Hermitcraft/Empires SMP/Third Life/Afterlife Randomness

When a Wizard Falls

Exiled. Banished. Outlawed. Cast away.

Scar didn't know how he knew that many words for 'kicked out.'

Maybe it was because the Wizard Council had used that many words. They enjoyed using lots of words to seem intelligent.

Scar thought about that incident every day - the spell that had ended his whole career.

Traitor, they had called him. Conman. Liar. Thief. Destroyer.

Scar buried his face in his hands. All he needed was more time. But he had failed...

He was happier now, right?

Here. Safe. With friends who didn't know what he had done.

He was living in a giant snail shell, on the outskirts of the magical village he had built. The village was nice. Tall trees, floating magical crystals. Of course, Scar couldn't do much magic without his staff - but the physics of this world, Hermitcraft, were strange. Things floated easily. He could still pretend.

After all, pretending was all he knew. Pretending to fit in with the rest of the wizards. Pretending not to care when he was banished. Pretending to have overcome his past. And now, pretending to have more magic than he actually did.

Scar was pulled out of his thoughts as if by a rope when his cat yowled for food.

He chuckled. "Jellie," he said. "You've already eaten."

Jellie always looked like she had an ego, but now she seemed particularly smug.

Scar sighed again. "You meant to pull me out of my deep contemplation, didn't you."

It wasn't a question, but Jellie still purred in triumph.

Scar rolled out of the bed that was too stiff to sleep in and shoved his feet into his pink bunny slippers. He rather liked those bunny slippers. He'd had them for a long time, although they were a bit torn up from Jellie's frequent attempts to eat them.

"What do you think we should do today?" Scar asked his familiar.

Jellie meowed. Not that Scar could understand her, but he knew that she could understand him. "What if we went end busting with Grian today?"

Jellie walked away and planted herself firmly on Scar's bed.

"Fine, then!" Scar scoffed. "I'll go. You stay here and do whatever cats do. I need to advertise those magical crystals anyway."

Jellie turned away from him. Scar instantly felt guilty. He knew better than anyone that those crystals were mostly fake. Occasionally, he'd get a burst of magic and be able to make a real one - just often enough that they'd still sell. But for the most part, they were just pieces of glass engraved with runes that were meaningless without magic. But Scar needed the diamonds, and it wasn't like anyone really cared that they were being scammed. Most of the Hermits had gotten used to it now and just laughed it off.

Scar typed a quick message to Grian in chat. Then, he grabbed a couple assorted crystals. Grian knew most of them were fake and had no hesitation in telling the other Hermits so. He was Scar's greatest business rival. And one of his best friends.

Hermitcraft was complicated.

End busting did not go as well as he hoped. Grian kept throwing the lucky crystals Scar offered him into the void. One of which was a real one. Scar flinched at that one - it'd be several weeks before he gathered up enough magic to replace that.

"Stop pretending, Scar," Grian sighed. "They're fake!"

"No they're not!" Scar countered indignantly.

Grian laughed. He didn't know. That was okay. Scar hadn't told him the truth, so the wizard couldn't be mad.

"Fine, be like that!" Scar attempted to break the cobblestone slab under Grian. Grian yelped and jumped back. Scar proceeded to break the next slab, and the next, until there was a three-block gap between them.

Grian jumped the gap and hit the air next to Scar with his pick. Scar leaned away from it, eyes wide, and nearly fell off the bridge.

For a minute, they stared at each other.

Scar kept placing slabs.

"What is the deal with these crystals, anyway?" Grian asked. "There's better things to sell that'll get you more diamonds than shards of glass with weird markings."

"They're runes," Scar corrected. "And no, there isn't, since you're selling literally everything at the Barge like some sort of knockoff ConCorp."

"And which one of us is rich?" Grian bragged.

"That's why I'm selling magical crystals!" Scar protested. "There is literally nothing else to sell. They're not fake!"

"Oh yeah? Then how do you make them?" Grian scoffed.

"I carve the rune into the glass, then I say the spell. It's different for the different types of crystal. I could make them a lot more expensive if I wanted to!" Scar explained.

"If they were real," Grian smirked.

"They are real!"

"Uh-huh. You've stopped placing slabs."

Scar glared at him and put down some more cobblestone.

Grian tossed the latest lucky crystal into the void again. Scar huffed but said nothing. "Okay, fine. Some of them are fake."

"Ha! I knew it! I knew it!"

"But some of them aren't. You've thrown away one of the real ones. It's gonna take a long time to replace."

From Grian's expression, Scar knew that he hadn't heard the second half. The owner of the Barge had only recognized the part where Scar admitted his merchandise was a fraud.

Scar sighed again. He'd attempted to make a hint at the truth, but it seemed that it would go untold for a while longer.

"I want to do an experiment," Scar declared. "When we get back to the Overworld, I want you to go underwater until you start drowning. Then come up. The next time you go down, you'll take a breathing bubble crystal. I'll time you."

"You'll start the time earlier so it seems longer," Grian accused. "I know you, Scar."

"Noooo!" Scar huffed. "I would never! Not this time, at least. Just- humor me this once."

"Fine." Grian rolled his eyes. "But let's finish end busting first."

Scar pumped his fist.

He knew his friends well enough to know that they wouldn't ask questions. They'd just go 'oh look, he really does have magic' and then Scar could stop selling the fake ones and maybe the more knowledgeable Hermits could help him regain some of the power he had lost.

Did he just come up with a plan off the top of his head?

Grian got bored of waiting for Scar to place slabs and used an ender pearl.

For the first time since Scar messed up, there was hope on the horizon.

There was also an end city on the horizon. And Scar wasn't about to let Grian get there first.

~~~

Here's my attempt at a good ending Lunya are you happy yet