Herobrine's hands hovered over his wife's waist as she sank down onto a loveseat, waiting until she was comfortable before sitting down himself. Evangeline bapped away his hands gently as he tried to take her cane, and he settled for wrapping his arm around her middle instead. Across from them, Notch came to a stop beside an olive green armchair.
"From the attendees of this meeting, I am sure that at least some of you have begun to gather what I have brought you here to talk about," he began. Herobrine's gaze flickered around at the others, and his jaw clenched painfully tight.
"Null?" He hazarded. Notch nodded.
"Null, indeed."
Herobrine had no shortage of grudges against the man- or, creature - even though it was now nearing a full year since he was slain. Not only had Null been responsible for the attack that had driven Herobrine to near insanity hundreds of years before, but the twisted monsters that he called his servants had been the cause of his beloved Evangeline losing one of her wings, and with it the ability to fly. She had acclimated well, for one who was born for the skies, but he could tell that the loss still grieved her.
"What of him?" Queen Rosales spoke up. "He's not… alive, is he?"
"No, no," Notch assured her. "Not to my knowledge, anyway. There are only a certain few loose ends that I would like to have tied up." Herobrine cast a glance at Evangeline, who met it.
"Such as?" She asked.
"Such as, what, if anything, prompted him to attack the capital when he did." His dark eyes shifted over to Phillip, who rested a hand atop the queen's. "And whether any of the Order of Wither still remains. There is also one other thing, from Evangeline's report on the battle with him." At the sound of her name, Evangeline straightened up.
"Do any of you know what this is?" Notch held up his hand and opened it to reveal a small, bluish-green orb resting in the center of his palm. It was about the size of a small apple, and shimmered like glass in the glowstone lamplight. Evangeline leaned forward to study it with a frown. "No?" Notch lowered it. "This is an ender pearl. They are very hard to come by, on account of the fact that the only ones we have ever acquired have been harvested from an enderman's corpse." Herobrine exchanged a glance with Evangeline, recalling their last interaction with one of the unnatural creatures.
"An ender pearl," Notch went on. "Has the unique property of being capable of teleporting the last creature to have touched it. If I were to toss this into the center of the room-" Notch mimed tossing the orb, then teleported to the center of the carpet where it would have landed. "I would teleport, just like that. I apologize for not giving you a proper demonstration, but, as I said, these are exceedingly rare."
"Null must have had one," Evangeline murmured. "That is what he threw when Herobrine pushed him over the edge into the lava."
"Exactly my thoughts." Notch nodded approvingly. "This is my request." He turned to where Tekno sat on a couch next to Meryl. "I would like you, David, and Commander Phillip, to investigate what remains of Null's fortress. See if there is any information to be gathered there- signs of life, perhaps, that would be evidence of Null's legacy still alive and well. I would also like you to find out if there are any more of those pearls. As you can imagine, they make for quite the advantage in battle."
"Of course, my lord," Phillip agreed, but Tekno was frowning.
"It's been almost ten months since Null was defeated," he said slowly. "Why haven't we looked into this until now?"
"Tensions in the Nether have remained high for several months following the attack on Queen Rosales' castle," Notch said, looking to the queen for confirmation, and she nodded. "But things have begun to calm. In addition, the extended waiting period will give any remaining members of Null's forces to be lulled into a sense of security, which may cause them to be more bold." Satisfied, David nodded.
"Alright, I'm in. When do we leave?"
"As soon as you'd like," Notch told him.
"Your majesty," Queen Rosales interjected suddenly. "With all due respect, why are we-" she paused to gesture to Meryl, Evangeline, and Herobrine. "-here? If none of us are involved in this mission?"
"I invited you here because you- all of you-" Notch glanced around the room. "Are the most knowledgeable regarding Null and his exploits." His gaze lingered a little longer on Herobrine. "Thus, I wished to have you all in the room when I gave my plan of action. And you, of course, should have a say in the kind of trouble that your husband gets himself into."
"Trixtin," Zenith began before she could respond. "I'm sure that a reconnaissance mission is nothing to worry about."
"Yes, well, that is what I said to you a year ago," the queen said wryly. Zenith gave her a shrug as if to say 'fair enough'.
"Yeah, well, the old man has me to watch out for him." Tekno reached out to slap Commander Zenith on the knee. "So we'll be fine."
"Excellent." Rosales smiled sweetly at him. "I will be holding you to that."
"Also," Notch went on. "I had initially meant to ask you to go as well, Meryl." He nodded towards where the woman in question sat. "But it seems to me that you are quite happy in your current position, and I would hate to take you from it."
"If you were to ask me to go, my lord, I would gladly do so." Meryl lowered his gaze to where her hands were clasped in her lap, a small smile on her face. "But… yes. I am happy here."
"Then my selection stands." Notch turned back to Zenith, who looked in turn to his wife. Rosales met his gaze for several, long moments, then sighed and patted his knee.
"Come back to me in one piece," she said. "That's an order." A smile twitched at the corners of Zenith's lips.
"Yes, your majesty. It shall be done."
"If there are no other questions…" Notch trailed off, and he waited a moment to see if anyone would speak up before he continued. "You are dismissed. Phillip, David, please come to see me in the morning to go over the logistics of your trip." Zenith murmured an affirmation and Tekno nodded, and all of the attendees began to get up to leave.
It wasn't until Herobrine and Evangeline had stepped out onto the courtyard stairs that Evangeline spoke. "What do you think about all this?" She asked softly. In response, Herobrine pursed his lips.
