Freeze or Fall

Chapter 38: Knight's Code

"..and that's really it. Everyone's holed up in Zed's cave, except Wels and Xisuma."

"Speaking of, do we have a plan to get Wels and Xisuma back? And what about Ren and Scar?" Grian asked.

Joe hummed. "We rescued Scar a while ago thanks to the vex, and Zed and Doc are currently working on getting Ren back. We still aren't sure about Xisuma or Wels."

"Do you have a plan?" Taurtis cut in.

Joe paused. "Not exactly. Just a hunch with no evidence. What about you guys? Grumbot didn't tell us much."

"There's isn't much to tell."

"Exy!" Npg perked up as the white-haired soldier walked into the room.

"Evil Xisuma. It's been a while, huh." Joe noted.

Ex snorted. "Tell me about it. Though," he added with a sigh, "it was always rather quiet until I met Npg here."

"Like creator like creation, huh?" Taurtis wondered.

Grian laughed. "I and Npg are a whole different brand of chaos!"

Ex rolled his eyes. "You clearly haven't been the victim of one of Joe's pranks."

"Oh I have." Grian flinched lightheartedly. "It took forever to clean the lava off my base!"

Joe grinned. "I mean, that's just the Joe Hills Difference. Anyways, shall we address the elephant in the room?"

Grian glanced at Taurtis. "Oh. Right."

Taurtis laughed nervously. "Yeah um, Grian discovered I'm also a Faerie. Then he made me stand in an XP farm for hours."

"Well, that makes three of us."

Grian sat up. "Wait three?"

Joe nodded sheepishly as he dropped the glamour. "I... probably should've told you. But honestly? The information I do have on us would've solved anything, really."

"I mean, I don't blame you. But why keep it a secret?"

"Well Grian, why did you keep it a secret?"

Grian hesitated. "I don't know, I just had a feeling."

"An instinct." Taurtis added. "I felt that too when my wings came in. Is it just our biology?"

"Could be." Joe answered. "We technically aren't supposed to exist at all."

Ex frowned. "What exactly are the fae?"

Joe hesitated. "All I really know is that they're closely related to the vex, but not quite. Kinda like cousins. Fae are also linked directly to admin and creative magic."

"Creative magic?" Grian suddenly remembered the heavy block still somehow sitting in his inventory. The rock had survived the world jumps due to it's invincible nature. "Uh... like breaking bedrock with your fist?"

"Like breaking WHAT!?" Ex exclaimed.

Grian took out the block, fidgeting with it nervously. "Uh, yeah. I forgot I had this."

Joe leaned forwards excitedly. "Wow! And your broke it with your hand?"

Grian nodded.

"Impulse found a way to break it with redstone, which didn't surprise anyone, but the block usually just disappears into thin air. The last time I saw someone holding a black of bedrock was years ago." Joe seemed fascinated by the block.

"Hold up," Ex made a time out sign, "Since when did breaking bedrock become causal?"

"It's not, Hermitcraft is just full of geniuses." Taurtis answered, wary of the block despite being there when Grian broke it.

"Geniuses? I mean sure, quite a few of us are redstone prodigies but most of us just share one braincell." Grian giggled.

Joe laughed. "Considering Sahara-"

"It was an accident Joe!" Grian blushed a little in embarrassment.

"You literally broke the entirety of Sahara, a gigantic redstone machine."

"How was I supposed to know it wasn't finished yet!? The progress reports didn't really help, y'know."

Joe laughed. "You threw a potato into the redstone!"

"Not my fault there wasn't any instructions. They should've made it Grian-proof." Grian flushed. "Besides, I'm notoriously bad at redstone, they shouldn't've left me unsupervised."

"Sounds like a story for another day." Taurtis chuckled.

"What were we talking about, anyways?" Ex pointed out, only for Grian to dissolve into more laughter.

Joe chuckled. "Fae history. But that's enough chitchat. I think it's best if we all head back to Zed's cave so everyone's in one spot. All the Hermits have really missed you Grian."

"Yeah. I can't wait to see them again, even if it is in the middle of the server being taken over."

__________

"Oh my gosh it actually worked!"

"It's so great to see you unpossessed man!"

"It's been a while Grim, hasn't it?"

"Demise flashback, anyone?"

The rest of the hermits had woken up and were all clamoring about the events the night before. Grimdog was currently getting looked over by Stress while Scar spoke to him about the mindscape.

Tango and Impulse were fretting over Zed, telling him how much he scared them and how worried they were.

"Hey Zed?" Grim asked gruffly.

Zed perked up. "Mhm?"

"Renbob wants to know if you're okay. Shortly after he was forced to attack you, he blacked out."

"Blacked out?" Bdubs asked.

Zed nodded. "I think at this point the goo has completely taken over those under it's control. And I'm fine, don't worry."

Doc was pacing nearby. "Speaking of all this, we need to come up with a plan on how to get Wels and Xisuma back. Any ideas?"

"Scar, you still have the memories from Wizard Scar, right?" False asked.

Scar nodded. "Wizard me was never called to go to the main base, but the base here on the server is near where Bdubs and Doc's mansion is."

"Now we have a place." False said, rummaging in one of Zed's chests for a map. "But it's getting Wels and Xisuma back that's the hard part."

"Wels will probably be the hardest, Hels is his only ego." Zed pointed out.

False quickly placed down a table and spread the map out over it, marking the half-mansion with ink. "Not quite. We got Ren or Grimdog back by doing stuff to remind Renbob of demise. If we can get Hels to do something that would strike him as wrong, it could bring him back to reality."

"What do you have in mind?" Doc asked.

"Well, Hels' idea of the Knight's Code is a little different given his nature, but there are somethings that he'd still never do." False answered. "Hels will always take a challenge from an equal but never someone who is weaker. If we can get him into a situation where he challenges someone who isn't an equal, it may yank him back."

"False has a point. Hels might be mischievous and rude, but he does believe in fair fights." Stress added.

Doc nodded. "That sounds a good place to start."