We went to the Empires. I took off my elytra as soon as I was there, so when Katherine, Joel, and Lizzy turned up at Spawn, I wasn't going to be arrested. Grian teleported back to Hermitcraft as soon as they appeared, leaving them confused.

"Take me to your leader," I joked.

"It's nice to have you back," Lizzy said, smiling.

Why was she an axolotl?

I decided not to ask.

Joel looked very awkward. It took me a second to remember why: we had had a very complicated relationship in Last Life. I was a ghost, so he didn't know I was there, then I lost him Grian as an ally, then I gave him a life, then I helped him kill Lizzy, then I turned on him and he killed me. For the rest of Last Life, we had been enemies, and he only died when he had killed Pearl twice and Cleo had come to the rescue.

Yeah, we had some things to talk about. But it had to wait, because I needed to know what the heck had happened.

Katherine and I left Joel and Lizzy at Spawn and went to Rivendell. As we walked, Katherine told me about the Last Lifers, the defeat of Xornoth, and the Victory Feast and the events since. She explained that Pearl was wanted for using elytras, which were against the law, and Gem was wanted for harboring a criminal. Since they had caught Gem now, her elytra was to be taken away since she couldn't be trusted with it, and she was going to be executed.

After Bdubs, I wasn't sure I could handle that. I didn't care that Gem would respawn.

I was already planning to steal the Crown when we got there. I would take it and then destroy it. Easy.

"So you are back!" Scott exclaimed when I walked into the throne room. He was back in his elven robes, his ears had grown out again, and a gem-encrusted crown was perched on his head.

"Hi, Scott," I said, putting little emotion into my voice.

"What happened?" he asked, looking concerned. "Why didn't you come back from Last Life?"

I took a deep breath. "I'd rather not talk about this right now," I said. "Can we just release Gem, destroy that crown because it's practically the Red Crown reincarnated, and call it good?"

Scott frowned. "I have to obey my own laws. Sorry."

"In other words, you're going to fall prey to the same power trick Ren and Martyn did, kill one of your allies, and call it a day, is that right?"

Scott winced. "Okay, maybe the execution idea was kind of bad," he admitted. "But Joey came up with it."

"And you carried it out," I said. "You're Grand Emperor. Change the law."

"I have an image to keep," Scott said. "I can't, or people will think I won't actually punish them."

"Oh, so that's what it's about now?" I asked coldly. "Your reputation? Fine, then."

Right in front of the Emperor who had forbidden it, I put on my elytra and flew away.

I smiled wryly. He would never catch me. He had said so himself that he had to obey his own laws.

Instead of flying away to the Dripleaf Marsh like they probably expected, I simply flew up to the roof and sat there, watching Scott come out, angrily look around, then with a frustrated expression, start to go back into his throne room.

"Oh, you're here," Joel whispered from next to me.

"Yes. What did you expect?" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Don't give me away," Joel said, with a grin that made me want to give him away.

"Uh, Scott?" Someone called, coming up the path.

"Hi," Scott said, sounding exhausted.

"I was just wondering... wait, is this a bad time?" FWhip asked. "Because it kind of looks like a bad time.

Scott shook his head. "I'm fine," he said. "But Blue won't be, when I find her. She broke the law."

FWhip looked at his feet. "I came to ask for a trade. Do you need gold?"

"Take it," Scott said.

"What?"

"I'm done. I thought it was a good idea when Joey presented it, but now that my own allies are the criminals it isn't doing any good."

FWhip looked surprised as Scott took off the Grand Crown and held it out. "Are you sure?"

Scott nodded.

FWhip gave Scott a sackful of gold ingots. Scott was about to hand him the crown when-

"YOINK!"

Joel swooped down seemingly from nowhere (with an elytra, ILLEGAL), grabbed the crown out of Scott's hand, and ran away.

"Wha- what? Come back!" FWhip yelled, running after him.

"Bye, fellas!" Joel cheered. He took off and flew away. His voice faded, but I still heard him yell, "No more stupid elytra rule! WOO!"

FWhip and Scott stared at each other.

"Can I have the gold back?" FWhip whimpered.

"Bye, FWhip," Scott said, a clear dismissal.

"Does that mean I can come out of the hiding I was never in?" I asked, dropping down from the roof.

