The mysterious apprentice was well known by now. He had appeared out of nowhere six years ago as the physical prime's apprentice. Plenty of questions asked, none answered. No one knew what his name was, or what he really looked like. He wore a white prime apprentice hood over his face everywhere he went, as was merely referred to as 'the mystery apprentice'.
What everyone did know was that he was going to be the most powerful prime in history. He never talked, never showed up at admin meetings, and when he did he hovered around Prime 1 like her shadow. His mouth never moving except for an occasional smirk.
Xelqua didn't mind. He enjoyed the reverent glances he was given as he walked around the halls of the admin HQ comfortably. He was the sole apprentice now, as Fulgar had succeeded his primeship to Pearl Moon just under a year ago.
Nobody was sure why - he was still considered a young prime. But Xelqua had noticed how now he hung around Prime 1 like her second shadow, a body guard of sorts.
The day they attacked for the first time in six years Xelqua was sitting in the library reading a book on advanced shifting. He had already envisioned what he wanted his wings to look like when he was prime, and he was sure he could shift them if he needed. What he was interested in now was shifting his appearance.
To become taller, older-looking. Despite being twenty-two years old he was much shorter than many of the younger apprentices. No, that was not accaptable.
Suddenly he heard a commotion in the halls, and he quickly sent out a radar of a thin silver veil. When the vibrations bounced back to him, Xelqua turned as white as paper. He stumbled to his feet, filling himself up with magic like a balloon.
By now, after so many countless hours of ruthless training with Prime 1 his magic marks had already come in. Swirls of silver loops and dots snaked their way around his back and a few circled all the way around to his chest. The sheer mass of his magic marks showed just how powerful he was, and Xelqua was proud of them even though nobody but himself and his mentor had ever seen them.
Xelqua felt a warm tingle run down his back and he knew his marks had activated. They glowed so bright a few beams of light made their way through the thick fabric of Xelqua's long white robes. Xelqua raced down the gravely empty hallways, sensing his mentor was somewhere far away fighting them.
He charged his legs with magic and bolted out the window, leaping through the air a whopping two-hundred meters before light-leaping and landing in a near roll only a hundred feet from his mentor. He had leaped thousands of blocks in a second, but even that took minimal magic for the prodigee.
He was still struck with awe when he saw Prime 1 fighting with her full, primal power. It was breathtaking, and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
A deadly dance of plumes of golden fire. They didn't call her the golden flame prime for nothing. Her specialty lay withing the depths of her magical primal fire.
As Xelqua raced to his mentor's side, time seemed to stand still. He saw the head watcher appear above her from thin air, he saw the watcher raise his fist, Xelqua reached out his hand, crying a warning but it was too late. The prime's face looked upwards too late, and the bolt of purple lightning impaled straight through her chest.
Rage, sorrow, and fear filled Xelqua, and suddenly he was by his mentors side. He didn't even register that he had teleported as a huge violet dome expanded from his chest, shattering his watcher-magic muting cuffs. Knocking every watcher and admin within a hundred miles clean off the map.
He didn't even register that he was the first player in existence to use muted magic to break the muter cuffs themselves.
Tears fell from his eyes thickly, his hood had fallen down. He lay his mentors face in his lap, her eyes closed so peacefully. Her heart thudded ever so slowly. She won't open her eyes again... Suddenly a golden light enveloped her entire body, and Prime 1's eyes fluttered open one last time.
"X-Xelqua... let... no one know... you-" The prime coughed golden blood, "you're true identity..." Prime 1 whispered, and Xelqua leaned in to hear her last words. "You-you d-defy ev-everything... I-I'm ready... d-don't grieve me... th- the primeship... is... yours..."
The woman lifted her shaking hand and stroked Xelqua's cheek. The golden primal ring on her finger shook from her hand and fell into Xelqua's palm. The golden light faded, and Prime 1 took her last, shaky breath before she lay still.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Xelqua roared as a the golden glow enveloped him. By now the watchers had slunk back. He got to his feet, deathly still. The sun fell dark, and a roaring wind uprooted trees and rocks all over Minecraft.
