Council of the Heir

Chapter Seventeen - face-off

 "So, most important piece of info, which is a conclusion that you may have come to already." Lydia pressed her hands together, wincing as her right hand spiked with pain. "Null can't die."

"And who do we have to thank for that?" Valor snarked at her, but his hand was resting on the floor beside him, his father's pickaxe nestled up to his chest, and she was pretty sure that he couldn't be too mad at her.

"Well, it's something to do with him being possessed by an angry demon, but..." she gave a helpless shrug. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

Valor had, predictably, been utterly astonished by the appearance of his father's spirit, and somewhat upset with Lydia for not telling him before then, which was understandable enough. She managed to get him off her back, however, by telling him that in the original text he'd had to be murdered in order to meet Herobrine's ghost, so really he was getting off easy here.

Notch was, understandably, a little unsettled by the prospect of a ghost traveling in their midst. Steven's mood had changed instantly at the revelation that his old friend had been living among them, his old guilt bubbling once again to the surface. Herobrine had been able to inform him, though, through Valor, that he harbored no hard feelings.

Their little party was still in the dungeon at this point, going over their plan of attack with Lydia's knowledge of the plot being used as a reference. Lydia wasn't quite sure how this all was going to go- in the original, Null had his hopes and dreams crushed when he was attacked by a Valor who was very not dead. This time around he'd barely had a chance to get used to the idea.

"You already tried talking to the endermen, and at the time they didn't want to get involved," Lydia went on. "So we need to make it more important to them, by making Null angrier and making the demon more powerful until he becomes enough of a threat to be taken seriously."

"Is there no other way?" Steven asked quietly, sitting on Valor's other side on the stone floor. "Can he not be freed from the demon's influence?" Lydia hesitated.

"Not... I don't think so," she finally said. "At least, not that I wrote into the original story. Our priority is gonna have to be to get him into the hands of the endermen, one way or another."

"Mmh." Steven rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. "Right. Gonna be difficult when he can knock us down without even touchin' us."

"The amulet helps with that." Lydia nodded to Valor, whose amulet was already tucked away beneath the neckline of his shirt. "It helps shield him from the effects of Null's magic."

"So it'll be up to me to do the majority of the damage," Valor gathered. Lydia nodded.

"Fighting three people at once is also difficult, even for him. I will not be participating." She touched her chest. "...obviously."

"Good," Steven rumbled. "I intend on gettin' you back to Lizzy in one piece."

Lydia's face fell a bit at that. Not that she wouldn't enjoy seeing Grace and her parents again, but... she still had no clue how to get back to her family. Which, as exciting as this adventure had been, she did still want to do. She missed her friends, and her cats... and video games.

"Anyway," she said brightly. "Any more questions, or should we get going?"

"It would be better if we were properly armed," Notch muttered. "I don't know if we'll have the opportunity to reach the armory before Null sets upon us."

"Could steal weapons off some guards," Lydia suggested. "Wait, do they answer to you, or him?"

"It depends. Some are under my employ to protect the miners from bandits or thieves, while some are directly under his command." Notch crossed his arms where he reclined back against the wall. "It would depend on who we run into."