They jumped.

"Oh my..." Scott said. "Why?"

"I assume so," FWhip said, then suddenly realized something. "Hey, you're back."

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I am."

"Yes, you can come out of hiding now," Scott said.

I pumped my fist.

"Who were those other guys who came in with you and Gem?" FWhip asked.

"The guy with the helmet was Xisuma. He's from a world called Hermitcraft that of course you probably all know about because Gem has been going there, but Hermitcraft was destroyed. We found him and Gem in the Nether, hiding from the moon crash, and Gem took us back to the Empires. She wasn't very happy about it, though."

"And who was the other guy, with the wings?"

"That was Grian, the person who went missing the same time I did."

"Oh. Cool. So why did you leave again?"

"Because Hermitcraft was in the aftermath of their world being destroyed. We needed to see if there were more survivors, which there were."

"Where did you take them?" Scott asked.

"To a previously uninhabited world that is now occupied by the Evolutioners who Martyn said were dead and now several Hermits, too."

"The Evolutioners?" Scott said, his eyebrows shooting straight up. "The ones who were trapped in Evo?"

I nodded. "They're alive."

"Have you told Jimmy and Pearl?"

"Jimmy, no. Pearl, yes. But she seemed to already know."

"HA! I knew you knew where she was!"

"I do know where she is now. I didn't at the time you caught Gem."

"Wait, what? I never captured Gem."

"She escaped," FWhip said.

"What?" Scott and I said in unison.

"She escaped," he repeated proudly. "I hit Joey and knocked him out, positioning myself like Gem had done it. Then I let her go."

Scott fumed at his revelation.

"I'm proud of you!" I said.

"I'm proud of myself!" he said. "I don't know where she is now, though."

"Just a second," I said, typing into my communicator, Gem, Joel's Emperor now. You can come out of hiding. "There we go."

Scott looked ashamed. "I don't know why I wanted that crown," he said. "I should know better, after... after Last Life."

I should have known better, too. But I was only planning to get the Crown to destroy it, not to use it.

Right?

I didn't know what was right anymore. Good people did bad things, like the red names in Third and Last Life, and bad people did good things, like the Watchers leaving the Evolutioners alive.

But was anyone truly good or bad? Wasn't everyone just fighting for what they thought was best? Even the best things affected someone negatively. There was no good and bad, no white and black. The world was full of different shades of grey. Some people were on the darker side. But they still had some light in them. And there was no such thing as pure white, either.

There was a small problem, though: If the Watchers believed they were doing the right thing, why did they imprison people? Normal villains in stories usually had a reason - if they wanted to rule the world, it was because they thought they could make it better. But the Watchers hadn't said anything about an improved world. They just seemed to enjoy punishing those who defied them.

If all the Third and Last Lifers were there for a reason, why was I there? How had I displeased the Watchers enough to be put in a dreamspace with no memories? I hadn't even known the Watchers existed before Third Life.

But now I had not only been influenced by them, offered a crown by them, and had my life ruined by them, I had been imprisoned in their home Realm with a traitor of their kind, fought Watcher One, and escaped with all their other prisoners.

Why was my life so complicated?

I left Rivendell to go home for the first time since before Last Life.

Once there, I immediately went into my house and crashed on the bed. So much had happened. It felt good to rest for a minute.

I pulled off my backpack. Netty had stocked it with supplies and the few things that had stayed with me from Last Life. There was a considerable amount of food and water, extra armor, and the other two healing potions from our brewing session with Salems. But as I dumped it all out onto the bed, I realized there was something at the bottom that was having a hard time coming out. I reached my hand inside and felt a strange but familiar shape. Pulling it out, I saw Ren's sunglasses.

I strained to remember if I had had them on me at the Battle of the Final Life. I remembered having them up on my forehead, on but not in use.

If I was wearing them, then when I died, my ghost form would have been wearing them, too.

I found it kind of hilarious that I had managed to hold on to them this long. Smiling, I slipped them into my pocket, vaguely wondering whether Ren had gotten a new pair yet.

I walked the familiar streets, said hi to a few of the villagers I was friends with, and got the Dripleaf Marsh back in order after months without a leader. Thankfully, Gem had taken care of the place while I was gone, but there were still a few things I needed to fix up.

