"Come in." Pearl said tiredly. She was sitting in the prime admin office. Xisuma pushed the door open hesitantly. "If this is about Grian, he's recovering nicely. He exhausted a lot of magic, especially for a level eight." Pearl sighed.

"Yea... magic that's theoretically impossible for him to possess." Xisuma muttered under his breath.

"Excuse me?" Pearl looked away from her various screens.

"How is Grian a tier eight admin all of the sudden!? And..." Xisuma paused, "How did he teleport all of us back to headquarters. That's impossible. You know it is! Why am I the only one concerned!? Only watchers, super high, like, prime-level admins and higher powers can teleport!" Xisuma let his words sink in. Pearl looked even tireder, if that was possible.

"He wasn't the one who teleported. I was." Pearl spoke eventually.

"You were!?" Xisuma's eyebrows arched, not believing it for a second. "That's impossible."

"Well, clearly it's possible considering what you just said. Are you suggesting Grian is a watcher? Or a prime admin? Maybe a higher power?" Pearl gave Xisuma such a piercing look he suddenly felt like an idiot. Maybe he was being stupid.

"I - I mean. No, of course not. It's just confusing that-"

"What, the technological prime, a girl was strong enough to teleport everyone back to base?" Pearl stuck out her chin and crossed her arms angrily.

"No! No, I didn't mean that at all!" Xisuma backed away.

"Then what are you suggesting, Void?" Pearl said, her voice low but angry.

"Well... I guess I thought your magic had just been drained so you weren't powerful enough yet - b - but it kind of makes sense that you could've teleported." Xisuma lied. It didn't make any sense, but neither did what he had originally thought. How could it have been Grian?

"Well then, stop wasting my time." Pearl snapped. "Xe - er, Grian's in wing A5, if you want to visit."

"Okay." Xisuma peeped meekly and closed the door behind him.

. . .

"Hey, Xisuma." Grian looked up. He was curled up on his white hospital cot, and looked like he had been through the wringer for sure.

"Hey, Gri." Xisuma said in a tired voice. "How are you?"

"I - I mean I've been better." Grian chuckled slightly.

"How did you teleport yesterday?" Xisuma watched Grian's expression carefully.

"You thought I teleported?" Grian's voice sounded incredulous.

"Yes! Why else would-" Xisuma broke off in anger as he watched Grian smirk,

"Ask Pearl, muffin!" Grian snickered, "Oops, ack." Grian facepalmed, "Ugh, Badd..." Grian muttered.

"Muffin? Never mind." Xisuma just raised his eyebrows. Had Pearl really teleported them back to headquarters, not Grian? If so, Xisuma had seriously miscalculated her power. Then again, he had never seen her fight, so...

Xisuma noticed Mumbo come into the hospital wing in the corner of his eyes. He excused himself awkwardly and portaled back to base. Only later did he realize Grian had never given him a straight answer.

. . .

Mumbo sat down next to Grian at the foot of his friend's bed. Grian was staring down through the window, watching the admins come and go. "Hey, Mumby." Grian finally turned to look at his friend.

"Hey... that was some serious magic, dude." Mumbo looked at Grian with admiration.

"It was nothing." Grian lied, "I could have done better if I'd used my full magic." Grian knew he should only tell the truth around Mumbo, because somehow his friend could always tell.

"It was not nothing! That was absolutely bonkers!" Mumbo's eyes still looked wide.

"Tier eight perks." Grian shrugged with a nonchalant air.

"Xisuma says that wasn't ordinary tier eight magic. He said you should have been at least level nine to whip out whatever that was!" Mumbo clapped Grian on the back.

"Aww, thanks. But really, it was nothing." Grian winced as he shifted positions to look at Mumbo. Mumbo could tell Grian wasn't saying something, but he had gotten used to it. If his friend had a secret he didn't want to share, he wasn't going to intrude.

"Excuse me, Xelqua. May I have a word? Or am I interrupting anything?" Fulgar stepped out of the shadows. Grian tensed suddenly, and Mumbo looked confused.

"Xelqua?" Mumbo questioned. The name was familiar... he had heard it somewhere... but where? Fulgar suddenly looked nervous, as if he had said something he shouldn't.

