Once on their horses a couple of hours later, Alex got to thinking about what the stranger and his uncle had been talking about. There was one question that kept repeating in his mind and he finally decided to ask his uncle; "Who's Eric?"

The old man sat quietly on his horse for a long moment before he began to say with a sigh "I should have known you would be listening in on that private conversation." Alex was about to protest, when his uncle held up his hand to stop him and instead continued "but I guess you're old enough by now to hear it, Eric is your brother, your twin in fact"

"What do you mean," Alex felt so stunned over the revelation that he stopped his horse for a moment and just looked at his uncle. "How can I have a twin brother and not know about it."

"It's something that I usually don't want to remember, 14 years ago you and your brother were born. Everything seemed to be going well until your brother came out and it wasn't good, your brother had some complications"

"What do you mean by complication?"

"It's not the most important thing about it, no, what is important is that your father turned to some really dreadful people who used their magic, their evil horrible magic in an unforgivable ritual. One that your brother now has to do every year, unless..."

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"Unless, what?" Alex asked as he dreaded the answer.

"All I know is that it involves you and it's something that scared your mother to her very soul." his uncle responded with a shiver.

"How did my mother know about it"

"Two years after your birth she confronted one of the people your father had turned to and they revealed something to her that shook her to her very core. So much that she took you away from the cas... from your family home one night."

"Why haven't you ever told me about this before?"

"What good would that have done?" his uncle irritatedly retorted, but after a moment of silence he continued. "It was for your own good not to know and if it wasn't for your brother finding out about your importance in his revolting ritual, I wouldn't have told you for several years." The old man said, stopping his horse and looking around before continuing with "whatever magic your brother's allies used on him all these years, it has twisted him into an evil being who spreads death around him."

After that a heavy silence fell between the two and held for a couple hours which broke when Alex asked "So what do we do now?"

"we'll look for a secluded place in the woods and set up camp, we need to get some rest and food." Jack sighed as they started looking for a campsite and soon found a grove that was a good distance in from the road.

"Weren't we supposed to buy food in Arety " Alex asks as he looks around and heard his uncle slap himself on the forehead in frustration.