My Dear Brother

Archbishop Sébastien finally captures Tes - his twin brother - after years of effort. Results are very unhinged, as Sébastien lost his mind over the years.

All he wants is his brother back, and he will have him... And once he does, he'll never let him go ever again.

“Good. Untie his binds.”

The two guards holding Tes gave each other a puzzled look, but they were not one to disobey the Archbishop. One pulled out a glass dagger and snapped off the hem ropes keeping his wrists together.

Tes was just as confused as they were. Should he attempt to do something stupid? No, his brother would catch on. He always did. The Cathedral’s moonstone walls prevented any real use of shadow magic, even then.

He stretched his arms, sharp nails unfurling like a cat’s claws. Normally he would have had something snarky to say, but his words were a jumbled clot of black ink inside his throat. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything before his twin brother. He simply knelt before him, expression grim, his usual smirk absent. This was the last place he wanted to be.

The Archbishop before him glared down at his shadowy mirror image before shooing his guards away. They obeyed him without question and left the room. Then he spoke, with that imposing voice that sent shivers down Tes’ spine.

It always did. It always will.

“Jonathan… My dear brother.”

The slightest of scowls appeared upon Tes’ brow, his crimson gaze not breaking from his brother’s. “That’s not my name,” he warned sternly.

The godlike figure before him tilted his head, mocking curiosity in his eyes. “Oh? Sure as the day we were born from the same womb, my name is Sébastien Harley and yours is Jonathan Harley.”

Then Sébastien crouched down to Tes’ level, his long, teal hair like a cascade of sparkling moonlight. He looked straight into his older twin’s eyes, as though searching for any sort of sign of vulnerability. Sure enough, Sébastien found some.

“You were afraid to come face to face with me again, weren’t you?”

There was a silence from Tes, before his red eyes flickered away from Sébastien’s blue ones. That was all Sébastien needed to answer his query. The faintest smile appeared on the Archbishop’s black painted lips.

And it would have looked so sweet if not for the fact that Sébastien had torn down so many towns and burnt so many people at the stake all just to find his brother.

Tes couldn’t deny it. There was a sliver of their mother in that smile, behind his eyes, in his words. It shook him to his core. Sébastien continued.

“You’re a slippery one. But you fail to realize - I’m your twin brother. I know your every move, your darkest secrets, everything you desperately tried to sweep under the rug… all your skeletons.” Sébastien’s voice was smooth as velvet over cold steel as he spoke. “You can’t escape me. The Moon knows you’ve tried, and She finds great entertainment in your futile attempts.”

Tes did little more than let Sébastien speak, as he always had done. The detective’s gaze lay upon the cold, pristine tiles of the Cathedral, anywhere but on his brother. But not for long.

He felt a chilled hand cup under his chin, forcing him to meet his younger twin’s eyes.

“Do you know why I’ve endeavored through such great lengths to find you, brother?”

Tes sneered, his razor sharp teeth revealed from under his curled, black painted lip. He spoke lowly with contempt.

“No, actually,” he snarked, voice laced with venom. “Considering you want me dead with your new ‘execute all shadow magic practicing individuals on sight’ law.”

That was when Sébastien’s face twisted with sheer amusement as he chuckled lowly in his throat. His glimmering teal nails caressed Tes’ cheek, thumb gliding over one of the two diamond shaped birthmarks on his twin’s face that matched his own.

“Oh, Jonathan,” the Archbishop crooned. “You and I know very intimately that you would never let yourself be killed by my troops. You’re much too smart. Joshua taught you well, didn’t he?”

Then Sébastien’s slender fingers traced Tes’ feminine jawline… before they suddenly wrapped around his older twin’s throat. Tes’ expression lit up with surprise, face contorting to one of genuine fear. He could feel his younger twin’s cold fingernails dig like shards of ice into his warm neck.

“You have no idea, do you?” Sébastien’s grin grew wild and unhinged, his grip around Tes’ neck vicious and possessive. “Just how much I went through for you? How many people I buried to bring you here before me?”

Another hand wrapped around Tes’ neck and he instinctively tried to get up and back off. Sébastien took advantage of this and threw his weight onto his brother to pin him to the moonstone floor by his throat. Tes could do little more than look up at his younger twin in petrified shock as he continued his spiel.

“My sweet brother… I’d thought better of your abilities. You’ve paid attention to everything around you, except for how I feel about you. Don’t you get it?”

The vice grip around Tes’ neck became a death grip, Sébastien closed off his airway with the sheer force he was choking him with. He struggled beneath the Archbishop while fighting for his breath, trying desperately to pry him off as his sharp nails dug into Sébastien’s sleeves. If there was one thing he knew, Sébastien did not play around when he was in this sort of uncontrolled state.

“I did everything because I love you! You absolute imbecile! Get it through your thick fucking skull!”

And in that very moment a shadowy arm sprung from Tes’ chest and practically uppercutted Sébastien. The lunar monarch stumbled backwards, catching himself by floating down into a graceful landing. His maniacal laughter boomed through the acoustics of the spacious throne room - deep, powerful, and frenzied.

Tes scrambled away, gasping for breath. The shadow limb flailed and clawed at the frigid Cathedral air as though it was searching for Sébastien before it ultimately gave up and withdrew back into his chest. He truly, honestly, had never seen his younger twin in such a state of unhinged madness. The rumors were true, the Archbishop lost his mind… but witnessing it in person was a horror Tes never wanted to see.

Who stood before him? His brother or his mother? At this point, there was barely any difference. He had to get out of here.

Sébastien sauntered towards him, his mad laughter dying down to a soft chuckle. With a flick of his wrist, Tes’ attempt at getting up and running out of the room ended in vain. The next thing Tes knew, he was being floated over with lunar magic to his brother’s side. The closer he was pulled to Sébastien, the more his panic grew and he thrashed aimlessly in Sébastien’s magical grasp.

“Come, brother.” Sébastien’s tone was now of a soft and comforting facade. “I have the perfect place to keep you. I’m never going to let you go ever again.”

And with his terrified brother in tow, Sébastien walked out of the throne room and made his way down the hall. The clicking of his heels on the stone tiles echoed through the Cathedral as he headed in the direction of the dungeons.