Fallen Honor

Darkness Locked Away...

Aaaa

I need to get better at grinding out chapters... please cheer me on lul

Music good soop

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RECAP

     Steven could feel his mind trying to wander, think back on ways he could be used to stop the Rulers from becoming so broken, but he denied himself the luxury. Instead, he focused stubbornly on the rich and lavish decorations of his room, fitting for something within Notch's very palace. And, as he tried to count how many gold coins each item could have been worth, his eyes gradually shut, his breaths evening out.

     Finally slipping into deep, dreamless rest.

END RECAP

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Darkness Locked Away...

     It was early morning.

     The birds were out, but they were silent. The sun was rising, but its light seemed dim. There was a cool breeze rustling the boughs of the trees within the courtyard, but their limbs seemed bowed with weight, and the breeze was not gentle, and it was cold.

     Or perhaps it just seemed that way to Steve.

    Today was the dawn of his fifth day at Lord Notch's palace...

     ...and it was also the dawn of the public announcement of Herobrine's banishment.

     Steve was standing, dressed in a new uniform that bore the colors of the 41st division, on a raised platform in one of the surrounding courtyards of Notch's palace.

     ...the courtyard and platform used to publicly display and pronounce judgment on criminals with the highest felonies.

    And Herobrine... well, he was indeed a criminal with some of the highest charges in the history of the world.

     The white-eyed being himself was on the opposite end of the platform, surrounded with Valkyrian guards, weighed down with dark chains. He only seemed to be half-aware of what was going on, likely Notch's doing. The sight of him blinking around dully still made Steven grimace and look away.

     That man... had murdered everyone he loved...

    ...and yet he couldn't stop the feeling in his heart that Notch was dealing with this all wrong.

     Not that he could say that aloud... that would be terribly traitor-like.

     Notch himself was on a higher bit of the platform, currently reading out the Second Ruler's crimes, then the reason he thought was the cause of such a devastating turn of behavior, to the gathered crowds below. The people were crammed nearly shoulder to shoulder, and the sea of colorful clothing and lifted faces stretched even beyond the gates.

     The First Ruler also touched on Steven's own 'heroics' in surviving within Herobrine's clutches and even getting him into Notch's hands. Steven only looked down and scuffed a boot at the praises, unused to such recognition.

     His reward, one that had surprised him greatly when he heard of it, was also read out. A full retirement, a slew of honorable badges, a title, and an estate near where his hometown had been destroyed... He would hopefully oversee it being rebuilt.