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floef-likes-everything · 10 months

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Etho was not expecting visitors today. Generally, the other Hermits messaged him if they wanted to come over. His base wasn’t close to Spawn Village and the other bigger bases, so most wanted to know if he was even home. Etho was glad it was that way, because now he barely had any unexpected visitors when he was working. He didn’t always like it when he was in a zone, be it with building or designing redstone, to be interrupted. Today he was working on the entrance of his base, which also served as a treefarm. When no tree was planted, only the floating dirt in the middle of the room gave away the entrance had another function than just looking pretty.

This time around, Etho had decided to make his home a bit more like what he was used to seeing when growing up. The abstract shapes and purple colors reminded him of a home far away and long forgotten. A home he was glad to have grown up in, but equally as glad he had left.

Etho hadn’t even noticed Gem until she announced herself with a polite cough. It spooked him but he managed to keep his cool. He greeted her shortly before jumping down from one of the ridges he was decorating. It was a big jump, but he managed to land without much trouble.

“What made you make your way all the way to the jungle?” Etho managed to ask, pushing the slight annoyance he felt at her unannounced visit aside. It wasn’t as if he didn’t like to be around other Hermits, he just liked it to be on his own terms. Gem was still a bit unsettling to him at times despite this being her second Season with the Hermits. She always presented herself so calm and lovely, but in reality she was a ruthless warrior. Etho had experienced that first hand himself, he didn’t think his fighting skills had fallen behind that much. Yet, when he faced Gem a while back he just couldn’t land a hit for the life of him. Every strike she landed on him seemed to damage him so much more than it should’ve.

“I’ve something to confess to you,” she said right of the bat. She had stopped on the top of the stairs as if she didn’t dare to take a single step into the interior of the building. “Can I come in?”

“Sure, feel welcome,” Etho said without thinking about it, gesturing widely with his arm. He wouldn’t turn her away now that she had come this entire way. “There isn’t really any place to sit down yet, I’m afraid. This is just going to be the entrance of the build.”

“Well, it’s already beautiful,” Gem said as she stepped over the doorstep. “I love the fact you added some greenery to those dark walls. It really adds something, you know.”

“Don’t you think the glowberries are a bit much?” Etho followed her gaze to the foliage he had put at the top of the black and purple walls. He wanted to add something there but he wasn’t yet sure if the glowberries that he had placed there now where the correct choice.

“The subtle lightning they add is a very nice touch,” she said, frowning slightly. “But maybe trim them down a little bit, put them in a bit more sporadically than what you have now. I think that will make it a bit less busy.”

Etho nodded to himself and made sure to remember that. He had seen the base Gem was building from a distance many times and she was really good at placing foliage around her place. The white palace looked fabulous on top of that mountain, almost divine.

“It’s very… alien,” she noted. “In a good way, that is. That word above the door, it isn’t Galactic right?”

Etho turned to the sign Gem was looking at. He had needed something to add to a blank wall and in a wave of nostalgia he had decided to start writing in his first language.

“It isn’t,” Etho confirmed with slight surprise. “You spotted that very well. It’s, eh, it’s a long dead language by now.”

It was dead to Etho, but he was sure his kin still used it to communicate. As long as they didn’t use it to communicate with him, he was content. Gem tilted her head, her red hair falling over her shoulder and squinted at the short word.

“Does is say ‘exit’?” she then asked out of the blue. “Or maybe excite – no, that has to many letters.”

“How do you know that?” all of a sudden, Etho didn’t feel as comfortable anymore. Nobody but him was supposed to be able to read this on this Server. To all the other Hermits it should look like gibberish, like just some random blocks placed as some weird art. Gem had recognize it as a language within a heartbeat and even seemed to be able to read it to some extent. Etho had never learned why Gem had joined the Hermits as he didn’t want to stuck his nose in places it didn’t belong. Hermits kept their pasts to themselves, most of the time, but now he had gotten very curious as to where and why Gem had learned his language.

“I – that is the reason I’ve come,” Gem took a step backwards and away from Etho, her hands clasped before her body in a nervous way. “I should’ve told you this way earlier but it wasn’t safe until now.”

Etho didn’t like this mysterious behavior, it was not something he was used to from Gem. Gem was always happy and cheerful and most of all very open. She was in for every prank and game if she was available and was never hesitant to help another Hermit out.

“Should I be scared?” Etho heard himself ask. He wanted to step away from Gem like she had from him, but his legs were frozen in place. What could it possibly be she had come to tell him that made her act like this? Most importantly, what had his home language to do with it?

