Lyta's POV
We all said "What?" In perfect unison, staring at Roran in confusion. He lowered his head, like the world was resting on his shoulders. "What I'm about to tell you is a secret that has been passed down through my family, from generation to generation, until it has come down to me."
He looked up and glared at us fiercely, no longer the kindly Iron Mage we'd known for years. "You cannot tell anyone about what I'm going to say. If you do, the consequences will be... severe."
Next to me, Amber shivered.
He got every single one of us to swear an oath by the Iron God, whoever that was. As we each made the promise, Roran rolled up his sleeve and stared silently at his tattoo. As I watched, he gently touched it, like it was a precious child to be cherished and protected.
When we'd finished, he sighed heavily, and launched into his explanation.
"Another universe exists alongside ours, like I've just told you. Ours had a name, but it's been buried and forgotten, for reasons unknown to even my family. The other one has nine Realms, but only one they can live on is what we named their universe after."
He looked at us all. "They call it Earth."
Ana grinned. "I must be popular." We all groaned at the lame joke. But Roran forged ahead, determined to get to the end of his explanation. "While our name is lost, the Earth Realmers have another for us." A wry smile spread across his face, most likely thinking of a joke we didn't get.
"They call us Minecraft."
On the other side of the room, Tash fell off her chair in surprise. "They know about us?" The corner of Roran's mouth twitched. "It's a little more complicated than that." Dax sat forwards. "Explain?"
Roran scratched his beard thoughtfully. "On Earth, they have things called computers. They're like... moving pictures with boards for writing, but a lot more complicated. And Earth Realmers like to play games on them. One of the most popular games is Minecraft. There ate lots of others, but Minecraft is famous.
But they don't know the truth."
I felt my stomach sink like a stone, but I asked anyways. "Know what?"
He looked over at me. "That we are real. That we exist, and aren't just avatars that run around and live forever." Ana suddenly snapped her fingers, and we all jumped; we'd been so absorbed in Roran's explanation, at the realisation we weren't alone, any loud noise could make us flinch.
"The Users." She said, and understanding hit us like a lightning bolt from the skies. Tash got back up off the floor, and started to pace. "That's why they don't die. They don't draw blood, they're always so slow, and they never die. It's because they're not real, aren't they?"
She stopped to look questioningly at Roran. "They're just avatars. They don't live." Roran's face creased with sadness and pain. "Indeed, my dear. The Users play their 'Minecraft' without a care in the world, not realising that people do die. That their actions have consequences. That a very, very rare few have actually killed living Realmers."
A stunned silence filled the space between us. I struggled to get my head around that. There were people who knew about us - millions of them - and some had even commited murder.
Then Roran broke the troubled silence. "But there is a group that know about us. One group, who knows the truth, like my family knows about them. And they have saved millions of lives over the years.
"Admittedly, they created the connection between our worlds with their computers, but they did it only to find others to recruit to their cause. Unfortunately, there were only a small handful, and only two have come into contact with my family. Their names were..."
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Virus (A Minecraft Story)
FanfictionMinecraft. Just a simple game, right? A few colourful blocks, for some silly entertainment? Wrong. So very, very wrong. Minecraft is a thriving, hidden world, a bizarre place of creation and survival. And, living in the Realms that make up this l...