Council of the Heir

Chapter Thirteen - (Mission Impossible theme)

I am NOT off hiatus im just vibing

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Lydia sat cross-legged in the grass with her hands in her lap, watching as Valor took a few experimental steps, then stamped on his previously injured foot. "How we feelin'?" Lydia asked.

"Good. Well enough," Valor amended as he straightened up again. "I heal a little more quickly than an average person."

"I know." Lydia immediately stopped to wonder if she should have known that. "Or, well, that makes sense anyway," she corrected offhandedly. "Son of Herobrine and all that."

"Mmh." Valor glanced over to the horizon, in the direction of the mining town that they had left several days before. "Are you ready?" Lydia stood up, adjusting the bag that hung over her shoulder.

"Just about."

Their little party of three had remained about three miles from the mining town for a little more than a week now, Lithian and Grace having headed back to Hadleigh as soon as they had made their new camp. Valor had seemed restless, and Lydia couldn't blame him. She didn't really like sitting around doing nothing either.

Steven was getting rid of the last traces of their campfire and packing up their remaining supplies, while Valor collected his father's shimmering pickaxe. Lydia's heart thrummed nervously in her chest, unable to help staring at the diamond blade where it glittered in the last rays of sunset. The End had refused to help them just yet, so as soon as they were all packed up, they would be going back to the mining town to fight Null- and, if the story's original path was any indication, they would most likely lose. Lydia wasn't sure if she wanted them to or not.

On one hand, if Valor and Steven were captured, they may just end up having the scene from the original where Steven told Valor of his origins and gave him the amulet following his death. But where would she be in all this? If Null killed her, she would be reset to the last time she slept, and the rest of the world with her, meaning that she could be stuck in a death loop. And even if she wasn't, the narrative wouldn't necessarily follow the original- Steven could be killed first and unable to give Val the amulet, or they could be imprisoned separately, or-

"Hey." A hand landed on her shoulder, and she jumped, looking up to find Steven standing over her shoulder. "We're going."

"A'ight." Lydia scrambled to her feet, fiddling nervously with the buckle on her bag. "Shall we?" Steven nodded, and he started to walk with Valor at his heels.

The bands of orange and pink in the west gradually began to fade away, leaving them with a dim, star-speckled sky. Lydia gazed up at them quietly, considering their next steps as she did so. Unfortunately, it seemed like short of spoiling the ending of the story for her companions, their next options were pain and more pain.

Should she just spoil the ending? Had poor Val been through enough? The poor kid had lost his birth parents, was raised in isolation for fourteen-ish years, then lost the person who raised him and also the only one he had in the world. If she had the option to spare him some pain and suffering... should she do it? Was it even worth trying to preserve the 'correct narrative'?

Although, she rationalized, even if she did give him the amulet now, Null still won. He was still more powerful. It took Null being provoked to great anger before the endermen intervened, so that may be the necessary catalyst. At least Lithian wouldn't be in danger... ahh, she really hoped that didn't have unintended consequences.

She just kind of had to...hope that Null behaved exactly as he did in the original. Proud, mocking, and he also needed to think that Herobrine was still alive. Unless Steven and Valor were captured together, in which case it wouldn't really matter. They just needed that moment to talk...