CHRONICLE

BOOK ONE: LYDIA

PART TWO: THE FALL

Chapter Ten: The Invitation

Year 266 F.E. (First Era)

Time, to the gods, is irrelevant.

When one refers to a 'short while', it could mean a time period from a few seconds in length to a number of decades. Gods are capable of waiting for centuries for their desired results or making them happen in a fraction of a second. Even to the least of gods, time is not a worry for them in their immortality, as it is to mortal humans.

Thus the war went between Laskig and Herobrine. Laskig went into hiding once more after he succeeded in tearing the rift between the creators, coming out only to make small disturbances here and there. Herobrine, on the other hand, worked tirelessly to find the traitor among the gods and find a way to save his people from the madness the war would bring on. All the while, Luminara remained in a police state, and its people lived in fear.

For Laskig, it meant Herobrine was doing his work for him.

So, for the six years leading up to Laskig's charge from the Void god, the situation between Herobrine and Laskig remained almost unchanged, with Laskig simply lying in wait for the proper chance to make another strike to fully test the lesser Creator god's power.

For Jonas's family, things could not have been more different.

Lydia and Jonas became estranged, disagreeing on many things. Lydia argued that they must move as far away from Luminara as possible, for Herobrine could no longer protect them, but Jonas, being a staunch believer in Herobrine, adamantly refused to go. Hanna loved her sister and father dearly, but she was often caught in the crossfire for her inability to take sides. She had only met Herobrine once, when she was four years old, and her memories of the experience were fuzzy and distant.

When the snows cleared when Hanna was approaching thirteen, Lydia made her decision. She would take Hanna with her to Arrenvale, a nation that had recently declared independence from Luminara's central rule and Herobrine's tyranny. She had a connection to the royal family through one of her companions from her days as a ranger, and accommodations were already set up. All that remained was to pack up and leave.

Lydia was beyond listening to her father now.

Jonas, with his wife gone and his daughters leaving for another nation, had few places left to turn. Alone, running out of money, and desperate for distraction, he turned to the one thing he yet knew how to do.

Build.

South of Luminara, a new temple was being added to. The two shrines to Herobrine and Notch were being given full sanctuaries, and a library and university were to be added. Packing up his things, and giving Alayne's grave one last farewell, Jonas left for the mountains of the south, where a master architect was needed.

The father and daughters did not see one another for many years thereafter.

Richard, dauphin of Arrenvale, proposed to Lydia's little sister on her eighteenth birthday.

Lydia, who was out riding in the forest that afternoon, came galloping back as soon as the page sent by her sister reached her, and burst through the doors of the solar wearing an expression that would send rocks running for cover. Richard and Hanna had been sitting almost in each other's laps on the loveseat before the fireplace, but Hanna stood up with a start when Lydia stormed in. Richard looked up, swallowed, and stumbled to his feet after her.

Lydia stopped before the fiances and crossed her arms, looking between her sister and the crown prince.

"I hear you got engaged this morning," she said, and they both nodded. "Good." Lydia roughly grabbed Richard by the collar and pulled him close.

"I will say this once and once only: You will be faithful to my sister. If I hear of any mistreatment or a single word from you that is not selflessly loving towards her, I don't care if I have to commit high treason to do it, I will kill you myself. Is that clear?"

Richard swallowed again and nodded, glancing sideways at Hanna, who was caught between surprise and a silly bout of amusement.

"Lydia!" she protested, willing with all her might not to giggle. Lydia took after their mother completely, standing half a head taller than Richard and built solidly for all her slender, angular curves. Her arms were strong enough to lift Richard off the ground for their years drawing back the string of a seventy-pound bow, and she had her former master's bullheaded stubbornness. Lydia was a force to be reckoned with. Richard, on the other hand, while handsome and muscular enough for his light training with the sword and other work squires did growing up, simply wasn't a hardened, seasoned ranger. Lydia's glare didn't let up as she released his collar and let him retreat a step.

"I'm going to hold you to that, prince." Lydia spat, and then took her sister by the hand and strode out of the solar, Hanna half-running to keep up with her sister's longer stride. The only similarity she had to her mother was her dark eyes and hair- beyond that, she just wasn't very tall or strong at all.

But for all their physical differences, both girls had a strong feminine streak.

Once the solar doors had closed behind them, Hanna and Lydia exploded into squealing giggles and hugged fiercely.

