The Nether
Hey. I'm Mike... not that it matters anymore. Names don't matter in the Nether, just your strength, and the colour of your blood in the end.
I ought to begin at the start. It was a Mondas evening, and I was just leaving the mine for the night. As I walked to the storeroom to put away the ancient pickaxe I was carrying, I saw some of the others carrying up some sort of black rock. I questioned what they were doing, and they replied that Chris had found it, in a deep cave. Thinking no more of it, I went up to the town to return home after a long day's work.
On the way home, Firenze the wizard stopped me. He asked me to fetch a book from the library. When I asked for it, the librarian looked very worried, and disappeared into a back room. She came out holding the book carefully, as though it was made of fragile glass. I took it, examined it to check it was the right one – black leather, silver runes, pentacle on the front – then stuffed it into my bag. The librarian winced. Then I set off home, past the docks and the lake, past the crumbling watchtower and the wizard's house, tall and eerie with the arched windows that looked like watching eyes in the night, where I dropped off the book. How I wish now that I had dropped it in the lake and never looked back.
On Frydas, the Council called an emergency meeting of the entire town. I hurried to the town square to see what was wrong – they almost never call a meeting, and as for an emergency one...
"We call this meeting, on the third lunar phase, of the second lunation, of the four hundred and fifth lunar year of Minecraftia, to discuss the discovery of a previously unidentified material found by Christopher Mandlebune, a member of the Delta Squad of the Mining category," intoned the Head of the Council. I stifled a yawn. I had been there for thirty seconds and I was already bored. The Head threw back his hood and cast his dark eyes over the audience.
"Our resident wizard, Firenze Fire-Frost, has identified the material as Obsidian. It has very strong magical properties, and can be used in mystical ways. He has proposed that he try to emulate a technique demonstrated in one of his books. We are looking for volunteers to aid him. But be warned... you may not return." I grinned. I was already certain of my choice.
"Come to us after the assembly if you would like to volunteer," said the Head coldly. He cast his eyes over the audience, then turned, put his hood up and left. I immediately began to push my way through the crowd towards the Council, but many of the other people wanted to see them as well. Presumably, getting into this "volunteer" group of Firenze's would be harder than I thought.