Chapter 55: To You, I Send My Regards


Andvari and Malgun had managed to gain quite some ground in their absence. Once Herobrine, Steve, and Constiere met back up with the others, they soon found themselves ducking into another cave as the moon began to threaten to lower once again. However, the cave had significantly more to offer in the form of a proper pathway, allowing them to continue moving forward underneath the earth in a relatively straight line. No straight drops or sudden detours found them, much to their relief.

Relaxing on Squash's back once more as the last of the effects of the arrow left his body (and the phantom effects began to waver), Steve had let himself close his eyes for a bit, ultimately allowing Squash to guide him forward after the others. Eventually, he'd actually fallen completely asleep, though unbeknownst to him, Squash was kept on her path and guided forward by Herobrine, who took her by the reins gently and kept her walking alongside the group. Not wanting to see Steve's expression at his act of momentary kindness and care however, Herobrine soon let go of her reins, though he chose to continue walking close by Steve in order to keep an eye on him as best he could.

"So you said that he managed to get himself hit by an arrow that was able to poison him significantly? Despite his healing abilities, the poison overwhelmed his system?" Andvari momentarily glanced back at Herobrine as he spoke, watching as the other's gaze remained cast downward as they continued to walk forward.

Herobrine let out a small hum in confirmation.

"Even if he'd been hit multiple times, I don't believe that the arrow should've put him out of commission like that. I'm getting a bit concerned about what exactly the champions have been armed with if they're able to cause that much damage."

Andvari gave him a slow nod.

"…Well, also consider this: I believe that you're aware of the fact that his body is still getting accustomed to the fact that it's not exactly the same as it was, no? If my memory is serving me correctly, you experienced something similar."

"…I didn't want to think about that." Herobrine muttered.

Andvari let out a small sigh.

"Well, do. Maybe the poison was strong enough to take him out, though not for long. But also, you need to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, it was a regular kind of poison, and his body was just having a natural reaction to it, as what would typically be the case for a regular human."

A couple of footsteps caught up to Herobrine, leading him to glance and find that Constiere had joined them.

"I mean, I didn't want to say anything about it, but I was kind of thinking, too. You said that something like this was something that a divine would have to get used to, but Steve's not used to poison, right?" The boy asked. "Maybe Andi's right, and the poison wasn't custom-made? Hopefully?"

"That's wishful thinking, and you both know that well enough," Herobrine said with a sigh. "They knew who he was specifically, meaning that someone informed them of how to potentially deal with either him or me. Normal poison wouldn't work on me, so on the off-chance that they get confused about who they happen to encounter…well, it's not too bizarre to suggest that both of us were intended to be met with a kind of poison that's not meant for regular humans, mainly for the purpose of being cost-effective."

"...So instead of getting specialized poisons, they, hypothetically, decided to simply use one kind of poison that was potent enough for the both of you." Andvari took a moment to think to himself before shaking his head. "…I really hope that's not the case, given what such a poison could possibly contain."

"Me too, but I think we all know how foolish it is to hope that we wouldn't be met with much hostility." Herobrine finished, leading the other two to reply with a hum of agreement.

The rest of the journey through the cave was relatively quiet. However, once the fading light of the sun started to be seen reflecting off of the rocks placed up ahead, the group started to liven up a bit once again. Stopping relatively close to the exit of the cave, but not so close as to threaten Malgun's life, the group decided to wait out the falling of the sun beyond the horizon.

"So, how much closer to the desert are we at this point?" Constiere asked, trying to see if he could glance outside of the cave from where he was leaning against the cavern wall. "It feels like we've been traveling forever, and I'm not sure if we really made any progress…"

"You probably feel like that because you got stuck dealing with that stronghold for quite a while." Andvari said, earning a quick glare from Constiere in response.

"Believe it or not, we have made quite a substantial amount of progress." Herobrine pointed out. "In case you haven't noticed somehow, the weather's been growing steadily warmer and drier on its own. We are approaching a hotter climate, so that's been a good sign, overall."

"The nights have been getting colder, as well. I'm starting to see evidence of frost on a few of my forces." Malgun added as he stood even farther away from the entrance than the others.

"Slower mobilization?" Herobrine asked.

Malgun nodded. Andvari let out a small hum as he brought a claw to his chin.

"…The weather hasn't been that exaggerated before. That continuing trend might also be something to look into."

"…Again, hopefully not." Herobrine responded. "Regardless, we are drawing near, and that is enough of a relief, for now. All we need to do is hope that we lucked out and selected the correct desert to head toward."

"…Should we also hope that we don't run into any of the champions, either? Especially since we did just run from a place that tried to track us down?" Constiere asked.

Herobrine nodded his head briefly.

