Chapter ten: The future

Cassandra heard someone approach. She looked up to see Ari walking towards her.

She sighed, letting her shoulders hang and sitting back down, staring at the small lake before her. It was one of the many lakes in the Realm that surrounded the largest one near the center.

Ari sat down next to her.

"I don't want to hear it," Cassandra said.

"Hear what?"

"You know what I'm talking about," Cassandra said. "I don't like being confronted about it."

"About you wanting to look for Jack."

She glanced at Ari. "Yeah."

"I thought you hated him."

"Maybe I did."

"I thought you mistrusted him."

"I did. But if he's really prepared to risk his life like this, how could I?"

"He's risked his life before. You didn't seem to care much."

"I didn't trust him because he had secrets!" Cassandra said as she stood up. "But he still saved Yaebi. Twice. I just ignored that. And now he…" She wavered. "He's going to die because I…"

Ari sighed, standing up as well. "Cass… He didn't leave because of you."

"Maybe he wouldn't've gone away if I'd been less…less harsh…"

"He would've gone anyway," Ari softly said. "I mean, does he seem like the guy who leaves everything behind because one person hurts his feelings? Does he seem like the kind of guy whose feelings can be hurt? Jack went on a fool's errand because of some dream. Or because Herobrine started messing with his head or something. None of this is your fault, Cass."

Cassandra glanced at her. Her eyes were glistening. "When you suggested those dreams might be real," she eventually said in a ragged voice, "did you really believe that?"

"Not really," Ari admitted. "What about you?"

"I don't know what to believe anymore. You're right about me—I really am a hypocrite. I barely know whose side I'm really on."

"And still you want to go look for him." Ari hesitated. "And…if you're going, then I don't think there's anything I could do to stop you, so…I'll join you instead."

Cassandra paused. She looked at Ari, surprised.

"I don't know what he's really trying to do," Ari said. "But I'm not going to let you go alone."

Cassandra looked at her sister.

Then she hugged Ari, catching the elder off-guard.

The hallway Iris and Minerva led Jack through ended in a dark netherrack room that didn't look like it belonged in a mine.

Jack looked around. The few weak, blood-red torches that were present were placed in sconces on pillars. The little light they provided was just about enough to illuminate the room for the most part.

In a corner, a few metal rods leaned against the wall, reflecting some of the light. They looked a little out of place, partly because they didn't have a speck of rust on them.

Against the wall stood a table of dark red stone. A single sheet of paper lay on it. It was accompanied by a simple chair. Jack curiously moved towards it.

He frowned as he got closer. This paper didn't look anything like the parchment he'd seen in the Overworld. This looked more…neat. Like…

Like the kind of paper they use on Earth.

"There," Minerva said. "That table."

Jack glanced at her, then sat down at the table. He looked at the paper. The letters that formed the message looked like they'd come from a printer—no one could possibly mimic that so perfectly.

As if this wasn't enough to unnerve him, the first three words of the message caught his eye instantly. He froze.

"Can you read it out loud?" Iris asked.

Jack nodded slowly.

Harrison Jack Snyder, he read.

He looked at the girls to see their reactions. They both frowned, confused.

"How long has this been here?" Jack finally asked.

"This all…" Minerva said, gesturing to the room around her. "For as long as we can remember. That message only appeared recently."

"How recent?"

The girls shared a glance. "A year and a half, at least," Iris said.

"What?" Jack said. "You're saying that whoever wrote this knew I'd come here a year and a half before it actually happened?"

"From what I've heard," Iris said, "Herobrine's not bound to time as strictly as we are; I don't know if he can actually see the future like it's set in stone, but he has a better understanding of time as a whole. Maybe he predicted this…?"

"Keep reading," Minerva said. "I'd like to know what else he's written."

Jack obeyed, reading out loud.

Harrison Jack Snyder.

By the time you read this, you will have suffered some confusing, disheartening, frustrating events, the most prominent one being your abduction from your world. Following that, you made allies that most humans would frown at with a stubborn disgust. You will either have abandoned those allies to come here, or you will have convinced them to accompany you.

Before you continue reading, I will make one thing clear: You were taken to the Overworld for a reason. No, this is not some prophecy; this is merely a plan, forged by a being of incomprehensible power—me.

"What an ego," Jack commented.

"Well, he's not wrong," Iris said.

"Assuming Herobrine really is the one who wrote this to begin with," Minerva said.

Jack continued reading. You have been doubting the reality of these worlds, unsure as to what they truly are, but the connections they have to your world are little more than ideas that have been placed into the heads of creators.

"What does that even mean?" Minerva asked. "Creators…?"

Game creators, Jack thought. He's talking about Minecraft. "It doesn't matter."

She frowned, and he continued.

In other words, the similarities are not a complete coincidence, but these worlds are nevertheless their own—not the artificial copies you have come to know.

"Okay, that just makes things weirder," Minerva said. "I'm assuming you know what this guy's talking about?"

"Guess he didn't predict me reading this to you," Jack sighed. "Look, if this letter's telling the truth, then trust me that it's really not important. I just want to finish this as soon as possible."

