Watcher's Admins

Chapter Eleven

Grian was awoken by the rapid drumming of his heart in his ears. The loud rhythmic thumping coming seemingly out of nowhere shook his mind.  He quickly sat up and covered his ears on impulse. Like that would dampen the beating of his own heart. Why was it so loud?
Several moments of sitting there, waiting for the sound to dull back to the point of normalcy passed and he got up letting out a shaky breath. “Okay..well…that’s unsettling.” he murmured and shook himself, getting rid of the nerves. “I slept in again…I know it’s good for me like this but…I feel bad.”
He shook his head and grumbled something, scratching his arm. His feathers flared up before settling down. “Alright. Let’s get chores done.” He sighed and flew off to the shopping district to restock his shop. He had about two hours to do his stuff before he had to meet up with everyone else for their lessons. 
He headed back to his house for something before the branding on his neck started burning. He had checked it earlier and it didn’t seem to change, but right now it stung. He put a hand to it and pulled his turtleneck down. “Dammit.” He murmured at the dark purple, completed symbol of those wretched beings. 
He grabbed some ice and cloth before trying to cool it down. “This is bad.” He murmured and sat down opening his chat. 
You whisper to XisumaVoid: Can you come to my base?
XisumaVoid whispered to you: Yeah. everything okay?
You whisper to XisumaVoid: not sure atm
He sighed softly as he waited for the admin, pacing once the burning dulled. He felt great, healthwise. The visits from the Watchers did disappear and he felt fit as a fiddle. He was feeling really paranoid though. Verge of panic paranoid. The mark shouldn’t have finished appearing so quickly. It didn’t sit right with him. 
“Grian?” Xisuma called out as he walked inside. He looked around before seeing an extremely puffed and defensive avian. “Uh…are you alright? You’re all….pillowy. Fluffy?” 
Grian sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I feel completely fine. As if I wasn’t nearly executed by the cold, but I don’t know if Zedaph told you…” He paused and grabbed tea for the both of them, “The Watchers dropped by again. When you all left it was just me and him. He said I was talking about how relieved I was, before doubling over sighing and They decided to have a chat. I don’t remember much of it. I remembered when you spoke to the Watchers, like clearly. This time though…it was like I was engulfed in stained glass.” 
He took a breath, took a sip of his tea and glanced around. Xisuma could see him slightly tremble. Ever since the admin had come, he had not once seen Grian’s posture relax. His wings had not smoothened out. What happened to their pesky bird? 
“What did they say?” He asked, wanting to try and help Grian get it out of his head. 
“For one they didn’t know that applying the brand would do that to me, and then they want me back for some reason. Calling me weak and mundane. Zedaph asked why though. Why was I needed? He asked them if they were scared of something and the Watchers completely ignored the question.”
“Brand?” Xisuma held a hand up looking at him. “What brand?”
Grian took another sip of his tea before processing what he asked. “Oh..yeah that…um…Watchers have brands somewhere on their bodies, it’s part of their protocol I guess. When I was exiled and left for dead, mine had disappeared…” he huffed. “But when I was put into hypothermic shock, they established the connection and thus made the brand slowly come back. They said it was to ‘keep on track with the progress’ Like meaning them taking control of me like they did when I became their student. But-”
“But?” 
“It normally takes weeks…I mean the first time they did it, the-the  mark wasn’t complete until a couple of weeks, since it..it was the first time it happened…” He stammered. “I-i guess because I already had it that it d-didn’t take that long.”
“Grian. Take a breath and back up.” Xisuma said sternly to stop him from rambling. Grian blinked, closing his mouth quickly and took a breath. 
“I woke up this morning to my heart ringing in my ears. It took a while to stop, but before I messaged you…I was getting things set and it started to hurt really bad. It burned and I checked it… Ex-eye-zoom-uh…it’s complete.” Grian murmured and pulled down his turtleneck to show the dark and completed brand. 
Xisuma leaned closer and moved Grian’s hand before setting two fingers against the brand.  It wasn’t fresh, but it wasn’t scarred either. No indentations or divots like a tattoo either. “You feel fine though. Right?” He asked, looking at the shorter hermit moving his hand away.
“Completely. As if nothing had happened.” Grian nodded and stretched. “I’m just all…paranoid.” 
“Is that why you’re all pillowy? You look like cotton candy mate.”
Grian went to object before looking at the wings on his face. They were still at attention. He pressed his lips into a thin pout and started smoothening his feathers out. “Yeah…I’m just scared that they did something more. I can’t tell though because well…it’s been so long.” He sighed, finishing his tea.
“I can help with that.” Xisuma said and waved his hand in the air. Grian’s gaze followed his hand and squinted seeing an admin’s panel. A gentle see-through blue screen, which he himself had used in his Life Series and Evo…but this time, seeing it materialize hurt his eyes and his mind. He looked away and noticed Xisuma looked a little confused. 
Xisuma typed a few things on his panel before sighing. “Well, I know why you looked away like that. Even though you should be able to see it with no issue since you are one of two Golden-ranked Admins. Your data is a mess. Watcher data is rewriting itself, but it’s still less prominent than your Admin data. Weird enough though, Your player data, even though it’s old, seems untouched. It's equal to Admin but that’s it. You’re safe G. Now come on. You got lessons to teach.”  He closed the panel before getting up. 
“This is going to be interesting.” Grian huffed and shook his wings as he stood.
“You always say you were born to lead, not to read.” Xisuma smiled and they headed off to meet with the others at the town hall. Pearl had already gotten everyone inside and supplied drinks, snacks and books-n-quills. This was going to be fun. His mind started churning trying to figure out why the Watchers seem scared enough to try and get him with no reason. Should he be scared too? He was a Watcher back then too. 
