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Joel, despite dying, enjoyed the third life. All his recklessness, anger, and energy were safely let out in a violent game.
That’s right. While Jimmy and Scott were traumatised and called the experience a psychological torture device (because apparently it was, because apparently that little hermit thrush avian was the game master), Joel thought of those few deadly months as a game. He would never admit, not even to his lovely wife, just how much he enjoyed the thrill of the chase, the smell of blood, or how he wouldn’t mind going into one of those games again.
So when the familiar dizziness occurred, when his vision grew blurry and he saw in the corner of his eye something purple - he wasn’t afraid.
Waking up in a circle full of now-familiar faces was a blast to him. He was eager to catch up with hermits, with Martyn, BigB, even Pearl who disappeared from empires was here, Joel should catch up with her too.
That was the plan until Joel spotted that lovely shade of pink and wings like shards of fallen sky across from him in the circle. What was she doing here?
While everyone was whispering about Grian and his participation, while everyone got arranged into the teams and alliances, Joel ran across the stone platform, jumped over the enchanting table, and pulled Lizzie into a hug.
His mind was loud, his heartbeat was fast, his tail was restless. All he could think of was how the love of his life shouldn’t be here, how much he didn’t want her to get hurt or see her die, even if he knew the deaths here were fake.
That was it. The deaths were fake, an exit out of this game.
“Axolotl, it’s going to sound bad, but-” Joel didn’t get to finish his sentence. His vest started to change patterns, and Lizzie’s ears received earring shaped like hearts.
Two dark green hearts hung from each of her ears. What did that even mean? This didn’t happen in the last game.
“You look cute with little hearts embroidered on your shirt,” Lizzie commented before Joel could speak up again. Five hearts were indeed embroidered on his vest, as if they had always been there.
Why did he have five while Lizzie only had four?
Joel’s head immediately turned into the direction of the alleged Game Master, who looked quite satisfied with everyone’s panic. Grian himself now had cuffs on his sleeves: one yellow heart on each side. Just two.
Jimmy had only two. Scott had only two. Pearl had six.
“Calm down, everyone.” Grian’s voice sounded too confident and smooth. The avian, or rather watcher, there was no point in denying that, flapped his wings, quickly moving to the centre of the circle and perching on the enchanting table. “I made some changes in how this game works. Couldn’t let you know all the rules, that would spoil fun.”
Martyn and Ren, who were just laughing, now looked serious. Etho pulled Bdubs closer, almost as if protecting the little herbivore. Pearl stood confused next to Scott and Jimmy.
The only person who didn’t look panicked was Scar. He looked at Grian with such a soft smile, like he was seeing the sun itself. The vampire, whom Joel never saw before, was whispering something to the vex only to get quietly dismissed.
“I thought that you might want to know how many lives you have left before you actually die this time.” Grian raised his wrist pointing at the yellow heart-shaped cuff on the red sweater.
“When you say actually die, you mean the end of the game?” Joel couldn’t help but ask. “Like last time, right?”
The circle grew quiet, too quiet. Everyone held their breath and everyone was staring at Grian with anticipation.
“Do I mean that, Joel?” The Game Master jumped off the enchanting table, deliberately stepping slowly to the tanuki and the allay. “Or do I mean this time you all will die except for the winner?”
Joel, unconsciously, squeezed Lizzie’s hand. He had a feeling Grian was just lying, just trying to get into their heads, but if there was a chance…
Just a small chance that Grian wasn’t lying, that this time they would die, then Joel’s plan wasn’t safe anymore. He couldn’t risk killing Lizzie four times as painless as possible for her to return home.
“Songbird, you will make them paranoid, let’s just have fun.” Scar brightly smiled. Somehow he was sure that the watcher was lying it seemed. Maybe it had something to do with two of them being practically alone in the desert for months, perhaps something else.
One thing for certain, Joel wanted to stay close to either of them. They definitely knew more about these games than anyone else.
Another thing was that Joel didn’t want to be next to Lizzie. Not in this situation. Not with the rule that someone would be randomly cursed to lose all of their lives unless they killed somebody else.
And, fortunately, Lizzie had agreed on that.
“But we’re still allies no matter what, right?” She whispered, almost like a secret. Perhaps they should keep it a secret so no one would try to abuse their relationship.
“Yes, love, you can always come to me, I’ll welcome you with open arms.” Joel didn’t hesitate. He swore on his heart he would protect his wife, even if from afar. “Have you chosen where to live yet?”
“I feel like I want to make a fairy fort in a dark forest. Maybe I’ll try to pretend to be a vex.” Lizzie raised jar soft hands to her face, even hissed, trying to look intimidating. Joel only found it cute.
Allays and vexes did look similar, shared similar magic, and with how terrifying Scar had been last time, this might be a good defensive strategy.
“Then it’s a good thing I got a deal with Scar to be teammates,” Joel kissed Lizzie on the forehead, prompting a giggle out of her. “I will be pestering him about his nature.”
“Aw, I was hoping to get him into my fairy circle! I guess I’ll find other friends.”
“You are our friend. Consider yourself an honourable wizard. I’ll tell Scar to be nice to you.”
And with that, the lovebirds parted ways.
The game would be fun, Joel swore it would be fun and he would keep Lizzie alive for as long as he was.
But when the bloodthirst came, when the curse had consumed both of the wizards, Joel couldn’t think straight. Lizzie was… there. Trusting and loving, and his mind wasn’t working right.
His body did though, his body couldn’t actually deliver a deadly or painful blow. Joel was glad that Lizzie had killed him, glad that he fell into his own trap, because it gave the allay enough time to run away from the Magical Mountain, and ran far away.
Maybe Joel lost so many lives, hearts, that day because he broke his own promise. It wasn’t even curse’s doing. It was almost like he was searching for death to get punished for his own actions.
The bloodthirst was heavy, and the crown with his last heart was even heavier. But oh, void, was it fun.
Joel would gladly do it again.
Just please, don’t bring Lizzie in again.