Chapter Text
Sarandiel has been gazing up at the great red gate for perhaps five minutes when he hears someone land nearby. He doesn't move, waits for the Gloamingking to come into his periphery.
"It's so big." He says, turning his head to look at the fae. "not at all like what you built before."
The angel remembers the vast castle courtyard, the giant lily pads, the way the sun never quite cut through the gargantuan trees. Compared to to that, this place with its hard colorful lines and narrow streets is as different as a desert and a rainforest.
"Yeah, well, I got bored with before." The Gloamingking eyes him. "You haven't gone up the stairs."
"I mean. I wasn't going to?" Sarandiel offers. "They're your stairs. It's your city."
"Not very interesting, I bet. Nobody there for you to kill." The Gloamingking says shortly.
Sarandiel blinks. "No. I guess not."
"Bloody hell you're the worst."
The angel furrows his brow. "I'm sorry. I don't- understand?"
"This would be SO MUCH EASIER if you were a prick, you know that?" the Gloamingking says, gesturing widely. "if you were snide or demanding or anything but utterly pathetic."
Sarandiel smiles weakly. "Sorry I'm not mean enough, I guess? Here, I'll go."
"Your First Circle took everything from me, from Scar," the Gloamingking says and Sarandiel winces. "Do you even understand that? Everything. Our home, our people, my-" he cuts off for a moment. "My Shadow Lady. Everything we ever built, everything we ever nurtured is gone and all that's left is void and story and here you are, clueless and stupid and barely worth the effort-"
"Shadow Lady?"
The Gloamingking growls and his eyes fill with green light. The air begins to feel swampy and wet, filling with a low drone like a cloud of cicadas just beginning their chorus. "Don't you pretend for a second like you don't remember her I will take the ban-"
"Lost?" Sarandiel asks. "Your Majesty she's not lost."
The Gloamingking freezes.
"What?"
---
It is a beautiful day to be building an enclosure for Ravagers.
"SCAR GET YOUR BOW!"
It is no longer a beautiful day to be building an enclosure for Ravagers.
Scar watches warily as his king half-drags Sarandiel down the cobble lane to his worksite. Seeing the two together is strange enough; Joel had made it very clear during their vote that while he would go along with the majority's agreement of letting Sarandiel stay, he had no intention of interacting with the angel outside of strict necessity.
What's stranger is how Sarandiel is not fighting the pull, letting the smaller Gloamingking haul him like a parent with an unruly toddler trying to get out of a store.
"Tell him," Joel demands when they are finally within earshot. "Tell him exactly what you just told me."
Sarandiel rubs his wrist where Joel had gripped and looks at Scar. "The Queen of Leaf and Shadow isn't dead." He says. "She wasn't killed in the final barrage, she was captured."
Scar drops the block of basalt he'd been holding and doesn't even care that it nearly crushes his toes.
She'd told him to run. To get to Joel, to the portals, to get off the server, she'd be fine. That his duty now was to his king. She'd been the one to take him in when he'd wandered out of the woods. She'd been the one to explain what had happened, to tell him he couldn't go back, that he'd changed forever.
She had made a place for him when he'd thought he'd lost all places.
"Lizzie's alive?" Scar whispers.
"She's alive." The Gloamingking says grimly. "and we're going to get her. Right now."
"Ah," Sarandiel says and the two men snap their heads to look at him. He holds up his hands. "Look I agree! I agree. But it's not- going to be that easy."
"Of bloody course it's not ask me if I care," Joel hisses.
"No I mean- your Majesty she's not just on some colonized server. The First- we never leave important POWs in the colonies. It's against procedure."
"Well if she isn't in a blummin' colony, then WHERE IS SHE?"
"You're really not gonna like it." Sarandiel says.
"Well, tell us!" Scar demands.
Sarandiel does.
They do not like it.
---
"You were never here." Xisuma says as he looks up from his work table at the Gloamingking. "We never had this conversation, and I never set up a path for you to leave."
Joel nods. He understands.
"Who are you taking?" Xisuma asks.
"The angel needs to get us in. Impulse volunteered, so did Tango. Scar, obviously. And Etho."
"Etho?"
Joel shrugs. "He and the angel talked. We figure any more will cause more issues."
Joel can see Xisuma's smile through his helmet. "I'll set up a filter so Grian can't slip out behind you."
"Thanks," Joel says with feeling. The young Watcher has become a close friend since his arrival, but they're already daring too much with the group that's assembled.
"When are you leaving?"
"Three days at the earliest." Joel feels like there's an entire hive of bees under his skin. He'd wanted to leave immediately. It had been Impulse who talked him down- reminded him that this was a rescue mission, and that required planning, arming and forethought.
Xisuma nods. "I'll have everything set up. If Sarandiel can get you there, we can get you back- and hopefully hide that we did it."
"That would be good, considering where we're going."
Xisuma nods. "If it looks like you're being followed, Joel.."
"Cut us loose. We'll find our own way."
Xisuma nods. "Good luck, your majesty," he says, and doesn't add, you'll need it.
---
The group assembled at spawn are barely recognizable as hermits.
All are donning armor. Impulse has a sword sheathed across his back, a strange ugly black iron thing with pulsing lines in a sickly yellow that almost matches his true skin color. Tango too has donned his war gear, letting the crystals around his head grow long and hot, all the better to grab and stab.
Both Joel and Scar are wearing armor with more ornate inlay than usual, and Scar has donned his orange sunveil, usually kept by contract in his Enderchest, glittering with its fae enchantments that mean he never misses his shot.
Etho has removed his mask, and as Xisuma finishes the last calculations he consumes a handful of redstone Mumbo had infused that is so potent it shines. It should be enough to allow everyone to understand him, for the length of this mission.
Assuming they succeed.
Other hermits are scattered around, waiting. Zedaph, Ren, Mumbo, Gem who hugs them all tight, even Sarandiel, and makes them promise to come back in one piece.
"Can't wait to meet that wife of yours," Zedaph tells Joel, and Joel says, "She'll think you're a blummin' loony," with a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes.
Sarandiel inhales, exhales. When Xisuma hands him the codeline that will get them off the server he does one quick check. There are nods, gestures. Everyone is ready.
"Next stop," the angel says, "Quire."
Then he pulls on the codeline and all of them disappear into the void.