I also worried. A lot.

I didn't know if Gem had come out of hiding yet. I didn't know if the Last Lifers we had reached knew Martyn was in Gateway. I didn't know if Grian and possibly other Hermits were searching for those who were still missing. I didn't know if anyone else had died.

I hated not knowing.

I was trimming the hedges in the castle gardens when someone crash-landed behind me. "STUPID ELYTRA THEY BROOOKE AAAAAAH!"

I sighed without turning around. "Hi, Jimmy."

The cod boy emerged from a bush, spitting leaves and dirt out of his mouth. He pulled several twigs out of his messy hair. "Hi. Ow."

I snickered.

"Scott told me," he said, panting. "Scott told me you're here, and you are, and he also told me Joel's Grand Emperor now."

I nodded, confirming his statements.

"So-"

We were interrupted by a message from Joel. Or, Grand Emperor Joel. Come to the palace of Mezalea. I have a new law.

"Oh no, any law by Joel is going to be a terrible one," Jimmy groaned. "It's probably going to be something like making us wear his face because he's so handsome."

"Yep," I agreed, still smiling at his landing.

We started to walk back to the Cod Empire to get Jimmy a new elytra. I had an extra, but he insisted, saying it was on the way anyway. I just thought he wanted to procrastinate the public address from the new Emperor for as long as possible.

"What were you saying, before Joel so rudely interrupted us?"

Jimmy snorted. "I was going to ask if the Listener has contacted you lately."

I shook my head. "Not since Last Life."

Jimmy frowned. "She's talked to me, Gem, and Scar twice."

"Gem?" I said in disbelief.

Jimmy nodded.

"She's been hiding so much from me," I sighed. "What's next? She's actually a Watcher, too?"

"You still need to trust her. We all do. The Listener told us three that we, and you, are the four that she chose to help her defeat the Watchers."

I studied him, hoping he was joking. I didn't want to be involved in this anymore. But he looked dead serious.

Then he hesitated, processing what I had said. "Grian told you?"

I nodded.

"When?"

"Well, he didn't exactly tell me. He was telling me about Evo, then Watcher One turned up and exposed him. Grian has wings now. And white eyes. And grey hair."

Jimmy raised his eyebrows. "He said he would never tell anyone."

"He didn't want to. You guys need to tell me what's been going on," I said.

"You need to tell me what's been going on!" Jimmy grinned. "The Listener said the Evolutioners are alive!"

I nodded. "They are. Once Gem comes out, we'll have to use the transport crystal to go to the world they and the Hermits are in."

"The Hermits? Pearl, too?"

"Yeah. Hermitcraft is destroyed. We managed to rescue a few Hermits from the remains, but two are... gone. And almost half are still missing."

Jimmy's grin evaporated. "Gone?"

I didn't answer, and he didn't make me talk about it. I appreciated that.

We got to the Cod Empire, where Jimmy equipped an elytra, and took off for Mezalea.

When we arrived, Joel narrowed his eyes at us and said, "You're late."

"Joel, he's your ally," Lizzy said from next to him. If Joel was king, did that mean Lizzy was queen? I kind of hoped so, but queen or no queen, she would still help Joel keep his sanity. And we needed that until I could get my own paws on the shiny crown on his head.

"Sorry. Now we're just waiting for Shubble and Gem."

"She's always late," someone grumbled.

I scanned the crowd. Joel was right: everyone seemed to be there except Shubble and Gem. Xisuma was also in the crowd, looking rather awkward in his armor suit while everyone else wore their fancy clothes. Standing next to him was... Bigb? What was he doing here? Why wasn't he in his home world?

Five minutes later, Shubble arrived. She was usually the last.

Where was Gem? I had been hoping to talk to her. But she was gone.

Xisuma spotted me and walked over. "Did you and Grian get everyone out?"

I shook my head. "We found a little over half the Hermits," I said. "Several are still missing. I can't remember exactly who. Grian went to look for them since he doesn't need to sleep anymore, or at least that's what he thinks."

I could hear the frown in Xisuma's voice. "Who did you find?"

I counted on my fingers. "Boatem. The Bigeyes. Cleo and Joe. False. Jevin. And then you and Gem, of course."

"Fourteen out of twenty-six," Xisuma muttered. "I'm a terrible Admin."