“That is for you to decide,” she said in a cryptic way. “I – god, I never thought I would confess this to you but you’ve grown to be a good friend of mine, Etho. Alright, just spit it out Gem. I’ve joined this Server under a bit of a false gaze, so to say. You see, I’m not exactly your average Player, like a lot of Hermits. Like you.”

All of Etho’s instincts told him to run, to get out of this confined space he now shared with Gem. He had been hunted for long enough to recognize this as a potential trap. She talked him down only to jump when his guard was down. But Gem, despite the great warrior she was, wouldn’t do something like that. She wasn’t as ruthless as he had once been, in another life.

“I have kind of come here to… well, for lack of better words hunt you down,” Gem smiled awkwardly but the horror showing on Etho’s fade made it fade quickly.

“I want you to know that it no longer my intention,” she thus quickly added. “You don’t hurt a fly if you can help it. But I – I had to tell you, Etho.”

“Who are you really?” Etho demanded. He summoned his axe, which made him feel only slightly safer. He would lose a direct fight against Gem, she had proven that plenty enough.

“I’ve been send by the Celestial Court,” Gem raised her hands to show she carried no ill intent and her form shimmered. Her elven like appearance disappeared to reveal something that looked like it, but was clearly different. Her antlers grew bigger and changed color to black with golden engravings. Thin and butterfly like wings appeared behind her and two intertwining and bright halo’s floated around her head. Etho staggered backwards, his eyes hurting by the light she now emitted. An actual Celestial had found him, after all these years. He hadn’t accounted for that.

“They still want your head, Red Wizard.”

“I no longer carry that name,” Etho scoffed, surprised to hear it at all. He never dabbled in actual magic, but Players named everything they didn’t know magic. Redstone was a science, no magic, but the first Villagers believed it to be unnatural and because of that evil. They had to blame someone for this strange technology and with their strong imagination they created many Celestial and Eldritch beings. Etho got the short end of that deal.

“I know, I know,” Gem quickly dropped her form as she noticed Etho’s fear. “I now know you are not anything like what they teach us Celestials. But… well, that is just me.”

Everything started to make sense in rapid succession. Celestial Warriors underwent harsh training to hunt down Eldritch Horrors, which explained Gems exquisite fighting skills. It explained why her hits did so much damage to Etho, as he was weak to any weapon wielded by a Celestial. It was also why he always felt both at ease and somewhat uncomfortable around Gem. She was like him, something different from your average Player but at the same time she stood on the other side of the spectrum. The good side, most would say, where Etho was the evil one. The Eldritch being, someone who brought chaos and destruction.

“I didn’t want to lie to you anymore,” she seemed unsure what to say as Etho kept silent. “I – I understand if you don’t want to see me anymore… or if you even want me gone from Hermitcraft. But please know I have no intention of giving your locations to my Lords, not anymore. Not for a long time.”

“How did you find me?” Etho demanded. He wasn’t quite ready for the answer, but it was the only question he was able to form. He had both hands wrapped around his axe now and it must look pathetic, but he didn’t really care. He had carefully build up this protection over the years, made sure Xisuma put up the right defenses time and time again so no Celestial or Eldritch could find him but Gem seemed to have slipped through the cracks.

“Following paths most Warriors wouldn’t,” she answered. “Contracting the right spies, listening to the quietest rumors in the Celestial Court. Despite having fled so long ago you are still high on their list. I caught rumor of some Fae bragging about their peculiar friend and if I know anything about Fae it’s that they like to speculate about their powerful allies. They were a challenge to hunt down on their own, but eventually they led me here and right to you.”

Etho knew exactly who she was talking about, but couldn’t grasp how his friends had spilled the secret of his existence. Fae where fickle creatures so he couldn’t exactly be surprised. He was convinced they didn’t do it on purpose, they must’ve been talking about him at the wrong time at the wrong place.

“Do you know what they teach us about the Red Wizard?” Gem asked. She hadn’t moved an inch from where she was standing and had her hands still visible to not pose a threat to Etho.

“He who gifted the Villagers with knowledge only for higher beings,” Etho recited from memory. “One of the Banished Beings that stole from the Celestial to give to their innocent, non-caring subjects. He took the most dangerous thing of all. Knowledge.”

It was nothing but propaganda. Etho knew he revolutionized plenty in the redstone community that had formed, but he had never stolen anything or given any knowledge to people who didn’t deserve it. He had taught other Players how to use his constructions, but never with any ill intent. That was what the Celestials had made of it, because they started to lose power over their subjects as they started to get a mind of their own.

