~The First Step~ a Hermitcraft AU

Chapter 34 (Grian)

wc: 1700 

"My mother died in childbirth," Grian began. "I don't remember much of her. She and my father were both admins, so I was naturally an admin. I grew up with a normal childhood."

He remembered the pictures of his mother. Shining golden hair, and a smile bright as the sun. His father was strong and sturdy. He didn't speak much of his late wife, but when he did, it was always with tenderness and love.

"I suppose I always had an affinity for my admin magic. I was the best in my class." Grian smiled at the memory of knocked over training dummies and the clamor of young children's cheering. "The war started when I was about twelve years old. My father didn't go to fight because I had no one to take care of me, but he did work in the factories to help the war effort. I didn't see much of him after that, and they started to train us as children to become better fighters if we had to fight when we grew up."

"So you had combative training since you were a child?" Xorial asked, leaning forward. Grian nodded, swallowing.

"Once I turned 16 I was considered an adult, so my father went to war. He passed after three months in battle." There was a moment of silence as Grian struggled to find the courage to speak again. "To make money, I..." he cracked a smile- "I acted in a small TV show. It wasn't a very hard audition, and they lacked actors. It's called Yandere High School, go give it a watch-" a few people chuckled- "But after that was over, I decided to use my power and become an admin. I did fairly well, and ended up taking charge of a server. Evolution, or Evo for short."

"One of the worlds compromised in the Watcher's takeover," Xerion commented. Grian nodded.

"We'd been receiving contact from Watchers for a while before the takeover, however," he continued. "They were never cruel. They left us riddles to solve and sometimes rewarded us with loot. The most evil thing they ever did was put obsidian over our chests. The way my server worked was that we would progress through portals to get to the next version, starting with Alpha. The portals were made by Watchers."

Xerion hummed. "Did you have any suspicions?" he asked, twirling a pencil in his fingers. "You were taught about Watchers in school, right?"

Grian nodded. "Yes, we learned about them. We learned about them as trade partners and allies. Yes, there were a few bumps in the road, but it was mainly positive. Once we engaged in war, they were taken out of our curriculum entirely. In Evo, they didn't seem that evil. We should have been suspicious, but to be honest, it wasn't as if we could kick them out."

"Alright..." Kleenex murmured, looking at whatever Xerion was writing. "Continue."

"We beat the ender dragon," Grian said. "When I jumped through the portal, Watchers took me, since I was the admin. They told the rest of my server that I had gone willingly. The server was destroyed shortly after." He thought of the fire, the smoke. The first time that vile shade of purple made me nauseated. "Most of my server mates made it out. Some didn't. In the Watcher world, I was held as a normal prisoner. They conducted tests and such on our magic to see where we would be helpful. They found that my magic was different, but they didn't tell me how."

"I remember that," Xorial said. "When I was still a Council member. It was a really short mention, but they did say that there was an admin prisoner who could be a really good weapon power wise. But we didn't discuss much, since you weren't much use while you still were so loyal to the admins."

"Yeah," Grian said, swallowing thickly. "And I was a high priority prisoner. Xeluph came in personally. Named me Xelqua. Came in to test me. To ask me what I knew..."

~~~

"So, Xelqua," Xeluph sneered, shutting the cell door behind him.

Grian cowered on the floor, hands trembling. The power muting cuffs on his wrists left him defenseless, but at this point, even if they were gone, he would probably not try to escape. Even if he did, Xeluph would find a way.