"It's only natural. Though, if what Steve said was correct, the champions certainly have better things to worry about apart from just chasing us around. In any case, we should focus our efforts on figuring out how to tackle this desert as swiftly as possible."

As the group continued walking, a sudden thought simultaneously popped up in their heads, leading to worry.

"…Anyone want to be the first to think about a quick plan B here, if we're wrong about the desert?" Constiere spoke first.

Nobody spoke for a solid minute. Distant sounds of dripping water became audible as they thought amongst themselves.

A small hum from the enderman broke it.

"…My first suggestion would be to visit Andres again and ask for specifics. Perhaps we should've thought about that prior…" Andvari finished quietly.

"...I'd be more open to doing that if it didn't suggest that our navigation skills were truly that poor. However...though it'd be embarrassing, if we happen to arrive at the point of desperation, it might be time to put our pride to the side and make that sacrifice, even if it'll potentially bear no fruit." Herobrine said, his expression filling with slight annoyance at the idea.

"…You think he's still alive by now?" Constiere asked abruptly.

Andvari looked down at him with a bit of a glare.

"What kind of question is that? Of course he is, it hasn't been so long since we last saw him!"

Constiere gave him a glare back.

"That guy reeked of death, even I could sense that from a distance."

"That was just the entire atmosphere of that graveyard, I don't think it was specifically-"

"-No, Constiere has a valid concern, Andi." Herobrine interrupted the two generals' argument. "The visible symptoms of Wither sickness hadn't yet gone into the late stages, but given how poorly that man's arm was, I can't expect his death to be anything but a sudden one. He was already fairly fatigued when I fought him, that's proof enough that when things finally progress, it'll be abrupt."

As Herobrine allowed his words to be processed by the others, a sudden thought came upon him.

"…He gave us a map, but it has aged. Even if we went back and asked him for detailed directions, who knows that the portal would still be there? Might I remind you of that dreadful possibility?" He paused, watching as the others' expressions briefly lit up in worried realization. "…Remaining out here would be for the better, in that situation. If we're already on our way, then we can continue our search accordingly."

Constiere let out a small whine at his words, grabbing at his own hair in frustration.

"Let me guess, we're gonna just have to-"

"Hope." Came the group's shared reply.

Constiere dropped his hands to the side, spinning around to kick a nearby rock with a quick shout of anger.

"Dammit!"

Herobrine met his reaction with a brief shrug.

"At the very least, we can get some training in before everything goes completely to shit." He glanced back at Steve momentarily, who remained asleep. "We're going to have to figure out how to get him accustomed to larger foes, if possible."

"Do you think that having him fight foes in larger quantities would help with that? The champions might provide some help there." Malgun spoke up, earning a sigh from Andvari.

"Apart from that stronghold, and that festival, we have yet to see any significant champion parties in the wild, I'm beginning to suspect that they're actually quite rare, in reality." Andvari said.

"If you think about it, they're probably using this time to set up their primary bases, y'know." Constiere pointed out. "Reason why we haven't seen a whole bunch of them is probably because they're organizing themselves before they need to start producing real results."

"…Another possibility that'll lead to more eventual headaches, I'm sure." Herobrine commented with a deep sigh.

He turned back to look at Steve once again, a slightly worried expression soon finding its way upon his features. As much as he loathed to admit it, he found himself drawing a bit closer as he took a more protective position next to the miner and his mount. There wasn't any present danger, sure, but something had settled deep within his bones; something that just screamed that something, somehow, was completely amiss.

He hoped that his worries wouldn't be justified in the slightest.

"...Let's focus our efforts first on searching the desert when we get there. If we do happen to cross the path of a champion party, we can only hope that it'll serve as some sort of learning experience."

Hearing sounds of agreement, Herobrine allowed himself to slightly relax for the time being, awaiting the full darkness of the cave around them.


The desert that they had decided to track down was surprisingly smaller than what they'd been expecting.

Upon finally being met with the hopeful sight of sand once again, the group found themselves being overwhelmed with the briefest feeling of relief. The desert was enclosed by both an oakwood forest and the edges of what seemed to be a desert savanna, with trees present at every edge, making it seem more like a simple pool of loose sand instead of an expansive landscape. The ground itself was broken up by a couple of ravines or so, but apart from that, the land was still small; the only thing notable about the desert was the presence of three strangely intimidating mountains all huddled up in the middle of the area. While two of the mountains appeared more like piercing spires that had broken into the sky, the remaining one was bizarrely curved, almost like the claw of a cat or the blade of a sickle.

Steve had woken up as they properly arrived, his eyes somewhat widening in awe as he focused on the three mountains up ahead.

"…Would it be a stupid thing to say that I never really thought about seeing mountains like that in a place like this?" He asked quietly.

Herobrine stood next to him and Squash, giving him a small shake of the head.