“That – wow, that was textbook perfect,” Gem said surprised. “I assure you my overlords do not know where you are, or where I am for that matter. I don’t really intend to go back myself.”

Etho started to feel sick. All these years he had been so careful, he had never left to any other multiplayer Servers to avoid something like this happening. Now he learned a Celestial had been living right next door for over a year now.

“Please say something, Etho,” Gem seemed desperate for some sort of reaction. An angry sneer, or him saying that it no longer mattered. Etho felt betrayed and wasn’t even sure if he was glad Gem had been honest with him. He would’ve probably been more at peace if Gem never told him.

“I don’t know what to say,” Etho eventually answered. He wanted to upheld that mask of being unbothered by most things, keep his emotions in check but it was difficult. “If you managed to slip by the defenses, than any Celestial can.”

“Well, I have been added to the whitelist, so it doesn’t count for me,” Gem explained. “I imagine it works the same for you. Eldritch beings can’t enter, yet here you are.”

Gem was absolutely right, of course, Etho could’ve thought of that himself. The biggest, and maybe only flaw in Xisuma’s defenses was the whitelist that overruled everything else. If you managed to get your name on there, you were in. Xisuma could remove your name from it, but then the damage could already be done.

“Does it help if I say that as long as I am looking for you, they won’t sent anybody else?” Gem had sat down on the stairs now, her hands on her knees. She looked so ordinary again, yet Etho now noticed the slight glow around her. He had never looked for it before, but it was so obvious now.

“Not really,” Etho lowered his axe but was not just ready to put it away yet. “Do you have any idea what they’ll do to me when they get their hands on me?”

“Torture you, pull out every last bit of information about the Eldritch you have and put you up for public execution, I imagine,” she said without missing a beat, then her eyes widened as she realized what she just said out loud. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, because you are right,” Etho said with a suppressed sigh. He had seen it happen before to many other Eldritch, some of them were even something he once called friends. “They won’t listen to reason. If they discover you hid my existence you will meet the same fate.”

At that, Gem laughed. A genuine laugh that surprised Etho. She should know about the Celestial and their sticky rules. They wouldn’t chance them for anyone, not even for one of their own.

“I like to see them try,” she said with a somewhat wicked grin. “I have more allies in the Court than they think and they trained me to be their best Warrior in years. As long as I don’t return to my home Dimension, they can’t get to me.”

“That is bold of you to assume,” Etho didn’t understand where she got the confidence from. The Celestials could be scary, just as the Eldritch. You had to stand very strong in your shoes to talk about them like that, even if you were a part of them.

“Are you starting to worry for me, Etho?” Gem answered with a playful smile but it quickly dropped at the look Etho gave her. He was not in the mood for small talk right now, especially not with Gem. He had been in danger for over a year already and he had never noticed. Xisuma hadn’t noticed, nobody had noticed. If Gem had had any other intentions, he would’ve been done for.

“I… I should leave, shouldn’t I?” Gem stood up from the stairs, smoothing her dress down. “I’m not going to snitch on you, I must need you to know that. I just couldn’t bare keeping this a secret from you any longer, I – “

“You should leave,” Etho interrupted her and Gem instantly shut he mouth. She just nodded and turned around, spreading her Elytra wings as she pulled out a rocket. If Etho squinted, if he really concentrated he could see the Elytra was just an illusion, as where the rockets, and he used her own wings to fly away. Once she was fully out of sight, Etho’s legs gave out and he crouched down on the floor. He had grown careless living with the Hermits, he had put too much trust in Xisuma’s defenses. In the early days Etho tried to be heavily invested in who Xisuma allowed to be on the Server, but for the last couple of additions he hadn’t been as vigilant. He hadn’t needed to be, he had left his past behind and was hoping the Celestials had forgotten about him.

That was a silly assumption, of course, as the Celestials would never forget the existence of any Eldritch.

With deep breaths in an attempt to keep his emotions down, Etho pulled up his communicator. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk to anybody right now, but he didn’t want to be alone. He knew somebody who wouldn’t judge him for that, as he would understand. He would even understand if Etho did decide to tell him what Gem was, he had dealt with her kind just like Etho had.

<Etho> Beef, you around?

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If you made it all the way here, thanks for reading :]! This is my silly little headcannon on why Etho maybe isn't washed up (though he still is) and I sprinkled a little angst in it as I tend to do. Hope you liked it!

#floef writes #etho is washed up but there is a reason for it #ethoslab #geminitay #hermitcraft #hermitcraft fic #hermitcraft season 9

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