Solivagency - Empires SMP

VII

A/N: Happy one thousand reads on Archive of Our Own! Thank you so much for all the support this fanfiction has been getting!

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"Shelby and Katherine are going to be late," Pearl explained. "There's something wrong with Shelby's nether portal and her elytra is still broken."

"It is not a worry," Lizzie smiled. "I'm sure they will not take very long to arrive."

Joel privately thought otherwise. Fae had wings, yes, but Katherine would still struggle flying Shelby to Mezalea, no matter how small she was. Plus knowing the gnome, she'd probably bring at least seventy wolves. Which Joel had nothing against - dogs were so cool - but Katherine would have a hard time flying them to Mezalea as well.

"Would you fancy some tea?" Lizzie continued, leading her inside. "Not the azalea kind of course."

"I would love some!" Pearl grinned enthusiastically.

Joel blinked. "What's wrong with azalea tea?"

"Nothing." The farmer replied, still grinning.

It was as if azaleas were poisonous or something. Why did no one like azalea tea?

-

Xornoth reread the same paragraph multiple times, not taking it in.

It was something about jaihn lotus, they knew that much, but they couldn't tell what the rest of the page was about. It was as if someone had just snatched the focus out of their head and thrown it to the sea, draining them.

With a slight groan and rub of the eyes - nightmares made it ridiculously hard to sleep - Xornoth tried to trace the lines of ink with their fingers. It was getting extremely difficult to even comprehend a single word. Their eyes read it, they knew their eyes had read it, but they still didn't know what it was trying to say.

They let the book fall close with a flop and looked out at the ocean. The blue glittered like glass, and the Ocean Empire's towers were just about visible from the view. The water seemed to dance in the sunlight, lapping up and down in a steady rhythm. The pattern captivated all of their attention, leaving the book abandoned on the bedcover. So beautiful and serene. Was this the same ocean that had almost drowned them?

No, they told themself with a shiver. They weren't ready to think of that yet. They probably wouldn't be ready to think of that for a long time.

Would they always be like this? Admiring the sea from afar, but feeling the most intense terror at the idea of going in? Xornoth tried to leave that line of thinking behind, instead staring at the water. If they focused, they could snatch a glimpse of an axolotl darting below, maybe a small swarm of cod accompanying them, or a large salmon swimming back into safer waters. The ocean was such a curious thing.

So you are near the ocean...

They clamped all thoughts in their head down, attempting to minimalise the number of thoughts that Exor saw. It worked, but he was already aware of where they were hiding.

He laughed at them. Your thoughts are ridiculously loud, prince of Rivendell.

Xornoth grabbed the edge of the windowsill, forcing themself to breathe in and out. Exor was going to tell Scott, and Scott was going to find them, and Scott was going to kill them.

You think I would let him kill you, after all the failures you have caused? If anything, I'll make you wish he did kill you.

That was certainly not a comforting thought. Their grip on the windowsill tightened. Go away.