The Ocean Queen, as it turned out, was surprisingly kind when she wasn't angry.
Xornoth wasn't quite sure how the terrifying Queen had transformed into a friendly, chatty person in the span of less than an hour, but they suspected it had something to do with her husband being around. Joel had very frantically grabbed her wrist, something no other emperor would dare do in their dreams, and had led her outside for a quiet discussion.
After a few minutes of hushed mumbles muffled by doors and walls, they had both walked in. The Ocean Queen had smiled at them gracefully and apologised for almost murdering them, although Xornoth could feel that she would not hesitate to stab him should he touch her husband. But still, she had been kind.
"However, I am not thrilled to bring you some... less than pleasant news." She informed them both, choosing to sit on a second armchair to the side that Joel had dragged in.
Xornoth looked at her hesitantly, waiting for her to continue. The Ocean Queen leaned forwards slightly, hands clasped.
"Scott has issued a warning to a few emperors of your... 'escape'."
Joel groaned, hand-pressed into his face, but Xornoth could not do such a physical reaction - their entire body had frozen. Their eyes stared downwards, breath shaking.
Believe me, it will not be long before he finds you, Exor, much against their will, established the mind link. Why don't you make everything easier and tell me where you are?
His presence in their mind grew stronger, trying to see what they saw. But Xornoth's eyes weren't corrupted - and so Exor had no control over them. In fact, they were certain that he couldn't even recognise Joel and the Ocean Queen's voices. It was as if somebody had placed a thick shield of distorted, translucent glass door between the two. Exor could show up behind it at any time and hear them, but it was their choice whether or not to open it.
Still, it was a pathetic little war criminal of an elf versus the champion of a god hell-bent on killing them. They were going to lose, and they quivered at the idea of what Scott would do to them.
I asked your brother about his ideas of punishments... He seems to be very fond of the idea of seeing how long you can be chained to the ceiling by your horns until they break.
"Xornoth?" The Ocean Queen shattered their focus on their increasing anxiety, looking at them with a hint of concern. "Is everything quite alright?"
They nodded, not trusting their voice. If they spoke so much as a word, surely their fears would become obvious. It was obvious from her and Joel's faces that they didn't believe them, but they thankfully didn't say a word.
The Ocean Queen surveyed them momentarily, taking in their appearance, before turning to her husband."Joel?"
"Mm?"
"Why is Xornoth still in blood-covered, torn clothing?"
"Erm..." He paused, before scratching his head. "You know what? I didn't think of that."
She shook her head, although not with a teasing glance at his direction and looked at them. "Before we discuss this any further, how about you and Joel go and find some new clothes?"
Xornoth stared at her before their cheeks became dusted pink. "Oh- its- it's fine Ocean Queen-"
She looked at him, startled, before smiling at them. "You are allowed to call me Lizzie, you are aware."
They nodded, faintly embarrassed. The Oce- Lizzie looked at her husband again. "And please do not make them dress in something ridiculous."
"Yes, Lizzie." Joel grinned at her. Xornoth got a distinct feeling that he was not going to keep his word.
-
Joel pushed through the racks of the clothes. "What's your favourite colour?"
Xornoth awkwardly shifted on their feet. "...red."
"Any other colours?"
They blinked. They actually didn't know what colours they liked apart from red. Black was okay, they supposed, other than that they were clueless.
They tried to think back to the colours they had seen in that distorted dream of corruption. Glittering redstone ore in deepslate, brilliant violet crystals on the side of a cliff, pure white snow on the peak of a mountain, lush green of the forest floor, gleaming gold on bracelets and bangles. Their mind settled on gold. Joey had given them a beautiful golden earring outside his fire temple. Exor had forbidden them from wearing it, but they had kept it anyway, a delicate strand of cord around their neck keeping it against their neck.
"Gold."
"Okay..." Joel made a triumphant noise as he pulled out multiple different kinds of dresses, tunics and leggings. "Try these on!"
Xornoth stared at them. "...All of them?"
"Well, I don't really know your clothing size." He admitted. "Plus I have way too many clothes. Lizzie keeps telling me I'll make a black hole if I get anymore."
To be fair... the place was absolutely filled with clothing. All different shapes, sizes, fabrics and colours, hung in closets, on racks, neatly folded and in drawers... there was so much that Xornoth actually had to agree with Lizzie on this matter.
But alas, before they could say anything else, the clothing pile was dumped on top of them and it was much larger than they thought it had been because only the tips of their horns were visible. Their mouth produced a muffled, startled squawk of alarm before Joel dragged them into some kind of changing room, gave them a far too cheerful "have fun!" and closed the door.
Carefully untangling some clothes that had snagged onto the branches of their horns, Xornoth sighed. If this was Joel's idea of fun, he seriously needed something better to do in life.
-
Eventually, Xornoth had come to an effective solution of how to sort through the clothes.
They decided to put the clothes they didn't like onto one side, the clothes they hadn't tried on in the middle, and the clothes they liked on the other side.
Quite expectedly, the dislike pile was significantly larger than the like pile. the dislike pile most consisted of over colourful, overly patterned Mezalean cloaks and tunics, that Joel had far too many of. There were only a few things on the like pile, including some leggings, a black dress with a fluffy skirt, a thick turtleneck and a smart crimson shirt.
