland were dark. Adira relied on her instincts to navigate the terrain, and she used the storm itself as a compass. The more the wind pushed at her, and the darker it got, the more sure she was that she was going in the right direction.
Eventually she stumbled upon a clearing that didn't seem naturally occurring. The ground was blackened with soot, as though there had been a fire, or like it had been struck by lightning. The trees and bushes surrounding the clearing were wind-swept and pushed back, like there was a force or barrier keeping any form of life from the clearing.
She didn't see Hector there. All she saw was darkness and shadows. A flash of lightning came out of the sky, striking the ground near the middle of the clearing. Instead of illuminating the clearing, it somehow made things even darker. In the center of the clearing though Adira saw the darkness take a form of sorts.
It was just the blur of a form, and the form was gone as quickly as it had shown up, but she knew what she had seen. She took a deep breath and walked towards the middle of the clearing. Now that she was focusing on the shadow and knew what was there, she couldn't unsee it.
"Hector," She entered the clearing, shivering at the chill. She had walked through frozen tundra that weren't as cold and uninviting as this small clearing was. She could sense something unnatural here. Not magical, exactly, but definitely not normal. "Brother?"
The wind blew through the trees, making a whistling sound that resembled something like a sob or a sigh. Adira knew it was just the wind, but hearing it broke her heart, because it sounded so much like Hector.
It looked like her brother was shrouded in darkness. Was this what Quirin had seen back at his home? It didn't truly look like Hector was there, but when Adira reached a hand out and put it on Hector's shoulder, he became more clear. It still looked like he was going to disappear at the drop of a hat, but at least he was here now.
Hector was lying on the ground, staring blankly up at the sky. Adira didn't think he was even aware that she was there. She was surprised when he addressed her.
"You shouldn't be here." Hector said numbly. "It's dangerous."
"You're not a danger to me." Adira insisted. "And I'm not afraid of your storm either."
He finally shifted his eyes to look right at her. His eyes seemed to pierce her very soul. She couldn't help but shiver. It was a small movement, but noticeable enough. He looked brokenhearted.
"You're scared of me." Hector said plainly.
"Hector, I'm terrified." Adira said. "Not of you, but for you. You have no idea how scared I was when I saw you disappear."
She increased the pressure on his shoulders. There was something odd about the touch. It was cold and made her skin tingle, like usual, but there was something else there. It was almost like grabbing something through water. It was there, but there was something in the way.
"I want to help you, Brother." Adira said. "But I can't if I don't know what's going on."
Hector made a sound almost like a whine. He closed his eyes. "I can't." Hector said. He sounded even more desperate than Varian had.
"Why not?" Adira asked.
Hector was quiet for a long time. He just laid there, and Adira knelt silently at his side. The air around them got even colder and the storm grew harsher. "You're not the only one that's scared." His tone implied that he was admitting something, but Adira couldn't imagine why.. She was scared too, and she'd said as much. She felt like Hector was getting lost and wandering somewhere that she couldn't follow. She was willing to be open about her fears with her family. Was it really so much to ask that they return the favor?
Hector hesitated before he grew lax. He sat up, though he still wasn't looking at her.
"I'm afraid you'll leave me." Hector said quietly. "I couldn't take it."
Adira felt hurt. "After all this time, and how far we've come together, do you really think I'm going to leave you?" She knew that it would take a long time to overcome his abandonment, but she had thought that they had at least gotten to the point where he knew that she wasn't going to make the same mistake again.
Hector grimaced and the storm around them seemed to pick up. It seemed that his fears hadn't been appeased as much as she had hoped they were. "I don't want you to leave, and a part of me knows you won't, but the storm is telling me that it'll change as soon as you know what I am."
Adira frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Hector was still for a moment. He slowly held a hand out. "See for yourself."
She didn't know what he meant. She reached out to grab his hand, only for her hand to go right through his, as though he wasn't there at all. He seemed surrounded by shadows again, but there was something different about it. It didn't look like the darkness was trying to absorb him. It looked like the shadows were coming from him. Like he was made of shadows.
As Adira looked at Hector, right before her eyes he seemed to become as transparent as he felt She looked at him in horror and confusion. "Hector?"
He looked at her, and she could actually see the trees right through him. His eyes were more striking than ever, almost seeming to glow. There was a raw pain in his expression. A sad acceptance.
