fic update jumpscare
Steven Lancaster followed his guide down the long corridor, his jaw tight and his body tense as he fervently wished that the man would go just a bit faster. He had hastily reassigned his duties as soon as the news reached him, and had traveled to the Nether at once, but the date of the letter he had received was dated a week before when it had arrived. With no further information, Steven couldn't help but fear the worst.
The piglin guard halted at the end of the hallway, pushing open the door and stepping aside to admit Steven into his brother's bedchamber. Steven wasted no time in hurrying inside and seeking out his little brother, and he soon found him sitting on a bench with a healer attending to his wounds.
"Brine," he exclaimed, and Herobrine looked up.
"Steven!" He broke into a little grin, which was pulled into a wince when the piglin healer peeled strips of dirty, white fabric away from his chest, "I was not aware that you were coming. What brings you here?"
"What brings- you, Brine! I had heard that you were gravely injured." Steven crossed the room towards him, grabbing a stool and dragging it over to the bench so that he might sit before him. Herobrine's flippant attitude was already easing his concerns, assuring him that his little brother had not been too greatly affected by his ordeal.
"Oh, that." Herobrine looked down at himself as the last of the bandages were pulled away. He had an ugly gash down his chest, and stitches over his heart where he had undoubtedly been run through. "It aches, but it's healing nicely," Herobrine went on, referring to his gruesome wounds as if they were nothing more than a scrape. "I expect to be able to resume my duties within the week."
"Brine, are you certain?" Steven pressed. "What happened to you would have killed an ordinary man, and once your attackers learn that they have failed they are likely to try something of this nature again. The lack of focus on your safety is very worrisome, I don't think-"
"Yes, it would have killed an ordinary man," Brine cut him off. "But I am not ordinary, am I? All the more reason that it should be me, right?" He shot his older brother a smile, and Steven's heart twisted in his chest at the thought of Herobrine bleeding out on the floor of his own throne room. "I was to blame as well, I allowed myself to be caught off guard," Herobrine went on. "It will not happen again."
Steven sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "You are too selfless for your own good," he muttered. "Very well. But please tell me that you will at least strengthen your personal guard."
"You always worry," Herobrine scolded him, lifting his arms as his doctor began to layer new bandages atop the wounds on his chest. "I am not all that much younger than you."
"I care about you just the same." Steven reached out to rest a hand on his knee. "Please be safe."
"I will," Herobrine promised. Steven made to stand, then stopped.
"Here, I nearly forgot." He held out a golden apple, glimmering in the light of the glowstone lamps. "Should you want to return to your duties immediately, or just to keep around for when it is next needed."
"Ah." Herobrine accepted the gift with a grateful nod. "Thank you, Steven, that is thoughtful of you."
"Of course." Steven rose, and retreated back to the doorway, casting a final glance at his little brother before he left him to be tended to.
"There," Alex spoke up, lifting her hand to point, and Evangeline snapped out of her thoughts as she focused on the tunnel ahead of them.
"Finally," she murmured, and Herobrine nodded his agreement. Ahead of them, about 150 feet down the seemingly endless tunnel, was an opening out into a larger cavern.
After they had each gotten what they deemed to be a sufficient amount of rest, Evangeline and her companions had continued on their way down the passage. It had been several hours already since they had risen, and, along with the hours they had spent traveling the previous day, Evangeline was very ready to be out of the cramped tunnel. Increased tolerance to caves or otherwise, she was growing very tired of being underground.
After having stopped and rested twice since they had last seen the skeletons that they had been tracking, Evangeline was sure that they were hours behind their prey. Being composed of nothing but charred bone, without flesh to feed or lungs with which to breathe, she highly doubted that they required any sort of rest. So their ability to follow them further would depend on whether or not they left a trail clear enough to be tracked.
They stepped out of the tunnel, and Evangeline blinked, squinting her eyes against the light that reflected off the rocks from the great lava lake that stretched out ahead of them and to the left. They were back in the wastes, with nothing but lava and barren rock as far as the eye could see.
"Where to now?" She asked once her eyes had adjusted. In response, Herobrine glanced around at their surroundings before getting down to one knee to get a better look at the rock beneath them. Evangeline took the opportunity to lean back against the rock wall and adjust her boots, as if that would soothe the pain in her aching feet. She was not accustomed to traveling on foot for so many days at a time. The last time she had done so would have been…
"I'm not seeing any sign of them here," Herobrine said at last. "The ground is too firm. But there are not all that many routes they could have taken, so we must keep going."