"I'm so glad he finally proposed!" Lydia exclaimed. "It's about bloody time!" Hanna fought to stop laughing long enough to talk.

"Give him some credit," she shot back. "He was waiting for me to grow up a little."

"I left home at fifteen," Lydia reminded Hanna. "I consider grown-up-ness to be more than age. You two were meant for each other from the start." The sisters finally finished giggling and stood with their backs to the wall, sighing.

"Did you really mean it?" Hanna asked.

"What?"

"That you would kill him if he mistreated me."

"Oh, I meant it," Lydia said, "But I don't think I'll have to. You saw the look on his face- I think I scared him enough." Hanna covered her face and laughed helplessly.

"At least he was wise enough not to say anything- his voice would have cracked the way it always does when he's nervous. He's really got to work at that." Now it was Lydia's turn to laugh.

"Oho! I didn't know he still had that. I thought he grew out of it. Imagine him holding court like that!" Hanna's face was starting to turn red.

"I heard that," a very not-amused voice drawled from behind the solar doors. That just set the sisters off all over again. Eventually, they stumbled back into the solar, and Lydia had to try several times to wipe the grin off her face and replace it with her usual threatening scowl. Hanna went straight to Richard and pecked him on the cheek. He rolled his eyes, but Lydia could see how much he loved her sister. The two had been fast friends from the day Lydia had brought her sister to Arrenvale, and friendship had blossomed from there. It made her think of her parents- and her heart panged dully at that. She still hadn't forgotten the night her mother died, and she never would. Nor would she forget her last farewell to her father, and it wasn't a happy one.

"So, when's the wedding?" Lydia asked, and the couple looked up.

"As soon as possible. I'm thinking about two weeks from today." Richard answered.

"Two weeks!"

"I'm royalty," Richard groaned. "I wasn't betrothed at birth, so my family insists that once I'm officially engaged, we waste no time with the wedding. You know, the age-old worries about producing an heir. Everyone would rather I have a queen before I'm crowned."

"I see," Lydia sighed, looking away. No wonder you waited so long to propose, she thought. Stars above! Hanna with children any younger? After all, she knew, there was never a marriage day without a marriage night.

Abruptly, Lydia shook her head and looked around desperately for a distraction, repeating over and over in her head that's not my business, that's not my business...

"Well," she said, looking back at her sister, "Happy wishes and good luck."

"Good luck?"

"She is, after all, my sister."

At that, Lydia left and immediately went to the stables. It would take another ride to clear her head.

Herobrine jerked awake with a cry, leaping to his feet with his chest heaving. He stood in a small chamber, cut from the solid rock deep below Kingshall. The only way in or out was by a deep shaft covered by a solid obsidian slab, leading straight down nearly to the level of the bedrock. The only illumination was a number of redstone torches on the walls, glowering dimly and throwing off the occasional spark. It was designed to be dim, plain, and without distraction.

This isolated chamber was the one and only place in the Overworld that Herobrine dared go into the trance-sleep. Gods did not sleep for rest. Usually, when they tired, they withdrew to lightly doze or to meditate. Seldom did they surrender to the dizzying darkness and uncertainty of full sleep unless they were severely weakened or in need of something else.

Herobrine only ever slept to dream.

He needed guidance, and he could only receive visions in the Overworld asleep. When he slept, while he was in the deep trance that mortals so casually entered each night, Herobrine received not the simple, mundane dreams of mortals, but visions of the past and future. He had reached out his awareness along the threads of time, and time had answered him.

It had not been pretty.

The future was filled with pain. Agony. White-hot agony, unendingly. He could not see beyond it. Notch, the Overworld, his people... all of them were gone, and all there was was the pain, filling him with madness. He could see his betrayal, his abandonment, and ultimately, his fall to a Void force, an ultimate power the likes of which he had never seen even in the era Before. Something powerful had developed in the neglect of the gods, and he had to work fast to find out what.

More importantly, he had to save himself from that wall of white. He did not entirely know what it meant, but he knew enough to realize that it was his ultimate destruction. If he did not act correctly now, he would be entirely unmade. His vision had shown him just one way out. A mortal. The face of a mortal that he remembered from those last days before the unrest began.

Lydia.