"It's not that typical of deserts to have exaggerated features like this, so no. It's promising, at the very least."

Andvari walked closer to them, looking around the desert himself.

"I agree. This desert certainly fits the description that the endermen had recalled, at the very least. Whether it's the same desert mentioned on the map is up for debate, but I suppose we'll have our conclusions soon enough."

"...Only they said 'hills,' didn't they?" Herobrine questioned, looking up to the other as he spoke. "...Those mountains surely surpass the size of mere hills."

Andvari took a moment to process his words before agreeing with a small hum.

"...Perhaps they meant hills according to their own perception, then."

Steve nodded slowly as he tuned out of the conversation, his eyes gazing over the landscape while the others spoke. Slowly, he focused on a distant sight within the savanna half of the area hugging the desert, narrowing his eyes as he tried to make out exactly what he had seen.

"…Is that a village right there?" He asked, pointing over to the area.

The group followed the direction of his finger before Herobrine let out a small sigh.

"…Unfortunately, yes." His expression fell into exhaustion for a brief moment before confusion soon settled in. "…The buildings don't look exactly fit to support a village, though."

As Steve tried to get a better look at the distant buildings, Herobrine waved him off.

"Remember, we're here to see if we can locate the End portal that Andres had marked out. Normal villages tend to stay away from having that kind of information, and I'd hazard a guess that even if they did know anything about it, the state of their village suggests that it wouldn't exactly be easy to draw that information from them."

Steve nodded his head slowly, though, his actions only drew a deep sigh from Herobrine in response.

"…It's truly pointless to try and stop you at this point, isn't it? You…" His words trailed off for a moment before a more frustrated noise left his lips. "…Nevermind. You might actually find some clues in that village regarding the surrounding area, even a name for this desert, if we're fortunate enough. But please, let us exhaust our search within the caves first before we cause or develop any potential headaches in that village. That way, if they do end up trying to kill you, we can at least provide some assistance if you so need it, which you most likely will."

Steve sent an offended glare in his direction.

"Hey! Excuse you, I'm not helpless, I think I can handle talking to a villager or two, as I've done before!"

"Mind you, you just got shot with an arrow covered in poison, and you're still recovering from the aftereffects," Herobrine emphasized his words, poking Steve in the shoulder as he spoke. "I'd have considerably more faith in you if you stopped finding miraculous ways to tempt or sustain the most amount of damage possible within such a small amount of time."

Steve gave the other a singular poke in the shoulder back in response.

"I think we both know that you of all people shouldn't be talking about that, and I think that they-" He pointed his thumb over to the mob generals. "-Know more about that than I do, and will back me up on this."

Herobrine opened his mouth briefly to retort against the other's words but failed to push anything out beyond a small, somewhat annoyed hum.

"...In any case, wait. Let's search around a bit before we start asking around for clues. We should search for and make our way down the cave systems here."

Steve smiled at his small verbal victory before nodding his head in agreement.

"Yeah, we can scope the area out a bit before the village. Are we gonna check out that mountain range first?"

Herobrine shook his head as he began to walk.

"We'll check the outer area first and close our search in. That way, if we do happen to find anything, we can close off the area effectively both above ground and in the cave systems below."

"Good to know." Steve began to walk as well, hoping to finish their search as soon as possible so that they could get a grasp of how to move ahead from there.


Strangely enough, though the desert seemed to provide quite a few caves for them to explore, none of which seemed to connect with each other. The search began on the outskirts of the desert with a couple of caves that descended relatively deep into the earth, but the pathways within eventually tapered off away from the biome and instead led elsewhere. The tunnels that seemed promising soon led to dead ends, but the group still remained rather hopeful as it became apparent that there were quite a few other tunnels and accessible caves for them to explore.

Mobs found their way around the desert in no time. Most kept their search underground, but quite a few remained on the surface, looking around for any more potential cave openings within the area. From what they discovered, a lot of the other outer cave systems stopped just near the border of the desert and seemed to avoid heading into the sands actively, though that was pure speculation.

As Herobrine and Steve currently stood outside of another cave that they intended to explore, the rest of the group had already went further inside, hoping to continue their search as efficiently as possible. The cave was located just on the edge of the desert, burrowing into a small, nearby mountain that had risen from the oakwood forest beside it. There were various ledges above and around the cave, most being made of dirt, stone, and sandstone, but the cave seemed secure enough to explore without the threat of possible collapse.

"...It might be too early to say this, but I think it's a little strange how the couple of caves we've found so far are already showing up as dead ends…" Steve spoke up, briefly turning to look through the cave entrance.

Herobrine shrugged at his words.

"...I don't think it's too much to worry about at the moment, but if it's the same for the next two cave systems or so, then we might want to start getting more concerned. There were only so many entrances spotted during our first survey of the area..." He paused. "...Then again, most of them were connected to the mountains, so perhaps we'll find something there." Herobrine responded.