Deep down, he felt a weight being removed from him. Finally he had some sort of confirmation about what these worlds really were, and he was very glad that this wasn't Minecraft. If it had been, he wouldn't have been sure if the friends he'd made were anything more than code.

Especially Andr, right? a completely random voice said in his head. After all, she's a little more than a friend to y—

Quiet, he told himself. Seemed like his mental conflict was back. He suppressed it.

He continued. There are other things you must be made aware of. Soon. The earlier Áhýdan has been taken care of, the better. Return to this mine's intersection and take the path opposite of the entrance. Bring the Blaze with you. She will be able to help from there.

"The Blaze?" Minerva said. "He means Blazette?"

Jack nodded, keeping his face straight. "Probably. I heard the Hunters of Ironhand gave each mob a nickname like that."

Minerva nodded. "The Blaze, huh… Not too bad, I guess. It fits her. Wonder what my codename is."

"I think it's the Wither Skeleton," Jack absently said.

"How do you know that?"

"Not important."

The letter didn't have much more to say.

Sincerely,

Herobrine.

Jack shuddered upon reading that name. So this letter had come from Herobrine. How did he know Jack would come here? Was he actually able to foresee the future…? Or was he just able to calculate the most likely outcome of an event like this?

Or was it just a guess, a mere hope that this plan the letter had mentioned was actually going to come to pass?

"What is Herobrine, exactly?" Jack asked. "Some kind of ghost?"

"He doesn't talk much about his past or what he is," Iris said. "All we know for sure is that he rules the Nether."

Jack looked at her. "You met him in person?"

She nodded. "Not often, but sometimes. His daughter's a bit more talkative."

"He has a daughter?!"

"Really," Minerva said, "she's basically a copy of Herobrine himself, though with some very obvious differences. He…designed her, I guess you could say." She turned around. "Anyways, now that we know what the letter says, let's go see Blazette. Think on what we just learned before we meet our oh so powerful lord Herobrine." She paused, then glanced at Jack. "So…your first name is actually Harrison?"

Jack gave her an unamused look. "Seriously? That's the only thing in that letter that got your attention?"

"Why use your middle name? What's wrong with your first?"

"Nothing's 'wrong'," Jack said, mildly annoyed. "My father and brother use their middle names too; I figured I might as well continue that tradition."

He stood up from his seat—taking the letter with him—and followed the mobs to the break room, which he noticed looked kind of like the conference room in Athena's old home, if a little larger. Blazette lazily sat on a netherrack chair, but she stood up when the others came in. She looked at them expectantly.

"I guess I should just read it again," Jack sighed. He held up the letter and took a breath.

"Wait," Minerva said.

Jack frowned, then saw she was looking at something behind him. He turned around to see two new faces, one of which he realized he'd seen before. The other one timidly lingered near the room's entrance.

The familiar one was Honetsu—Gelli's oldest sister, whom Jack had briefly met in the Nether fortress. She had a pack on her back. The other one was a girl Jack hadn't seen before, but looking at her white hair and clothing gave him an idea which mob it was.

"Yes," Blazette said. "Food delivery. I'm starving over here."

Mystia cursed under her breath as she accidently knocked an urn off the table. She kneeled down to pick it back up, only to find out that the powder inside had spread all over the floor. It was going to take a while to gather it all.

As she went to collect it, still cursing, the door opened and Sylvia entered. The young mob carried a wooden box with ingredients that she placed in the corner. Then she walked back towards the door.

Mystia came to her senses at the last second. "Wait," she hastily said.

Sylvia looked at her.

Mystia stumbled to her feet. "Can we talk, Syl?"

The silverfish nodded, then sat down on a spare seat. Mystia sat down as well.

"There's this whole thing going on with Jack," Mystia said. "I want to form a plan with whoever's willing to come with me."

"Okay… Well, I'd just get in the way, so…" Sylvia stood up, but Mystia gestured for her to sit back down.

"Look, I just…" Mystia fell silent. "I know you're doubtful about this situation. You think Jack might be a spy…"

"I don't know what to believe."

"Either way, you're not in a very comfortable place right now."

"No one is."

"But the two of us especially. With what we've kept from him…"

"With what you told me not to tell him."

Mystia fell silent.

Sylvia looked up at her, glaring. "You said," she quietly said, "that he wasn't going to go anywhere anytime soon. That we still had enough time to wait before telling him."

Mystia looked down.

"And what were we waiting for?" Sylvia continued. "I just blindly trusted you. I didn't tell him because of you. I'm to blame for this too, but you're the one who said we'd keep it a secret. You're the one who set that in motion."

"You're right," Mystia softly said. "You were right the whole time…and now I want to make up for that. To you and to Jack. That's why I'm going after him." She took a deep breath. "If you want to come along, you can. You won't get in the way—the more people we have, the better."

Sylvia held her gaze for a moment longer. "Then," the mob finally said, "I'll come with you. Not for you, but for him. And for the others."