Solivagency - Empires SMP

XVI

"...Joel... Joel!?"

His head pounded. What had happened?

Something shook his shoulders. "Joel!"

What on earth was going on?

Suddenly, all the noise in the room came crashing down with full force and Joel bolted upright, hands flying around looking for something to steady himself on. He opened his mouth to stutter a sentence, but his head started pounding in an uneasy, sickening rhythm, and he was forced to lie back down.

"Joel!? Are you okay?!"

He groaned and felt Lizzie's arms tighten around him. Even with his eyes slipping shut, he knew the hug was from Lizzie. Only Lizzie would hug him like that.

"I..." Joel started coughing as he tried to sit up again. "What-?"

"You were hit by a flying chunk of ice."

He pushed himself upright again in confusion. "Ice?!"

The world came spinning back into view. Lizzie's face, twisted in concern and worry, was above him and a little to the left, Jimmy, Tommy and Grian were looking absolutely shocked to the right, and the surrounding world was inhabited by the Matral Palace.

The meeting. The power failure. The darkness.

"Scott has ice powers now, apparently." Lizzie squeezed his hand and brushed a lock of brown strands away from his eyes (he really needed a haircut). "It was... very shocking."

"Don't worry babe," Joel cracked a smile and gave her a wonky set of finger guns. "I'm great."

"Oh, is he poggers?" Tommy wandered over, wings twitching behind him.

"I am very poggers."

Her face melted into something more serious. "Xornoth is gone. And Tannith is dead."

"What?!"

Grian solemnly nodded. "I didn't like Tannith... But Scott killed her. He was using some sort of potions that made it look like he was there."

"How do you know it was Scott?" Jimmy defended, face full of hurt.

"I've got some mates on the way to help verify it," Tommy said. "But Jimmy, it's incredibly likely it is Scott.*

Jimmy shook his head from the corner and looked at his sister accusingly. "Why would you lie to me, Lizzie?"

She looked hurt. "Jimmy-"

"No don't-!" He said, voice suddenly choked. "Xornoth is dangerous, okay? And Scott... Scott has nothing to do with it."

"He does, Jimmy." Lizzie tried to explain, slowly. "I know it is hard too-"

"I don't believe you." Jimmy mumbled, eyes too shiny to be unaffected. His breathing hitched, and before Lizzie could apologise or try and even explain, he stood up and walked out the room, trembling. Whether from anger, sadness, or fear, he didn't know.

Joel looked up at his wife, who seemed close to crying. But somehow, somehow she schooled herself and managed to blink back the glistening tears.

"I didn't want to hurt him." She stared at the floor sadly.

"You didn't." Joel promised. "It wasn't your fault."

"Yeah! He's right, y'know. Explaining something that makes sense is incredibly weird, Timmy's the one in the wrong for not trying to understand your point of view." Tommy agreed, flicking his comm open and shutting it again. "If this was an AITA post, you'd be given NTA."