Blood of my Brother

Homecoming

Allow me once more to express how wonderful my cowriter Portal is! She had to write like half this chapter for me since I have writer's block. Her work is spectacular!

On a more serious note that y'all might be mad at me for but that I need to say, I'm gonna need y'all to chill in the comments. I mean that quite literally. My mental health is incredibly unstable at the moment; and, while y'all have been incredibly kind to me and supportive of my work (and I cannot express how much I appreciate that), a lot of the comments y'all leave are ridiculously, unnecessarily violent and sometimes vile. I understand that the situations I've written in this story are drastic, and that's intentional. Your rage is justified. However, comments that are excessively vicious or that contain the worse forms of profanity will be deleted; if the problem continues, then I will no longer continue to post on Wattpad at all. For the sake of my mental health, this HAS to stop.

I understand that readers who haven't gotten this far in the story won't see this yet and will continue to post. But from this chapter on, it has to stop. I want you to comment. I want you to be angry. I want you to love this story. But I cannot keep dealing with comments that make my depression worse. I hope you understand, and please let me state once more how much I appreciate y'all's support for this story. 

Trigger warnings: strangulation, panic attacks

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The three adults stared in a mixture of shock and disbelief. "Zhan Tiri?" Hector finally grumbled. "That musty wizard?"

"Sorcerer. Or sorceress, I suppose. But according to Demanitus's research, Zhan Tiri used to work with him. Then she turned on him and tried to find the Moonstone and Sundrop so she could use them herself. He supposedly banished her through a portal, but I don't know what happened to her after that. That could be what she meant when she said he killed her. It's been a thousand years, so maybe whatever happened with the portal killed her and bound her soul here or something."

Adira pointed to Hector. "Didn't Tromus say he was a servant of Zhan Tiri? Maybe her soul is bound to that house, then. And the Sundrop is rumored to have healing powers. Maybe they were trying to revive her!"

"That sounds disgusting," Hector quipped. "A zombie demon?"

"That doesn't explain why she wants Varian to steal the Moonstone," Edmund added. "If she is attempting to revive herself, then why have a son of the Dark Kingdom take it for himself?"

Varian's breath caught in his throat. Son of the Dark Kingdom. You have a home here in the Dark Kingdom as long as you'd like it. Another puzzle piece slid into place smoothly. Varian of the Dark Kingdom. Was that who he was? Losing his place in Corona had been bittersweet; the home he'd loved had turned its back on him, and having his citizenship revoked had been used to further abuse him, but it was like a thorn he'd gotten used to. Ripping it out hurt like the devil, but it gave him a chance to heal. Now he was in a new home, with a new title, being offered a chance that could be just as painful as back then or help him move on and find himself again.

"Varian? Hey, kid!" Hector poked his shoulder. "You good? You got lost on us."

"Sorry. Just—just thinking. But maybe Zhan Tiri needs someone to bring her the Moonstone? She can't get it now because she's dead, but maybe she's got to have someone take the Moonstone to her, if she can't get it herself. Or maybe she's just scared of y'all."

"So why not have Tromus come get it?"

"I don't know. I hate not knowing."

Hector shrugged. "Not like we can do anything about it now. We just gotta keep protecting it for now. We can find out what the crazy zombie lady wants later."