Entwining Lives - A Hermitcraft & The Life series crossover

Chapter 10 - Grian is very concerned for Pearl's wellbeing

TW: Derealization, Hallucinations, Slight Gore.

POV: HC!Grian

Grian sighed, closing the book. He'd snuck into X's library for some hope of finding something to help with the rift, but currently his actions seemed futile. It was quite painful to read about them... but he had to. But, for all his effort, nothing new was in the library - In fact, a lot of the admin's information was inaccurate. Specifically when regarding... That server. It was odd, knowing that was how players perceived them... War hungry monsters, victims of their own design...

Suddenly, he heard footsteps nearby. "Primals-" He quietly whispered. With a quick twist of his magic, he disappeared, reappearing in his base. He'd decided on using his magic, as long as he didn't use too much. If they knew who he was,small spells like that would change practically nothing. Besides, it was likely they'd guessed Pearl's position in all of this already...

Poor Pearl... She'd always been the better of the two of them... No, now was not the time to fall into that hole of memories. It'd been a dark time, but he was over it now. He was stable.

Pearl had been watching the rift, and he decided to check on her. The two of them had decided one would work on research while one watched over the portal-like tear in realities.

So far all they knew about the rift was that it linked their reality with wherever the life-server people had come from. The two had tried smaller spells to try to slip through the protections, yet nothing had worked.

He glided down into the cavern, to see Pearl standing before the rift. Landing behind her, Pearl didn't turn around, but, despite the fact she remained facing the rift, she literally jumped in surprise, her wings spreading out from surprise.

"Sunshine!" She spoke as he stepped forwards, her eyes never leaving the rift, but her tone was surprised..

"Hi Moon..." He paused. Something seemed... Wrong. A cloak of unease over the interaction. Pearl was planning something... He knew it.

"Your back early..." She continued, having composed herself. Her tone was flat, and she was twisting her hands, but she was simply a silhouette before the rift. This was all too familiar, and made him shiver. Pearl didn't want him to know something.

"Moon, what's going on?" He quickly stepped forwards, wanting to help his friend.

"Go back to your base, or to the library. I have a test to do." Pearl's voice was cold, and he knew she was going to try something risky.

"Moon-" He stopped in his tracks, frantically trying to figure out how to stop Pearl from doing whatever she was planning on. He couldn't convince her, Pearl was as stubborn as him... But he couldn't fight her, he'd lose, and besides, he didn't want to hurt her!

"I can't risk you, I'm sorry. Not again" Pearl sighed, and turned and turned, revealing that she'd been weaving magic between her fingers. She released the spell, and before he could pull up a shield, Pearl's spell had slammed into him, Dipping him into darkness he was shoved through reality.

He was on a snowy peak. With a sigh, he opened his communicator, to check his coords. He was thousands upon thousands of blocks away. Of course. He couldn't teleport back without his magic overflowing, as his stamina wasn't great these days... But he couldn't message Pearl, or get someone to check on her, as admins can check the chat logs. He trusted X, but he didn't want to risk it, and besides, if someone checked on Pearl, she might get exposed, and he couldn't risk that either... And he couldn't just leave her

There was no better option. Gritting his teeth, he began to channel his magic.

Teleport a few thousand blocks away from everyone, that way if he lost control, no one would find him... That was the plan. With a final twist, the spell took effect, and he squeezed his eyes closed, as emotions, foreign, not his, yet familiar, natural, flooded his brain.