Nobody wins. (Hermitcraft x life series members au)

Sixteen.

Joel slowly opens his eyes, finding himself placed in his bed. Besides him, an unfilled half as his wife has disappeared,  he sighs before pushing himself off his bed, wiping his eyes then making sure to look king like.

He throws the purple cloak around his armour as he looks into the mirror, the gemstones encrusted in his armour glistening in the light.

The king of Stratos picks up the long belt he had placed on his floor and tightens it around his waist until he sits nicely, walking over to his wall where he plucks his purple tinted sword off the wall and slides it into it's sheath.

He takes a breath before walking to his door, moving his hand towards the handle just before the door opens in front of him. Finding Lizzie standing on the other end.

"Wow, Lizzie, you look beautiful." Joel smiles, his eyes drifting all around the large pink dress she's wearing, the ends of it trailing across the floor behind her for what looks like miles.

"Thank you, my love, now everyone is waiting for you in the throne room. There's a lot of news." Lizzie cups his cheek in her hand before swiflty turning around and grabbing his hand.

He laughs as she drags him down the long winding stairs from their bedroom, apologising as they run past people casually climbing the stairs, the two of them giggling as they nearly trip and fall.

Eventually, they find themselves at the door of the throne room, the two of them holding their knees as they try to regain the energy they had just used, still laughing as they look at each other.

"Save the fun for after will you, things are about to get serious." Martyn says, walking up behind the two of them, waiting for the two of them to regain their maturity before opening the doors of the throne room.

Joel walks in with Lizzie by his side, looking around at the unusually dull people sitting around the table, that is until he places his eyes on the head of the table, finding a familiar face, one he had nearly forgotten turning around to look at him.

The smile drops off his face as he recognises Hbomb, remembering the reason he's at the head of the table and not Oli, "Glad you could make it." He walks up towards Hbomb, a tear shining in his eye as he holds out his hand to Hbomb, who reluctantly grabs it.

"Nearly didn't make it." He looks up to Joel, his eyes filled with a mix of anger and sadness, Joel could swear he heard a tone of guilt in his voice.

"But you did, and one of us didn't, we're sorry for your loss." Joel softly says, pulling his hand away as he sits down on his throne.

"That's exactly why we're all here, we need to talk about the ambush now." Martyn says as Jimmy closes and locks the door to the room.

"There's six of us in this room, which means only six people will ever know what we say, and we all trust each other, right?" Zedaph asks, looking at the other five as they nod.

"Of course, you're my council, and you Hbomb, Oli trusted you with his life, which means you have all of our trust." Joel says, placing his hand on Hbomb's shoulder as the other closes his eyes.

"Thank you, i wish i could've saved him." He replies, looking down at the ground, slightly shaking his head.

"What exactly is so secret about what we're speaking about anyway?" Lizzie asks, looking at all of them, a slight chuckle leaving Martyn.

"It was an ambush, Lizzie, the enemy had at least two days notice of when we Hbomb and Oli were leaving for Stratos and they got there in time to not only plan but execute an ambush, causing severe damages to our men." Jimmy slams his hands on the table, knowing the only reason that could be.