Send me “Some Other You” and I’ll introduce you to an AU version of my character!
He knows they lie to him about his brother. They tell him he’s an only child, but that doesn’t explain why his mother looked at him like he was only half a full being, like he was a boy without a shadow or reflection (or why his father expected to be twice the man). Of course, those were things he never noticed as a child and realized as he grew into them. The real reason he knew was Fancetasia and Fliterois.
Well, Flight and Fancy, for short.
He was considered a strange child for calling his daemon two names, then insisting he has two different daemons (only one of whom could be visible at any given time), and that the other was his brother’s. It didn't help his cause that his daemons were always silent, never revealing that their voices do change to anyone other than him, and then only whispering into his ear when others were present.
They tell him it's a secret.
They tell him his brother is alive, trapped in a dreamworld his father discovered. His brother, whose name is John, and has never known his daemon.
And then, when he's older, they start to tell him about the Dust.