He could not see beyond the wall, but he could feel beyond it that somehow she would be part of the key to his own survival, and if he could help it, the survival of the Overworld, and even the entire universe. She, and the people around her, would save him. Bitterly, he thought of his brother's continuous refusal to answer his calls. Notch was barely featured in his vision, and his part to play could very well lead to his destruction.

Flying back up the shaft and into Kingshall once more, Herobrine uttered the spell that would mask his power and allow him to travel unnoticed by mortal and god alike. Then he made preparations to find the daughter of his old friend Jonas.

Adjusting the bodice of her peacock-blue gown, Lydia wished for the twenty-third time that night that she hadn't caved in to her sister's demand.

Lydia sat at the high table at the wedding feast in the castle's banquet hall, elbow-to-elbow with her sister and some Arrenvale dignitary to her other side. Hanna was deep in conversation with Richard, now the Grand Duke of Arrenvale rather than the prince, and Hanna the Duchess. Soon to be properly queen, Lydia thought. The old king and queen were preparing to retire from the arduous work of ruling a nation. It would only be a few more years now- they were both well into their sixties, nearly seventy. The princesses, Richard's older sisters, giggled over something from their table off to the side of the high table.

Lucky them. They could leave soon. Lydia was trapped in her seat until the newlyweds were ready to go.

Fortunately, the dessert course was almost over. Carefully lifting the last bite of her chocolate cake to her lips, trying to avoid spilling crumbs down the front of her gown, Lydia glanced surreptitiously around her and discovered to her dismay that she was the first one finished. More waiting, then. With a sigh, she put down her fork and lifted her wineglass to her lips to sip slowly. The glass had remained full for most of the evening- Lydia wasn't one with a taste for alcohol. Now she sipped carefully at the sour-sweet ruby liquid, grimacing slightly at the aftertaste.

Somehow, Hanna had convinced her to be chief bridesmaid, the Maid of Honor at the wedding. When she was first asked, Lydia had flatly refused.

"I'll look like a barbarian in those silly gowns," Lydia replied. "Besides, the place for relatives at weddings is in the pews. Friends and distant cousins serve as the witnesses."

"Please, Lydia," Hanna begged. "I can have a different gown made for you. All it has to match in is color, really."

"My answer is still no."

"Lydia."

Something in Hanna's tone gave Lydia pause. Having turned around to leave, she stopped and looked back at her sister.

"Please, Lydia. I don't want a featherbrained noble lady or one of their backstabbing handmaidens by my side tomorrow. I want you. I trust you." Her voice became very quiet. "I need you. Just you."

Lydia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Make sure the other bridesmaids are wearing tall shoes. I look like a giant next to them."

Hanna squealed in delight and attacked Lydia with a fierce hug.

Now, at the feast, Lydia set down her wineglass and anxiously watched her sister. Hanna's hand was tied to Richard with red silk chord, leaving just one hand free. She used that hand to carefully tap her empty wineglass with her spoon, filling the air with delicate chiming. The conversation in the room fell silent, and the newlyweds stood. Lydia followed their lead, and she and the other bridesmaids and the best man stood as well.

"I suppose it's been a long day for some of us," Richard began, his voice carrying through the banquet hall clearly. "Hopefully, the royal stores of wine helped to clear up any impatience."

A ripple of laughter flowed through the room.

"So," Richard continued, "Without any further ado, my new wife and I will retire for now. It has been a wonderful day, despite all the droning on the priest did this morning," Another ripple of laughter. "So I bid you all good night, and I wish to you all a season of prosperity this spring. Not only for myself, but for all people on this good earth. To the people." Richard lifted his glass in toast.

"To the people," everyone echoed, draining their wineglasses. Richard and Hanna stepped down off the high table, and Lydia followed her cue to leave as well, escaping the hall as quickly as she could. She and Hanna exchanged nods, and Hanna winked in reply, and then vanished through the door to the royal quarters.

Taking a deep breath, Lydia strode out of the hall, going straight across the courtyard as a shortcut to her lodgings near the servant's quarters.

Herobrine stood atop the courtyard walls, waiting for the blue-clad woman to pass. He was dressed entirely in black, with a black cloak over his shoulders and hood over his head. When the woman had nearly reached the gates leading back inside, he spread his arms and leaned forward, diving smoothly down off the edge of the wall and landing impossibly lightly on the grass below, safely behind a hedge of tall rosebushes.