Suddenly the new prime's head whipped around, his eyes glowing a terrible, blazing gold. So much rage distorted his features, making him beyond unrecognizable to the watchers. The prime's hand flew up, and golden lighting reigned from the sky.
His fingers snapped and suddenly the ground beneath the watchers' feet began to swirl and liquidify. Arms of earth reached from the ground and grabbed the watchers, pulling them deep under the earth and swallowing the army whole.
Suddenly the prime's eyes darted to the Head Watcher, hovering high in the air, his face graphic with disbelief and terror. The prime pointed a single finger, shaking with rage, and turned away. A bolt of golden lighting sliced the head watcher like a knife, and he fell from the sky to the earth below.
As soon as the storm had started, it cleared, leaving only a mass of dark, shifting storm clouds. Xelqua collapsed to his knees, regaining control. He fingered the golden ring, which clung to his forfinger perfectly. A single word was inscribed on the golden metal.
Watcher-Prime.
Xelqua regained control, and the sky cleared. He held back shaking sobs, knowing his emotions would now control the weather and statuses of every server in minecraft. He was the prime admin, now. It wouldn't sink in, it couldn't sink in.
How he wanted to tear every wretched breathing watcher left apart, how he wanted to flood the world with lightning again, but instead he controlled himself. He controlled his anger, his rage, and turned to his mentor's body, just in time to see her face disintegrate into golden dust, leaving nothing left but her white robes.
Xelqua picked the robes up shakily. They were perfect white, pristine, no stain of the golden blood that had recently drenched them left. Xelqua pulled the primal robe over his black under clothes, his apprentice robe disintegrating with his mentor.
With a shuddering breath, Xelqua disappeared into golden sparks.
The new prime materialised in the main hall of the admin HQ, his face still hidden. The admins stepped back in fear and confusion as Xelqua stepped quickly through the halls, heading for the prime admin office.
He threw open the golden doors and found Pearl standing in the middle of the room, her mouse brown hair pulled back in a neat plait, her blue eyes filled with worry and confusion.
"I suspected as much." The second prime spoke, her voice no louder than a whisper. "She's really..."
"Gone." Xelqua finished her sentence coldly. "How did you know?" He asked, toneless.
"Every server in Minecraft's sun went out. Wind uprooted everywhere's landscape. It was obvious, the sun only eclipses when a prime admin dies." Pearl said softly.
"I killed them all." Xelqua pulled down his hood, his bright purple eyes boring into Pearl's own. Pearl had never seen Xelqua without his hood. He was terrifying. His wavy shoulder-length light brown hair floated around his pale, tear-stained face.
"How? You can't have killed all of them. There were tens of thousands." Pearl whispered. Without a word Xelqua grabbed her hand and pulled her into his mindspace.
It was a huge, bright white dome that seemed to stretch forever in all directions. Pearl stifled a gasp, she had never seen such an enormous, pure white mindspace.
"Watch." Xelqua commanded. The scene replayed like a movie on the walls of the dome. It was as if they were viewing the events in spectator mode. Pearl gasped as she watched the lightning and the earth and Xelqua's pure power. It was so obvious now why Xelqua was the physical Prime. Pearl had never understood, but now the truth was... awful.
"I killed them all." Xelqua's purple eyes met hers, still fresh with grief.
"I would have done the same." Pearl spoke finally as the mindspace vanished around them and they materialised back in the prime quarters. If I had a fourth of that kind of power, Pearl added mentally.
"Do you know my name?" Xelqua asked her finally.
"...I - no..." Pearl whispered finally. "You don't have to-"
"It's Xelqua." Xelqua whispered.
"Just Xelqua?" Pearl frowned. Xelqua's face twisted with pain.
