A Path to a Different Happy Ending (Flower Husbands Empires Fic)

Chapter Twenty-Two: Bound and Remembered

Rarran was happy. Ruling a kingdom was no longer his problem. He quit his job as a royal advisor and became a librarian. He wanted nothing to do with that anymore.

~*~

Scott and Gem crept through the halls of the stronghold, searching for the End portal. It'd been a while since they'd been there, and there were guards everywhere, so it was rather difficult to find.

Left. Right. Guard, turn around! Straight. Left. Left. Right. Left. Another guard, turn around again. Right, left, left, and... There.

They slipped to the walls, flanking the doorway. There were no guards outside of the room, but there was inside. The cat person was sitting on the rim of the End portal, kicking their legs and studying their nails.

Gem looked at Scott, who nodded at her. She slipped out of her armour as quietly as possible, then drank a potion of invisibility. She darted into the room, sneaking up behind the cat person. She clamped a hand over their mouth, then cast a quick sleep spell. Gem caught them as they collapsed, gently depositing them on the floor. They were innocent in this.

Gem put her armour back on, and slipped a glove out of her pocket so she could beckon Scott over.

"Okay, are you ready?" She whispered, apprehensive. They didn't know if other guards were around.

"Yeah. You?" Scott responded, creeping up the steps to the portal.

"Yep. Let's go."

Gem hopped in, void filling her vision. A few moments later, she blinked it away to be greeted by the empty End. She reached up to the little dragon sitting on her head.

"Hey, Violet. Do you think you could close the exit portal for us?" She asked.

The dragon purred and took off to swirl around the island as Ender dragons do. The portal in the middle slowly drained away as though it was a sink that's plug had been pulled.

"Oh, that's weird. I've never seen that before." Scott commented.

"Few have." Gem said as she cast a quick message spell to tell the others to come through.

It didn't take long for them to come. All nine of them appeared, one after the other. It looked like they just emerged from the void, odd goop pulling off of them moments after they appeared. No one could ever touch that goop... But that didn't matter right now.

"Okay, guys. Everyone has their item?" Gem scanned the group for anyone who didn't. They'd spent most of the time waiting for Jimmy to recover gathering those items. "Okay. Let's start setting up."

They made a circle of eleven stone podiums around the empty End exit, then they put an item to represent the empires on them, one empire each. Copper for Pixandria, an amethyst crystal for Crystal Cliffs, gold for Rivendell, an azalea bush for Mezalea, iron for Mythland, slime for the Cod Empire, prismarine for the Ocean Empire, deepslate redstone for the Grimlands, an enchanted golden apple for Gilded Helenthia, warped mushroom for the Undergrove, and an alium for the Overgrown.

Gem sprinkled crushed amethyst between them to create a stronger circle. It wasn't as strong as possible, but they couldn't incorporate the Lost Empire without Joey, and he was on Xornoth's side.

"Okay, we're probably gonna need someone to keep Joey busy while we trap Xornoth. Any volunteers?" Gem asked.

"I'll do it." Sausage offered.

"Okay, good. Everyone else, get in a circle."

They did.

"Right, here's the plan..."