wc: 2026

The sleep was restless, though, and he found himself being gently shaken awake all too soon. Feeling quite the opposite of rested, he ran a hand through his hair and straightened himself. "Where are we?"

"About ten minutes away," Xayla replied. She cautiously handed him the mask again.

He took a deep breath to calm his racing heart and slotted the mask over the top of his face. The moment the cold porcelain touched his face his skin prickled and the hairs on the back of his neck stood. Cold shivers ran down his spine.

Seeing through the masks gave the world a slight purple tint. The change made Grian want to squeeze his eyes shut and hide his face in his knees, but in front of X and Stress, he focused on his inhales and his exhales.

In for four, hold for four, out for four, Grian thought, leg bouncing. He felt Stress' gaze on his trembling hands, and he clasped them together. They shook anyway.

"It's just until we get there," Xayla said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah," Grian muttered, looking up at the ceiling. The consoling made his face burn; he was Grian, Xelqua, the one that could save the entirety of the Watcher kingdom. He wasn't someone that was supposed to need comforting or have weakness. The truth hurt, that was for sure, but he shoved the thoughts to be picked apart later.

Stress and X were talking in low tones. Xayla turned to Grian. "We haven't really had a chance to properly chat yet," she noted, and Grian nodded. "What's been... going on?"

"After I escaped?" Grian asked, raising a brow, and she shrugged.

"Yeah, in general." She looked down at her hands. "I hope you've been treated well?"

"It's been amazing," he said with a chuckle, folding his hands behind his head. "Hermitcraft was a safe haven. At least..." Grian's expression twisted. "The people were the nicest group I have ever met, and I love them to pieces, of course. But the Watchers were trying to get in a lot near the end, and I recognized some strategies that are probably a little sketchy."

"How so?"

"Well, Hermitcraft is very well protected by a code barrier," Grian explained. "X is a wonderful admin." X smiled a bit. Grian wondered where his helmet had gone, but being able to completely read his expression was comforting. Grian palmed his own mask carefully; the lack of full black and white hair, which all Watchers had either one or the other, distinguished him from the rest, but the black streak that he'd been trying to hide was promising that that may soon change.

"I would go into the code wall and fight them off, but before I knew they were there, they were already making little appearances. I would see random particles and stuff like that. Luckily, I found out before anything happened, but..." Grian thought for a moment. "Do you know Pearl?"

"Pearl?" Xayla asked, confused, and Grian nodded. "No, can't say I have... why?"

"I was having a lot of weird side effects," Grian said instead of directly explaining. "I would suddenly be unable to breathe, and for a while I could hear... voices, telling me to come back." X and Stress' conversation had halted, and although they weren't trying to make it obvious, it was very apparent that they were listening.

"I assume this started when the Leader died," Xayla said. Grian bowed his head.

"I assume so," he said, heart wrenching. When Xeluph had eventually been overtaken by his duties and was unable to 'train' Grian himself, he'd assigned the task to the Leader, and Grian's life had improved significantly. Knowing he was dead still hurt. "I never expected the cause to be this. Pearl, an old friend of mine who'd been in the server I admin-ed that the Watchers destroyed, told me that part of it was that my magic was growing and was pulling me home." She hadn't lied, but it was a bit of an omission of truth. "I don't know how she knew, though. I believed her, 'cause I would have believed anyone at that point."

"Have you heard from her since then?" Xayla asked, and Grian shook his head.

"I existed like that for a bit, and then, uh..." Grian took a breath. "We got put in these... servers? I'm not sure. The Watchers managed to get to our locations, and me and some of my closest friends were plopped in these situations."

X and Stress were now listening completely. They hadn't been put in Third Life or Last Life.

He closed his eyes. "They turned us on each other, and we killed to stay alive. We're now... fine, but it was terrible. I was the last one standing the first round, and I promised myself to never let that happen again. Well, eventually, when the voices made me kill, I gave up and bargained with Xeluph. He agreed to let the Hermits go if I went with him."

"Oh," Xayla breathed.

"And Mumbo, that idiot, got through the portal with me," Grian grumbled. "And then these even huger idiots, the entire Hermitcraft server, somehow put their last brain cells together and got over here as well."

"And now we're in this fiasco," Xayla said, gaze boring into the side of his head.

"Yeah," Grian said with a small laugh. Tears pressed on his eyeballs again. Frustrated, he dug the heels of his palms into his eyes, trying to stop the pressure behind his eyes. Not only physically weak, but emotionally too, it seemed. Hermitcraft, with all of its good times and fun, had made him soft. He dropped his hands, digging nails into the skin on his arm; everything felt

As if on cue, the carriage car came to a halt. There was a pause before a knock on the door came, followed by the driver opening the door and peeking in. "We're there," a man with white hair said.

"Thanks, Xenith," Xayla said. She made a couple hand movements, ending with a tilt of her head. Xenith nodded. "Okay."

He shut the door, and Xayla turned to Stress and X. "Don't talk, okay? I can handle this, and Grian can back me up if need be." She lightly hit Grian's shoulder. "Fix your hair."

