The Chained Watcher

The Hunt Begins

~~~

The room was in chaos.

It was pretty difficult to avoid tripping over their outfits even in decent light conditions, but in the dark? Over half of them were sprawled across the floor with their decorations tangled together, and anyone who could move was trying to get a light placed. Eventually, someone pulled out a normal torch, and order gradually returned.

"How did he do that?!?"

"I don't know, but he's gone."

"Gone??" All the hermits looked around the room, noting a distinct lack of Grian.

"How did he get out? None of the blocks are broken, and the door is anything but quiet if I'm being honest. He didn't use his communicator to tell someone to activate a stasis chamber, so how did he leave?"

"You know what, forget what should be possible, the man's clearly magic. It makes some kind of sense too, with Xisuma asking about Scar going to him for magic advice. If he uses magic himself, that makes a lot of things that should be impossible pretty reasonable."

"So he what, teleported?"

"Probably. Might have used magic to go invisible too. Don't discount anything."

Doc froze. "Wait. No. Don't tell me." He looked up, realization filling his face. "The cube. No wonder the redstone doesn't make sense, it never worked in the first place!"

"Then how are we supposed to open it?"

"Do you think it's against the rules to get Scar to help? I know he and Mumbo know the secret, but we're not asking for answers, just a favor. If it only responds to magic, that might be the only way forward."

"...Maybe? It's worth asking, at the very least."

"Grian did say that following him is fair game, so that means him showing up here can be considered another clue. I don't think he would have left the way he did if he didn't want us to figure out he has magic."

"How did Xisuma find out so much sooner than we did, with no hints or anything? Seriously, the only reason we even know Grian has a secret is because Xisuma confronted him about it in front of us."

"Either way, back to Grian and magic. What else can be explained now?"

"His flight speed, for one. If there's a potion effect that can do it, it's probably safe to assume he can as well. Maybe the voice mimicry? But that could easily be something he learned, not magic."

Everyone returned to their seats, Cleo picking up the compass from where Grian had left it. "Do we have anything else that needs immediate addressing, or can I go home and think about what just happened?"

"That's probably for the best. Everyone, head home and get some sleep, trying to think too hard without proper rest will just make it harder."

~~~

Today, Grian was heading to Hypixel to hide clues.

With how thoroughly the hermits had been searching, he figured a couple more accessible clues were in order. A side objective for this trip was to inform Philza and Techno about what was happening, so they wouldn't worry about the clusters of hermits scouring the server. The only problem would be throwing the several hermits stealthily following him off his tracks.

He had entered Hypixel with a good handful of suspiciously cloaked figures keeping him in eyesight, and his disguised friends were clearly not planning to let him get away so easily this time. Logging into the SMP, Grian found his bed surrounded by a box of obsidian on all sides, even underneath. Nametags started showing up on the outside, and he heard Doc's muffled voice from the other side.