Steve let out a small noise of concern.

"...If we can't find anything on the outer edges of the desert, and we can't find anything in the mountains, what's the plan then?"

Herobrine thought to himself for a moment, bringing up a hand to his chin.

"...I'd suggest that we try digging through the caves ourselves to make sure that every collapsed entrance or dead end really was what it seemed to be, but that'd likely waste our time even further. We'd simply have to check in on the mobs we sent out to the other deserts and see if their searches were any more successful than ours. The answers to the questions that would arise afterward then come naturally, I believe."

At his answer, Steve let out a tired sigh.

"…Yeah, I guess that they would…"

As he finished, the sounds of different, moving mobs soon came to replace the silence that had briefly formed. Looking around to see the occasional shadowy movement, Steve went to lean more against the rocky surface behind them as he briefly considered going back to search through the cave himself again.

"…Remind me why we're waiting here again? I feel like just talking here does way less than choosing another cave to search through ourselves, you know."

"Because the search through this cave is almost complete, and we're waiting for the others to regroup with us. We'll need to discuss how exactly we're going to move our efforts to the mountains so we can search through it as quickly as possible. Again, once we exhaust our efforts, we'll need to shift our actions accordingly."

Steve nodded his head slowly.

"…Can't we help out again in the meantime, though?"

Herobrine glared at him for a moment.

"No. They've already searched through most of the cave, and are likely either exploring the lowest levels or are already on their way back up. It'd be pointless going down there now, you know."

Steve sighed in defeat, leading to Herobrine briefly rolling his eyes in response.

Suddenly, as if being hit, Herobrine's posture stiffened as his eyes went slightly wider than before in brief alarm. As Steve waited to hear what was going on, a wave of quick dread overwhelmed his body, causing his own conclusions to be drawn.

"...Bad news?" He asked quietly.

"Someone's in the area. There's a divine standing relatively close to the border of the desert, though they're more on the other side near the village. I just felt their presence." Herobrine reported.

Standing back up from where he was leaning, Steve continued to look to Herobrine for answers.

"Are they heading our way, you think?"

"…I don't think that village would be of any concern to the divines if it's been like that for a while, so it's a likely yes, I believe."

Still uncertain of what exactly Herobrine was talking about regarding the state of the village, Steve chose to take his word for it.

"Can you tell who it is from here?"

Herobrine thought to himself for a moment before shaking his head.

"No. I just feel that they're near us. It seems like they just recently used a portal or so; their presence is notable, but…well, muddled."

"...Should we head into the cave and hope that they just…pass by?"

Herobrine shook his head.

"If I felt them from here, they've likely already felt me as well. We can only hope that they're here to keep light tabs, but I wouldn't suggest that we have any particularly high hopes that they'll simply leave-"

The briefest sounds of nearby spacial distortion cut him off, leaving Herobrine silent. Both of them stared at each other in brief shock at the fact that it'd taken so little time for their safety to be compromised.

"My, this is quite an effective search you've got going here, isn't it?"

A voice separate from their own called out to them, immediately sending them on even higher alert than before as they began to search for the owner's voice. Not too long after, however, a groan escaped Herobrine's lips as he soon found who they were looking for.

"No. No. Not you!" Herobrine shouted, pointing off to the mountainside as he finished.

Steve turned to face where the other was pointing, finding himself immediately shocked at what he saw.

There, sitting on a sandstone ledge with one leg crossed over the other, was a familiar head of strawberry blonde.

"Yes. Yes, me. Yes, me, who took the time to track you down here in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of my ever-busy, ever-stressful schedule." Caraway replied snarkily, taking a moment to adjust himself on the ledge. "...I see that your party has remained alive…for the most part. One of you seems to already be dead, and the other is heavily injured. The redhead, I mean. As someone who is almost of similar appearance, I express my concern for them, and request that you check in with them soon."

Meeting the other with an equally as annoyed expression, Herobrine immediately responded.

"For the record, he usually looks like that, but that's beside the point. Come with another redundant message, Caraway? I wouldn't expect you to track us again for anything more." He asked, leading the divine in question to let out a small sigh of frustration.

"Good evening to you too, I suppose. I come out of my own volition, using my own time, and this is how you respond to my act of consideration. It'd do you well to change your attitude, you know. I believe that I've already told you that, yes?"

Herobrine narrowed his gaze at the other.

"What kind of consideration? Are you not here to pester us and keep some tabs? Why show yourself again, I thought that you'd be too busy serving your precious king?"

"As you know, I was. That's why I'm here now." Caraway stated bluntly.

Despite the fact that he had only one other interaction to base his observations on, it was rather unnerving to Steve how the other divine being was currently acting. No mentions of statistics, no mention of set percentages, nothing that had previously attached themselves to the other's manner of speech were evident now. Even in the dark, he could tell that something was wrong.