"Whatever happened to Hermitcraft, it probably wasn't your fault," I comforted him. "You couldn't have stopped it."

"Is anyone else... dead?"

I looked at my boots. They were nice ones, thanks to my return to the Empires. "Someone named Keralis. And Tango's unconscious. We don't know when or if he'll wake up."

Xisuma hung his head. "I need to get to them. I should be with them."

"Tango? The guy who killed you and Cleo?" Jimmy asked. I had forgotten he was there.

I glared at him. "Last Life is over."

He nodded quickly.

I turned back to Xisuma.

"I'm a terrible Admin," he repeated.

"You can't be any worse than me," FWhip said, joining the conversation. "I've failed to see that my friend was summoning a demon, didn't think to look in his basement when my sister was captured, watched six people, one of them my other sister, go missing and did almost nothing about it, and then introduced a crown that is slowly destroying the world."

"You introduced the Grand Crown?" I asked.

Jimmy and FWhip both nodded.

"Why?" I asked, trying to keep the anger out of my voice.

"I was... well, we saw the Red Crown. Joey was wearing it. And then I thought, what if we had something like that, but that let everyone have a turn? So I made the crown. It didn't turn out like I wanted it to."

Jimmy snorted. He and FWhip were not the best of friends. The last time they saw each other, in the Ender Dragon fight, FWhip had stolen Jimmy's mask and was supporting salmon.

That seemed like a million years ago.

Joel cleared his throat. "Okay. Hi. So since Gem is obviously not turning up-" FWhip and I exchanged worried glances "-I think we should get started."

"As most of you already know, I'm the new Grand Emperor. And I'm going to make a few changes around here."

The Emperors looked at each other and whispered, intrigued but also terrified.

"Most of the problems in this world have been caused by magic," Joel said. "The demon who definitely does not exist was supposedly summoned using magic. Lizzy, Jimmy, Scott, Pearl, Blue, and myself were taken using magic. So from now on, nobody is allowed to use magic."

Everyone gasped. Magic was a part of us. It was who we were.

And now Joel, a human who would not be affected, was taking it away.

"Anyone caught using magic will be executed publicly," Joel said. "We can't afford any more problems. This ban includes enchanting, potions, teleportation, and even communication devices. So I'll have to ask everyone to throw their communication devices away when this address is over."

Communication was out. Enchantment was out. Potions out. The very fiber of our beings was out.

I looked at Xisuma and Bigb. We couldn't take them to Gateway now. And Grian couldn't come here without being captured. Pearl was trapped in Gateway.

This was bad all around.

"Any magical items in your possession must be surrendered," Joel said. "If anyone is found with one, they will be executed."

Joel was not completely out of red name-ness yet.

I am kind of antagonizing Joel in this, but the description of this book did say there would be more than one villain... >:)

I looked around at everyone. Several of the magical creatures seemed to be panicking. Katherine the fairy was staring up at the new Grand Emperor, tears running down her face. Scott the elf reached his hand under his cloak and grasped a red crystal on a necklace, looking horrified. Lizzie the axolotl sea godess thing peered into her pocket at some unseen artifact.

"Magical items can only be kept if they are necessary for the owner to live," Joel said, noticing his subjects' agitation. "But anyone caught using magic that is not essential for their survival will be punished."

Jimmy started to breathe heavily. He was magical, after all. He would need to stop speaking to the cod.

Only the humans seemed somewhat unaffected. Sausage seemed overjoyed that he wouldn't have to deal with all his friends being magical. Pix shrugged, his kingdom not containing much magic.

FWhip, despite being a human, looked horrified. "Gem won't know," he whispered to me. "If she's caught..."

I bit the inside of my cheek nervously.

"The Listener," Jimmy said. "We can't talk to her. That's a form of moon communication."

"We can't get to this world you told us about. Gateway," Xisuma panicked. "We're trapped here. And Pearl's trapped there."

I put my head in my hands. The law didn't affect me directly, but it affected the people I knew.

I had wanted to stay out of conflict before. I had been tired of it, with Third Life.

But people changed.

I closed my eyes and whispered three words, three words that could - no, would - affect history.

"This is war."

~~~

MYCELIUM RESISTANCE

If you know, you know

-Indigo