Eventually, they settled on just wearing leggings and their favourite dress by far - a deep red with golden floral designs on. They weren't a model by any means, but when they looked at themself wearing it in the mirror, Xornoth found they quite liked it. The best part of all was that it didn't smell anything like corruption - the faint, barely noticeable scent was more of azalea flowers.
Awkwardly carrying some of the clothes they liked, they edged the door open a crack and yelped as they came face to face with Joel. He grinned at them, eyes darting over their new outfit. "You look great!"
Xornoth shifted on their feet a little and offered a small quirk of their lips, but they didn't say anything. Joel ruffled their hair, accidentally hitting their right horn. "Are you a jewellery person?"
"...a what?"
"Like, do you wear jewellery? I'm pretty sure Scott wears jewellery."
Scott had always worn so much gold that it resembled armour sometimes. And sure, they liked it, but it put a little twist in their heart at the thought of wearing it. Joey's earring was the only piece they would wear. "Not really."
"Ah, alright then." Joel sighed. Xornoth privately decided that even if they wanted to have worn jewellery, they would never say it to the man. If he had a near-infinite amount of clothes, he did not want to see his jewellery collection. "Welp! Probably time to get back to Lizzie before she thinks I've murdered you or something. She might disqualify me from the benefits of being a marine biologist."
-
Squeaking came from behind the door. Hesitantly, Joel opened it, craning his neck, and found Lizzie talking to an axolotl.
How the axolotl even got into the building was beyond Xornoth, but Sausage did have a horse that lived inside his house, so they supposed it wasn't that strange. Right? It wasn't that strange.
"Just a second," Lizzie mouthed to her husband, before going back to the squeaking noise. After a second, she nodded and patted the little creatures head, before dropping it out the window.
"Okay, all done!" She said cheerfully, as if she hadn't dropped a freaking axolotl out of the window. Xornoth looked at her in alarm, and she smiled a little further. "Do not worry, the ocean was right underneath."
...that made a lot more sense.
Carefully, they sat down on the end of the bed. Joel plonked himself down next to Lizzie, almost knocking some shell off the windowsill. She hastily rescued it and gave him an endearing but slightly annoyed look. "Seriously, darling?"
"Sorry." He replied sheepishly.
Lizzie sighed. "I do not mean to suddenly make things suddenly worse, but one of my guards has informed me that Scott has just told Jimmy about the... situation, we might as well call it. She apparently overheard that they are planning to head straight to Gem's to discuss some kind of plan."
Xornoth kept their gaze on the floor. It was expected that the Grand Wizard would be called in already. They wouldn't have been surprised if half the continent was alerted.
"It appears that Scott is trying to keep this information private for now. He most likely does not wish for mass panic - I doubt any emperor with a few brain cells would." She attempted to reassure them, then realised she may as well not sugarcoat and get to the point. "However, until it becomes inter-imperial, it is Rivendell's laws that will dictate the potential punishment if they are to find you."
Joel raised his hand. "I haven't read up on Rivendell laws in a while... but don't they allow solitary confinement for a maximum of ten years? With the time limit being allowed to be renewed every six months?"
Xornoth paled and forced their fingers to stop trembling, digging them into their palms.
Lizzie glared at him. "Was it necessary for you to mention that?"
"Uh... sorry."
They were fine. They had to be fine. They couldn't be anything but fine. Telling this to themself didn't help.
Whoever was speaking to you is wrong. Exor chose the worst moment possible to establish the mind link. The maximum is twenty.
Xornoth's chest felt like it was being crushed by some kind of metal snake, curling around, restricting their movements, the physical embodiment of anxiety. Joel attempted to say something to them, shaking their shoulder in alarm, but it was too loud and too quiet at the same time and whilst they could hear him they were unable to process a word he said. Lizzie quickly started talking to them, and they knew that it was supposed to just be comforting nonsense, but it was all too much and they couldn't take it-
How typical of you, prince of Rivendell. Exactly the kind of action I would expect against someone so pathetic.
They clutched their hair so tightly they might as well have been tearing it out. Xornoth had to force themself to breathe, one inhale after the other. Why couldn't they just breathe? It wasn't hard. They were just being foolish, just being weak. It was bound to pass any second, but the tightness in their chest just kept increasing and increasing.
They absently noticed that tears had begun to slip onto their cheeks. They couldn't remember when.
"Hey, it's okay." Joel's voice was supposed to be reassuring, they were sure, but it was faint and almost distorted. "There's... Um... No Scott, just good old team Pinkie and the Brain."
Xornoth clamped their mouth shut. If they made any kind of noise it would most likely dissolve into loud sobbing.
Lizzie gently prised Joel's hand away their should, and took the blanket off the top of the bed, wrapping it around them. "It is okay - we won't let Scott do that to you. All you have to do is breathe."
She's lying. Exor whispered to them. She's lying and you know it.
"Think of plants. You like plant stuff right?" Joel added helpfully. "Think of plant things. Like... cows."
Xornoth suddenly coughed as their brain told them to laugh, inhale and gasp at the same time. The fact that anyone could think of anything so stupid distracted them from their anxiety completely.
"Cows aren't plants Joel." They could practically hear the facepalm in Lizzie's voice.
"They are if you ignore science."
Ignoring science was rather like ignoring magic - impossible, and they half wondered if they should stop the brewing argument. But watching the couple jabbing back and forth in irritation was something so affectionate that they found they couldn't.
Xornoth weakly let the corners of their mouth twitch. If only they had someone to argue with like that.