Caraway cleared his throat before continuing.

"…I had to track you down once I saw how desperate Maxwell's becoming. He's finally realized how ill-prepared he is for the dragon's demise, and yet, it has somehow become both the most and least of his present concerns."

Shocked that the other had even bothered telling him such a thing in the first place, Herobrine's posture immediately relaxed, though only partially.

"…That man finally came to his senses?" He asked, giving into the other's attempts at a conversation.

Caraway shook his head, leading to confusion arising on the others' faces.

"Yes…and no. He couldn't care less about what's going on down here in regards to the stability of this world. What's driving him insane is the fact that we're now at the point of decline where the Aether itself can feel how bad things are getting, if only in short bursts."

Herobrine and Steve shared a brief look before turning back toward Caraway.

"…How so?" Herobrine asked, though somewhat quieter than before.

Caraway shrugged.

"Beyond brief lulls in our abilities to use our powers, I'd say that the wildlife is feeling more side effects at the moment. Believe it or not, when calamity begins to strike, usually it's the beasts who feel it first. Several times now, the cries of Aetheren fauna have been heard coming from within the forests, and it's downright haunting."

"And that means that the dragon is in a state of rapid destabilization?"

"That's how Maxwell has taken it. In reality, as you likely know, it's approaching that state, as we have yet to see any of the typical death markers. But, as I said before, he's focused more on other matters that are stressing him out even more. He's worried that these lulls of energy will get more and more frequent and that you'll take advantage of one of these times in order to find and eliminate him."

Herobrine narrowed his gaze.

"Does he even realize that's the least of my concerns at the moment?"

Caraway let out a small huff.

"That's what I told him, but he refused to believe me and instead opted to focus his efforts completely on trying to be even more disorganized than before…I can't believe that it's come to this, but I can no longer allow Maxwell to run unchecked. I have calculated the odds of his plans going south, and they're all near 90%. I've tried countless times to tell him, and yet, he's chosen to ignore my warnings in pursuit of his madness." Caraway used his hand to push his glasses up before directing his gaze downward to Herobrine in particular. "I come not as a messenger of Maxwell nor of Mojang. I come as a surveyor of reality; as an observer of the delicate state of the worlds we've created. Not only that, but I come as a concerned older sibling who worries for the safety of his family, though estranged one member may be."

Though Steve froze in shock and immediately turned to look at Herobrine for answers, the man in question only narrowed his gaze at Caraway in response.

"I do not appreciate what you call yourself, but never mind that. Finish what you came to tell us, and allow us to move on."

Caraway let out a small sigh.

"I'm telling you this because I'm well aware of how prepared you are for dealing with the dragon, which is more than what Maxwell can say at the moment. Instead of going forward with the necessary preparations, he's been using the blessing technique unsparingly on smaller weapon types. Arrows and daggers, primarily. He's giving them to champions in order to continue pursuing his vendetta against you, only bothering to tell them that these weapons serve to damage "magical" beings like the dragon. No doubt they will use them on you when the time calls for it. Not only that, but he's tasked a certain you-probably-know-who to bring Aethren flora down here to be used in potions and poisons, disrupting things even more. He himself is an invasive species, and I'm beginning to heavily consider just handing you a blessed weapon discretely to take care of him."

"…Will you?" Herobrine asked with a bit of an amused grin on his face.

Caraway stared at him for a few seconds before narrowing his gaze at him.

"…On second thought, no. I don't like the look in your eyes." Caraway pulled out a card from inside of his cape, flipping it around in his fingers for a bit. "In any case, I hope you don't encounter many of the active champions at the moment. The ones that come directly from Lunarus are armed to the teeth with anti-us, anti-you weapons."

Taking in the information for a second, Herobrine soon shook his head.

"…I'm afraid you're a bit late in giving us this warning. They targeted Steven recently, and he happened to get hit with an arrow that tested his healing abilities."

Caraway closed his eyes and nodded, processing the other's words.

"…Shame. If he's still here, however, those arrows likely weren't part of the death batch, if I may make a guess. Though, if he managed to get hit anywhere other than a key artery, then I suppose that his survival was only just barely…" His words trailed off abruptly, leaving the others in silence as Caraway lost himself in thought.

Suddenly, his eyes opened wide in realization as he turned to look at Steve specifically.

"You're a divine?!" Caraway nearly fell forward as he shouted, staring at the miner in pure disbelief, much to Herobrine's amusement.

"…Could…couldn't you guess that based on your powers?…Or whatever?" Steve asked quietly, still not entirely able to process the rest of the information that they'd just been given, his blood running cold at the idea that he'd possibly been closer to permanent death than he could've imagined.