"Yes... someone else asked that once..." Xelqua's gorgeous eyes filled with fresh tears, but he quickly pulled his richly gold-embroidered hood back over his face. "I'm the physical prime admin now..." He spoke suddenly, as if it was just sinking in.
"Yes," Pearl agreed hesitantly, "She didn't have time to warn you, did she?" Pearl took a deep breath, "Our emotions control everything that happens in Minecraft. We can never lose control like - well - like that. No matter how much it helps any battle, the entire Minecraft will feel... repurcussions." Pearl warned.
"I know." was all Xelqua said.
"You-" Pearl started, but Xelqua wasn't listening.
"I swear, I will wipe every breathing watcher of the earth if I see them again," Xelqua banged his fists on the dark oak table, earning a thunderous clap from the sky above. Xelqua jolted upward and took a deep breath. The sky cleared.
"It's okay," Pearl found herself stepping over to him, "It's going to be okay..." Pearl smiled, comforting him.
"She knew what she was doing, watcher boy." Fulgar stepped from the shadows.
Pearl looked confused, a question at the tip of her tongue but Fulgar quickly rolled over his mistake.
"Xelqua." He corrected quickly. "She knew she was going to die in six years time when she found you. She told me she trusted you to watch over minecraft." Fulgar spoke gruffly. "There was nothing anyone could do..." Now Fulgar seemed to be speaking to himself, not Xelqua.
"How did she-?" Xelqua breathed.
"When someone's death is immenent, their mindscape begins to dim. Yaevia made an estamate, and she was correct - as usual." Fulgar smiled. "She was ready, Xelqua."
"...Yaevia...?" Xelqua looked up at him.
"Her name. I suppose now she's d-dead," Fulgar stumbled over the word, "It doesn't matter if people know." Fulgar looked to the ground, continuing his sentence too quietly for Xelqua to make out.
"Yaevia. It suits her." Xelqua and Fulgar exchanged a small, thin lipped smile.
. . .
"Xel, you okay? You've been training nonstop for over a month. You must be exhausted." Pearl peered into Xel's personal training room, one made for every physical prime to come.
"I-I'm fine." Xelqua grimaced as he shot a bolt of golden magic at a dummy, missing clumsily.
"Xelqua, you can talk to me." Pearl walked over and Xel finally stopped blasting magic.
"I... well, I guess I'm overwhelmed." Xelqua sat down on a bench next to Pearl, "I wasn't ready for this... any of this... I thought I had-" Xelqua broke of as he slid his hood down again, "I thought I had so much longer." The pain was obvious in his voice.
"Hey..." Pearl comforted him, "I thought so, too when Fulgar suddenly gave me the primeship... I still don't know why." Pearl laughed sadly.
"I think I do..." Xelqua said suddenly. Pearl raised her eyebrows.
"He knew - he knew Yaevia was dying. And I know - I know, well... it's not really my business to say, but, well... you know how prime's aren't allowed to care for anyone?" Xelqua questioned.
"Yes...?"
"Well... I know sometimes it tore Prime 1 apart... she didn't know I noticed, but I'm perceptive." Xelqua smiled a sad, cocky smile, "I think Fulgar couldn't take it. He wasn't as emotionally strong as, well, my mentor." Xelqua inadvertently boasted on Prime 1's behalf. Pearl scowled slightly, but her face was full of dawning understanding.
"So Yaevia and Fulgar were..." Pearl gasped.
"Yea. I think so." Xelqua grinned ever so slightly, though his eyes held none of the same happiness.
"Anyway... stop stressing, Xel!" Pearl punched him lightly, "You're the strongest prime in history! You're smart and powerful. You've got this!" Pearl encouraged him,
"I don't know..." Xelqua looked unconvinced.
"Maybe it's the pressure of always hiding... maybe you need to, I don't know, make friends! Stop wearing a hood!" Pearl suggested. Xelqua merely shook his head.
"It was Prime 1 - er - Yaevia's last wishes for me to stay hidden. It's - well, it's personal."