"W-what happened to you?" She hated how uncertain she felt. It was an unfamiliar feeling for her. This wasn't natural. Was he under a curse, somehow?
"I told you what happened." Hector said, though Adira was fairly certain he hadn't. She would have remembered. The sadness in his eyes got stronger. "I fell. Twenty years ago."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Adira asked.
"It has everything to do with it." Hector said. "I didn't…sister, you saw those cliffs. Nobody could walk away from that fall alive."
"But you did." Adira said, because he was right there in front of her. She could see him.
Though he wasn't really there, was he?
"No, Adira." Hector said. He vanished from her side, just like he'd disappeared in the throne room. She got up, whirling around, freezing when she saw him appear just behind her. He'd done this kind of thing before, but she'd never thought much of it. She just thought that it was his training.
But Hector had never liked sneaking up on people. He came at them head-on. Why would she ever think that had changed?
"I didn't." Hector said. "I couldn't."
The answer was clear before her, but Adira looked away from it. She couldn't think about it. How could she? "Hector,"
"I couldn't walk." Hector said. His voice seemed to come from the storm itself, surrounding her completely. "I couldn't move at all. I was stuck there, on the ground, for hours, staring up at the sky as the rain fell down on me."
"Please." Adira shivered. Hector's eyes flashed and he stepped closer to her.
"Any attempt at moving resulted in absolute agony." Hector said. "Despite the pain, I forced my jaw to move enough for me to scream your name."
"Stop it." Adira took a step back from him, but he just continued closer.
"I called for you." Hector said. She'd already known this, but it hurt so much more to hear it now. "You, Edmund, Quirin. I called for you. I waited for you. I needed you, but you never came."
"Shut up!" Adira drew her sword, brandishing it threateningly before her. Hector just gave her a look of dark amusement.
"Why should I?" Hector asked. Something in his voice seemed to shake her to her core. "I thought you wanted to know what happened to me?" He stepped ever closer. "I thought you wanted to understand. That you just wanted to help me." He was standing just out of reach of the sword now. He smirked dangerously at her. "I thought you weren't scared of me. Tell me, sister, why the sudden change of heart?"
"Leave me alone!" Adira's hands were shaking. Something was wrong with Hector, besides the obvious. There was a dark presence around him. He was acting uncharacteristically cruel, and Adira didn't understand why.
Hector ignored her pleading. He took another step closer, right into the sword. Adira stiffened, but he was unbothered as the blade went right through his now wispy form.
"We both know that between the two of us, I'm not going to be the one to leave." Hector said. "You left me twenty five years ago. You said you weren't going to leave again." He leaned closer. "So, Adira, are you going to keep your word, or are you going to prove me right?" He suddenly reached his hand out, putting it on top of Adira's.
The touch was like a jolt down the spine. It was both hot, and cold, and it felt like darkness. It hurt, and it was frightening. Adira pulled away so quickly that she stumbled in her haste. She quickly recovered and, without really thinking about it, ran out of the clearing. She ran through the forest, tripping over roots and getting scratched up by branches and bushes.
Still, she kept running, because she could hear Hector's cold, cruel laughter echo around her. Following her. Haunting her. She could hear the desperation and fear in his laughter, but it was hidden by maliciousness and a power that just didn't feel like her brother.
Adira ran until her foot got caught on a protruding root. She tripped and plummeted down, and she kept on falling. Down. Down. Finally, she hit the ground and had the air knocked out of her.
She laid there, unable to bring herself to move. She stared at the storm above her as she realized what had just happened.
Hector had fallen. She'd felt bad for him, but she'd had no idea the extent to which his pain went. He hadn't just had a close call. He hadn't just gotten hurt, and was still having a hard time adjusting to it. He hadn't just lost his rhino, one of his closest friends.
He'd lost everything, and she had no idea.
Tears came to Adira's eyes, and she let them fall. She cried as it finally hit her that she'd left her brother behind, and now he was gone, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.
Adira felt her stomach churn, and like her heart was being squeezed within her chest. Her throat tightened. There was so much pain inside of her, and it was impossible to keep it in. She screamed. A sound of raw pain, torture, and longing so intense that it hurt. She screamed until her throat hurt, and then she kept going, because there was nothing else she could do to make this pain go away.