"Um... your friend's admin name. You don't know it?" Fulgar spoke hastily. Mumbo caught a glimpse of Grian's face. He looked furious.

"Yes... I've never told you my admin name, Mumby?" Grian spoke lightly, but his teeth were gritted. "Confidential, I suppose. Maybe don't tell anyone, okay?" Grian acted as though he was suggesting something unimportant, but his eyes told otherwise.

"Sure. Nope. Nobody will hear anything from me. Ahem, I'd best be on my way." Mumbo stood up as though he had been zapped by an electric bolt. He was suddenly sure that he had to go urgently. But he didn't know why... and he couldn't tell anybody about Grian's name, not about his life.

...Come to think of it... what was Grian's admin name? Mumbo suddenly couldn't remember. He rushed out of the hospital ward. What's going on with my head?

Back in Grian's small white room, Grian was irritable. "Well, if you're quite done spilling my secrets, what do you want?" Grian snapped.

"Don't worry, I spelled him to forget your blasted secret identity, okay?" Fulgar watched Grian's face. He looked, if possible, even more angry.

"We do not play with people's minds. Especially Mumbo's!" Grian thundered.

"Would you rather him know your name? And tell all those precious... hermits?" Fulgar replied. Grian scowled and grudgingly shook his head.

"What do you want? Unless this is a friendly visit." Grian crossed his arms and lay back into his cot.

"It's not what I want. It's what Prime 1 wanted." Fulgar sighed. Grian's eyes widened and he bolted up.

"What - what Prime 1 wanted!?" Grian looked shocked.

"Yes... what Yaevia wanted." Fulger murmured. He took a leather knapsack from his side and pulled a shimmering vial of golden dust from its depths. "These are memories. Yours, I believe. If I remember correctly, you don't currently possess them."

"Prime 1 took my memories?" Grian's voice betrayed how hurt he was.

"Not all of them." Fulgar laughed coldly, "Just a few... dangerous ones, per se." Fulgar smiled grimly.

"So you're going to give me them?" Grian recovered himself.

"Yes. The time seems right. The watchers are coming, and you may need them." Fulgar explained.

"How could I need memories? Will it help defeat the watchers?" Grian pleaded.

"Perhaps." Fulgar's lips twisted into something like a grimace, "Breathe the dust in."

"B - breathe it? Pardon?" Grian realized Fulgar was completely serious and hesitantly bent down to inhale the golden dust. As soon as the glittering molecules touched his nose, he fell back on his cot. Fulgar watched the boy's eyes flutter shut, as though sleeping. He quietly exited the room.

. . .

Grian opened his eyes. He was in his mindspace... but it was strange. Distorted images whirred past him, and strange things he didn't remember happening to him played over the white screens.

Grian felt himself sucked into the memories one by one. Each one more puzzling and terrifying than the last. He was eight years old, seated at a wooden table with his mother. It was late evening, and his father was gone again on mysterious business.

"Xelqua... you have to promise me something." Grian's mother's voice was soft, like honey. It felt like she was really there, really sitting right next to Grian. Grian felt a pang of longing, and he wished he could reach out and hold her tight, never let her go, somehow pull her into the future. A future where she was still there, watching over him with her beautiful stories and fantastical magic.

But Grian was more painfully aware than ever that she was no longer present in his future life. "Yes, mum?" Grian heard his voice reply. It was strangely high and weak.

"Someday you're going to be the most powerful little admin. And when you're sitting up there with the primes, you're going to be given a choice." Present Grian was just as intrigued as past Grian.

"What, mum? What choice?" Little Grian peeped.

"Do you know the story of the founders of Minecraftia? The Council of six?" Grian's mother sighed.

"It's my favorite bedtime story." Little Grian nodded enthusiastically.

"Remember how there were six founders? The six higher powers? They became the original prime admins. Do you know who they are?" Mum smiled.

"Yes! There's Herobrine! He's the evil one."

"Yes, the mind-bender." Mum smiled wryly.

"There's Niaya! The lady of nature! And then there was Zebdar, he's the necromancer-thing. Also... Lillir. I think she was the world-shifter and the one you said was the guardian of the Aether." Grian paused, trying to remember the other two.