"Does it have to do with how you magically turned up the day of a huge watcher battle?" Pearl asked. She was clever. Too clever.
"Perhaps." Xelqua flashed a smirk. "But I can't show myself to the world... certain people would recognise me. And then, well, I'd lose something I have. A certain... advantage." Xelqua chuckled.
"So... you don't let them know it's you." Pearl suggested.
"Excuse me?" Xelqua looked confused,
"Well... if this advantage would put your primeship and power in jeopardy. Then don't be a prime. Have you heard of shifting?" Pearl didn't wait for a response. "Change your eye color, wear a T-shirt, become a normal player. Then make normal friends." Pearl shrugged.
"Nobody knows how you really look, so nobody would link you back to the physical prime. Trust me, I've done it a couple times. Helps to see what people really think about how you're doing as the new prime... it can be harder for... well, powerful girls."
"Ah... so that's why Prime 1 never showed herself and always used a voice changer. Is it because of that?" Xelqua frowned. He had always known Prime 1 was a woman, and it had never bothered him.
"I suppose," Pearl shrugged, "But everyone already knew who I was before I became the prime admin's apprentice." Pearl's eyes flicked to Xelqua, and he knew it was because nobody even knew of his existence before he was a prime apprentice.
"I think I'll try that," Xelqua spoke suddenly. The admin leaped to his feet and pulled off his prime robes. Underneath them he wore black sweatpants and the golden ring on a chain around his neck. He couldn't let anyone see what was engraved on it.
Pearl's eyes widened as soon as he saw Xelqua's magic marks that swirled all over his back. Her own consisted of three small flower-shaped markings on her stomach. They were considered large for an admin, but Xelqua's looked like an explosion of magic.
Xelqua had seemed to forget Pearl was there in his excitement. He shook out his curly light brown hair and began to shift. It was his first time yet it seemed to come so easy to him, just like everything else. Pearl couldn't help restraining a tinge of envy.
Xelqua's eyes swirled and silidified to a blue-green color. His magic marks rippled and disappeared. A red sweater, not unlike the one Xelqua remembered his mother giving him when he was young, materialised over his chest. A white collared undershirt swiftly followed. He shortened himself ever so slightly and sneakers enveloped his leather sandals.
Finally, Xelqua's wings flashed. He had magiced them invisible almost as soon as he had taken up primeship. The wings colored and molded into even bigger multicolored parrot-like wings.
"You know you still can't show your wings, right?" Pearl's voice knocked Xelqua out of his happy magical trance. Xelqua scowled and they vanished again.
"I still wanna' keep them! These are the wings I imagined magicing myself when I was an apprentice!" Xelqua grinned. Pearl was happy to see him look so much more upbeat. Suddenly his expression faded.
"But... don't we have a stupid meeting tonight? I'll have to make an appearance for the first time and explain... what happened to Prime 1." Xelqua's face faded to anxious grief. Pearl couldn't bear it.
"I'll tell them you're busy!" Pearl suggested.
"But don't I still have to go? It's prime code!" Xelqua had broken many rules in his mischievous apprentice days, but breaking this one was a step too far. It was one of the ancient codex laws.
"Then go. But don't go as a prime... go as someone else. The person you are right now... a measly, stupid, level 1 admin with their annoying questions and quirks!" Pearl was getting worked up just thinking about how many ways they disrupted her orderly meetings.
Xelqua looked thoroughly pleased at the prospect. "Do you wanna' name me?" Suddenly Xelqua was an eager little kid.
"Umm... what!?" Pearl was confused.
"My alter ego, annoying stupid little admin. He needs a name." Xelqua rubbed his hands together gleefully.
"Let's see... how about... Grian?" Pearl asked.
"Grian? Won't that get confused with grain all the time?" Xelqua wrinkled his nose in distaste.
"It was the first physical prime's name! It can be your alter ego's!" Pearl twitched excitedly.
"Okay... I'm Grian." Xelqua grinned.