Entwining Lives - A Hermitcraft & The Life series crossover

Chapter 21 - Scorching & Smoke

No. Not thinking about that. Screw all of those backstabbing jerks, they were all long dead anyway... She swallowed, nodding to Gem.

Gem reached out a hand, tilting her head. "I didn't mean to make it seem you didn't have a say, but we have some things to talk about. Would you like to join me?" She had appeared to have sensed Scarlet's discomfort.

Her wings puffed up a bit, as the movement was familiar. But it... couldn't hurt. "... Whatever." She reached out, grasping the hand of the elf. The world flickered around them as a bright light surrounded them, causing Scarlet to close her eyes tightly.

When they opened, she was somewhere she'd never seen. Halls of quartz surrounded them, light grey carpets lay underfoot. Nearby, a fountain elegantly flowed water, and beings with wings of every color were walking around. Everyone was wearing robes of white, with accents of different colors like Red, Purple, Yellow, Lime, and others.

Her eyes darted around, taking it all in, as a hand rested on her shoulder.

"Welcome to the court of the Celestials. You are one of us now." Gem spoke in an odd language, the words silky and soft. Scarlet shouldn't understand it... But she did.

Scarlet's head turned to see Gem's outfit warping, now in white robes with Yellow accenting. Her wings, similar to Scarlets, were a dabbling of yellow and orange, bringing a sunrise to mind.

"What do you mean!" Scarlet spoke a bit louder of a voice then she intended, and a couple people shot her a glare.

One even spoke, this one in robes very similar to gem. "Gemini Tay, you are a celestial of the sun court, I'd think teach your pupil to only utilize the blessed tongue within these halls. Do not scorn us with such an insult again. Also get your pupil some robes, they look like a mortal commoner." They looked Scarlet up and down, disgust and scorn filling their eyes. She glared back.

The judgement enraged her, and she wanted to punch this smug little jerk who was pretending to be better than her. She was about to retort, but Gem made a motion, her hands glowing, and suddenly her mouth latched shut, unable to open. She hated this. Why did her body refuse her? Even if it was something Gem did, she hated the idea of her own body betraying her... The one thing she could rely on... And why did Gem do this to her? She hated it, so so much, it made her feel trapped and alone and-

Gem bowed, the movement and speech shaking her out of her thoughts. "My apologies Ara, I did not have time to teach them of our customs-" Gem sounded almost sheepish or guilty, and her voice was quiet, barely audible.

"No excuses. We must not shame ourselves like this. We are celestials, we have all the time we need-" Ara replied, their voice scornful, and superior, their condescending gaze switching to Gem rather than Scarlet.

"Yet when it comes to the prophecy, we have all but too little, as we must work with mortal time." Gem retorted, her voice firm and stern.

Scarlet had never heard Gem like this... She was normally hard to upset, despite Scarlet's winning personality, Gem never got mad at her. Scarlet supposed she didn't know her well enough... Gem was a celestial? She spoke of non-celestials as Mortals, as if she was better than them? It's almost like her personality did a full flip from what she saw before. Served her right for expecting the best of someone.

"You have nothing to do with the prophecy, Gemini, you are not ranked high enough to stick your nose into the higher up's business! We've told you this far too many times-" Ara shook their head, appearing to begin getting irritated, sparks of anger igniting in their gaze.

"One of my servers, the ones you keep telling me to leave, the ones that you say contain nothing of use, contains ALL of those mentioned in the prophecy, so either give me a promotion or allow me to 'stick my nose' into it, as you worded it." Gem interrupted Ara mid-sentence, her words causing Scarlet to pause, her mind racing... Prophecy..? What did Gem mean? Did this have to do with her? She wanted answers, not more questions, but she couldn't speak, something was pressing on her chest, she was finding it hard to breathe...

"Why did you not inform us of this sooner?" Ara inquired, not even caring about the existence of Scarlet at this point, however, she preferred it this way.

"I had to confirm my suspicions. The one of the sands is a watcher now, I believe the one of peace has been converted to the listeners, and this one, the one of blood, is here now, and she is one of us." Gem spoke in riddles, but at the end of the phrase, she motioned at Scarlet.

Ara turned to look at her, their gaze meeting her eyes. She was finding it even harder to breathe, gasping, gasping, trying to breathe, to understand, but it was out of nowhere, too hard to think, to breathe... Her vision was fuzzy, almost tunneling... Her legs buckled beneath her, and she collapsed, trying to breathe.

"SH-" Gem and Ara spoke together, as reality finally faded from her vision, replaced by darkness...

A/N:
Sorry if the editing on this chapter is sloppy/not as great as the others, I had a bit of an off-day, but I still wanted to get smth out, which is why this is late! Very sorry!
WC:
- Xera