"I can scout around," Evangeline suggested, eager for a chance to spread her wings.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Alex broke in flatly, and Herobrine gave a firm nod.
Evangeline pursed her lips. "I won't land this time, if it makes you feel any better."
"Let's not split up." Herobrine straightened up again. "Not yet, anyway. If we have no other choice, your mobility will be an asset, but we have no reason to fall back on it just yet." Evangeline conceded, pushing off the wall and falling into step beside Alex as Herobrine made his way down from the mouth of the tunnel, straight ahead between the cliffs on their right and the sea of lava on their left.
As much as she had disliked the tunnel, Evangeline found that she had begun to take for granted the slightly cooler atmosphere within it, due to the insulation that the tons of rock had afforded from the heat of the lava lakes. Here, beside one of such bodies of lava, Evangeline felt the full heat of the Nether once more, and dearly missed the light and breathable fabric of her uniform that she had traded away for a set of hand-me-down piglin garb.
Herobrine seemed completely unaffected by the heat, which made sense from what she knew of him. Herobrine had always been highly sensitive to cold, which became obvious to her from the second day that they traveled together, upon which he had fallen into a cold river and quickly become hypothermic. At least he was granted a resistance to the inverse; even now, in his long-sleeved uniform, he looked just as comfortable as Evangeline might be on a summer day in the Aether.
Alex, too, looked comfortable- physically, anyway. Evangeline had caught no small number of strange looks from her since she had woken earlier that day. Evangeline couldn't exactly blame her. When she was roused so that they could get ready to depart, she was still curled up against Herobrine, and Alex appeared to have been awake for some time. She was clearly curious about what had changed since last they had spoken on the matter.
Evangeline had told their young guide, only a few days prior, in no uncertain terms that she would not be pursuing Herobrine since he didn't return her affections. Clearly she had been wrong. Not only that, but his unfriendly demeanor towards her at the beginning of their mission had been out of a desire to serve some sort of penance for his sins. Evangeline knew that no matter how much he punished himself, he would never count himself absolved of all he had done, and that condemning himself to a life of misery would only hurt both of them. Unfortunately, it seemed to her like that was what he wanted.
Her gaze strayed out over the glittering lava as they passed by. The molten stone was the lifeblood of the Nether, providing light and warmth in the absence of the sun in these endless caverns. Evangeline wondered at the first creatures that saw fit to settle here. What could have tempted them to leave the Overworld and make their home here, so many leagues beneath the surface?
Across the lake, Evangeline caught a glimpse of movement, and she lifted her chin to get a better look.
On the far shore, about a hundred feet away from where she walked, was a group of about eight piglins traveling in the opposite direction. The majority of them were dressed in black, adorned with the crest of the shattered bone that was displayed at Sirben's camp where she had been held prisoner. In their midst was another piglin, dressed in simple browns not unlike Evangeline herself, whose wrists were bound behind his back. The group didn't seem to have noticed them, which didn't come as a surprise. Valkyries were blessed with vision sharper than any other race could boast.
"Look," Evangeline caught her companions' attention, "Some more of Sirben's colleagues." Alex turned first, peering across the lake with narrowed eyes, but Herobrine was the one to respond first.
"We should get behind cover."
"Wait." Evangeline stopped him as he turned on his heel. "They have a prisoner. Perhaps he has information that we can use."
"We are considerably outnumbered," Herobrine shot back, his gaze hard as he caught her eye. "And it's likely that their prisoner is nothing more than the result of a quarrel amongst themselves."
"He isn't dressed in their uniform," Evangeline argued. "And even if he should be, isn't that all the more reason to intervene? A member of Sirben's cohort would certainly have much more information about Null than anyone else we have encountered. They may have a numbers advantage, but between your fighting ability and my mobility, I am confident that they would stand no chance."
Herobrine tightened his jaw, looking away, and Evangeline realized abruptly what was on his mind. "Or," she offered, "I could go alone. Perhaps Alex could draw their attention while I-"
"No," he interrupted. "I will go with you. I only-" he cut himself off, dashing a hand through his hair. "I don't want you to underestimate them," he finally finished.
"I won't," Evangeline told him. Although she may not have faced any of Null's lackeys herself, she was well aware of the damage that they had wrought on Herobrine.
"Alex, meet us on the other side." She spread her wings, crouching down as she turned towards the lava lake. "Come on, before they get too far away."
