#(yes this means that Xornoth and Scott are descended from both)

[minecraftbookshelf]

Me a few months back: “Elves don’t have wings, we’re leaning more into the deer motif than the bird motif, in a large part because they are so tall their wingspan would have to be ridiculous.”

Me, a bunch of worldbuilding and plotting later: “…I think at least some of the elves might have to have wings.”

[andiinaraethtash]

Chapter Nine is Up!

Here's the link:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/35710339/chapters/91287079

And here's the chapter:

When the Hour Is Nigh (And Hopelessness Is Sinking In)

Notes: TW: um.... kidnapping? Nothing is shown but it's discussed? That's all I can think of that might be triggering. Chapter title from Bleeding Out by Imagine Dragons

Scott is putting the last of the wool in the shulker box for the Grimlands when he hears Gem calling out in a panic for him. “What’s Gem doing here?” He asks to no one in particular, and one of the sheep baas in response. He sends it an exasperated look, then tucks the shulker away and hurries out the door to find Gem hurrying up the path toward the village.

“Over here, Gem!” He calls as he carefully descends the icy path.

Her face lights up in relief and she hurries his way, leaning on her staff to keep from slipping. “Oh, thank the stars. Scott, your brother stole the egg.”

“The egg?” Scott repeats, trying to discern what egg she’s talking about.

“Yes, the egg, the dragon egg, the one thing that he’s scared of, he just took it, and I don’t know where he has it or if he wants to destroy it—”

Scott grabs her by the shoulders. “Gem, you need to calm down. Panicking isn’t going to help anything. Now, what exactly happened?”

Gem takes a deep breath. “Okay, so I was headed up to my tower this morning, when I noticed Xornoth by the altar I had the egg on—”

“You had the egg out in the open?” Scott asks in consternation, and Gem blushes.

“Maybe not my best idea,” she admits, then continues, “Anyway, I rushed over there, but by the time I got there, Xornoth and the egg were both gone, and I—I don’t know what to do! I mean, I have an idea, but Scott, we have to end this, we can't lose anything or anyone else!”

With a heavy heart, Scott nods. “Agreed. What's your idea?”

She pulls out a book, and Scott has to bite back the urge to smile, because that is just so… Gem. Of course she finds her answers in books.

“Right, so the ancient wizards of the Crystal Cliffs wrote about an ancient elven library, and if anyone’s going to know how to defeat Xornoth once and for all, it’ll be the elves, because they’ve faced him before, right? Have you heard of this library?”

He nods slowly. “Yes, but only in stories when I was little. Like a fairy tale, sort of thing.”

She turns the book so he can read it. “The ancient wizards wouldn’t have mentioned it if it didn't exist, so it’s got to be somewhere near Rivendell.”

“Slight problem,” he says after scanning the page, and gestures to the area around them. “My empire is vast, and we don’t have time to search every corner of it.” Gem deflates slightly, but almost as soon as she does, he has an idea. “But we might not need to. We should go talk to Katherine; the Overgrown has been here as long as Aeor and Exor, so if anyone knows where it is, Katherine will.”

Gem nods. “Okay, a plan. I like that. Plans are good.”

She’s still visibly shaking. Scott shakes his head slightly. “Gem. I mean this in the best possible way, but please. Calm down. We need your smarts and your magic if we’re going to win, and you panicking doesn’t help anyone.”

She nods again, takes a deep breath, and smiles halfheartedly at him. “Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry. Just make sure you remember that. We need you.”

_____

Katherine is in her greenhouse when she hears Scott and Gem calling for her. “Hello?” She answers, and they rush into view, serious expressions on their faces. She has a moment of internal panic as she wonders if someone else died, and she clutches at the flower charm hanging from her neck that Shrub had given her. But their words quickly reassure her that that’s not the case.

“Katherine. The Overgrown talks to you, right?” Gem asks, holding a book in one hand and her staff in the other. She looks exhausted, like she hasn’t slept in over a day.

“Yeah,” she answers slowly, unsure what this is about.

Scott and Gem share a look that says, ‘you go first,’ ‘no, you.’ Scott wins the argument, and Gem sighs, opening the book and shows it to her. She skims the information, a little surprised to see the reference to an elven library, but she doesn’t quite understand why they’re here.

“So, what do you need from me?”

“Well,” Scott answers, “We were hoping, since the Overgrown’s been here for so long, that it might know where this library is, because we think the key to defeating the demon is inside.”

Immediately, Katherine understands the serious demeanor of her friends, and she straightens. “Okay, I can ask. Come with me.”

She leads them to the heart of the Overgrown, where there’s a new message waiting for her.

‘Guardian, there’s something you should know. To the east lies an ancient library, where you will find the answers you seek. Take this map; it will show you the way.’

“Well, that’s helpful,” Scott mutters as he pulls the map out of the barrel nearby. he scans it, then tosses it to Katherine. “Do you know where this is?”