Caraway continued to stare at him in pure shock. After the revelation seemed to finally process itself within his brain however, the older divine turned away, bringing his hand up to his chin as he thought further.

"You know, actually, I did initially discover low odds for the probability of Herobrine interacting with a human positively. Perhaps I should've looked into that a bit more."

Caraway thought a bit more to himself in silence before giving a shrug, soon after returning to his relaxed position.

"In any case...Maxwell is disturbing the balance, and he's too much of a panicked fool to realize how much damage he's doing. I'm not one for going out of my way like this, but…I feel the need to mention something that you'll have more of a problem with. Swear to me that if you're ever cornered, you will not mention who told you this."

Herobrine thought briefly before answering with a small nod.

"...Despite my better judgment, I'll consider your request."

Caraway glared at him for a moment before turning away with a bit of a frustrated groan.

"I suppose that's the most I'm gonna get out of you."

From within his vibrantly patterned cloak, Caraway reached inside and pulled out a small object, soon presenting it in his singular hand for the others to see.

"Maxwell's gotten together a couple of times with his approved council in order to discuss the End portals as they are. They're still debating which one to direct the champions toward, but nevertheless, they're making moves." Delicately balancing the ender pearl on the tips of his ring-covered fingers, Caraway narrowed his gaze at the others. "I'm only guessing here, but your goal involves finding portals. Your presence in that temple was more than enough for me to confirm that fact. If I wanted to make an even more educated guess based on statistics, I'd suspect that you're searching for End portals in particular, and you're more than aware of what you need to use them. I may not know you well, but I know well enough that you're one step ahead of us, as you have more available contact with the reality of the Overworld than most others."

With more grace than what they expected, Caraway tossed the pearl over to Herobrine, who, upon seeing it fly towards him, let out a quiet profanity as he caught the pearl as carefully as he could given the circumstances.

"Hey! These are extremely fragile, and-"

"I'm aware. I'm not here to help you in every capacity. Only in the ones that matter to all of our interests, lest I be punished upon returning to the relative safety of the Aether." Caraway took a moment to brush some of his hair away from his face. "The odds of attaining an intact, functioning ender pearl from the endermen have dropped substantially since the dragon started to fail. What would normally be a 50% chance under regular circumstances dropped to 41% a while ago, and has since dropped heavily to 23%. It'll only drop further from here, and I can estimate that near the final hours of the dragon's lifecycle, it'll reach a solid 0%, though, we can only hope that you won't cut things that heart-racingly close."

"...23%, that can't be-" Herobrine was interrupted by a card being thrown a bit too close to his face, prompting him to send a strong glare at the other divine in return.

"-Hello?! You're speaking with the god of Chance?! Me! Me! Of course that percentage is correct! Fool!" Caraway shouted at him, his words suddenly shifting to Aethren as he expressed his annoyance.

Though his sudden abrupt departure from a calm demeanor caused Steve to abruptly flinch, Herobrine remained firm.

"Calm down, I get it. Have you told anybody else about this?"

Caraway brushed his hair back again, sitting up straight as his demeanor reverted back to its initial neutrality.

"While I've tried to tell Maxwell, he refuses to listen to my warnings, as I've already told you. He'll realize the truth soon enough when everything eventually comes to bite him in the ass and it's too late for the Aether to do anything directly. Aside from that, you lot are the first to know about the percentage rates, so do with that information what you will." Caraway summoned another card into his hands, flipping it around almost absentmindedly. "In regards to Maxwell's efforts in supplying a bunch of careless mortals with our divine weapons, I will tell Mojang, who will then tell Minos, who will then handle things as he normally does. We'll work together to be rid of these weapons soon enough. Normally the creation of such things doesn't change much in terms of luck and chance and all, but every time that man manages to bless these weapons, I feel my grasp on reality slipping and slipping as the chances of it all go absolutely haywire."

"...That may be partially why the Overworld itself seems to be sustaining more damage as of late." Herobrine murmured, being only loud enough for Steve to hear. With a small nod, Steve agreed.

Caraway continued as a look of pure frustration appeared on his features.

"Him allowing such powerful things into the Overworld without moderation seriously undermines everything that everyone else is trying to do. I keep telling him that even the smallest of these weapons upsets the natural balance of magic by 0.3%, but he doesn't listen! 0.3% builds up over time, especially with the number of arrows he's blessing! I can't believe him!"

"...Now I guess we all know well enough how Claymore feels about Maxwell interfering with his collection, yes?" Herobrine commented, this time being loud enough for Caraway to hear.

Caraway rolled his eyes with a groan at the other's comment.

"I used to tell him that such a thing was to be expected with the king, but now I'm afraid I'm going to have to sincerely apologize. I never knew how meddling that man was, and you've all been actively warning me since I was old enough to be a part of his stupid politics."

