Not Gonna Die (A Skybrine Fanfic)

|Chapter 15| Selectively deaf

          Ian blinked as they left the small building that led down to Adam's cell and into the sunlight. It was a weak light and the slight breeze that ruffled his hair suggested that autumn was slowly approaching. Ty was beside him and Mitch and Seto behind. In front of all of them were Herobrine and Anne, walking close together, talking quietly. Herobrine didn't have a sword but a short dagger was strapped to his right thigh. He wore one of the thick blue jackets that the Snow Strikers had, along with faded blue jeans and grey shoes. His hair was a few shades lighter than Anne's and it was moderately short, the fringe swept so that stayed out of his eyes. It was only now that Ian realised that Anne was taller than the average woman, standing so that she was almost at eye-height with Herobrine.

          The two walked up the steps to the battlements and with a shrug, the four followed them. A few disjointed words of their conversation floated back to them, but nothing that could indicate what they were talking about. They stopped near the middle of the battlements and the friends waited a step or two away. The two talked quietly for a few more minutes, seemingly oblivious to the four friends waiting awkwardly a metre or so back.

          Finally, Herobrine gave Anne a light kiss on her cheek and quietly said "I should get going". Then, with a nod to the four, he ran and flipped over the battlements as easily as if he had been jumping into a lake and not flipping off a 10 metre high wall with a pretty much deathly drop beneath him. Yet he landed in a roll with ease and ran off in a streak of blue, the light powder of snow which covered the ground flying up behind him. Anne rolled her eyes and muttered "Show-off" underneath her breath. She did, however, have a smile on her face.

          "How did you two meet?" Ian asked curiously as the figure of Herobrine disappeared from view.

          "It's a funny story actually," Anne said, turning to lead them back down to the courtyard. "He tried to burn down my village and I got all sassy. Then he tried to kidnap a hunting group I was in. That didn't work well either. After that, we eventually started to hang out a little. Let's get inside."

           "I might go look for some information on Adam's magic as well," Seto said, stopping. "We sorcerers have a central library I can check out, there's bound to be something there."

            "Are you sure you can go alone?" Mitch asked.

           "I'll be fine," Seto said. "Besides, none of you guys would be able to come anyway, it's only for Masters and their apprentices."

          "When will you leave?"

          "Now, if I can," Seto said. He looked to Anne. "Can I borrow a horse?"

          She nodded and Seto left with promises to be back soon and insisting that the portal to the sorcerer's headquarters wasn't far. The remaining four went inside the building at the back walls of the fort, up to the second level where they had a room each. It was nearing lunch time and food had been set up on a table in the room that connected their private bedrooms. The room was modestly furnished, plain almost, with a thin carpet on the floor and a few tapestries hiding the stone walls. But a fireplace burned merrily in the wall to warm up the room and the few chairs scattered about and around the table were comfortable.

          "I know that I've met him and everything," Mitch said, sitting down at the table and reaching for a roll, "but I still can't believe that Herobrine is real. I always thought that he was a myth."

          "So did I," Ty admitted.

          Anne gave a chuckle. "Most people do," she said. "That's kind of the idea."

          "Do you think he'll be able to find information on Adam's magic?" Ty asked her.

          Her smile faded. "I'm not sure, but he has a better chance of finding information than anyone else, and with Seto also looking in the sorcerer's library, one of them is bound to find something."

          They were silent for a few minutes, eating from the selection of rolls and vegetables that had been set up for them. It was quite good, Mitch thought as he ate his third sandwich.

          "I had always been told that Herobrine was evil," Ian said, wiping his fingers on a serviette. "That's what all the stories say at least. So if he's evil, why is he helping us?"

          "He used to be a killer," Anne said, putting some egg on her sandwich. "But everyone can change, especially people who live abnormally long lives. Nowadays, he hunts down the people who do what he used to do and tries to keep them from harming as many people as possible. That's partly the reason why he's faded into myth. It's easier for him to do his job if he isn't dodging people who are trying to find him."

          "Why did he change?" Mitch asked.

          Anne, intent on stopping the tomato from slipping out of her sandwich, missed what he had asked, or perhaps she had purposely ignored it. Either way, she asked a question of her own. "Are one of you going to go home and tell the rest of your Team what's happening?"

          The three of them looked at each other. "There's really no point," Ian said slowly. "All we have to say is that Adam's worse than ever and we're going to try and figure out what's wrong and Herobrine's helping."

          "Fair enough."

          Ty ran a hand through his hair, messing it up a little. "I guess that all we can do now is wait, huh?"

          While this was true, it didn't make the following days any more bearable. With virtually nothing to do and the horrible knowledge that Adam was in pain and most likely dying constantly hovering in the back of their minds, the hours ticked slowly by.

          In a very different part of the country, in the middle of a mountainous region covered in trees, in the heart of a valley and several metres below the surface of the earth, Seto closed a dusty book with a loud bang. The sorcerers library was huge, both upwards and sideways, with several caverns connecting together, each full of shelves with books and tables and chairs. It was well lit with torches that gave off no smoke and the air seemed to have a tangible feel of magic to it that also made it feel slightly eerie. Seto shoved the book aside and put his head in his hands. His head felt stuffy and overcrowded but although he had searched through dozens of old, thick books, he had found no information on anything related to Adam's magic. There was plenty of information on magic-induced illnesses but while they had some of Adam's symptoms, they missed out key points such as his glowing eyes and spontaneous fire.

          A book closed with a snap somewhere in the library and Seto looked up, slightly alarmed. It was late at night, there was no one else in the library except for him. He stood up quietly and went to the end of the aisle, his footsteps muffled by the carpet. He looked into the next aisle just in time to catch a flash of colour as someone left the row. He dashed forward to see them again but they hadn't reappeared, and they weren't in the next aisle either. Seto walked down the row and peered around, but the library was empty again. With a sigh, he returned to his desk and opened up yet another book, scanning through the pages.

          Perched up on top of the shelves where the torch light did not reach, hidden from sight, Herobrine gave a small smile as he saw the figure of Seto returning to his desk. Little did the sorcerer know that he had already gone through all of the helpful books, but it was possible that he had missed something. With deceptive ease, he slipped out of the library and back into the open world, zooming over the country to visit yet another collection of books. But he was yet to find anything, and part of him wondered if this information even existed.