She gives it a once-over, but shakes her head. “I’m sorry, but the mountains are a little outside of my area.”

Gem takes a look over her shoulder, and shakes her head. “You sure you don’t recognize anything?”

Scott takes the map back, peers at it for a long moment, then nods slowly. “I think I recognize this lake, but… it’ll be a flight. Best to bring your wings and your rockets.”

Katherine nods and stretches her wings, catching Gem doing the same as they hurried out into the open. Scott takes off first, leading the way, and Katherine and Gem follow close behind.

Scott wasn’t kidding; it is quite a flight, and they have to circle a few times before they find the right lake, then it takes a few minutes of looking around before Scott spots the (admittedly fairly obvious) teal roof of a half-buried building.

Scott goes first, gliding down with ease. Gem follows, almost slamming into the walls of the structure before landing softly on her feet. Katherine is less lucky; she nearly breaks her legs with the fall because she couldn’t get her wings spread in time to slow her fall.

“Ouch,” she mutters, but is quickly distracted from the shooting pain in her legs by the shelf upon shelf full of books all around her. Gem is practically vibrating with excitement, and Scott is looking around in awe.

Running her fingers along the spines of the books, Katherine whispers reverently, “There’s so many books here.”

Gem gasps as she finds a book left open on a lectern. “Look! This one’s full of prophecies. I wonder…” She flips through it, then sighs and closes it. “We’ll have to come back here later.”

Scott nods as he pulls another book off the shelf. “Most of these are in Elvish. I can translate them, but…”

“But we need to know which ones to translate,” Gem finishes for him.

Katherine pokes around at a few of the other books left half-read on lecterns, but she doesn’t understand the language any better than Gem does. It’s so magical here, but at the same time, she knows they’re on a clock. Gem and Scott haven���t said as much, but there’s an urgency with which they move, and Gem’s eyes are tight with worry. So there’s no time to lollygag.

Gem points to a book she just finished skimming. “I think this is a spell book.”

“This is a book of prayers,” Scott points to another, “And that one’s full of hymns. But I think the spell book’s our best bet.”

As the other two set to work translating the spell, which involves a lot of double checking on Scott’s part and even more pacing on Gem’s, Katherine worries at her lip. She’s scared beyond belief, because they’re this close to finding a way to be rid of Xornoth, and if he shows up now, they’re toast.

It takes at least an hour, maybe two (without sunlight it’s hard to tell the passage of time) but they get the spell translated, and Gem sighs heavily as she reads it off.

“I need to find eight items and cast them around the demon.”

“Great,” Scott says sarcastically, “So we just need to find him. That should be easy.”

Katherine snorts. “Okay, but at least we know what to do when we do find him?”

Gem nods. “Yeah, I just need to find these items, then we’ll be good to go… but Scott’s right, we’ll have to find him before we can actually do anything with this spell.”

With that, Gem takes off, somehow making it through the window on her first try. Scott takes a safer approach, building up some scaffolding for them to climb, but Katherine decides she wants to try to fly out, too. She takes off—and smacks her head against the ceiling, falling back down to the halfway point on the scaffolding Scott’s setting up. Rubbing the spot that no doubt will be quite the goose egg in a few hours, she glares up at the ceiling, offended.

Scott, the traitor, chuckles slightly, before asking with genuine concern, “Are you alright?”

“Fine, fine,” she says, cursing her voice for betraying how not fine she is.

"Um, guys?” Gem calls, not sounding as confident as she had when she’d flown out, “There’s something you should see.”

Katherine scales the scaffolding as quick as she can, her heart dropping to her toes as she hears Scott mutter, “Oh, no.”

As soon as she’s up to surface level, she hurries forward, panic taking root as she sees one of Shrub’s wolves leaning against Gem’s leg, whining pitifully. Scott is scanning a piece of paper, but he hands it to her the moment she steps forward.

Shrub has been kidnapped by the demon! It read, He’s got her where the corruption was left.

She swallows hard. “No. No, he can’t—he wouldn’t—oh, no, Shrub.”

Gem puts her hand on Katherine’s shoulder. “She’ll be okay, Katherine. We’ll get her out of there, and we’ll banish Xornoth for good. I promise.”

“But she’s all alone, and she can’t possibly stand up to Xornoth without him hurting her and—what if she thinks we’re not coming? I mean, we’re going, right? We—we have to—”

“Katherine,” Scott says forcefully, “Calm down. We are not leaving Shrub to the demon. We just need to prepare first. Gem needs the items for the spell, and we need allies to back us up. He’ll likely have Joey with him, and there’s Xornoth himself to contend with, so… We need to plan. Regroup. And come at him with everything we’ve got.”

Gem nods, and Katherine pushes down the fear. If Gem and Scott think she’ll be alright for a day or however long it’s going to take Gem to gather the needed items, then she’ll trust their judgment. But if something happens to Shrub… well, she can’t promise that everyone will make it out alive.

Definitely Xornoth won’t.