"Yes... when her line died out the entrance to the Aether was closed forever..." Mum sighed wistfully. Little Grian wasn't listening, he was too busy trying to remember the others.

"Now I remember! There's Xicom, he was the stone-miner guy-thing. Was he the one who could turn stones into diamonds?"

"Yes, the master of the depths. He was also the creator of the ocean." Mum nodded.

"Oh - and of course! There was Notch, the leader! He's the one who created everything and one in the first place! And then the others helped shape the rest!" Grian bounced excitedly.

"Do you know where they came from?" Mum asked. Grian wrinkled his nose and shook his little head."They came from somewhere far, far, away. A world full of magic. But then their world became corrupted, and they had to leave.

"So they all combined their magic to take them somewhere in the void. The void gave Notch a special power, and he created Minecraftia. He then split his power between the six and created the council. Everyone is descended from the peoples of the other world, the refugees Notch later saved and brought to a new world." Mum stroked her hand through Grian's hair.

"But Notch's power was as dangerous as it was strong... it was so powerful that it corrupted him. The council had to work together and destroy him. Xicom, the master of the depths, died in the fight, ending his line. Notch's power was said to have come to end... but what they don't know is he had a son.

"Since then Notch's power has been passed down from eldest to eldest for centuries. And each successor is sworn to never accept his power." Mum turned to Grian fiercely, "Grian, promise me that if you ever have to make a choice... and you'll know what it is when the time comes. Don't accept it. Whatever you do, you must say no. Understood?" Mum grabbed Grian's shoulders roughly. Grian nodded.

"Promise me?" Mum's eyes penetrated Grian's soul.

"I promise, really!" Grian looked terrified. His mum exhaled and smiled lightly,

"Now, do you want a cookie?"

. . .

Grian was sucked into a second memory. This time he knew what to expect. He was... what, twelve this time? It must have been not long before he was taken by the watchers. His hair fell just beneath his shoulders, and his eyes were still a piercing blue. But a ring of purple had sufficed in them.

His father and mother were watching him nervously, talking in hushed voices... Grian could make out 'soon' and 'protect him' and 'circle' as well as 'lineage' and 'forbidden' but otherwise Grian was left in the dark. He was sitting in his old oak-wood house, and his legs were swinging underneath him.

"They'll come for him soon... they'll kill you." Mum's voice was raised, so Grian could make out what she was saying. His eyes widened, but he pretended he hadn't heard anything.

"He can't be both, though." Grian's father murmured,

"Xharles, you know who - what my family is. His eyes, there's no getting around it. He's one of your kind." Mum crossed her arms. She looked nervous.

"But he's an admin, too! It's not possible!"

"Improbable, but obviously not impossible." Mum snarled.

"We have to hide his magic. When they come for him, they'll realize how powerful he is. He'll be his apprentice. They can't know - it would destroy everything." Xharles ran a hand through his hair.

"You know how they work! Make it so only a prime admin can see his true aura... it's his only hope for rescue."

"It will hurt... should I make him forget when I'm done?" Xharles half-whimpered. Mum hesitated then nodded once. Suddenly Grian's father turned to him, outstretched his hand... and then there was a flash of purple... violet purple. Then there was pain.

. . .

Grian woke up gasping and retching for air. Father was a watcher!? Grian sat up. He was laying down, but he wasn't in the hospital ward. He was in his mindspace again. But it was strangely empty. Grian looked around but saw nothing but white.

Click. Tap. Clack. Footsteps. The sound of cool metal on a hard floor. Grian whirled around. A tall man wearing a black suit stood next to Grian where there had been white a second ago. He looked maybe thirty or so years old. He had a short, red beard and curly light red-brownish hair.

Grian stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out what was familiar about him. Then it hit him. The man's eyes. They were an infinite, piercing blue. His mother's eyes. Grian's eyes before he had become a full watcher. The man chuckled softly,

"Hello, Xelqua." He smiled, "Do you know who I am?"

"Uh...my grandfather?" Grian suggested. The man laughed aloud.

"Close. Think - let's say... great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great and then something grandfather." The man grinned wider.

"Notch."