Grian

Chapter 20: Epilogue

It was weird for all of them, and the first few council meetings had been silent compared to how they used to be, and how they became again. They all found it hard at first, to try and carry on without Astaria, but at the same time, it was like they felt her presence still with them, the same warmness that her aura gave them during the times when they needed it most.

He found it interesting seeing how the council members had changed after the battles that they had fought, Kelin and Erin started doing more around the Main World, getting more involved with the people living there, getting to know their stories, and they reconnected with some old friends; Hayden had found he enjoyed knitting and started the new hobby with stride; Neferus had started helping out the endermen with Xelqua, she had a better medical knowledge after all, and Xelqua had translated some of the medical books Astaria had left for her; Tory had become more outspoken, finding more confidence and talking more with players; Cirrus joined a few different servers with some friends he had made, and he made a server of his own; Via had developed an interest in the medical field and was learning from Neferus what she could; Blaze had gotten into art and starting painting the different areas of the Main World that were so realistic it felt like an admin had teleported them there and Zyrex, Zyrex had finally gotten the chance to truly be with his brother again, they were able to connect again and Xisuma had invited him to join the next season of Hermitcraft.

That was actually what Xelqua was almost late for, today was the first day of season 8. He had gotten distracted talking with Oriton and completely forgot about it, but he was excited. They were inviting two new hermits, not including Zyrex who was creating a storyline with his brother using his known persona of 'Evil X', to join the server and he was excited to see what builds they would bring to the server. He was using his super speed, which he had gotten used to using from the number of trips that he took to and fro the home of the endermen and Jean's home, and was racing towards the centre portal. He no longer went into hidden alleyways nearby to transform into his player form and just switched as soon as he touched the ground, it took a while for him to get used to and for the first few times, he still flew into those back alleyways. Now no one batted an eye when he transformed, he did get a few looks because he was running this time, but he only had a few minutes to get there.

When he came through the portal he saw the hermits all standing around a hole, Zyrex was using an invisibility potion to add to the lore, but Grian knew he was there as he saw him there using his watcher vision. He waved towards the 'empty' space and he could see Zyrex come towards him, "You know you are always cutting it close ̇/ᒷꖎ," he said.

"I know," Grian replied before heading over to the hermits.

He flashed a smile to his friends as he came up towards the hole and looked at the new hermits. He recognised one of them, all the way back from Evo before he knew he was a watcher when he only knew them as cruel beings, someone who he thought had died, it was Pearl. He waited for the official introduction to be done, only just managing to stay patient, before heading over to Pearl, she locked eyes with him and gave him a big hug. "G! You're okay!" she cried, holding him tight.
"You are too. I thought that the watchers from the academy had killed you all," Grian said, tears falling from his eyes.

"They couldn't take us down that easily," Pearl said, tears coming from her eyes as well, "We were so worried when you were taken, but now look at you. You're one of the leaders of- well everything. Don't know how you managed that,"

"It's a long story," Grian said, wiping his tears with a smile on his face.

Grian had gone through so much in such a short period but he knew that he took each challenge that he faced and made himself better because of it. He was Xelqua Grian ⨅ᒷꖎ╎⎓ᒷ ̇/ Carolus after all, High Watcher on the council of the Main World and hermit.

Fin.

WC~ 1595

A/N: It's the end of a large era of my life. I started planning for this on September 14 2021 when I started planning my OCs. It was the 17th when I started writing. It was the 22nd when I changed to first person. It was November 10th when I deleted what I had written and restarted. It was November 17th when I wrote the line that started this journey. It was the 22nd when I posted the first chapter on Wattpad. It was on the 16th of December that I worked out 23 chapters for the first book, before changing it to 16 on March 13th as I wrote. On January 3rd I started posting weekly. I started posting on Ao3 on January 13th. It has been a long time since then. 915 days since I put this series into action. 846 days since I started posting.

I don't plan to add anything else to this series, but if anyone wants to know more about the world I would be up for writing some one-shots. If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them as well. Thank you to all of you who stuck with me since the beginning, and to those who came along the way. So much about me has changed as I've written this series, I've lost friends, gained some, and gotten older and wiser (hopefully). I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at the end of 2021 and have carried that with me.                                                                                  

I hope all of you who have read this have enjoyed it, it was my first dive into written fanfiction where I wasn't the main character (we don't talk about the MHA fanfic I wrote 27k before *shivers*. It's locked in the basement). I hope you enjoyed seeing the characters grow, and learn more about what was in their world. To be with them as they lost people close to them. I've actually started writing my own book, I'm at around 13k words since it is definitely different @amayathgin on Tiktok and Insta is where I plan to talk about it eventually if anyone is interested.

Let me end this with a few things, first a random quote I found online: "Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending." – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Second, officially changing the name of the series to 'When the Past Comes Back to Haunt Us'. Finally, thank you. Thank you for reading, and engaging. I've loved seeing people in the comments talk and speculate, showing how much they've enjoyed this. 

Thank you to all of you readers.                                                                                                                                Azrin Aathor