"I…" he began slowly, adjusting his grip on her arm. "…do not like the thought that the Order of Wither could still be active." Evangeline nodded quietly.
"Notch has no reason to think otherwise," she pointed out. "We saw their camp ourselves, and every inhabitant seemed to have fallen victim to Sirben's necromancy."
"Yes, of that camp." Herobrine raked a hand through his hair, frustrated. "There could be others." And it upset him that he had not considered such a thing at the time.
"Regardless, it isn't our problem," Evangeline reminded him gently. "We're not assigned to this mission."
"Right." Herobrine's shoulders slumped slightly. "We shouldn't be." You shouldn't be, is what he really meant.
"Right." Evangeline stepped off the final step, and Herobrine released her arm, placing his hand on her waist instead. "I would like to see them off, though," she said. Herobrine gave her a small smile, guiding her down the cobblestone path.
"I'm sure that will be no issue," he told her. "It's been a long night, let's go get some rest."
David Tekno stepped through the doorway of his modest home and pulled the door shut behind him, only to freeze in his tracks at a soft clattering sound that came from his kitchen. Valkyries were a funny sort of people, but even they should know that it was long past visiting hours.
David carefully stepped onto the carpet, which muffled the sounds of his hooves as he crept towards the kitchen. The sounds had stopped, suggesting that his intruder was trying not to be heard. He learned around the doorway, narrowed eyes raking over the dim room, and he spied a crate of golden apples laying overturned in the middle of the floor.
There was a flurry of feathers and movement, and David seized a small figure as it tried to dart past him, lifting up the intruder and holding him upside-down by his ankles.
"Ahh!" The small valkyrie shrieked, clutching a half-eaten golden apple in both hands. David scowled at him, releasing one ankle (which prompted another round of mad flapping) in order to reach over and flip on a lamp.
"Little late to be sneakin' around here, huh Tommy?"
"'Sneaking'? No!" The blond-haired, blue-eyed valkyrie child gave him a wide, upside-down grin. "No, I came to see you, big man, but you were out, so I thought to myself, 'I'll just sit here and wait for 'im', and I just so happened to get hungry, so I thought I might as well-" Tommy cut himself off with a yelp as David flipped him over and set him on his feet.
"Thought you 'might as well' just start snacking on my apples?" David jabbed a finger into the thief's chest. "Do you have any idea how much those things cost?"
"I know they're delicious." Tommy took another bite of the shimmering apple, and David pinched the bridge of his nose.
Thomas Ingram was a thirteen-year-old valkyrie who had been assigned to David as part of a mentorship program a few months prior. The program had only lasted a few weeks, but Tommy had taken a real liking to him, and David rarely went more than a few days without seeing him since. David liked him well enough, and he knew that valkyries had a communal parenting system, but he had not signed up to be a father.
"Well, fine, then." David leaned back against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm here now. What do you want?"
"I wanted to see you, Tetno!" Tommy gave him a cheeky smile. "You've been gallivanting all about, I 'aven't seen you in the better part of a week!"
"Yeah, well…" David sighed, stepping into the kitchen and flicking on the light. "…you've got good timing, 'cause I'm leaving for the Nether tomorrow."
"Oh." Tommy followed him in, hopping up to sit on a countertop. "Mind if I come with?"
"Yes, I do mind." David shook a finger at him. "And if you follow me then I'm grounding your sorry butt myself." Tommy pouted, and David reached up to ruffle his messy hair. "Give it another twenty years."
"But you'll be old then!" Tommy protested.
"I'm already old!" David turned the crate upright again, bending down to pick up the apples scattered across the floor. "And if I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to cleave my enemies in half with a single blow." Tommy giggled madly at that.
David side-eyed the kid as he continued picking up the apples, studying his tense shoulders and the way his blue eyes flicked back and forth as he swung his legs back and forth. Something was bothering him, and it wasn't being caught with David's supply of golden apples.
David straightened up, setting his crate of apples back up on the opposite counter. "Alright, Tommy," he started. "Why are you really here?" Tommy's eyes widened, darted away.
"I told you, I'm here to see you."
"Yeah, but why else?" David folded his arms, staring him down. "You look way too nervous to be sitting on the counter in my kitchen."
"I'm not nervous, I'm-!" Tommy stammered over his words, eventually falling quiet. David continued to stare at him, and Tommy's shoulders gradually slumped until he muttered, "I might be hiding out."
There it was. "From who?"
"Some of the boys." Tommy nodded carelessly towards the window. "Real big, mean ones. I might've…" he shrugged a bit. "Gotten into a bit of a tiff with 'em."
"Did you start it?" David asked bluntly.
"No! Well-" Tommy stopped. "Well, I might've taken it beyond what one might call 'reasonable retaliation'."
"Okay." David sank down in a kitchen chair. "Here's what you're going to do," he instructed. "Tomorrow morning, you're going to go find them and apologize."
Tommy's face dropped. "Tetno!"
"No buts!" David held up a finger. "I'll go with you." Tommy pursed his lips, thinking this over.
"Fine," he eventually grumbled. "But I'm staying 'till then."
"Sure." David pointed into the living room. "You can have the couch." Tommy turned, hopped down from the counter, then paused.
"And I'm taking this with me!" He held up the half-eaten golden apple before charging into the living room and taking a flying leap onto the couch. David rolled his eyes and turned away, heading off into his bedroom to pack.