It had been many months at this point, and the rebuilding of the Main World had come to an end a few weeks prior. With the help of admins summoning in blocks, watchers helping move them and players doing what they could to help they made quick work of the task ahead. If it wasn't for needing to fix all of the servers again, many without backups got lost to whatever void they fell into, and make sure all those systems were up and running with the code in tip-top shape, they would have been able to finish the project faster. They did focus on the servers as it allowed others places to stay so they were able to pack up the camps, which had to remain because of the buildings still being in ruins.
One of the parks of the Main World, one that was close to ᓵ||∷╎ℸ ̣ ⍑⚍∷╎ᓭ was now built up as a place to remember all those who had lost their lives during the battle. Pillars of marble in different colours, red for admins, blue for players and purple for watchers, stood up proud. Engraved in the pillars were the names of many who lost their lives, whether they be a civilian who wasn't able to be saved or someone who fought until their dying breath. In the centre, there was a statue of their late High Leader.
The statue was of her without her mask on, it was what she always wore as Astaria, not when she was in the High Leader outfit with her face covered and her robe on. They made the statue to show the true High Leader, the one underneath that, the one who had sacrificed herself to save them all. It was one of the first things built after the park was cleared, it was used as a place for people to have some peace and quiet if the memories resurfaced, as they most often did, during the building process. Even late at night, there was normally someone there, and people still had flowers for those that they lost by the pillars.
Xelqua had been busy since that battle all those months ago. He had been one of the hardest working of the council members, having many sleepless nights, and needing to be knocked out by his friends when he hadn't had enough sleep. He had also been trying his hardest to learn enderian, he wanted to be able to communicate with the race that helped them win, whom Astaria cared so deeply for and tried her best to look after them all.
He met Oriton and Jean a couple of months before, when he met with Jean he was scared even though they had met previously, but the ancient creature was really nice about it. She offered to help him with enderian, which was barely passable but improving each day. Oriton scared him more than Jean did, he was just scary and his slightly taller nature didn't help in the slightest. Oriton turned out to be a really kind-hearted person, he also helped him with enderian and introduced him to other endermen so he could get used to listening to the different ways people spoke. Both of them shared stories of Astaria as well, he found Jean's the most interesting as he had known Astaria for a very long time.
Xelqua hadn't forgotten his promise to the watcher who saved his life. He had visited Artemis' friends a couple of days after the battle had ended after he managed to track them down. He could tell they knew what had happened before they got there, it wasn't surprising to Xelqua, that those who had survived had gone back to those closest to them as soon as they could. When he told them how Artemis said she was sorry she didn't come back he could see as it truly hit them and tears came down from their faces.
They collapsed into each other and held each other tight. When he got there he could tell that of the seven of them they were split into two groups of four and three, and that there was tension between them. But the news of losing their friends seemed to wash that away as the two groups piled together for comfort. One of them thanked him for sharing her last words, and he left them to mourn, it wasn't his place to be with them now.
The council members had slowly adjusted to their new set-up, and the balcony up the top remained untouched by all of them. They didn't know what to do with Astaria's space so they decided to keep it as it was, after all, none of them needed to use it. Lysabel and Gryff had gotten used to leading meetings, they had to do it when they didn't know Astaria was the High Leader and they thought that she was avoiding them after the alternate reality.
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