The older divine began to stand up, dusting himself off as he continued to look directly at Herobrine.

"…In any case, I send my regards to you all as you deal with this problem however you intend to do so. It's a fool's errand to try and stop you, and at this point, you're being more respectful of the separate realms than Maxwell is, so I don't even have any plausible reason to be upset with you anymore. Here." He threw his card at Herobrine, who shifted the pearl in his grasp to one hand before catching the card effortlessly between his fingers. "If the need arises and your abilities haven't completely deteriorated, use that to track me. I know you likely won't, and I won't be able to provide much beyond some intel, but just for peace of mind, keep that with you."

Herobrine stared at the other a bit more coldly.

"Whose peace? We aren't close. We never were."

Caraway let out a sigh.

"...Let's just say it's for the sake of future peace, then. I hope that if you succeed in fixing this ungodly mess, we can hopefully come to learn more about each other in a more civilized manner. We are in the same household, you know."

Herobrine glared at Caraway.

"No, we aren't. I'm not returning to the Aether if everything goes well. In fact, you might find it easier to consider this the last time you'll ever see me."

Upon hearing his words, a small, almost saddened expression appeared on the older divine's face.

"...Don't say that. You might think that I'd be pleased to hear of this, but I have to stress that I'd really like more opportunities to speak with you. If you feel that way about the Aether, then that's perfectly fine, but please, don't be implying what I think you're implying."

Though Herobrine looked at him with brief suspicion, Caraway met his gaze with another small sigh.

"I'll be around. Not here, of course, but I'll be monitoring the champions in Lunarus for a bit before returning to Maxwell's side. Should I discover anything of particular annoyance, I might be inclined to tell you, but only if the benefits of doing so heavily outweigh the setbacks. Farewell."

With that, the other teleported away as abruptly as he'd appeared, prompting Herobrine to let out a sigh. Though he briefly debated simply burning away the card in his hand, he, to Steve's very brief intrigue, instead opted to pocket the "gift."

"I can only imagine how much he's downplaying the chaos of the heavens at the moment if he actually came to warn us of his own accord." Herobrine turned his attention to the pearl within his hands, looking it over once again to see if it had sustained any damage.

"...That was downplaying things?" Steve asked quietly.

Herobrine nodded his head.

"Above all else, Caraway lives to please his royal highness." He said with a bit of a mocking tone in his voice. "You remember how he usually speaks, correct? From what I know about his daily schedule, he's usually prone to only seeing situations based on their levels of probability. To actively acknowledge a threat directly and move to address it on his own terms is something I haven't seen or heard him do before, apart from only one time, and that was ages ago."

As Steve took in his words a bit, he remembered a certain point that Caraway had briefly made in his little announcement to them, bringing a slight wave of confusion to wash over him once again.

"...Can I ask you to explain what the hell did he mean by that he was coming as 'an older sibling,' because if you tell me that we have even more siblings that I didn't know about, I swear to-"

Herobrine held up a hand to silence him.

"...I'm sorry I didn't explain this to you before, but I found it completely meaningless to mention. Caraway, technically speaking now that we know the truth, is Maxwell's only biological child. Mojang was adopted. We were made by Mojang. As me and Mojang stand as Maxwell's sons, Caraway is technically our brother as well, though only in a formal sense."

As Steve took in the information, Herobrine gave him a small shrug as he went to pull out their maps.

"In any case, as much as I hate to admit it, I appreciated him taking the initiative to at least warn us that divine weapons are now confirmed to be amongst the champions…Even if he's being a bit bold in acting so...fraternal, all of a sudden."

"...So you weren't that close, I'm assuming?"

Herobrine turned to look at him with a bit of a glare.

"...Let's just say that part of the reason why I left was thanks to him. In any case, feel free to see him how you wish, but I refuse to call him my brother beyond the technicalities."

"...Noted, but...it's still a lot to take in."

"I feel the same way, granted that Caraway hadn't even expressed an ounce of brotherly concern to me until now. I wonder how badly he hurt his head to even consider such a thing."

Glancing over the map containing their desired desert for a moment, then glancing around, Herobrine soon let a small hum escape his lips as he compared the two images before him.

"...It might entirely be wishful thinking on my part, but I do believe that this desert seems small enough to at least be a decent contender for the name of 'Dawn's Peak.' I'm still not exactly seeing the reason why it'd be named that, however."

As Herobrine continued to focus on the map, Steve found himself glancing around as well, soon after finding his gaze resting upon a certain sight.

The sun was beginning to rise again, much to the mobs' likely annoyance, but as the distant sounds of living bones began to grow weaker as they disappeared into the caves below, the sunlight passed over the horizon. Light fell upon the mountains before them, the sunlight bouncing off of the various points and jagged edges of the range. As the sight overwhelmed him with its silent beauty, Steve began to speak as a thought soon came upon him.