Lydia heard something rustle in the grass and whirled around, eyes scanning the semidarkness of twilight around her. She could hear no one there, but her instincts told her otherwise. She slowly began to approach the rosebushes where she heard the sound, wishing she had a weapon on her more substantial than the knife strapped to her ankle.

Herobrine vaulted silently over the hedge just beyond her line of sight and came up behind her, tapping her shoulder. Lydia spun, fist ready, but froze at the last second.

"You," she breathed, tensing. "It's really you." A broiling mix of emotions built up inside her, something between fear, anger, and nostalgia. Herobrine took a step back, crossing his arms across his chest. He could sense the internal struggle in Lydia, and it troubled him.

"Considering who your father is, it surprises me that you of all people should be so worried to see me," he said, his voice soft. Lydia clenched her jaw and lowered her hands.

"I am my mother's daughter," Lydia replied, her voice stiff, "And she was killed by the people you promised to protect us from." Herobrine stiffened, then relaxed, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, Lydia thought she saw the barest glimmer of a tear threatening.

"I am sorry." Herobrine's voice was barely more than a whisper.

"Why have you come here?" Lydia demanded. "Why now? After everything that has happened? I believed in you as a child. I trusted your power."

No words could have cut Herobrine more deeply. He took a deep breath, brushing his hair out of his eyes with one hand.

"Lydia, you do not have to trust me entirely. Just believe me when I say that I was just as helpless as you. Your mother wasn't the only victim of that night. There are greater forces than any of us could have ever imagined at work here, and the war has only just begun. I need your help."

"What do you mean you need my help? I needed your help! You could have saved my brethren, the ones that wore your badge. You could have saved my mother!"

"I could not." Herobrine's voice changed, dropping down into a different range on the last word and sending a vague ripple of power through the air. Lydia felt that power and shuddered. Narrowing her eyes, she leveled her gaze at Herobrine, but said nothing.

Herobrine looked up at the sky for a moment, watching the stars. He would need to return soon. Looking back at Lydia, he drew a small envelope from a concealed pocket. "Come to Luminara. We can speak safely there."

Herobrine vanished into thin air, leaving the envelope fluttering down to the ground. Lydia hesitated, looking around, but the god was really gone. Slowly stepping forward, she gingerly picked up the envelope off the ground and took a closer look. It was thick, cream-white vellum tied with red satin ribbon threaded through it, and sealed in black wax. To Lydia, it read on the front, in flowing black script. Gripping the invitation in one hand, Lydia stalked back to her chambers, meaning to think this over for the night.

The next morning, Lydia had made up her mind. Rising early, she dressed quickly in her ranger's tunic and riding leathers, going straight to the stables to claim her horse.

"Tell my sister when she wakes up that I'm taking a trip to Luminara. Something has come up that I need to take care of." she told the groom, pressing a coin into his hand as insurance that he would. The groom bowed and strode off, letting Lydia lead her own horse out of the stables as she preferred and mount unaided.

Closing her legs and slapping the reigns, Lydia urged her horse into a hard gallop to the west, back to the golden city.

It had been a long time since she had seen her childhood home.

Sorry I'm late getting back. Did I miss anything?

No? Good.

Okay, looks like it's officially excuse time. It wasn't sickness this time. I am sick- it's the reason I'm writing, since I'm bored out of my mind and unable to go to school. It wasn't writer's block. So...uh... (right, last one I have up my sleeve...) I was busy! Yeah, that sounds right. Busy! You know, that school-thing.

...Anyway,

At last, I have passed the point of filler- uh... essential but apologetically long-winded plot parts chapters, and gotten into a part where we get to see action. Aaand, you guessed it, that special little part of the story where we learn how Herobrine lost it all. This part isn't called THE FALL for nothing, after all.

Oh, great. I'm forecasting. Bad form. Maybe I should stop.

Actually, it seems like a great idea to shut up now.

So, on a parting note, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Review or something...if you feel like it. My constant requests, as it has come to my attention, have been bothering people. (Shaddup. Sometimes people will review if you can just get them to remember to.) But I will say this, if you liked this, then remember that I AM NOT DONE with this story and FOLLOW it, so you never miss out on any updates. 'Nuff said.

Remember to tell your friends about this if you like it! I want to see how far I can go with this story, and I can't do it without you.

Huntress out.