Cleansing Memories in Ғɪʀᴇ

[Chapter 8] Past Mistakes

"The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies."

~Unknown

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There was a cool breeze the next morning which gave a much-needed relief from the heat of the sun. Herobrine had only slept in short bursts after his nightmare but the fatigue hadn't hit him yet, and he wasn't complaining as he was now teaching the sorcerers some of the more difficult combat spells, such as explosives and forming objects out of thin air. He paced around them as they stood in a line, throwing spell after spell at the practice dummies, sweat dripping down their faces. The dome distorted the light that came in, giving it a slight white sheen but it did nothing to block the heat.

"Don't use your emotions to help you cast!" Herobrine half-yelled as a larger than usual explosion came from Diego. "It's useful for most spells but for this one, it'll just make the explosion uncontrollable and you'll end up wiping out half of your allies and the buildings you're near."

Diego gave a huff, pushing his damp fringe back from his forehead. "How can you possibly know that?" he spat. He was tired, he was hungry, he had not had a good sleep the night before and he was really fed up with this summer heat.

"I know because I did it," Herobrine said back curtly. "Keep going, you need to build up your stamina."

After some more explosive practice, Herobrine equipped them with wooden practice swords and taught them how to use a weapon and magic simultaneously. Most of them thought that it was kinda silly as most magic was long ranged but after seeing Herobrine fight that green sorcerer several days ago, they kept their opinions to themselves. Even so, Herobrine was able to guess what they were thinking.

"I know a lot of sorcerers don't bother with swords and daggers and bows and whatnot," he said to them while they sat in the shade and took deep drinks from water bottles. "But learning them will mean that you have an advantage over any enemy, and you'll be able to protect yourselves in both long range and short range." He glanced over them, noting their exhaustion. "Take the rest of the day off, you'll need it."

The trainees cast disbelieving looks at each other as Herobrine walked away, the dome fading into the air, picking up his sword as he went and slinging it on his back. Steve had been watching at the edge of the ground and he fell into step beside his brother, walking down the main street.

"We're gonna have a meeting with a few guys," Steve said. "It'll probably be as soon as Notch can get away from Chris."

"Who?" Herobrine asked with a frown.

Steve gave a short bark of laughter. "That's right, you have no idea who he is. Chris is an older guy, he's gone slightly loopy but even so, he's a whiz at setting traps for both people and animals and he insists on giving Notch a very thorough debriefing after one of his hunting trips. The longest I can remember one going for was just over half an hour."

"Decent conversation," the younger said, raising an eyebrow for a second. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the training ground and froze, fear gripping him suddenly and completely. He had expected to see people milling about and squads training, but they were nowhere to be seen. Instead, everything was on fire; the grass burned and the flames licked up-

"Hero, you okay?" Steve asked.

Herobrine blinked and the fire was gone. The crowds were dispersing and his trainees were just getting up to leave. "Yeah," he breathed softly. "Yeah, I'm fine." But it took a lot of effort to tear his eyes away and start walking again.