Grian sighed, tousling the curls. Black spilled into the locks and over his head. Disguise magic was one of the simplest, although it was considered "devious". Most kids learned it after class behind the schools, giggling as they lengthened their noses and enlarged their ears.

X and Stress each slipped on their own masks. Looking at cold clay made Grian shiver, so he opened the door first, holding it for the rest of the group. Some fake luggage had been prepared, so Xayla and Grian reached towards the top and pulled it towards the floor with purple sparks. Grian had worried about whether he'd be unable to conceal the gold, but he was so drained that he doubted he'd be able to summon the magic even if he tried.

There were only four satchels. He tossed X and Stress one each and dropped one over his head. They moved around the carriage, and Xayla lead them towards a gate.

A guard in polished, steel armor and a mask marked with the official stamp of the Watcher's guard division stood with his arms crossed in front of the gate. Grian and Xayla bowed their heads, and Grian was glad to see X and Stress follow their action. Out of the corner of his eye, Grian could see Xayla's hands clench.

Looking back up at the guard, Grian's heartbeat began to race. The last time he'd seen one of these steel-armored guards was when... when his wings...

"We're here on vacation," Xayla said in Galactic with a polite smile. She handed the guard her paper, and X and Stress followed. Grian reached into his pocket and found the folded up sheet, handing it to the guard as well.

The guard seemed bored, quickly scanning the papers and handing them back. "Welcome. Please make sure to be back to your work no later than in four days' time."

"Yes, sir," the Grian, Xayla, and X chimed. He opened the gate, picking at his nails idly as the group went through. Grian had almost forgotten about the language barrier; he was glad X, at least, was familiar.

When they were well down the dirt path, Xayla smirked. "The thing about the Watcher system is that with these stupid masks, they can't identify us easily."

"Where'd you get the papers?" Grian asked. "I expected them to ask for identification."

"The papers are forged," Xayla replied. "And they never ask for any other forms of identification. The papers basically probably suffice, anyhow."

"I'm a little surprised the guard didn't notice anything off?" Grian asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Signatures, codes?"

Xayla shook her head, grinning. "We have the best of the best on our side, don't worry about it."

Grian smiled, but at the same time thought, If we did, then maybe this stupid war would be over sooner.

The group continued to walk down the long dirt path. There was not much scenery in the Watcher worlds, with its gray sky and angry clouds, but there were some interesting rock formations that people visited on vacation.

"So where's the base?" X asked.

"In there somewhere," Xayla said, nodding towards what was in front.

It was a mountain, towering up towards the sky in rough jagged peaks. It was not at all beautiful; there was barely any vegetation, and heavy rocks served as the entrance.

"Keep moving, guys," Xayla grumped. "We're not here to sightsee, and there isn't much to see, to be honest. I've been here before. There's some cool gems, but that's about it."

"You always set your expectations too high anyway," Grian responded, giving her a light nudge. Xayla rolled her eyes.

"How'd you meet her and the Listeners?" Stress asked.

"Uh, I almost died," Grian said, expression dead serious. "Multiple times. Xayla was my healer, I might have told X this already. When they were doing all sorts of experiments on the prisoners, we needed to get healed afterwards, or else they'd lose precious test subjects, so healers were brought in to get us back to surviving conditions. Even afterwards, Xeluph's training was so harsh, I needed the same treatment."

He spared a glance at Stress and saw her face was pale and eyes wide. "Stress? You alright?"

She shook her head as if to clear it of its thoughts. "Yeah, yeah, it's just..."

"Healers that are well trained can be empaths, right?" Xayla asked, gaze pinning Stress. Stress' mouth opened and closed a few times.

"...Yes, that's right," she said, expression strange. "And..." She rubbed a hand on her head. "Grian, are you okay?"

The question seemed to punch Grian in his gut. He stared straight ahead at the approaching mountain, mouth set in a hard line. There was a moment of silence. "That's a really vague question, Stress. And, you know, I did just overuse my magic and whatnot, and I've got bruises for days because of it, so you know, not quite dandy."

"That's true, but..." Stress' eyes bore into his when he looked at her. "Empaths can go much deeper than surface level emotions, you know."

Grian swallowed and shook his head. "Don't worry about it." He shot here a glance. "I'd stay out of my emotions, if I were you."

Stress froze for a second before nodding furiously. "Yeah, of course- sorry." Grian wondered what expression he'd been making to prompt such a reaction.

"Looks like we're here," X noted. There weren't that many people around, but there was still a small number of Watchers. Stone walls towered over the group, forming an archway that served as the entrance. Glittering clusters of gems were tucked in small pockets in the sides of the cave. Walls There was one guard, idly leaning against the wall.

"Let's go," Xayla said, leading them into the labyrinth of rock.

i am on a friggin roll lets GO

i am itching to make grian go berserk again and be like super cool and powerful and everyone is like :o and he's like B) iykyk

thank you for reading! have a good day or night, wherever you are!

-Ete