"...It may be a stupid question to ask, but…what if 'Dawn's Peak' wasn't actually…well, 'Dawn's Peak?"

Herobrine turned to look at him.

"...What do you mean by that?"

Steve gave him a small shrug.

"...Well, what if 'Dawn's Peak' was actually named after a specific landmark? What if 'Dawn's Peak' was the landmark itself, and the desert was actually called something else?"

"...What kind of landmark?" Herobrine raised a brow at him.

Steve pointed to the crescent-shaped mountain that his eyes had fixated on.

"...That one."

In the inner curve of the mountain, the sun slowly began to show itself as the early hours of the morning approached. As the light shone over the calm sands around them, Steve found realization appearing in Herobrine's expression as the sight both awed and overtook his senses.

"...Ah. I see what you mean."

Steve lowered his finger.

"I mean, we won't know for sure until we ask around, but…that mountain seems like it'd fit the name, right?"

Herobrine slowly nodded his head, turning to face Steve before he spoke again.

"...Since you're so eager, go ahead and see if there's even anyone still alive at that village. We'll continue the search here on our end underground since daylight's already starting to break."

Steve smiled at him.

"I'll try to get as much info as I can, and I'll be more careful this time around."

"...Just don't get shot again." Herobrine said, waving him off as he turned to continue their underground search. "Caraway did mention that some blessed arrows were in circulation, and those will kill you. Permanently."

Briefly offended, Steve let out a sigh as he gave the other a small wave in return.

"Right. Yeah. I know."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

Watching the other leave, Steve let out a small sigh as he found himself somewhat upset by the other's nagging that was being only lightly disguised as teasing. Before he could focus too much on it, he decided to begin his walk over to the village, his hope that he'd be able to find good results growing with every step forward.


The gauntlet for me is almost over…My Winter Quarter ended…my schedule freed up again thank goodness…but y'all, please take care of yourselves, I legit threw my back out while SNEEZING cuz I got a cold. Not joking, I could barely walk (it hurt so bad)! No stranger to back issues here, but that was the absolute worst its been since years ago. I'm way better now, but it was scary y'all, stay safe T_T

Apologies for constantly disappearing into the abyss for months on end! I want to get back on a schedule, but I'm not sure how it'll work out, at the present moment, so I'm playing things mostly by ear (working on the fic whenever I actually can). I'm taking only reading and writing-heavy courses this quarter (all I have left before graduation lol), but I have some time to work on stuff lol. It's only a matter of getting my act together for the most part, being a student is rough XD

So we're in another desert! I initially had this chapter a bit longer, but I ended up splitting it into two for my own sake, I was spending quite a lot of time focusing on one scene (that has since been moved :P), so yeah lol. Besides the desert, Caraway came back to say hi! :D

Fun Facts!:

1.) It's actually possible to track divines down using things of their creation or artifacts that they frequently use! Since these things usually contain a significant amount of magic, their signature is often attached to said objects, which can then be used to locate them in an emergency or for other, less serious situations.

2.) Going off the previous fact, it's actually customary for of-age, fully-trained divines to receive an accessory that has a bit of glowstone taken from an activated Aether portal embedded within it, which allows them to track down the location of said portal so that they always have a way to get back home! Due to Herobrine's circumstances, however (being raised as a human and subsequently being kept from the Aether even after his godhood was discovered), he never received one of these accessories.

3.) Yes, Caraway is Maxwell's only biological child. Maxwell had a relationship prior to making his agreement with Mojang, and kept seeing his partner even after that "second" family had been created. It wasn't until Mojang and Herobrine's "mother" passed that Maxwell made his first relationship public, and it wasn't until just before Herobrine's initial escape from the Aether that he and Caraway originally were allowed to meet. I'd say that they only knew each other for roughly three months before he left. Messy, messy situation all around lol

4.) The primary reason why the two aren't closer is because Caraway essentially used the brief amount of time he had in Herobrine's life to make it more of a living hell. I won't explain further at the moment, but he was a grade-A little shit until he realized that his actions had consequences and that rulership in the Aether is a temporary sort of deal lol. They didn't know each other personally, but Caraway was adamant on trying to mess with him, regardless of how little sense it made given their individual standings.

5.) Similar to Herobrine, Caraway actually doesn't have the best control over his abilities, either! He too wears some helping devices, but unlike Herobrine's own limiters (which are in the form of gloves), Caraway is only able to function using a set of limiting rings, which essentially function the same as the bands that Brine has (this is mostly because of his missing limb). He's good with suppressing his own power, but it's rather difficult to send his magic outward in a more precise way so that set chances are changed the way he intends for them to be changed.

That's it for now! See you in the next chapter!