He shook his head and waved his hand up through the air. Instead of the golden protective ward shimmering in and out of existence, a deep purple one fractal into existence around the room. He pulled his hand back quickly looking at the standard galactic runes that seemed to burn into the ceiling for only seconds. “Grian?” Pearl asked, looking up at the ceiling and then back at him. 
“Hm? Uh…That wasn’t supposed to happen. Though it’s the same thing. They can’t scry while this is up…” he muttered looking at the others. They didn’t seem concerned. Well, all but Martyn, Jimmy, and Xisuma. He waved off their concern before clapping his hands together. “Let’s get started.”
Teaching the other hermits about the Watcher's abilities and how their academy was fun. They had some laughs, talking about how some things just didn’t make sense, and how boring some of the lessons were. Xisuma helped fill in some parts when they got to the Admin's confrontations with the Watchers, due to the fact Grian hadn’t been a full Admin due to his times with the Watchers. 
He had to spend a few days at the Institute to catch up on everything, he just didn’t know when to do so. His thoughts were cut short when Ren sheepishly put a hand up. “Grian, Xisuma, Is the concept or construct of time the same as here?” 
The admins looked at each other for a moment. They hadn’t thought about that. They should’ve because well, they are supposed to be prepared for everything, including events that need time. “I’m not sure. I think the Institute has the same pace of time. If it didn’t then I suppose that I would be there a lot less often.” Xisuma shrugged. Grian didn’t answer for a moment before looking at Ren. 
“It’s slow.” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. Everyone looked at him as he continued, a silence falling among them. “It’s almost dead there. You’re barely able to feel it. It’s just an unsettling emptiness like the void or the sky. For those from Evo, I was gone for what? A year? Two?” He looked towards Martyn, Jimmy and Pearl. 
“Thereabouts.” Marytn nodded after a thought. 
“But for me. It was more like 5-6  years. It felt like that anyway. It was disorientating when I landed in season six. Like my timeline was being outstretched and snapped together like a rubber band.” Grian explained. His tone was as dead as his gaze for a moment. “Why do you ask Ren?”
“I was just curious, but that just raised another question. If the Institute seems to have the same construct of time like here and other servers, then why is the Academy so slow?” Ren shrugged. 
“Yeah, that’s a good point. It doesn't make sense.” Jimmy nodded, tilting his head.  “Why isn’t it the same, or why isn’t the Institute the same as the Academy in that regard?”
Again the two looked at each other thinking of that. “No idea. That is unsettling to think about.” Grian chuckled and they continued with the lessons. A lot more questions rose between them all, but they decided to pile them all together and collect answers another day. 
After it was said and done, Grian watched as Keralis started leaving and smiled. “Keralis.” He said and took his bow out releasing two arrows right after each other. Keralis turns to look at him before trying to move out of the way.
Keralis was killed by Grian using [Tag! You’re it.]
<Kerlis> Aw man. Alright XD
Grian smiled before starting to laugh seeing the others trying not to. “Welcome to the newest instalment of tag!” He cackled. “No one can escape this one. The person who was tagged the most losses.” He explained as Keralis grabbed his items.
“We’re all too stressed because of them so we all need some fun.” Grian smiled and handed Keralis a book. It explained how it worked. The goal was to kill another hermit with something renamed as [Tag! You’re it]. Having to get creative with how to kill a player. When the other hermit is killed, they get the book with the rules. You cannot tag someone who has tagged you immediately.
“I will reiterate one rule though. It has to be something renamed as [Tag! You’re it.] If someone dies without the message in chat, you have to wear the curse of binding leather armour and a pumpkin head.” Grian explained. 
“Oh jeez. This is going to be fun. I guess That’s why we have numbers by our names when we hit tab.” Xisuma chuckled. “Yup.” Grian smiled and they all started heading out to do their own things. Grian dispelled the protective ward as he left. 
“You are full of surprises.” Pearl smiled walking with him to his base with Scar. “Yeah. I didn’t even know you were planning this. When did you have time to plan this?” Scar asked, elbowing him in the side. Grian snorted and smacked Scar in the back with one of his wings before shaking his head. “For a couple of days, I wasn’t able to sleep as I normally do. You guys should’ve known it was going to happen.” He laughed, putting his arms around them and hugging them. 
They went inside and started making notes for the next lesson and writing the questions everyone had. Grian didn’t tell the other’s of the group that they were doing this so they could get some sleep or do what they needed to. 
The three of them relaxed after finishing and they decided to lounge around in the living room for a little bit. “You know, teaching everyone about Watcher’s was nice. Giving them the information I was taught was…I don’t know…comforting.” Grian murmured, stretching as he plopped on the floor laying on his back. 
“You did seem to enjoy it. More at ease.” Scar nodded and sat on the chair. “It did seem that way.” Pearl smiled and stretched and rubbed her eyes.  Grian looked at them and smiled softly. “Yeah, I guess it’s because I know how to counter the Watchers and teaching the others is nice..” He yawned. 
“By the way. Why are you laying on the floor? You have a couch and two loveseats.” Pearl snorted while sitting up. “Yeah. Sit on the furniture you have that's made for sitting,  man.” Scar said, sitting upside down on one of the loveseats, his head hanging off. 
“Nah. The floor is comfortable.” He shook his head looking at the two of them. They looked between each other and then back at Grian, before looking at each other again, getting grins on their faces. “What are those looks for?” Grian asked slowly sitting up.
Pearl and Scar suddenly jumped or tumbled off their seats and landed on him, knocking him on his back again. “Dogpile!” They chuckled and Grian groaned after huffing from the impact of them on him. “You two are children.” He laughed and poked them. “We know. Now you can’t get up, birdman.” Scar laughed. Grian grumbled accepting his fate.